The Sacred Ruins - Chapter 786 - You Scratch My Back, I Scratch Yours

Li Ling, the eldest son of the Duke of Zhenguo, was a good man with great talent and courage.

However, his beloved wife Shen felt that living with him was boring. After five years of marriage, she was submissive to him in every possible way, but he was not the least bit enthusiastic about her.

If it was just because of his cold temper, she would admit it.

But when the Huns invade, the ninth princess will be forced to get married. Li Ling was so angry that he asked for an order to go to war for the sake of his princess cousin.

She finally understood the reason why he treated her coldly.

She was so angry that she didn’t want to be with him.

The letter of departure has been drawn up, and we are waiting for Li Ling to return to sign it.

Unexpectedly, after waking up, she went back to the time when she was newly married to Li Ling…

—

Li Ling married a well-behaved little wife who was completely obedient to him. After being married for more than a month, she served him comfortably.

In the past few days, Li Ling discovered that something was wrong with his bride.

She stopped dressing him in the morning, and she stopped serving him dishes and soup at dinner. She turned away as soon as he approached her at night.

The dignified and solemn Li Ling couldn’t help it.

He came forward and said, “Madam, what’s wrong with you?”

She just gave him a roll of her eyes.

Li Ling scratched his head: “It’s your first time coming to the mansion. Madam, you don’t feel comfortable with it?”

She bowed her head and said nothing.

Li Ling was so itchy that he had to pay attention to her every move in order to pry into his wife’s heart.

One day, while watching a polo match, he saw her hiding her face and smiling at a man on the field; another day, he saw her resting her chin in her hands, reading a poem by a talented man in a daze; and at a palace banquet, he actually saw the prince. I smiled at her…

Li Ling’s heart became more and more confused day by day.

- Description from novelbuddy

It was in the middle of the night that the woman who would be the Duchess came to see me.

She said my father and mother died, and my kind uncle became king.

She said it’s not worth it for me, the crown prince, to be living in hiding, too.

“A while ago, Your Highness had been hiding from me. With all due respect, is that for the sake of survival? Just because your parents died doesn’t mean you have no reason to survive. Actually, that fact alone made it all the more reason why you should live. If you die now…”

If I died now?

When I asked her while looking at her eyes, the woman eventually brought out the harsh truth with empathetic eyes.

“It’s like a dog’s death.”

“That’s rude….”

It’s been a long time since I said that. In a short while, he has been treated as a madman and beaten to death just by saying similar things. She loosened her arms that held me and I suddenly stiffened up due to it. Because I thought she might have loosened her arm to hit me. But she didn’t.

She knelt down with one knee in front of me, just like a knight.

“Hastred’s Sarian raised her salutations. May you accept it gladly.”

My first knight is beautiful and kind.

“Are you on my side?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

It was all a lie.

Birth rates are decreasing. Hope is vanishing. The world has gone gray.Humanity, drifting in quiet collapse, receives an email.Every person on Earth. Simultaneously.The Aegis Mandate.Disguised as a cosmic aptitude test, it triggers The Incident of Separation—a global psychic cataclysm that erases identities, wipes memories, and divides all survivors into three factions: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. Overnight, cities become battlegrounds. Apartments become dungeons. Ordinary people become monsters—or the ones who hunt them.Ragnar Vhagar was just a loner university student. Now, thanks to a system he didn’t ask for, he’s a newly minted Demon King, locked in a crumbling apartment with goblins under his sofa and a glowing soul crystal next to his frozen peas. His new job? Build a deadly domain, defend it from invading “Heroes,” and somehow level up fast enough to not die.Alongside him is Isabelle Thorne, a razor-sharp warrior of few words and one very sharp sword. Their reluctant alliance, born in blood and snark, evolves into trust—and maybe something dangerously close to affection—as they rise together through the layers of the game-like world they’re trapped in.With each conquered domain and defeated boss, Ragnar realizes the truth: the dungeons aren’t meant to crown a winner. They’re meant to break the players. The Law faction wants control. The Chaos faction craves destruction. But Ragnar? He wants something they’re all too afraid to say out loud:Freedom.In the ruins of Kanta’s ogre stronghold, Ragnar and his misfit warband take their biggest step yet—claiming a kingdom, unifying a fractured system, and preparing for what comes next. The Heroes are watching. The gods are stirring. The world is watching a war.And somewhere deep beneath it all... Ragnar is rewriting the rules.

There is a famous fairytale. A kindhearted girl whose father and stepmother got married and became a family of five with her two stepsisters. The poor girl who was condemned by her stepmother and stepsisters when her father died. The very fairytale, Cinderella.