This is the 17th time that on May 8, Ryan Romano died happily.

Or he can too, as he wakes up in a king-size bed, in Livia's arms. Ryan beats the ghoul again in his sleep, but quickly wakes up from the nightmare. It's a nightmare. The Messenger usually doesn't care about death and starting over, even in his dreams, but now he does.

He didn't want her to forget him.

Until now, Livia is holding him, with her arms around his neck, on his chest, and one leg on his thigh. Her hair covered her serene face like silver strands. The Prophet was warm to the touch, and she purred softly, which Ryan found cute. From now on, though, he'll probably have to sleep with earplugs on.

Ryan Romano has been with countless people throughout his long life, and in his opinion, bullets can be a good reflection of a person's character. Ryan has always been hesitant, clumsy, and vulnerable; dolls, curious and playful; Jasmine is wild, energetic, and loves quirky role-playing.

Livia?

It is...... That's right. Just right. It's like putting the right key in a lock. Livia is not as experienced as her partner, but she is delicate, attentive, and considerate. She smiled, sometimes at the most inappropriate times. Ryan couldn't explain why, but her laughter put him at ease.

For a moment, the courier completely forgot about psychiatry, blood, and the fact that he had just slept with Lightning Bart's daughter in his own home. All he cared about was the lovely woman in bed. In that moment, Livia was all he had.

He wanted to wake her up, face her, hold her hand and kiss her. He wanted to hug her and become one with her. But the prophet slept so soundly, so happily, that Ryan couldn't bear to disturb her rest. In her own dreams, Livia seemed happier than the courier had ever seen her.

Ryan was hungry, though. The courier found a kitchen on the way to Livia's bedroom, so he was going to prepare breakfast. He was sure that Augustus's daughter would love to wake up in front of the pastry.

Livia won't let Rya

Walk, even while she is sleeping. When the courier tried to slip out of bed, she hugged him tighter. He had to freeze time to get out of her grip and put a pillow in his place, but as time recovered, a frown appeared on the Prophet's face.

This scene made Ryan feel ...... It took him a while to find the right words.

Love.

Ryan felt loved. Livia wanted him to be by her side so badly that she wouldn't let him go, even in her dreams. Once, time travelers would flinch in fear; Fear that he will die, fear that this moment will lose its meaning. Fear that if Livia forgets him, he will feel pain.

But what about now?

Now, Ryan wants to get back to her. It took all his perseverance and stomach to keep him from slipping back into bed.

The sheets, no, the whole room smelled of bullets, so Ryan opened the window to let in fresh air. The morning sun outside blinded him and tanned his skin like a vampire, but he quickly recovered. Only red-haired people are afraid of the morning sun because they have no soul.

Ryan wanted to put on his clothes, but they were too dirty. Instead, the naked courier searched the bedroom and found a white bathrobe with a cat motif. The time traveler wonders if it once belonged to Felix and puts it next to his slippers.

Before walking to the door, Ryan took a moment to check the paintings in his bedroom. Some portray Livia as a child, and he believes that the two are Livia's parents. Augustus always seemed cold and ruthless in reality, but he painted himself smiling; It makes the mob Zeus look less like a bloodthirsty monster and more like a man. The most important thing is that at that time he had not yet turned into an ivory statue with white hair and blue eyes, like his daughter. As for his wife, she was exactly the same as Livia, only older and fatter.

Other images represent cities like New York, replacing the World Trade Center with a tower. In a painting depicting Paris, a zeppelin flies through the sky with a steam-powered unit. Livia seems to like to paint about another universe in her spare time. Maybe she dreamed of a reality that was happier than herself.

Anyway, Ryan quietly slipped out of the bedroom and quickly found his way to the kitchen. Unlike the antique style of the rest of the villa, the architects designed this room to be a combination of old and new. A 5-metre-long marble counter and ivory statues of Roman gods are lined with high-tech fridges and ovens. Venus and Mars are holding hands, Jupiter is triumphant, and Diana and Apollo are hunting side by side. How could Ryan refuse to make breakfast in such sacred company?

The courier searched the room and found a silver plate. He placed it on the marble counter and began to prepare breakfast. Livia is skinny, and Ryan thinks it's unhealthy, so he prepares an omelette, bacon, coffee, and French croissants.

The courier will make her pancakes tomorrow.

Ryan raised his eyes to look at the statue as he prepared breakfast. Maybe it's insomnia, but ...... Jupiter's statue seems a little familiar.

Very familiar.

Ryan blinked, holding a knife in one hand and butter toast in the other. The statue of Jupiter is a replica of Augustus, who stands motionless, staring at the counter.

The messenger dropped everything and stepped aside, but the statue's eyes did not follow. Come to think of it, Lightning Ass always draped a layer of lightning over his face to intimidate others. This statue does not.

