The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era - Chapter 844 - 843: Birthday Party Turmoil

He doesn’t want to be wanted for bounty, or be a pirate, but if there’s no other choice, he can only become a pirate…..

A dark soul, damaged by his past An angel forced to be his mistress. Can anything go right? Would they ever be able to fall in love? Will she be able to see past his darkness? Will he be able to protect her when danger comes knocking? Find out in this book... An Excerpt*

''You know what you are getting into, right?'' He asked, crossing his legs, he raised a brow;

Tiana's lips slanted and her eyes narrowed at him;

''As long as you pay me, I'll do whatever you want. '' Nicklaus was amazed by her sudden audaciousness;

but he was sure she was just trying to seem bold, He knew her, she was just a weak, trembling soul, and she was trying so hard to mask it;

A smirk appeared on his lips as a thought came into his mind; ''Whatever I want? ''

He asked again and Tiana replied immediately without a second thought;

''Yes, Mr. Nicklaus, whatever you want. ''

''Alright then, I want you to strip yourself and go lie down on the bed. ''

He did not have any thought of touching her; he just wanted to see her reaction. But what Tiana did next shocked him.

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.

The protagonist is an accidental time traveler - he didn't wait, didn't guess, only dreamed, but ended up in history, which he didn't pay much attention to. He was just lucky with his lineage.Ryo is a new member of the Nara clan, from the Uzumaki lineage on his father's side, and it so happened that he was born not at the beginning of the known plot, but more than three decades and two world wars later. Now he has to figure out how to get out of this situation however he can.