I woke up after a deep sleep to find shocking news waiting for me.
After barely consoling Lina, who had been terribly worried, Zero spilled everything to me while I was enjoying breakfast on my soft bed.
“What? Ashton Cliter is included as the final party member?”
“Yes! The system included him because he met the conditions as a hidden party member!”
“It wasn’t you who did it?”
“No! I had assumed that Kieran Worei, who was originally the villain, would naturally be the last party member!”
Zero incessantly whined and grumbled.
I let his complaints pass through one ear as I thought to myself.
‘…What exactly is going on here?’
The condition for the sub-quest “Gather the Party Members” that Zero gave me was to find people capable of defeating zombies.
In this world that closely follows the story of “Flower Road,” one has to be considerably skilled to deal with unidentified zombies.
Such skilled individuals would naturally be major characters from the original story, the secondary male leads and the villain, so both Zero and I had no doubt that the final party member would be Kieran Worei.
But Ashton Cliter was chosen out of the blue as a hidden party member?
“…Zero, isn’t this a decision made by those gods you mentioned in the higher realms?”
“Maybe… Only higher-ranking gods have the power to interfere with the system.”
‘I suspect that this could be the work of an unidentified perpetrator, someone responsible for ruining the original story and causing the zombie crisis…’
I had asked Zero before whether any other deities had interfered with this world.
He said there had been none.
So, I thought that the person who caused errors in the status window might have spread the zombie virus through magic or a curse.
‘I’m not sure how the errors in the status window occurred… But couldn’t there have been some way to intervene?’
Either there’s a higher-ranking deity involved, or even a human might have some hidden method.
“Zero, didn’t you say this when the zombie crisis occurred?”
“What did I say?”
“That if the story of this world, which is ‘the original,’ gets twisted, then a proportional amount of causality is needed to restore the ruined story.”
It sounds complicated, but it basically means that an equally dramatic story has to replace the original for this world to function properly.
That’s why Zero even gave me the grand role of the Holy Maiden.
I rolled my eyes and shared my speculations with Zero.
“I have two theories in mind.”
While stuffing my mouth with a half-cooked fried egg and well-cooked sausage.
“What are they?”
“First, the higher-ranking gods probably expect a heroic epic from the hidden party member.”
“Hmm…”
Ashton Cliter, the forgotten Duke of the Empire.
He was an individual so well-suited to be the male lead that it was strange he was not mentioned even once in “Flower Road.”
‘Was it because he was the second prince? Because his character would overlap with Crown Prince Louis?’
If not, did the royal family ostracize him from a young age because of some flaw?
‘It’s surprising that a hidden party member has appeared, but…’
Objectively, the Duke of Whitewood was a perfect person to have as a companion.
He had abundant combat experience, having fought in wars and defended his territory from invading monsters and bands of thieves.
His face was handsome, and after talking to him, he didn’t seem to have a bad personality.
‘He even had the tragic past and psychological flaws one would expect from a male lead.’
Those empty and void eyes, as if he wasn’t human…
It wasn’t unreasonable for the system to recognize him as a hidden party member.
If such a person were to overcome adversity and help the Holy Maiden save the declining empire, it would undoubtedly become a beautiful heroic epic.
I had no problem with that. Whether it was the Duke of Whitewood or an orc, I’d welcome anyone who could do the job well.
Though it’s just speculation.
“However… what concerns me is the second possibility.”
“…And what is that?”
“The possibility that Kieran Worei, the original story’s villain, no longer exists in this world.”
“What?”
Kieran Worei.
The villain and final boss of ‘City of Flowers.’
The Worei family, to which Kieran belongs, was a vassal of the Caladia Imperial Family.
For generations, they loyally served the royal family as shadows, handling the empire’s dirty tasks without hesitation.
That was the reason for the existence of the Worei family.
Long ago, the founding emperor of the empire, Caladia, had made a pact with the ancestors of the Worei family.
The contents of the pact were as follows:
As long as the royal bloodline continued, those born of Worei blood would protect them with their lives. Moreover, tasks that the royals could not undertake themselves would be handled by members of the Worei family.
Effectively, those born of Worei blood became the empire’s dogs, tied to an unfair contract. Yet, the pact could not be broken.
It was due to a sacred oath taken by Anais, a friend of Caladia and the empire’s first Pope.
My Arch-enemy Sealed My Memory and Said That He is My Husband
This is an incredibly captivating story that you absolutely shouldn’t miss! I’ll give a brief introduction here, and below you’ll find a detailed synopsis of the plot.
The female lead is a fierce and powerful demon king. The male lead is a once-in-a-millennium celestial lord, admired by the entire cultivation world.
They are equally matched, legendary rivals who have battled for centuries.
In the final duel, the female lead is gravely injured. The male lead saves her, seals her memories, and hides her true identity. He tells her that he is her fiancé. His entire life has been flawless—except for the one thing he never expected, never controlled, and never wanted to control: falling for his greatest enemy. She is his inner demon, his obsession.
When the female lead regains her memories, she is furious at his deception.
She makes his life a living hell.
And somehow, the male lead—possibly a total masochist—doesn’t mind at all. In fact, he’s happy she’s paying attention to him.
Yep, we’re back to my favorite trope: male lead suffering. If you love this kind of story, jump into the pit with me now!!!
Intro
Dong Xia lost her memory.
Her handsome and extremely powerful fiancé Li Qing comforted her: “It’s okay if you can’t remember. I’ll always be with you.”
Everyone thought Dong Xia’s ancestors must have burned incense to get such a perfect fiancé. He was the number one person in the immortal realm, yet he remained chaste and only loved her.
…
The day before marrying her fiancé, Dong Xia finally remembered everything.
She wasn’t suffering from memory loss at all.
Her arch-enemy had made her fake her death, destroyed her cultivation, replaced her memories, and pretended to be her deeply in love fiancé.
No wonder he said, “It’s okay if you can’t remember”!
Dong Xia laughed coldly as she pulled out her long knife: Li Qing, prepare to die 🙂
*
Li Qing, as the supreme being of the immortal realm, was the people’s shining beacon.
The only unknown stain in his life was his affection for Dong Xia, the ruler of the demon realm.
In the final battle of the war between immortals and demons, the sky collapsed and the earth shattered. The ruler of the demon realm was finally slain under the sword of the supreme being of the immortal realm, and everyone in the immortal realm applauded.
The cultivation world lost a ruler of the demon realm.
And in the back mountain of Li Qing’s cave dwelling, he secretly hid away a fiancée.
Notes:
1. The female lead is white on the outside, black on the inside, and the queen of flattery; the male lead repeatedly tests the edge of darkness, a VIP guest at the crematorium.
2. Fantasy cultivation world setting.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