Was the mob Zeus so arrogant as to fill his villa with statues of himself? Or something else?

Rya

Knowing that he should return to Livia with his plate, he can't contain his morbid curiosity. The time traveler moves in front of the statue, waving his hand in front of the statue.

No response.

"Oh, look outside, it's a ferocious Hargraves!" Ryan pointed to the kitchen window and the sunlight outside. "Quick, he's gone!"

The statue did not react. It didn't breathe, it didn't blink, it didn't do anything. Damn, Discount Zeus was so arrogant as to build statues of himself and put them in the kitchen.

Ryan poked him in the nose and decided to stop there.

This time, Augustus woke up.

The ivory statue's eyes glanced down at Ryan and blinked a few times. This reminded the frightened courier of a grandfather with Alzheimer's disease and suddenly remembered his son's face. Does Lightning Ass sleep with its eyes open like a crocodile? Or was it the tumor that caused his brain to spasm?

"Hey, what's wrong?!" Ryan asked, trying to lighten up the atmosphere. He'd better make a good impression because Lightning Ass won't accept someone who dates his daughter.

"Who are you?" Augustus asked, squinting. There was neither fear nor surprise in his voice, which Ryan found scary. The tyrant was so confident in his power that catching an intruder in his own home didn't even scare him.

"I'm Batman," Ryan replied, trying to sound calmer. However, he couldn't shake off the ominous sense of fear that permeated the room.

"Who?" Inazuma Bart looked at Ryan's bathrobe and recognized it with a crimson flash of lightning in his eyes. "This is my daughter's."

In hindsight, sleeping under his own roof with Lightning Bart's daughter may not have been Ryan's wisest idea.

"You know what, leave me alone, I'm going to open the door—" Ryan tried to take a step back, but Augustus quickly grabbed him by the shoulder with his right hand. Lightning Bart invaded his private space, just as Germany invaded Poland.

"Don't think you're going anywhere." Lightning Bart said, his tone suddenly becoming much more threatening. "Thief".

What, a bathrobe? If it was a cashmere suit, Ryan would proudly wear the badge, but he wouldn't go to war for cotton. "No, I'm rich." It is well known that the rich do not steal. "I'm a good friend of your daughter, and she invited me to spend the night at her house."

"Lies." Augustus replied, clutching Ryan's shoulder. It didn't hurt yet, but the messenger could tell that the murderous gang boss would tear him in half at the slightest provocation. "My daughter will tell me. She knows the rules. I don't know how you managed to evade the guards, but you're stupid to be here. ”

"It's late, you can check the camera, or ask Liv-"

"You don't want to touch my blood," Augustus interrupted. "Now, before I rip your limbs off, tell the truth."

Damn, that paranoid psychopath doesn't listen at all! Ryan looked the madman in the eye and realized that nothing the Courier said could change his mind. Lightning Bart glanced at him, and he had already been sentenced to death.

Rya

It is possible to try to run back to Livia to solve the problem, but Mob Zeus can move inside his time stopper and strike him with lightning; If the Courier were dead now, Livia would have forgotten about that night. She'll forget about him.

The courier had to postpone and pray that Lightning Bart's daughter would wake up.

"I will not repeat it any more," said Augustus, tempting fate. "Where did you find that—"

Ryan froze time and didn't move. As far as the world is concerned, he has stopped, like everything else.

"The clothes?" Augustus blinked, glanced around, and let out a sound that could be taken as a sigh. He waited a few seconds for the effect to be over, revealing a resigned appearance.

"What do you say, sir?" Ryan asked as time returned, feigning confusion. Thankfully, he has a good poker face. "What did you say?"

"I said—" The clock stopped again, and Ryan pretended to be paralyzed again. Augustus let out a roar of anger and frustration, much to the satisfaction of the messenger. Even after the passage of time, the mob boss gritted his teeth.

"I'm sorry, sir." Ryan apologized, and he was glad to see the Ivory Merchant's frustration. It feels good to watch this selfish bastard try to murder Leo Hargraves while the world around them collapses. To add insult to injury, the courier looks at Daddy Lightning as if he is old and confused. "Do you need any medicine, sir?"

Augustus waited longer, half-expecting that time would freeze again. Finally, when he thought he was safe, he opened his mouth again. I said, "

Time stood still again.

Augustus didn't sigh or get angry, but squinted at Ryan with a thoughtful expression.

"I can see electrons moving in your brain. You are not subject to this... The effects of this temporal anomaly. You are the source of it. "Damn, Lightning Ass is cruel, but not stupid." Stop now. ”

Even though time restarts, Ryan doesn't break the character. Augustus waited a few more seconds, his face unpredictable, and then opened his mouth again.

"I said—"

Time has stopped again!

Augustus' hand moved from Ryan's shoulder to his neck, lifting him off the ground.

