Not long after Lucian vanished from Acheron's script, his vision returned, and the scene before his eyes shifted.
He was back in the dim, shadowy room.
Lucian blinked in a daze for a moment, then turned on the light, and in that instant, the familiar furniture entered his vision.
Needless to say, he was back in his familiar, delicate house in Penacony, inside his bedroom.
"Hahh, the final condition is holding a wedding with all of them, huh..." Lucian muttered with a complicated expression as he lay on the bed. "Yeah, add this to the completion condition list as well."
After running several scripts, he had identified certain patterns.
Capturing both the body and mind of the script's protagonist and making up for her regret were the two main conditions for completing the script, while the remaining conditions were variables that depended on the protagonist.
Lucian recorded this in his mind, then opened the System panel.
[Host: Lucian]
[Ability: Disarm, Absolute Hit, Godly Bandage, Immortal Kneel, Sham Diviner, BGM, Law of Calamity]
[Follower: Tribios 1, Mortis 1, Feixiao 1, Yueyu 1, Castorice 1, Polyxia 1, Jingliu 1, Baiheng 1, Fu Xuan 1, Robin 1, Serfina 1, Acheron 1, Izumo's Guardians 7/12]
[Script: 0]
[Revive Follower]
"Guardians... Excluding Mei and counting Kiana, that makes exactly twelve."
Lucian muttered with a frown as he thought about his thirteen wives from Izumo.
"Seven out of twelve means only seven are alive now?"
"Looks like a random effect from the script. It only affected seven of them, and five weren't affected..."
Fortunately, all of them had become his followers, or this would have been extremely awkward and troublesome.
Lucian immediately used 'Revive Follower' without hesitation, and soon, the Izumo Guardians' suffix changed to 12/12.
===
At the same time, in the room at the very edge of the hallway, Acheron suddenly opened her eyes and sat up in her bed!
"Huff... Huff..."
Acheron gasped for breath as cold sweat covered her forehead.
Her heart pounded wildly, and her mind felt as though it had exploded, as countless images, sounds, and emotions surged through her mind all at once!
Izumo... Lucian... Kiana... her sisters... warm sunlight... Lucian lying on her lap... him asking whether they should hold a wedding... and then... Lucian said he was going on a long journey to find gifts...
"Is that... a dream...? But it was far too... real..."
Acheron muttered in a daze, then subconsciously covered her lower belly, feeling that there seemed to be a strange lingering warmth and a sense of emptiness there.
As soon as her hand touched her lower belly, however, it suddenly began to glow, a glow intertwined with green and red fluorescence.
"What is this...? Blessings?"
Acheron mumbled in surprise, as she could clearly feel that a gentle yet powerful energy, full of vitality, had been added within her body: the blessing of Abundance.
Surprisingly, it had not ended there, as there was also another power, playful and cheerful in nature: the blessing of Elation.
Yet her Nihility was still there.
How could three different Paths coexist?
However, that was not the most critical issue, as to her surprise, her heart was no longer like stagnant, lifeless water, but filled to the brim!
Her longing for Lucian, her love for Lucian—it was love so intense it could not dissolve.
How could a Self-Annihilator have such emotions?
"Lucian..."
Acheron murmured Lucian's name, her voice and body trembling, making her appear somewhat pitiful and fragile.
In the next second, she got out of bed and instinctively reached for her Sentinel, Howl, but to her surprise, what she grasped was not the familiar 'Howl,' but the Sentinel known as 'Naught,' the very Sentinel she wielded as Acheron.
"Wh-What exactly happened to me…"
Her mind was now in complete chaos.
Ever since becoming a Self-Annihilator, this was the first time she had felt panicked and anxious instead of her usual detached and nonchalant state.
It couldn't be helped.
All those memories were far too genuine.
All those emotions were far too intense.
As a Self-Annihilator, Acheron had already lost many of her past memories, leaving numerous empty gaps in her mind, gaps that were now perfectly filled by these new memories.
At this moment, it was as if she had changed from 'Acheron' back into 'Raiden Bosenmori Mei,' with Lucian's face and smile occupying more than half of her mental space.
"I... I have to find him… and get a clear answer..."
