Chapter 69.5: Selene

Darkness in all directions. And she was falling.

…

A bottomless, inescapable fall.

…

Her last memories were chaotic and frantic.

All her emotions, sensations, and thoughts were intertwined, transformed into something beyond human comprehension, decaying and corrupting in the endless chaos.

She seemed to… have done something terrible.

Was it her?

She couldn’t remember.

But there were still sensations lingering in her fingertips and body.

A nauseating disgust. A fear and loathing of herself.

…Did I touch something? My back seems to have bumped into something.

It wasn’t as hard as a rock, nor as cold.

It felt like… wood?

Selene opened her eyes, her expression filled with confusion.

This was… a hallway of paintings? A hallway wide enough for more than ten people to walk side-by-side, the walls lined with tightly-packed picture frames.

Were the pictures moving?

Selene approached the nearest frame and saw a lush forest. She was stumbling out of it.

The next frame showed a receptionist, smiling, handing her an adventurer’s badge. She and the receptionist were talking. The receptionist kept tucking her white hair behind her ears. Her green eyes were beautiful.

“…” Remembering something.

Continuing to look back, walking further down the hallway.

Receiving her first commission, a small job of finding a lost kitten, the fee was small, but she was still very happy. Louise was also very happy. Was it because she finally wouldn’t have to worry about food?

Feeling frustrated with her weak physique, she talked to Louise about it and was recommended many useless herbs and ended up losing a lot of money.

Finding a lost dog, stumbling into ruins, finding a strange book among the bones.

Becoming a superhuman. Her personality undergoing some strange changes.

Teaming up with some acquaintances, going into the mountains to explore, a Fourth Era ruin created by a landslide… Because of her mistakes, many people died. Though everyone survived and didn’t blame her, those dead…

Those who were pierced by arrows, those who were dissolved by acid, those buried alive, unable to move, unable to get help, unable to even kill themselves… They must have resented her, cursed her…

Escaping from the guild, running to Nymph Fu, then sneaking back.

“Get some rest,” Louise patted her shoulder comfortingly. “We won’t charge you for room and board.”

That woman was worried about money, even then… Should I learn from her?

She didn’t rest for long. Although she didn’t want to return to the guild or face those people, staying and eating for free wasn’t good, so she became a private detective.

It’s unclear whether it was because the success rate here was high, or because she was already somewhat famous, but she quickly earned a lot of money, enough to pay back Louise and even buy a house.

An uneventful life.

Though she wasn’t satisfied, always feeling that, as a transmigrator, she should do something significant, she was too lazy, and it would be too much trouble. She decided to stay as she was.

That was her plan.

But things seemed to change after that.

First, she’d been hired to find someone and discovered a massive underground ruin, and encountered a cult… Where did Duquesne put those rescued sacrifices? Sam… was that his name? Did he see his son? She still hadn’t received her payment.

She went out at night to collect materials and ended up meeting a mysterious, troublesome guy. But she agreed to his strange request, considering that he’d paid her and was polite… Who would refuse money?

Then, unexpectedly, she made contact with a Evil god, then met the “Omniscient Confederation.” She’d made a deal with the Evil god in a dream… Had she signed anything? She didn’t think so. And would a Evil god even agree to such a thing?

She felt like too many things had happened lately.

Her memories were becoming clearer, until she’d opened that box at Jose’s house, and things turned hazy.

Selene looked ahead.

Scattered picture frames.

No need to rush.

After her thinking improved, the first thing she focused on was where she was.

Though her memories were unclear, she felt like she had died, or at least, had experienced something close to death.

Was this the realm of some god? No, she didn’t think she believed in any gods.

Was this the domain of the “Scholar of Sin”? That seemed unlikely. That idiot’s aesthetic sense didn’t seem human. A place filled with flames and cracks made sense, but these wooden corridors and paintings didn’t match his style.

Wait… wood?

