Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou deshita? ~ Tensei Chokugo wa Donzoko Sutāto, Demo Ban'nō Mahō de Gyakuten Jinsei o Jōshō-chū! - Chapter 23.1 - Roundtable Meeting (1)

“My only regret was.. living like a puppet for my sister!”Olivia Witherland had no one but her sister in this world. So when her sister Oriana married the duke of Aykroyd and became the duchess, she had no choice but to follow her there. Despite knowing that her sister had killed the previous duchess and going to harm the child left behind, she kept her eyes closed. But when the child grew up as Demon,he killed everyone including her and the innocent kids, Oriana gave birth to.Olivia regretted that her silence had harmed not only Damon but her innocent nephew and niece. Everyone was killed, but the killer lived a hollow life too.But fate gave her a second chance. Would she be able to save everyone or would destiny play a cruel game again?

The daughter of a duke, the stuttering Maximilian, married a knight of lowly status at her father’s coercion.

Zane was just a working-class adult with a passion for one thing—Cursed Bloodline Online, the once-revolutionary game that had faded into obscurity. After six long years of grinding, he was finally on the verge of ascension—until everything changed.His bloodline suddenly reset.The world itself changed immediately after.And without warning, everyone between the ages of sixteen to thirty vanished—pulled into the game’s world.Now trapped in the Realm of Bloodlines, Zane finds himself different from the others. While most awaken standard paths to power, he inherits a hidden Bloodline Class—the Cursed Bloodline of the Vampire Progenitor, the same bloodline that mysteriously appeared on his account just moments before the transfer.Alone, hunted, and feared as one of the last of a forgotten, despised race, Zane must fight to survive. To grow stronger before the world turns on him. To uncover the secrets of his cursed identity. And to discover what force brought them all into this deadly game.Slowly but surely, he forgets himself from the past, overtaken by the life of the body he now inhabits and the mysteries that surround it, becoming the very thing that caused the gods to curse his race in the first place.

"There was a time in my life where I struggled to breathe. A time where I felt suffocated everyday, but then I met you."

-Turning the gears of fate.

A drop of ink can penetrate the walls, even the walls you took too long to build.

After losing her first love due to a traffic accident, Ibuki Sumire transfers to Tokyo. She wanted to escape, to run away from everything that happened. To start over in a place that didn't have him. But a series of clues lead her to investigating the case behind the accident.

In that place she learns about the masks people wear. The masks people wear to disgui se their feelings. Sometimes you have to look past what you see on the surface.

There she meets him, the person who helps her move forward. But Sumire quickly learns how alike they are. His cold personality is different than the kindness she is used to. However, he is the only one who understands her feelings.

It keeps going around in circles, like a drop of paint. Round and round - an endless stream of pain and lies. But, that stream ended the moment she laid her eyes on his paintings.

Such rich and vibrant colors, it felt like his emotions exploded. Yet, in the corner of his studio, she found it. The real him, a sakura painting of two people walking hand in hand.

A gentle and sweet feeling, something she has never felt before.

[Commissioned Cover by: Vatarison]