Having made her decision, Acheron decisively walked toward Lucian's bedroom, but just as she arrived at his room and was about to push the door open—
*Creak—*
Suddenly, the door opened by itself, and Lucian's face appeared before Acheron's eyes.
In that instant, Acheron's breathing unconsciously quickened, her gaze becoming incredibly complex.
"Mei—I mean, Acheron, you—"
Lucian had just begun to speak when Acheron suddenly shoved him straight into the room, not even bothering to close the door behind them.
"Lucian..." Acheron called his name, her voice carrying restrained emotion. "W-What's going on? Why did you call me Mei?"
Lucian looked straight into Acheron's face and saw the complexity and anxiety in her expression.
'Ahh, it seems like the effects of the script have fed back into reality...'
Lucian thought with a complex feeling as he realized that the Acheron he knew before entering her script should not have emotions like this. Now, the woman before him gave an overwhelmingly familiar feeling, as if the one he faced was not Acheron, but Mei.
It seemed that the emotions and awareness eroded by the Nihility had been restored.
"You already remembered everything?"
Lucian asked softly with a helpless smile.
"Remember what?!" Acheron exclaimed anxiously as she stepped closer and closer to Lucian. "Remember that I'm Mei? Remember that you... you did that to us..."
Now that she had regained her emotions, Acheron could no longer bring herself to say such shameful words so nonchalantly like before, her face flushing slightly.
Seeing Acheron's eagerness to learn the truth, Lucian sighed, then smiled faintly.
He knew that Acheron would never blush.
Only Mei would.
Understanding this, Lucian spoke up, trying to explain as simply as possible.
"Well... in simple terms, what we experienced was some kinda... special spacetime that manifested as your dream, in which I had to change your tragic past and alter your tragic fate within it."
"I allowed Izumo to be reborn, saved your sisters, and… married you."
Lucian paused, staring straight into Acheron's eyes.
"All those experiences, those feelings… they were all genuine, truly happening."
"My love for you was also genuine."
Acheron's body trembled slightly as she heard Lucian directly confirm the wild yet vivid memories in her mind.
They were genuine...
Those warm daily moments were genuine...
Those sweet kisses were genuine...
Those entangled nights were also genuine...
In that instant, an overwhelming surge of love and longing completely crushed Acheron's reason.
"Lucian!"
Acheron let out a low cry and suddenly lunged forward!
It was not an attack, but an embrace!
Her body trembled faintly with emotion as Acheron wrapped her arms around Lucian with all her strength, then buried her face deeply in his chest!
"So you lied to me. You didn't go looking for any gift... You just closed that spacetime, didn't you?"
Acheron, finally learning the truth, held Lucian even tighter, afraid he would disappear again, afraid that this moment was not real.
Lucian, feeling Acheron's trembling body and the emotion that nearly melted him, gently patted her back.
"Yeah, you could put it that way..." Lucian said softly, gently resting his chin atop her head. Then he grabbed her chin and lifted her delicate face, looking straight into her eyes. "We all have to wake up from dreams eventually. In the first place, that spacetime only existed to save your past. It couldn't last forever."
In his eyes, the Acheron before him was far more alive, far more emotional, than her former cold, detached self.
"Then... what about Izumo and the others? Are they alright?" Acheron asked anxiously. "Was history... really changed?"
"Of course," Lucian replied confidently with a calm nod. "You'll know soon enough."
"What about the gifts you said?" Acheron took a step back and said while spreading her hands. "You said you'd bring us gifts."
"Uhh..." Lucian blinked, looking awkward, not knowing how to answer. "Well... you know, that was..."
He had only just returned to reality himself, so how could he have any gift?
Seeing Lucian's awkward reaction, a playful gleam shimmered in Acheron's beautiful violet eyes.
"I'm joking. I don't want any gift," Acheron said with a gentle smile. "You know, that happy life was already the best gift you could ever give me... I won't ask for more, and the others surely feel the same way."
Upon hearing this, Lucian, feeling genuinely moved, couldn't help but let out a similarly gentle smile.
As expected of Mei, his gentle and virtuous wife.
Understanding, kind, well-read, graceful, beautiful beyond compare, and able to cook—marrying a woman like this was nothing but a great fortune for any man.
===
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