Chapter 4: "The Fate of a Villainess"
...
"You want me to change your fate?" I asked the Dia in front of me,.
"Originally, as you may know, I became evil out of greed and betrayed my young lady and master blah blah blah. I did terrible stuff and ended up dying in the hands of the young lady's fiancé."
"Yeah. I gained that knowledge from a novel."
"Novel, huh... I don't know how and why my supposed fate became a novel and someone other than me and the gods knew about it, but it doesn't matter. Since I don't need to explain the details of my fate to you, I will directly tell you your mission. You have to--"
"Wait wait wait...!"
I haven't sink it all in yet! You're telling me to change Dia's fate, right??? The Dia in the novel, right??? So it wasn't a fan fiction?!
"It wasn't. Considering how everything you said and thought was quite accurate."
Lumien felt his soul left his body, er... if that makes sense in his current state...
Do I need to avoid death then?
"Well no, not really..." Dia replied.
"What in the devildom does that even mean?"
- - -
A few minutes later.
Based on Dia's short explanation, what happened in the novel really happened, but the gods turned back time and told Dia something.
'You must find someone who can change 'Dia's' fate.'
...
Lumien glares at Dia.
"Why did you choose me? You should've chosen a girl instead."
She looks at him as if she has just been accused.
"I did! She was even a maid from your residence. She was supposed to faint from falling off the stairs..." Dia looks away guiltily.
"Seriously? Then what happened?"
"Rest assured, she is still perfectly healthy today. She didn't fall off the stairs because some unexpected incident happened."
"..."
I know exactly what that 'unexpected incident' is...
"It was supposed to be her soul, but some dumb*ss choked on his food and his fragile soul ended up getting sucked by the ritual instead."
"..."
Why was that 'dumb*ss' oddly emphasized?
Dia continues, "But that is all in the past now. The good thing is, you already know the contents of Dia's fate." She smiles. "Now, I will tell you the detai-"
Why are the gods being so complicated and made Dia find someone else to change Dia's fate instead of Dia herself???
"...can we please move on? Time may not exist in this space but it's sucking my energy out you know." She says.
Completely ignoring her complaint, I glanced at her and started to interrogate her.
"Why don't you change it yourself?"
"I don't know. Ask the gods."
"But, for what reason would they turn back time if they weren't going to give you a chance anyway?"
"They must have had their reasons. Unfortunately, I don't know what those reasons are. No one knows what floats in the minds of divine beings."
She shrugs her shoulders.
Lumien then goes serious as he asks the question he have been wanting to ask.
"Why me?"
Dia tilts her head to the side.
"Why did my soul enter your body when you summoned someone else?"
"That, I am not certain. The divine beings said they will investigate the reason but don't expect too much."
The most likely reason is because of the unexpected incident happening, but is that really it?
"I do not know." Dia answers
Do you even know anything? This useless airhead...
"I heard that." Dia says unbothered.
"You're the literal airhead here." she continues to mumble.
Dia changes the subject and says, "Don't think too much about it, you'll only hurt that head of yours. Anyways, back to the main point," she shifts her gaze to Lumien, "All you have to do is live as Dia. However, while doing so, you must not do anything that made Dia, me, a villainess."
"So I just need to drift away from the role of villainess, right?"
"It's not as easy as you may think," she smiles sympathetically, "By doing so, you are going against fate. History can repeat itself if you are not careful enough, because 'they' and this world will do anything to put what's supposed to be back on track."
"I thought the gods were in on this??" he looks at her.
And again, she shrugs her shoulders.
"..."
This sounds hard. She's telling me to live the life but at the same time, death flags may unexpectedly rise. I don't want to do this. Why do I have to do this?
"What would you gain by changing her fate?" I asked.
Dia's eyes widened to this unexpected question. She smiles.
"Nothing." She answered truthfully. "I would not gain anything in particular. I can only watch as the story unfolds from afar."
