“Dear… fiancé?”
Livia’s words, tinged with a playful note yet faintly echoing a young girl’s pure affection, nearly made Allen’s heart stop on the spot.
‘This girl… Has she realized she can’t kill me with brute force, so she’s planning to use a more roundabout, more lethal method to send me to a dead end?!’
Was she trying to use the sugar-coated bullets of a romantic comedy to corrupt his revolutionary will and then deliver a fatal blow while he was wallowing in a land of tenderness?
How venomous! This was a thousand times more sinister than the whispers of an Evil God!
Allen’s gaze remained locked on Livia. His brain worked at high speeds, attempting to analyze any trace of a flaw belonging to an Evil God within this nearly perfect frame.
The morning light streamed through the window frames, outlining a soft golden silhouette around her.
The oversized pajamas, which originally belonged to him, took on a different charm on her body.
Beneath the slightly open collar was delicate, fair skin and exquisite collarbones.
As she breathed steadily, the breathtaking curves of her chest rose and fell faintly. Two contradictory temperaments—purity and charm—were eerily fused within her.
After temporarily escaping the influence of the Evil God’s whispers, the current Livia had shed the cold, solemn aura of a Knight Princess, as well as the madness and despair she had displayed during their duel.
She looked gentle, soft, and even possessed an unprecedented, pitiful sense of fragility.
She was just like the Imperial girl in Marianne’s stories who had just arrived in the countryside, full of curiosity and unease about the outside world.
Her cornflower-blue eyes were clear as water, vividly reflecting his face.
He was doomed.
Allen felt his heart sink.
‘Isn’t this the most standard, and most lethal, “Boy Meets Girl” development?!’
In an instant, Allen understood why that “Star Listener” fellow had thrown a Madwhisper Beast into the Arena—
It wasn’t to kill them at all. It was to create a suspension bridge effect to deepen the bond between them.
Damn it. Those unspeakable bastards were even using modern psychology just to pair him up with Livia?
How despicable!
Allen acutely captured the change in Livia’s current mindset.
After experiencing a duel where they staked their lives and a brief moment of fighting side-by-side, her feelings toward him had changed.
The hostility, despair, and obsession had all vanished. At this moment, she was like a purified blank sheet of paper, returning to the initial setting of the original protagonist—gentle, kind, and mentally resilient.
Except… she possessed a hint of a young girl’s tenderness that was only supposed to appear after being successfully romanced.
She was like a newly hatched chick that would form an indelible attachment to the first creature it saw. And the person who was supposed to perform this “imprinting” step should have been Marianne!
As it happened, Marianne was out on business, and Livia happened to wake up at this exact time.
Thus, the first person she saw was him.
This arch-rival, this villain, and… her nominal fiancé, who held the most special significance to her.
The Evil God’s script was seamless and airtight.
Livia falling in love with him was a path to a doom ending that the Evil God had long ago laid out.
Being alone in a room with such a world-toppling beauty, and even being about to live under the same roof, was the most severe test for a physiologically healthy adolescent boy in every sense.
But Allen knew he could withstand such a test.
Because his pure, stainless love for Yuri had long since transcended worldly desires.
More importantly, Allen sincerely hoped that Livia and Marianne could find happiness. This was one of the few obsessions he had held onto after countless cycles of reincarnation.
Once the three of them fell into a cliché love triangle, no one would be saved.
Allen’s death was already written into the script.
Although Marianne had vowed that he would “return like a flash of lightning,” Allen truly felt that the Death Flags planted on him were enough to wrap around the Capital once.
What right did a man destined to die have to lay hands on those two pure lilies?
Perhaps in this cycle, he really would welcome an eternal peace.
At that thought, a surge of indescribable sadness rose in Allen’s heart.
After finally making it this far, he had stepped precisely into the Evil God’s trap, step by step, completely becoming the male lead in the script.
This was terrible.
This sudden sense of helplessness caused the slight ripples of romantic tension sparked by Livia’s teasing to vanish instantly.
But he couldn’t let her see his weakness.
Right now, he had to play his part well and soothe this rarest UR character who had just “joined the party.”
A villainous turn makes one ten times stronger, while redemption makes one three times weaker.
Without that madness, Livia truly didn’t feel very oppressive anymore.
Interacting with her, Allen found his instinctive worries and resistance miraculously disappearing. A mysterious trust seemed to exist between them, replacing the imagined tension.
Since Livia had started teasing him, Allen naturally had to strike back.
