Virtual World: Close Combat Mage - Chapter 25 - Guild! Oh, Guild!

[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.

Roy died during a war against the Evil God Cult, but somehow, he returned back in time to 30 years in the past where he was just a boy who awaken his summoning magic.

Her previous life was pitiful. Soon after her birth, her father abandoned his wife and daughter for his first love and left for the city. Her mother left her at her grandmother's house, being indifferent to her suffer, and even schemed to marry her to her couin's lover. What's more, after escaping to the city, she was betrayed by her stepmother and stepsister, being stolen one of her kidneys! Without knowing the truth, she mistook them as benefactors, serving them just as a maid. She later found the truth and accidentally acquired a special space, enjoying good life for about two years before dying suddenly and inexplicably.After being reborn, she strived to avoid the pitfalls of her former life, yet was nearly overwhelmed by the truth when she discovered it.It turned out that the stepmother she hated most was actually her biological mother, and the person she most respected in her former life was actually her father.In her previous life, she had never been in love, and she was uninterested after her rebirth until she inadvertently stumbled upon love and extreme doting.In his previous life, he was also pitiable, but later became extremely wealthy. In this life, because of her, he became even more domineering.