Finding light in the darkest places—through love - Chapter 49 – Brushstrokes of the Future

In a world where magic intertwines with reality, a dying human girl named Elara awakens to find herself in a foreign land. The air smells of ancient forests, and the sky is painted with hues she’s never seen before. Before her stands the enigmatic Demon Queen, Seraphina, her eyes as cold as the ice that encases her throne.Seraphina proposes a desperate bargain: a contractual marriage between them. In exchange for Elara’s hand, Seraphina promises to save the crumbling human kingdom from impending doom. Elara, with nothing left to lose, accepts, thrust into a web of intrigue, danger, and forbidden emotions.As they embark on their perilous adventure, Elara discovers that Seraphina’s icy demeanor hides a tragic past. The Demon Queen’s power is unmatched, her wrath swift and merciless. Yet, beneath the frost, Elara glimpses vulnerability—a longing for connection that defies her ruthless reputation.

Past, present, and future, I will always want you.

Adeline had a plan to obtain her freedom:

Step one: kill the King.

Step two: run away and live happily ever after.

Did that happen? No.

Adeline’s plan was rudely interrupted by a mysterious, yet handsome stranger who stole her weapon at midnight.

Elias Luxton was a heartless King notorious for his merciless antics. He was the monster that lurked in the shadows.

Adeline Rose was a dethroned Princess with a dark past. After her parents’ murder and an super stealing her throne, she flees to the Empire of Wraith and unexpectedly meets Elias.

Elias claimed he knew her. But she didn't remember him. And Adeline wants nothing to do with him.

The problem? Adeline was supposed to kill him, but he wants to marry her.

Will she be able to escape the clutches of this shameless King? Or will she have to face the demons of her past, all alone?

When a terminally ill young man awakens in the world of his favorite childhood game, he realizes he isn’t the protagonist, the destined hero, or even a major side character. Instead, he has become an extra—a disowned noble barely clinging to relevance in a world where strength determines everything. Worse, his fate in the game was to die an early, meaningless death.Armed with only his knowledge of the game’s storyline and a common system that tracks his stats and skills, he is determined to survive. But mere survival isn’t enough. He remembers a hidden easter egg from a long-forgotten anime collaboration: the Mangekyō Sharingan—a power limited by game mechanics but unrestricted in reality.With Kamui as his trump card, he walks the fine line between fate and freedom, seizing power from the shadows while avoiding suspicion. As the protagonist and his allies battle against demons and unravel the game’s grand destiny, he secretly builds his own strength—manipulating events, mastering forgotten arts, and even forging ties with villainous factions.Will he remain a footnote in history, or will he carve his own legend in a world that was never meant to be his?

A number of university students are given a simple survey in which they must watch a number of short films and rank them in order of preference. The reader takes the survey along with them with the short films being told as short stories.