Wait, System! Stop Helping The Protagonist!

"Sister, what about me?" Anastasia spoke with raging anger hidden behind her voice.

She had been standing in front of Ashton the entire time, but her sister, who always showed concern for her, was directly behind her on a man for so long. ’Is this still the sister I know? What happened to our sisterly bond?’

"Oh," Yalina, who was instructing about everything and listening to Ashton’s advice too, acted surprised hearing her sister. She smacked her mouth in guilt. "I am sorry, Anastasia. I am very concerned about you. So I am properly reminding everything to this royal retainer of yours."

"Really?"

"Really."

Anastasia could only let it go. She knew she had lost her sister. So she glared at Ashton behind her.

Ashton knew he had to end this fast or something unspeakable might happen. "Yalina, we have to leave now or we might have to travel at night. I will try to contact you using the Soul-link butterfly."

Yalina clapped her hands in delight. "That would be best. Be sure to always report everything to me. You don’t want me to always stay anxious, right?"

"How could I?" Ashton laughed to himself before turning towards Krestic, who had a black line on his forehead. "Sir Krestic, we will take our leave."

Without waiting for Krestic’s response, Ashton opened the carriage door and beckoned Anastasia to enter. "Please."

Anastasia also complied, as she also didn’t stay here any longer.

Waving his hand at Yalina for goodbye, their carriage slowly disappeared in the distance.

Yalina trotted away inside the mansion, giggling to herself.

Seeing his eldest daughter like this, Krestic let out a helpless sigh. "After my wife died, Yalina always appeared lonely and tried her best to appear kind. She didn’t let anyone see the sadness inside her. Say Butler Shen, should I be happy despite having deep feelings toward a servant?"

"I do not know, Master." Despite his master asking for a confirmation from him, Butler Shen knew he didn’t have the right to influence family matters. However, he could vaguely give some ambiguous answers. "But I have not seen Miss Yalina like this since the mistress died. The mistress would be happy seeing her beloved daughter return to her true nature."

A smile finally appeared on Krestic’s face. "You are right. Her mother would be so happy to know about this, and she would even encourage her daughter to go for it. Give ideas, her blessings, her care..."

Butler Shen stood quiet, letting his master be reminiscent of his wife.

After Krestic was done, he headed inside the mansion while saying to Butler Shen. "Come, we still have a lot of work left. I vow to the lord below we will finish this ceremony after one year."

...

Inside the carriage.

Ashton and Anastasia swayed left and right, sometimes launching up from their seats a little.

An awkward silence permitted throughout the cabin.

Anastasia squinted her eyes, resting her gaze on Ashton.

On the other hand, Ashton had his arms crossed. He rested, closing his eyes.

Eventually the silence was broken by Anastasia. "Tell me, how did you make my sister fall for you?"

"If I say it was purely coincidence, would you believe me?" Ashton chuckled helplessly. "Maybe we share the same worldview."

"I don’t believe in it."

"Well, what can I say then? You said it yourself; you don’t believe me. It won’t change even if I explain it properly." Ashton shrugged his shoulders.

"Of course I won’t believe you. You are a filthy liar. You are also lying about your Life Ring. I know you aren’t at refinement 1 anymore." Anastasia had only known him for one week, but in this one week she felt she had been lied to too many times. He will say one thing but do another. There is nothing consistent with his words!

Ashton just shook his head, not wanting to delve into this topic. Because he knew himself the best. He had indeed lied to this female lead many times. The most glaring one being his Life Ring. She had noticed the weirdness of it when she sparred with him. Despite winning, she instinctively felt she was underestimated, and she knew this because Butler Shen also gave this feeling when she fought with those Life Essence Boosters; he had only reached Bronze, Refinement 2, in just two days. Now he is almost one third into refinement 3.

One might say this is too fast, but against those true geniuses in the stars, especially the protagonist, it’s nothing.

Seeing Anastasia not letting this matter go, Ashton decided to divert the attention to another topic. "Miss Anastasia, as your royal retainer, can I attend classes too?"

Finding the bait to berate Ashton, Anastasia bit it without any hesitation. "Hmph! Stop dreaming. No matter how high your ambition is, you won’t ever be able to enroll in an academy. You know why? It’s because you have become my royal retainer. Sealing your fate for serving me for eternity."

"Oh!" Ashton appeared surprised, but inwardly he was sneering. ’You are lucky to have the protagonist fall in for you. Without him, you would have been dead alongside the world.’

Ashton already has a plan formed inside his head as to how he could weaken Krestic and sweep away without anyone paying attention to him.

However, Ashton had to retaliate to this beration, as he had many times already. He rubbed his chin and asked, dumbfounded. "Miss Anastasia. How can you live for eternity? I have already told you that you will one day die, and I will be free by then. Ahhh... not everyone can live long."

"ASH-TON!" Anastasia shrieked out loud, scaring away the animals in the forest. "You will die. You will die without marrying anyone! Die a virgin, you peasant!"

To this, Ashton just shook his head in sadness. "Miss, how can you say that? Yalina will become the first woman to become a widow without marriage."

"ASHTOOOOOOOOONNNN!"