For the remaining half-month, Lucian did everything he possibly could, making full use of every last moment before his departure.
He helped Castorice, who had been adopted by the Queen of Styxia, allowing her to fully regain her complete power as a Death Titan. At the same time, he also assisted Cerydra by creating replicas of the Chrysos Heirs, just as he had promised, using them as sacrifices so that she could successfully ascend as the Demigod of Law.
Thanks to all that, Cerydra and the other Chrysos Heirs now placed immense trust in him, to the point that they repeatedly insisted on forming an alliance with him and signing some sort of long-term pact to deepen their cooperation.
Now, there was only Flame-Chase, with no Era Nova.
He also used BGM to designate a specific song as its background music, personally arranging for Styxia and Okhema to broadcast it throughout the cities whenever the black tide appeared, ensuring absolute safety and preventing unexpected accidents from occurring.
At last, when the final day before departing from the script world finally arrived, he spent the entire night with Hysilens, holding nothing back as the two of them completely unleashed their love and longing for each other without the slightest restraint.
===
Lucian's Residence, Early Morning.
Inside the main bedroom, faint morning light filtered quietly through the carved window lattice, illuminating the wet stains scattered across the messy, crumpled bedsheets and the clothes carelessly tossed across the floor.
Lying on the bed, Lucian, bare-chested, slowly opened his eyes and glanced to his right, where Hysilens, without a single piece of cloth covering her beautiful body, curled up quietly in his arms, sleeping deeply.
Her black hair spread loosely across the pillow in slight disarray, several strands clinging faintly to her flushed cheeks. Her long lashes rested quietly over her closed eyes, and the corners of her lips still carried a trace of satisfied ease and lingering laziness, showing that last night's farewell seemed to have completely exhausted all her strength.
Her warm, soft body pressed closely against his without the slightest distance between them, the lingering warmth from their intimacy still clearly remaining.
Her breathing was slow and even, carrying a faint sweetness beside his ear.
Lucian silently watched Hysilens for a long while with a deep, complicated gaze before slowly reaching out and gently brushing aside the strands of hair on her cheek—his fingertips carefully traced across her smooth forehead, slid along her elegant, straight nose bridge, and finally lingered on her slightly swollen, reddened lips, softly brushing against them once as though trying to memorize their warmth.
"Mm..."
Hysilens let out a soft, unconscious murmur before instinctively burrowing even closer into his arms, lightly rubbing against his chest, and, seemingly having found a more comfortable position, quickly falling back into a deep sleep.
Seeing this scene, a faint, helpless curve slowly rose at the corner of Lucian's mouth as he carefully and cautiously withdrew his arm from beneath her neck, every movement light and gentle, making almost no sound at all, as though afraid of waking her.
Immediately afterward, he slowly sat up, and after remaining silent for a while, he lowered his gaze and cast one final look at her sleeping face with a complex expression tinged with reluctance—yet more than that, it carried an indescribable firmness and resolve.
"..."
As silence filled the room, a few moments later, an extremely faint ripple of space quietly spread around Lucian.
Like still water disturbed by an invisible force, silent and unseen, the surrounding space distorted slightly. Beneath the faint morning light, his figure gradually faded like an illusion before slowly dissipating completely and vanishing without a trace.
By the pillow, on the slightly messy bed, only the shallow indentation where he had lain remained, along with the lingering warmth and faint scent he had left behind.
Hysilens, seeming to sense something in her sleep, had her lashes tremble uneasily twice while her delicate brows knitted together slightly.
Drowsily, she reached toward the empty space beside her, trying to find that familiar warm embrace again, but sadly, her fingertips touched nothing except the slightly cool bedsheets.
In the next instant, she suddenly jolted awake.
"Lucian...?"
Hysilens slowly pushed herself upright and looked around the room, only to discover that it was completely empty, with only herself left behind in the silence.
Lucian's scent and lingering presence still faintly remained in the air, drifting around her like an illusion that had yet to fully fade, yet his figure was nowhere to be seen, as though he had never existed here at all.
"Lucian!"
Hysilens called out in panic, her trembling voice carrying an uncontrollable trace of fear and anxiety.
Barefoot, she hurriedly threw off the blanket and stumbled out of bed without caring about her naked appearance in the slightest.
Her pale feet stepped against the cold floor as she rushed through every room in the mansion, frantically pushing open door after door while desperately searching for even the faintest sign of him.
The bathroom was empty.
The living room was empty.
The other bedrooms were empty as well.
Even the courtyard outside remained deathly quiet, with only the rustling sound of wind brushing through the leaves echoing softly in the air.
Clearly, he was no longer in the mansion—or perhaps he was no longer in this world at all.
Still, one thing was certain: Lucian had left just like this, silently and without warning, exactly as suddenly as when he had first appeared before her.
Hysilens stood motionlessly in the middle of the courtyard, her lonely figure appearing especially desolate beneath the morning sunlight.
Warm golden rays poured down onto her exposed body, yet she could not feel even the slightest trace of warmth from them, only a hollow emptiness that continuously spread outward from deep within her chest, as though something important had been forcefully torn away from her.
And yet, the warmth that had tightly pressed against her body just last night strangely still seemed to linger upon her skin, refusing to completely disappear.
'Clearly... I had already prepared myself for this... but once he truly left...'
At this moment, Hysilens finally realized that all those so-called mental preparations had been no different from comforting herself with empty words. No matter how much she had tried to accept it beforehand, she still could not stop herself from feeling restless and unwilling to let him go.
'You must also have been unwilling to part from me, right? That's why you quietly slipped away without telling me...'
Tears slowly slid down from Hysilens's eyes as she lowered her head, her long black hair falling forward and obscuring her expression.
