"This is why I said I was negotiating my death because for me," I continued with a bitter smile on my lips, "this isn't just a deal, this is my life and if it's going to end the same way… if I'm going to keep suffering helplessly…"

I leaned in.

"…then I would rather die on my own terms this time."

That's how, my friend, you scam a woman strong enough to squash you with a mere breath.

I have been calling her 'Mom' on purpose.

I mean, people tend to trust those who act close, even if they never were, more than they trust the ones who truly are but choose to stay distant.

It's strange, isn't it? How affection, even when forged, has more weight than honesty ever could.

Still, I couldn't end my act just here.

I had already spun the web too deep and made her believe she was a wicked witch, the one destined to bring ruin upon her own grandchildren.

And me… I was the saviour.

The benevolent, charming son-in-law from the future, willing to defy time itself for her daughter's sake.

And the more I spoke with that desperation… the more my lie began to sound like the truth to her.

Hell, even I was starting to believe my act.

Still, I had one crucial thing left to do.

Sure, I had spun enough emotion into my words to soften her hand, to make sure she would engage me with Arza and not kill me but you can never really be sure, can you?

I had made her believe everything I wanted her to…but I hadn't made her understand my value yet.

You see, I told her about the Book of King and that opening it would bring her daughter's destruction but I never told her why she needed me.

I mean, what's stopping her from simply never opening it? She could live her whole life without touching that damned thing.

So why keep me, the stranger who knows too much and the man who might be lying, alive?

I wouldn't have, if I were in her place.

The reason she would leave me alive now was because of the emotions.

But emotions are useless and fickle… especially ones born from a timeline that doesn't even exist and was made up completely by me.

I couldn't rely on that alone. So, I decided to give her one more reason to let me breathe.

Her hand was still on my neck, held there by mine.

I met her eyes.

"But… if you would," I whispered, voice trembling just enough, "please kill me after I make sure my Arza isn't harmed."

I swallowed hard, forcing the desperation to sound real.

"I'm even ready to sign a soul contract with you and bind myself completely but please… let me stay by her side for a while."

"Engage me to her and let me live just long enough to find a way to open the Book of Kings safely and see the smile on her face once again."

My gaze dropped.

"After all… it is the reason behind all this misery."

"What do you mean?" Morvana asked.

She had been right at the point where I wanted her and now it was time to solidify my need.

"Right after the Book destroyed our family…" I said softly, watching her face. "You told me the truth behind the Book and why were you trying to open it."

Morvana's eyes trembled, her grip loosening ever so slightly.

"You spoke in riddles," I continued with my voice low and reverent, like I was reciting a prophecy. "About the destruction of the world… about how everything you did was necessary. And you even mentioned a way to stop it."

In truth, I was just another fraud like some fake seer, trying to sell lies and half-truths into something holy.

But that's how belief works, doesn't it?

You don't need the truth to sound convincing.

You just need enough truth to make the lie feel inevitable.

"What… what did I say?" Morvana asked, her hands finally slipping from my neck.

A smile almost appeared onto my lips but I controlled it and instead stared into her violet eyes.

"I don't remember," I said quietly. "The system… It placed restrictions on me in exchange for my memories."

I let my voice falter just slightly.

"They'll only unlock as I grow stronger."

And that… is how through a bullshit story and a handful of borrowed emotions, you turn yourself into something valuable.

Now, Morvana would want to keep me alive… maybe even help me grow stronger, at least to a point.

I knew she wouldn't babysit me.

One of the iron laws of the Demon Realm is to never interfere in a student's growth.

But she would shield me from political trouble and that was enough.

The rest… the real challenges, the fights and the enemies, those would be mine to handle.

And honestly? I preferred it that way.

No matter how much I hate that damn trickster, he was right about one thing: people don't grow without adversaries.

As for the soul-contract part… yeah, those things don't affect me. I could sign a hundred of them and still walk away smiling.

__

Phew, that was kind of difficult.

I couldn't help but think as I walked down the hallway of Morvana's office building.

There were a lot of paintings hung on the wall but I didn't care enough to enjoy them because I was too damn happy with myself.

I had succeeded.

I had secured my backing, tied one of the strongest women alive to my cause and even managed to make one of the future's strongest beings my fiancée.

After a short, civil discussion about a few final details, Morvana and I signed the soul contract.

It wasn't complicated.

Still, I had to give her credit, no matter how easily she seemed to fall for my scam, Morvana was a damn smart woman.

Honestly, the only reason I managed to fool her at all was because of my Nexus and a few of the Myths that had my back.

Without them, I wouldn't have walked out of that room alive, even as the Demon King's successor.

She accepted my demands, sure… but I would be an idiot to think she did it for some flowery, sentimental reason.

I tried everything — guilt, emotional pressure, desperation — to make her soften toward me. To feel something real.

But deep down, I knew it hadn't really worked.

She acted like it did.

She smiled in all the right places.

But the little things gave her away, the flicker in her eyes, the trembling of her hand, the way her breathing stayed too steady when it shouldn't have.

Hell, I am saying this now but even I was nearly fooled… until I signed that soul contract.

For a moment, I actually thought I had won.

But that damn demoness witch had just been acting the whole time.

The contract I signed with her looked simple on paper but beneath the ink, it was laced with death flags. In a way, it stripped me down to nothing more than Arza's slave.

The first clause was harmless enough, a simple admission that everything I had said was true.

The second one, though, was where she shifted the game. She bound me to silence by forbidding me from sharing the secret I had told her with anyone, all under the noble pretext of "protecting the secrecy of the Book of Kings."

And the third… The third clause sealed the noose.

Morvana would have the right to kill me at any time, for any reason, no matter my strength if I ever become a threat.

But the fourth one… the fourth was the cruelest.

It stated that I would never become her enemy and that I would never act against her interests, no matter the circumstance.

And I signed all that bullshit as blind romantic idiot I was supposed be… but like hell any of it had any effect on me.

But that moment made me realize something important… other people can act too.

If I hadn't been paranoid… if I hadn't baited her into believing I still had information locked away, waiting to awaken with time… she wouldn't have signed that contract.

She would have just killed me.

But because I was paranoid… because I played the part of a man who might still be useful, I lived.

It was terrifying… and exhilarating.

Because playing games with dumb people was boring as hell.

I would rather go up against the smart ones, the ones who could bite back, who could actually make me bleed a little.

Beating them at their own game… that's where the real fun begins after all.

I spotted the exit door ahead and walked straight out without a hint of hesitation.

But the moment I stepped through it that's when it hit me.

I was so fucking screwed.

How the hell was I supposed to get to the dorms now?!

—

The book's title is changing soon to

VILLAIN RISING: RISE OF ARCANE TRICKSTER GOD.

The current title's good but it doesn't align perfectly with the story's deeper direction. The new one ties directly into the plot… though the "Villain Rising" part won't make full sense until much, much later 😈

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