"You're becoming what the Council fears most. A person who refuses the role." She smiled slightly. "You're becoming a protagonist in your own. And that disrupts everything."
I thought about the system. The Villain Reformation System that was guiding me. Was it part of the Council's plan? Or something else? Was me being here part of their plans?
"The assassination attempt at the Spring Festival," I said. "That was them trying to get me back on script?"
"Exactly. You were supposed to die. When you didn't just survive but actively prevented it and saved Adrian in the process, something that's completely off-script, you became a priority concern." She pulled out documents covered in strange symbols. "I've been monitoring Council activity through certain... channels. They're confused by you. You saved their chosen hero. That's not a villain behavior. It breaks their narrative categories."
