Chapter 72: Bad Ending: Canary

Lilia once again arrived at the capital of the Lien Kingdom, Taronia.

This time, her return hadn’t relied on any means of transportation; instead, she had been teleported here by that mysterious young man. Experiencing Teleportation Magic—something supposedly only High-level Mages could use—for the first time, Lilia should have felt a sense of novelty. But at this moment, her attention was not on this at all.

She had been settled in the Royal Court of the Lien Kingdom, inside an extremely luxurious palace.

Sitting on a soft couch covered in cashmere, Lilia opened the system panel. After years of hard work, Lucian’s Favorability had been raised to 99, and the main storyline, "Avenger," had made tremendous progress. Just as a Happy Ending was about to fall into her hands... she hadn’t expected Caius to disrupt things halfway again.

That’s right. Again.

Lilia certainly knew that Caius had a hand in forcing Victor to leave Taronia back then. However, Caius had still been useful to her at the time. Plus, she hadn’t yet entered Victor’s related main storyline, so the sunk costs weren’t yet unbearable. Rather than exposing him, it was better to pretend she knew nothing, avoiding a falling out with Caius that might affect her subsequent progress in her route with Lucian.

She just hadn’t expected... She truly never expected that today, with the ending right at her fingertips, Caius would use such drastic measures to destroy everything. He was simply a madman.

Most importantly... Lilia tapped open Caius’s Favorability interface. Following a brief character introduction was a glaring number: 30.

His Favorability toward her wasn’t even a third of the maximum value. This proved that even today, he still only treated her as his possession, like a little bird that had accidentally flown out of its cage and had to be caught and brought back. In his eyes, she was a toy, a pet. The only thing she wasn’t was an independent human being.

This realization made Lilia want to laugh. Yet, closely following that urge was a raging fire that threatened to burn everything to ashes.

"So annoying," she thought.

This playthrough was completely ruined. Of the three... no, four capture targets she had encountered so far, Victor’s whereabouts were unknown, and Lucian’s fate was uncertain. As for Caius and that mysterious young man... Lilia didn’t want to waste any more mental energy trying to woo them. Anyone who had played text-based games knew that achieving a Happy Ending was much harder than getting a Bad Ending or a Normal Ending. Rather than wasting time on two characters with whom a Happy Ending was nearly impossible, it was better to simply restart.

Wasn’t it just suicide? She had already died countless times anyway; she was used to it.

However, before that... Lilia lowered her eyes, saying nothing.

After waiting in the palace for about an hour, the heavy doors were finally pushed open. A pitch-black silhouette strode inside. His pace was fast, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

"Lilia..." Caius arrived in front of Lilia and, without a word, lifted her up, making her sit sideways on his lap.

The next second, a scorching body heat engulfed her. Caius held her extremely tight, as if trying to crush her into his very bones and blood. Dense, showering kisses fell continuously on her collarbone, neck, and the corners of her lips, urgent and fierce.

"I’m sorry..." Caius buried his face in the crook of her neck, greedily inhaling the girl’s unique sweet scent. "I should have gone to pick you up myself, but those ministers insisted on stopping me no matter what.

"I wanted to kill them all, but there were too many... I couldn’t kill them all.

"So I told Selas to bring you back as fast as possible..."

Caius reached out, his index finger twirling a lock of hair at Lilia’s temple. He lifted his head, his pitch-black eyes filled with undisguised paranoia. "Tell me, Lilia, did he touch you?"

Lilia did not answer his question. Instead, she asked with a calm expression, "Where is Lucian?"

Caius’s movements paused. The arm wrapped around her waist tightened slightly as he said hoarsely, "Don’t mention him in front of me."

"Where is Lucian?" Lilia asked again.

Caius’s jaw clenched tight. A moment later, he suddenly broke into a smile, the gloominess in the depths of his eyes almost turning into a pool of stagnant water. "He’s dead."

"You killed him." Lilia looked at him, her gaze apathetic.

"That’s right." Meeting her gaze, Caius suddenly felt a sharp ache in his heart. He leaned in close again, slowly sucking on her lips as he suppressed his panting. "I killed him.

"He died a miserable death. I dismantled every bone in his body, bit by bit.

"Are you unhappy, Lilia? Because I broke your toy?"

Lilia pushed him away.

"Yes." Her affirmative answer hit like a heavy sledgehammer. "I am very unhappy, Caius.

"You never learn how to be obedient.

"You always do things that upset me.

"You know what?" The girl’s slender fingers clamped around his neck. "Disobedient toys deserve to die."

As her words fell, Caius’s eyelashes trembled slightly. After a moment of silence, he gently took Lilia’s right hand and flattened her palm. Then, he placed a dagger into her hand. He curled Lilia’s five fingers close, making her tightly grip the hilt, and pointed the tip of the blade squarely at his heart.

"Then kill me."

Under his guidance, the dagger sank into his chest bit by bit. Blood continuously welled out along the blood groove, dyeing their clasped hands red. Once the blade had entirely pierced his heart, Lilia gave it a forceful twist and then abruptly yanked it out. Blood gushed forth, instantly staining his clothes a dark crimson.

With her motion, Caius let out a muffled groan, yet the corners of his lips curled into an almost satisfied, morbid smile.

Lilia stood up from his lap, the hem of her dark red velvet dress cascading around her feet like a blooming flower. Her expression remained entirely calm—calmly watching Caius collapse onto the soft couch from immense blood loss, calmly watching those pitch-black eyes gradually lose their focus while still staring fixedly at her.

The next second, she turned the blade toward her own neck.

Caius’s pupils contracted. At this moment, a sudden, piercing pain flared in his already mangled heart.

"No...!" He tried to stop her, but Lilia’s movements were executed with ultimate crispness and precision, as if she had done this exact same thing countless times before.

The blade sliced through her flesh, and bright red blood sprayed out like fire, like molten lava. The scorching sting of the sight nearly tore his sanity apart.

"Why..." he whimpered.

The young man slumped to the floor. Using his final ounce of strength, he struggled forward, his trembling fingers brushing against the girl’s limp body as she collapsed to the ground.

"Why, Lilia..."

He pressed his mouth over the girl’s soft lips, a heavy stench of blood permeating between their teeth. Clear liquid fell drop by drop onto the corners of the girl’s eyes and into her hair. His pained whimpers mingled within, sounding like a cornered beast with nowhere left to run.

"Why exactly... why must you be so cruel to me?"