Chapter 4

She only felt an uncontrollable sense of regret over her past decisions.

But she couldn't do anything about what was already established; not that Amael Parker could have predicted reincarnation in a character with such a tragic fate; if he had, he would most likely think of himself as having gone mad.

Arisella could only do her best to overcome her fate using the ability that had been granted to her.

As long as I have this, my chances of survival will increase a bit... He looked at the virtual window with serious eyes, more specifically at that ability that shouldn't exist on him at all.

[Prophecy Author]... an ability that can alter causality in the world to make a false prophecy come true. That was the context she set for the ability that made the female protagonist unique. However, while it seemed like a divine ability that only a god should have, it had many significant limitations.

The amount of spiritual power required to use the skill was so great that an apprentice prophetess like Yulia could only use it once or twice depending on the concocted prophecy, and that was for things as simple as, "At nine o'clock the day after tomorrow, when the black bird flies by the bell tower, a mysterious man will appear."

The ability itself also entailed a struggle against all odds, depending on the user's power and whether they succeeded in the first place. Once successfully activated, like an invisible hand, events will occur that will guide the world toward the fulfillment of the prophecy in question...

Naturally, the more unlikely a prophecy is, the more spiritual power will be lost to make it happen, and no matter how high the rank, you can't make something that has a 0% probability of happening in the first place. You also need to be lazy enough not to waste too much spiritual power on unnecessary details, but at the same time, not be too lazy to avoid the same problem...

Now that he thought about it... it was an extremely troublesome skill. And if he remembered correctly, even a high-level prophetess couldn't necessarily use it as they pleased.

For example, the prophetess extermination event in the north has such a high probability of happening, that Arisella will probably need the spiritual power of a Sixth Rank to prevent it from happening...

Speaking of impossible... a prophetess's talent for growing her spiritual power through soul training techniques is so low that it's not even an option.

Another stupid setup, he realized ruefully. At the time, he thought it would be too easy if his prophetic abilities grew in strength and he imposed such a limitation on them.

"You really are stupid"

"Shut up!"

Fortunately, there's only one more year until the brutal incident of death occurs, as we're currently in the year 3400, the month of Arion, day 7, and it all happens on the 10th day of the month of Din. This means he had three months to avoid this tragedy.

And when thinking about changing history, Arisella remembered something very, very important.

Even if I manage to get past the chapter where I'm raped, the innocent villagers are murdered, and sold south as slaves... wouldn't the destruction of the entire duchy follow? Arisella's face paled at the thought, cursing herself once more.

As a tragic scenario that would become Leonardo's –alias Jayden– revenge drive, she as Amael posited that the entire duchy would fall to an attack by the Red Dragon Empress and a horde of demonic beasts as a result of the crown prince's macabre plan, who was not only insane but also hated the duke with a passion; a dangerous combination.

It was also the reason for the massacre of the prophetesses before the terrible dragon catastrophe.

The prince didn't want to fail because of his foretelling abilities, however weak they were, as they could potentially predict the tragedy that would befall his family and friends. His plan would collapse if all the northern prophetesses simultaneously announced that many people would perish in the future.

And why couldn't the prophetesses predict their own misfortune?

Naturally, this was because Amael had conveniently arranged that all the prophetesses could not predict their own future.

Arisella again uselessly scolded her past self and then began to think of solutions.

“There is the option of fleeing with everyone from the village to the forest and negotiating with the spirits of nature to grant us asylum…”

"Sounds like an idea"

"...No, it's not feasible"

Arisella considered this for a moment, but realized that to convince everyone, she had to show them that she had increased her prediction abilities, or else she wouldn't be able to explain how she "saw" something so far in the future, like a calamity of that scale.

But doing that had its own problems that I would rather avoid if I could.

And even if he decided to show that he had the power to see those calamities through, instead of running away, they would definitely think of telling the greedy village chief, who would panic and tell the despicable earl of these lands, and eventually the news would reach all of northern high society; of course, that would cause the mad prince to discover that his evil plan had been exposed.

