Dolores acted like someone who had completely lost her cool.
Indeed, how could anyone remain calm in a situation like this?
How could Green possibly know she could see the System? What channel, what qualification, or what possibility did he have to know such a thing?
Could he read minds? That was impossible. At most, that could only be used on the Strategy Characters within memories. If it could be used in the real world, Green wouldn’t have been so wretched in the game during his second life.
This was the final straw that broke Dolores.
Who was Dolores? She was a Transmigrator, one of the creators of the game.
She should have been proud or willful because she believed her situation was the template of a protagonist, even if she rarely allowed herself to think that way.
But these feelings inevitably existed, hidden deep in her heart by her subconscious.
This was pride.
And Green, no matter how one looked at it, was just a game character — be it the protagonist, the so-called Hero, or the King.
Yet, in this relationship between the invisible superior “author” and the inferior “character,” Dolores had always been the one looking wretched. In the week or so since she had arrived in this world, she had achieved nothing in this game world she had helped create.
It hadn’t been obvious while Viseliane was still around, but after Viseliane left, she suddenly realized she had nothing.
No strength, no magic, and no skills.
No power or influence. Aside from Viseliane, she had no so-called subordinates or confidants to call her own.
No intelligence, and no way to obtain the information she wanted, because that part was still being handled by Viseliane on her behalf.
Viseliane’s reliability only served to emphasize the incompetence of Dolores, the “superior” Transmigrator.
After realizing the truth of her situation, Dolores’s state of mind was already poor, even hovering on the edge of despair.
Viseliane’s ordeal made Dolores’s mental state even worse, driving her toward extremes.
Even when she first saw Green just now, Dolores hadn’t thought about the System at all.
Perhaps an instinctive avoidance made her ignore that glaring **[90 (Like)]**, but she couldn’t hide from it forever. Green’s words were what truly stabbed Dolores’s heart, the final straw that crushed her sanity.
What did this mean? Green wasn’t a fool; he knew about her uniqueness but hadn’t exposed it. Didn’t that mean he had been playing along with her the entire time?
Now, Green occupied the position Dolores had once smugly assumed for herself.
‘Ah, I am a Transmigrator. I know many things. Although I haven’t said it explicitly, I feel like I’m a character like the protagonist. Therefore, I can watch events unfold from a very special, haughty perspective. Like watching someone else perform.’
But the roles were reversed.
Dolores was the one acting like a character in someone else’s play.
This was something Dolores didn’t want to recall, because once she started thinking about it, she would realize it was her own fig leaf.
Green had power and a System. He could kill monsters, carried various items, and possessed all sorts of knowledge.
So, what about Dolores herself?
Aside from the original owner’s identity as a Princess and a bit of prophetic Transmigrator knowledge, she had nothing. She had a weak body, a half-baked understanding of this world, and nothing but expensive, useless ornaments on her person.
Her heart quickly grew dim, mirroring her eyes in Green’s sight, even as she continued to speak in an angry voice.
But her heart had already begun to ache for her own misery long before the words stopped.
“Viseliane!! Calm down, things aren’t what you think!”
Green loudly interrupted Dolores’s words and actions. He could see that Dolores had been provoked by his words, letting her thoughts run wild until her mindset collapsed.
But things were not as she imagined.
“Then what is it?! If you know I can see your System, then haven’t you seen my ridiculous and laughable reactions? Haven’t you seen my absurd performance after you increased my Affection Level?!”
“You clearly know! I was struggling, terrified of being forced to feel ‘Like’ for someone who used a System to tamper with my consciousness! Could you not see my struggle?! Could you not see it?!” Dolores continued to roar.
Green’s mind was momentarily dazed by her angry words, for he had never imagined that Dolores’s voice could piece together such furious sentences and direct them at him.
However, he truly hadn’t known this before. It was only because the Dolores in the memories had given him a clue that he was able to logically piece together the causes and reasons behind her various abnormalities.
Dolores was clearly misunderstood on this point. Although Green hadn’t known from the start as she thought, he also knew how devastating it would be for the person involved if such a thing were true.
Dolores was clearly in a state of nearly breaking; this matter had obviously dealt her a massive blow.
For the first time, Green felt that Dolores was being a bit “noisy.”
So.
Green reached out and covered Dolores’s mouth, while his other hand grabbed both of her hands.
With a height difference of nearly sixty centimeters, Dolores was no different from a child in Green’s hands.
He had to make her stop talking; otherwise, what Dolores was doing wouldn’t be “venting” anymore, but “self-destructing.”
Green did not want to see such a situation.
“Listen, Dolores. I only found out about this a few hours ago. Since you know about the System, then when you first saw me, you must have also known what I went through to end up here, right? You know it’s because you once killed me that I died.”
Dolores’s struggling movements stopped instantly. She wanted to argue that the one who killed Green wasn’t her; she was clearly just a Transmigrator.
She had been in this world for less than ten days. The one who killed Green was only the so-called previous life, the real, original Dolores.
They were two different people.
Thinking this, Dolores subconsciously looked up and saw Green’s eyes. His black eyes did not hold the hatred she expected.
Dolores had always believed that Green had every reason to harbor hatred for her.
But.
Dolores did not see that natural hatred in Green’s eyes. Instead, his expression was complex, resembling pity and guilt.
Why… why was he looking at her with such an expression?
“I know you once asked me whether I would forgive a betrayer. I only realized recently that you were indirectly asking if I would forgive you.”
“Because you knew that the version of me standing before you appeared with the hatred of having been killed by you.”
“I said in that answer that I wouldn’t forgive, because the past you told me countless times never to forgive the children who hurt me.”
“That isn’t a thought I will hold onto forever. When I realized that you are Dolores, yet not the Dolores who betrayed me, but an independent person, I should have understood that I shouldn’t take my revenge out on you.”
“The one who hurt me wasn’t you. Even though you knew my purpose, you didn’t choose to kick me while I was down during my moments of peril. It’s because you possess a kind heart, isn’t it?”
“You had several opportunities to kick me while I was down when I was in a bad state — in the Hollow, when I was surrounded by the soldiers who betrayed me… I know you didn’t use those chances to kill me.”
Green could feel that the Dolores he was holding had gradually calmed down. Her eyes regained their clarity, but tears quietly began to flow again.
“I know I shouldn’t forgive betrayal, but you have never betrayed me, so — “
Green released his hand from Dolores’s mouth. She didn’t cry out anymore, merely leaning her small, light body against Green’s large palm for support.
Her tiny body was like that of a kitten.
Green paused, a hesitant expression appearing on his face, as if the next words were too important.
“Dolores, you never needed my forgiveness.”
“The one who has been doing wrong all along is me, so…”
“I’m sorry, Dolores.”
Tears gradually rolled down the girl’s cheeks.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out…