Furan arrived at the entrance of the Night Sky Reading Club, a place she hadn't visited since her first time there.
She pushed the door open and saw Lai Yi sitting at the Receptionist's desk. She walked up slowly and greeted her.
"Hey, Lai Yi."
Lai Yi had spotted her long ago and was curious as to why she would return to this place.
"Furan, hello... what are you doing here?"
Furan smiled and said:
"I'm a member of the Night Sky Reading Club. What's wrong with me visiting the club?"
Lai Yi's mouth twitched as she said helplessly:
"Fine, just tell me what you're here for. Are you looking for someone or quitting the club?"
In Lai Yi's eyes, Furan could only be here for one of those two reasons.
"I'm here to exchange for some Spells."
"???"
Lai Yi's face was full of question marks; she didn't quite understand what Furan meant.
"Wait, you're from the Sword Chant School, and you're coming to us to exchange for Spells???"
"Who said I'm from the Sword Chant School?"
Lai Yi's face was filled with confusion as she slowly spoke:
"Your deeds have already spread. A first-year apprentice named Furan defeated John, a man who has taught swordsmanship class for six years, during a lesson."
"Word is going around that you're preparing to cut the line and take this year's apprentice assessment..."
"Uh, that's all nonsense. Didn't Bella tell you?"
"Hasn't Bella already joined the Sword Chant School? She's been so busy these past few days that I can't find her at all. I thought you were the same."
Furan could only correct her:
"I didn't take John's recommendation spot. I want to see what other Schools are like, so I came to check out the Spells here."
"Oh!" Lai Yi became interested, her eyes lighting up.
"Are you going to join the Astrology School? It just so happens I've had some inspiration lately; we can enter together when the time comes."
"No, I want to look at the Spells first. Give me the list of Spells available for exchange."
Only then did Lai Yi hand the Spell list to Furan. Furan glanced at the paper; it only had three Spells on it.
The first was a Spell called [Astrology Sphere]. It was very peculiar; depending on the current celestial alignment, you would summon one of dozens of variants. If the astrology was right, the damage was high; if not, it might deal no damage at all.
The second was a Spell called [Adjustment Method]. It was for those who frequently watched the stars but suddenly felt nothing; this Spell was an adjustment to allow you to continue sensing the astrology.
Neither of these seemed useful to her. She felt her perception of the stars was already maxed out. Although she hadn't experienced that future vision a second time, when she used Divination, she didn't need to calculate at all; the answer was given to her directly.
She saw the final Spell. From the first moment she saw it, she couldn't restrain herself and pointed directly at it.
"I want this one!"
Lai Yi looked at it and said with a smile:
"Are you sure about this? Basically everyone here who exchanges for this ends up cursing it."
Furan was a bit puzzled and said:
"[Portent Spell]. What's wrong? Doesn't it say it can foresee upcoming events?"
"It says foresee, but this thing is incredibly difficult to use."
"It can foresee upcoming events—that description isn't wrong. What's wrong is that its visions are a bit abstract."
"According to Sister Ha Ya, you actually have to imagine how the next event will happen. The more specific and accurate your imagination, the more it will automatically extend based on your visualization."
"But if your imagination is wrong, it won't have any effect at all, no matter how hard you think."
Furan somewhat understood, but there were still parts she didn't grasp.
"Tell me more, I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Let me give you an example. Say you observe that every time I enter a door, I step with my left foot. You want to use Portent Spell to see what happens next."
"After using it, you see a scene of me tripping, and then I actually do trip when entering the door. This makes you smug, and you think about continuing to use Portent Spell."
"However, your Portent Spell won't succeed every time after that. There might be times when someone crosses the threshold with me, or walks toward me—all of these cause your Portent Spell to fail."
"But then one time you find that I tripped again, and there were no other distracting factors, yet you just didn't foresee it."
"The most likely reason is that you didn't foresee whether my left foot stepped onto the threshold or over it, or you didn't imagine the distance from the threshold to where my foot landed correctly."
"Do you understand? Theoretically, as long as you know what's about to happen, Portent Spell can then deduce the next step of what will occur."
"In reality, we can at most see a brief image of the immediate future. It's impossible to use it like a true prophecy, because it's very hard to imagine things that are far off."
Furan gradually understood. She reached out, took out a gold coin, and handed it to Lai Yi.
"I'll buy it. Give me change for this gold coin."
Lai Yi swallowed hard. A single large gold coin was simply too much for an apprentice like her; she really wished the coin were hers.
At that moment, the president of the Night Sky Reading Club, Ha Ya, walked down. She glanced at the Silver Paper for Portent Spell that Lai Yi had taken from under the desk and realized what had just happened.
"You want to buy this Portent Spell?"
Furan nodded.
"This is actually a precursor to Prophecy Magic. If you can truly use it well, you can come to the Astrology School."
"I'll consider it. I am currently looking for a School to join."
---
Furan returned to her dormitory. She visualized the future scene she had seen before, facing the night sky outside the window, and then an image surfaced before her eyes.
It was what happened after Furan killed Richter. She buried them on the spot, even carrying an iron shovel with her.
After burying them all, she saw herself walking away relaxed and happy, without the slightest hint of anxiety or fear on her face.
Just bury them and that's it? Is it really that casual?
The image before her hadn't ended yet, continuing until Furan's perspective reached a gate of Cuilan Academy. Now she knew where the place she would finally kill Richter was located.
Then her vision went dark, and she returned to reality. She felt somewhat exhausted, and there was a sharp pain in her head.
It seemed that foreseeing too far into the future had side effects, Furan thought, clutching her head.
But why was it fine to just bury them in that ground? Her future self looked completely at ease, as if she expected nothing would go wrong afterward.
Was it because she had joined a School and gained protection?
Furan shook her head. She didn't really want to join a School right now. She knew that although every School had its own Spells, she would only be able to access those specific Spells, which wouldn't allow her to fully utilize the potential of her Game Panel.
Returning to her previous thought: why did she just bury them and leave?
She suddenly had a bold guess. Could it be that because she had now foreseen her future self smiling while burying the bodies, even though she didn't know the reason, she would just follow suit, and that's why she was so happy... No, maybe there was something special about that patch of land. She felt she wasn't such a mindless person.