Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord - Chapter 104: Steel Is Forever Loyal

In my former life, I dedicated most of my adult life to achieving my goal of exploring the stars. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside my control, my life abruptly ended leaving my dream unfulfilled. Thanks to the intervention of the Big Guy Upstairs, I was given a chance to achieve my dream though the one who reincarnated me screwed me over. Unlike the futuristic type of world I wanted to start in, I ended up being born in a medieval, magical world as the third son of a regional baron. All I can do now is Dungeon Crawl for ancient technology in the hopes that I find a ship or technology to get me off this damn world!

Two years ago, Lin Chou Sui’s firefighter father sacrificed himself in a fire.

The last conversation between father and daughter ended in a big fight.

Lin Chou Sui woke up crying countless times in her dreams, wishing that if her dad could be reborn, she would obediently listen and never talk back.

Little did she expect that her dad would actually be reborn!

His soul possessed the body of Xiao Yan, the academic god of their high school.

…

Xiao Yan excelled in both character and academics. His total scores never dipped below 700. All the girls at their high school knew: getting into Tsinghua or Peking University was easy, getting close to Xiao Yan was difficult.

But Lin Chou Sui noticed that recently, the way Xiao Yan looked at her was very strange. His aloofness contained deep affection; his affection…was full of fatherly love?

So Lin Chou Sui’s daily life became:

Before exams, Xiao Yan would give her his notes to copy.

During her period, Xiao Yan would brew her red date tea and cook porridge.

Bad boys who blocked her path and harassed her would get kicked flying by Xiao Yan.

Lin Chou Sui was very touched. Other than her dad, no one had treated her this well.

…

On a hot afternoon, Xiao Yan sat with Lin Chou Sui on the stairwell to do homework, his gaze tender beyond words.

A light breeze blew by. The youth was about to lean in to kiss her.

Suddenly, a cold, icy male voice sounded in his mind:

“Young Xiao, may I ask what you intend to do with my daughter?”

Xiao Yan: ……

Xiao Yan crawled out from the mud. Beneath his cold and aloof appearance was a sinister and vindictive nature.

To climb from the lowliest dust to the summit out of reach, the path was filled with thorns. For this purpose he would stop at nothing, sparing no cost.

However, all the darkness and gloom in his life ended with that one strange encounter…

From then on, the skies cleared and his dead end led to new life.

A sinister genius boy meets a muddled Failure girl

“Heroes killed my parents. Now I wear the mask of one. Until I can bury them all.”At seven years old, Hernan Vale watched his parents — two powerful heroes — brutally executed in their own home by the very people they trusted most: the legendary super-team known as the Zodiac 13.They thought he was dead.They made sure the world blamed villains.They covered their tracks.But Hernan survived — and never forgot.Ten years later, under a false name, Hernan enters the prestigious Hero Academy, hailed as a prodigy. To the world, he’s a rising star. To his classmates, he’s charming, calm, unstoppable.But inside?He’s a weapon. Waiting. Smiling. Counting names.As he trains to become a licensed hero, fights real villains, and rises through the ranks, Hernan plays the long game — earning the trust of the Zodiac, learning their routines, studying their weaknesses. One by one, he’ll bring them down.And this time, he won’t hide in the closet.But the deeper he goes, the more blood he spills — the more he wonders if he’s becoming worse than the monsters he’s hunting.And when love, loyalty, and lies collide, Hernan may have to decide:Will he save the world like they think he will...or finish burning it down?

[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.