Chapter 115 | Breaking Every Bad Ending

“H-Have you played around enough yet?!”

Ain gasped for breath.

Lillian bit her lip, looking at Ain with a face full of defiance.

Ain suddenly felt that as long as he could get a good night's sleep tonight, confessing to Erylin or whatever didn't seem like such a hard thing after all.

Tomorrow's problems could be left to tomorrow's self; today's self had already done enough.

I just want to sleep!

Just as Ain was about to speak, Lillian beat him to it and said, “Even if you don't want to talk about Erylin, you still have to promise me one thing!”

“What is it?”

“No matter where you go from now on, you have to take me with you...”

Lillian hugged her pillow, looking at Ain with a deeply resentful expression.

“I don't care! You just have to take me with you!”

Ain was utterly speechless.

“Take you? You're only a Tier 2? I'd be better off taking Erylin. She's already a...”

“What do you mean Tier 2? I'm Tier 3.”

“...Huh?”

Ain was dumbfounded.

Hadn't this girl been a Tier 2 since Act One?

Although her power had seemingly gone out of control on the night of her witchification, after the mana conversion of the Scale of Astral Judgment, Lillian was still just an ordinary mage with several times more mana than a normal person.

Other than that, she had a special ability to convert her specific emotions into mana.

But a mage's rank advancement didn't require mana capacity; it required their personal understanding and mastery of magic!

“Ever since the events of that night, haven't you been hanging out with me every single day? When did you ever study?”

Ain looked completely skeptical.

Ever since Lillian was no longer troubled by witchification, she had been clinging to him every day.

Describing Lillian as “ignorant and pleasure-seeking” was an absolute perfect fit.

“I just read some books when I go back every night. Speaking of which, I've pretty much learned all those complex Tier 3 spells. I was actually planning to ask you to teach me Tier 4 ones recently...”

Ain looked at the girl in front of him in disbelief.

“Are you saying... you're almost Tier 4?”

Lillian nodded, not looking like she was lying at all.

“No way, are you kidding me? You can learn that fast? Then what on earth were you doing during your two years at the academy?”

A hint of despondency flashed through Lillian's eyes, and she murmured, “I just didn't want to study...”

“Back then, I kept thinking that since I didn't know when I would die anyway, studying would be pointless. It was better to squander my time, playing and having fun every single day...”

Lillian's face turned slightly red. Seemingly a bit shy, she glanced at Ain.

“Who knew you would come and save me...”

Ain blinked, staring at Lillian as if she were a monster.

Was she kidding? During his first playthrough, he didn't reach Tier 4 until the original storyline progressed to Act Four!

The reason why the game had Lillian bite the dust so early was actually because this girl was...

...an absolute prodigy?

It turned out Lillian was the real bug of this game?

Even Erylin was only Tier 3 right now!

How did this girl end up on the exact same starting line as Erylin after just a few weeks?

Is Lillian actually the female lead of this game?!

“Hmph! Did you hear me? From now on, whenever you go out, you absolutely, positively must take me with you!”

“And you're not allowed to look for any other girls besides Erylin—especially that Imeve! You're not allowed to marry her! Absolutely not!”

Ain suddenly felt extremely glad that he had saved Lillian in Act Two.

By the mid-game, wouldn't he have a Tier 5 powerhouse by his side?

She was a total carry!

“Fine, fine, fine. I never told you I wanted to marry her anyway...”

【Negative Status: Mana Leakage, Mental Exhaustion (Dispelled), Divine Backlash (Dispelled)】

The moment the negative effects vanished, Ain felt his mind clear up completely.

“Wait, Imeve...”

Ain muttered the name to himself, as if realizing something.

All the events that had occurred replayed in his mind like a rewinding tape. The moment all the clues converged, an extremely terrifying thought emerged.

Wasn't all of this just a little too coincidental?

Seeing Ain's strange expression, Lillian asked, “What's wrong?”

Ain did not immediately reply to her.

From Act One until now, the timeline of the original plot could be said to have been altered significantly by him.

He had saved Lillian, and now she just happened to be an extremely powerful force for the future...

...an existence that could even rival Erylin.

According to the original game's design, shouldn't Lillian have been the female lead?

Wait, no, that's not right!

Why was he able to save Lillian and change the timeline?

Was it because of Lola?

Or was it because he discovered the truth?

Or was it because he defeated Wesley and received the Goddess's blessing?

None of the above...

It was Sevis's Scale of Astral Judgment!

Ain slapped his forehead, remembering the item he had been ignoring all this time.

It was because of the Scale of Astral Judgment that he was able to help Lillian control her witch powers!

It was because of the Scale of Astral Judgment that he had changed the timeline of the original game!

Then why couldn't his past self achieve this ending in the original game? Or why couldn't Lola do it?

Because the Scale of Astral Judgment never appeared in Act Two in the first place!

Which brought up a question: why would the Scale of Astral Judgment, which wasn't supposed to debut until the late-game in the original story, appear ahead of schedule at this exact point in time?

And conveniently allow him to save Lillian in Act Two...

Wasn't this just too coincidental?

