Chapter 11: Chapter 11: The Gods of Destruction

AVA

When I left the duchy and crossed the capital's borders, I couldn't have felt more liberated. Finally, I was out of the place that kept me prisoner for seven years… For the first time in my life, I felt like I have truly been given a chance to live for myself. It was bittersweet.

I'm still scared of the unknown. But I'll pull through somehow… I can do it; I'm not alone.

The rain was still pouring when the carriage entered the forest road leading out of the capital and towards the many axillary roads leading to the many provinces of the Gouveia Kingdom.

One of the knights told me to take a nap since the trip would be long and exhausting. I fell asleep easily due to the lack of sleep the night before.

However, the peace did not last long. I was awakened to the sounds of heavy grunts, yelling and metal clashing against metal amidst the strengthening thuds of the rain on the ground. Then there were screams of pain, yells of cheers, and more metallic sounds, mixing in together in a sickening manner, making me sick to my stomach.

I was terrified to look out of the window and just as I was about to peek outside, there was no need to do so. The door of the carriage was pulled open and one of the escort knights addressed me with urgency.

"Run away, milady! Run away now!" he shouted and practically pulled me out of the carriage.

The scene that greeted me was horrifying. There was blood everywhere. The knights were fighting off several men with great body sizes that moved nimbly even with the rain and the slippery ground. They were outnumbered. Two of the knights had fallen, the rain washing out their blood from open wounds and staining the ground scarlet.

"Milady please! Run away!" the knight said as he shook my frozen body. He placed something onto my shaking hands and made me hold the item tightly. I looked down. It was a small dagger. The knight stared at me directly in the eyes. He looked determined.

"Live. Please, Lady Ava… Run away and live," he said before one of the bandits lunged at us and he shielded me from the attack.

I ran away like I was told. I didn't know where I was running to or whether someone was following me. The rain clouded my sight; I tripped on the muddy ground many times. But I got up and ran, the dagger clasped tightly in my wet hand.

Before I knew it, I was climbing the rocky mountainside.

"There she is!" a man's booming voice broke through the sound of the rain.

I looked over my shoulder, terrified. Some of the men had come after me!

Suppressing my cries, I continued to climb higher and higher but it was a mistake. What waited for me was the edge of the rocky cliff.

The men had cornered me, my back was turned to a death dive behind. The danger was closing in from all directions. I couldn't see a possibility of escape.

When one of the bandits took a step closer, I pulled out the dagger that the knight gave me and pointed it at him.

"Stay back!" I shouted. My voice was shaking but I willed my hands to stay steady.

The men laughed. "You ain't gonna hurt anybody with those puny wrists and puny weapon Missy… Don't make things hard for yourself and just come with us," the nearest one told me with a grin.

"What will you do with me?" I asked, still holding the dagger in front of me.

"Need you ask Missy? We're bandits. We pillage, we kill, we sell…" another man answered, brandishing a huge knife and the others laughed maniacally.

"She's a pretty little thing… She'll fetch a high price," one more piped up.

"Or perhaps she's good enough to please the boss…" the largest one joked and the men laughed louder.

My hands began shaking at that moment and out of fear, I shrieked and swung the dagger at the nearest man. He was taken by surprise and I was able to injure his arm.

Enraged, the man lunged at the dagger, slapping it out of my hands. But the force was too strong that I was propelled sideward, lost my balance, stumbled backward, and began to fall.

It was all too sudden.

I did not even have the time to process what was happening.

"Yukina…" I murmured as I felt the wind from my back. Then there was a sharp pain as I hit the rocks once, bounced, hit the rocks twice, rolled, hit the rocks thrice, and finally stopped on a ledge.

Everything felt broken. I felt an unexplainable mixture of excruciating pain and numbness.

I kept my eyes open; all I can see was gravel and rocks. "He-he...lp…" one word escaped my mouth.

