Chapter 75: I Should Apologize to Her

‘Dolores… she really is hiding a lot of things.’

Grin felt as though he could guess a bit of what was going through her mind now. Her choosing to kiss him at that exact moment was telling.

There was likely an element of her being afraid to see his reaction, but her answer was already glaringly obvious.

That was the fact that the real-world “Dolores” was, to some extent, aware of the System. This was something Grin had only just confirmed. In his first memory, Dolores’s behavior suggested she knew he would obtain the **[System]**.

However, Grin had not known that the seemingly simple Dolores in the real world was also privy to the System’s existence.

In his previous life, when the System did not exist, Dolores had known about it in advance. In this life, where he actually possessed it, this unique **[System]** could be perceived by the real Dolores.

Dolores’s constant resistance and those strange reactions toward him… they must have been because she could sense the **[System]**. He just didn’t know to what extent she could perceive it.

If the **[System]**’s Favorability System were brought to light, it would resemble several existing evil concepts — specifically forbidden arts like **[Brainwashing Magic]** and **[Hypnosis Magic]**.

If Dolores realized this, and if Viseliane, who was determined to protect her, found out as well…

Then Viseliane’s decision to poison him was a rational choice. Her core motive was simply to kill him.

As for why they didn’t seek help from Dolores’s father, Felts IV?

Even Grin knew the answer to that. He was the one who had brought the Branch of the Golden Tree to Felts IV. He possessed a value to the Land Kingdom that could not be ignored.

No matter how one looked at it, without concrete evidence, Felts IV would never burn bridges with Grin for Dolores’s sake. Once he started following that train of thought, Dolores’s reactions from the very beginning seemed to have a much more reasonable explanation.

It wasn’t, as Grin had previously thought, that his own subtle actions had caused Dolores’s attitude to change. The primary trigger wasn’t his battle with Hagel when he first entered the Royal Palace.

Grin finally understood.

Those instances where her Favorability rose only to immediately plummet weren’t errors. They were Dolores’s attempts at self-rescue after seeing the System’s Favorability levels.

Back then in the Flower Garden, her violent reaction of knocking things over occurred because her Favorability had moved up a stage, reaching **[Familiar Stage]**.

When she had inexplicably told him to leave in front of the university, it was when her Favorability had reached **[Trust]**.

In the Royal Palace, her intense reactions and those hateful words might not have been the “nonsense” he later interpreted them to be. Instead, they were born from the fear of losing her self-awareness after seeing the **[System]**, which led to her feeling dread and disgust toward him.

He recalled his thought from not long ago — why the real Dolores’s reactions didn’t match the stages the System showed.

If Dolores could see the **[System]** from the start, it all made sense. Because she knew, she would “resist.”

‘I… I really am an idiot.’

Such obvious clues and answers were right in front of him, yet he had tried to explain them away with lame excuses.

No… it was more accurate to say the true answer was the most difficult to believe. Given what the **[System]** displayed, Grin felt that nothing short of a God could possess such power.

Perhaps it came from a God, or as Grin had initially thought, from a Demon. But now he had to add a condition: it had to be a Demon capable of rivalling a God.

It was hard to understand how Dolores could know about such a terrifying power, let alone seem to know it inside and out. It was like an ordinary person saying, “I understand the thoughts of God.” It sounded absurd and ridiculous.

So, why did the Dolores in his memories hide this and refuse to tell him?

She could have confessed this to him the first time they met. If she had, he could have completely given up on using the System on her.

Even the real-world Dolores might have been accepted by him if she had been direct. Grin could see from the details that Dolores was a kind child.

Previously, Grin had wanted to deceive himself into using the System with a clear conscience, so he had extrapolated backward from the eventual betrayal, trying to find evidence that “Dolores had ulterior motives from the start.”

But… had the real Dolores truly never struggled?

Suddenly, a scene flashed through Grin’s memory. By the side of the Hollow, Dolores had asked him a strange question.

“If someone hurt you, and then one day she told you she was another person but knew the motives for hurting you, would you believe her words?”

At that time, Dolores had said those strange words and then chatted with Grin about his answer regarding revenge.

What was Grin’s answer back then? It was… he wouldn’t forgive her.

Looking back now, it might not just be the memory-Dolores who knew she would backstab him. The real Dolores also knew that her future self would commit that betrayal.

It was likely that the moment Dolores saw the **[System]** on him, she already knew he was the Grin who had been reborn after being backstabbed.

The real Dolores didn’t seem to have been reborn with him like the memory-Dolores had, as she was far too naive. Instead, she was like the Dolores from the very beginning of his previous life.

There was no major difference between the two.

The biggest difference was simply that the Grin of the previous life didn’t have a system, while the Grin of this life did and had experienced being betrayed by her.

Had the Dolores of this life known he had been betrayed by her the moment she saw his **[System]**? Was that why she had asked him such a roundabout question?

Then, based on Grin’s reply, the real Dolores felt that even if she confessed, she wouldn’t be forgiven, so she continued to hide it.

After all, his answer had been that he wouldn’t forgive.

So, in the eyes of the current Dolores, was killing him her only form of “self-rescue”?

Grin had confirmed Dolores’s love through her actions and the “sincere” liking required by the System’s Favorability Task. This “sincere” requirement was the key.

Given that she knew about the **[System]**, if the memory-Dolores hadn’t helped, Grin probably would never have been able to complete this task in his entire life.

So… what was the memory-Dolores trying to achieve by deliberately plotting to “kill” her real-world self?

She had anticipated everything that was happening now. She knew her real self would resist because of the System he carried, and she knew it might all be a misunderstanding. Yet, she chose to guide him to do the things that would kill her.

Thinking of this, Grin felt a dull ache in his chest. If that were the case, everything he had done to the real Dolores… was extremely cruel.

Grin felt that once he got out, he should confess everything to the current Dolores. He needed to seek her forgiveness and hear the reason from her own lips.

Things wouldn’t be that simple. If reaching 100 Favorability wasn’t synonymous with the “killing” effect as Grin understood it, then the memory-Dolores wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to deceive him, and the real Dolores wouldn’t be so resistant.

He had done wrong, but there was still a chance to make amends.

Finally, pain returned to his senses.

It was time to return to reality. He would likely wake up in a pile of monsters.

There was a thick scent of blood and a foul stench. Grin moved his fingers and propped up his broken body to look around.

He found that he was indeed on a pile of monster corpses. He was also in an unstable area, with the Great Hollow right beneath him…

Suddenly, a blurry shadow appeared before him. Grin discovered to his horror that he was so heavily injured that he had no strength left to use.

Was he going to die here in disgrace just after he had finally figured everything out?

The shadow drew closer.

As it approached, Grin realized the figure moved slowly and was quite petite — like a young girl.

The figure reached him, and Grin finally saw her face clearly.

“Viseliane…?”

It was her, the purple-haired, purple-eyed Elf. However, she was covered in blood, and her aura was extremely erratic.

Hearing Grin’s voice and seeing his face, Viseliane suddenly burst into tears.

“I’m sorry… Master Grin… I…”

“I… I finally found you…”

Viseliane collapsed into Grin’s arms. Being more severely injured than she was, Grin didn’t even have the strength to push her away.

He couldn’t understand why she was here.

But at least she hadn’t come to kill him. That was enough…

He was truly weak right now…