The True Ending

5 | To Be Wed [5]

Seraina, who was attempting to act like the original character, stayed behind Asher with a shy expression, though in reality, she was thinking over things in her mind. In the digital realm, a quarrel had arisen between the Main System and an individual who had grown too covetous and sought to take over its position as the ruler of the systems.

During the war, many systems were shut down - essentially losing their lives - and left Hosts with no one to guide them to their next mission worlds, leaving them stranded in the digital realm. Before its shutdown, Seraina's system used the last of its energy to send her to the next world. And just when Seraina was being sent there, the explosion happened, and she didn't know what happened after that.

In the end, she entered this world with no direction and no idea of the plot. Plus, she had to figure things out as she went. The only purpose she had now was to find the Plotter and correct the plot before it got too out of hand. And then somehow return to the digital realm to assess the situation and help her system, if that was still possible.

She had only been in her late teens when she was brought to the digital realm and everything she learnt there was taught by the system. It had been with her through countless worlds, helped with tasks and saved her life when things got dangerous. The system was not just an assistant; it had grown to be her close friend. She would do anything to help the system as it did her.

Going back to the present, she raised her eyes to look at the back of Asher's head and warmth seeped into her heart. It had been a long time since she had experienced his love and care, and while the days had been spent going over negative memories, the ones now were happier.

If there was a Plotter here, then Asher could be a possibility, but so could Callen. After all, they were both so alike the ones from the original world that it made sense that they could've come to this world just like she did. Yet, she couldn't be certain until she knew what the whole plot of this novel was. The same as she didn't know if they were both the people that she had known for a long time.

Sensing her gaze, Asher looked back and gave a reassuring look and squeezed the smaller hand in his. Then he turned back to Callen and refused to move from in front of her, which angered the sickly man more.

Asher had left the original world around the same time as Seraina, to follow her and protect her in all the novels she went to. At first, it was as a silent protector: just changing the plot here and there to make sure she didn't get hurt and ensuring that the plot was completed without any complications. But as time went on, and they entered more and more worlds, the difficulty increased and the tasks got harder. So he chose characters that were close to Seraina, so he could be by her side.

Like he did with this world. Though something had changed with this one. Callen, who had never appeared before, was here and although he didn't know if he was the original one, it still left him confused. There wasn't much time to dwell on it due to the plot starting and Seraina joining the family, which brought them to this point today.

From what he knew of the plot, Seraina had been dumped on Callen's family doorstep with the agreement that they would marry later down the line, and Seraina had no say in it.

At the start, Seraina's parents were kind and amiable people who loved their daughter, but when their eldest daughter returned from school for the holidays, something changed. The parents who once loved their youngest so much suddenly turned cold towards her and when Callen's family proposed, offering a large sum of money if they agreed, they abandoned her at the first opportunity.

Not much was said about the older sister except that when the younger one was born, she was sent away to a boarding school on the other side of the city. Feeling pushed out and fueled with jealousy, the older sister waited until now the school's graduation to come home to do something about Seraina, who took her place. There wasn't much basis for why she felt this way: her parents always included the older sister whenever possible, and would visit her every holiday, but that wasn't enough for her when the sight of the younger one deepened the resentment.

When the sister returned home, she started by pretending to be the best role model she could be for Seraina, then slowly poisoned the parents against her. The Callen family proposal came at the right time and it didn't take to convince them to accept it. Seraina just wanted to be like her older sister and for the sister to look her way, however, even when the parents drove away, the older sister never turned back.

The early days at the mansion weren't that bad. Seraina was introduced to the staff and spent time 'cultivating feelings' with the young master of the house. And as they grew older, his parents had their own business to attend to, and though they were nice to Seraina, they were neglectful in a way. They had no extra room in their minds to take care of the parentless girl.

And as they got older, Callen's health declined, and he could still attend work, but he still had to be careful and not overstrain himself. Then there was Asher, Callen's closest friend, who would often visit the house and, in that time, struck up a friendship with Seraina. Of course, this was an innocent friendship, but the jealous Callen grew frustrated and tried to keep them apart.

It was later that Callen met Seraina's older sister, Araia, while out on business, and without knowing the relationship between the two sisters, befriended the woman, who was the total opposite of his fiancee. And this was when the plot took a nosedive, and everything changed for the worse.