Lumien accepts this answer and continues.
"What will I gain from this?"
"You can return to your previous body and identity."
I can? Is that really possible? But then again, I literally possessed a different body, this is no stranger now. But,
"But aren't I already dead? They would think I became a lingering ghost, a zombie, or something..."
Dia's shoulders tremble mockingly.
Are you laughing right now?
Dia tries to keep a straight face as she denies, "Laughing? I'm...ahaha, ahem doing no such thing...!" She answers his question. "You are not dead...yet."
What do you mean yet ?
"You are simply in a coma. Your mother is a great doctor, she will not let her only son die that easily."
That is true. I couldn't help but smile after hearing this amazing news. Of course I wouldn't die from choking! Me? The great Lumien? Death from choking? That'd be a taint in my reputation!
"Your reputation isn't that good either, you know. Don't be so proud of yourself. It was because of your mother that you lived."
That's obvious lady, my mother is an amazing doctor. She is known as someone who can defy death!
"I agree, I witnessed it myself. Anyways, once you fully lived Dia's life, you can return to your body."
Right. This isn't the time to be celebrating yet.
"You have two goals."
First
Separate Dia from the Villainess role by avoiding the things that caused it in the first place.
Based on the novel, the reason why Dia became a villainess --who was crazily obsessed with the heroine-- was because of greed and jealousy. How vague.
I notice Dia staring at me, looking offended.
"Do you have any advice for me?"
"Just don't be greedy or feel envy and jealousy for anything or anyone."
That's it? Fine.
Dia continues with her instructions, "You will need enough spirit points to be able to possess your body once again. To track your progress, you will be given an ancient item. You'll find it once you wake up."
Spirit points: these points are collected by completing divine tasks—tasks given by transcendental or supernatural beings. Spirit points can make you do things beyond ordinary, beyond magic or human capabilities. Based on the amount of spirit points gained, one can be granted one or more powerful wish, may it be to turn back time, bring someone back to life, ceasing existence, or body possession.
I read about spirit points from a book in the library when I was still a junior in the academy. Not much information was written about it though.
"How do I gain spirit points?" I ask.
Dia leans closer. "Your divine task is to change Dia's fate. And by fate, not necessarily her death."
"? What do you mean?"
"Dia will die no matter what."
I gulped from her answer. So, in other words, I'll experience death for the second time no matter what…!
Dia straightens her back. "You cannot change the ending of someone, but you can change the reason of it. I died as a Villainess, but you can die as a hero or a simple extra." She continues while ruminating, "I died in the hands of that idiot of a second prince, but you can die by a natural death or heroic sacrifice."
'idiot'…?
"I see. So, my goal is to live and die differently from the original Dia."
Dia nods, "In summary, yes."
I must avoid anything that involves the traits of Villainess Dia. By doing so, I can gain enough spirits points to be able to make a wish and return to my original body.
According to Dia, there will be main events. I need to either avoid or change each main event and by accomplishing the task, I'll gain a specific amount of spirit points. I can also gain little spirit points by tiny details like being nice and helping others. The spirit points will be tracked by a divine item.
"Damn it."
It all sounds so bothersome.
Second
Save a certain person.
"Cease from giving me something so vague." If Lumien had a tongue right now, he would have clicked it a number of times to the point it bleeds. "Who is this 'certain person'?"
"It could be anyone."
Dia's answer did not satisfy Lumien, but with his last thread of patience, he asks,
"Why is that?"
"I was not told who it was." She looks down, feeling bad once more for the poor soul in front of her.
Why are they doing this to me? What is their purpose? What is the purpose of all this?
Before I could let out another complaint, a heavy bright light engulfs my vision and I feel myself falling slowly. In the midst of confusion and fatigue, I hear a lulling whisper,
"My energy is running out... Forgive me for giving you this burden, and may the heavens bless you, Lumien."
"I wish you all the best."
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