🔊 TTS Settings
~Chapter 4~
“…Are you kidding me?”
You’re telling someone who already died once on a time limit that they’re on another countdown?
I thought as long as I purified the contaminated land and lived properly, I wouldn’t get some incurable disease.
Or what—system, are you also bullying Muriel now?
｡:ﾟ(;´∩`;)ﾟ:｡ Noooo~!
…You say no.
Then what is this, huh?!
When I demanded an explanation, emotions boiling over, the system even added emoticons as it doubled down.
Please gather coins as soon as possible and purchase the ‘Fate Distortion’ item! (T△T)
“Fate….”
I quietly rolled that word around in my head, and it left a bad taste.
Does that mean Muriel’s “fate” is to die from an incurable illness and remain as Raul’s lifelong regret?
But I can change that fate with my own effort?
Correct~! o(^▽^)o
“……”
There are 99 days left, right?
First things first, I need to know how much this so-called ‘Fate Distortion’ item even costs.
I quickly opened the shop window and searched for it.
And then—
Myth-grade items can only be purchased after opening the Hidden Shop!
No item appeared. Just that message.
“Hidden shop? What now?!”
To open the Hidden Shop, 5,000 coins are required.
“Hey, you—!”
Before I could finish cursing, something popped up.
Quest triggered! <Let’s Gather Coins!>
…A quest?
Would you like to accept the <Let’s Gather Coins!> quest?
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
▶ Accept
“…What the hell?”
A chill ran straight down my spine, and my body stiffened on its own.
“Master! What’s wrong?”
“Oh—nothing, it’s fine….”
Only after hearing the spirit’s worried voice did I manage to calm down a little.
Is this system insane?
The [▶ Accept] button just kept multiplying endlessly. It looked like it wouldn’t stop until I pressed it.
“I’ll accept it, okay… calm down. This is scary.”
I need coins anyway, so I don’t really have a choice.
What bothers me is how obsessed the system is with me collecting coins.
No—more specifically, with me buying the ‘Fate Distortion’ item.
“…Does it want me to change Muriel’s fate?”
I eyed the bluish window suspiciously and pressed [▶ Accept].
Quest accepted!
Coin acquisition method:
Synchronization with ‘Muriel’s Memories’
“…What?”
Downloading partial memories from the backup server.
Progress: 67%
Completion imminent.
“Synchronization…?”
Download complete!
Partial memory synchronization will begin. Please brace yourself for shock.
Hey—wait a second.
Panicking, I reached out into empty air.
Then my vision went black.
Thunk.
I lost consciousness.
I was clinging to the hem of a man’s clothes.
“Please… please listen to me. I didn’t do it. It’s all a misunderstanding—”
A cold gaze stabbed down at me.
My husband, Raul Winterberg.
He hated me as the daughter of his enemy family. Even though I was treated like trash in the Terni family, he didn’t know the truth.
No—he didn’t want to know.
No matter how much I tried to tell him what my life in Terni was like, what kind of abuse I’d suffered since childhood, he never listened.
Not even once.
“I’m sick of your tearful acting.”
He dismissed my genuine tears as lies. There wasn’t a shred of warmth in his eyes as he looked at me.
…Did he not even feel pity?
“We have servant testimony proving you defaced my parents’ portraits. Don’t think you can crawl your way out of this by clinging to me like this.”
“No! I really didn’t—I swear I never did!”
“When my favorite horse died.”
The murderous chill pouring from him made my body tremble.
“You insisted it wasn’t you then as well. But clear evidence was found in your room.”
“No, that— I—”
“When the documents calculating troop deployment for dungeon suppression were stolen.”
“……”
“You said that wasn’t your doing either.”
Every one of those incidents was a setup. The last one was done by a maid planted by my own family, Terni.
I swear to the heavens, none of it was my doing—yet I was forced to bear the blame.
Because everyone hated me.
To Winterberg, I was the daughter of an enemy who deserved to die.
To Terni, I was nothing more than a disposable tool.