"What a complicated thing... Can't you really convince them to run away?"

"Things like this would be inevitable, as not only would there be no reason to leave our warm home if the disaster had been prevented in advance, but many in the village have relatives, friends, and other contacts in other towns and cities in the north."

"Human connections are a nuisance..." The virtual assistant sneered shamelessly, but Arisella ignored it as she thought.

Furthermore, Alica and Selena, who are women of faith and good people, would scold me for even considering allowing such a calamity to happen.

It's just that if they do that, the crown prince might kidnap and torture me... and my entire family for revenge...

"Furthermore, if the northern nobles knew that a member of the imperial family wanted to destroy their forces and seize their territories by allying with other powers, it would definitely light the spark of a future civil war that would only weaken humanity's sole Empire."

"Human politics, isn't it? What a beautiful thing." The white cloud sneered again and looked at her, asking curiously, "Why did the crown prince hate the duke so much? Is there really a good reason in your head why someone would do something so crazy?"

"....Mmm"

In answering him, Arisella struggled to recall the specific reason for that hostility, as she spent a lot of time finishing that novel and starting others.

"I remember! It was because Astrian had the Third Princess Jenicia, who constantly harassed the young duke's "mistress" outside the imperial capital due to her jealousy. Astrian revealed all her misdeeds and convinced the emperor to isolate Jenicia from aristocratic society by sending the princess to live in a nunnery, freeing herself from that nuisance..."

"That's an extremely petty and absurd reason, you know that right?"

"I wanted a crazy Antagonist..."

Arisella smiled bitterly and continued the story.

In those times, the Crown Prince led an army in support of the battle against the abnormally sized undead horde that was ravaging the cardinal fortress of the South, and when he returned triumphantly against the power of the underworld, he was greeted with nothing less than the news of his beloved sister's isolation, which made him furious.

He didn't care about their misdeeds, he didn't want any trouble for the only sister he had from the same mother, and he wanted to personally kill those who made him suffer, but he couldn't mess so easily with any of the Dukes; who were technically allies and not subordinates of the alliance leader, the Emperor, since the founding of the Empire.

They all belonged to sovereign families with equal status, but with different titles. It wouldn't be wrong to say that this was an alliance of kings led, but not controlled, by the so-called Emperor.

The prince appealed to his father to release his sister from isolation, but the Emperor did not want to offend one of the pillars of the empire with one of the many princesses his harem had conceived, and he wanted no more to do with her for her foolish and immoral actions that only damaged the dignity of the imperial family.

Even when the prince attempted to use his battle merits to beg for mercy for her, the Emperor resolutely refused.

Thus, that desperate siscon was filled with pure hatred for the Duke, his lover, and his land. And so, he began plotting a mad plan in which hundreds of lives would be lost solely for his personal revenge.

He was truly crazy... but crazy as he was, he wasn't stupid enough to condemn the only human nation on the entire planet.

It can be said that the boy had everything covered for after the fall of the duchy, since he had a large number of allies who helped him in his plans and who were prepared to play the 'Heroes' who would save the north and become its new guardians in place of the fallen Duchy of Aswort.

Among them, albeit unofficially, were the Duke and the southern noble families with great influence and wealth who despised the North, high-ranking figures from the Magic Association, as well as the Adventurer's Guild and even members of the Grand Temple; all of them formed a powerful force that took over the north and obtained great gains with only a few sacrifices.

"Now that I think about it, I must have been too disappointed and resentful with my first novel to give its protagonists such an ending in the second..." Arisella lamented.

Just as Arisella, the villain of the moment, was sentenced to death in her next novel, Arisella, or rather Amael, did the same with the protagonists of {The Blooming Moon of the North}....

It was a silly thing to do, but it was because he wanted to bring closure to those characters in some way. Since they were part of his shame, he simply killed them off...

What nonsense...!

She couldn't help but sigh.

