Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria - Volume 4 Chapter 1

The first time she saw him, he was surrounded by flames. She couldn’t clearly see his eyes, but his gaze burned every part of her skin it lingered on.

Surely if the legendary beasts ever had existed, he would be one of them—one of the dragons.

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Kel has spent her life as a palace guard, hiding her mysterious ability. When sent in the princess's place to form a marriage alliance with a neighboring kingdom, she is captured by enemy soldiers and taken to the Serin Empire.

The ruler of Serin is a terrifying and coldhearted man, but he seems to have taken an unusual interest in Kel. How long will she be able to keep her identity and abilities a secret under the constant gaze of the Dragon Emperor?

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!!Slow burn romance!!

~I own no rights to the cover image~

[Please transform.] [The penalty for disobedience is death.] I am saying this because I have been wronged. Help me!

Hyde arrives in a doomed world with nothing but his body and fragmented knowledge of the future from a game he once played. He has no grand ambition—why try to save a world already destined to fall? Survival is enough.That is, until he discovers his sister is also transported into that world.However, only he hears the Melody of Nightingale and receives the power to survive.[You have established a connection with The Forgotten Hollow.]Awakening as a Resonant—an elite group with supernatural abilities—he is thrust into a conflict between two worlds. Armed with the authority of space and time, he vows to protect his powerless sister at all cost, even if he has to fight against the Mirage creatures, other Resonants, or even Gods themselves.

Veyne came from the life of sewer rats.The world saw him as a failure. He called it belief. Others called it stupidity. Either way, it was the only thing he had left.Even at rock bottom, Veyne never stopped believing in himself.Betrayed by his lover and brother, treated as a burden, and forced to slave endlessly in the game to chase his dream—he endured it all.Though late, his obsession was finally rewarded with an opportunity. But the sewer rat in him was too weak to hold onto it. He had fought the world and lost.Actions have consequences. And when he failed in the game, those consequences caught up to him, leading to his death.But the universe wasn’t done with him yet.Given a second chance, he returned to a time when the game had already been out for two years. This time, he rushed to obtain the Template Wilder class—the very class that led to his downfall.One of the game’s rarest hidden classes, the Wilder class, allowed him to switch into different forms based on the monster templates he possessed. An overpowered ability—but it came with a fatal catch.A hidden template forced him into the form of an ancient baby creature, one so cursed that players, monsters, and even NPCs would hunt him down. If he died in that form, his character would be permanently deleted.In his past life, he underestimated the class’s dangers. And the world tore him apart for it.This time, it wouldn’t be just hollow belief.This time, he’s not here to survive—he’s here to dominate.No emotional ties.No second chances.The entire game is his enemy, and he will crush anyone who stands in his way.He failed once. He suffered. He died. He was erased.Not this time.This is the beginning of his legend. The era of Veyne Draven.