[All objectives have been completed!] The System reads in misplaced cheer, [Host has completed the 4th mission!]

‘But I thought I had to make both Maria and-,’ he cuts the thought off as he makes eye contact with the person standing in the doorway.

Vae’s face is even more emotive than Maria’s, her form flickering around her no longer in joy, but anger. Festum is at her side, expression pinched and pained. What a shock it must be for her, the person who saved you, causing such a big scene at your sister’s birthday party. Asterius knows he would hate whatever jerkbag dared to ruin Beth's birthday. Hopefully, this will make it easier for her to hate him too.

“Well,” he says curtly, masquerading a shuddering breath as a dramatic pause, pulling himself up to his full height. The weave glitters very so faintly around him, thankfully by the quickly shuffling guests and the bubbling panic starting to flood the room, its presence is read more as a threat and not a lapse in his control as the weave responds to his quickly shifting emotions. The one large downside of getting good with his godly domain, sometimes it was too easy to summon.

“Do not bother escorting me out,” he chides, avoiding eye contact with any of the guests as he tries unsuccessfully to wrangle the Weave back under control. “I’ve had enough of your-,” he hesitates unsure of just how “evil” he needs to be, but it was probably better to cut off any and all ties here instead of dragging this farce out, it would only hurt him in the end. “Your kindness,” he settles on, the word like poison on his tongue, sharp and cold like the ice flickering around Cadeyrn.

“To think I actually started to like you-!”

“Well, that was your mistake then muse,” he calmly replies unable to say her name. It is her creation day, he can at least spare her the injustice of him calling her true name like a friend. “Never once was I anything other than your superior.”

The lie rings painfully hollow to his own ears, and to Cadeyrn if the demon’s sudden harsh frown means anything. To Vae however, it sounds like the mocking taunt he meant.

“You-!”

Festum grabs her sister and pulls her back outside of the house. Opening up the doorway as she quickly shakes her head no. She doesn’t look at Asterius, keeping her gaze firmly locked on the crown of flowers adorning Vae's hair. “Let it go Vae. Let it go. He is the Fateweaver, it was wrong of us to assume.”

“Wrong?!” And that only seems to stoke the flames of Vae’s anger higher, “he didn’t have to come if he didn’t want anything to do with us-!”

“Apologies Painter of Stars,” Asterius flicks his gaze back towards the Female Lead, confusion filling the pit of worry and guilt in his chest. That isn’t a title he remembers Asterius having and Maria says it with something more, something he can’t quite place. It causes something uncomfortable to squirm at the back of his mind, as if he's forgotten a word on the tip of his tongue.

Maria's expression is a poor excuse for a blank mask. Her mouth a firm tight line, her brow every so slightly pinched, and the smoldering loathing shining in her burning gaze. She paints quite the picture, fire in her eyes, dressed to the tens in pink silks and blooming flowers that have grown thorns during the course of their back and forth. It is effortless how she commands attention, causing eyes to flicker toward her and stay, captivated by her presence alone. Like this, it is so easy to see that she is the one this world was made for.

Still that brave and kind Female Lead forces her head into a bow. Firey gaze never leaving Asterius as she does, an unspoken challenge in her eyes. The gesture of respect paired with the bold defiance sends a ripple of shocked gasps to pass around among the onlookers, voyeuristic in their fixed attention. “I seem to have made a terrible first impression. Perhaps next time I can give you the respect one of your station deserves.”

‘Yes! Good job Maria! Just like that!’ he cheers inside his head, unable to stop the little smile he makes at her words, a pleased little hum slipping past his lips that he quickly hides with a scoff. It wouldn’t do for all of Celestia to know just how happy he is about Maria starting to blossom into the proud and brave Female Lead of the novel. ‘She’s even more well-spoken than I remember,’ he thinks fondly, shifting his attention outside before he gets any more sappy and gives himself away.

This close to the Palace of Sun, the 7th ring gets quite a bit more light than the Garden of Tranquil Day, and it almost actually feels like normal daytime again. The garden would be in full bloom this time of day, filling the house with fragment smells and giving ASterius the ever so wonderful view of Asterius tolling away on some other project among the flowers.

Desperately he wishes that he could just walk out of here and not look back, but he knows he needs to hammer in the final nail of his villain coffin. ‘No self-respecting villain lets the hero get the last word,’ he thinks finding some twisted amusement in all of this, something that will probably concern him later upon reflection, but for now, he straightens his stance. Letting the weave unravel just the tiniest bit more, careful in his control of the strings to not let any of his own show.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Then let us hope the next time we cross paths you have learned better,” he comments dryly, dramatically snapping his sleeves with a quick flick of his hand, before gently resting them behind his back. The movement jarring enough to cause the countless ornaments and tassels adorning his robe to chime with a sharp ring.