“Sigh, my dear fiancée,” he sighed with exaggerated drama, that cynical smile returning to his face. “Just call me Allen. From now on, let’s treat each other as frenemies. How about it?”
He cleared his throat, trying to make his tone sound more sincere.
“You don’t need to be formal in my home. It shouldn’t be as cold as your house. Everyone here is… pretty nice. If you get used to living here, we’re family. Don’t worry about those rules.”
Sensing that the word “family” was a bit ambiguous, Allen immediately added a disclaimer.
“By the way, Marianne is currently my sworn sister, so don’t get any ideas about this family status. We need to broaden our perspective. Humanity is one big family of love, after all. As long as there is love in our hearts, we can be closely linked.”
“Family… sworn sister…”
Livia murmured those two words softly, as if carefully chewing on the deep meaning in Allen’s words.
Although Allen had returned to his mocking tone, she saw a fleeting, unmistakable sadness deep within his golden eyes.
In that instant, she felt a sudden, strong urge to reach out and smooth the sorrow between his brows.
However, she knew very well that the source of that sadness was herself.
The madness and cynicism he displayed were more like a disguise to protect his own riddled heart.
He was the one who was truly gentle and kind, while she had hurt him time and time again, foolishly maintaining her hostility and marching toward destruction on her own, ultimately dragging everyone down with her.
Marianne… had become his family.
Livia could read that heavy, undisguised love in the way Marianne looked at Allen.
She had once thought it was a distortion born of pain, but now she understood that Marianne had not been deceived.
On the contrary, it was because Allen had healed Marianne’s pain that Marianne had fallen in love with him so unconditionally.
Marianne…
Thinking of that promise under the starlit sky, Livia’s self-loathing deepened by another degree.
“Is it… really okay?” she asked in a low voice, uncertainty lacing her tone. “I’ve done so many terrible things to you.”
Seeing Livia suddenly become sad as well, Allen felt a dull ache in his stomach.
This atmosphere was wrong.
Too wrong.
It was like two people who were both riddled with guilt toward each other meeting at the scene of an accident. Aside from saying “I’m sorry” and “It’s okay,” they had no idea what else to talk about.
He would rather face the ice-cold Livia who would draw her sword at the slightest provocation than deal with this “redeemed” version whose emotions were too rich and who looked ready to cry at any moment.
The fragility this great protagonist inadvertently showed really made his heart soften, making him feel sad for her and for himself.
“Stop, hold it right there, Livia.” Allen raised his hand, dropping all expression. His tone became incredibly solemn.
“You and I are just marionettes on the Evil God’s stage. The mistakes you made and the stupid things I did—at the end of the day, the bill should be settled with those cliché playwrights.”
“What the Evil God is best at is using information gaps to create misunderstandings, amplify hatred, and then enjoy the tragedy of us killing each other.”
Allen’s voice grew quiet. All previous mockery and sadness settled, leaving only a resolution that had burned its boats.
“What we need to do now is be open and honest. We each need to open our hearts, resolve the misunderstandings, put the past to rest, and then… move forward without looking back.”
He looked at Livia with a candid gaze.
“I’ll start. Let’s compare notes and see how much our memories differ.”
Allen calmly told her everything he knew, holding nothing back.
From the existence of the “Observer” and the whispers of the Evil God to this damn script called “Starshine Love Song,” and how he was forced to play a loathsome “villain” in cycle after cycle.
Of course, he skillfully glossed over his revolutionary plan to subvert the Kingdom and the existence of “Dawn’s Children.”
When Livia learned that Bernard Viscount was already the Finance Minister and was pushing for a reform that could shake the Kingdom’s foundation with the King’s support, she remembered the fragments of information His Majesty had once revealed to her.
So, everything really was proceeding according to plan.
“…That is everything I know. Whether it is the ‘Observer,’ the ‘Star Listener,’ or those Evil Gods, they are all manipulating everything from behind the scenes. We are struggling within this script called ‘Starshine Love Song,’ and this current scene is nothing but a ridiculous comedy where you and I fall in love.”
Allen took a deep breath, his golden eyes looking directly at her. “Livia, I believe in you. I believe you won’t let the Evil God’s script come true. We can be comrades, partners, or even rivals, but we will never be a couple or husband and wife.”
He paused, as if delivering an extremely difficult verdict.
“Livia, I hate you.”
Allen’s voice carried no emotion, yet it was heavier than any accusation.
