"How come you helped me?" Erionella asked as she peaked at the Duke.
He was silent for some time then answered shortly "Just because"
"Because of what?" Erionella asked a bit annoyed.
"Just because" He ended their conversation with the short two worded sentence as Erionella turned away and looked out of the carriage window.
"Felix! Look how cute that rabbit is!" Leilan said pointing at a white bunny that hopped happily in the grass of the park.
"It reminds me of you. Cute and small but eager to explore the world" The seventeen year old Felix said as he ruffled the hair of the sixteen year old Leilan.
"Hey! Is that a compliment or something else?" Leilan said as she pouted and ran away from him playfully.
They had a great day and had so much fun. She rolled in the grass, they picked flowers and just joked with each other.
But everything came crashing down as the sky turned black and the image of Felix shattered like a glass window hit with a hammer, right before her eyes.
The images of them spending time together quickly fell apart as she found herself in endless darkness.
Then the image was replaced with a world that seemed out of a fairytale, with horse-drawn carriages, castles and objects of magic.
And just like her time with Felix, it all came crashing down but in red blood as the screams of a million people flooded her ears.
As the world was completely destroyed the only thing she knew of was darkness. The endless darkness that surrounded her.
No hope. No light.
She ran so fast to some invisible finish line that she wished actually existed so she could wake up from this nightmare.
But there seemed there was not one. She ran. And ran. And ran. And ran.
'I want to go back to the beautiful roses in the park. The pretty clothes at the mall. The TV shows I would spend all night watching. And the man who offered me salvation; My Felix'
But all of that seemed impossible.
In her endless despair she finally understood that she was in a helpless situation.
And as she sank to the ground due to the tiredness after running, at that moment in the empty void of nothingness, all her worst nightmares came to life.
"No!" Erionella screamed as she broke out in a cold sweat and cuddled herself in a ball as she shook in fear and turned white as if she had seen a ghost.
But technically, she had seen a ghost which was herself as Leilan who was now dead.
Negative thoughts and 'what ifs' flooded her mind as she thought with paranoia about the worst case scenario.
She had been too optimistic. Being the Duke's Fiancée couldn't assure her safety until the day of Latil which was eleven months from now.
And she wasn't powerful enough to be the mage to help Crinoel enter Ulenov. Though she was good with magic circles a bit, her magic circles wouldn't be powerful enough to help kill the Lord of Nightmares.
In the novel, Crinoel would never find a mage, instead he would go through drastic measures to get help from…the temple!
She quickly sat at her desk and drew up a plan.
Erionella finally realized a very important loophole in her plan. Her life depended on it so she needed to cover all future problems and come up with a back up plan.
Even if they were able to defeat the 'Lord of Nightmares; her main mission was to get and use the wishing stone to return back to her world.
There was no insurance that the wishing stone wouldn't already be infected with dark magic. Anything in the demon's territory, Ulenov, was good as a demon generator.
"Oh, I had completely forgotten to tell you, it's infected with dark magic! At least you figured it out on your own~" A voice which belonged to no physical being but Erionella vaguely recognized.
"What?! So the wishing stone IS infected with dark magic and you FORGOT to tell me that! Aren't you the creator of this world Harlyn?!" Erionella said angrily looking around her room wishing Lady Harlyn had a body so she could punch her.
"Yeah it skipped my mind. Well if you wish on the wishing stone while it's infected with dark magic, your soul would be broken into a million pieces thrown into different worlds, each piece living out all your worst nightmares. That dream of yours was basically a warning from somewhere or someone. Not sure" Lady Harlyn said. "Anyways, I need to go~ Bye!"
"Wai-" She could already feel Lady Harlyn's presence fade away as she was alone in her room.
Now another mission had to be accomplished before entering into Ulenov.
In the morning she brainstormed very hard. She had to get help from the temple first.
But how? The temple of this world was so clean with no space for corruption.
Things like bribery and cheating could never happen, as EVERYTHING was overseen by the Head Priest.
The chosen priest who is said to live a thousand years before completing their life cycle was always someone with a stone cold heart and steeled blood.
She couldn't bribe them. She couldn't find any dirt on them. She couldn't use her status to pressure them.
So what?
A smile blossomed on her lips as she had forgotten an obvious fact.
The saintess would be discovered when they had their awakening. But sometimes, even after their awakening, decades could be spent looking for the new saintess and during that time the world might turn to chaos as the previous saintess would have gone into hibernation.
So the temple would do everything in their power to find the new saintess. They would almost give everything they had.
"Irli-, no, Sophella. Has the last saintess gone into hibernation?"
"Hmm, well yes she did. About one month ago" Sophella answered.
'One month ago? That's when I entered the novel'
"Why didn't you ask me?" Irliona said with her usual poker face and red 'dead eyes' look.
"Just because" Erionella answered slyly.
"Because of what?" Irliona asked.
"Why don't you ask Sophella"
"I'll be glad to answer my lady. Lets see my dear Irliona. Well for one, its because you are literally doing burglary in broad daylight. Thieves BEG to know your ways" Sophella said flicking her brown hair. She stopped listening to the two maids then continued her train of thoughts.
Erionella already knew who would be the next saintess; the Duke's sister, the protagonist Mareeonel.
She never knew she would need the protagonist, but currently she was one of her best cards.
The timing was just right, in three weeks, Mareeonel would be back from the academy and during that time Erionella would plan and make herself grow stronger.
And quickly, the days flew by as she and Duke planned every day and had little conversations and she was able to summon a magical rabbit.
Then came the day she was invited to the Duke's mansion to introduce herself to the Duke's sister.
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