Let's take a dive into an alternate future...
It was an almost perfect future. A kind of world that was the staple ending to nearly all epic adventures.
And there, Lily Moonshade survived without injuries. She truly was an individual with great luck.
No, was that really the case?
'The Fool' wasn't a numbered Major Arcana. It was a card that served a special purpose by itself.
You could even say it was similar to 'The Joker'.
But while the latter flipped the outcome and relied on gambling, the former represented belief itself.
A wild card that 'foolishly' believed in the universe.
So... how did Lily fall into this equation? Could it be that she was a boring girl who went with the flow?
That would be an accurate assumption to make.
In an alternate timeline of this world; One that was discarded by the Author. It was a forsaken 'time'.
One where she'd never met Arthur Rainglow.
...And that meant she never met Alex too.
Fortunately for the lucky girl, she became a mere side character in the story despite her background.
Or was she walking a separate Fool's Journey?
Anyway, Lily lived for nearly 2000 years after becoming to new 'Sun Goddess' for Gaia Humans.
She became a unique 'Sun Wolf' and watched over humanity. Even holding power over space as well...
Rather than the beginning of her tale, this was the end of it as she sat in front of an unnamed grave.
"I'm sorry for not visiting you often." The luckiest girl in the world found herself feeling a bit drunk.
There was a line alcohol dripping down near the cheek of her beautifully symmetrical face, but she left it alone. Instead taking another gulp of alcohol while messing up her long and golden-dyed hair.
Of course, the grave didn't answer to her.
Instead, there was an old man who looked no different from when he did 2000 years ago.
Where he sat was near this specific cemetery, so he came over when he heard a familiar voice.
"You came...?" The wizened old scholar asked the deity. Of course, she nodded her head to respond:
"Don't I come every year?"
"..." Alex Stuman stayed silent. Indeed, she HAD visited this cemetery the same day every year.
It was how they became acquainted...
Despite not being a 'God' himself, the old scholar survived for so long due to his attainments in Earthling martial arts. He'd reached the highest rank an Internal Martial Artist could hope for.
It was known as the 'Sovereign Rank'...
"Don't you ever think of leaving sometimes? It must be hard..." Lily shared a cup of wine with him.
One servant that followed and worshipped her as a goddess brought forth a nice table arrangement.
They sat in front of the cemetery quietly...
The two of them had a habit of sympathising with each other over the death of their loved ones.
This was despite their statuses differing greatly.
On one side was a woman draped in expensive robes and carried around on a pedestal by silent yet respectful worshippers. The other only had a typical scholar, who seemed like nothing special.
"Not really... After all, my family sleeps here." It was the first time the man humoured her interaction.
Usually, he'd stay silent after the initial greeting and cause awkwardness by ignoring her afterwards.
It was only then did the Sun Goddess notice the other graves. Honestly, there weren't even many.
However, the number was enough get the gist.
She realised that Alex's family was buried here. It made her look through the graves one by one:
{Here lays Rosetta Stuman.} Since the last name of this first gravestone was rare, she guessed who it was. There was a high chance both the scholar next to her and the deceased came from 'Earth'.
This was just a guess anyway...
Written under it was: {Angellight Dragon of the Dragon Family and Mist Empress of the Murim.}
Though she didn't know what this meant, her name was in the first of three graves in a complete set.
Next to the gravestone was another that read:
{Franklin Vladimir. Blood Imperial and Vampire King of the Blood Nation. Husband of Rosetta Stuman.}
Looking closer on the previous gravestone, it was like {Wife of Franklin Vladimir} was carved out.
Between the two gravestones was a smaller one before it, making her guess it was their child.
These three gravestones weren't the only ones in the cemetery. There was another close to them.
One that read the words: {Jack Solomon}
But she guessed that person wasn't important.
"..." Seeing that she couldn't respond, Alex sipped on the small cup handed to him before asking:
"So... you came for her?" She looked at the only grave that wasn't 'his family' in the cemetery.
"Yeah..."
"Did you know her?"
"She was a good friend." Lily reminisced about a certain girl who was always wearing a full mask.
Only that mask on her grave signified her identity.
"And what about you?" She already guessed as much, but she wanted the man to say it himself.
They talked for around an hour and shared their long life's experiences with each other openly.
Alex spoke about the second biggest calamity that hit Lancia. It was what some believed to be Ragnarok... At that exact time, that his Hero's Journey reached its peak with the Final Boss.
They managed to defeat him, but the cost was too great... He lost everyone he loved that day.
It was something Lily could actually relate to...
Except 'luckily' for her, she'd been ostracised by her family beforehand. That's why it impacted less.
She was never given the chance to mend their relationship, and the disaster had been sudden.
Her heart was protected by a stroke of luck...
However, was this truly a 'fortune'?
For her, although not enough to hurt her heart too deeply, it was truly a bad memory... Back then, her family called her a monster. Her little brother rejected her, and she had no choice but to leave.
This was the start of her own... Fool's Journey.
Hiding the pain deep in her heart, she tried to be more optimistic when going out into the world...
