Tome of Troubled Times - Chapter 180: Azure Waves Clear Ripples

“I’ll see you on the other side of the stars,” she whispered before breathing her last.

Mimizuku, a small girl with chains on her wrists and ankles and the numbers “332” branded onto her forehead, wanders into the Forest of Night seeking to be eaten by a monster. However, when the ruler of the monsters, the mysterious and beautiful “King of Night,” refuses to eat her, she tries to formulate a way to convince him otherwise.

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

What happens when a scientist from a futuristic world reincarnates in a World of Magic and Knights? An awesome MC is what happens! A scientist’s goal is to explore the secrets of the universe, and this is exactly what Leylin sets out to do when he is reincarnated. Dark, cold and calculating, he makes use of all his resources as he sets off on his adventures to meet his goal. Face? Who needs that… Hmmm… that guy seems too powerful for me to take on now… I better keep a low profile for now. You want me to help you? Sure… but what benefit can I get out of it? Nothing? Bye. Hmmm… that guy looks like he might cause me problems in the future. Should I let him off for now and let him grow into someone that can threaten me….. Nahhh. *kill*-

Alternative: Leylin is transported from an advanced technological era into a medieval world— except there’s magic. Equipped with “only” his quick wits and an A.I. chip fused to his soul, he sets out to become the most powerful magus the world has ever known. In a land divided into the Light and Dark Magi, the weak can either be cattle or disposable slaves. Only the strong can determine their lives, and only they have the luxury for virtue. Yet strength is only a tool for Leylin, like any other. His goal, in the end, is his own.