Ascendance of a Bookworm - Volume 6, Extra 1: Eating in the Temple

[COMPLETE] Can a royal Romeo and Juliet find their happy ending?

Ayleth, Princess of Zenithra, is secretly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and collects swear words she doesn't know how to use. During the Festival of Peace, in which every royal son on the continent will be at the castle for a month, she is instructed by her parents to find a husband. Yet, Ayleth has never even been kissed—until the very first ball, when she meets the man in the Lion mask.

Etan is a seasoned warrior, and the Prince of Summitras. He attends the Festival hoping to find a powerful wife who will help him conquer the dark sorcery of their bloodsworn enemies, the Kingdom of Zenithra. But at the very first ball, he discovers the masked woman who captures his heart is the Heir to the evil empire.

Ayleth and Etan face an impossible battle. Will their love survive? Or will their parents' dark dealings keep them apart forever?

[Mature content. No sexual violence.]

******

“You…” She stepped back. Then back again, her mouth dropped open. “You… You cannot be…”

“I am,” Etan said, and his hair raked back as he pushed his mask off his handsome face. So handsome her heart raced.

His hair was ebony black, his skin a warm brown that threatened to fade in in the winter months. He stared at her with glittering green eyes, over high cheekbones and a noble nose, his jaw tight and shadowed this late in the day. His chin was high over the pillar of his neck that she’d just touched with its hard lines and steel strength, so different to her own. And his chest... She gasped and covered her eyes. She’d humiliated herself revealing her stupid, childish curiosity.

“No, Ayleth. This changes nothing.”

“How can you say that? It changes everything!” She was horrified to realize she was crying.

“Ayleth, please.” His voice cracked on the plea and she stared at him, shoving her mask up and off, despite how it would pull her hair out of the beautiful twist the maid had managed for her.

His eyes locked on hers and she couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.

She had met her One. And he was the son of her bloodsworn enemy.

She stared at him as he stepped forward again, offering both hands, palm up. “Touch me,” he whispered. “Hold my hands. This is real, Ayleth. I don’t know how it happened, but this is real. Please don’t deny it.”

She couldn’t resist. She raised a trembling hand to his cheek, letting her palm catch on the scruff of his jaw. He blew out a breath and put his hand over hers, and that jolt that happened whenever they touched shivered through her again.

“Please, Ayleth.”

“I cannot deny it,” she whispered.

Zhang Beixuan, who transmigrated into a parallel world, became a Daoist Purple Robed Celestial Master.Before the old Celestial Master passed away, he arranged a marriage for him, instructing him to share his bridal chamber with a thousand-year-old fox spirit.As Zhang Beixuan was utterly confused about the meaning of this, the next day, he received the fox spirit’s dowry and marriage contract.Ding! The Daoist Prosperity System has been activated. Since the host has bound to it for the first time, it offers a divine-level choice once!Option One: Refuse the thousand-year fox spirit face-to-face and self-castrate, making it clear that he will never agree to the bridal chamber. Reward: [Fiercest Celestial Master Plaque] [Thousand-Year Fox Spirit Essence]Option Two: Escape now, never to return to the mountains, with the reward of [Top-Quality Youthful Essence, Maintaining Vitality and Power, Cultivation Speed of a Thousand Miles in a Day] .Option Three: Who cares about fox spirits, snake spirits, or female ghosts? If I don’t enter hell, who will? Reward: [Savior of All Beings Title] [Hundred-Year Cultivation] [Golden Light Spell Max Level] [Celestial Master Daoist Robe]Zhang Beixuan looked at the options and silently picked up the dowry on the ground.“Let it be a fox spirit, at least she’s a female.”

“Welcome to Perfect Life Simulator!”

“You can choose to simulate your own life or someone else’s life to find solutions to many life problems!”

…

A watch handed down from his deceased parents allowed Su Wu to start a future life simulator.

He thought that he could really use this simulator to lead a perfect life without regrets, but unexpectedly things developed in another direction.

In the future, as long as there is light, there will be evil spirits that kill people;

Hanging in the sky and covering a city, it leaves a city without red lanterns of living people;

The scarlet eye that can use a mobile phone to spy on the specific location of others…

Will such a future really come?

…

“you are dead.”

“This simulation is over.”

- Description from novelbuddy

The world was never the same after that day.Humanity learned that they weren't alone in the universe, but that wasn't something they had the time to worry about.Their realization was accompanied by catastrophe.Creatures beyond their wildest imaginations poured down from the sky and appeared from the earth. They slaughtered humans as if it was their singular purpose, driving them to the brink of extinction.The people of the world did everything in their power, developing unique traits and technologies to create a united front their enemies couldn't penetrate.They secured victories and repopulated, feeling as if they stood a chance against the foreign invaders.They fought and they fought, doing everything they possibly could to ensure their survival.Until the Great Calamities appeared.In front of them, humanity was nothing regardless of its efforts.One by one, the worlds were turned into piles of rubble in between the cracks of their teeth. Civilization was torn apart, and the evolved humans living within could do nothing to stop its collapse.Humanity itself was left extinct, and in the end, only a single man was left alive amidst the chaos.Why?For what reason were they punished so?Nobody knew why the attacks began in the first place.He looked into the distance at the memories of the past and firmed his resolve.“It can only be me.”He knew of a miracle that could return him to the place of those memories.He knew of a way to make the wheels of time spin in reverse.And using it, he alone would save humanity from its doomed fate.That was his sacred duty as its final survivor.