Chapter 2

[Target subject Seraphina Thorne has changed her heart. Host’s existence has become an emotional burden. You will soon be forced to leave this world.]

“Not annihilation?”

I blinked, surprised by the system’s mercy.

After all, in my memory, it had always been utterly ruthless.

[Host has one hour to choose your method of death. Do not waste time.]

Hearing that cold, mechanical voice in my head, I surprisingly felt a flicker of warmth after so long.

No expectations, no pain.

I stood up, looking at the untouched meal, and in a fit of bitter defiance, dumped it all into the trash.

Then I opened my phone and started scrolling through Ins.

When I saw that intimate photo, a sharp, familiar pain still bloomed deep inside me.

Seraphina’s strange behavior tonight now had the most logical explanation.

Blake Sterling was back in the country.

The playboy who once considered Seraphina a mere bet had returned.

And Seraphina’s absence tonight was simply to welcome Blake Sterling back.

They were celebrating in a private room.

And Seraphina was looking at Blake Sterling, who stood in the center of the crowd, her eyes sparkling like stars.

My fingers trembled as they grazed over those radiant eyes in the photo; I almost dropped my phone.

My vision blurred, but my heart swelled with a frustrating helplessness.

Had she forgotten Blake Sterling’s past cruelty?

I had thought my arrival could change Seraphina's fate, but now it seemed I was just deluding myself.

The system had told me Seraphina was supposed to be the main character of a dark romance novel, a real tear-jerker. But because readers deeply resented the male lead, Blake Sterling,

A gentle man was needed to save her.

Someone who wouldn't be with an arrogant, disrespectful man.

And so, I appeared in Seraphina's world.

Just like her, I entered the elite private school as a scholarship student.

When Seraphina was targeted by other girls, I would purposefully raise my voice and warn them that the dean was coming, making the bullies back off.

When Seraphina was used as a bet by those rich kids, I risked Blake Sterling’s retaliation to personally hand her the recording.

That was the first time I saw Seraphina cry.

She cried and asked me *why*.

At the time, I thought Seraphina was asking me why I was so good to her.

But looking at that photo on Ins, that “why” sounded more like an accusation towards me.

An accusation for shattering her few precious dreams.

Blake Sterling's pursuit had given the overlooked Seraphina some of the only attention she'd ever received.

But I had ruined it for her.

The realization hit me, and I laughed and cried at the same time, finally understanding that her gradual coldness over the years was nothing more than her revenge against me.