"How dare you laugh at me?!" Zeus, the rabble, roared angrily. The courier kicked and punched the invincible man's arm in the cold hours, but he didn't even notice. Unlike Ryan, who attacked him in the previous cycle, Augustus wasn't shocked that someone could hurt him. The time traveler's blows could not hurt him.

Damn, as he guessed, Ryan needs Saturn armor to use his black superpowers. Without it, he can't hurt the Lightning Ass!

"You're going to hit me?" Crazy. As time passed, Augustus sneered. This is your last chance. Where did you find these clothes?"

"In your daughter's closet!" The messenger blurted out.

Lightning Bart noticed the sparkle in Ryan's eyes, as well as his messy hair. The ivory man's eyes noticed the breakfast of the two men, full of love, and he finally understood.

But the archbishop of Augustus did not want to admit it. His fingers tightened the courier's neck, choking all his anger out. "What did you do?" He roared, lifting Ryan higher until his head hit the ceiling. "What did you do to my daughter?"

Ryan wanted to say something smart, but Augustus grabbed his throat so tightly that he couldn't say a word. Lightning Bart finally realizes that the interrogation won't go like this, and he loosens his hand, lets the time traveler breathe, and then looks the captive into the eye.

"Did you sleep with my daughter?" Augustus asked, his icy anger ten times more terrible than a roar.

Ryan knew that nothing he could say would save him, so he replied with the first thing that came to mind.

"Yes, Dad, yes!"

Augustus brutally threw Ryan on the counter.

A normal person would fall to pieces from the impact, and the shock would crack the marble. The silver plate almost fell to the floor, and one of the coffee cups shattered. Ryan saw the stars and fell chest down to the ground. Lightning Bart let go of his hand while his victim gasped.

"You will die in begging," said Augustus with a cold rage, as he looked down at the messenger like a grim reaper. Crimson lightning flashed all over his body, and the microwave and electronics in the room were malfunctioning. "Like the Jews on the cross."

"That'......" Ryan coughed, defiantly. protection".

Lightning Bart gives Ryan a Palpatine-style shock therapy, which uses an electric current to shock him. It was a low-current explosion, not enough to kill the messenger; But it hurts. It hurts terribly. A bolt of lightning struck Ryan's chest, his skin burning, and his bathrobe smoking.

The messenger's body trembled, and the nerves in his body were stimulated by lightning. It felt as if his body was on fire and his lungs were melting.

"Daddy!"

Her screams echoed in the kitchen, but Augustus was still attacking Ryan with murderous thoughts. If anything, he just increases the voltage, even as a chi--

Time jumped forward, and when time reclocked in time, her arms grabbed him at once.

The pain in his chest and severe burns were still there, but Ryan's nerves were no longer lightning. He crawled up to the statue of Minerva, where Livia knelt beside him to protect him. She wears her own black bathrobe, but no slippers; The Prophet must have rushed into the kitchen the moment she woke up.

The lightning ass dropped the aura of lightning above his head, though anger still occupied him. Augustus stared at Livia sternly. "You've put your power to me, daughter?"

"You shocked my boyfriend!" She hissed in reply.

While Lightning Bart shrugged off Ryan's blow, his daughter's words made him back down in surprise. If he still had any suspicions about what was going on, her revealing clothes and the way she hugged Ryan intimately dispelled them. The courier could hear Livia's accelerating heartbeat beneath the cotton.

"You willingly gave yourself to this ......," Augustus glared at Ryan in disgust. This heinous man?"

"Ryan isn't that kind of person," Livia replied with a frown. "He was a kind and noble man."

"Monaco's conquistador......" Ryan said in a panic, his muscles still struggling to move. The crimson lightning must have ruptured his nervous system, and the wrong limbs responded to his mental commands.

Augustus completely ignored the Messenger and refused to acknowledge his existence. Instead, he looked at his daughter with an imperious gaze. However, Livia refuses to back down and makes eye contact with her father.

"How long?" Lightning Bart asked his daughter.

Livia frowned and bit her lower lip. "A little over a week."

So long? Ryan wonders, then realizes she's counted the previous cycle. They can consider raiding Star Studios on their first date......

"Is it about Felix?" Augustus asked angrily. "Revenge for his abandonment?"

"No," Livia replied angrily. "I chose Ryan for myself."

"You're on the wrong track." A flash of lightning flashed in the eyes of the lightning ass. "Look at this clown. I've met people like this countless times. All he wants is your beauty, your money, your power. He's a parasite. ”

"You say that to everybody, Daddy."

"Because it's true. If you weren't my daughter, do you think he'd be interested in you?"

"You don't know him, Daddy," replied Livia, her gaze hardened. "If you think I haven't done the research, you don't really know me."

