And here we are later that night.
Moon is lying there realizing absolutely nothing is going the way he planned. He thought he could get his father's help to get stronger, but now the guy is gone. So he has to figure this out completely solo.
For the time being, he is avoiding the academy, since half the people there are closely tied to the main protagonist, which would only make his current situation vastly worse. He needs to master the basics first. Only after that can he actually head out into the world.
He shuts another book, grabs his dark book, and the second he opens it, it holds a perfect record of everything he just read. Actually, he only needs to glance at the cover and flip a few pages to absorb the content. This little artifact is absolutely perfect for fast leveling.
Too bad that right at that exact moment, Anne walks in, acting completely innocent, asking what he is reading.
He brushes her off, asking if she brought him something good to eat. She says yes. He tells her to go easy on him, but she just calmly replies that this is simply part of her duties.
She brought vintage wine. Only one hundred bottles are produced every single year, costing well over two hundred thousand coins.
But he says he is just not in the mood. He is studying, trying to avoid distractions.
The bottle is practically cracking in her tight grip. She asks what he would prefer to drink instead. He requests coffee, to help him stay awake and completely focused, but she replies that they only have wine or black tea.
Strange. That sounds incredibly familiar.
He suddenly pauses, thinking, wait, this feels wrong. She hands over the cup, apologizing and claiming the coffee beans were eaten by rats, so she will fetch fresh ones tomorrow.
Unbelievable. This idiot does not even check the cup. He drinks it, gets hit with a massive shock. The cup shatters against the floor, and his vision instantly goes blurry.
He starts collapsing, asking why she betrayed him.
But she catches him gently, promising she would never ever do that. She tells him to just sleep peacefully. She admits her heart is completely shattered. She loves him so insanely much. So how could he say something like that? He has changed way too much, and now he must be purified with her love. He had better accept it, because they are going to stay together forever, until the world literally ends.
He opens his eyes, and where is he?
You already know the drill. Hands and feet tightly bound to a board. The girl from the prophecy is standing right in front of him. This prophecy curse is totally relentless.
She is already taking off her uniform, muttering that the black market guy never fails.
He tries asking what she is doing, but she immediately shoots back that he knows exactly what she is doing. Then she explains that ten years ago, when he was just eight, she stood closely by his side. From that exact moment on, her entire existence has been entirely for his sake. In return, his existence is now purely for hers.
And right now, she has to fix him, dragging him back onto the right path.
Moon swears he has no idea what she is talking about, begging her to let him go.
But she just gently hushes him. Do not say another word. She will take care of absolutely everything. Head to toe, inside and out. His body, his soul, every scent, every single strand of hair, every drop of blood. All of it belongs to her now.
Well, at least he does not have to worry about impressing his dad anymore. She is permanently taking care of that problem.
You would usually expect a classic twist here. Someone barging right in, ruining the mood. But nope.
Our boy wakes up the next morning with heavy eyes, looking absolutely drained. It happened so many times. He loses consciousness, wakes up right in the middle of it, passes out again, and wakes up once more.
He honestly cannot believe it. The very person who originally reduced Moon to a completely worthless mess, the exact same one who chained him up like this, it was that damn Anne. She took him out in one single hit. Even though he was mentally prepared, it still hurt like absolute hell.
He begs her to stop this madness and let him out of those heavy cuffs. Give him a chance to run.
But she tells him flat out, not a chance. Compared to the long years she spent waiting, his pain is practically nothing.
Dear God. Whoever wrote this world is really skating the edge.
Still, our guy pretends he is in absolute agony, though honestly, he admits the feeling was pretty amazing. Even so, he knows she will actually kill him if this keeps up. He needs to escape right now.
But he is locked in with thick steel cuffs bolted directly into the wall.
Anne just stares and asks what exactly he thinks he is doing. He says his wrists were hurting, and he just wanted a quick stretch.
She tells him it is way too late for that now. There is absolutely nothing she can do about it. She says she will miss him like crazy, but unfortunately she has chores to handle around the huge mansion. Otherwise people might actually start to suspect something. And on top of that, she wonders if maybe it would be better to just eliminate everyone in the house, because he belongs to her now.
That snaps him right out of his daze. He panics and begs her not to do anything crazy like that.
Before finishing getting dressed, she asks if there is any other maid here he might secretly be into. Hopefully not Noel.
He tells her she has completely lost her mind. Nothing is going on with anyone else. She laughs, and promises she will not touch anyone in the house unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
He begs her to just let him go. She cannot seriously be planning to keep him locked in here forever.
Suddenly the magical cuffs click open with a simple snap of her fingers. She just tells him not to try anything completely stupid. The core of this room is a sealed space, reinforced with steel from some tower nobody has ever heard of before. Translation, getting out is basically impossible.
He asks if anyone will find this suspicious, but she says not to worry at all. She told everyone that after hearing his father talk about getting strong, Moon decided to head back to the academy. So nobody is going to question his disappearance for a good while.
And she assures him he does not need to worry about a single thing. She promises to bring three meals a day, just like always. Obviously, you should trust her. She has been doing this for years.
And then, wham, she lands a perfectly clean hit. The guy is left writhing in pain. Honestly, this maid is way past the line now. It is genuinely hard to tell if anyone out there would willingly agree to this level of insanity.
She waves goodbye. He yells out for her, but the door slams shut.
He never could have guessed that out of everyone mentioned in the prophecy, it would actually be her. And every time he talks trash about the situation, the next thing he says is always how good it felt. That much he really cannot deny. The problem is knowing that if this continues, he is not going to survive.
Even though she mentioned some kind of magical ceiling, he decides to try the door anyway. He grabs the handle and pulls with all his strength, but immediately drops right to the floor in pure agony. This entire room is made from solid steel, magically enhanced. There is zero way out.
Finally, the book actually shows up without slapping him in the face this time around.
Moon tells it straight. He has absolutely no chance. This woman holds just as much power and raw potential as Celia herself. Even if he started training now, there is no way he gets strong enough before dying.
But the book just stays wide open, and he figures, all right, he has nothing better to do. He may as well train instead of just moping around.
But then, wait a second. As he opens the book, he realizes the one he read last night held the exact equation to get through this very situation.