Selene seemed to realize something and quickened her pace, seeing a slightly open door at the end of the corridor. She pushed it open and saw hundreds of enormous, twisted pillars pointing towards the ceiling.

She could vaguely make out a statue of the “Scholar of Sin” among them.

Selene twitched the corner of her mouth and approached.

No, I’m dead, why did you bring me here? What for? Do you know that being dead is a big deal? I don’t want to compete in resurrection games… I’m just a low-level mage.

Selene cursed inwardly, only realizing, upon closer inspection, that she had been wrong about the Evil god. The current situation seemed to have nothing to do with the “Scholar of Sin.”

She saw a sunken area in the center of the hall filled with an incomprehensible liquid. From a distance, it was difficult to make out, but up close, it was clear.

…What is this? A giant bathtub? A swimming pool?

Selene examined the liquid carefully. It looked like water, but it faintly reflected a crimson color. And if you weren’t paying attention, it would suddenly disappear. This wasn’t because of the light or the angle. The liquid would truly disappear if viewed from a certain angle.

Though it was strange, it didn’t surprise her anymore.

Selene rubbed her forehead and looked at the object floating above the pool.

It looked like a table, or a box. It was floating in the air, defying gravity, and there was something on top of it.

Looking at it, Selene suddenly saw something in her peripheral vision.

A huge clock, only the hour hand visible. An inverted hourglass was placed on top of the clock, the sand concentrated in the top half, not a single grain falling.

Selene immediately recognized what it was.

【You have received Crown V—The Blessing of the Miraculous Beast.】

【At the end of your life, after your consciousness fades, you can use its power to return to a point in time.】

【This is a blessing that comes with a trial. The number of uses is three. This number cannot be changed.】

“Whew…”

She felt she should be expressing shock and joy, but she didn’t have the energy. Although she didn’t remember what happened next, she felt incredibly tired.

It was a very useful blessing.

Though she didn’t remember it, she felt like a great disaster had happened, and this was a chance to undo everything. That was good.

“Thank you, no matter which god you are, and when you bestowed this blessing,” she mumbled, bowing curtly, hoping the deity would forgive her lack of formality.

“So, I have three chances to redo things? Is that right?” Selene muttered.

【Two blessings remain.】

“…”

【One blessing has already been used.】

“When?! Didn’t I have all three when I last checked? It’s only been a few days. Did I use one without realizing it?”

This time, the 【Conjugated Self】 didn’t answer.

Selene realized something.

Could it be that she had died more than once in that world in the box?

After checking, realizing that she needed to immerse her entire body in water to use the blessing, she could return to a specific point in time, like the second after she’d opened the box.

Selene hurried back to the hallway of paintings.

Looking back from the moment she touched the box.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

…

The first time, she woke up in the caravan, though there was a force trying to obscure her perception, it was easily broken.

She met up with Richter and Louise, and found Jose.

After noticing the unusual flow of time in the box, she tried to move forward to nightfall… To be careful, the three of them tried to tie their fates together, ending up in the same tent.

Richter and she went out to investigate, and though they were quickly chased by those mud-like monsters, they had still managed to gather some information.

After nightfall, they went to the empty village, and Jose and the caravan had disappeared. They cautiously searched the village.

She’d kicked a head she’d seen along the way. She had also thrown some dirt at the child’s writing, covering the characters one by one. In the end, it seemed as if the child had given up. No more words appeared…

Selene saw this and didn’t find anything unusual.

This is what I can do. If I had some tools, she thought, she would’ve dug up the grave, disinterred the body, and sent it to the afterlife with fire.

…But why had the rain almost killed them? She and Louise were only first-tier mages, but Richter was a third- or fourth-tier “Sage.” Even if it wasn’t a combat profession, they shouldn’t have been in danger…

Selene continued to look back.

Exploring many rooms in the village, they discovered many undead… No, they were monsters, not undead.

Tired, the three returned to the inn.