And just like that, everything went black.

~~~

LANDON

We lifted Ava from the rocky precipice. We fashioned a hammock with our coats and carried her to the nearest watchtower.

It was harder to look at Ava under the light. We were able to see just how much damage her body had. She was muddied all over and broken in so many places; her head, ribs, limbs, everywhere… It couldn't have been an easy death. I placed my palm over her half-open eyes to close them.

I looked at my brothers and they still have not snapped back to their senses. They were both seated on chairs provided by the knights. Greyson slouched on his seat, devoid of any strength, and stared off at nowhere with glazed eyes. Brandon was almost doubled over on his seat, torso bent forward, with his hands on his head.

Mayhem followed after Brandon stood up and started declaring that he would scour the area for the bandits and kill them with his own hands. I tried to stop him along with the knights. It's dark out and still pouring. Who knows what would happen to him out there. He only stopped after we were informed that the critically injured escort knight who reached the watchtower had stabilized and escaped death.

"We can have leads once we ask the knight. I know you want to avenge Ava; I do too, but don't be reckless," I told Brandon and he finally calmed down.

After that, things just went by fast and I went through every day numbly, barely sleeping and spending all my time inside the office. It's amazing how mundane work remained even after such a disastrous event. Brandon and Greyson also did not rest; Greyson handled the preparations for Ava's funeral and Brandon conducted investigations to track the bandits.

Even in mourning, we couldn't be left at peace. Once it was known to outsiders that Ava died, there were letters of condolences from families of nobility asking if they can join the wake. None of them knew about the annulment of Ava's adoption since the procedures were done under strict confidentiality thus they all thought she was still a member of the Krauser duchy.

Greyson was enraged by the letters and had them burned. "They just want to use Ava's wake as an opportunity to possibly create ties with the Dukedom. None of them cares about Ava!" he reasoned.

I thought the same and thus announced that we wanted to keep our sister's funeral strictly private and personal.

The only outsider we acknowledged attending Ava's wake was Sir Pearson however he had gone off on a trip for a medical mission in the south after bidding Ava goodbye. I just know that once he hears about what happened to Ava, he would come back to the capital immediately. He cared so much about her, so much that I felt ashamed as someone who was supposed to be her family. It would be a mistake if we don't tell him about her, thus I sent him an urgent message through a messenger hawk.

After that, the escort knight who survived the raid woke up. Brandon and I immediately went to the hospital where he was admitted to ask about the bandits. He was devastated upon hearing that Ava did not survive the attack and it turned out that the dagger recovered near Ava's body was his. He gave it to her just in case she had to protect herself.

"I'm so sorry milord… I failed Lady Ava… I failed as a knight… There are no words I can use to tell you how sorry I am… I'm so sorry…" the knight cried in his bed.

I gave him words of comfort. Just the fact that he gave it every ounce of his strength to reach the watchtower despite being gravely injured was enough to commend his service. He thought of getting help even at such a desperate time, in hopes of getting Ava rescued. He did what he could.

He relayed everything on memory regarding the attack and was able to give crucial information on the appearances of more than one of the bandits. As soon as we left the hospital, Brandon went back on his investigation.

On the night of the second day of Ava's wake, I found myself alone in the hall beside her casket. The mortuary did what they could to restore her broken body; we insisted on a wake despite them suggesting that it would be better for her to get cremated immediately. Lying on the casket, she looked just like the way she did when she bid us goodbye two days ago but paler and stone-faced. I could see traces of the torn skin by her forehead and her chin, patched carefully by the mortuary using magic.

I tried not to dwell upon it, but my mind kept on going back to the same thought. How much pain did she feel before she passed away? Lying down on cold rocks, under a pouring rain, with a mangled body… Did she ask for help? Or was it an instant death?

Why? Just why does the world have to be so cruel?

We treated her wrong; she grew up poorly, had been abused since childhood; and just as she had gathered enough courage to find her happiness, this tragedy happened. Nothing in her life was rose-colored. I doubt that she was able to take any happy memories in the afterlife. She doesn't deserve this kind of ending. At the very end, all the world gave her was pain, suffering and misery.

Although I felt like crying, I couldn't squeeze out any tears. The moment we confirmed Ava's death, something inside me broke. I can't explain the feeling of emptiness, something far more profound than sadness.

Now that Ava left like this, my sins had even more weight. Things started out wrong in the first place. It's our fault she met this kind of ending.

If she was treated right, there would had been no need for her to leave. If she lived happily here, she wouldn't had been exposed to danger. While it's the bandits who drove her to death, we had a hand at it. We couldn't make her stay, and that's our fault.

No amount of guilt can atone for this. We owed Ava her happiness and her life… We owed her everything and there's nothing we can do to give her back any of it.

~~~

GREYSON

Today is Ava's funeral. Like the day she died, it was raining since early morning. It was as if even the sky was mourning her loss.

Sir Pearson made it in time to see her and he cried as if losing his own family member.

"How can this happen? Why?" he said, words all choked up as he stared at the glass casket with a tear-stained face.

He was able to voice what we had been asking ourselves for the past few days.

True... It was hard to believe that a single day was all it took to rip everything to shreds. She departed with a smile and an anticipation for a bright future, and yet, this kind of disaster… No one deserves this, and Ava of all people was the most undeserving of this.

I grimaced. This was all too unfair. Why did Ava have to die like this? Why in such a cruel way, after all she'd been through?

Brother Landon decided to have her remains cremated after Sir Pearson bid his farewell. As much as we wanted to lay her to rest in the family's memorial grounds, we know how much Ava wanted to get out of the duchy. We can't lay her to rest near a place she loathed all her life; the place that gave her so much sadness and suffering.

The escort knight Sir Marcus who stubbornly got himself discharged from the hospital asked to bid a final farewell to Ava as well and he joined the three of us along with Sir Pearson and a priest for Ava's ceremonial pyre. I protected the pyre from the rain with a barrier, and we all watched as the fire licked the casket where Ava lay forever asleep.

We were not even halfway through the cremation when all of a sudden, we were interrupted by the head maid and head butler who were running all the way from the annex of the mansion. What they relayed to us was nothing short of a surprise.

