The Masked Virtuoso - Chapter 19: Forged in Chaos

The Empress does not grant my resignation.

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.

To pass as an imperial concubine, one must be professional.

Actually, the profession of an imperial concubine is pretty good. The emperor will accompany you in eating and drinking, and even pay you for it. What’s not good about that?

Austin, a young construction worker, falls from a twenty-story building while working on an incomplete apartment complex.Soon after, he wakes up in the body of a fourth prince who had been poisoned by one of his brothers.As though that wasn’t scary enough, Austin later discovers that he has somehow become entangled in a dangerous political situation where his brothers would do anything to become the next emperor.However, this turned out to be the least of his problems because Austin realizes that, unlike his three older brothers, the fourth prince had never once taken a liking to combat or training, making him the weakest out of the four princes.So, how is Austin expected to survive in a world filled with magic, monsters, barbarians, demons, and an internal battle over the succession of the throne?With a long, depressed sigh, Austin groaned as he lay on his bed and stared sightlessly at the ceiling.“Ugh, what am I going to do now?” he pondered. But there was only one thing he could do if he wanted to live a happy and peaceful life in this fantasy world.He had to train as hard as possible.However, training as an exorcist was extremely hard and stressful. But to his surprise, a personal system completely became bound to him, and a screen suddenly appeared in front of him:[Binding Complete!!][Congratulations!! You have obtained The Affection Leveling System!][Through this system, the host has now acquired a quicker and easier way to level up faster than anyone else around him. All you have to do is raise your wives’ affection towards you and build strong bonds with them, and you’ll unlock new skills that will benefit both you and your wives.]Seeing this, Austin realizes that he has a wedding coming up in a month with two beautiful elves as his future brides. So, instead of spending a lifetime training to become stronger, Austin opted to live a peaceful and fulfilling life with his wives.Now, follow Austin as he tries to live and enjoy a happy and relaxing life with his wives, while also having a legion of evil pumpkin warriors ready to fight and protect him and those he loves.