Time remained still. After resting, they began to search again.

This time, they had a clear goal—finding the church.

The journey was uneventful. The three found the ruined church, and then found the message Jose had left in the ruins… Nightfall.

The three ran to a room with intertwined lines carved on the door, hiding from the procession heading towards the mountain. After they passed, time immediately jumped to daytime.

…We should probably continue exploring the unexplored rooms.

Selene thought this, then saw the three exchange glances and head towards the mountain.

Wait, why?

Selene’s gaze sharpened. She took a few steps back and reviewed the images in the frames, looking at them again from the beginning.

She found the problem.

The moment they entered the box, something had been watching them, whispering in their ears.

Its eyes were everywhere—the members of the caravan, the carriages, the horses, the insects in the inn, the monsters in the houses… Its eyes were everywhere in this world in the box.

During the day, it seemed to be restricted, but once night fell, if they were in the village and not inside a building, they’d be defenseless against its influence. Their perceptions and consciousness would change. If they weren’t inside when night fell, this would happen.

Theoretically, as long as they’d seen that message in the ruins and understood it, they would have avoided this.

Selene gasped and continued watching.

As the three headed towards the mountain, they were all on alert, but none escaped its influence. They walked all the way to the mountaintop.

They saw a lake. They saw mountains of bones. They saw… a drop of blood falling from the sky, an amber-colored darkness.

In that instant, the ability to rewind time was activated.

In that instant, Louise and Richter cast some kind of protection spell, realizing something was wrong… The three of them died within seconds of seeing the blood, but Selene had held on for a few more seconds, allowing her to see more.

“God of the Piercing Guiding Lines, manipulated by the God of the Tempting Fruit…” Selene murmured, recalling the prayer she had heard.

This was Loop 1.

After activating the blessing and arriving here, realizing the danger of this memory, she’d used a ritual to seal her memories, preventing herself from dying upon resurrection… And after Loop 2, this memory seemed to have lost its danger. As long as she didn’t seek death by going to the mountaintop, nothing would happen.

A sigh of relief.

“Let’s see what happened in Loop 2…” Selene immediately turned her attention to the picture frames behind her.

Then she fell silent.

“…Holy crap. Is that me?”

Selene muttered to herself.

No way. I cried just because I helped someone with a wound? That’s fake, right?

And what did Richter mean? We’ve known each other for a long time? It’s only been three days… Right, he was trying to gain my trust. I get it.

And finally… did that monster possess me directly? In Loop 2, they’d ignored the rules of “don’t stay outside at night” and “don’t go to the mountaintop,” so the monster’s restrictions were lessened, and it possessed her.

What happened next?

Selene narrowed her eyes and looked back.

After a few minutes, an indistinct voice echoed.

“Ugh—That’s not me! Right, I was controlled by that monster! I didn’t know him! This yandere—no, this pure psychopath is saying what now?!

“It’s the monster’s fault!”

Though seeing this meant she hadn’t died, that her consciousness had persisted, the images were still too shocking, overloading Selene’s brain. She didn’t focus on that.

She vomited several times, but nothing came out.

“What the hell was that…”

Using a tentacle to support her forehead, Selene tried to organize her thoughts.

…Okay. I should be able to keep my memories in Loop 3. I need to plan my next moves.

A tentacle touched her forehead, then stroked her hair.

First, Jose’s sudden disappearance was clearly unusual. He’s obviously the key to this world in the box. So, I need to keep an eye on him this afternoon. Even if I can’t find him after entering the village, I need to get more information from him.

A tentacle wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Second, we can’t go back to those ruins, especially the ruins of the church. Even if we go, we have to be extremely careful. Seeing that message meant a certain death… There’s no way to counter that. We shouldn’t risk our lives.

A tentacle adjusted her clothes, smoothing out the wrinkles.