“I am no saint. No matter the reason, you killed me. That is a fact. Death… is painful. Even if the ‘you’ of the past didn’t know the truth, since you inherited those memories, all of them… are you.”
Hearing that brutally blunt “I hate you,” Livia’s body couldn’t help but shudder.
She subconsciously gripped the hem of her pajamas. A layer of mist quickly clouded her clear blue eyes, looking as though it might break through the dam at any moment.
Seeing this protagonist, who was incredibly resilient and never cried in the original work, looking like she was about to burst into tears because of one sentence from him, alarm bells immediately rang in Allen’s mind.
‘No! This isn’t right! This isn’t how the script goes!’
Normally, shouldn’t you immediately shoot back with “Likewise” or “I hate you too”? What’s with this look of being so aggrieved she’s about to cry?!
“Cough, but that’s all in the past.” Allen’s scalp felt numb as he forced the topic back. “I think our relationship can move to the next stage. It’s time to break the ice because next, we have real business to attend to—saving humanity.”
Hearing Allen’s words, the mist in Livia’s blue eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a glint of cunning.
The previously hurt expression disappeared without a trace, so fast that Allen thought it was his imagination.
She tilted her head slightly, a faint, ambiguous smile on her lips as she asked softly:
“So… do you like me a little more than before?”
‘Me?’
Allen felt a string in his brain snap with a loud twang.
‘This girl… Was that pathetic look just now all an act?!’
It only then hit Allen like a thunderbolt—this girl, Livia… was the ordained protagonist of the original work!
She was a person who could casually wrap any chosen prodigy around her little finger!
‘This is bad. Does she really see herself as my fiancée and plan to start manipulating me?’
Cold sweat instantly slid down from Allen’s temple.
For a peerless beauty with high intelligence and emotional awareness who also knew how to use her own advantages to show weakness, trying to romance a man with a heart of stone like Allen wasn’t impossible.
However, the process was destined to be filled with the “comedy” elements he wanted to see least.
Damn it, this was all the Evil God’s fault!
“Yes, I do quite like your current idiot look, Miss Knight.”
Allen shot back, practically through gritted teeth.
“I am not a knight.”
“Fine, Miss Not-a-Knight.”
After a few bickering exchanges, the heavy and awkward atmosphere in the room dissipated, replaced by a much lighter one.
Livia also put away the jokes and began to seriously share her memories.
Once they compared their accounts, they indeed found that the Evil God had selectively deleted and distorted memories when instilling them.
In Livia’s memory of the night of the Great Fire in the Capital, Allen had stood at the center of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, a cold smile on his face as if he were enjoying a grand firework show.
Seeing her arrival, Allen had even grinned at her, mouthing the mockery: “You’re late, Livia.”
The truth was that Allen had just backstabbed the “Star Listener” and killed all the citizens who had turned into monsters. He was about to be obliterated by the backlash of the Pseudo-Mark.
In that state, seeing Livia arrive so late, he had been laughed out of frustration, purely criticizing her for being too slow.
There were countless such malicious edits.
From Livia’s previous perspective, Allen truly had “Villain” written all over him, without a shred of innocence.
In this cycle, she hadn’t killed Allen immediately regardless of the cost, but had instead given him time to grow; that was already the height of restraint.
Tsk, as expected of an Evil God. They were professional at toying with the human heart.
Unfortunately, neither Allen nor Livia were simple characters.
The reason Livia had been so frantic before was likely not because her mind had collapsed, but because she had been excessively corrupted by the Evil God’s power, losing her normal judgment.
After all, the Evil God’s plotting had begun when Livia was still a child.
“I’m sorry.” After sharing everything, Livia spoke in a low voice. This time, the apology was incredibly sincere.
“The person you should apologize to is yourself, Livia.” Allen looked at her with burning eyes before seriously extending an invitation.
“If you leave my side, the Evil God’s power will erode you once again, causing you to lose control. So, save the world with me, Livia von Stern.”
He leaned forward. In those eyes burning with golden flames was a light called “Hope” that she had never seen before.
“This time, I will reverse everything. I will create the happy ending for humanity that you were unable to see.”
Livia looked up and watched him quietly.
She had once thought she was alone, a monster bearing a curse and destiny by herself.
But now, she knew she wasn’t.
She believed him.
This trust seemed to come from the distant past and future, long since engraved into the depths of her soul.
She nodded gently. A smile finally blossomed on that peerless face that always carried a sense of aloofness and coldness.
It was a brilliant and beautiful smile from the heart, one that had cast off all burdens.
“Okay. I promise you.”