The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm - Chapter 118 - Leaving Secretly

A free spirit meets her match in all-around perfect bachelor whose humorlessness is his only flaw. When Xia Zhen reaches the unfortunate marriageable age, she is forced to go on a blind date where she meets Pei Cheng An. Her cunning plan is to pretend to be completely infatuated with her date in front of her mother, while sabotaging the actual relationship. Except Pei Cheng An isn’t the type to follow the script.

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In Xia Zhen’s opinion, Pei Cheng An is a person whose way of thinking belongs in the last century and whose manner of speaking reminds her of her grandpa. But since he looks dreamy and has qualifications, she’ll just pretend that she has fallen for him at first sight.

Eh? Pei Cheng An also finds her good enough to start a relationship with.

Great. Now when he finds out that she’s not a suitable partner for marriage and dumps her, she can return home all heartbroken and request to temporarily go on a brief no-blind-dates period. This is excellent. However…

“I’m so unreasonable. Why aren’t you breaking up with me?”

“A man should be tolerant towards his girlfriend.”

“I’m so mean to you. Why are you being so kind to me?”

“Girlfriends are meant to be spoiled.”

“I’m not gentle or considerate. Why aren’t you breaking up with me?”

“Likely it’s because… I like you.”

- Description from Novelupdates

One day, a silver-haired goddess appeared before him.“Heaven-Defying Star. The one who goes against fate. The sole savior of a world doomed to end—”What the hell is this woman even talking about?“You must be the Regressor.”“… What?”No, I’m not.

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.

“I want to be free…”Kaiser Solace always dreamed to be free—from responsibilities, expectations, limits, and even the laws that bound humanity. To him, freedom was ultimate pleasure—an intoxicating dream beyond reach.However, his dream was not something attainable. In truth, true freedom could never exist. Yet, in a world ruled by control and measured by power, Kaiser saw hope in the ability he awakened—[Freedom].Though, raw and incomplete, it fueled his resolve to pursue his dream. With that ability, he slowly carved a path the world had never witnessed—a path to absolute freedom.