Ryan almost spoke, but wisely remained silent this time. With just one wrong step, Lightning Ass could kill Livia before he can react. Shame and pain, he can bear. But if she forgets him, it will hurt more than lightning.

Augustus frowned angrily. "Livia, step aside."

She hesitated, but persevered. "No, Dad."

"Step aside, daughter."

"No," she repeated, the word sounding sweet. "I'm not going to let you murder him like Nacinia's parents did."

Augustus's eyes widened in surprise and he clenched his chin. "Who told you?" Felix?"

"Does it matter?"

"Felix," said her father, drawing his own conclusions. "He will pay with his tongue for his slander."

"You can't touch his tongue, you can't touch any part of Felix," Livia said, grabbing Ryan's hand. "You can't hurt my current boyfriend either. I'm an adult and I can date whoever I want. ”

"I am your father," Augustus raised his voice, "and you should listen to me." ”

"If you touch them, I'll leave."

These words left Lightning Ass speechless, and he kept blinking his eyes. He looked like he was going to fall. The illusion of invincibility was stripped away, and for a moment, Ryan saw the lonely, paranoid old man under the iron-fisted dictator.

"I'm leaving," Livia said, holding back her tears. "I'm going, not coming back. Bacchus and Mars can take possession of your rotten, filthy empire, and I don't care. ”

"Livia." Augustus's tone softened a little. For the first time, Ryan heard something other than anger and cruelty in the Titan's voice. "You are my heir and my daughter. But you're still a young woman, and you're naïve. Experience grows with age, and as your father, it is my duty to protect you from threats you can't see. Your mother ......"

"I can protect myself," Livia replied firmly. "Even if it's you."

Augustus clenched his fists, and a normal person could have started to bleed. Can this superpowered tyrant cancel his abilities? Will he hurt himself?

"I can't protect your mother, but I will protect you. Felix is a shameless traitor, this little bastard ......" Daddy Lightning glared at the courier with the kind of hatred he usually had for Leo Hargraves. "This man has turned you against me and against your father."

"No, Dad." Livia said firmly. "You're doing it yourself."

Augustus was transformed into an ivory statue, as still as stone.

"Dad, please. I want him. Livia took a deep breath. He was so nice to me and he made me smile. ”

Augustus was uncomfortably silent for several seconds. The air is filled with an undercurrent of electricity, as if a thunderstorm could break out at any moment. The microwave was short-circuited. "You," the mob Zeus glared at Ryan. "What's your name?"

So far, the messenger has recovered enough to form complete sentences. "'Help' Ryan Romano. I'm immortal, but don't tell—"

"If you disrespect my daughter," interrupted Augustus, his voice thunderous, "I'll kill you." ”

"Yes, Daddy Lightning."

Augustus narrowed his eyes dangerously. He didn't like the nickname. "If you break her heart, I'll kill you"

"Yes, Daddy Lightning," Ryan repeated, returning the man's vicious gaze. By now, he understood that obedience would be seen as weakness, but open resistance would not be tolerated. He had to stand his ground, but not be too impudent.

"If you break up with her, I'll kill you."

"Yes, Daddy Lightning."

"Thank you, Dad." Livia held Rya

hand, whispered with a sigh of relief.

Augustus stormed out of the room in a rage. He didn't look at Ryan and tried to ignore him. The tyrant slammed a wall as he fled, his fist piercing through the stone like paper.

Ryan coughed. "That's pretty much the way I expected to meet your parents."

"Are you crazy?!" After her father left, Livia hissed. "Can't you wait until I'm awake before leaving?" He almost killed you!"

"I want to prepare breakfast for you," Ryan replied, pointing to the silver plate. The coffee cup is gone, but the pastry is still there.

Livia's anger immediately turned to a blush, and she gave him a bittersweet smile. "We're going to Venus and Nassinia," she said. "They'll heal your wounds soon."

"That's good. It's okay to wait a little longer. ”

"Ryan, you've been struck by lightning."

It's not the first time this is the first time. Do you have any ointment?" Livia frowned at his question, but nodded. "Good. When you go back to sleep, I'll put it on for you. ”

"And then?"

"Well, I'll bring you breakfast this time."

"You're such a brave fool," Livia said with a smile, and helped him to his feet. "How did you come up with that?" Shall I introduce you to my father?"

"Your dad pointed a shotgun at my back, and Bacchus officiated at the wedding"

She chuckled. "I don't count on it. Bacchus worships a god stranger than Catholicism," her pale fingers brushed his wounds. His skin hurts, but his heart is calm. "We will still go to Venus after breakfast. I told you, Ryan, you don't have to suffer anymore. ”

Ryan put his arm around her waist while she put her hand around his neck. "Where's the next breakfast?" What could it be?"

Livia smiled and kissed him on the lips without saying a word.

Strawberry.