If it weren't for the appearance of the Scale of Astral Judgment, he really wouldn't have been able to think of any way to save Lillian from witchification.

A figure emerged in Ain's mind.

Sevis!

He was the one who brought the Scale of Astral Judgment!

Instantly, Ain's thoughts flew back to the night he saved Lillian.

He remembered asking Lola about Sevis back then, only for her to reply with a single sentence:

“You'll find out in a few days.”

So, what she meant by “a few days” referred to...

...Imeve's wedding?

Everything seemed to connect...

“But still, couldn't that old hag have explained things more clearly?!”

A moment later, in response to Lillian's questioning, Ain could only explain the general situation to her.

“I don't really get it...”

Lillian sat cross-legged on the bed, pressing her hands against her small feet, swaying her body back and forth as she looked at Ain.

“So what are we going to do next?”

The girl decided to ask a more practical question.

At the mention of this, Ain instantly perked up.

To hell with the main storyline, and to hell with Sevis!

Ain didn't want to care so much anymore.

He had already saved Lillian; if the plot got messed up, so be it!

Anyway, that old hag Lola would clean up the mess!

“Didn't I tell you that I ran into that dragon today?”

Lillian nodded.

Ain grinned mischievously and made a throat-slitting gesture.

“Our next plan is...”

“Capture it and tame it into our mount!”

Lillian: “?”

“B-But isn't it Tier 6? And didn't you also say it was that Goddess's...”

“Daughter.”

Ain finished her sentence.

“Right! Didn't you also say you saved it today? Then why are you now...”

Looking at the incredibly calm Ain in front of her, Lillian instantly realized something was off.

Her master seemed to be planning something big this time.

“What are you talking about, Lillian?”

Ain's expression was calm, as if he were speaking of a trivial matter.

“Daughter or not, it's just saving a magical beast. Do you actually expect it to thank me?”

“Isn't it extremely common for humans to tame magical beasts as Contract Spirits?”

“What Goddess, what saving the world...”

Ain's smile grew increasingly sinister. He even stood up to describe his grand plan to Lillian.

“If it tries to snatch the compass at the auction venue for the sake of the holy spear, it will definitely cause a huge commotion...”

“When that happens, high-level powerhouses in this city will surely show up to subjugate that dragon...”

“We only need to hide in the shadows and wait for the right moment. Once that stupid dragon is worn down to its last breath, those self-righteous high-level powerhouses will inevitably let their guard down...”

“At that point, we'll quietly treat them to a few Tier 5 spells...”

“Hehehehehe!”

“That injured big dumb dragon will definitely take the opportunity to flee, but it would never expect that I've already placed a mark on it! Ahahahahaha!!!”

“This is a spell that hasn't even been developed yet in this era. There's no way it can detect it!”

“We'll track it to its hiding place, take advantage of its weakness, and cast my Tier 5 contract magic on it...”

“When the time comes! Riding a dragon to travel the world won't be a dream! And it's a Tier 6 magical beast! I can do whatever I want, and who's going to stop me?”

“I'll make that big dumb dragon call me 'Master' in a submissive voice!”

“Hiahiahiahia!”

Lillian said with some worry, “The Goddess... will probably be angry, right?”

Ain chuckled and asked her back,

“I'm merely 'taking care' of the Goddess's daughter for her. Is there a problem? As such a diligent employee, shouldn't she thank me?”

Ain's lips curled up further as he let out a devilish whisper.

“Since my stingy boss won't pay my salary, I can only collect it myself...”

“I'll take your daughter as collateral first. If you still don't pay me in the future, once my stats are high enough, it wouldn't be impossible to take you, the boss, as collateral instead...”

Ain grew more and more excited as he spoke.

Lillian suddenly realized that her master didn't seem as gentle as she had imagined.

As the smile gradually faded from his face, Ain finally realized something was amiss.

“Strange. Why hasn't the Goddess spoken lately?”

...

“Achoo!”

“Lady Angelica, what's wrong?”

“It's nothing, nothing...”

Angelica lay prone on the bed, eating snacks while flipping through a picture book in her hands. Her calves swayed back and forth, looking exceptionally cozy.

“Hehe, hehe...”

The hidden cave where Grace and Angelica were hiding had been completely transformed by them into a comfortable little room. A magic lamp hung from the ceiling, and it had everything from a desk to a wardrobe.

It was small but fully equipped.

“So you like reading picture books published by 'Jenica'?”

“Mhm, mhm!”

Seemingly engrossed, Angelica nodded with great excitement.

“I didn't expect you humans to make so many interesting things...”

With that, Angelica used her dragon tail to grab some snacks from the table and pour them into her mouth.

Grace handed over the brewed medicinal soup and said softly, “This is for healing your wounds...”

“No need, no need. This is enough.”

While Angelica read the manga, Grace wagged her tail and pointed to the snacks on the table.

“And why do you think those human things would be of any use to us dragons?”

“But you still need to eat at least a little, right? What if that gentleman also appears at the auction? The Pope might try to kill him...”

“I don't have the strength to protect that gentleman...”