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Chapter 17: The fire in the script

Chapter 17: The fire in the script

Lathel sat beside the bed, his eyes still fixed on the glowing panel hovering before him.

Leviana had fallen into deep sleep. The room was quiet enough that he could hear her steady breathing, but right now Lathel was in no mood to check the medicine supply or tidy the small items on the table the way he usually did.

After the line [EVENT: THE FIRE], the notification panel’s content had changed.

For the first time in over ten years, the thing calling itself a System was truly letting him see a portion of the story he was living inside.

Lathel read each line very slowly.

[Central character of the event: Aldric.]

[Identity: Male lead.]

Seeing those last two words, Lathel paused slightly.

Aldric was the male lead?

He wasn’t too surprised.

From childhood, this brother of his in name had been different from everyone around him. Exceptional magical talent, a family’s love, good opportunities that always seemed to find him on their own, and even the most difficult elders believed the family’s future would rest in Aldric’s hands.

If this world truly was a story, Aldric did indeed resemble a protagonist.

Lathel continued reading.

But only a few lines later, the composure on his face began to fade.

[According to the original script trajectory, Aldric will order someone to set fire to the room where Leviana is convalescing.]

Lathel raised his head.

His eyes immediately turned to the woman lying on the bed.

Then back to the panel.

[Lathel will die in the fire.]

The hand resting on his knee tightened slightly.

He didn’t linger too long on that line and continued reading.

[After Lathel’s death, Aldric will use the pretext of rescuing Leviana from the fire to secretly remove her from the estate.]

[Under the guidance of the spirit residing within his ring, Aldric will use a special secret art to separate Leviana’s Magic Veins from her body.]

Lathel frowned.

Magic veins?

He didn’t know a great deal about this field, but he understood what it meant for a mage.

Once magic veins were destroyed, a mage lost virtually their entire future.

And ripping them out of the body...

Lathel had never heard of such magic.

The glowing panel continued displaying text.

[Leviana’s Ice Magic Veins will become the first foundation for Aldric’s path of plunder.]

[Afterward, Aldric will successively steal the Magic Veins, bloodlines, and talents of various other geniuses, step by step perfecting his own body.]

[In the future, he will become one of the existences standing at the pinnacle of the world.]

Lathel finished reading.

For a long time, he didn’t move.

He looked at Leviana.

She lay very still, her hair spread across the pillow, completely unaware that the few lines of text before Lathel had just described her future.

At least, Lathel assumed she didn’t know.

He looked again at the first line.

[Aldric — Male lead.]

A strange feeling surfaced inside him.

Lathel had read novels back when he was still on Earth. Not many, since most of his time had been spent working, but in the stories he’d known, the protagonist was usually the one who saved people, fought the villains, and eventually received a good ending.

Aldric was the complete opposite.

Lathel thought for a while, then tried asking a question in his mind.

’System.’

The glowing panel trembled faintly.

Lathel was mildly surprised.

It actually responded.

He continued:

’Aldric is the male lead?’

[Correct.]

’He’s going to deliberately set this room on fire, kill me, and then steal Leviana’s magic veins?’

[According to the current script content: Correct.]

Lathel’s frown deepened.

’Is there a mistake?’

The System didn’t respond right away.

He thought for a moment, then rephrased.

’Isn’t the male lead supposed to be a good person?’

This time the panel quickly displayed an answer.

[The Observer’s judgment does not align with the genre’s design parameters.]

Lathel: ’...’

A new line appeared.

[Aldric belongs to the Dark Fantasy Male Lead archetype.]

[Character traits: Selfish, greedy, extreme, views others as tools for growth.]

[Morality is not a prerequisite for being a protagonist.]

Lathel stared at those three lines for a very long time.

He didn’t know how to argue.

’Novels have gotten this strange?’

The System didn’t answer that question.

Lathel didn’t continue the debate either. What he cared about right now was something far more important.

’When will the fire happen?’

The panel went silent.

’Tonight?’

No response.

’Tomorrow?’

Still no answer.

Lathel tried asking the location where the arsonist would appear, how the fire would be started, even the identity of the one carrying it out. The System kept displaying the same old text, as though the newly awakened function only allowed him to see the exact portion of the script that had already been shown.

After a while, Lathel gave up.

He leaned back in the chair and lowered his head to think.

What if he told someone else about this?

Lathel arrived at the answer almost immediately.

No one would believe him.

Aldric was the family’s biological son, the genius everyone placed their hopes on. Lathel was just an adopted child who had lost his value long ago, someone even servants could look down on.

