A slight warmth touched his face. Lauren’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as he opened his eyes and saw the bright daylight outside.
“Looks like it’s already morning.”
He sat up in bed, looking around his room, his heart full of fear.
He couldn’t help muttering,
“What the hell, why am I here!”
The moment he saw the daylight, Lauren suddenly realized.
“How long was I asleep!”
Remembering what happened yesterday, Lauren couldn’t help covering his head, feeling a headache coming on.
“That’s right, I clearly planned to ambush Li An yesterday. I was going to catch her… and then I got knocked out by Anne!”
At the thought, Lauren felt a surge of anger.
The maid who seemed most loyal would actually betray her master like this—it was a total rebellion!
The betrayal was truly unforgettable!
Lauren couldn’t help sighing.
“I need to stabilize Anne first. I absolutely can’t let her cause me more trouble again.”
On this matter, he had clearly learned from yesterday’s lesson.
He never would have thought that Anne, who usually obeyed him in everything, would directly knock him out and carry him home.
This forced him to consider the maid Anne’s feelings.
Although he didn’t know why the normally calm Anne had such strong hostility toward the never-before-met Li An, Lauren didn’t want to dwell on it for now.
After all, he could never have imagined that Anne would be the biggest obstacle on his path to completing the System Quest and getting stronger.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take a firmer stance with Anne.
But the awkward truth was that he couldn’t beat her!
“Hmph! She dared to put me in a headlock that many times. For now, I’ll lie low and bide my time. Once I’m strong and well-equipped, I’ll make that little cat know what it means to cross her master!”
‘I swear, next time I won’t be so humiliated.’
Having made up his mind, Lauren decided to call Anne over and discuss this matter thoroughly.
He cleared his throat and called out to the outside.
“Anne…”
There was no response for a moment.
“Strange?”
Lauren was puzzled.
Anne usually responded to him almost instantly, arriving at the first call.
So why was she nowhere to be seen today?
Not believing it, he shouted again.
“Anne!!!”
The air remained quiet for a long time. Still no response.
“Anne! Anne! Anne!”
“We love you!”
“No, no, no.”
Lauren shook his head. He had accidentally slipped into a different role.
Well, Lauren could now be sure Anne really wasn’t here.
He decided to get up and walk around to find her.
He opened his room’s door and looked to both sides.
“Anne?”
Unfortunately, there was no sign of her lively, catlike figure.
Really disappointed.
Lauren had thought Anne was hiding to surprise him.
Walking down the mansion’s long corridor, watching the shadows cast by the sunlight through each floor-to-ceiling window, it felt like a series of doors leading to light, giving off a strange sense of sacredness.
The silence was almost unnatural.
Lauren didn’t speak either; only the clatter of his shoes could be heard in the air.
Empty, desolate—that was the true appearance of Skomet Mansion.
But even though no one lived here anymore, every corner of the mansion was still spotless.
He knew that was Anne’s doing.
She wouldn’t let the things she valued gather dust; she always kept them shiny.
Anne had said she was a sentimental person who couldn’t bear to let go.
And now, alone in the vast mansion without Anne’s usual loud antics, Lauren felt unaccustomed.
Without Anne’s vitality, an endless sense of loneliness surged like a tide.
Lauren realized then that Anne was an indispensable part of this mansion, shining like the sun over this place.
If not for Anne’s company, the boy named Lauren might have gone mad long ago.
He remembered that in the original game, Floral Fantasy Poem, the flower designated to represent Anne was the vibrant sunflower.
Silent love, also representing sunshine, hope, loyalty, adoration, and the pursuit of light.
At this thought, Lauren couldn’t help but smile slightly.
That fit Anne’s personality perfectly.
Except for her occasional stubbornness and outbursts of possessiveness, Anne was practically the perfect maid.
As Lauren walked forward, he looked outside following the source of light.
Beyond the first floor-to-ceiling window, dense clusters of trees created a lush green scene.
Beyond the second, wheat fields and gardens were neatly arranged, a vibrant, thriving sight.
Beyond the third floor-to-ceiling window, the outer wall of his own mansion had collapsed into a heap of rubble.
Wait, rubble?
As Lauren passed the third window, he realized it and widened his eyes, stepping back to look again.
“What the hell happened!”
Lauren pressed against the window and looked down.
A huge section of the wall in front of his house had been smashed in, as if it had been ransacked by bandits.
No, a simple bandit raid couldn’t have caused such severe damage.
Lauren’s steps quickened.
As he hurried past the second floor, the more he saw, the more alarmed he became.
Not only was the front yard full of pits and craters, but even the forest outside had trees toppled in clusters.
Judging by the orderly pattern of destruction, this was clearly man-made.
By now, Lauren had some expectations about Anne’s whereabouts.
He pushed open the front door and hurriedly walked toward the direction of the destruction, worried.
He was very concerned about his little maid’s safety.
There weren’t many characters in the original game who could force Anne into such a hard fight.
But the area he was in was supposed to be the starting village.
How could such powerful enemies have come here?
Lauren’s mind raced with guesses.
“Could the first act’s boss have arrived early? Did Anne get into a conflict with it?”
Lauren thought this result was highly likely!
Other than the first act’s boss, no other character could rival Anne—not even the protagonist, Yuli.
At this point, she was still a budding sprout, barely level ten.
Trying to fight a late-game level 80 boss?
The area ahead was not yet open. Come back in another life!
“Ah!”
Lauren couldn’t help sighing, blaming himself.
He thought it was because he had changed the plot too much that this series of events occurred.
Anne’s actions had deviated from the original plot and become unpredictable.
And he hadn’t taken responsibility to properly protect Anne, to prevent her from suddenly stepping into dangerous incidents.
“No, it’s because I’m too weak!”
As Lauren walked deeper into the forest, he reproached himself in frustration.
If he were just a little stronger than Anne, he wouldn’t be so powerless in events like this.
He hoped Anne hadn’t met with misfortune because of his mistakes.