Alira snapped back to life, eyes shooting open, the moment the Instance had passed.

  “Your pupils...” Raine’s voice came, bewilderment shifting to urgency when he continued, “What did you see?”

  { I heard a sack of sweet potatoes rolling down. Careful. Damaged goods fetch for lower price. }

  Two voices overlapped—one from the protagonist before her and the other from the protagonist on the opposite side of Staywes—the moment Alira broke out of her reverie. She sat there on the ground for a few more minutes as she processed what they had said. From what it seemed, the seed she planted was beginning to sprout.

  She remained quiet for a while, taking in every detail.

  “Give, give me a second,” Alira said to Raine. Unlike Xia, who was just another voice in her head, she couldn’t quite ignore him.

  Alira picked herself off the floor, and only when she was already back on her feet did she notice Raine’s extended hand. She would have appreciated it more if he’d asked for her well-being first instead of instantly jumping to question her for what she was worth.

  “Thank you,” Alira said anyways. Raine took his hand back stiffly.

  Alira heard a third male’s voice, spoken in an unfamiliar language, from Xia’s side. Xia replied back to him in the foreign tongue.

  While the Common Tongue, derived from the ancient language, was used all around Staywes, most regions had their own local language that they preferred to use. Xia, second prince of the Fenhua Empire, came from a land that alone had over two hundred indigenous living languages, if she recalled correctly.

  Her built-in language system as a transmigrator apparently only supported one language since she couldn’t understand their exchange. Not that she was curious anyways.

  { I’ll keep the linking off for a while. You wouldn’t like what you’d hear if I don’t. }

  Alira hummed in reply. She tried not to make it so obvious how glad she felt about that. Her privacy was already violated by them, some higher-dimensional beings at her best guess. And she much preferred not to add a maniac to the list.

  { Don’t miss me too much, sweetie. }

  Under Raine’s scrutinizing gaze, Alira reseated herself beside the window and called for her scroll.

  [This Soul of Staywes asks for Judgement.]

  ※

  Character Name [Alira Ravon]

  Will Favorability [Upper Gold]

  Mana Affinity [Lower Bronze]

  Soul Quality [Upper Silver]

  Soul Corruption [1%]

  Alchemist Ranking [0]

  Alchemic Casts []

  Mage Ranking [2]

  Elements []

  Artifact Bound []

  Role

  Unreliable Narrator (Unique)

  You are the final wall of Staywes, the Filter of all its tales. Your lies are their Truth.

  Role Aspects: [???], [Narrator’s Influence], [Narrate], [Curtains down], [Mirror], [Acting Prophet]

  ※

  “!”

  Her Role had a new aspect! Roles and Aspects were set for Staywesins the moment they were born. There was no such thing as suddenly gaining an aspect—at least not up to the furthest point she’d read. Even Raine didn’t get this treatment, even as he progressed and became stronger.

  Alira knew she must be grinning like a scummy salesman who had scored something good. So, it can work. She had been wondering about the extent to which her Role’s main ability, the lying thing, could work.

  ※

  [Acting Prophet] Probability for fragmented visions of the future and the past to appear once every Monday. {( 5% + 50% ) . 3 Neutral: 27.5%}

  ※

  Five and fifty were most likely derived from Reader1236 and fiend, respectively, while the other three were neutral. Neutral seemed not to count in the calculation of the probability value.

  That was an inconvenient summary of what she managed to accomplish. The vision just now certainly wasn’t a part of the novel. It meant that she had another source of information with this. Since the lie had already been turned into a real ability, it would only become truer from now onwards.

  Alira wondered if she could have a long list of aspects, each more overpowered than the other at this rate. She just had to lie well enough.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  She didn’t think she was particularly a good liar when it came to intentionally making things up. Lying about random bullshits out of a bad habit was the most she could do. A real lie would take her much more effort. Even this prophet act was an idea she had copied from the isekai novels she’d read.

