Chapter One: The Ashen Invitation

They had imagined that future many times, but neither had spoken it aloud. Lain looked at Serena and felt the small warmth poverty, humiliation, and winter had failed to grind away. He suddenly understood what the system meant by a treasured affection. So he gave her his most careless smile. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t trade my life for a throne nobody wants me to have.” After she left, gold letters returned. 【New causal anchor detected: oath of escape.】 【Warning: host intervention has created new branches.】 【New fatal outcomes: nine.】 Lain moved the three coins, placing his own between the rival factions. Nine deaths. Then he would make them guess which one he had chosen.