After sternly rejecting See-chan's suggestion to sell her charms, Lunelle watched the simulation cooldown reset once again, and began to ponder how she should proceed in this new round to avoid the final outcome—being hunted down by Fire Moth.
"From earlier analyses, I could tell the failure started when that tiny sliver of killing intent in my heart got amplified beyond control after I became a Herrscher, leading to everything that followed."
"So this time… what if I just don't actively think about killing anyone?"
After all, in theory, only by preventing the Herrscher persona from finding a chance to emerge could Lunelle truly have an opportunity to rewrite the fates of those characters available to be won over in the simulation.
"Tch! This is still the most obvious path to success on the surface. Guess I'll reluctantly avoid picking fights with those assholes this run."
After wrestling with it a while, Lunelle reluctantly decided to give not killing proactively a try—since the possibility of success was right in front of her.
Still, considering all the disgusting things she'd learned from her dear wife Seele's diary entries from the Previous Era, Lunelle didn't have much hope for her own patience in sticking to non-violence.
Just reading her wife's descriptions of the ugly faces worn by those in power and capital toward lowly ants like herself had been enough to make Lunelle's teeth itch with rage—even stirring up murderous intent.
And that was without personally experiencing it while wearing her wife's identity.
"I just hope those bastards don't push me into a bloodbath."
"My patience for anyone who comes looking for trouble is pretty damn limited, you know!"
Since the temporary living space they'd moved into still had plenty of fresh ingredients, and there was gas for cooking, Mei—now fully awake—had headed straight to the kitchen to take up her role as the group's cook.
Meanwhile, Bronya had pulled the well-behaved and adorable Lunelle to sit with her on the living room sofa.
Considering that a full simulation passed in just an instant in real time, Lunelle didn't want to waste a moment. She reached out in her mind to contact See-chan.
"See-chan, start the simulation!"
[Host command received. Simulation activating!]
Once the simulation began, the normal flow of real time instantly froze. Lunelle's consciousness once again arrived in the dedicated simulation space to begin a new cycle.
Her consciousness re-entered the body of her dear wife Seele from the Previous Era.
The familiar opening of this simulation, which she had already cleared once, needed little further description.
Soon, following the familiar story progression, Lunelle within the simulation once again—under the dual gifts of the Cocoon of Finality and the consciousness of the Sea of Quanta—became a special Herrscher possessing twin Authorities of Rebirth.
Arriving once more at the critical story node where everything had fallen apart last time, and now roughly aware of what had triggered the Herrscher persona to take over, Lunelle played it smart.
Though her memories were fuzzy, she had no intention of rereading her dear wife's secret diary from the Previous Era.
After all, holding certain disgusting things too clearly in mind obviously wouldn't help Lunelle avoid the simulated death ending.
The changes Lunelle made and her vigilant mental state clearly had an effect.
[You have become a rather unusual Herrscher.]
[Because you deliberately suppress the growth of killing intent in your heart, the emergence progress of the Herrscher persona tied to the Authority of Destruction has been greatly slowed. However, your Destruction Authority cannot display its full power as a result.]
Seeing that the important event log indeed showed no trigger for the Herrscher persona awakening this time, Lunelle inwardly let out a small sigh of relief.
The fact that her strict mental guard could genuinely slow the birth of the Herrscher persona was undoubtedly good news.
But although the outbreak of the Herrscher consciousness was temporarily delayed, a strange impulse suddenly rose in Lunelle's heart.
It felt like a muscle memory in the body was urging her to do something important, something etched deep into its physical memory.
Guided by vague impressions and that ingrained instinct, Lunelle soon found herself standing before a stack of manuscript papers.
Looking at the papers and the quill that felt inexplicably familiar, Lunelle recalled that her dear wife Seele had indeed mentioned writing novels to support herself as her main job in the diary.
"Seriously? Even after crossing over, I still have to be a word-grinding machine?"
Lunelle, who had been somewhat puzzled, instantly realized what this deeply ingrained bodily memory was.
After all, before crossing over, Lunelle had been a struggling writer herself, barely scraping by on meager full-time writer allowances.
That anxious feeling of not even being able to eat if she didn't write well—Lunelle knew it all too well.
Though the reason Lunelle had been pathetically relying on those allowances was because, back before crossing over, she'd been a truly hopeless, perennial flop.
From the rough descriptions she vaguely remembered in the diary, however, Lunelle understood that her dear wife Seele from the Previous Era was no failure like herself.
In fact, within the literary circles of the Previous Era world, Seele had already gained some fame as a powerful new author, praised for her refined and delicate writing style.
Lunelle could easily imagine that if her wife Seele's "beautiful girl novelist" pseudonym were ever uncovered and given a bit of modern marketing polish, she'd skyrocket to fame overnight!
After all, her Seele was just that cosmically, unbelievably, freaking adorable!
Sadly, Seele from the Previous Era clearly wasn't the type who enjoyed the spotlight. She had always worked diligently, climbing the harsh literary world with nothing but a worn-out pen.
Even now, when she could already support herself, the kind-hearted Seele still donated a large portion of her income to the orphanage that raised her, keeping only the bare minimum for daily expenses.
Sniffle… That's my Seele for you—beautiful inside and out!
Lunelle very naturally reached out and picked up the visibly aged quill.
Even though she should have never used anything like it in her own experience, the moment she held the pen, an instant sense of immersion—as if stepping right into her wife Seele's role—flooded over her.
Looking at the half-written manuscript before her, Lunelle's mind miraculously filled with wonderful, imaginative inspirations she could never have conceived on her own.
These inexplicably emerging, lofty ideas clearly weren't something a small-time flop like her could have thought up.
It was almost as if her dear wife Seele's consciousness was also alive… within her own mind.
Huh…
Alive… within… her own mind…!?
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.