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nWith only a single day remaining of the week-long deadline, Seraphina, clad in her custom-made bodysuit as she had been in previous days, was seated on the ground, drenched in sweat from her exertions. This time, she had “wisely” brought a box of spare clothes and a bucket of water, which she had placed in a corner of the courtyard.

n“Ansel,” she called out through the gaps between the blades, her gaze fixed on Hydral, who was engrossed in his book. “What are your plans for what comes next?”

n“After dealing with the Blazing Ice Viper?” Ansel asked without looking up.

n“Yep!”

nSeraphina, her long, full legs spread apart, bent forward, her hands grasping her toes. Her body was as flexible as a cat’s, and she easily stretched herself out.

n“After all, our opponent is an unreasonable creature…” Despite her words, her eyes sparkled with confidence. “You must have made many preparations, Ansel! I want to hear about them!”

n“Really want to hear?”

n“Really want to hear!”

nAnsel glanced at Seraphina, who was stretching. His gaze traced the line of her spine and waist, lingering for a moment on her full, round buttocks. He chuckled, “Then I won’t tell you.”

n“Ansel!” Seraphina called out in annoyance, but a small thrill of pleasure ran through her at the feeling of Ansel’s gaze on her.

n“The main reason I won’t tell you is that it would make things much more complicated—not because you, Seraphina, are prone to causing trouble, but because of it.” Ansel waved his hand, dispelling the blades, closed his book, and looked at Seraphina.

n“Seraphina, do you know how ‘fate’ works?”

n“Uh… huh?” Seraphina was confused. “How would I know that?”

n“I spent a long time and paid countless prices,” the young Hydral sighed softly, “just to glimpse some possibilities. These things are very complex. If I told you now, you might not understand, so I’ll just tell you the simplest points.”

n“First, although I am still under its influence, that memory is not affected by it.”

n“Memory… how does memory affect things?” Seraphina tilted her head.

nAnsel smiled, “Simply put, the memory of my friend the traveler is the only thing in this world that is outside the sight of fate. It cannot know how much knowledge I have gained from that memory, and therefore cannot prepare in advance. It can only adapt to my pace.”

nAt this point, Ansel’s eyes became a bit more complex. “Only things from outside the world can fight against the world itself.”

n“If I didn’t have these memories, this knowledge,” he closed his eyes, and for the first time, a rare, undisguised anger seeped into his words, “I would only… return to the starting point after experiencing more pain.”

n“Ansel…” Seraphina looked at Ansel with a touch of heartache. Having seen Ansel’s memories, she understood the despair and pain hidden in his words.

n“But at least we now have weapons, don’t we?” Ansel opened his eyes and smiled calmly and gently. “We should be happy.”

nThe young Hydral quickly returned to his usual self, seemingly unaffected by anything inside or outside:

n“Second, it will not make significant substantive interventions in the world itself in order to achieve that future. For example, when you, Seraphina, were targeted for assassination by me in your childhood, the way fate resolved the crisis was to make the assassin someone you could handle, not to drop a meteor from the sky and kill the third-stage assassin I had arranged on the spot.”

n“In other words, it will not fabricate any facts out of thin air to counteract things that have happened and deviated from the track, but will guide them back to the right track in a ‘reasonable’ way.”

n“Although reality doesn’t follow any logic,” Ansel let the blade flip up and down on his fingertip, “it has always been pursuing a certain ‘reasonableness’ and has never changed.””That is the fundamental reason why we can fight against it.”

nSeraphina, lying on the ground, thoughtfully said, “So it sounds like it’s not particularly scary to just shout in my head, at least safer than suddenly letting the emperor drop from the sky and kill us all.”

n“You’re mistaken, Seraphina.”

nAnsel tugged at the corner of his mouth, the chill in his smile clearly directed at that supreme existence that operated in mysterious ways.

n“This just shows how powerful and dangerous fate is.”

n“If it were some kind of ‘existence’ that insisted on everything being on the right track, and would forcibly return it to its original path as soon as any accident occurred, then it would not be fate, but a child who couldn’t stand things not going his way, a clown with nothing but power.”

n“But fate is not such a concrete thing, it… doesn’t care.”

n“If something unexpected happens, it will try to correct it in a reasonable way, and even if it fails, it will not be shaken, but will silently allow everything to happen, otherwise… I would have died long ago.”

n“You and I need to understand our position, Seraphina. On this long road of fighting against fate, never have the slightest thought of ‘fate is nothing more than this’.

n“Its limitations, its aloofness, are the basis of our fight against it, but not a reason to think highly of ourselves.”

nSeraphina took Ansel’s warning to heart and nodded seriously.

n“Third, and most importantly,” Ansel’s tone became very serious, so serious that Seraphina stopped stretching and sat up straight.

n“You and I, and everything in this world, were not born because it needed us.”

nThe somewhat confused girl tilted her head, “What does that mean?”

n“It means that you were not born because fate needed a Sky Wolf Emperor who could compete with the empire in terms of military power. Rather, because you have the potential to become the Sky Wolf Emperor, fate chose to guide you towards that future.”

n“It sounds… it sounds like there’s no difference.” The girl said somewhat unhappily, “Either way, I’m still being controlled by it.”

nAnsel shook his head, “Seraphina, the difference between the two is huge. Your will is pure enough that you don’t think too deeply about it, but as your experience grows and you look back on matters related to fate, you may fall into the fear I once fell into—”

n“Since fate is so omnipotent, then everything about me, my thoughts, my existence, everything, all… even my current thoughts, are they also under the control of fate?”

n–>

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