Chapter 172: Chapter-172

As she stood there smoking, looking out at the dark palace grounds, System 427 materialized beside her.

“Host,” he said quietly, “you usually don’t smoke. Is something wrong?”

Heena spoke in her mind, not wanting to wake Larus. ’What’s the current status of the female lead’s protagonist halo toward the male leads?’

The System paused, his expression troubled. “I… I cannot define it correctly,” he admitted. “I’m connected to you, so I can measure probability and affection ratings toward ’you’. Mostly hatred, honestly. But their feelings toward each other? That’s harder to read.”

Heena nodded, taking another drag from the cigarette. ’What do you think about the female lead, System? About Seraphina herself?’

The System hesitated, floating closer. “Host, I found something. It sounds idiotic, maybe, but I’ve been thinking about it.”

’What?’

“Seraphina’s mother,” the System said carefully.

Heena turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised. ’Her mother is alive .’

“Actually, I’m not sure about that,” the System said. “I found some information. Just before Seraphina was born—actually, when her mother was still unmarried—there was an accident. She was engaged to some nobleman named Marcus or something similar.”

He pulled up a translucent data screen that only they could see.

“And here’s where it gets weird: it says that after this accident, she ’suddenly changed’. Completely. She went from being a sweet, gentle, refined lady to a fiery-tempered, assertive woman. She broke off her engagement immediately—which was scandalous—and then somehow met and married Seraphina’s father within months.”

Heena’s eyes narrowed. ’Go on.’

“Before Seraphina was born, her mother’s behavior was completely different from her original personality. Open-minded, happy, almost… modern in her thinking? She made unusual decisions, spoke strangely sometimes, seemed to know things she shouldn’t.”

The System continued, “Even when Seraphina was in her womb, the mother’s personality remained this new, different version. But then—here’s the critical part—when Seraphina was about three years old, there was a carriage accident. The mother was brutally injured. Nearly died.”

’And?’

“And after she woke up, she became ’exactly’ like she was before her first accident. Before the personality change. Sweet, gentle, traditional, virtuous—the perfect noble lady everyone remembered from her youth.”

Heena paused, the cigarette halfway to her lips.

She looked at the sky through the window, her mind racing, because this wasn’t some complicated equation that needed solving.

It was ’obvious’.

If Heena could transmigrate to this world, then Seraphina’s mother could have been a transmigrator too. Someone traveling from world to world to finish missions, just like Heena herself.

Or possibly a reborn person—someone who’d died in this world and been sent back to their younger body with their memories intact.

Or maybe just a normal human from another world who’d been transmitted here, lived for years, and when she died in that carriage accident, the original soul—the ’real’ Seraphina’s mother—had returned to her body.

It wasn’t uncommon. It happened all the time in the transmigrator community.

And if Seraphina’s mother had been a transmigrator, that would explain Seraphina’s system.

Because there were two main ways a child could end up with a system:

’’Option One:’’ The legitimate way. When a transmigrator developed genuine love for a child they’d given birth to in a mission world—which happened often, because you lived in these worlds for 20, 50, 80 years, sometimes thousands if it was an immortal cultivation world—they could petition the higher-ups to assign a small helper system to their child. Or arrange for a rebirth opportunity if something bad happened. A final gift from a parent who had to leave.

It was touching, really. Sad but sweet.

’’Option Two:’’ The ’illegal’ way.

Some souls shined too brightly. Too purely. Like beacons in the dark, attracting attention from things that fed on life force and spiritual energy.

Illegal systems—parasitic entities that weren’t sanctioned by the transmigrator bureaus—would attach themselves to these bright souls. They’d offer power, knowledge, assistance, all while slowly draining the host’s life force.

And parents, desperate to protect their too-pure, too-bright children, would sometimes make deals with these illegal systems. Sacrificing their own souls to give their children protection.

The result was always the same: the parent’s soul would be completely consumed, devoured by the parasitic system. But they did it anyway, for their child’s happiness and safety.

If Heena wasn’t wrong, Seraphina’s mother was either the first type—a loving transmigrator who’d arranged a system for her daughter before leaving—or the second type, who’d sacrificed herself to an illegal system to protect Seraphina.

Given that the system seemed illegal based on its behavior, there was a high chance it was the second option.

Which meant Seraphina’s mother had likely been consumed. Dead. Her soul destroyed to power the system that was now attached to Seraphina.

Heena took another drag from the cigarette, processing this.

It… complicated things.

Because if Seraphina had an illegal system—a parasitic entity feeding on her life force while granting her protagonist powers—that changed the game entirely.

Illegal systems were dangerous. Unpredictable. They didn’t follow the standard rules that legitimate transmigrator systems followed.

They could manipulate events more aggressively. Bend reality harder. Ignore normal narrative constraints.

Which would explain why Seraphina kept surviving situations that should have destroyed her. Why her protagonist halo, even weakened, still provided some protection.

“Host?” the System asked nervously. “What are you thinking?”

Heena exhaled smoke slowly, watching it curl into the night air.

’I’m thinking,’ she said mentally, ’that this just got a lot more complicated. And a lot more dangerous.’

’But also,’ she continued, a cold smile crossing her face, ’it means I know exactly how to destroy her completely.’

Because illegal systems had weaknesses. Vulnerabilities that legitimate systems didn’t have.

And Heena knew exactly how to exploit them.

She stubbed out the cigarette, her mind already working through the new strategy.

Behind her, Larus stirred slightly in his sleep, murmuring something incoherent.

Heena turned to look at him—at his peaceful, exhausted face, at the love bites she’d left on his neck and shoulders, at the man who’d just given himself to her completely.

Her expression softened.

Tomorrow would bring new battles. New strategies. New dangers.

But tonight—what remained of tonight—was still hers.

She walked back to the bed, slipping under the silk sheets, careful not to wake him.

Larus automatically shifted closer in his sleep, his arm wrapping around her waist, his face burrowing into her shoulder.

Heena allowed herself a small, genuine smile.

’System,’ she thought, ’start gathering data on illegal system vulnerabilities. I want a full report by tomorrow evening.’

“Yes, Host,” the System replied, already pulling up research files.

Heena closed her eyes, letting herself relax against Larus’s warmth.

The game had just changed.

But she was still going to win.

She always did.

.

.

After that night, four more nights passed by, and the workload was so intense that Heena sometimes felt like she was losing her mind.

Actually, that wasn’t quite accurate.

The problem ’wasn’t’ the workload.

The problem was that there was ’no actual work being done’.

Right now, Heena was sitting in the Grand Council chamber—the formal meeting space where the empire’s most important decisions were supposed to be made with dignity, decorum, and rational debate.

Instead, it looked like a goddamn chicken farm.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep