The sun was setting.
To complete the task assigned by the organization, Lauren didn’t go straight home after leaving Yuli’s house.
Instead, he brought Anne along and ambushed near Lian’s home, visiting her parents under the guise of a former lord.
After all, before the family’s territory was stripped away, Lauren’s father had maintained a good relationship with the former subjects.
What was truly unbearable was this:
As the small-time leader of a villain organization, why was it that the only subordinate he had was a single catgirl?
For something as important as snatching a saint, he had to step in personally just to save face.
As a villain, Lauren didn’t want to clash with Lian Camilla.
In the original plot, he simply kidnapped her halfway, which directly triggered the plot conflict and summoned a bunch of characters to his house for a free-for-all.
When there was clearly a smarter way to do things, why make trouble for yourself?
If his home got burned down like in the original plot, making his already poor family even worse off, Lauren would really be sweating buckets.
The best method he envisioned was deception.
How convenient that would be!
He had fabricated a grandiose excuse and directly approached her house under the guise of nobility, hoping to invite Lian to the mansion as a guest.
If done this way, he’d have reason and evidence, avoiding many conflicts and not worrying about the house being destroyed—truly a stroke of genius!
Though the idea was great!
For now, there was one problem.
Lauren fell before he could carry out his scheme.
To be precise, he fell at Anne’s feet.
“Boss, no way, meow!”
“Come with me, okay? Don’t bother with that woman! That short blonde named Lian isn’t the person you’re looking for, meow!”
When she learned that Lauren intended to go to Lian’s house, Anne, like a triggered Hachimi, activated her spiny-backed dragon form and started guarding her food.
Anne blocked Lauren’s path, directly hugging his waist and forcing him to stay put, unable to move an inch.
“Anne, let me go! I have to do this!”
Lauren’s attitude was unwavering.
How else would he level up?
How else would he get the subsequent rewards?
He wanted to use the credit from this task to recruit people from the Old Days Society and form his own villainous sub-branch.
Lauren had already planned out a smooth career path.
Relying on his prophetic knowledge of the game’s plot, he would gather talents from all sides, build a top-tier team to make money, meddle in national politics, restore his family’s glory, save the world on the side, and finally reach the pinnacle of life.
After safely surviving the villain’s death ending in this dog’s nest, completing a legendary life, he would retire gloriously and enjoy the peaceful countryside retirement of his dreams.
Too bad, before his imagined future could begin, Lauren was stopped by Anne.
“No way, meow, boss! I absolutely won’t agree, meow!”
This was the one thing Anne could never agree to.
Lian Camilla was her lifelong enemy, an existence absolutely unforgivable!
Hearing this, Lauren lost his temper.
“Are you, a maid, overstepping your bounds? Is the Skomat family yours or mine?!”
He activated his virtualization talent, slipping out of Anne’s grip, and barked sharply:
“I’m the head of this house! What did Lian ever do to you? I said I’m capturing her, so I will!”
But Lauren clearly underestimated Anne’s pathological possessiveness toward him.
Sure, Anne usually obeyed Lauren’s every whim, but that was only when his ideas matched her wishes.
Now, Lauren had clearly gone against her will.
Just as Lauren emerged from the shadows beside him, Anne caught his recovery animation and struck him with an unavoidable hand knife.
Lauren immediately felt like he couldn’t breathe! He collapsed weakly to the ground.
Lauren had overestimated his own villainous weakness.
In a game centered around selling yuri fluff, the female characters’ stats were just too high.
Even after leveling up, he still couldn’t beat his own cat maid.
Anne’s eyes turned icy as she looked down at Lauren.
“Boss, I’m protecting you, meow.”
“Even if you don’t agree, I’ll protect you for life, meow.”
While Lauren was knocked out by Anne and carried home,
on the other side, Lian was lying in ambush at the place where she had been kidnapped in her previous life.
Watching the sunset as the day darkened, she felt a strange unease.
“Lauren dear, where are you? Why aren’t you coming to kidnap me?”
“I already asked my mom for leave, just waiting for you, Lauren dear.”
“Let us reunite again. This time, we must achieve the perfect ending.”
She muttered to herself.
Lian crouched in the grass, hugging her knees.
As she waited, she unknowingly grew mentally exhausted and drifted off to sleep.
Night fell.
The sounds of insects, birds, and various small animals rustling ceaselessly filled the air.
It roused Lian from deep sleep.
She looked around—butterflies, mice, sparrows, rabbits… even bears and wolves.
Predator and prey alike had abandoned their conflicts, living in peace, gathered around her as if paying homage.
There was no shock on her face; she was clearly used to this.
At that moment, all the surrounding animals were staring at this glowing, mysterious being.
An unexplainable affinity surged into their unenlightened minds, making them want to stay by her side.
This was the passive effect of Lian’s innate talent, [Miracle Saint].
At night, she was like a little sun, making neutral monsters automatically friendly and stop attacking.
It was essentially a moving safe-haven campfire—essential for surviving in the wild.
After sleeping, Lian felt much more refreshed, and her mind was clearer.
She looked at the pitch-black surroundings.
It dawned on her belatedly:
“Is it already this late?”
Thinking back on today’s anomalies, she couldn’t help but reflect:
“How strange. Everything’s been off since earlier.”
“First, Lauren dear shouldn’t have come to the door at all. Little Yuli should have been the one to break the engagement.”
“And according to the information I already know, after the engagement is broken, Lauren dear should come with his maid to kidnap me.”
“Which part went wrong? I haven’t done anything yet. How could the established events have deviated?”
Lian analyzed carefully.
She had always been rational, good at thinking, and fond of planning.
For anything illogical, she quickly found an explanation that made sense to her.
“I was just reborn not long ago. Everything I’ve done has been too short in terms of time to push the later changes.”
“So, the factor driving all the changes isn’t on my side—it’s on Lauren dear’s side!”