Suddenly, while he was complaining about the situation, the cloud that was casually rubbing itself in the air suddenly declared to him:

"Well, Arisella, it's time you started interacting with the real world once again. Maintaining this mental space for long consumes more energy than I calculated, and we won't be able to keep this up forever anyway..."

"Wait... Mind Space? Isn't this the real world?" Arisella's beautiful eyes flickered with confusion as she asked, to which the cloud "nodded," so to speak. It flew close to her face and said with a serious tone in its childish voice:

"Right now, you are present within this clinic, but at most you are within your own mind, in this space constructed by the system. Time here flows differently than the outside world, so only a few seconds have passed outside... anyway, you can call on me at any time. Whether it's to analyze the status of other characters or to use any of my other functions, whenever necessary, I will help you. You could also use this space again for help. "Time to plan your next moves or something, but keep in mind that reducing the power available to the system in this way will prevent access to other system functions, okay?"

"Wait, what are these functions you're talking about?" Arisella raised her hand.

"There's no time, someone's coming and I have to rest to recover energy." The virtual cloud began to fade after saying those words with his eyes closed, his voice sounding as if he were sleepy.

"Wait!"

When he was gone for good, Arisella found herself in the same position she'd been in before the cloud had appeared, suddenly screaming as far as the world was concerned. Sounds returned to the city as if nothing had happened, giving her a sense of aliveness that felt surreal for a moment. She slowly took her hands off her head, complaining softly with a grumpy expression.

"Shouldn't it have been a priority to tell me what you can do from the start? You useless cloud!"

Just as Arisella was growing increasingly frustrated with this terrible companion created by God, a blonde woman entered the small room where her body lay. Her beautiful face had a soft and kind expression, her green pupils shining with wisdom.

She wore a simple gray linen dress covered by a leather apron stained with medicinal substances; the scent of herbs and alchemical elements emanated from her, adding to the medicinal scent of the room and making Arisella frown in disgust.

"Ha, I see you must be in very good health to show me that face so brazenly, Arisella. Why were you screaming...?"

The woman, not at all offended, just chuckled as she looked worriedly at Arisella while asking her question. Her attitude was like that of an older sister who takes great care of her adorable younger sister. And in a way, it is, since they grew up together as sisters, although Arisella was the only orphan of the two.

"Ugh! Forget about that! Can't you make sure, at least with me, that you don't show up with unpleasant smells like that? You know I have a sensitive nose, Lucelle. I don't particularly like the scent of freshly brewed potions," Arisella complained like a child as she looked at Lucelle, covering her nose.

This blonde woman was the only doctor in town who was an alchemist specializing in medicine, a rare young genius. As the best alchemist in all of Taylan, Lucelle was in charge of curing the ailments that Holy Magic couldn't treat in this small clinic built by her family.

With a grimace, Lucelle responded as she crossed her arms, emphasizing her breasts.

"Well, I thought you were still unconscious, you know... Quite a surprise I had when John brought you here in a panic while you were in an apparent coma; your forehead was actually burning dangerously and we thought you were in mortal danger."

Worry and anxiety flashed across her face as she recalled what had happened, and then she sighed in relief as she said with confidence in her voice, "Luckily, my potions managed to reduce your fever a lot, and you're fine now. That's for the best." John and I can both relax now, as he looked ready to cry just imagining having to bury his future wife.

Lucelle laughed bitterly at the mere thought and Arisella bit her lip as she looked away, smoothing her hair.

She didn't know how she should feel now about John, who had been her boyfriend for only a few months and one of her childhood friends for years.

On the one hand, she was both worried and touched by his reaction to the sudden incident. She was worried, because he must have felt truly horrible watching helplessly as his girlfriend fainted for no reason and suffered a possibly fatal fever, and she was touched; given everything John had done throughout their relationship, his reaction showed how much he truly loved her.

But on the other hand… the awareness of his life as Amael, a man who hadn't yet fully assimilated his current identity—mainly because his memories of her as Arisella weren't yet complete—strongly protested those feelings and felt a rejection of the romantic relationship they had.