If he held up a board claiming Aldric was planning to set a fire to kill him and steal Leviana’s magic veins, the most likely outcome was that the reader would assume he was jealous of Aldric.

Worse still, it might reach Aldric’s ears.

Then the future would change in ways Lathel couldn’t predict at all.

He looked at Leviana.

Take her away from here?

The thought had barely formed before Lathel dismissed it himself.

Leviana had only just woken after years of being motionless, and she spent most of each day asleep. Even moving her from this room to another required a healer’s and the responsible parties’ approval. With Lathel’s status, he couldn’t simply pick her up and carry her off without explaining why.

And his reason was a System panel no one else could see.

Lathel was silent for a long time.

Then he slowly let out a breath.

’Then the only option is to stand watch.’

At least he knew it would happen in this room.

As long as he stayed here, he could spot anyone suspicious before the fire actually ignited.

Lathel wasn’t particularly afraid of dying.

He had died once before.

Since reincarnating into this world, he had never considered his own life especially more precious than anyone else’s.

But...

His gaze fell on Leviana’s face.

If the content was real, after he died, Aldric would take her away.

Then strip her of her magic veins.

Leviana had only just woken up.

She had lain in that bed for far too long.

Each day she could only see the world for a few hours before sinking back into sleep.

She hadn’t even had the chance to go home and see her parents.

Lathel didn’t know how much pain losing one’s magic veins would cause, but just thinking about the way the System described it was enough to make him unwilling to let Leviana go through that.

Lathel’s hand slowly clenched.

In eyes that had always been gentle, a rare glint of resolve appeared.

’At the very least, this time...’

’I can’t let that happen.’

.....

Night fell quickly.

The entire estate gradually sank into quiet.

Lathel had checked the windows three times.

He had also prepared two large jugs of water, wet towels, a thick blanket, and a few items that might be useful in case of a fire. He didn’t know whether any of it would truly help, but it was still better than sitting and waiting with nothing ready.

Leviana was still asleep.

Lathel didn’t wake her.

He sat in the corner of the room, both hands gripping a wooden staff he’d taken from the supply closet.

If the person who came to start the fire was a powerful mage, this staff would probably be useless.

But it was the only thing Lathel could quickly find without drawing attention.

The magic lamp on the wall cast a faint glow, stretching the shadows of the furniture across the floor. Outside the window there was only darkness, broken now and then by the night wind sweeping through the garden and rustling the leaves.

Lathel sat motionless.

One hour.

Then another.

He didn’t know whether the fire would come tonight or many days from now. The System had only said it was "upcoming content," a concept vague enough that it could mean a few hours, a few days, or even a few weeks.

Lathel still decided to keep watch tonight first.

Tomorrow, when Leviana woke, he could figure out how to move her somewhere else without telling the whole truth.

Suddenly—

There was a sound in the hallway.

Lathel’s head snapped up at once.

Very faint.

Like a shoe lightly touching stone, then quickly stopping.

He gripped the staff tighter.

After a few seconds of hearing nothing more, Lathel slowly rose. He didn’t open the door right away but stepped forward as lightly as he could, trying not to make a single sound.

He pressed his ear to the door.

Silence.

But it was precisely that silence that felt wrong to Lathel.

The hallway outside always had patrol guards at night. Servants would also pass through from time to time, especially in the area where Leviana was resting.

Right now, there was nothing.

Lathel was about to step back when a strange sensation suddenly traveled through the door.

He froze.

Warmth.

At first, just a trace.

But within a few breaths, the temperature inside the room began climbing very fast.

Lathel immediately spun around and scanned the room.

No fire.

The curtains looked normal.

No smoke rising from the floor.

And yet the entire room was growing hotter, as though it had been placed inside an enormous furnace.

’Magic?’

The instant the thought formed, Lathel sprinted toward Leviana.

Right at that moment, the magic stone on the wall that provided light let out a sharp crack.

Lathel looked up.

Glowing red lines rapidly spread across the stone’s surface.

All he managed to do was widen his eyes.

BOOM!

The magic stone exploded.

Countless red-hot fragments sprayed across the room, trailing hundreds of sparks that struck the curtains, the carpet, and every piece of furniture nearby.

Lathel threw himself forward on instinct, shielding Leviana’s bed with his body.

Fire erupted behind him.

Heat flooded the room in an instant.

Only then did Lathel realize a very simple mistake.

He had prepared for everything the way a person who once lived on Earth would handle a fire.

But this was a world with magic.

And the person who wanted to kill him would naturally use magic too.