Industrial Strength Magic - Chapter 285: Don’t Wake Up

I was always alone, throughout my life. People looked at me with disdain because I was an orphan without parents. Constant abuse followed me everywhere. I lost touch with how to interact with others.With each passing day, I grew more distant from my emotions until I scarcely recognized myself. The warmth of family and friendship felt foreign to me.In the end, I snapped, and I became what I hated the most... something that wasn't human anymore... something that shouldn't have been born...That was until I was reincarnated as Lucas Nightstar, granted a second chance at a happy life with a loving family. Now, I would do anything to protect them, live my life to the fullest, and was willing to destroy anyone who dares stand in my way of my newfound peace. Yet...Little did I know what fate had in store for me.

I’ve become a rogue lord in another world! This is the story of a game I was playing! The story of the protagonist, who has become a rogue lord who dies after two days, successfully uses the game’s history and system to escape his impending doom and become the strongest.

Eira Hax, the daughter of a once-wealthy heiress, has spent her entire life in the shadows.Twenty-two years ago, her mother, a kind-hearted but naive woman, was deceived by her husband, a ruthless businessman. He stole her entire fortune and framed her for a crime, sending her to prison, unaware that she was pregnant and secretly battling terminal cancer.Eira’s mother died alone behind bars, but not before giving birth to Eira, entrusting her with a burning desire for revenge.Now, two decades later, Eira returns with one goal: to destroy the man who ruined her mother’s life—her own father.To do so, she strategically marries his most powerful rival, Callian Reed, a man as dangerous as he is influential. Together, they plot to destroy her father’s empire, piece by piece.But as Eira is pulled deeper into a world of business, power and revenge, she’s forced to confront her own problems and decide just how far she’s willing to go to avenge her mother.“I’m not your enemy, darling…you should know that by now.”“Callian, everything you do is not written in our contract. Why are you breaking it?”“The more I learn about you, the more I hate everyone who hurt you. So please, Eira, let me get rid of them for you.”

"There was a time in my life where I struggled to breathe. A time where I felt suffocated everyday, but then I met you."

-Turning the gears of fate.

A drop of ink can penetrate the walls, even the walls you took too long to build.

After losing her first love due to a traffic accident, Ibuki Sumire transfers to Tokyo. She wanted to escape, to run away from everything that happened. To start over in a place that didn't have him. But a series of clues lead her to investigating the case behind the accident.

In that place she learns about the masks people wear. The masks people wear to disgui se their feelings. Sometimes you have to look past what you see on the surface.

There she meets him, the person who helps her move forward. But Sumire quickly learns how alike they are. His cold personality is different than the kindness she is used to. However, he is the only one who understands her feelings.

It keeps going around in circles, like a drop of paint. Round and round - an endless stream of pain and lies. But, that stream ended the moment she laid her eyes on his paintings.

Such rich and vibrant colors, it felt like his emotions exploded. Yet, in the corner of his studio, she found it. The real him, a sakura painting of two people walking hand in hand.

A gentle and sweet feeling, something she has never felt before.

[Commissioned Cover by: Vatarison]