Devil Gambit - Chapter 10: The Devil Gambit 1

It’s the vacation of a lifetime, a trip to a remote island filled with geniuses and murder.

[Factory-Courtyard Life • Face-Slapping Matches • Hidden-Advantage Revenge • Rising Star at Work]Tian Xiang’s fiancé is stolen by her cousin—no big deal, plenty of fish in the sea.Then glowing words appear above the cousin’s head: “Reborn Heroine.”Tian Xiang blinks—she’s inside a 1970s harem-novel world where every character wears a flickering label:Big Villain • Tragic Second Male • White Lotus • Evil Mother-in-Law • Villain #1, #2, #3… and above her own head?“Silly-Sweet Cannon-Fodder.”Well, not anymore.Using her real-life job as a factory-union clerk, Tian Xiang rewrite her life script.She warns the other “harem extras,” sabotages the original male lead, and—oops—earns herself the new tag: “Ultimate Villainess.”The novel insists villains end in ruin.Tian Xiang’s reply: “If I’m going down, we’re all going down.”Meng Cheng’an—once a literal background prop, now upgrading in real time:Background NPC → Major Villain → Obsessed Lover → Yandere Husband → Shamelessly Devoted Spouse.The more chaos Tian Xiang stirs, the faster his labels evolve—until the final tag reads:“Her Partner-in-Crime—For Life.”

I, Maehara Maki, someone who couldn’t make any acquaintances or friends in high school, finally had someone I can hang out with outside of school. A girl.

Her name was Asanagi-san. The boys in my class called her ‘The class’ second cutest girl’ behind her back.

On Fridays, she would refuse her best friend, Amami, ‘the cutest girl in class’ invitation just to hang out in my house with me.

Together, we played games, watched some movies, read some manga while eating junk foods like pizza and hamburgers, and chugging cola without a care in the world. To others, we may seem sloppy, but it was a precious, secret time together for Asanagi-san and myself.

On the haunted mountain in the kingdom, they say there lived a witch.

She was born a princess. But even before her birth, the priest declared her to be cursed and demanded her death. They poisoned the mother to kill the baby before she gave birth, but the baby was born out of the dead mother—a cursed child.

Again and again, they tried to kill the baby but she miraculously survived every single attempt. Giving up, they abandoned her on the haunted mountain to die but she still survived on that barren land— A witch

‘Why won’t she die?’

Years later, the people finally had enough of the witch and decided to burn the mountain. But someone arrived to her rescue and took her with him from that burning place, because dying was not her destiny even then.

Draven Amaris.

The Black Dragon, who ruled over supernatural beings, the Devil who no one wished to cross a path with. He hated humans but this certain human girl would pull him towards her whenever she was in danger.

‘Is she really a human?’

The devil named this mysteriously tenacious girl “Ember”, a piece of glowing coal in a dying fire.

This is a tale of the man who brings death and the girl who denies it.