Then, at the end of Loop 2, Louise and Richter both said we needed to deal with that monster, otherwise everyone would die… Though I don’t want to question them, I am a little curious. How can the three of us do that? Even if we hadn’t fully explored the lower half of the village, we definitely have to find a way to get to the mountaintop safely…

Finding nothing else to do, a tentacle retracted, only to be grabbed by Selene.

“I was just about to ask, what’s this?”

Selene looked down and saw the pale blue tentacle extending from her sleeve.

She paused for a moment, then moved her right hand.

As her right hand moved, the tentacle moved.

She bent her arm, and the tentacle also bent.

She touched her hand again and paused.

“What the hell is this—!!!!”

Tentacles and magical girls. The combination alone was enough to get people excited.

And now, a tentacle was right in front of her.

So… were ritual spells a type of magic? Was she part of this combination—a magical girl?

She felt as if something crazy was about to happen.

“Speaking of which, am I really that girly? It feels weird to use such typically feminine things, wouldn’t combining tentacles and magical girls be too cliché?”

Selene stroked her chin.

The tentacle hesitantly shook its head.

“And it’s kind of weird that tentacles growing on a magical girl would do that to the magical girl. That would make it incredibly controversial.”

The tentacle agreed.

“Right, right, right—Why am I talking to myself?!”

After muttering to herself for a while, Selene, unable to bear it anymore, yelled out in frustration, letting out an unintelligible moan.

She’d finally discovered that the tentacle was actually a part of her, after careful observation and confirmation.

To be precise, the tentacle had become her fifth limb—certainly not the kind below her waist.

It could appear anywhere on her body, could sprout from her right arm, and its maximum length was three meters, its width inversely proportional to its length, its minimum diameter 1.5 centimeters.

She could also transform her entire arm into a tentacle. In this state, its strength and size increased significantly. Even with her weak physique, she could easily injure a strong adult man. Though it probably wouldn’t be that effective.

Is it really going to make me play with tentacles?

She had some ideas about why this was happening.

Theoretically, she was currently in the dream world, existing as a consciousness. The body her consciousness had created was naturally her subconscious ideal body.

And the reason her subconscious self looked like this… was probably because of the monster that had almost killed them twice in Tatra.

It seemed to possess the intelligence of a normal human. In Loop 1, it had directly lured the three to the mountaintop because they had just escaped danger and were relaxed. It had merely guided them, causing them to make some slight mistakes, leading them to the mountaintop… This was difficult to detect. Even if someone had noticed something was wrong halfway through and thought they’d acted recklessly, the monster’s restrictions were lifted because they had entered the dangerous zone, allowing it to reinforce the idea that “my companions are nearby. There’s nothing to worry about.”

So, Loop 1 ended with everyone dying without noticing.

And in Loop 2, their situation had changed.

Because of the chase, their nerves were tense, and they were on high alert. Unlike Loop 1, they hadn’t explored many rooms and misjudged their location, accidentally passing the church and entering the “mountaintop zone.”

In this situation, the monster didn’t subtly influence them. It directly dealt with Louise, who had been caught off guard, and possessed her… It also seemed to target Richter, though it was unclear why. But Selene felt that even if he was betrayed by his companion, he wouldn’t have given up so easily.

…Perhaps it affected his survival instincts?

Maybe.

In any case, it’s the monster’s fault!

Back to the point. Selene suspected that the monster had directly altered her perceptions, making her think that “this body is better, easier, more perfect,” then physically changed her body, making her consciousness and body align perfectly, and then these changes felt natural and innate.

For example, if a person was lying in bed, and a cup of water was placed just out of reach, a normal person would reach for it. But Selene would extend a tentacle once her arm reached its limit, using the tentacle to bridge the gap, grab the cup, bring it to her mouth, and then put it back.

And these actions would happen unconsciously.

How to use the tentacle, how much force to use, how long to extend it… These questions didn’t exist. It was as if it were a natural limb. Selene had unconsciously used the tentacle to wipe sweat from her forehead and adjust her clothes.

