Chapter 154
Luna slowly closed her eyes and began to speak.
[Sometimes, among humans, there are those who are inevitably bound to a god and to fate. We gods instinctively recognize them, and we watch over their destiny until the moment their life ends.]
Usually, once every generation, among the countless humans of the world, one such inevitably connected individual appears.
[That inevitable human is what people commonly call an apostle—and in this generation, that apostle was you.]
The moment Selina was born, Lunios instinctively knew she was his apostle.
He prayed that her future would not be a path of thorns and looked into her fate.
[Every living being has a wheel of destiny. We collectively call it “fate.”]
Selina awkwardly rubbed the corner of her mouth.
At first, she had been surprised to hear herself called an apostle, but somehow it made sense.
She had heard that apostles could use divine powers—among them foresight and mind reading—and those two were precisely the special abilities she possessed.
‘A wheel of destiny… Now I understand what it was that I’ve been seeing all this time.’
When she first encountered the concept of apostles and their powers during a group assignment, Selina had naturally thought of her awakened ability. She had even wondered if she herself might be an apostle.
But although Lunios had always stayed by her side, she had never felt “chosen,” nor had she received any oracle said to come with being an apostle, so she dismissed it as her imagination.
Yet she had been Lunios’s apostle from the very beginning.
[The fate given to each person is inevitable, just as you and I are bound together. Throughout life, there are countless choices, and though you choose among them, in the end you live out the fate that was given to you and leave the world. But……]
Lunios, who had looked sorrowful, suddenly changed his gaze into something fierce with rage.
[At some point, your fate disappeared.]
“…Disappeared? Can fate really just disappear?”
[It’s not something that should ever happen, but it’s not entirely impossible.]
Lunios spoke heavily.
[Even though humans are insignificant beings, it is strictly forbidden for gods to interfere with an individual’s fate. If one does, an equivalent price must be paid. Even I would have to give up forty percent of my divine power if I were to tamper with a human’s fate.]
Selina didn’t know how great Lunios’s divine power was, but as the god of the moon, it must be immense. Sacrificing forty percent of it was unimaginable.
“Wait. If the price is that huge, then my fate couldn’t have just vanished on its own. That means someone interfered, right?”
Lunios closed his eyes in pain and nodded.
“Who on earth would…? Did someone have a grudge against me or something?”
[No one would harbor malice toward a human who wasn’t even a year old. The problem isn’t you—it’s me.]
“…Don’t tell me. Because I’m your apostle, someone meddled with me?”
[That’s right. To a god, an apostle is an extremely precious existence. If I had to compare it, it’s like a parent loving their child. That’s why gods spend most of their time watching over their apostles.]
Beyond those dark blue eyes facing her, Selina felt an overwhelming love directed at her.
[The one who stole your fate used to be on good terms with me. But at some point, he began to harbor malice toward me and started targeting my children.]
At first, Lunios looked bitter, but gradually his face twisted with fury.
[In the past, he only interfered in the human world and tormented children little by little. But this time, he went too far……!]
Selina, who had been listening silently with her arms crossed, spoke after sinking into deep thought.
“I think I understand now why my fate disappeared. But you said that Silvia Hailers’s life was originally supposed to be mine.”
She lifted her lowered gaze.
“Then what exactly is the Silvia Hailers I know now?”
[That’s exactly what I’m about to explain. The current Silvia Hailers is nothing more than a puppet created by the one who stole your fate.]
“…A puppet?”
Did that mean she wasn’t even a living being?
[More precisely, your fate was given to someone else.]
“That’s possible… Well, if fate can be erased, then changing it should be possible too.”
Everything she had heard so far was absurd, but this was even more unreal.
[I tried everything to recover your stolen fate, but in the end, I couldn’t. Worse still, after stealing it, he recorded it as if it were someone else’s original fate, making it impossible to retrieve.]
“…Recorded?”
[What I told you was the “original work.”]
Selina’s mouth fell open at the completely unexpected words.
[I called it a novel, but in truth, it’s a record that depicts the life of “Silvia Hailers.” Once someone’s fate is recorded, traces of that record remain, making it impossible to edit or erase.]
“Then what about my memories of my previous life? I thought what you told me was just a novel, and that I reincarnated into that world.”
[Don’t overthink it. No matter what, you are still you. You were you in that previous world, and you are you here now. Just think of it as you living in different worlds. And honestly, I thought it was fortunate that you remembered the memories of another world.]
“Now that you mention it……”
When she had first met him, Luna had seemed strangely happy and pleased to see her.
[People whose fate disappears usually don’t live long. Without a given fate, they encounter countless accidents and incidents, and in the end, death looms over them.]
“What does that have to do with it being good that I remember my past life?”
[Remembering a past life means, at the very least, you can understand what’s being said. Think about it—who is easier to talk to, a four-year-old child or an adult?]
“…Ah.”
[I needed to stay by your side and make sure you could live your original life safely, but talking to a four-year-old wouldn’t get through at all.]
“So everything you’ve said so far—about the original work, the protagonist—it was all to return me to how things were supposed to be?”
Lunios nodded.
“Haha… So much unbelievable stuff that I can’t even get angry.”
After letting out a hollow laugh, Selina lowered the corners of her mouth and thought deeply.
