Eldritch Guidance - Chapter 44: Into the Fire

A world with magic, mythical creatures, mystical herbs, labyrinths, and treasures.A world where the strongest adventurers get to be the ones to enjoy fame and riches.A world where various rankings decide your worth.This is the world where Shye Crowley and his sister were born.As the children of two fairly known diamond-ranked adventurers, Shye and his sister, Maia, enjoyed a prosperous lifestyle.Unfortunately, after departing for a mithril-ranked quest in hopes of ranking up, their parents couldn’t return.Years passed and life went downhill fast for the siblings.Fortunately, a fateful encounter bestows him a system that could change their fate.

Blue sky, white clouds, lazily lying on the beach, while feeling the gentle breeze coming from the sea. Hounds at the side with marine animals chasing each other around. Cups of unrivaled wine from his personal winery with cuts of prime A grade steaks readily around. For others, life is all about pursuing money, power, and fame, but for Jiang Hai, this type of lifestyle is what he constantly dreamed of.

- Description from Novelupdates

(Third Person Limited PoV.)Betrayed by his fiancée, mocked by his siblings, and disowned by his family—that was Lev’s fate.Even when he regained memories of his life on Earth, where he realized that his world was strikingly similar to his favorite novel, it still didn’t help him change anything.How could it be?Because the protagonist of the story had already achieved his happy ending—gaining a beautiful wife and living a blissful life. Meanwhile, the world continued to move forward.What do people usually do with a novel that has ended? They tend to stop caring about the world within it, even if it falls into ruin, especially if the novel isn’t particularly popular.The world Lev Razanov lived in shared a similar fate—it was destroyed.[Hero’s System successfully installed.][Critical condition detected.][Do you wish to return to the past?]Lev was given a chance to return to a time when the story of his favorite novel had just begun.Although he was destined to become an extra villain—a pawn of the pawns serving the real villain, he vowed to end the lives of anyone who had caused him suffering: his siblings, his fiancée, the main character, or anyone else.[Hero’s System inherits your desire from your life on Earth—the desire to do good.]“Who said killing your enemies is an evil act?”

I never expected my life to change so drastically. One moment, I was a woman with dreams, deeply in love with a man I thought I’d spend my life with. The next, I was betrayed and heartbroken, walking in on him cheating without a hint of remorse.That night, overwhelmed with pain and too much alcohol, I made a reckless decision, a one-night stand with a stranger who, to my shock, turned out to be my new boss.Arec, the vice president of Denco Groups, was desperate. To secure his future as CEO, he needed a wife, and in a twist of fate, he offered me a contract marriage. It sounded absurd, but his desperation mirrored my own need to escape the wreckage of my life.It was supposed to be simple: no emotions, no strings attached. A business arrangement, nothing more. I thought I could handle it, that I could keep my heart out of it.I was wrong.What started as a deal quickly spiraled into something far more complicated. As our fake marriage blurred into real feelings, the world around us began to close in. Disapproving family, old enemies, buried secrets, scheming rivals, and even an attempt on my life threatened to tear us apart.This is my story, a journey of heartbreak, unexpected love, and a fight to protect what we built together. In a world filled with lies and deceit, can a marriage born out of necessity become something real?---