“I don’t think I can really be considered human anymore… But what should I call this? And I think my human components still make up over ninety percent of me. Based on what Louise said, I have some Elven blood, and the tentacle and the elf each make up ten percent. I’m still human.

“…It’s going to be hard to get people to accept this tentacle and elf combination!”

Selene felt she needed to control her instincts.

She suppressed the smug tentacle, retracting it beneath her skin, and mentally recited the steps a hundred times. Then she opened her eyes.

She was back in the hall.

She walked to the pool and, without doing anything, let herself sink into the water. Then, buoyed up by the water, she floated on the surface.

“Whew…”

She closed her eyes.

The hourglass trembled slightly.

Tick-tock—

The dust began to fall again.

…

A gentle breeze. Tall trees. Sunlight. Green leaves swaying in the wind.

Selene opened her eyes and ignored the leaves falling in front of her.

She smiled.

She hadn’t seen Jose yet. She hadn’t heard his story or his beliefs. She hadn’t entered the village yet, and hadn’t had her mind altered by that terrifying monster.

“Hey—Old man, I forgot your name. Your lovely daughter’s calling you. Get your ass over here.”

Though this wasn’t in line with her usual behavior, her casual acknowledgment of her identity stunned the “father” who emerged from the carriage.

“Are you deaf? Can’t you hear me calling you? Get over here!”

Selene’s final, impatient remark finally prompted a reaction.

【You shouldn’t—】

“Don’t you ‘shouldn’t’ me,” Selene tilted her head. “What, your daughter’s calling you, and you’re not coming? If someone ignored me, I’d slap them. Old man, am I being too polite? Or do you want to cut ties with your daughter?”

The “father” was stunned.

After a five-second pause, he approached, looking up at the top of the carriage, about to speak, when he received a slap from Selene, who had jumped down.

And an unreserved, disgusted remark.

“What? You were trying to peek up your daughter’s skirt? You’re a pervert.”

Didn’t I say I was wearing pants?

The “father,” whose humanity was clearly flawed, covered his face and took a few steps back, looking at Selene in confusion.

“I’m going to meet some friends. I won’t be back tonight. Give me some money. I want to treat my friends to dinner, and I need to buy some things—as my ‘father,’ you should give your daughter some allowance, shouldn’t you?”

Finally, Selene snatched some metallic objects from her trembling “father.” They didn’t seem to have any value or markings.

Then, she turned to the caravan with a cruel smile.

【What a psychopath…】

She heard a merchant whispering.

【Yeah, ■■■ is so unlucky. To have such a daughter…】

Someone agreed.

What the hell? Why are they adding new settings to me so quickly?

Selene’s smile widened. She grabbed the person, lifting him by his collar.

“Were you just cursing me? Watch out. I’ll tell my father, and he’ll kick you out of the caravan—after all, he loves me the most.”

【Yes, yes, I’m sorry—Don’t do that!】

The previously calm merchant, hearing this, immediately started begging for forgiveness, ready to kowtow. The other person who had agreed also quickly fell silent, turning their head away.

“An apology needs to be sincere. I’ll take half your earnings from this trip,”

Selene smiled.

【Please, just take 1/5, not 1/3! If I don’t get the money back, my daughter will die. Those people will threaten my family—】

“What does that have to do with me? You caused the problem. The daughter is yours, not mine. It doesn’t matter if she’s killed or sold to a brothel. It’s none of my business. Half? No way. I’ll kick you out of the caravan right now.”

【Please…】

But Selene ignored him and walked away.

A few minutes later, she glanced back and saw the merchant, who had looked terrified and angry a moment ago, had regained his composure and was chatting and laughing with others.

He’s a fake. A bad fake at that. He’s not even wearing the skin properly.

Next, find Richter and the others.

【Psychopath…】

【Monster…】

Along with those faint whispers, Selene maintained her smile and walked towards the end of the caravan.