QT: I hijacked a harem system and now I'm ruining every plot(GL)-Chapter 83: Alone

Chapter 83 – Daphne POV

I’m not in the right state of mind to even paint today.

I sigh.

And set the brush down gently beside the palette, my gaze lingering on the half-finished landscape stretched across the canvas.

It’s beautiful, I think. Soft pastels, a blur of forest and stream in the glow of imagined sunlight. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

But it feels hollow.

Like I’m trying to paint someone else’s memory instead of my own.

"Avoiding me?"

A voice like silk-wrapped steel.

I don’t turn. I don’t need to.

Only one person in this castle speaks like the world answers to her. Like power is her native tongue.

The Duchess.

"I dare not, Your Grace," I say smoothly, picking up my brush again, feigning calm, feigning distance, feigning everything I no longer feel.

I hear her step closer, soft heels on stone. She stops just behind me, her presence folding into the room like a second breath.

"This place looks beautiful," she says quietly.

"Your hometown?"

I glance at the canvas.

Rolling hills. A little wooden bridge lost in light.

"Yeah." I nod once, pretending to dab at the blue along the edges.

A lie.

Well—partially. It’s not the town I was born in, no. But it is the one Yuxi and I called home. The one where laughter echoed in kitchen halls and sunlight spilled on floors where we danced barefoot. The place we said forever.

So yes.

It is my hometown.

I feel her move again. She’s close now. I can sense the warmth of her behind me, the subtle hush of her breath.

But she doesn’t speak.

She waits.

She always waits—like I’m something that might spook.

I set the brush down.

"I didn’t mean to run," I say softly.

There’s a pause. I can feel her eyes burning into the side of my face, like she’s trying to read thoughts I haven’t even admitted to myself yet.

I sigh, brush my hands on my apron, and step away from the easel.

These damn dresses make everything harder. Moving, breathing, thinking. Especially when she’s this close.

I turn to face her.

Mistake.

Looking into her eyes is always a mistake.

"So," she says, voice soft but unforgiving, "why’d you kiss me?"

I swallow.

"You kissed me."

Her expression doesn’t change. Not even a flicker of guilt. If anything, she looks... amused.

Or maybe hurt.

I can’t tell anymore.

"I kissed you first," she says, "but you didn’t exactly push me away."

My jaw clenches. "Is that what you want to hear? That I wanted it?"

"Did you?" she asks, quiet, direct, no judgment—just truth-seeking.

I hate her for asking. I hate myself for not being able to lie.

My hands curl into fists at my sides.

I don’t answer her question.

Instead, I whisper the only thing that feels safe.

"It was a mistake."

There. Easy. Clean.But she doesn’t flinch.

"Didn’t feel like a mistake," she says coolly.

Gods. I’m half-tempted to jump out the window and pray for a neck-snapping fall that will free me from this entire conversation.

[You can’t do that, Host.]

The system’s mechanical voice slides into my mind like an unwanted breath.

Now it speaks.

Now?

[System integrity would drop 48%. Please do not attempt. Also... that window isn’t high enough.]

’Convenient timing, coward.’

The system wisely shuts up again.

Evelyne steps closer. Too close. Close enough that her perfume, her breath, the heat of her skin—all of it wraps around me like a noose.

She taps lightly on my chest, right over my heart.

"So you loved her," she says softly. "But surely, you can make space for another in here."

Her hand lingers. I hate how my chest aches beneath it.

"I’m not asking you to forget her," she continues. "Just give me a chance."

I take a step back. My heart doesn’t follow.

"Duchess... look at us." My voice cracks.

She blinks.

"Look at our social positions. There’s no hope for us. We’d have to live in hiding. Secrets. Shadows. Even if you don’t mind that—" I pause, breathing shallow.

"Are you okay being second best? Because that’s what you’d be. Not her. Not..."

I bite my lip. It’s trembling.

"Not my beloved."

I don’t look at her.

"I can’t do that to you," I whisper.

"I do care about you. I like you. But I don’t think I could ever give my heart to another again."

Silence.

I finally look up.

And her expression...

It’s like I just punched the wind out of her lungs.

She stands still, proud as ever—but her eyes are glassy, her mouth slightly parted, like she can’t breathe.

I hate this.But it had to be said.

The Film Empress will always be my world.

Even if I’ll never see her again.

Even if she’s gone.

I’ll live this world and the one after that, and the one after that, the same.

Grieving. Loyal. Alone.

"Well," she says at last, voice quiet—but composed. A sad smile tugs at her lips as she straightens her spine into perfect, noble posture.

The duchess. Regal even in heartbreak.

"I’ve had everything handed to me since I was a child. My life has been... graceful. Predictable. Controlled." She laughs, but there’s no humor in it.

"So it makes sense, I suppose, that the one thing I truly want in life could never be mine."

Her eyes flick up to meet mine.

"So I’ll settle for leftovers."

The words sting more than I expect them to.

"Evelyne—" I start, my voice breaking.

But she cuts me off, and when she speaks again, she’s not the duchess anymore.

"No. You don’t get it." Her voice shakes, and her hands clench at her sides.

"When I’m around you, my heart flutters like it never has before. It’s like my life before you was devoid of color—muted, hollow, expected. And then you came."

She steps closer.

"And suddenly, everything had color. Light. Sound. Music."

Tears prick the edges of her eyes, but she doesn’t let them fall.

"Around you, I feel alive. Free....Happy."

She swallows, voice dropping.

"Please... don’t make me go back to that life."

She’s trembling now.

"It’s like I’m racing toward a cliff on horseback," she whispers. "And I know I’ll fall. I know it’ll end horribly. But those few seconds before—"

Her eyes meet mine, wide and raw.

"Those seconds feel worth it."

And I—

I don’t know how to breathe.

So much for my big talk about being alone.

"Okay," I say, and my voice sounds far away. Too light. Too quiet.

She blinks.

Like she didn’t believe I’d say it. Like she thought I’d keep pushing her away forever.

And maybe I thought I would, too.

But the second she looked at me with that face—the face I’ve loved across lifetimes—I knew it was a losing battle.

> [HOST!!!! Did you not learn your lesson from the previous world—]

Goodbye, System 404. Not today.

Evelyne takes a few steps closer, cautious, like I’m something wild.

"Can I ask for one thing?" she says.

I nod.

"I can’t help looking like her," she whispers.

"But can you try—just try—to see me as me? And not always be searching for her in my eyes?"

It hurts. Because it’s fair.

Because she deserves that.

I bite the inside of my cheek, then nod again.

"Okay."

It’s not a promise. But it’s the most honest answer I can give.

She exhales. Not with relief, exactly—but with something closer to hope.

Something about a horse racing toward a cliff...

Yeah.

I get it now.