Far from being unpleasant, it was more like she couldn't accept him because of her values ​​as a modern man. Her mind once again became a mess. She simply tried to ignore that mental struggle and asked Lucelle, "Where's John?"

"John?" Lucelle, who was wiping down the table next to the bed, turned around and with a worried smile said, "He went out to find Alica to tell her the news of the incident. After all, both of your mothers should know."

"I see…"

Arisella really didn't want them to find out, especially Alica. Compared to her older tutor, Selena, who seemed like a strict aunt, Alica was a kind and delicate woman who would faint at the slightest bit of upsetting news.

In that case, there would be two of them resting in the bed. But even if John didn't tell her anything, they would both find out from the townspeople anyway. At least Arisella didn't have to worry about Selena's reaction for now, as she went to the nearest town on church-related business.

After finishing cleaning something on the table, Lucelle suddenly asked with a serious expression, "Do you feel anything abnormal in your body? Like a headache, nausea, or... an uncontrollable urge to carry you?"

"¿No?"

Arisella didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the last question. Besides, she swore Lucelle only said something so absurd to tease her. She was sure it wasn't a mistake, from the brief flash of mischief she saw in his emerald eyes as he smiled slightly.

"That's good... I guess I should run a urine test later," Lucelle said as she approached the bed and held her arm, taking the pulse of her patient and his family, "Your pulse is very normal now, very different from that moment... Do you have any idea why this happened? Something like eating a little or a lot of contaminated meat or herbs that look good but are poisonous. At the very least, there should be something that caused it and such? Maybe you can get an idea. I want to make sure I can prevent it...

“…I don’t remember anything” Arisella hesitated and answered like this.

He couldn't just walk away and casually say, "Oh, it's just that I have memories from a life before this one. Nothing great, except that the world is made based on some novels I wrote for money, and we're just extras sentenced to death, hahahahahaha… Ah, I was a virgin in my previous life too! Haha…"

Lucelle would definitely think she was crazy if she said something like that...

Of course, how could Lucelle not notice Arisella's obvious hesitation? Her blonde questioned her quickly with narrowed eyes and a serious tone of voice full of the dignity of an older sister and the sense of duty of a doctor;

“My dear sister Arisella, it's not a good idea to hide the symptoms of an illness from your doctor, much less the possible cause of your illness. If you already know, or have any idea, what led to this incident, you should tell me so I can make a more accurate diagnosis and prevent something so serious from happening again.”

"I know... I just thought of a ridiculous reason for a moment, but I doubt it's that one..." The prophetess laughed nervously as she shook her head, as if to convey the message 'It's crazy, it doesn't really matter.'

She prayed inwardly, "Please swallow that and don't keep asking...!" But Lucelle's reaction was far from what she expected. The young alchemist simply widened her eyes suddenly, seeming to have come to a conclusion of her own from that answer as she muttered, "Could it be...? That your hidden potential has just been stimulated?"

"Hey?" Arisella, who had strained her ears to hear her better, blinked in bewilderment and asked, "My what am I hiding?"

This is the first time I've heard of a "hidden potential." There was no such scenario in your novel. I may not remember some things, but at least I could say if something like this existed.

"Yeah?" Lucelle blinked too, surprised by his behavior. "You didn't know that...? I thought you'd figure it out on your own, being so smart and curious... So, what do you think caused your fainting spell and fever?"

"Some witches cursed me," Arisella said with the most serious expression she could muster, suppressing the sudden urge to laugh.

"That is... a very unlikely cause for your condition, after all." Lucelle showed a bitter smile in response, clearly finding it ridiculous.

Curses were part of witchcraft, a dark art that very few could use, let alone be foolish enough to attempt. Practitioners of witchcraft often suffer a gradual loss of sanity, plagued by a wide variety of physical and mental illnesses, which makes them violent and self-destructive.

These are the basic consequences of learning to deal with negative energies, such as those from Hell, the Underworld, or planet Earth itself. In return, they receive great power regardless of their professional talents... but everyone knows that any practitioner of witchcraft within the Great Wall becomes a target of the Holy Knights of the Inquisition, as they are servants of evil.

