Chapter 116

It is only natural for time to pass. No matter how much magic stops the world, you can’t force the flow of time or life to stop.

Akshetra opened her eyes gently. She looked at the garden full of flowers, which were forced to bloom by magic in a myriad of colors. She tore down all the walls of the imperial palace and replaced them with windows so that the garden can be seen from anywhere – the bedroom, office or living room. For her, the most enjoyable time was quietly sipping a cup of tea and admiring the gorgeous snapdragon garden. However, her fun time didn’t feel enjoyable recently because the plan she had thoroughly devised went awry.

“Asta.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Asta, her loyal right-hand man, answered straight away. He was standing upright with his back against the study door, silently guarding it. Akshetra, who didn’t need to look at him to know how he was standing, tapped on the table and said, “Come here and sit.”

It’s been over ten years since she forced him to sit across from her and drink tea. Asta walked over like a well-made doll and sat across from her. The way he fixed his eyes on the table and slightly bowed was the same as before.  Akshetra wondered how he could be exactly the same. She pondered over whether the time was only flowing for her.

“Asta, do you see this as a complete defeat for me?”

“No, I don’t.”

“You don’t have to pretend like it’s not.”

“I thought it was a failure because you didn’t gain anything,” Asta replied hesitantly. Akshetra smiled at his honest reply. The flowers in the colorful garden hurt her eyes, but she didn’t take her eyes off them because she liked to think while looking at the dazzling colors.

“You know, it turns out I gained something.”

“…”

“Are you curious?”

“Yes.”

Akshetra let out a short chuckle. Asta still had his eyes fixed on the table, not looking properly at her face even once. He could look at the colorful snapdragons outside the window, even a little, but Asta never did anything on his own except for certain actions. She was satisfied that she was the one who made him act like that. Well-made doll. For Akshetra, Asta was such an existence. A loyal servant who does anything for her and carries out his duties without the slightest distraction.

“The future has changed.”

“The prophecy… is wrong?”

“Prophecy… Yes, you can call it that.” She tied her blue hair up, so the nape of her neck was exposed. “Someone also might have changed the future I decided.”

“… Does that mean that there is someone who sees the future like Your Highness?”

“Yeah, maybe someone knows the story… it could be. Do you remember? The original future we talked about.”

When she looked at Asta with curious eyes, he answered, “Dalia Alshine, the lord of Acrab, becomes a medium of time magic, and Kaichen Tenebre saves Acrab, but Countess Alshine, who is a medium, has already gone crazy and is taken to the Magic Tower to study the time magic.”

“And what has changed now?”

“… The process was the same, but the results changed. Countess Dalia Alshine did not go crazy and did not go to the magic tower.”

“Yeah, that’s it. And now, she became a disciple of the Archmage Kaichen Tenebre, and she survived and calmed down the commotion I had made.”

Of course, the Acrab epidemic was hushed up by Kaichen’s reckless response, but the damage was serious. It was even more so because it was something she had been preparing for a long time.

The reason why she left Guarten alone and chose Acrab was that in the not too distant future, Acrab would become a city connecting Julius and the eastern continent. ‘I did it despite the loss, but only because…… It all changed just because Dalia Alshine survived without going crazy.’ In the first place, the woman should have been dead by now. Akshetra, as she habitually tapped on the table, observed Asta in front of her.

It is difficult to change fate. It was especially difficult in this world, where all fates were decided in the novel. Akshetra recalled her childhood, which was already more than a decade ago. When she first took possession of this woman’s body, she had the thought of completely changing her destiny. However, by the time she possessed her body, Akshetra had already committed irreparable sin.

She put her hand on black magic and sacrificed many lives to increase her magical power. It was the only way to increase magic power in a short time. In order to take away the pure magical power that everyone possesses, Akshetra did an ominous sacrifice as if it was nothing. It was at that point that she possessed Akshetra’s body.

It was not difficult to adapt because Akshetra’s memory remained intact. In addition, she knew the ending of the novel and read all the extra stories. It was once a popular web novel and was even published as a paper book. It wasn’t her taste, but she still read it, however, who would have thought that she would possess someone inside the story. For a moment, since she knew all the stories, she wondered if she could undo everything then when the novel still had not unfolded. Of course, it was only for a moment.