Even before Ava told us to have people search the town of Mayberry Cove for chances of finding Lottie, Brother Landon had long since dispatched several of the family's knights to go there the week before Ava's birthday. It was a long travel and it took them almost three days to get there. And miraculously, on the third day of their search, they found a lady closely resembling our lost sister. However, she doesn't have any recollection of memories regarding her childhood and only after intimidating her 'mother' did they hear about how she was picked up when she was about eight years old, a little girl without knowledge of her name nor where she came from.

They didn't want to jump the gun or make a final decision for themselves thus the leader decided to take the lady with them and have us verify her identity ourselves. And indeed… Long, strawberry-blonde hair, blue eyes similar to mine, a thumb-sized circular birthmark at the back of her neck… It would even be more surprising if she wasn't the lost Lottie. However, she doesn't remember us nor did she feel that the mansion was familiar.

After Ava's cremation was completed, Sir Pearson suggested for him to cast a special kind of healing spell on the girl suspected to be Lottie. He hypothesized that Lottie's memories may be erased by magic.

A person would naturally remember lost memories if faced with remembrance triggers like familiar people and places. And yet, even after seeing us and her old room, she didn't recall anything at all. There wasn't even a feeling of familiarity after she saw our family portrait which was painted just some months before Lottie's disappearance.

Sir Pearson's initial treatment lasted a day, and finally, Lottie was able to remember a bit of the past. He stayed a couple more days to complete the treatment, carefully retrieving memory after memory. Forcing her mind to remember everything all at once might be dangerous for her mental well-being, and thus Sir Pearson took the steps carefully.

Whilst she was being treated, Lottie talked to us about how she lived after her kidnapping. She talked about life in the port town and asked us not to be too hard on the woman who posed as her mother. It turned out that she was not involved in the kidnapping in any way and just picked up the wandering Lottie thinking that a child of that age would be useful to have around the house.

"She's a cranky person, and she hit me when she's frustrated, but she didn't leave me to starve. She's just having a hard time surviving, like many others in that poor town… But she wasn't cruel enough to leave me for dead even knowing perfectly that I'm not really her child. I couldn't have survived without her," Lottie said.

She grew up well and she looked so much like Mother. We were happy that she was able to return to us, but it didn't help diminish the pain we have from losing Ava. It would have been nice if we have both of them. Having another girl in the house with her age would have been beneficial for Ava. We also have Ava to thank regarding Lottie's return.

A day after that, Brother Brandon's efforts at tracking the bandits responsible for the attack on Ava's carriage had borne fruit. We got them, all of them. Brother did not take any chances and took out even those who did not participate in the raid. More of the group's heinous crimes were discovered upon verifying each of the men's identities. They were all executed on counts of theft, rape and murder.

However, it wasn't enough. After all, Ava died. Even if the men who caused for her and the escort knights to die were executed in the worst ways possible, that would not bring them back to life. The families of the dead knights said the same but also felt grateful that the bandits were caught and killed since the world would be a better place without them.

The mother of the youngest fallen knight approached us personally after the execution, a woman in her late fifties with a kindly face who left us words of encouragement along with her words of gratitude.

"Thank you so much for finding justice for the fallen young ones, honorable Duke and the young lords… I cannot thank you enough…" she said as she bowed to us.

"You don't need to be grateful. We just did what should be done, for our sister most importantly…" Brother Landon told her.

As if seeing the depths of our misery despite our brave fronts, she smiled at us. "You'll be fine Milord… The living must continue to live and even if my poor son and the fair Lady Ava had passed on, the world would continue for us because time doesn't stop for anyone… We'll see another day tomorrow and the day after that… then a week will pass; a month, a year, a decade… The world will continue just like that. I've known that from experience since it's not my first time losing someone. We must strive to live happily, for the sake of those who couldn't live out their lives; young lives like my Devon and Lady Ava who couldn't get their chances to have their future, and my poor husband who couldn't grow old with me… We must live and make them proud," she told us before bidding farewell.

"How can we live like this? Knowing that it's our fault she turned out this way? If only we were enough to make her stay… But we weren't. And that's why this happened…" Brother Brandon murmured as he stared at the back of the elderly woman walking further away.

I quietly shared my brother's sentiments. No amount of time can heal the damage that was done. No amount of atonement can make us forgive ourselves for everything that happened; and nothing can erase the final lingering images of Ava etched on my mind, of the first real smile she gave me, of the warm hand that she placed on my head the day I knelt and cried in front of her, of the last living memory of her entering the carriage and of the horrendous image of her dead body, of the chilling coldness that I felt on her that night… I just know it would haunt me forever.

