CHAPTER 22: REACHING THE GOAL

"You didn’t trust me..."

He frowned, wincing as he held the back of his body, pain flickering across his face.

"Would you?" I shot back, my voice trembling between anger and disbelief. "Would you trust someone you barely know... someone who suddenly thrust his finger inside you?!"

Lucian blinked slowly, his usual calm unreadable, though the faintest crease formed between his brows. "I... underestimated you," he said quietly, voice low but steady.

"Underestimated me?! I underestimated you!" I snapped, taking a step back, my chest heaving. "I’m not some experiment! Not some—some... project you get to test!"

Lucian’s brows furrowed slightly, his voice low and even. "I’m sorry," he said, slowly pushing himself up from the floor. "I was careless... I shouldn’t have pushed you."

"Careless?" I glared at him, anger and embarrassment clashing in my chest. "You think this is just about being careless? You nearly—" I stopped, my voice trembling. "You can’t just decide that kind of thing for me!"

He met my gaze then, silent for a long moment. "You’re right," he said at last. "I lost control. That... shouldn’t have happened."

The air felt heavy, and for a second, the guilt in his eyes almost looked real... almost.

Until, for five long days, he didn’t appear. Not a word, not a shadow, not even a whisper. The silence pressed down on me, thick and suffocating, like the room itself was holding its breath. Every time I thought I might catch a glimpse of him, he was gone, leaving only the echo of what had happened and the fire of my own anger and confusion burning hotter with each passing day.

"My Lady..." A maid slowly opened the door, peeking in to check on me.

"Yes..." I turned quickly, brushing my hands over my dress. "What is it? I already ate breakfast. Can you take this tray out—" I rushed to hand her the empty plate.

"No—no, it’s fine, my lady. I’ll do it," she said, panic flickering in her eyes as she snatched the tray from me. Lifting it carefully, she gave a small, awkward smile. "My lady, Lord Drake, asked me to tell you that the driver will take you to test your wedding dress in one hour..."

"Oh..." The only word I could manage. Of course. Tomorrow was my wedding day with him—miraculously, I had survived. "Okay..."

The maid bowed slightly and left the room.

"Congratulations, Miss Vale," Maya’s cheerful voice echoed through the silent room once the maid was gone.

I rolled my eyes. "You sound way too happy these days since Lucian hasn’t appeared..."

"Of course, Miss Vale," Maya replied, her tone playful. "He always causes my system to lag, and these past five days... Well, I was finally running smoothly."

I squinted at the flickering blue hologram. "And why though? I still don’t get it. You only glitch when he’s around. Everyone else, you’re perfectly fine with."

"Ah—" The hologram flickered again, almost like it was struggling to come up with an answer. "That’s... also my question all this time."

"No," I said flatly, frowning. "You’re lying." I crossed my arms, narrowing my eyes. "The first time you lagged, you said something weird. Something about not being able to appear within a certain distance of him... and a deal. Don’t even try to deny it, Maya. I know what I heard, even if you were lagging like crazy."

Maya went completely still for a few seconds. No flickering, no shifting light, just silence. The hologram’s rectangular frame hung frozen in the air until a tiny emoticon finally blinked back to life at the center.

"Actually, Miss Vale..." it began, the blinking eyes of the emoticon looking almost nervous. "I think my system went a little crazy that time and... mumbled nonsense."

I raised a brow. "Nonsense?"

"Yes!" Maya said quickly, the emoticon now smiling far too brightly. "You know... random data, glitches, corrupted code, totally meaningless words."

I didn’t buy that excuse for a second, but I just stared at her blankly and nodded. "Then... regarding this book’s storyline... Do you have any additional info? Because I don’t feel like I can stay here any longer."

My gaze drifted out the window. "I think I’m homesick..." I chuckled softly at my own words, though my chest tightened painfully.

"Well," I turned back to Maya, forcing a small smile, "even though I only have my best friend back home, at least my world isn’t that lonely. I’d rather live quietly, even without much."

Maya’s emoticon dimmed for a second, then flickered back on. "I’m afraid I can’t trace much of the changes in the storyline anymore, Miss Vale," she said carefully. "Everything has started to drift away from the original plotline."

I frowned. "Not even a hint?"

"Well..." Maya hesitated, her voice lowering as if afraid someone might overhear. "The cannon fodder... your role was supposed to die two days before the wedding day. You have now survived that fate and no one could predict what would come next..."

"What if I dropped the mission?" I asked, actually I was tired with the whole thing since I arrived here. I eventually woke up every day wishing it was a dream.

Maya’s light flickered faintly, as if processing my words. "If you drop the mission, Miss Vale... the system might forcibly reset the world to its original route."

I blinked. "Meaning?"

"Meaning you’ll be erased," Maya said softly. "Everything that exists outside the plotline... your choices, your survival, would be overwritten as if it never happened."

I let out a dry laugh, rubbing my temples. "I won’t even return to my own world?"

Maya went quiet for a few seconds, the light of her hologram dimming slightly. "No, Miss Vale," she said at last. "If the system resets, it won’t return you to your original world. It will only remove what doesn’t belong here."

I froze. "Remove...?"

"Yes," Maya continued, her voice dropping to almost a whisper. "You’ll simply cease to exist... in both worlds."

A hollow laugh slipped past my lips. "So basically... I either follow this stupid story or disappear completely."

"Unfortunately," Maya replied, the emoticon blinking nervously, "that’s the logical summary."

"What if I fail to make him fall in love with me?" I asked quietly. The question slipped out before I could stop it.

For a second, the hologram froze. No blinking, no sound. Just silence.

Then the blue light around it flickered faintly, like it was trying to form words it shouldn’t. "That..." Maya started, voice unusually soft, "would be... very unlikely."

I looked up. "Unlikely? Is he already in love with me?"

"Oh no, Miss Vale..." Maya’s voice glitched mid-sentence, the edges of the hologram trembling. "That’s not... what I meant."

Something in her tone caught my attention, it didn’t sound like a system this time. It sounded almost... human.

I frowned. "Then what did you mean?"

"Simply that your progress is... within expectations," she said quickly, her bright, polite tone snapping back into place as if nothing had happened. "So, the chance of you reaching your goal is high."

"If you say so... I will try my best then..."

But in Lucian’s office, the morning light streamed through the tall glass windows, reflecting off the sleek surface of a single hovering screen before him. The faint blue projection flickered, showing Seraphina standing by the window, her lips moving as if she were speaking to someone unseen.

Lucian’s brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing. "Who is she talking to?"