Becoming a Witch would only be an option if desperation or hatred clouds your judgment, as it is practically a death sentence and a form of self-inflicted torture.

Furthermore, due to the rather evil nature of the energies they controlled, witches hated approaching places blessed with a strong divinity, such as lands with churches of any of the Olympian gods. These places also cannot cast curses unless they are very powerful or the church in question is as small as the one in Arisella's hometown.

But... what high-ranking sorcerer would waste his time on an untalented Prophetess, wasting his precious malevolent energy to curse her?

Although the Warlocks' mentality cannot be fully measured by the common sense of normal humans, they were all obsessed with maintaining their reserves of malevolent energy like stingy people who refused to spend a lot of money on trivial things for no reason.

They would only have a great loss.

"What's all this 'hidden potential' stuff you're suddenly talking about?"

Arisella could already roughly guess what it was about. It's probably the explanation for why her power range is so different from the original. Maybe it's God's doing... but she wanted to hear everything from Lucelle's mouth to determine.

"I was careless to think you would know... Or perhaps I trusted your intellectual ability too much?" Lucelle sighed as she sat down on a wooden chair. "Actually, there wasn't any plan to tell you about this when I found out, and they asked me to keep it to myself when I did, as they didn't want you to get false hopes of having greater prophetic power... You see, although it's very rare, it sometimes happens that a prophetess with mediocre abilities but stunning appearance suddenly shows significant growth in their abilities at some point in their life, usually between the ages of 25 and 30. Since you're the same age as me, it's not completely impossible for your possible hidden abilities to be unleashed... Of course, it might not have been because of that..."

Lucella told him everything she knew since meeting Arisella and he easily predicted that he wouldn't leave her alone until she told him everything about herself.

"Was there anything so good?"

Arisella's eyes widened; she hadn't really written a scenario like this before. It was understandable, though—only the protagonist of her first novel was a prophetess in a setting similar to the second—but even so, neither in the first nor the second did she give much importance to her kind beyond their predictive abilities...

There was no prophetess in Jayden's harem either.

Was this a gift from God to me? Yet it benefits me...

Since this world already had a scenario where a prophetess would experience a sudden increase in her abilities, Arisella no longer had to fear causing a huge stir over what happened to her. Even so, she didn't consider it prudent to demonstrate her power as a fifth-rank prophetess.

Suddenly, I also think this might have been some kind of trap created by the Creator to help prophetesses who had little talent for soul training. However, that wasn't important.

By the way, although Arisella was a 24-year-old woman with fairly developed areas of her body (chest, waist, buttocks, and legs), her height, as well as her innocent, sweet, and charming face, make her look younger than she actually is.

Honestly, you could look at her and think she was an attractive 15-year-old girl. Because of this, some members of the friendly caravan that visited the village looked at John with rather judgmental expressions. After all, he was a tall, burly, and attractive 25-year-old man, so it wasn't uncommon to think he was a pervert when he dated a girl who looked much younger than him, even though she was only a year younger.

And it turned out that they even accused him of being a pedophile to his face. It was a troubling incident that was fortunately resolved by the caravan leader, who apologized to the new members who didn't know their place...

"Lucelle, how do I know if that hidden potential in me has been unleashed?" Arisella asked, pretending to be excited by the answer. She couldn't act nonchalantly as if she already knew, so she could only pretend to be interested in learning what Rango had achieved with the awakening. After all, she couldn't tell Lucelle, "I already knew my power is greater thanks to a system."

First of all, how did you explain what the hell a system is? I don't even know what this artifact is made of, some divine technology or something...

Faced with this technology, which even God himself had to buy in a kind of cosmic supermarket, Arisella could only express profound bewilderment.

"With what else? Using the Spirit Measuring Sphere to measure your soul power, of course." Lucelle rolled her eyes, as if to say, Why are you asking something so obvious?

"Ah... haha..." Arisela faked a laugh, embarrassed.

It's true that there was that...