Unless someone can bring Ava back to life, nothing can help.

~~~

AVA

I opened my eyes. I just know I'm dreaming. I couldn't have survived that fall. I can still remember the pain. I'm already dead.

"You wake up finally," a voice suddenly broke through my line of thoughts.

I sat up abruptly.

I sat up?

That can't be right.

I'm already dead.

How can the dead sit up; how can the dead even think the way I'm thinking right now?

"What's happening?" I murmured.

"Confused aren't you?" another different voice said.

I looked up, searching for the source of the voices.

"Over here…" a third voice said and I realized it came from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder and saw three pairs of legs. I slowly looked up and saw three people looking down at me; two men and one woman.

I shrieked.

"Goodness, you really are so easily intimidated… Just so different from what Ava was supposed to be…" the woman said.

I scrambled on the floor and backed away from them.

"Who are you? Why am I not dead?" I asked.

"Actually, you're already dead. And we brought your soul here so we can start again… This is an utter failure but you'll do better this time. We'll remove the error for you so that you can become the real Ava," one of the men said.

"Indeed… You'd be the Ava we liked, not this puny excuse of a villainess…" the other man with lighter hair said as he pointed mockingly at me.

"Error? Villainess?" I repeated some of the words I caught. "What are you talking about? Who are you? Please tell me what's happening!" I said in a panic.

The light-haired man turned to his two companions and shrugged. "I think she needs a proper explanation. Mortals are dumb; she won't be able to figure this out without us telling her," he said.

"Yeah… I guess we'll explain for her then," the woman said and looked at me as she snapped her fingers.

In an instant, I found myself inside a large hall full of silver and gold walls. I was seated in a gold plated chair overlooking a grand platform at which the three mysterious individuals sat on three thrones.

"Welcome to the throne room of your world… This is the room intended for your gods of creation to use as they mold the destinies of the people in your world… However, we took it over. They lost a bet you see… And the price we demanded was the governance of one of their worlds… They gave us this one since it's the most recently made. Listen well to our words for we never explain things twice," the dark-haired man said, seated at the very middle of the three thrones.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves…" the woman said with a smirk on her beautiful face. "My name is Thegarrae and I'm a goddess of disasters," she added.

"I'm Ohsus, a god of misfortune," the dark-haired man remarked.

"And I'm Vegzyn, a god of mischief," the light-haired man followed.

"We're born together as gods of chaos and destruction, and we currently govern your world," Thegarrae said as she crossed one leg over the other.

"I'll make this easier for you to understand. There're many gods and goddesses but we're mainly divided into two factions, the gods of creation and the gods of destruction. As the name implies, gods of creation create, and gods of destruction destroy. Gods of destruction do not have the power to create a world of our own, but we wanted our own world to govern and so we made a bet with the creators of this world, Osin, a god of abundance, Suhion, a god of commerce and Deas, a god of beginnings," Thegarrae narrated.

"They sound awfully mighty don't they, but they were just weaklings who couldn't even hold five thousand barrels of alcohol… They lost against us in a drinking bet, and wagered your world for the loss…" Vegzyn said with a guffaw.

"But governing a world was more troublesome than we originally thought… We don't really enjoy making destinies and plans and stuff… We don't really like to be bothered, and so we looked for a way to decide the fate of your world in a manner that we would enjoy at which we don't have to do much work…" Ohsus followed.

"How fortunate was it that we came across a majestic book called 'The Lily and the Rose' in the world of Earth," Thegarrae said with a grin. "It couldn't have been more perfect! The author's got a few screws loose in that crazy head of hers, the plot is all over the place, the characters are chaotic and the ending is tragic; just exactly how we like it!" she added, putting her hands together in glee.

"We were waiting for 'Ava' to create the Gouveia Empire so that we can witness the novel like a live-action movie, but things just don't go your way even if you're a god," Vegzyn said with a roll of his silver eyes.

"And that's all because the 'Ava' we sent down happened to be defective," Ohsus said, grimacing as he looked at me.

"I'm defective?" I asked.

"Yes, you are. Because of this," Thegarrae said and snapped her fingers once again.

In that instant, Yukina appeared in front of the platform.

"Ava!" she called out to me. She was bound with shiny ropes that seemed to tighten everytime she tried to squirm out of it.

I abruptly stood up. "Yukina!" I called back and I was about to run to her when I realized that I couldn't move.

"But really… How is this possible? I mean, she's not even from the same world…" Thegarrae told her brothers as she stared at Yukina.

"You know how it is sometimes… Certain mortals have this kind of 'iron will' that transcends even gods, fate and dimensions… Souma Yukina was too attached to the novel which she considered the greatest achievement of her life, and somehow a shard of her soul was unable to reincarnate and latched to the soul we selected to be Ava," Vegzyn remarked.

Ohsus stood up and walked towards Yukina. With a wave of his hand, both he and Yukina were transported to my side.

"And that's where the trouble started you see…" he said as he stared at me. "Because this soul shard kept on warning you and instructing nonsense from your subconscious, the Ava we were anticipating wasn't able to take form. In her place is you, a puny, whining, suicidal mess…" he added with a sigh.

"We did give it a chance; we thought it's interesting to see what this Ava would do…" Vegzyn said, magically appearing out of nowhere from the opposite side where Yukina and Ohsus stood.

"It was entertaining to watch for a period of time. It was just hilarious watching the Krauser brothers react to your suicide attempts. But from the path you were taking, there would have been no way for you to unite the whole continent and create the Gouveia Kingdom. You were selfish and just wanted a peaceful life for yourself, living in some remote countryside. That's boring and so we killed you off…" Vegzyn continued.

As I processed the words they had been saying, I started to piece out the details I could understand and became numb from the shock and realization. All my sufferings… All the pain… And my abrupt death, are caused by the gods. Just because they didn't like what was happening… Just because I didn't turn out like the Ava in the novel…

I lost the strength in my legs and fell back to my seat.

