‘Her eyes are wandering, and she’s avoiding my gaze. She even subconsciously took a step back when I approached. Why?’
‘How strange…’
Dolores’s thoughts were transmitted into Greene’s mind without any concealment.
Greene shook his head, and on the surface, Dolores didn’t seem to press the issue further.
Dolores turned her notebook around. On it was a strange symbol—the Chinese characters for “Wang Ye,” though the surrounding box wasn’t perfectly square.
The Prophet’s betrayal had occurred after the Saintess, so Dolores had already mentioned the matter of the diary.
“Does it look good?” Dolores asked.
“It’s not bad,” Greene replied casually.
‘I don’t recognize it…’
Dolores closed the notebook and looked at Phil, who was busy tinkering with a magic array. She took a few steps forward and crouched beside her, asking, “Phil, how much longer until it’s finished?”
“Ten minutes.” The girl kept her head down, her voice sounding a bit muffled.
‘In my memory, I painted two pictures, each corresponding to one of the two endings for the Undersea City.’
‘In one, Greene loses his talent because of Phil’s betrayal, thus ending his path as a Hero. Eventually, he returns to the Kingdom of Rand to live out his days until the Abyss descends.’
‘Or, following the established plot, he goes to the Five Ruins of the Undersea City to find the Sealing Site. This would allow you, Greene, to leave at the cost of a portion of your talent.’
‘However, neither of these is perfect enough. I want a better choice.’
Dolores didn’t look at Greene. Like a curious child, she stared at Phil’s small movements.
‘Darling, what do you think?’
Hearing this thought, Greene suddenly looked up, only to find that Dolores was already watching him at some point. Her eyes were filled with a smile and a hint of playfulness.
‘I guessed it.’
Greene hadn’t expected to be found out by Dolores after just one encounter… no, it was impossible for a normal person to think of such a thing.
It was as if Dolores had known long ago what would happen or what might happen.
He had already lived through a past life, and those vivid memories would not lie to him.
Could the power of the **[Demon]** actually recreate the past? What kind of price did he pay to obtain such power out of nowhere…
He had almost forgotten how intelligent Dolores was. The Dolores in reality was nothing like the Dolores in his memories.
“Darling, are you in a hurry? Let me talk to Phil for a bit~”
‘I’ll resolve this quickly.’
After saying that, Dolores leaned down and whispered something into Phil’s ear. After a long silence, Phil tapped her right hand and opened the door to leave.
“Dolores, you really are a bastard. So you’ve been watching me act this whole time?” After saying that, Phil walked to the door.
Neither Dolores nor Greene made a move to enter. Phil’s gaze lingered on Greene for a long time.
Phil clenched her fists and vanished behind the door.
“I won’t apologize to you for my deception.”
Having dealt with the third party, Dolores turned around with her hands behind her back.
“Darling, now it’s just the two of us. If you have any questions, you can ask me here.”
“**[Punishment]** and **[Repentance]**… which memory am I in right now? Can you tell me?”
“Punishment,” Greene replied.
“So it’s not the Sky City of Hemulst or the Northern Fortress? Logically, the memory for **[Punishment]** should be from the period when I hurt you.”
‘I recall that retrospective memories only appear after favorability is maxed out…’
“I expected our journey to end at either of those two cities.”
Dolores was slightly surprised. The Greene before her was clearly showing signs of losing control of his emotions.
“Dolores, you should explain your actions.”
“You betrayed me. You kept saying you loved me, but why did you do the same thing they did?”
“Did you already know everything that would happen to me? All the betrayals I’ve encountered so far, even the reincarnation… and this demon power…”
Greene swung his arms and angrily grabbed Dolores’s shoulders. With just a little force, he could tear her apart.
The difference in their sizes was stark.
‘Demon… does he mean the system? Perhaps in a way, it counts.’
“Darling… it hurts…” Dolores squeezed out a pitiful expression, speaking in a soft, sobbing voice.
Greene subconsciously let go of his grip, and Dolores hopped back a few steps like a clever fox.
“To be soft-hearted toward the person who killed you… it seems you don’t hate me all that much, darling. In a way, I’m really no different from those other children.”
“If there has to be a difference, it’s probably just that I’m luckier. I got the emotions I wanted—your love, and my love for you.”
‘On that point, I’m not lying.’
“You still haven’t answered my question, Dolores.”
Greene emphasized her name. At this point, he no longer wanted to believe anything she said.
“I have never deceived you regarding my feelings.”
“I knew those children would betray you, and I knew you would be reborn and possess a system.”
“Do you want to know why I ultimately betrayed you in my actions? Darling? Come… lean down a bit.”
‘Let me tell you the answer…’
Dolores leaned close to his ear, her hand clutching a sharp object behind her back. She spoke:
“You have a system on you now. Since you’re so hesitant in your hatred for me, why don’t you try using the system to completely control me in the real world? Perhaps then, I will tell you the answer myself.”
“I’ve already told you what to do with a bad girl like me.”
“Anyone who has hurt you must pay the price, and even I, who said those words, am no exception…”
As she finished, Greene looked down and saw blood dripping onto the ground. The Dolores in the dream was twisting a blade in her own heart.
‘Darling, I’m not stupid enough to do something meaningless.’
‘If you can’t realize it and make good use of the system, then we’re both going to suffer a great loss…’
Greene froze. He hadn’t expected Dolores to suddenly commit such an abrupt and violent act without any warning.
The memory rapidly collapsed as the subject neared death. Dolores, leaning against Greene, had only a final breath of life left.
One last thought remained.
‘Darling, this is just a memory.’
‘If your hatred for me killing you ends with a hasty suicide in my memories, then your feelings would be far too cheap…’
Greene did indeed see Dolores die, just as he had wished.
But nothing went the way he wanted. Dolores had neither resisted nor regretted anything. She hadn’t repented, nor had she told him the reason for her betrayal.
Furthermore, Dolores seemed to be persuading and encouraging Greene—
To hurry up and take revenge on her…
Because she was a bad child who had done wrong.
If Greene wanted answers, he needed to carry out the philosophy that such things could not be easily forgiven.
The memory ended, and the system popped up with a new message:
**[Dolores (Punishment) Memory (1) recorded. When the target’s favorability reaches the (Inexpressible) stage, the target can be made to recall this scene.]**
**[Detected that the objective for the Side Quest (Ghosts of Eli Kingdom) has appeared. Distance: 50 meters.]**
Greene woke up to find himself lying on the ground, his body devoid of strength, tightly clutching the Bark Scroll in his hand.
Noises came from outside, seemingly the sound of people fighting.
Suddenly, the system chimed with a notification that the quest was complete.
Footsteps approached from the distance.
Someone walked up to the weakened Greene and reached out a hand to him.
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