Chapter 40
“Yes, Karl. All done.”
I gently brushed the hair from his face and smiled in satisfaction.
It turned out quite well—an impressive success. Though, it was less thanks to my skills and more because Karl’s face completed the look.
“Your eyes are showing now. Makes you even prettier.”
He was a little thin, but he had fine bone structure. That decadent face of his was exactly my type.
‘After awakening as a Transcendent, he becomes even more handsome.’
Those dark crimson eyes, like a wild beast’s, stared straight into mine. Then he spoke.
“You’re the one who’s beautiful, Lady Odette.”
I blinked, surprised, and looked at Karl.
‘Was he always the type to say stuff like that?’
In The Garden of Thorns, I’d never seen Karl act this way. Even when Charlotte had maxed out his affection to 100, all he did was soften a little.
But I couldn’t stay shocked for long.
The first meteor streaked across the sky—a prelude to the mesmerizing event about to unfold.
One of the Karl route events in The Garden of Thorns: the Night Lake Event.
It was the first time Charlotte had raised Karl’s affection. The event went like this:
The villainess Odette was dragged away by the royal guards, and Charlotte visited the Count’s mansion, which had been left in disarray due to the search.
There, she discovered Karl, who had been locked up in the underground prison of a detached annex.
She freed him and took him to her mentor’s clinic by the lake.
As Karl regained consciousness, he stared blankly at the lake, while Charlotte quietly sat nearby.
The two remained silent, sitting together. Then two shooting stars fell, and Charlotte said:
“I once heard a story from a gypsy. In some distant tribe, they make wishes on falling stars. Isn’t that romantic?”
“……”
“Tell me your wish. Let’s each make one.”
“No, thank you.”
“Really? Then I’ll make both wishes. …Please, let Karl be happy. And… may that romantic tribe be happy, too.”
At her heartfelt wish, Karl looked up at the night sky—for the first time since the fall of the Kingdom of Fenril.
His homeland. His roots.
To Karl, Charlotte—who remembered the old customs of the Fenril tribe—brought a rare sense of warmth.
Though his expression remained cold, that was the moment his affection for Charlotte began to grow.
That’s why I was waiting for tonight’s meteor shower—to replicate the game event as closely as possible.
Unlike the other male leads, whose affection I could raise just by lowering their hatred, Karl required genuine affection points.
‘But there’s no affection meter in this world. And with that blank face of his, I can’t tell if it’s working or not.’
So my plan was to copy the in-game scene exactly. That one confirmed moment when affection definitely increased.
I remembered from my past life that the meteor shower on the last night of the founding festival was spectacular.
And soon enough, the meteor shower began.
Streaks of starlight crossed the night sky—a stunning display of countless stars.
The only unexpected thing was—
‘My god. I didn’t think it would be this beautiful—’
Even I, who was trying to use this moment, found myself overwhelmed.
A gasp slipped out before I could stop it.
“Wow—”
The river reflected the night sky perfectly, like a mirror image. It felt like standing in a universe showered with stars—utterly magical.
That’s when it happened. As if possessed, I suddenly remembered the ancient tongue of the Fenril tribe.
“『Descendant of the wolf that swallowed the sun. Do you, too, have a great wish?』”
Karl, who had been watching the meteor shower with dry eyes, flinched and turned to me with a startled look.
“How… how do you know our ancient language?”
‘Yeah… how do I know that?’
I had meant to mimic Charlotte’s line—“Tell me your wish”—not recite ancient Fenril.
But upon seeing the magical sight of the meteor shower, the voice of the in-game voice actor from The Garden of Thorns had echoed in my mind.
I was the one most surprised, but I smiled brazenly as if I’d meant to do it all along.
“I told you, didn’t I? I fell for your beautiful face. So I studied the Kingdom of Fenril as hard as I could. That’s all.”
I shrugged as if it were no big deal.
“Interest? That’s not something you can learn just from being ‘interested.’”
“So serious. Instead of arguing about that, just answer the question: do you have a great wish worth wishing on a meteor shower?”
Karl still looked unconvinced, but when I showed no sign of offering more explanation, he finally answered first.
“……No. I have no wish to make on stars.”
His moment of surprise had vanished without a trace.
Charlotte probably responded with something sweet here, like: “Please, let Karl be happy.”
That had raised his affection by one point, if I remembered right.
“Well… I suppose stars wouldn’t be able to grant your wish anyway.”
Sorry, but I couldn’t settle for a mere +1. If I wanted to wrap this up before Charlotte got here, I needed to bump that affection up by at least ten.
Even though he had every right to be offended by my cynical tone, Karl replied with a stony expression.
“Just because I’m lowborn doesn’t mean my wish is insignificant.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant your wish isn’t something to ask of the stars—it’s something to ask of people.”
“You speak as if you know what my wish is.”
“I do. You want to restore the ruined Kingdom of Fenril and give your people a proper burial. So their souls won’t vanish, and they’ll be able to reincarnate.”
I cut to the chase.
In that moment, Karl lunged forward and grabbed my throat.
There was killing intent in his grip. The look of a predator no longer pretending to be tame.
“Who are you, really?”
“…Karl.”
He squeezed just enough that I had to fight not to choke.
“That ancient language just now… Yes. It’s becoming clear. You’ve been secretly investigating the Kingdom of Fenril, haven’t you?”
How could I not know? The first thing you did after awakening as a Transcendent was retrieve your people’s remains.
If only I could tell you the truth.
“I didn’t investigate Fenril. I investigated you.”
If I wanted to survive this, I had to convince him I wasn’t a threat.
“I told you—I want you. So of course I know what your wish is.”
Maybe he decided I wasn’t dangerous, because the killing intent around him began to fade.
“And the question you should be asking isn’t ‘How do you know my wish?’ Didn’t I just say your wish is one that should be asked of a person?”
I met his eyes despite the pressure on my neck and said,
“The real question is: Can you make that wish come true for me? If you’re going to wish for it, wish not to the stars—but to me, your master.”
Karl asked in return,
“You… can really make it happen?”
In the early Karl route of the game, he told Charlotte his wish, but she was too poor to fulfill it.
So, to comfort him, she built a small grave in the palace garden and held a prayer ceremony. Just a symbolic memorial.
Even that modest gesture raised his affection by +5. Quite a jump.
Facing Karl, who was now letting go, I said,
“It won’t be free. You’ll have to travel to the tundra and recover all the bones buried under the snow.”
“……”
“Do you even know how much gold that’ll cost? I can’t do all that for nothing.”
Karl released my neck. He must have realized this was a huge opportunity.
That I genuinely meant to grant his deepest wish.
“But since you’re special to me, it won’t be too expensive.”
His earlier fury seemed completely gone. In a calm voice, Karl asked,
“What do you want in return? What must I do—?”
The way he stuttered at the end… it showed just how desperate he was.
Good. That’s the end of all the events that had netted +5 affection in the game.
Now, it was time to run the event that would give me the last five.
“Mark yourself as mine, Karl.”
Time to begin the final affection event.