"You're horrible! How can you do that?" Yukina cried as the ropes restrained her. "She's a human being, she's not some character in a book. She's real, and all the pain inflicted to her hurts for real! How can you do this, just so you can be entertained?" she yelled.

"We're gods. We can do whatever the hell we want. Why do we have to empathize with the pain of mortals? You exist to bring us amusement since you exist just for a little while whilst we exist infinitely. Do you know how hard it is to be immortal? We constantly have to look for something worthwhile to kill time effectively. And we're gods of destruction; we only know how to destroy," Vegzyn said.

"And so?" I said. The calmness of my words shocked even myself. Something had vanished from inside me. I felt as if all reason collapsed, my sanity included

"And so, what?" Ohsus asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I looked up at him. "And so, what do you plan to do from now on?" I asked back.

Ohsus stared at me for a while before smirking. "I like your eyes. They look demented. And just for that, I'll answer your question…" he said and leaned down towards me. He placed a forefinger under my chin and brought his face close to mine.

"We'll throw you back in the past, maybe when you were about six years old… After all, Ava's wickedness began when her chastity was defiled at that age… Perhaps that scene is necessary to bring forth the Ava we want to see…" he told me.

"You're cruel," I told him.

"So I've heard… I'm proud to be cruel; I'm the embodiment of how a god of destruction should think and act," he answered as he lifted my chin further upward.

"What will happen to Yukina?" I asked, staring straight at his void-like blood red eyes.

"The error would be deleted. Without a host, she'll disappear eventually… You'll go back down there without a single memory of this life so that everything can smoothly play out according to the storyline…" he replied with a smirk.

"Yukina won't get a chance to be reincarnated?" I asked.

"She's just a fragment… For her to reincarnate, she needs to be a complete soul… That's doable for the gods of creation but gods of destruction can't do anything to save her… She'll dissipate, as if she never existed…" Ohsus answered.

"If you make me go back and start life over again, will I kill myself and die like the Ava in the novel?" I asked.

"That's how the story was written…" Ohsus answered.

"That's boring," I told him.

"Hmm?" Ohsus said, looking at me with a frown on his face. Vegzyn and Thegarrae watched us with amused expressions whilst Yukina looked at me in a mixture of confusion and shock.

Yukina was about to open her mouth to say something but Thegarrae snapped her fingers and the rope of light extended to cover her mouth.

"You say some interesting things… How is it boring?" Thegarrae remarked.

"I thought the three of you wanted to be entertained… What's so fun witnessing a reality based on a book with a story you already know? If Yukina didn't interfere, everything would have played out according to the novel…" I said and removed my chin from Ohsus' hand.

I looked at them one by one. "Be honest… When Yukina started interfering, it was exciting, wasn't it? Something happened that you didn't anticipate… There's a plot twist away from the original storyline… You couldn't predict what would happen next, and so you were curious and continued watching to know what's going to happen and see how it's going to affect the original storyline…"

The three gods were silent and looked at each other thoughtfully.

"Well, I admit it was pretty exciting…" Vegzyn said.

"We even made bets among ourselves on what was going to happen next… It was worthwhile and amusing," Thegarrae added, shrugging her shoulder.

"And so?" Ohsus interjected. "What is your point exactly?" he asked.

I looked at him squarely, feeling a courage inside me that I had never felt before. "You like bets and challenges, don't you? Then why don't we make a bet? I bet that I'll be able to give you the most exciting part of the novel, the unification of the eight Kingdoms of the continent, the founding of a powerful Empire from the efforts of a young, smart girl named Ava; I'll achieve that climax in a different way from the Ava in the novel. But we're going to change the ending… Ava will not die. Ava will live as the Empress of the Empire. I will not kill myself for something as preposterous as a broken first love. I will go back to the past with my memories intact, use this hatred and anger as fuel to get everything I want. I promise you it will be entertaining," I told them.

There was silence at first then the three gods burst out in laughter. "You say such interesting things indeed! I'm actually intrigued!" Vegzyn remarked.

"Well, it's not a bad proposal. I admit it might be boring to see the reality play out according to a story that we already know… If you indeed can reach the same achievements of Empress Ava in the novel in a different way from how she achieved it in the novel, then why not? It sounds amusing," Thegarrae commented.

"You've suddenly worked up a backbone. You're so emotionally and mentally weak when you were alive; I didn't expect this attitude from you," Ohsus said, quite amused.

"Even rodents bite when cornered. How do you expect me to hold onto my sanity after learning that I was being played like a toy for some god's amusement? I've gone insane but my mind had never been so clear. I know what I want, I know what you want, and so if we can make it work that you get what you want while I get what I want, wouldn't that be nice? It's a win-win situation and I'll do all the work. Just give me the set-up I want, and I'll do the rest," I told them.

"A set-up? What kind of set-up?" Vegzyn said with a grin. His eyes lit up in excitement and anticipation.

"I'm not asking for anything far-fetched. The most important will be that I can go back to the past with my memories intact. I'll need my current self to accomplish my goals. Secondly, I have to regress to a specific timeline," I said.

"Which one?" the three gods asked in unison.

"The time when I was eight years old, before Duchess Freya Krauser picks me up from the alley," I answered.

"Why does it have to be this specific timeline?" Thegarae asked.

"This isn't included in the novel and perhaps you missed seeing it but it wasn't just the Krauser Duchess who passed by the alleyway when I was almost dying… There was another noble carriage at which a young aristocrat came out… I couldn't have recognized the crest at that time for I had no idea of the novel until Yukina spoke to me directly… But I remember vividly… The symbol of the White Lion and Poison Ivy, the crest of the Albrecht Dukedom," I answered.

The eyes of the three gods lit up at the mention of the surname.

"Albrecht, you say? One of the three existing duchies of the Gouveia Kingdom, the powerful family who helped Ava to form a coup to overthrow the royal family, that Albrecht Dukedom?" Thegarrae said in surprise before putting her hands together. "I love them the most! Even though they were introduced to the novel almost midway, they overtook every single male character in popularity, even the Krauser brothers who had the most screentime…"

