It seems I'll have to prepare a little surprise for dear Astravore when I return to the Altharian Empire… after all.

The smile on my face deepened.

Then a sharp crack echoed behind me, the sound of a neck snapping.

Seraphina, only a few steps away, flinched again. Her fists clenched and knuckles white… but she said nothing.

Good.

At least she had learned not to question my orders.

Bearlo returned back with a storage ring in his hand.

"I have killed him, my liege… this was his storage ring." He bowed immediately, still not trying to meet my eyes.

My poor bear assistant was still very much drowning in sorrow of his own failure.

"Good job." I said.

The words were simple, but they carried weight.

I mean, a person needs to know when to push… and when to pull.

Still, I didn't say anything more or, to be more accurate, I didn't get the chance. Our bodies began to glow, breaking apart into shimmering light.

We were fading.

It seems the entrance test had finally come to an end after giving me way more trouble than it should have and yet, all I could think about now was… what should I eat after this?

I mean, come on, I'm still human.

A ridiculously handsome and glorious human, sure, but a human nonetheless.

And I haven't eaten a damn decent thing in seven days.

I did carry some dried food with me, technically but calling that a meal would be an insult to food everywhere.

For someone with taste as refined as mine, that barely counted.

Yeah… I definitely needed to eat something.

And maybe, just maybe, think about the mountain of cosmic and mortal trouble I have managed to land myself in… All thanks to the persistent love and care of my countless Yandere Exes who simply refuse to leave me alone.

I swear, if I ever meet any one of them alive, standing right in front of me, and I'm strong enough… I won't hesitate to show my passionate love in return.

But alas… those bitches were more like stalkers than lovers, always lurking, never showing themselves. So all I could do was imagine them… and curse.

Tsk.

Soon enough, my body was teleported into an open space. The blinding light began to fade, and the world around me slowly came into focus.

I found myself standing on a massive, glowing magic circle. Around me, more and more silhouettes began to take shape, other survivors, probably.

Poor souls.

They had made it through the trial… only to be lined up for a fresh round of suffering.

My gaze passed through the crowd until it stopped on a boy kneeling on the ground.

Noah.

His body was covered in injuries and he had been teleported like that.

That could only mean one thing: that bastard had been fighting someone.

And the only people who could have left him in such a state during the trial, naturally, aside from me, were Arza… or maybe Sylvie. If, of course, she had gone through some miraculous transformation and awakened that.

Truly, life's a bitch.

I wanted to live but it wanted me dead and that bastard wanted to die but life just wouldn't let him.

This fight between the two siblings happened in the novel as well. Back then, Noah had been teleported away in almost the same condition.

That moment made him realize Arza could kill him… but it also sparked something else inside him.

A will to grow stronger.

That bastard — Noah — was a contradiction incarnate. He wanted to die, yet he wanted to reach his utmost potential before dying.

I mean, seriously, what the fuck, man?

If you want to die, just do it after some dramatic monologue or better yet, die after handing over all your powers and a few nice artifacts to me.

But no… that idiot had to make everything complicated.

Tsk.

I shifted my gaze from him, scanning the crowd for the other miserable souls who were about to suffer even more than the rest.

That's when I saw her.

Sylvie.

Her clothes were drenched in crimson, the fabric clinging to her like a second skin and in her hands was a sword, still dripping.

Ah… now what's that about?

Why is she covered in human blood?

I tried to dig through my memories of the novel but there was nothing about Sylvie in the entrance exam.

Hell, she wasn't even relevant until she became the main boss of the first arc.

But honestly, I couldn't care less.

So, I went back to my sacred duty of scanning the other survivors and bitching about them in my head.

There really weren't many important faces to look at anyway.

This novel didn't exactly have a sprawling main cast.

Noah, Viola, and maybe Arthur, that was about it.

They were the only ones who could even pretend to be part of the main lineup… others were just temporary and were destined for the kind of brutal deaths that barely warranted a chapter.

As for Arza, she was never part of the main cast. A strong extra, sure, but an extra nonetheless. She disappeared before the end and was never mentioned again.

Just then, I felt a light tug on my sleeve.

I turned, my eyes narrowing toward whoever dared interrupt my sacred duty.

A girl with delicate features and hair as white as freshly fallen snow, stood there and her crimson eyes… locked on me, unblinking.

Arza.

What the hell does she want now?

I couldn't help but think.

I mean, she was basically someone with almost no emotions, the one I had turned into a main character in my game.

Did she… perhaps find out about my resurrection?

My mind started racing. That was the only explanation I could think of.

I waited for her to speak as every possible scenario flashed through my head.

She stared at me for a few seconds with a blank expression and then, her lips opened slowly.

"I like your chocolate," she said, voice completely neutral. "Give me more of them."

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