Building a Kingdom and Conquering the World - Chapter 138 Muddy Waters - The pirates on the Bay (I)

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.

I never thought I had meaning to my life, but I guess I have a talent too.

「Get ready. The duel will begin soon.」

Ezra Belloren is a knight.The most faithful blade of the first prince, Helios De Luxaelian Sunthyr.Feared across the land, he is known as the Crimson Fae, a knight whose beauty is always stained with blood. No one questions his loyalty or his skill.But Ezra carries a secret he has sworn never to reveal.He is an omega.For twenty-four years, Ezra hid his second gender and lived content with his life as a knight. That secret alone was dangerous enough. Then, on an unexpected night, he found himself under the gaze of a gold-eyed prince, and everything changed.Five years later, Ezra returns from a long “vacation” after receiving urgent letters from Helios about the kingdom’s worsening state, calling his captain back to duty.He does not return alone.At his side is a child with golden eyes, the unmistakable mark of royal blood.Ezra will do whatever it takes to fulfill his duty as a knight, even if it means hiding the truth of his hidden heir from the very kingdom he swore to protect.⊱༺༒︎༻⊰“Maman… do I have a papa?” Lior asks, his eyes wide with innocent curiosity.Ezra almost frowns at the sudden question. He stops himself just in time.“Of course you do.”Lior’s grip tightens around his sleeve. “Where is he?”Ezra doesn’t answer right away.How could he? How could he explain that Lior’s father was someone he had already met, someone who walked the halls of the palace in gold and authority?Someone who could never be allowed to know he existed.

After dying in the apocalypse, Su Jin was given a second chance as she was reborn into her former self just one month before the beginning of the end. Knowing that the world was about to fall apart, she started stockpiling everything she could. Her family started to think that she had gone crazy after her marriage and was ready to gang up to ruin the trashy husband. However, as the world suddenly changed around them, their air tickets and money were rendered useless and they now understood just how much foresight their beloved Su Jin had this whole time. As they continued to fight for survival, Su Jin’s husband scoured the city with several better-looking team members. One of them groaned while trudging ahead, This is the 212th time we’ve lost our way since the team leader began his search for his wife…