In this world… is there even a place where I belong?
“I can no longer tolerate you.”
“……”
“A decision regarding your punishment will be made today. Return to your room and stay quiet. If you cause another disturbance, I may have to lock you in the storage room, even as a duchess.”
At that moment, I no longer wanted to live.
So that night, I took out the poison I’d hidden away and swallowed it all.
“Gasp—!”
My heart slammed violently against my chest.
I came to, blinking rapidly as I struggled to catch my breath.
“What… was that? A dream? A hallucination?”
It felt too vivid to be either.
Like something I’d lived through myself.
The emotions. The tears. The pain crushing my heart.
“……”
A single tear slid down my cheek. I lifted my hand absently to wipe it away, only then realizing I was crying.
The tears kept pouring out, regardless of my will, like something inside me had broken.
“…Did it sync Muriel’s emotions too, not just her memories?”
“Master! Are you okay?! Oh my goodness! You suddenly fainted! What on earth happened?!”
The spirit’s frantic voice drilled into my ears.
I grabbed the water-droplet creature buzzing around me and said,
“You’re too loud… stay still for a second.”
“S-sorry! Do you want some water?”
“…Yeah.”
After drinking the water Ninabel made, my head cleared a bit.
The spirit fidgeted nearby, but I pulled up the status window to check the quest.
<Let’s Gather Coins!> Quest completed!
You have received 100 coins as a reward!
…You hit me with mental trauma for 100 coins?!
And how is this a “Let’s Gather Coins” quest, you bastard?!
<Let’s Gather Coins!> Quest triggered!
Would you like to accept the quest?
▶ Accept
“Hey, you son of a—”
I stopped mid-curse when I saw the next message.
<Let’s Gather Coins!> Quest ♡
Purify contaminated land (0/9)
Grow crops (0/9)
Success reward: 50 coins
Failure penalty: None
This time it was a normal quest, with an actual explanation. The heart symbol somehow made it more irritating.
“And the reward is tiny.”
What am I supposed to do with 50 coins?
You need 5,000 coins just to open the Hidden Shop!
“And the Fate Distortion item will be even more expensive, won’t it? And you only gave me 99 days…!”
I sighed deeply and took another sip of water, then slowly inhaled.
“…Okay. Calm down.”
The mental shock gradually faded, but another realization left me even more confused.
“…Muriel’s memories are way too clear.”
Like they’re my own.
So that’s what “synchronization” means.
Even after possessing Muriel’s body, I thought I was still me, and that I could live as myself.
But if this kind of synchronization keeps happening… won’t the line between Muriel and me disappear?
“…Ugh.”
What a headache.
The system I thought was a possession bonus might actually be a trap.
“You… what are you really?”
I stared at the bluish window, but it only continued displaying quest information.
About a week passed after the “synchronization incident.”
The system was still suspicious, but there was no denying it helped me a lot.
Thanks to that, the farm now looked fairly respectable, and my stats had improved.
First of all, the ‘Sacred Touch’ skill reached level 3.
And it gained a useful new option.
When consuming crops affected by ‘Sacred Touch,’ a random stat increases.
It’s random, so I don’t know which stat will go up—but for someone suffering from Muriel’s trash-tier stats, this was good news.
My current stats look like this:
Stamina: 1
Mental Strength: 52
Luck: -190
Charm: 26
Talent: 0
Mana: 0
Divine Power: 357
*All stats max: 999
Compared to when my stamina was in the negatives, having even 1 point feels like a huge improvement.
Luck also improved—slightly—to -190.
Divine Power seems to increase probabilistically when using skills, and it’s growing faster than any other stat.
Mana, however, didn’t increase even after eating vegetables with a “Mana Increase” effect.
I don’t know the details, but it seems incompatible with me.
And there’s one more thing I should confess.
“Master~♥ Would you like to eat first? Or… shall you eat me first?”
…We’ve gained an extra mouth to feed on the farm.
And they’re completely insane.
