Final Preparations

Fran arrived at the entrance of the Night Sky Reading Club, a place she had not visited since her first time there.

She pushed the door open and saw Lai sitting at the front desk, so she walked over slowly and greeted her.

"Hey, Lai."

Lai had spotted her long ago and found it strange that she would come here again.

"Fran, hello... what are you doing here?"

Fran smiled and said:

"I'm a member of the Night Sky Reading Club, what's wrong with coming to the club?"

Lai's mouth twitched, and she said with some helplessness:

"Fine, just tell me why you're here—are you looking for someone, or are you here to quit the club?"

In Lai's view, there were only two reasons for Fran to be here.

"I'm here to exchange for some spells."

"???"

Lai's face was full of question marks; she didn't quite understand what Fran meant.

"Wait, you're from the Sword Chant School, and you're coming to us to exchange for spells???"

"Who said I'm from the Sword Chant School? Where did you hear that?"

Lai's face was filled with confusion as she spoke slowly:

"Your exploits have already spread everywhere. There's a first-year apprentice named Fran who defeated John, someone who has been taking sword lessons for six years, in a sword class."

"Everyone outside is saying you're preparing to jump the queue and participate in this year's apprentice assessment..."

"Uh, that's all nonsense. Didn't Bella tell you?"

"Hasn't Bella already joined the Sword Chant School? She's been so busy these past few days that I can't find her at all, and I assumed you were the same."

Fran could only correct her:

"I didn't take John's recommendation spot. I just want to see what other schools are like, so I came to check out the spells here."

"Oh!" Lai became interested, her eyes lighting up.

"Are you planning to join the Astrology School? It just so happens that I've had some inspiration lately, so we can go in together when the time comes."

"No, I want to look at the spells first. Just give me the list of spells I can exchange for."

Only then did Lai hand the spell list to Fran. Fran took the paper and glanced at it; there were only three spells on it.

The first was a spell called Astrology Orb, which was very peculiar. Depending on the current celestial alignment, you would summon one of dozens of variants; if the alignment was correct, the damage would be high, but if it was wrong, it might deal no damage at all.

The second was a spell called Adjustment Method. If you often watched the stars but suddenly couldn't feel anything, this spell served as an adjustment to allow you to continue sensing the celestial bodies.

Neither of these felt useful to her. She felt her perception of the stars was already maxed out. Although that foresight of the future hadn't happened a second time, she didn't need to calculate anything when using her divination arts; the answers were given to her directly.

She saw the last spell, and from the moment she laid eyes on it, she couldn't hold back, pointing directly at it and saying:

"I want this one!"

Lai took a look and said with a smile:

"Are you sure about this? People here usually curse this thing out after exchanging for it."

Fran was a bit curious and asked:

"Divination Art, what's wrong with it? Doesn't it say it can foresee upcoming events?"

"It says it foresees them, but this thing is just too difficult to use."

"It can foresee upcoming events, that description isn't wrong. The problem is that its predictions are a bit abstract."

"According to Sister Haya, this thing actually requires you to imagine how the next event will happen. The more specific and accurate your imagination is, the more it will automatically extend based on your visualization."

"But if your imagination is off, it will have absolutely no effect, no matter how hard you try."

Fran understood a little, but there were still parts she didn't grasp.

"Tell me more, I don't quite understand what you mean."

"Let me give you an example. Suppose you observe that I step with my left foot every time I enter the door, and you want to use Divination Art to foresee what will happen next."

"After you use it, you see a scene of me tripping, and sure enough, I trip when I enter the door. This makes you feel smug, and you think about using Divination Art again."

"However, your Divination Art won't succeed every time. There were a few times when someone crossed the threshold with me, or was walking toward me, and these factors caused your Divination Art to fail."

"But one time you notice I tripped again, and there were no other interfering factors, yet you didn't foresee it."

"It's highly likely that you didn't foresee whether my left foot stepped on the threshold or cleared it, and you didn't imagine the distance between where my foot landed and the threshold correctly."

"Understand? Theoretically, as long as you know what is going to happen next, the Divination Art can then deduce what will happen in the next step."

"In reality, we can see the scene for a short while at most. It's impossible to predict the distant future like a prophecy because it's very hard to imagine things that are too far off."

Fran gradually understood. She raised her hand, took out a gold coin, and handed it to Lai.

"I'll buy it. Give me the change for this coin."

Lai swallowed hard; for an apprentice like her, a single gold coin was simply too much, and she desperately wished it were hers.

At this moment, Haya, the president of the Night Sky Reading Club, walked down. She glanced at the silver Divination Art paper Lai had pulled from under the table and realized what had just transpired.

"Are you looking to buy this Divination Art?"

Fran nodded.

"This is actually a prerequisite for prophecy magic. If you can truly master it, you're welcome to join the Astrology School."

"I will consider it. I am currently looking for a school to join."

Fran returned to her dormitory and imagined the future scene she had witnessed, turning toward the night sky outside her window, and images began to manifest before her eyes.

It was the aftermath of Fran killing Richter; she had buried them on the spot, having even brought a shovel along with her.

After burying them all, she saw her past self walking away with a light and cheerful air, her face devoid of any trace of anxiety or fear.

Just bury them like that? Is it really that casual?

The vision before her eyes had not yet ended, continuing until her perspective led her to a gate at Cuilan Academy, finally revealing the location where she would eventually kill Richter.

Then, her vision went black as she returned to reality. She felt somewhat exhausted, a sharp, intense pain throbbing in her head.

It seems that divining too far into the future carries side effects, Fran thought, clutching her head.

But why was burying them in that specific ground enough? The version of herself in the future had looked so relaxed and at ease, as if she had anticipated that nothing would go wrong.

Was it because I joined a school and received their protection?

Fran shook her head. She didn't really want to join a school right now; she knew that while every school possessed its own unique spells, one would be restricted to only those techniques, which would prevent her from utilizing the full potential of her game panel.

Returning to her previous line of thought, why had she simply buried them and walked away?

A bold guess suddenly occurred to her: could it be that she had already foreseen her future self smiling while burying the bodies? Even if she didn't know the reason, she simply followed through with it, which was why she had been so happy...

No, that's not it. Perhaps there is something wrong with that plot of land. I don't feel like the kind of person who would be that mindless.