Return of The Alpha Heiress - Chapter 77: Richard – The Moonlight Selection

Angel Johnson was a waitress struggling to make ends meet when an unexpected contract with Tryson Bliss, one of City Y's most powerful and ruthless billionaires, changed everything.Tryson needed a fiancée to appease his demanding family, and Angel, desperate for money and a way out of her humdrum life, agreed to play the part.What began as a calculated arrangement soon evolved into something neither of them expected—an intense and forbidden connection.But when Tryson's family uncovers Angel's true motives, they cast her out with venomous disdain.Humiliated and heartbroken, Angel's last hope is confronting Tryson. But instead of an apology or a chance at redemption, she finds herself shattered when he declares that he has chosen his first love, Riley, the woman he was preparing to marry.Devastated and with only her pride left, Angel walks away, determined to rebuild her life alone.Two months later, Angel is lost in the pulse of the music at a dark, crowded bar, seeking refuge in anonymity.A hand seizes her from behind, and her breath catches as she turns to face the man she can't forget—Tryson.His eyes, once cold and calculating, are now stormy with raw emotion, and he pulls her into his orbit, holding out the contract she once signed. “We haven't finished our work, Angel. The contract says you have a year left to be my fiancée. Don't tell me you're planning on breaching it now.”With no choice but to comply, Angel moves back into the house that once rejected her.But to her surprise, the family she once loathed now welcomes her with unexpected warmth and kindness.As she navigates this unsettling shift, Angel is left to wonder—what has changed, and why?What secrets do they hide that could alter everything she thought she knew about Tryson and his family?And as Angel's heart begins to thaw, she's confronted with the hardest question of all: Can she keep the secrets she's hidden from Tryson?And will Tryson fight for her love a second time, despite everything that has come between them?

Birth rates are decreasing. Hope is vanishing. The world has gone gray.Humanity, drifting in quiet collapse, receives an email.Every person on Earth. Simultaneously.The Aegis Mandate.Disguised as a cosmic aptitude test, it triggers The Incident of Separation—a global psychic cataclysm that erases identities, wipes memories, and divides all survivors into three factions: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. Overnight, cities become battlegrounds. Apartments become dungeons. Ordinary people become monsters—or the ones who hunt them.Ragnar Vhagar was just a loner university student. Now, thanks to a system he didn’t ask for, he’s a newly minted Demon King, locked in a crumbling apartment with goblins under his sofa and a glowing soul crystal next to his frozen peas. His new job? Build a deadly domain, defend it from invading “Heroes,” and somehow level up fast enough to not die.Alongside him is Isabelle Thorne, a razor-sharp warrior of few words and one very sharp sword. Their reluctant alliance, born in blood and snark, evolves into trust—and maybe something dangerously close to affection—as they rise together through the layers of the game-like world they’re trapped in.With each conquered domain and defeated boss, Ragnar realizes the truth: the dungeons aren’t meant to crown a winner. They’re meant to break the players. The Law faction wants control. The Chaos faction craves destruction. But Ragnar? He wants something they’re all too afraid to say out loud:Freedom.In the ruins of Kanta’s ogre stronghold, Ragnar and his misfit warband take their biggest step yet—claiming a kingdom, unifying a fractured system, and preparing for what comes next. The Heroes are watching. The gods are stirring. The world is watching a war.And somewhere deep beneath it all... Ragnar is rewriting the rules.

[COMPLETE] Can a royal Romeo and Juliet find their happy ending?

Ayleth, Princess of Zenithra, is secretly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and collects swear words she doesn't know how to use. During the Festival of Peace, in which every royal son on the continent will be at the castle for a month, she is instructed by her parents to find a husband. Yet, Ayleth has never even been kissed—until the very first ball, when she meets the man in the Lion mask.

Etan is a seasoned warrior, and the Prince of Summitras. He attends the Festival hoping to find a powerful wife who will help him conquer the dark sorcery of their bloodsworn enemies, the Kingdom of Zenithra. But at the very first ball, he discovers the masked woman who captures his heart is the Heir to the evil empire.

Ayleth and Etan face an impossible battle. Will their love survive? Or will their parents' dark dealings keep them apart forever?

[Mature content. No sexual violence.]

