CHAPTER 69: HERE WE GO AGAIN (1)

Tessia and her daughter Sylvia, though both goddesses, their values were usually said to be worlds apart.

Sylvia after years of plotting, killed her mother, who was known as the kindest goddess.

And after her death, Sylvia’s reign began and lasted for over 570 years.

"So how the hell am I in Tessia’s time?" Arthur muttered, visibly panicking over what he had just discovered.

"No, no, it isn’t like I’ve gone back to Tessia’s time, more like..." He clamped his hand over his mouth. "No way, right?"

Arthur wanted to dismiss the thought, but everything seemed to point in that direction.

What if everything he knew was wrong?

What if Sylvia was bad, but Tessia was worse?

If that was so, then what would happen if Tessia, who was even more dangerous than Sylvia, were to return?

’It definitely does answer most of the questions,’ Arthur concluded.

If the secret organization was made up of people who still served Tessia and the ancient gods, then it made sense why they needed Ha-joon so badly and how they could openly oppose Sylvia.

That meant the third continent really was an army created by Sylvia, but not for the reason Arthur had initially believed. It was formed solely to stop her mother’s resurrection.

Arthur pulled his knees closer to his chest as he began breaking everything down and piecing the puzzle back together.

Star Cleaver was never meant to be a tool to trap Nathira. It was Nathira who had been used to trap Star Cleaver.

However, that raised even more questions.

Did Nathira know?

Was she working with Sylvia?

Did she lose her memories?

Arthur knew there would be no answers to those questions, so he pushed them out of his mind.

The first thing he was sure of was that Agrat’s group wanted to unseal or revive Tessia so she could bring back the other gods.

And it seemed she’d used Cecilia’s saintess constitution and Amelia’s spirit zone to somehow awaken the goddess and merge with her. That, in and of itself, was the first bad ending—one Arthur hadn’t seen in the game.

’Then how am I not dead?’

That was Arthur’s main question.

If everything he had put together was indeed true, then he should have woken up in an apocalyptic era if he was meant to wake up at all.

But only a year had passed, and there was no way a war between gods hadn’t reached the North, which bordered the ancient civilization.

’A holy war can’t end in a year, right?’ he questioned himself. ’That means someone tampered with the world.’

A random thought suddenly popped into his head. ’Was it Sylvia?’

It would make sense if she used the last of her mana to trigger some kind of causality that changed the course of events.

But even that didn’t explain why he was still alive.

Arthur exhaled. ’My mind is such a mess right now.’

He collapsed onto the bed with a faint smile. ’At least I’m alive.’

The young man suddenly shot upright and turned to the maids, who had been admiring him. "Hey, where is Isabella? And did Nathira try to contact me?"

He had almost forgotten to ask about what happened to his wives.

Perhaps knowing what had happened to them over the past year would fill in the gaps in his theory.

The maid with white hair and blue eyes tilted her head slightly. "Who now?"

The other maids giggled. "Are you trying to ease the tension with a jest, Young Master?"

Arthur’s eyes stayed fixed on them. "What? I’m serious."

The maid looked back at him. "But, Young Prince, you don’t know anyone by that name."

"Huh?" Arthur mumbled. "What do you mean by that?"

His tone grew somber, as if his whole world was falling apart. "What about Amelia, Ellie, and Cassie?"

The maid placed a finger to her chin as if trying to remember, then said with sudden enthusiasm, as if the names had just come to her.

"Oh, now I remember those names!"

Arthur was about to breathe a sigh of relief, only for her next words to shatter it.

"But you’ve never met them." She said boldly. "If my memory serves me right... They made a name for themselves last year and the year before that in Central Academy."

"What?" Arthur clamped his mouth, as if fighting nausea. "This doesn’t make sense."

The maid gazed at him kindly and said, "Young Prince, are you perhaps upset that you couldn’t attend the academy because you never awakened?"

Arthur turned to her again, his hand slowly falling from his mouth. "I see..." he finally realized what had happened. "I’m back in the normal timeline."

He shook his head, trying to steady his spiraling thoughts. ’No, it still doesn’t make sense.’

If this was the normal timeline, the Arcain family should have already been destroyed.

He leaned his head against the bed’s headrest, staring at the ceiling. ’I should’ve been more careful.’

The maid, seeing his downcast expression, also grew solemn. "Young Master, don’t be sad. Your spot at the academy is still open, so if you can learn basic martial arts, you can go."

Arthur nodded sluggishly, then looked at them with a faint smile. "Can you tell me who awakened with SSS-rank talents?"

The maid shook her head. "Young Master, no one reached SSS-rank this year, just like no one has in history."

Before Arthur could even react, someone suddenly burst into the room.

"Young Prince!" a young woman shouted, gasping for breath. "Your fiancée has come to visit you!"

"My fiancée...?"

Arthur’s words were drowned out by the maids’ chatter:

"I’m so jealous of the princess."

"Yeah, she’s beautiful and elegant, but even she can’t compare to the Young Master."

"Can anyone compare to the Young Master?"

Arthur immediately jumped out of bed and bolted from the room, even as the maids called after him.

If the maids didn’t know Nathira, Amelia, Isabella, Cassie, or Ellie, then who was this person they called his fiancée?

And who would be kind-hearted enough to keep an engagement with the weakened Arthur?

It didn’t make any sense.

Arthur dashed through the familiar halls of his family’s castle until he reached the open corridor that led to the courtyard, where he and Janet had once sparred.

A beautiful young woman stood there, dressed in a snug sundress and a long coat with feathers at the collar, which she had let slide down to her elbows.

Long blonde hair and pale blue eyes—she looked like a goddess.

No, she was a goddess.

A goddess Arthur knew all too well.

The one who appeared on the cover of Magic Academy’s Genius Scholars and the one who began Ha-joon’s journey.

"Sylvia."

─── ✦ End of Chapter ✦ ───