“So, to sum it up, the one who bears a grudge against you gave my fate to the current Silvia. Then what happened to Silvia’s original fate? No—more importantly, does Silvia even know she’s been dragged into all this?”
Given that someone with a grudge against Lunios could freely manipulate human fate, they were likely not human, but a god like Lunios—or something equivalent.
And if that being had acted on a whim, what would happen to Silvia, who was caught up in it?
Seeing Selina worry about Silvia, Lunios frowned.
[If she were an innocent child, do you think I would have hated her all this time?]
“…What?”
[Silvia knows that she stole another person’s fate.]
—Thud.
Her heart sank. Of everything she had heard, this was the most shocking.
“How could Silvia…? Don’t tell me she isn’t human……”
Her wandering violet eyes suddenly froze. Then, in shock, Selina covered her mouth.
“…No way. That can’t be.”
[Your guess is correct.]
Even though Selina hadn’t said anything, Lunios could tell what she was thinking.
Shaken, Selina unconsciously ran a hand through her hair.
Silvia. Perhaps it was because Silvia held her fate, but when examined closely, there were several similarities between them.
Silvia the saint, and herself the apostle.
The same pale lavender hair.
Both adopted in childhood.
And the presence of familiars.
Silvia’s familiar, Nox, was unlike ordinary familiars—it seemed he could communicate with her. Luna and Nox already knew each other, and Nox had once even revealed that he was a god.
From what she had heard, Nox had been by Silvia’s side since she was young.
“Then that means Nox did all of this… and Silvia knows everything…….”
Murmuring blankly, Selina found it hard to accept her own words.
How could a close friend be the one who stole her fate?
“Lu—Lunios. What if you’re mistaken? There’s no way Silvia would do something like that. Living someone else’s life—it’s not just anything.”
[Unfortunately, I’m not wrong. Silvia knew that stealing another person’s fate could lead to that person’s death. Even so, she chose it for her own benefit.]
Selina’s lips trembled. She had remained calm even when she learned her fate had disappeared—but now, she fell into deep despair.
[Nox has committed many acts, even at the cost of losing his own divine power, all to erase you from this world. The most prominent example is giving your fate to Silvia. And another thing is……]
Lunios trailed off, his lips moving silently. Soon, he looked at Selina with eyes full of pity.
[Manipulating circumstances so that your biological mother would abandon you.]
“…What does that mean?”
[Originally, you would have followed your mother and entered the marquis’s household right away. But unlike the original flow, you were abandoned, and Silvia was adopted in your place.]
Selina was speechless. Or rather, she didn’t know how she was supposed to react.
She had never really thought about her biological mother. When she first met Anais, she thought she was doing fine—but now her stomach churned with nausea.
She wanted to escape this place immediately.
“…If my mother hadn’t found me, what would have happened to me?”
[………]
“Tell me honestly.”
[…If you hadn’t met Stella, you would have died a week later.]
“H—Haha… Hahahaha!”
At first, Selina laughed hollowly, then suddenly burst out laughing.
Her face was filled with madness, yet her eyes looked as though they would spill tears at any moment.
“So in the end, my entire life was ruined because of Nox.”
[…Selina.]
Her violet eyes gleamed ominously with venom.
She still vaguely remembered her biological mother.
There had been no physical abuse or curses, but she was always irritable and exhausted.
Whenever Selina went to the shop where she worked, she would lash out angrily, so Selina spent all day waiting at home.
Then one day, for the first time, she had been kind—buying her delicious, expensive food and pretty new clothes. Selina had been thrilled.
‘○, Mommy has something to do for a bit. Can you wait here?’
‘Where are you going?’
‘Just right over there for a moment. Our ○ is a good girl, right? You can wait, can’t you?’
‘Yes! I won’t move at all. I’ll wait right here!’
‘…Okay. My good daughter.’
She couldn’t remember the name her mother had called her back then.
But the moment she left her—no, the moment she abandoned her—was still vivid.
She had lived believing her mother had abandoned her of her own will.
But now she was being told it was all manipulated by someone else?
“I don’t believe that. I’ll confirm it with my own eyes.”
Selina jumped to her feet and stormed out. Lunios could only lower his head, unable to follow her.
The black pads of a cat’s paws faded, revealing the desk he stood on.
It was the price for revealing too much information about the divine realm to a human.
Pain that reached even his soul spread through him, but thinking of Selina hurt his heart even more.
[Stella…….]
Closing his eyes, Lunios recalled words Stella had said to him long ago.
‘Lord Lunios. Can’t we just live like this? Is it really necessary to return Selina’s fate?’
Stella had known that one day Selina would have to reclaim her original fate.
‘I… I want to be Selina’s mother. I want to be her pillar.’
Though she had never given birth to a child, Selina was the precious child she had borne in her heart. Stella was afraid of losing that child to her biological mother.
[You know better than anyone that it cannot be so. That child must return to her rightful place.]
‘I know. But… it’s because I want to be Selina’s mother.’
Faced with Lunios’s cold words, Stella had eventually broken down in tears.
Today, her words echoed especially strongly in his ears.
[…Right now… even I don’t know anymore.]
In the past, he had vowed to return any child harmed because of him to their rightful place. But after so much time had passed, he no longer knew what the right choice was.
Lunios let out a deep sigh as he gazed at the bright moon beyond the tent.