  Alira wasn’t even sure if Raine, let alone them who could enter her mind at any time, actually believed her prophet act. They likely bought it only when she actually saw something and reacted to it. But if they didn’t believe it, she wouldn’t have the ability in the first place, so she seemed to have convinced them, even if she performed clumsily.

  Alira sneaked a glance toward Raine and let out an ‘oh’ when she found him actually reading through the book, his face a calm blankness in concentration.

  It seems all my hard work won’t be wasted after all.

  “I’m done,” she said, straightening up her collars in case they were disheveled from her rolling around.

  Raine looked up, tossing the book back into his artifact. He raised a brow, motioning for her to continue.

  “Right, the cultists. Not all cultists are Fellsworns, but you saw them use Outer abilities and Corruption, so they definitely are. That group of Fellsworns is a part of Retrievers, a branch of the Mother Cult. The crest on them and...on your mother, that’s the symbol of the Outer they serve, Mother,” Alira said in one breath. She paused for just a breather and continued, “Retrievers’ main purpose is to gather artifacts. They had originally planned to activate the spell to search for the artifact in Vesper Reign during the upcoming practical test when—”

  “You mean the one you have?” Raine interrupted her.

  Alira shrugged. “I don’t have to answer that. As for something even the mercenaries don’t know yet...”

  Alira bounced up on her feet, walking up to Raine. She already had the answer he wanted to hear when she was faking prophet. She got a new aspect and a few unanswered questions out of the act, but the answer for Raine remained the same.

  “Luckily, or unluckily, for you, I just saw where they’d appear next.”

  The first class on Monday was the same as last week—the ‘Introduction to Basic Alchemy’, Professor Daw’s class. Alira sat in the left-most, furthest row away from the stage. Even then, she felt eyes turning toward her, their gazes lingering.

  The Academy had done a sufficiently decent job in suppressing what happened in the forest. Sufficiently. While the details of the entire event weren’t enclosed, words did leak and spread about how Alira and Raine sneaked out alone into the deep woods to do something but were caught by Professor Sigor...

  Raine hadn’t made that big of a name for himself yet, and outside classes, most people didn’t know what Alira looked like. She had just very recently become a noble, and the duke hadn’t officially announced it either. Within the lecture class consisting of the two hundred or so students in the same intake, however, Alira caught a whole lot of glaring daggers flying in her direction. No doubt from people who knew Raine and wanted to know him even better.

  There was also Professor Daw herself, who caught the most trouble from their shenanigans as the head professor of their intake. The woman had to apologize and handle two angry noble families—a county and a duchy. And now had the responsibility to lead the pursuit of the cultists.

  “For today’s lesson, we need some volunteers... Miss Ravon,” Professor Daw called, “and Mr. Raine. Please, come up to the stage.”

  Alira wanted to wince, tail curling up around her leg in an attempt to hide. Maria petted down her back in consolation. It made the two of them who had gotten on the professor’s naughty list in the first week. Alira tried not to make an ugly face and worsen her reputation as she got out of her seat to walk to the front.

  She stood to the left of Professor Daw while Raine took his place at the right side. Both of them kept a good distance between them, as in they were both standing at the very edge of the stage.

  “Come closer,” Professor Daw said with a scowl. “I thought you two were already close enough.” A light laugh leaked out of the professor despite the strict face she had on. The woman quickly caught it. So quick Alira almost doubted whether she’d heard it wrong.

  “Today’s topic is the Will.” Professor Daw began. “The first appearance of the Divinity and their Name was at the hundredth year after the beginning of the first Epoch after the Ancient Times.”

  She placed her hand, slightly curled up to a rough circle, on her chest, five fingers touching lightly on the surface. It was a gesture to honor the Will.

  “The Will reached out to the first Imperial Alchemist—way back then, the great Will was said to meddle with the people of Staywes, compared to its wistful silence now. Two hundred years later, the Imperial Mage and Imperial Alchemist of that time came together to follow the ley lines for a journey that lasted a decade. Records told they reached Staywes’s world tree, and there formed a pact with Staywes to bestow us all with the judgement scroll that guides us on our own journey.”