"Well, they were written as a sort of rivals for the Krauser brothers since there were also three of them with almost the same ages…" Vegzyn commented. "You mean to say, Ava came across one of the Albrechts even though they were not yet introduced to the main storyline?" he asked me.

"Yes… I saw the second son, Lennox Albrecht. He got off the carriage and went inside the slums… He passed by me while I was collapsed on the concrete," I answered.

"That's crazy…" Vegzyn commented with wide, amused eyes.

"The novel is the main storyline but that doesn't mean that time does not flow naturally for the other characters, right? The Albrechts existed even before their introduction to the story…" I pointed out.

"I don't plan to relive the same life I just died from; the Krausers are useless to me since Sophia exists. Once she resurfaces, she'll take my place as the rightful Lady of the Krauser duchy like what happened in the novel. The bride selection for the crown prince would happen as planned and the Albrecht Dukedom was one of the noble families unable to send an Edel, a candidate for the crown princess, since they don't have a daughter. I plan to get picked up by the Albrechts, not the Krausers… That way, I can have access to the resources I need with no interference from the original heroine," I added.

Vegzyn started slow-clapping after my explanation. "Wow. Now that's a plot twist," he commented.

"That'll be really interesting…" Thegarae admitted, her knuckles placed under her chin thoughtfully. "The Albrechts were so popular that Asano wrote a prequel for them… There're actually more information about the Albrechts than the Krausers when it comes to the history of the family and its secrets…"

I nodded, agreeing to her statements. "To tell you the truth, if I were to select the people who contributed the most to Ava's success, I'd pick them over any other member of Ava's harem… I know the novel by heart and mind because of Yukina. Her passion for writing also rubbed off on me… When it comes to coming up with plot twists, I'm confident I can do well enough to surprise even the gods…"

I stood up, placed a hand over my heart and bowed my head. "Thus, please give me the opportunity to write my own story…" I told them.

The three gods looked at each other with amused eyes.

"But this is a bet, isn't it? You said so earlier…" Ohsus remarked.

"Yes… It's a bet between you who do not think I'll succeed against me who thinks that I can succeed…" I answered, lifting my head.

"What're you going to put on the line? As you know, in a bet, you have to wager something," Thegarae asked.

"I'll wager myself, my everything… I know it's not much for gods like you, but that's all I have," I replied. "But in exchange, if I succeed, save Yukina," I added.

Yukina's eyes widened and Vegzyn pointed at her. "This error?" he asked.

I nodded. "If I succeed, I want Yukina to be reincarnated as my child," I told them.

Yukina's eyes widened even more and she struggled to be freed from her restraints. It was futile. The gods are not going to let her say anything. From the look in her eyes, I know what she's going to say. She'll probably stop me from what I'm trying to do.

But I don't want to. I don't want to lose Yukina. I don't want her to disappear. She doesn't deserve such a thing. She too deserves to be happy.

The three gods were silent at first.

"You weren't joking when you said you can come up with surprising plot twists… That's very good; you've convinced me…" Thegarae said, clapping softly. "And who'll be the father?" she asked, curiosity gleaming in her violet eyes.

"I don't know that yet… I don't really care who… I'll decide once I have to," I answered.

"Then that's one more thing to look forward to… In the novel, despite all the men who loved her, Ava died without choosing anyone from her harem… But this time you have to choose someone so that Souma Yukina can be reincarnated as your child… Very intriguing indeed…" Ohsus mused with a smirk. Then he clapped his hand together and added, "Okay then, I'll accept your proposition…" He looked at his siblings. "How about you guys?"

"There's no way I'll miss out on this interesting bet… I'm in," Vegzyn said.

"Me too. I'm excited!" Thegarae remarked, twirling her fingers around her long grey hair.

"Listen well then Ava, you're not the only one laying out terms since this is a bet between you and us…" Ohsus suddenly interjected. "We're gods of destruction, and if you do win the bet and we have to reincarnate Yukina as your child, we'd have to ask assistance from a god of creation in order for her to be eligible for reincarnation. However, we're capable of keeping the soul shard intact using our powers but only for a limited amount of time. You have twenty years, no more than that. If you fail to succeed in that time period, Yukina will dissipate," he explained.

"Twenty years…" I mused aloud. "That's more than enough," I remarked.

The three gods looked amused at my confidence.

"Well… If we're gonna do this, we'll do it properly…" Ohsus said and brandished one hand in the air. A scroll and a writing brush appeared out of nowhere.

"We don't do unofficial bets… Even in the gods' realm, documentation is very important," he added as a table rose from the floor. The scroll landed flat on the tabletop and the brush stopped in mid-air above it. "Let us lay out the terms for this wager… The involved parties – on one side, my honorable self, Ohsus, and my brother and sister, Vegzyn and Thegarae, and on the other, Charlotte Ava Krauser—"

"I am not a Krauser," I interrupted sharply. "Call me Ava. Just Ava," I said.

"Gosh, you're one demanding human," Thegarae commented.

"Very well then, 'Ava', but I won't let it slide if you interrupt me again" Ohsus said as he glared at me.

"I understand. I apologize," I told him.

Ohsus rolled his eyes. "Well, where was I?" he asked his siblings.

"The involved parties," Vegzyn answered.

"Right…" Ohsus said and immediately, the brush started moving on its own and words appeared on the scroll.

"The involved parties, Ohsus and Vegzyn and Thegarae on one side and Ava and Yukina on the other. The nature of the bet is the creation or non-creation of the Gouveia Empire at which Ava wagers her soul on the line. If Ava succeeds in unifying the eight kingdoms of the continent and forms the Gouveia Empire, the soul shard of Souma Yukina will be restructured and she will be reincarnated as Ava's child," Ohsus narrated as the brush continued writing his words.

"As for the conditions, let us decide one by one…" he added and smirked. "I'll provide the first one. While the bet is in effect, the three gods Ohsus, Vegzyn and Thegarae are connected to Ava in spirit and can therefore materialize or interfere at instances around her vicinity in the mortal world if they deemed necessary. That includes access to anything and anyone that has some kind of connection to Ava," he said.

