Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads

Chapter 469: Chapter-469

And then, there was the ultimate problem: permanent death.

God only knew how many arrogant agents had lost their actual lives because they underestimated a physical injury in a primitive world. So, the System truly could not fathom why Heena had taken such a reckless, dangerous step. Throwing herself backward onto the hard ground wasn’t just a simple parlor trick to fake an injury. There were rocks, hidden roots, and uneven packed dirt out in that courtyard. A single sharp stone to the wrong part of her skull could have caused a fatal brain hemorrhage. Letting her host body suffer such severe, genuine trauma made absolutely no logical sense.

Soon, three hours passed. The night deepened, casting heavy shadows over the Marcuset estate.

Outside Heena’s mind, the physical world was descending into absolute chaos.

The old Marquis was pacing the floor like a caged, bloodthirsty bear. He repeatedly demanded to know why his granddaughter wasn’t waking up. The terrified physicians, trembling under his murderous aura, could only wipe the cold sweat from their foreheads and beg the General to let her rest, hoping the concussion would simply sleep itself off.

But the rest didn’t end.

Three hours slowly dragged into two agonizing days.

For forty-eight straight hours, Heena did not open her eyes.

The Marcuset estate went into complete martial lockdown. The grandfather had literally gutted the beautiful, aristocratic aesthetics of Heena’s bedroom, replacing the velvet lounges and vanity tables with boiling water basins, medicinal herb racks, and stark lighting. What was once the elegant room of a prominent noble lady now looked like a high-tension military hospital on the front lines.

But still, Heena remained entirely unresponsive. She lay there, pale and silent, her breathing shallow and her injured hands carefully bandaged.

The capital’s greatest physicians were brought in under the threat of the Marquis’s sword, but none of them could figure out exactly what was wrong with her. The blunt force trauma to the back of her head was severe, yes, but her pulse was steady.

Finally, the Head Imperial Doctor had to deliver the grim reality to the terrifying warlord.

”My Lord Marquis...” the doctor stammered, falling to his knees beside Heena’s bed. ”It... it is the nature of severe head injuries. The brain shuts the body down to protect itself. If Lady Seera does not wake up soon, she might slip into a permanent coma.”

The old Marquis gripped the hilt of his sword so hard the leather bindings groaned. ”Then fix her! Give her medicine! Wake her up!”

”We cannot!” the doctor cried out in despair. ”My Lord, she cannot swallow! If she remains in this deep sleep, she will eventually die from simple hunger and weakness!”

The brutal, horrifying truth hung in the air.

This wasn’t the modern era. There were no IV drips, no feeding tubes, and no life-support machines to artificially sustain a human body. In this world, if a patient couldn’t wake up to physically chew food and drink water, they would simply waste away. A prolonged coma was an absolute, unavoidable death sentence.

The System truly could not comprehend what Heena was doing.

For two entire days, she had been sleeping. It wasn’t just a light rest; she hadn’t woken up for anything. She hadn’t taken a single drop of water, which meant her physical body was deteriorating fast. The harsh, unspoken reality of her condition was setting in—without fluid intake, her kidneys were under immense strain, and the physical indignities of an unresponsive body were becoming a grim problem for the maids to handle.

Yet, deep within her own mind, Heena remained perfectly still, waiting. It was as if she had cast a massive, invisible net and was simply waiting for the prey to step into it.

It was the dead of night on the second day. Samuel, who had been stubbornly standing guard outside her door, had finally been called away on urgent estate business. Heena was entirely alone, her breathing shallow and her pale face illuminated only by the moonlight filtering through the glass.

’[Everything is quiet in the west wing,]’ the System reported, carrying out its mandated guard duty by scanning the perimeter. ’[The Marquis is asleep. The guards are running their standard rotations. Nothing out of the—]’

The System abruptly paused.

A faint, almost imperceptible scrape sounded against the stone outside. The System’s digital eyes widened as a dark figure silently slipped through Heena’s bedroom window.

An assassin?

The System was completely dumbfounded. The sheer impossibility of it defied all logic. How in the world had anyone bypassed the Marquis’s security network? This was the estate of the empire’s greatest vanguard general. The perimeter was guarded by war-hardened veterans, which was exactly why Heena usually slept so peacefully here.

But before the System could even sound an alarm in Heena’s mind, the assassin didn’t attack. Instead, he deliberately kicked over a brass vase and instantly vaulted back out the window.

”Intruder!” a guard roared outside.

Instantly, five heavily armed guards rushed past the window, chasing the fleeing shadow into the gardens.

’[What the nonsense...?]’ the System muttered. ’[Why the hell did he just leave?]’

Less than a minute later, a second assassin slipped through the window. Once again, he made a calculated noise and bolted. Another squad of guards chased after him. Then a third appeared, and a fourth.

Like clockwork, the assassins systematically lured every single sentry away from their posts.

Within minutes, the perimeter was entirely compromised. Heena’s bedroom, normally the most heavily guarded room in the capital, was completely unprotected.

Then, the heavy oak door to the bedroom slowly creaked open.

There was no masked assassin standing in the doorway. It was Seerah’s mother.

She was dressed in a pristine, flowing white nightgown, her hair neatly pinned back. Her expression was completely devoid of a mother’s grief or panic. She stepped gracefully into the room and quietly pushed the heavy wooden door shut until it clicked and locked.

She didn’t stop there. She walked directly over to the open window, pulled the heavy glass shut, and drew the thick velvet curtains, completely sealing the room from the outside world.

With the guards chasing ghosts in the garden, no one was left to hear a thing.

The mother slowly walked toward the center of the room, looking down at Heena, who was sleeping peacefully against the pillows. She reached out, her cold fingers lightly tracing the side of Heena’s pale cheek.

”No matter how many times I look at you...” the mother whispered, her voice dropping into a chilling, venomous hiss. ”...I just feel completely disgusted.”

She let her hand drop, her eyes narrowing with pure, unadulterated hatred.

”The very thought that such a thing was born from my own womb makes my skin crawl,” she continued, her tone eerily calm. ”Forgive me, child. Actually, I shouldn’t even ask for forgiveness, because you certainly do not deserve it.”

She sat down on the edge of the mattress, her weight roughly pushing Heena’s limp body slightly to the side.

”Let’s talk,” the mother said, leaning in closer. ”I heard you are in a coma. Even if you were somehow awake, you haven’t eaten or drank a single drop of water for two days. So, you must be in a deep, peaceful coma by now.”