  Alira started to feel restless as she stood like a statue before a crowd too large. She felt thankful for how fast Professor Daw spoke. If it had been the magic theory professor, she would be forced to stand until her feet went numb.

  “An alchemist’s potential, while not necessarily limited, is greatly defined by how favored they are by the Will. Prismatic, Gold, Iron, Bronze, and Null. Further divided into high, middle, and low for each stage. With the help of your two classmates with me, we will find out what the levels of favorability mean in terms of different aspects of alchemy.”

  Professor Daw pulled Raine closer to her, positioning him at the center of the stage. “Sir Raine is one of the three students with Middle Prismatic Will favorability welcomed by our Academy.”

  Seeing the professor’s hand reaching out to her, Alira walked up to the professor before she would be hurled, as Raine had been.

  “Good. Miss Ravon here is the Academy’s twenty-first student with Upper Gold rank,” Professor Daw rested her firm hand on Alira’s shoulder. “Last week, we saw how favorability affected the speed of casting. The Will’s significance extended beyond offensive application—it also determined how vulnerable you are to alchemic casts. In other words, your defense.”

  Professor Daw flicked two coins in the air. The coins spun for a while and fell. The moment they touched the platform, two chairs emerged in their place. “Take a seat, you two.”

  Alira likened this was Alchemic Exchange, switching the stages—in this case, the positions—of two objects. Professor Daw rolled a third coin between her fingers, which disappeared to summon a gas lamp held by the handle.

  Faint melodies hummed from the lamp. Golden shimmers swam within its cloudy glass and rusty bronze frames.

  “This is an artifact that allowed certain physical states and emotional sensations to be stored. Currently, it holds Sleep.” Professor Daw extended her hand to hold out the lamp to the students. “With this, I can use Physical State Exchange, taking their wakefulness to be replaced with the same quantity of sleep. We’ll see how fast they can repel the cast naturally.”

  Oh, so I’m taking a nap during class, but this time with permission. Cool.

  “We also have to consider the rank of the caster and the recipients. I am an Elite Alchemist, while the recipients are non-alchemists. I will cast it at its weakest level, thirty, so in theory, they would be affected for fifteen to twenty minutes. Ready, you two?”

  With confirmation nods from Alira and Raine, Professor Daw moved her hand holding the lamp, a barely noticeable motion. Like all her previous casts, Alira didn’t notice the cast at all before her eyelids grew heavier. She gave in, closing her eyes and slumping in the chair.

  “While these two are having sweet dreams, I will share with you a few interesting theories that won’t show up in the tests...”

  Professor Daw’s voice faded into a distant echo as sleepiness won over Alira with little effort.

  Twenty-First Chapter! The last chapter of this year, with many more to come in the following year.

  Happy (early/late) New Year to all of you! I hope 2025 has been a good one for you. Well done for making it through an entire year! Pat yourself on the back and accept my virtual head pats. (っ′ω`)?(??? ? ???)

  I wish for everyone to have an even better one ahead, and for 2026 to be kinder to you, with many more blessings than you hoped for. I hope whatever your goals are, you'd end up exceeding them—and that life will surprise you in all the best ways.

  This book has been one of my biggest achievements this year, before and after launch, and it has surpassed everything I had hoped for while writing it. (Almost) 150 Followers is a number I wasn't sure if I could achieve with my first book, yet here we are. It's such an incredible feeling, and I hope each and every one of you gets to experience something like this with what you are passionate about.

  I can't be entirely sure what life has in store for me, but I do know I won't stop writing. So it wouldn't be too unreasonable for me to wish that most of you will still be here with me on Royal Road to enjoy the stories and the products of imagination, in one way or another.

  Feel free to share your 2025 achievements, as well as your New Year's resolutions and wishes.

  “May all your wishes come true, or at least just this one.” - Down with the Shine by Kate Karyus Quinn (one of the earliest books I remember reading)

  With love,

  Absent