Negut possessed all the memories of the identity he had taken on in this world. He knew very clearly that ever since he was born, the Burton family, which stood on equal footing with the Sterling family, had arranged a marriage between him and a girl of the same age from that family.
After that accident, when he became someone bound to a wheelchair, she immediately switched her target to Erik.
As recently as last month, after she awakened successfully and became an Awakened of rank C, she had made it even more obvious that she would side with Erik.
Now that Karen had brought up the engagement, it was definitely to humiliate him.
Both his hands clenched the wheels so tightly that his knuckles turned white and veins bulged on his thin hands, yet he still could not move the wheelchair at all.
Negut ground his teeth, feeling unbearably stifled inside.
Given the Sterling family's circumstances and the level of science and technology combined with magic in this world, his father could easily have given him an artificial leg and a new eye.
But they had not done so. They wanted him confined to a wheelchair, a clown for those around him, a stepping stone for Erik to trample on.
Seeing the expression on Negut's face, Karen's features twisted into a cruel, icy smile.
She waved her hand and pointed toward a table closest to the stage, smiling as she said, "Lady Selena, today is already a joyous day, and I hope it will become even more joyful."
Everyone's attention turned to a black haired woman with a rather pretty face and carefully applied makeup, about 160cm tall, who was carrying a bouquet of fresh flowers as she walked toward the stage.
At this moment, Erik pretended not to know what was going on and said with a smile, "Brother, your fiancée is really beautiful and kind. Even though you are in a wheelchair and only awakened a trashy Class rank F, she still brought flowers to congratulate you. It makes me jealous."
Hearing that, Negut was furious to the extreme. But his lungs were already very weak, and whenever he got angry his breathing would become chaotic, making him cough nonstop as his face turned pale.
Seeing this, Erik laughed mockingly. "Brother, are you all right? Even if you're happy, you should calm down a bit and pay more attention to your health."
Negut gritted his teeth and tried to calm himself, but as long as he remained here, there was no way he could truly calm down.
Selena, still holding the bouquet, walked up to stand in front of Negut. She was standing while he was seated in the wheelchair, so she had to bend down slightly to look at him.
However, Negut could feel just how full of contempt that gaze was.
Standing beside them, Karen curled her lips into a smirk and spoke loudly into the microphone, "Selena, I didn't expect you to prepare flowers so thoughtfully like this. Hurry now, give them to Negut."
She was afraid people would not know that Selena was his fiancée, so she spoke up again, deliberately emphasizing his name.
Negut clenched his teeth, feeling unbearably suffocated inside. Even though he had only just been brought to this world, he had inherited the memories and emotions of the past twenty one years here.
In the past, she had only been a girl abandoned by the Burton family, ignored by everyone, and it was he who had shared his resources and helped her study at the best academy in this region.
He wondered... he had given her the very best he had. When he became a cripple, even if she left him, he would not have held a grudge. But why did she have to use a method like this to keep grinding him further into the mud?
Selena took the microphone from Karen's hand and said coldly, "Negut. You are... not worthy of me."
As soon as those words left her mouth, the crowd started buzzing, though they were not particularly surprised.
After all, once Negut had his accident and became a cripple, Selena had already shifted her sights to Erik.
Now that Erik had become an Awakened of rank B, even a dog would know which one to choose between Negut and Erik.
After all, marriages between great families were primarily about benefits, while love was nothing more than trash.
If love was not part of the equation to begin with, then why not choose a slightly better partner?
Because of that, no one felt Selena was in the wrong. The one at fault was Negut. That was right, it was because he was useless that things had come to this.
Negut was seething with rage, his breathing ragged, but he still tried to stay calm inside, because he knew one thing very clearly. Thanks to the 2 Divine Favors, even if he could not become some great existence, he would at least be able to live a good life.
As long as he got through today, he... would finally be free.
Selena shot Negut a contemptuous glance, then looked toward Erik and spoke with a gentle smile, as if he were the only one in her eyes.
"Erik, congratulations on awakening successfully and becoming an Awakened of rank B. From now on, you will be a Dragon, soaring freely across the sky. Unlike a certain someone who is only rank F, doomed to spend his entire life wallowing in the mire."
Hearing Selena's words, Erik let out a cruel laugh, his mocking gaze sweeping over Negut before turning back to Selena as he pretended to be surprised.
"Selena, you… you are Negut's fiancée. How can you say such things?"
Selena shook her head and said, "I don't like him. I didn't like him in the past, I don't like him now, and I will never like him in the future. Erik, the one I like is you."
"But…" Erik pretended to stammer. "What about the engagement?"
Selena said with disdain, "That's just something the heads of our two families said. There's nothing legally binding about it. Who I love is my own right. Now that I've become an Awakened, people have even less right to interfere with my choices."
"Erik, I only love you. Can you accept my love?"
At that moment, Erik looked over at Negut, who was gasping for breath, and smiled coldly. "Brother, I'm really sorry. Love can't be forced. I think… I'm the one who can take care of her. After all, you're already crippled. You can't even take care of yourself, so how could you possibly take care of her?"
"That's right!" A man suddenly stood up, raising his glass with a laugh. "Young Master Erik and Lady Selena truly are a perfect match."
"You're absolutely right. Love can't be forced anyway. Besides, an engagement is just something the elders agreed on in the past. You can't use that to force the younger generation into love."
"Just look at them, it's obvious. Negut is a cripple, his mother is dead, and now he's nothing but trash."
Negut took a deep breath, intending to wheel himself away. At that exact moment, Karen suddenly unlocked the brake on his wheelchair, causing him to topple off the stage from the momentum.
Thud!
A heavy sound rang out as pain exploded throughout his body, especially in his back, making it feel as though his lungs were about to burst.
However, no one cared about him. Instead, their laughter only grew louder, as if they were watching a clown perform in a circus.
His father merely shook his head, wearing an expression of shame and disappointment, as though he wished Negut were not his son.
Negut had still been seething with anger, but when he remembered that this had been his choice, he calmed down.
That was right, this was his choice. He had no right to complain or whine. At the very least, this was the final gift he could give those four girls, repaying the love they had given him during the five years he spent in that world.
That gift would serve as a clean break between him and that world.
As Negut struggled to get up amid the mocking laughter of the crowd, the atmosphere suddenly grew oppressively heavy and terrifying.
"This is…" Billy was startled as he sensed the space around him shifting, as if it had turned into a thick swamp, making it difficult for him to move.
It was not just him. Everyone felt it. Their faces went pale, their expressions full of anxiety and panic.
"What the hell is this?"
"Could it be an Aberrant attack?"
"That's impossible! If Aberrants were attacking, the district alarm would've gone off already."
"But then… what on earth is happening?"
The laughter vanished, replaced by fear and unease, but no one could run, because their bodies simply would not move.
At that moment, at the entrance, a magic sigil emitting a blinding blood-red light appeared, accompanied by a voice filled with overwhelming majesty and icy coldness.
"It seems you've been enjoying yourselves quite a bit… bullying my man, haven't you?"