"We didn't talk about any conditions earlier. That's not fair!" I argued.

"Dear, you're signing a contract with the gods. Do you really think there won't be any conditions?" Thegarae told me.

"You're saying that you're not planning on making it easy for me, is that it?" I accused.

The three gods looked at each other and shrugged.

"That depends… We can get in your way, or we can help you. Who knows what we'll do? Even we do not know..." Vegzyn answered.

"One thing we do know is that it's fun to interfere when things get boring… Like we told you, we're gods of destruction. We cannot directly interfere with anything in the mortal world other than sending misfortunes and disasters, like the heavy rain and the bandits when we had to have you killed… With misfortunes and disasters, we can't really specifically accomplish what we want to do since people just end up dying. And it just so happens that gods of destruction are forbidden to physically materialize in the mortal world since the other gods are too afraid of what we'll do with the humans. But with this condition, we can gain access to the mortal world through you," Thegarae pointed out.

"Thus, if you do not want us to interfere, you must keep us well-entertained. If we don't feel the need to intervene, we won't. That's nice and simple, isn't it?" Vegzyn told me with a grin.

"Fine," I said in surrender. "Does this connection in spirit means that I can talk to you if I want to? It is a 'connection', right? The last time I checked that word's meaning, a connection works two-ways," I added. I must find all the loopholes I can find to make things easier for me once I transgress. If I can do that, I don't mind playing mind games with the gods.

"Well, you can try talking to us since the spirit link does make that possible… Whether we'll talk back or not, it depends on whether we want to," Vegzyn said matter-of-factly.

I sighed in response. They're really selfish but what can I do? They're gods. They have the upper hand.

"Well… Since we gave a condition, you may also state one," Ohsus said. "Aren't we generous?" he added in gloating.

I was a bit surprised that they gave me a chance to state a condition. They all stared at me in anticipation, awaiting my response.

I willed myself to focus. This is important, thus I must come up with a useful condition. What is it that I'm worried about the most? What can be the worst that can happen to me that can hinder my goals? I came up with the answer almost instantly.

"My condition is… Ava cannot die as long as the bet is active," I told them.

"What do you mean you can't die? Elaborate," Thegarae said.

"Within the twenty-year period that you gave me to try and create the Gouveia Empire, no matter what happens, I won't die. Even if I put myself in harm's way, death won't be able to claim me. After all, if I die, everything's down the drain. Game over. That won't be fun, right?" I answered with a smirk.

"Gee, you must not have been paying attention Missy… We're gods of destruction, we cannot give you divine protection…" Vegzyn said.

"You can't give me divine protection but you can interfere with anything and anyone around my vicinity with the condition you made earlier. You can just interfere to prevent my death. That's nice and simple, isn't it?" I told Vegzyn, throwing his own words back at him.

There was a second of silence before the three gods burst in laughter.

"Well, well, aren't you a smart human… I've never seen anyone turn our conditions to something of favor to them. I'm very impressed!" Thegarae said.

"Indeed… This Ava might not be as bad as I originally thought," Ohsus commented, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"You know, I haven't had this much fun in thousands of years…" Vegzyn said, smirking at me.

"I'm glad to see you're amused," I told them.

"To reward you for that, I'll give you something extra… A plot twist I would generate myself as part of your set-up of regression…" Vegzyn suddenly declared.

"What will that be?" I asked, feeling nervous. What if what he's thinking isn't going to be advantageous to me?

Vegzyn's smirk widened to a grin. "You'll know at the right time. It's a surprise," he remarked.

Thegarae gave a little excited jump. "Let's get to it immediately and send her back! I want to see Lennox as a child!"

With that, we proceeded with the signing of the scroll. Each of us placed a drop of blood on the document. It shone a blinding bright blue before disappearing.

"There. The deal is sealed… We'll send you back to the mortal world immediately," Ohsus declared.

"Before you send me back, can I have a word with Yukina, just a few minutes?" I asked them.

"Sure," Ohsus shrugged and snapped his fingers. The shiny ropes binding Yukina disappeared instantly.

The moment she was freed; she ran to me. "Why did you do that? You didn't have to do that…" she cried as she hugged me.

I shook my head as I hugged her back. "I want us to be happy together… You said I was like you own daughter and sister; now let me have a chance to be your mother and family… I'll succeed and get you soon… Hold on and cheer for me… I know I'll succeed. I won't fail the two of us… I want us to be happy…" I whispered in her ear.

Yukina cried harder and I hugged her tighter. She had no warmth like usual, but she was very real…

"Let's meet again… I'll come get you… Wait for me…" I told her.

Those were my final words before I found myself lying in the alley once again inside a frail, eight-year-old malnourished body. The cold bit my skin; the hunger drained my strength. But I know what I have to do… It's different this time… I have to get up…

I kept my senses alert even as I lay down on the concrete. I waited. I know he'll come. I remembered it vividly for I tried to call out to him in the past to ask for help.

I waited. The wind howled. The snow began to fall.

I waited, and waited, and waited some more.

My sight was going dark. But then I heard it, the sound of a carriage. I forced myself to look up.

A silver carriage. A white lion's crest draped in poison ivy…

An adolescent boy and his butler got off before the carriage drove away.

My eyes were growing dimmer. I pinched my arm hard to keep myself conscious.

Finally, he was a step away from me. I made a wild grab at his foot.

"Young master!" the butler exclaimed before turning at me. "Insolent beggar! Let go this instant!" he yelled and placed his cane on my head in an attempt to push me away.

"He-p… Help me…" I said, struggling to speak.

The young Lennox Albrecht looked down at me. His grey eyes looked cold and emotionless.

"Help… me… I'll do anything…" I said.

The butler tried once more to get me to let go. I held on even tighter.

"Help me. I'll do anything. Help me… I'll do anything…" I kept on repeating the words over and over again.

I must've been saying the same words for a full minute when Lennox suddenly bent down.

"If I'll help you, you'll do anything?" he asked.

I nodded frantically. "Anything," I said.

He blinked at me. "Anything huh? That's a big word," he remarked.

