The Debt Of Fate - Chapter 36: played Beautifully

Chi Xiaochi: fourth-rate citizen at birth, three-time award-winning film emperor, second-rate temper, first-class looks. He crawled his way out of hell on hard mode to become a winner at life.

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

Is magic really a wish machine?

No! In a universe where magic actually exists, the ultimate nature of magic must be as simple and beautiful as the laws of physics.

This is the story of a mass-produced magic warfare tool man who learned the ultimate nature of magic.

But so what?

Just as a bird can fly without understanding aerodynamics, so a wizard does not need to understand the ultimate nature of magic to use magic.

Knowing the ultimate nature of magic does not mean that the tool man can become a great magician.

But the desire for knowledge is human instinct, and curiosity is the first driving force of human civilization. Humans hope to understand the inner workings of magic, even if it is supposed to be unreasonable.

An inquiry into the ultimate nature of magic, without any justification!

The story in the book takes place in an age where steel dances with gunpowder.

Here, muskets are in the ascendant, armor is still the protagonist, military theories are changing with each passing day, and innovations in systems and craftsmanship are emerging one after another. And this world has one more thing than ours: magic.

The world is undergoing earth-shaking changes, and no one can stay out of it.

- Description from novelbuddy