Her slender shoulders trembled faintly in the quiet courtyard, but in the very next moment, she suddenly gritted her teeth and raised her head once more, a firm and determined look gradually appearing within her eyes.
'Don't worry... I promise I will protect this world and wait for your return.'
Just like that, the memories came to an end, and the script concluded.
[Script: Hysilens, complete.]
===
Herta Space Station, Lucian's Room.
On the familiar large bed, Lucian slowly opened his eyes, a faint sense of dizziness washing over him, like the subtle pressure shift one experiences after surfacing from deep water.
Gradually, his consciousness cleared, and in the next instant, the familiar metallic ceiling once again entered his view.
At the same time, a strangely faint floral fragrance lingering in the air quietly drifted into his nose, carrying with it a trace of softness that felt somewhat out of place within the cold, metallic environment of the space station.
Evidently, he had already returned to his chosen room aboard Herta Space Station.
"If only every script only had two conditions..."
Lucian muttered softly to himself.
Even now, he was still lying on the bed in the exact same position he had been in when he left the real world for the script world, as though not even a single moment had passed during his absence.
After remaining absent-minded for a while, he finally let out a low sigh before raising his hand and opening the System panel to check Hysilens's status.
...
[Host: Lucian]
[Ability: Disarm, Absolute Hit, Godly Bandage, Immortal Kneel, Sham Diviner, BGM, Law of Calamity, River God]
[Follower: Tribios 1, Mortis 1, Feixiao 1, Yueyu 1, Castorice 1, Polyxia 1, Jingliu 1, Baiheng 1, Fu Xuan 1, Robin 1, Serfina 1, Acheron 1, Izumo's Guardians 12/12, Hysilens 1]
[Script: 0]
...
Finally, the moment Lucian saw the '1' after Hysilens's name, he let out a small breath of relief.
As he had suspected, she had not actually died and had simply sunk herself into oblivion, which was a good thing, saving him the trouble and the aching feeling that came with reviving her.
He only hoped that she still remembered what he had told her about all of his conceptual abilities.
Lucian took a deep breath, closed the System panel, and sat up, but in that instant, he paused as his gaze fell upon the chair by the window.
Curled up on the chair was a slender figure.
It was none other than Asta.
A book rested loosely in her hand as she tilted her head and leaned against the soft backrest while sleeping. Gentle starlight streamed through the observation window, spilling over her sleeping figure and outlining her delicate silhouette. Her pink hair was slightly messy, while her long lashes cast faint shadows beneath her eyes.
Evidently, she was sleeping very deeply—so deeply that even when Lucian casually approached her without making any effort to muffle the sound of his footsteps, she was not startled awake.
Gazing at the sleeping Asta, Lucian frowned slightly, thinking that this little rich lady really did not know how to take care of herself.
In the next moment, he softened his steps and took a light, soft blanket from the bed before unfolding it and carefully draping it over her. From her shoulders down to her waist, he gently tucked in the edges to keep it from slipping off.
However, just as the blanket settled over her, Asta's long lashes trembled slightly before she let out a soft murmur and drowsily opened her eyes.
Her gaze was hazy with sleep, carrying the confusion of someone who had only just woken up, and then, as she blinked her dazed eyes a few times, her focus gradually sharpened.
Soon enough, the first thing she saw was a handsome face right in front of her, leaning over her with one hand pressed lightly against the blanket covering her shoulder—their distance was extremely close, close enough for her to clearly see his lowered lashes and straight nose bridge, as well as feel his warm breath lightly brushing against her cheek.
"Ah!"
Like a startled rabbit, Asta woke up instantly, her delicate body trembling slightly as she hurriedly shrank back against the sofa.
"M-Mr. Lucian, when did you get back?!"
As she spoke, her face flushed bright red at a speed visible to the naked eye, the heat rapidly spreading all the way to the tips of her ears.
Almost instinctively, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself, clutching it protectively against her chest. Her slender fingers curled firmly into the soft fabric, while her heartbeat pounded wildly in her ears, loud and clear within the quiet room.
'Oh no, he was leaning so close just now… Was he covering me with this blanket?'
Asta's thoughts instantly descended into complete chaos.
'But that was way too close… and I just had to open my eyes at that exact moment... that's way too embarrassing...'
In all her life, the only man who had ever been this close to her face was her father, and no one else.
Seeing Asta's completely flustered reaction, Lucian, finding it a little amusing, slowly straightened up and casually took a step back, giving her a bit more space.
"I just got back, but when I saw you sleeping here, I didn't want you to catch a cold, so..."
Lucian paused briefly before raising a hand and lightly pointing at the blanket wrapped around her.
"Don't sleep here next time. It's too easy to get sick."
Even though his tone carried a faint hint of reproach, the concern hidden underneath it was even more obvious.
Hearing those words, Asta lowered her head slightly, her fingers unconsciously twisting the soft edge of the blanket as a warm, sweet feeling quietly spread through her chest, mixing together with her embarrassment and shyness.
"I-I was just reading for a bit and waiting for you to come back…" Asta explained softly in a small voice, as though she had genuinely done something wrong. "I accidentally fell asleep…"
As she explained, she did not even dare to raise her head and look directly at him.
"Mm, just be more careful next time."
Lucian responded with a faint smile, his gaze drifting toward her ears, which were already red all the way to the tips.
"Um… Th-Thank you for your concern…"
Asta nodded shyly, lowering her gaze toward the floor as her fingers unconsciously tightened slightly at her sides.
Honestly, she did not know what had come over her.
From childhood to adulthood, she had met countless people from all kinds of social classes. Nobles, influential figures, wealthy merchants—she had spoken with all of them before, even giving speeches in front of large crowds with complete ease, always carrying herself with confidence and composure.
Yet now, under Lucian's calm gaze alone, she had somehow become awkward and shy, acting almost like an innocent little girl.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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