The Male Lead isn't Following the Script!
Chapter 34: Holy Temple

Chapter 34: Holy Temple

Getting ahold of a knife wasn’t hard. The Holy Temple was anything but Holy. The servants would be harmed on purpose for them to practice healing... They are brainwashed to think it is for the greater good, that they were here to serve a purpose and that purpose is to spread the Divine word of the Goddess. Their pain only brought them closer to her.

The cause of her misery would be the one that would set her free. The knife is the key. This time her hand wasn’t shivering. She couldn’t afford to. She had only one chance.

Edward won’t change, he will never change. If she lets him live, he will try to destroy her. A second chance is hard to come by, she would never let it slip from her hands.

His name echoed in her mind, a curse. She hated him more than she had ever hated anyone. He had been the one who betrayed her, the one who stripped her of everything in her past life. Her power. Her title. Her life.

He had watched her fall, watched as she lost it all, and he hadn’t cared. Worse than that, he had been the reason she fell. It was his obsession with her, his twisted need to use her, that had led to her death.

"Stop it! Don’t be like that in public!"

She heard two voices that were knee-deep in debauchery. It should’ve been a sacred place, but it had long been defiled. There was no guarantee that two people who possessed holy powers could make a child that could inherit their powers.

However, if either of the parents possessed holy powers there is a significantly higher chance for the child to possess those powers compared to a child born from ordinary humans. Using that as an excuse, the priests are encouraged to procreate and bring forth the gift of healing to mankind.

Annora hated every part of this temple and wished to tear it down. Ignoring their voices she made her way to boys’ dormitories. This wasn’t her first time here, they used to sneak into each other’s rooms and keep each other company. That was how they found solace in this lonely ’home’.

There he was, sleeping so soundly. He was the favourite of the priests. His white hair symbolised purity, and he had incredible holy powers. His room was far better than the others. That was why she would go over there more often than he would go over to her room.

This would be her only chance. He was a genius and he was an equally sadistic man. Did he grow up to be like that? No, he was always like that. But she was oblivious to it. She tested him and realised he would never change.

It would be easier to kill him while he was still a child. She didn’t care if she would be a sinner. She had already experienced hell once, what difference would it make?

Her heart was in her throat and she could barely breathe. She made her way over to his bed slowly, she was grateful that his back faced him, she might have broken down if she had seen his face. She held her breath and raised the knife. One fell swoop, that’s it.

She couldn’t tell what she was feeling. Nervousness? Excitement? Blood was rushing to her head and with all her effort she brought down the knife to strike him right in the heart.

"What are you doing, Nora?"

He caught her hand as if he expected this to happen. Annora collapsed. He was... He was awake! She held her head with her two hands trying to stabilise herself. Quick, sharp breaths she took were stabbing her in the chest. She couldn’t look up and face him, she didn’t dare to.

The knife was in his hands now. He stared at it before throwing it on his bed.

"I’ve been observing you for a while, Nora. You finally dropped the act."

What did he know? Annora couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation. Did he sense that she was reborn? It became hard for her to focus her eyes, she struggled to look at Edward. All the horrors she faced towards the end of her previous life came crashing in. All the fear, and resentment bubbled over, it was more than she could handle.

"It was quite pathetic of you to run over to Dimitri as soon as you came back."

She ferociously grabbed him by his shoulders, "You- You came back too?!"

"What do you think? You drugged me, tried to take back your powers and used it to come back. Forbidden magic... You really gave it your all... Why? Did you really think you could change your future? You’re as pathetic as I remember."

What? How did he come back? Annora understood nothing, she felt like she was going to faint any second.

"Why are you here?" he asked, his tone indifferent. "Come to beg for forgiveness? Or are you here to finish what you started?"

She was losing her mind, ’beg for forgiveness?’ the fact that he thought she would even consider doing that!

"Well, there is one change. I am not interested in you anymore. You are no longer the pure vessel I am after. You really ruined everything by using forbidden magic. So infuriating. Leave before I kill you."

She scrambled to get out of the room. Those grey eyes lacked any life, not that they had any to begin with. But there was a sort of obsession in his eyes she was used to. A kind of desire that she used to flatter herself in the past life before it all went awry. That desire no longer existed. He looked at her like she was an insignificant insect.

She didn’t know whether to be happy or devastated. She loathed him. It was the kind of hatred that would last lifetimes, but she was used to his obsessiveness, once he let her go... She felt at a loss.

The Goddess promised that she would give her a second chance... A chance at happiness... What was going to happen now?