Chapter 3.1

I stared down at the novel with a bitter face and narrowed my eyes.

I didn’t want to believe that this could be the legendary Book of Prophecy. I had a couple of good reasons as to why too.

First of all, the Book of Prophecy sounded like it foretold events of great significance, such as the appearance of evil spirits and the coming of devastating wars and such. So, why on earth would it be all about the romantic relationship between two schoolmates and when and where they made out?

The second reason was that if the novel that I had in my possession really was the Book of Prophecy, then wouldn’t the events in the story all come true? If that were truly the case, then Noah and Flora would really have become…

BANG

I slammed my head down onto the desk.

I wanted to die. This was the cruelest form of torture. I had the entire love story, intimate details included, between the guy I was completely crazy over and his lover, the girl that was much better than me in every conceivable way.

Why me? Of all the people in the entire empire, why did this have to happen to me? I mean, could they really be in a relationship without my knowledge? Is that why they were always early to the club meetings, to smooch in the classroom while they were alone?

I began pulling on my hair with both hands. There was no way I could concentrate on anything with this on my mind.

The teacher glanced over at me with a sullen face and readjusted his glasses before opening his mouth to speak once more.

“Ah, as I was saying… Historical accounts state that, through its divine power, the Book of Prophecy was an indestructible item and that by no means could it be erased from existence.”

“…!”

BANG

I threw my forehead down onto the desk once again.

***

Eventually, the story from that scarlet-covered novel began to overlap with reality.

The conversations that I overheard from Flora and Noah walking down the hallway together matched word-for-word the dialogue from the two characters in the novel. Everything was so frighteningly accurate that I began to doubt my own ears. Furthermore, I felt sick after seeing that even the food that was eaten by the two in the novel was the same that Flora and Noah would eat for lunch.

As crazy as it sounded, I felt as if I had been chosen by the gods themselves. I guess that couldn’t be too far-fetched seeing as how this strange novel didn’t seem any different from the legendary Book of Prophecy.

Wait, no. How could that be? The Book of Prophecy disappeared a long time ago.

Another thing that I couldn’t understand was why of all things it could be about, the content of the book was about something as trivial as a love story between two schoolmates. Even aside from the love story, there wasn’t anything of any grave importance.

What damn game are the gods trying to play on me? Is this their revenge for me fooling around a few times during worship?

Perhaps they took my behavior as an insult and now they’ve singled me out for punishment. I gulped and began to chew on my lower lip.

I wasn’t a rich girl or the daughter of some powerful family of nobles either. I was just the daughter of an ordinary viscount from a common countryside estate.

If I go around telling people that I can read the legendary Book of Prophecy that supposedly disappeared from the face of the planet a long time ago, I would be fortunate if I weren’t treated as a raving lunatic or as a two-bit swindler.

With that thought in mind, I decided that it would be best if I just kept this whole thing to myself for the time being.

What would it matter anyway? It’s not like there were any secrets to saving the world in it; it was just a love story.

I probably should have been freaking out more about the fact that this was likely the Book of Prophecy, but I was more concerned about the content of the story.

Rather than studying, I completely read through the entire novel. I was wondering if it had any answers to what would become of this feeling I have, my crush. However, as I had expected, there weren’t any answers provided in the text.

To be precise, my role in the whole story was not only antagonistic to the two lead characters, it also didn’t have any significant impact on the plot at all.

As it was already something that really happened, the latter portion of the book described me as watching Flora, who had become Noah’s girlfriend, with jealous eyes. It was written that I began to harass her.

I was portrayed as a girl who was blinded by love and who would bully Flora by spilling ink on her shirt and intentionally tripping her.

It was also written that my self-confidence had deteriorated and the only thing that my harassment of Flora resulted in was…

My expulsion from the academy?!

I swore aloud and hurled the book across the room.

It couldn’t have been written any more clearly. It was, in fact, Noah who would get angry over my harassment of Flora and petition for my expulsion.