******

“You…” She stepped back. Then back again, her mouth dropped open. “You… You cannot be…”

“I am,” Etan said, and his hair raked back as he pushed his mask off his handsome face. So handsome her heart raced.

His hair was ebony black, his skin a warm brown that threatened to fade in in the winter months. He stared at her with glittering green eyes, over high cheekbones and a noble nose, his jaw tight and shadowed this late in the day. His chin was high over the pillar of his neck that she’d just touched with its hard lines and steel strength, so different to her own. And his chest... She gasped and covered her eyes. She’d humiliated herself revealing her stupid, childish curiosity.

“No, Ayleth. This changes nothing.”

“How can you say that? It changes everything!” She was horrified to realize she was crying.

“Ayleth, please.” His voice cracked on the plea and she stared at him, shoving her mask up and off, despite how it would pull her hair out of the beautiful twist the maid had managed for her.

His eyes locked on hers and she couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.

She had met her One. And he was the son of her bloodsworn enemy.

She stared at him as he stepped forward again, offering both hands, palm up. “Touch me,” he whispered. “Hold my hands. This is real, Ayleth. I don’t know how it happened, but this is real. Please don’t deny it.”

She couldn’t resist. She raised a trembling hand to his cheek, letting her palm catch on the scruff of his jaw. He blew out a breath and put his hand over hers, and that jolt that happened whenever they touched shivered through her again.

“Please, Ayleth.”

“I cannot deny it,” she whispered.

25-year-old Albion lived an unimpressive parasitic life of a NEET and otaku, leeching off his loving parent's allowances to enjoy watching animes, reading manga and novels at home.When faced with the cruel reality of contracting cancer through smoking, he selfishly ran away from home and sacrificed his life on a strange day of drastic changes.'Since I'm going to die anyway, let me save another life in exchange.'Those were his thoughts before shoving a person out of harm's way and getting struck by a truck.'If I could get a second chance, I want to live a fulfilling life and not waste it like this.'However, Albion's new life resolution was quickly challenged by a stroke of divine providence.“What? I'm not dead yet? Holy cow, I transmigrated into the body of a notorious hidden boss who controls half the world's wealth in an alternate universe after he failed his heavenly tribulation? I never have to worry about money? I can live forever? Lucky me!”Albion thought he had shot to the peak of life, but he could not be more wrong. The immortal body was too strong for a mortal soul like him to control. He can only move for 5 minutes a day!He became immobile and paralyzed for the rest of the time! The Four Horsemen of the Dark Emperor thought he was crippled and turned on him! They couldn't kill him physically due to his invincible body so they dropped him to the bottom of the ocean to drown!His body was immortal. He could not die.Thus, he lived the following life in the dark depths of the ocean before being swallowed into the stomach of a giant sea serpent!Before he could enjoy his new life, he had sunk to the lowest point of his life, literally!However, the world rapidly changed after the notorious True Immortal disappeared for two years! The Apocalypse arrived, and so too, the System!Ding![You have slain a Lv.1 ancient sea serpent. 100 EXP has been gained.][You have leveled up.][You have become a Lv.2 Hunter.][Title acquired: Hunter.]Albion: ???“Did the sea serpent get food poisoning and died from eating me or something?” Albion wondered in the pit of the sea serpent's stomach.[System calibration complete. Goldfinger has been activated.]“Never mind, my time has come! With the system in hand, I will take back everything and rule the w–wait, what? This body's cultivation needs to be sealed in order for me to move freely without impairments?”“Sigh, forget it, ruling the world is too hard. I'm a wanted man anyway. Let's just hide somewhere, watch my animes, and reading my manga and novels…”Albion was nerfed harder than the Big Bang at the beginning of time. However, what's his, will still be his.“Until my soul becomes strong enough to fully wield this power, I'll just treat it as a 5-minute Super Saiyan mode I can enjoy once a day…”He was not the Dark Emperor, but the Dark Emperor was now him. The Four Horsemen that turned on him, their day of retribution will come!Little did Albion know, the world had more things in store for him than his quest for vengeance. The dimensional rifts that appeared everywhere and the interdimensional creatures that spilled forth from there are actually…!Find out on the next episode of drag–Ahem, to be continued.