Chapter 7: The Unlikely Expected

[Error()&%……&……]**

{Error}*……&%}

{Error 9827561……()*}

[System Error]

[System Under Maintenance…]

[System Maintenance Failed]

[System Running]

[System Attempting Normal Operation]

[System Operation Successful]

Atiste listened to these terrifying system prompts.

Only one thought occupied his mind.

‘What the hell is this system anyway?’

Atiste’s confusion was perfectly normal.

After all, the system had never given him any actual help.

Perhaps that was wrong.

Had the system provided information about the future?

Or was it information about the past?

Whether it was still relevant or not remained to be seen.

Atiste did not trust the system.

However, the operation of the “Crystal of Myriad Splendor” was unexpected.

Princess Lillian was dead.

The Crystal of Myriad Splendor had merged into her body.

Lillian’s soul had not dissipated.

She truly saw a new physical form being generated—a body and appearance identical to hers, yet beautiful enough to make anyone jealous.

Lillian hated such outward appearances because they could not define her.

But she did not seek to be understood by the world.

She only wanted to be taken away by Atiste.

Why did it have to be “Atiste”?

Because since she was a child, she had only ever heard that Atiste was the most terrifying legend in the world.

That not a single blade of grass would grow where he walked?

Lillian remained skeptical.

Her kingdom was the most prosperous in the world.

How could it be destroyed in an instant?

Lillian feared Atiste’s existence, yet she also longed for his arrival.

Who was Lillian?

She was the princess of the Muse Kingdom, the most prosperous nation on the Abyssel Continent!

She stood at the top of the world, where all nations came to pay homage.

What use was any of that?

Lillian’s dream had never been to be the center of attention.

She just wanted to be herself.

But the rules of the secular world bound her; the eyes of others tortured her; and her own lost, helpless self tortured her most of all!

Agony!

Other than agony, she could think of no other word to explain her predicament.

However, she did not believe she was the only one experiencing such hardships.

The people of this world must all be like Master Atiste—never truly recognized by others!

Lillian had always lived the “life seen through the eyes of others.”

She was the princess candidate that everyone watched.

She was a tragic figure who had defeated all the princes, only to be the one passively chosen by her father the Emperor.

Her talent was recognized only by the outside world, but she never recognized it herself!

She knew that all the flattery directed toward her was nothing more than sycophancy.

It was all too simple.

Now, being killed by Master Atiste could be considered the fulfillment of her long-held wish.

Yes, Lillian had looked forward to being killed.

But she hoped that the person who killed her would be the one the world acknowledged as the devil—Atiste.

The legends the world told of Atiste only spoke of how he would destroy everything.

This indeed made the world fear him, but Lillian did not see it that way.

She felt her very birth was for the sake of Atiste’s existence.

She did not know why she felt this way or why she imagined such things, but from the moment she was born, she already held this desire.

‘Am I just a tool for Atiste?’

Lillian had asked herself this before.

But these questions were too heavy.

Even now that she had died and experienced the process of death—the annihilation of the flesh, the dissipation of the soul, and the vanishing of consciousness—she did not find it frightening.

Why?

The answer was simple.

She just wanted to live a more interesting life.

Thus, Lillian’s soul became independent.

Her physical body vanished.

For a brief moment, she became a “masterless soul.”

But very quickly, her body reconstructed—

The reconstructed body was truly an embodiment of art.

Not only did she seem to have a new countenance, becoming even more beautiful, but her attire had also undergone a more magnificent transformation.

Lillian’s “reshaping” was finally complete.

Atiste felt as though he had experienced an artistic creative process unlike anything he had ever known in his life.

Lillian’s reconstruction was simply a spectacular wonder that could not be described in human language!

There was no need for quotation marks, for Atiste believed this was an objective fact!

Her appearance and her existence were truly so captivating, so satisfying, and so impossible to give up!

Atiste gazed at the newborn “Lillian.”

He did not stop to wonder whether the “her” before him was still the original “Lillian.”

Only one thing was on Atiste’s mind.

‘Where did Lillian go?’

The reconstructed body before him looked far too perfect.

Even a being like Atiste, who had lived for five hundred years, considered it “one of a kind”!

Eileen, who had also lived for five hundred years, did not see it that way.

She only knew… the Demon King’s Heart had actually merged with a piece of trash human who possessed no magic?

It wasn’t scientific!

It wasn’t even logical for a fantasy world!

‘How can she be this beautiful?’

It defied logic!

The dead cannot return to life!

Moreover, how could she be resurrected looking this good?

It was simply impossible!