...and it worked out.
Usually, this was supposed to reinforce the positivity in the world... but she had high empathy.
There's no way she could avoid reality...
Lily realised after some time that it wasn't that the world rewarded the good and hopeful. Fate was being bias towards her. Destiny kept on twisting to make the world seem much brighter than it was...
This made her life quite absurd, yet uninteresting.
There were people she met who she'd felt deserved more love from Gaia, but still died early.
Some of those were even her friends.
Over time, she started to feel guilt after becoming the 'unworthy survivor' of that disaster in the past.
And she realised one thing:
'A true overabundance of luck is misfortune.' This thought became engraved deep into her bones.
However, she could do nothing about it.
No matter what she did, she couldn't even end her life. This type of immortality became a prison...
No matter how hard she tried stabbing herself, the deep cut would always be healed after some time.
Even if she jumped into the darkest abyss, she'd always 'luckily' be found by a vagabond Healer.
Yet though it was a 'cage of fate', her luck was something enviable to many misfortune beings.
So perhaps one could call her as ungrateful...
Alex would likely kill to have her great luck. He might have been able to save his family with it.
Her 'Fool' card was way better than his 'Joker'...
After all, wasn't having the fate to always be able to survive until the end of the journey really enviable?
If that was all, the old scholar wouldn't think she was scummy for rejecting her fate. However, the fact that her luck also applied to her birth made things complicated. He glared at her discreetly...
For Alex, being born in a place filled with death had affected his vitality. It was a 'misfortune' he turned around by focusing on other techniques than the martial arts of his past. Mainly his talent in magic.
However, there was a qualitative difference between the 'misfortune' of their births...
Although he was unaware at first, he secretly became more angered the more he talked to her.
That was because she was 'born strong'.
Sure, having a mechanical tail and ears made her seem like an outcast, but that was actually fortune in disguise. After all, she had been born with the powers of his only friend that also 'reincarnated'.
He wasn't sure what happened, but becoming a unique 'White Wolf' wasn't her only strangeness.
Unlike others, Lily was born with great 'Nobility'.
She had four 'Spell Slots' upon being born, AND had the talent necessary to comprehend them.
At first, he believed she was just blessed by nature spirits. However, he recognised her 'Inborn Spells'.
It reminded him of a Gunslinger from his past...
That man had the techniques of a mixed martial artist, and the talents of a Dragon Family member.
Reminiscing about that figure made him am furious... Mostly because that man also lay here.
{Simian Steelwell. Military Master of the Western Hegemony. A close and dear friend of Dragons.}
If he had regained his strength, would he have survived? Perhaps... but this was just an excuse.
Alex realised after some time that they were incompatible with each other in body and soul...
He couldn't accept her existence...
Someone so blessed by the world that she had never truly felt despair. How could he not hate her?
It was only thanks to the Author discarding this timeline that his killing intent went unnoticed.
The worshipers left the two of them alone to talk things over as usual. Unaware of his fiery thoughts.
A knife appeared in his hand under the table...
"You know... I've always felt jealous. Especially after coming here." Lily's voice awoke him from his daze.
"Really...?" He hesitated in taking action.
"Everyone else could go through life with friends and family... but I was always left alone by myself."
"That isn't your fault." He knew well that this was just how fate worked, but she shook her head.
"Wasn't it...?" But her words surprised Alex.
He couldn't believe she didn't accept what he said.
It was only when she continued did he feel something was different. That he had it all wrong.
She spoke with a voice that mocked her feelings back then. A voice that tugged on his heartstrings:
"Actually... I was scared back then. My family... all looked at me like I was a monster. I just didn't want to open my heart, only to be hurt again. That's likely why I'm still alone so many years later."
"...Do you regret it all?"
"I do... I do..." The beautiful Sun Goddess covered her face, masking her own fatigue and melancholy.
She wished she'd tried more in the past...
Now, her status was so high that no one dared call her a friend. It was all meaningless after so long...
She couldn't change the past...
Whether by choice or by fate, Alex lost his drive and motivation. He retrieved the knife in his hand.
"Then let's consider us friends." Alex spoke to her as if giving up. This brightened her mood greatly.
"R-really?" She smiled ear to ears. Her intoxicated expression vanished when she became sober.
"Sure. There's no reason not to-"
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Lily jumped into his arms and rubbed her face on his shoulder.
He could only sigh after noticing the dark sky...
"It's time for you to leave now."
"But-"
"Leave...!" He had enough with her. Talking with this woman took a considerable amount of energy.
It took a while before she finally got up to leave. A sigh escaped his lips again after she had done so.
He regretted letting her go...
Upon re-examining his actions, the old scholar realised that he had probably been tricked by fate.
It likely forced him to let her go...
As he was thinking this, time and space started trembling around the World of Gaia at once.
An action he did in the past finally caught up...
It was after this moment that this timeline of the world was locked in stasis. Time went eerily still...
Alex still regained his consciousness at that moment, but he realised what happened afterward.
A new timeline of this story began...