He begins his walk out of the door, only briefly glancing at Vae's scowling face and Festum's pained downward gaze. His heart jerks, but he keeps his face impassive as he continues on. “May our next meeting be far from now,” and he genuinely means that. Hopefully, he should be able to lay low for a bit while Maria is busy being courted and going through her first godly training arc. He needs a rest after the roller coaster of these last few days.

“Let us hope,” Maria repeats, unable to keep her own hope out of the words. He doesn’t fight the smile now, he’s already walking down the pathway away from Eros’s home, and there’s no one who can see his face.

‘That's my Female Lead!’ He praises inside his own thoughts, ignoring the flashing red of the System. 'I'm allowed to be proud of the protagonist!' he snaps back at the holographic screen. Asterius sort of helped raise that girl (he didn't do anything, but he was technically "there" for her whole life), and even if he didn’t, it is still cool to see the Female Lead in action. The one tiny silver lining to this horrible job.

[Hey!] The System protests in obvious offense, [System’s a bonus too!]

‘Sure,’ he agrees half-heartedly, more focused on whether or not he should say what he’s thinking. It would definitely cement him as the villain no questions asked, but it might be a little too far… ‘Ah better safe than sorry,’ he reasons, trying to squash down the guilt bubbling up in his throat.

“Then let us both hope,” he agrees, raising one of his hands without looking back in a short wave-like gesture. “To our next ruinous meeting,” he hesitates a beat and drops the final bomb, “Maria.”

[Host!]

‘Fuck! I know System!’ he thinks, trying to move as fast as he can without looking like he’s hurrying away. He did not mean to say her name like that!

Maria’s name rings loud and clear, almost echoing in the air. He knows he didn’t say it right, infused the word with too much divine power, spoken in a tone far from the belittling coldness he was aiming for. He’s said her name thousands of times, so it just naturally slipped out that way! He was just so impressed with how well she pushed back and stood up for herself-!

“Screw you oh great and powerful FateWeaver!!”

Oh. Well... maybe he doesn’t have to worry. If Vae’s angry yelling is anything to go by. He makes an aborted move to turn, but Cadeyrn takes a step closer, bumping into Asterius's back and effectively blocking any and all view of the disastrous party and its aggravated guests.

Cadeyrn doesn’t say anything, just stares down at him with his dark red eyes. Like normal they are distracting enough that he forgets what he was turning around for in the first place.

[Hmmm….] The System types, thankfully not making any comments on that sad realization, he really is far too easy…

[Host seems to be in the clear!] The System informs him, even though he pretty much already knew that based on all the yelling still echoing behind him. Still, he nods at the System as he turns back around, walking pointedly toward the edge of the floating island. He's had enough of this awful day.

Hovering just beyond the last blade of grass on Eros's island is a golden, floating cloud. While it might not look like much, as Asterius takes his first step onto the cloud it shimmers and becomes slightly more corporal, a twisting foggy pathway forming out of the surrounding mist, stretching off in a thousand different directions. The Heavenly Crossroads- an interconnecting bridge system that stretches in between the rings of the heavens. Normally it exists on a more unseen level, but thanks to the fact that there’s still no God Emperor, the convenient pathway system is open for all to traverse.

It only takes a handful of minutes of walking in a slow downward spiral before they arrive back on the 1st ring.

Asterius lets himself take a deep breath once his feet land on familiar ground. The air here is less full of magic, and he finds it easier to fill his lungs. The lack of eyes also helps, here there is only one gaze watching him, a familiar charming red gaze.

"Master," and Asterius fights the urge to sigh again, he's sure Cadeyrn is about to ask what just happened. Even though he was ordered by Sanctus to be a villain, what just happened was quite a bit more than what the High Seraphim asked.

“I know I went farther than needed but I was just-,”

“Are you alright?”

The rest of his poorly cobbled-together excuse evaporates from his brain, “what?” he asks dumbly, totally baffled by the sudden question.

Cadeyrn snorts, tense frown uplifting slightly into a smirk, “Are you okay?” Despite his amusement, the question comes out even more heavily toned than the first time.

“I’m fine,” he hurries to agree, slipping his hands back into his sleeves as he sharply turns and starts quickly walking back home. He can feel the flush on his face, his pointed ears burning. Half of it is from the sudden rush of fondness, this stupid demon can be so enduring at times it's painfully unfair. The other half is the embarrassment that he was so easy to read, hopefully, no one else noticed just how much of a mess he is after all of that.

[Cheer up host!] The System writes, little pastel green textbox spinning in the air around him like an excited dog, [Host shouldn’t have any missions for at least a week!]

‘A week,’ he laments, suddenly wishing he could rewind time back to the quiet 20 years before the Female Lead’s arrival. He knows things are never going to be that peaceful again. ‘At least I got to see Maria start to-,’

“Wait,” he says, the world almost tilting under the sudden realization slamming into him, “who told Maria my name?”