By Zephyria 
I didn’t intend to avoid him anyway, but I wasn’t planning on wagging my tail and running to him first either. After greeting the various members of the mansion and going up to my room, the guy was waiting for me with a relaxed attitude. I was just dumbfounded by his brazen attitude of smiling brightly as he greeted me. There was a teacup with steam rising from it on the table by the window, as if he had been enjoying tea time in a room without an owner. A subtle tea scent lingered at the tip of my nose. Unlike the tension rising between us, the scent was endlessly relaxed and elegant.
The dazzling sunlight streamed in through the large window. Allen’s appearance, receiving all that sunlight, was excessively radiant. Is he not going to pretend to be an ordinary human anymore? The last time I saw him, he had grown taller and his physique had improved, and other than that, his features still resembled mine to some extent, but now he just looks like a completely different person.
His hair, which was light blonde, has now become closer to a dazzling silver. His deep blue eyes have become even deeper, looking like the night sky or amethyst. His thin lips with an elegant smile are almost bewitching.
I felt more comfortable. ‘That’ was no longer my corpse from my past life. The appearance of God, Allen, who would only come to me to mock me when he felt like it and leave with ridiculous sneers, was appearing as it was.
I had steeled myself, but before I could answer, Nicole, choked up, burst forward as if to block me, asking why the Young Master was here. I had heard it countless times in the carriage already. Everyone was in mourning, and Allen was acting as if he had been waiting for me to disappear, which upset Nicole greatly.
“Hmm…”
Allen, as if he hadn’t heard Nicole’s sharp voice at all, simply raised his teacup and took a sip. Then, he subtly winked at me. Seeing him shrug his shoulders, it was clear he didn’t mind talking about it at all.
“Nicole, go out. We have something to talk about.”
“But…”
“It’s okay. Whether I like it or not, he’s my beloved brother… I should at least properly greet him on his return, right?”
Nicole, looking uneasy, furrowed his brow and glanced back and forth between Allen and me, then sighed lightly and left the room. I slowly walked to the window. He sat with his long legs crossed at the knee and kindly offered me the seat opposite him. Unbelievable. It was my room, but he was acting like the host.
Not wanting to waste energy, I sat down for now. Immediately, a warm, fragrant cup of tea was placed before me. I resisted the urge to knock it over and just stared at his shameless face. I meant for him to say what he had to say and get out. He must have understood, but he just smiled and met my gaze. The silence stretched on.
Finally, the lips that had been wearing that hateful smile slowly parted. The voice that followed, like his appearance, was very different from the ‘Allen Hamilton’ I remembered. It was noticeably lower.
“It’s been two months, hasn’t it? You look quite different.”
…Who should be saying that?
“I can’t tell you how much I missed you. To think that not being able to steal a glimpse of you whenever I wanted would be such a sad thing.”
“Too bad for you. I’ve been feeling refreshed not seeing your disgusting face.”
“Oh, don’t lie. I can still hear your lovely voice begging me to come see you more often.”
I swear, in all my lives, I had never said such nonsense. The answer was obvious. He knew that I had recovered all my memories from the first life…
“Haha. How disappointing. Surely… you didn’t think I wouldn’t know?”
He didn’t miss even the slightest tremor in my eyes and burst into laughter, finding something so amusing.
“It’s obvious what that sly Ancient Spirit was planning. He sees me as someone unqualified who killed the Ancient God and stole his place. He must have thought he could help you somehow, since you’re the only existence that can shake me. Even if he can’t eliminate me… well, he must have thought it would be enough to inflict some damage.”
But that’s all there is to it, Noah. His voice, still laced with mockery, was serious but sharp.
“Even if you get back the memories that were slowly being extracted and stored from ‘this body’, what more can you do here? Wouldn’t it be better to just admit defeat and beg for my mercy?”
His voice was leisurely, showing no sense of crisis. My fists clenched involuntarily. I glared at him, trembling. He put down the teacup he was holding and slowly reached out to me. His body temperature, which felt more hot than warm, gently stroked my tightly clenched jaw.
What he said wasn’t wrong. Unlike the protagonists in novels, I didn’t awaken any incredible powers or hidden abilities when I regained my memories. All I had was the stone Lennox had gotten for me, which could barely block mind-reading. After regaining my memories, I resolved not to seek help from Carlisle anymore, so in fact, my strength had decreased.
However, just remembering the exact conditions of the Sacred bet was a great achievement. The foundation for a reversal had already been laid. There was no need to remind him of that. The more he underestimated me, the better. I deliberately drew out more resentment.
Allen’s victory condition was for me to corrupt my soul before I achieved my goal. On the day he revealed to me that he was the System, he told me with glee in front of my despairing face to strangle him to death with my own two hands if I wanted to give up everything. To kill and mutilate him with my own hands, with all the sincerity of my hatred for him.
That must be because the most powerful way for a human soul to be corrupted is to murder another human. That’s why he took on a human body and appeared on this earth to receive all my hatred and anger.
If so… he cannot function as ‘God’ in order to win the Sacred bet. He can only move within the limits of what a human can achieve.
Something felt strange. No matter what, it was odd that a God could only brainwash one person at a time, or that he couldn’t read the minds of other humans besides me. I was in a state where my soul was mortgaged in the name of fate, so it couldn’t be helped, but while the Sacred bet was ongoing, he wouldn’t be able to properly intervene with other humans living on this earth. That was the penalty that the rules of this Sacred bet placed on God.
“Don’t be so upset. I am a God, after all. I can’t let you win. Ah, you’re the first to corner me this much in all these years. You can take it as an honor.”
I wanted to laugh at the sight of the God, who didn’t know what was coming, mocking me. In the end, the game would be over if I didn’t kill him or anyone else and just had the National Wedding Ceremony with Adrian. Adrian said that he would announce his father’s death as soon as he returned to the Imperial Palace. After a month of State Funeral, our Royal Wedding and his coronation would take place at the same time.
Compared to the long time I had endured so far, a month was a very short time. The scales of victory were on my side.
“How is it, Noah? Have you come to love them enough now?”
He asked suddenly, keenly observing my eyes, which were pretending to be helplessly angry.
“No. I would be very offended if you called those things love, so let’s just call it pity or guilt.”
“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“What am I talking about? If you’ve recovered all your memories, you must have realized that your guards, whom you used to look down on for having such vulgar tastes, and the Crown Prince, whom you thought was arrogant, are actually your precious Sir Kyle and Adrian.”
That was true… I couldn’t guess why they were being brought up at this timing. I didn’t answer and carefully watched his expression.
“Or what about the arrogant wolf and the Sorcerer? Andrew Hamilton was quite unexpected to me as well. I didn’t expect him to genuinely love you, his younger brother.”
“Speak plainly.”
“Ah, that’s very easy.”
“I’m saying that I have five very useful hostages in my grasp.”
The thin lips, wet with fragrant tea, whispered cruelly. It was a truly demonic sight.