~~~

YUKINA

I don't know how much time had passed since Ava disappeared. The gods said that they already sent her back.

After she had gone, the three gods began to converse amongst themselves. They just told me to stay out of their way and that I don't have to do anything.

Thus, I sat down and merely listened to their conversation.

"Zyn, what was that reward you were talking about earlier?" the dark-haired, red-eyed god Ohsus asked as he levitated a goblet towards him.

"Oh that…" the white-haired silver-eyed god Vegzyn said as he chewed a grape. "I just think it'll be much more interesting if not only Ava returns in the past with the memories of the past life… Since we can interfere with anything and anyone that has some kind of connection to Ava, I can have access to the minds of the Krauser brothers. So I made it that her former brothers also remember everything that happened in this life…"

"What?" Thegarae and Ohsus chorused in surprise before bursting in laughter.

"That is interesting! How'd you come up with that?" Thegarae remarked as she pushed Vegzyn's shoulder playfully.

"I dunno… Maybe Ava's creative thinking rubbed off on me earlier…" Vegzyn said, looking quite proud of himself.

"Ahh, I'm looking forward to what will happen… Ava is not planning on becoming a Krauser this time… Do you think they'll look for her?" Thegarae mused excitedly.

"Let's wait and see… Our days will be really enjoyable from now on…" Ohsus commented.

I closed a fist on my lap. If Ava learns about the Krauser brothers remembering her, I'm sure she won't be happy about it. But perhaps it would be beneficial to Ava that the Krauser brothers have also retained their memories of the past life. If they were genuine about making things up to her, they should help her once they meet again. If Ava successfully enters the Albrecht duchy, it would be inevitable that she would meet the Krausers as nobles having the same rank. I wished with all my might for things to go well.

"Hang in there, Ava… I'll wait for you… Come and get me soon…" I murmured.