V3 Prologue

For Tessa, who had remained without a physical form for more than 2000 years, having a new residence in the form of Ren's mind has become a double-edged sword so far for her.

First, the merits. Unlike the book where her consciousness, along with her Arcana, was previously kept, having a human host proved to be much more enjoyable for her, as she now has someone to communicate with, something that she wished to have ever since her physical body perished from the world.

Other than that, having to live inside a person's psyche, which was a previously unheard experience until recently, means that she has a new place to explore, new things to learn, and new feelings to be felt—all of which brings excitement to a goddess that is filled with curiosity and enthusiasm when it comes to learning. To learn her host is to learn what it means to be alive once again.

However, whenever there are merits, there also come their demerits.

"This, this is unbelievable! I have already cleaned all this mess just a while ago, and yet they are all here again? What in the world really is wrong with this person?!"

Kneeling on the floor of the virtual library inside Ren's mind, Tessa the High Priestess grudgingly picked up the pieces of 'paper' that suddenly appeared on the floor, indicating that her host's mental state has been running on high for some time now.

Having a host body who, until recently, hasn't lived his youth to the fullest, means that his mind will be constantly filled with useless thoughts and fantasies, as well as doubts about oneself, all of which befit a person of his age. It is up to Tessa, therefore, to sort out these thoughts to prevent her newfound sanctuary from turning into a virtual landfill.

"Um...let's see, 'earlier today Lerish and I went to the forest to harvest some mushrooms...while we were walking her foot tripped on something and she almost fell, but luckily as she was walking behind me I was able to catch her with my back...and even though it's not the first time that it happened, the soft sensation I felt at that time will always linger inside my brain...'—heck, so that's why there's full of trash here lately!" Tessa angrily crumpled up the 'paper thought' and threw it into a nearby bin.

But then, all of this is but a new lesson for her. By gradually exposing herself to her host's hidden perverted side, by the time he finally does something unbelievable in the future she would remain calm and composed while watching the entire thing unfold through her host's vision.

After arranging the clutter of papers that is his thoughts, she turned her attention towards a stack of books on the opposite corner that she has yet to work with.

Much like an actual brain where each brain component has its function, the 'books', which are the basic units of information in this library, are also arranged according to what information they hold, yet there are times when these books fall out of place inside the library. If that happens, it's also up to the goddess Tessa to pick them up and return them to their rightful places.

"Um...as much as I want them to be placed inside their respective shelves, I haven't made much progress yet in knowing Ren Mortel more, so it wouldn't hurt if I take a look deeper into his mind, right?" she contemplated.

Consumed by her curiosity, she picked up all of the books and placed them on her study table. Being in a virtual world, things that are supposed to be heavy now have negligible weights, hence it was no sweat for a little girl like her to carry them all at once.

Opening one of the books, she immediately realized that the information was written in a language that she's never seen before.

"Aha, so it seems that he's trying to prevent me from uncovering his deepest secrets by having his information hidden behind this cryptic text. However, he also seems to forget who he's dealing with! I'll have you know, there's no undecipherable text is safe from me, the High Priestess!"

With a twirl of her finger, she used her power, and almost instantly, the texts that were once unreadable to her were translated into the ancient language the gods of old were familiar with. She then checked if the book was completely translated, to which she was satisfied with the result.

"Hmm...so this particular book's all about his preferences when it comes to food. Let's see...bananas, purple yam, and jackfruit wrapped in lumpia wrapper, fried, and covered with caramelized sugar...I don't recognize any of those ingredients but it sounds delicious," she remarked while browsing through one of its pages.

And thus, for the rest of the day she spent her time translating and reading all of those books in succession, taking notes of anything she could use to blackmail—or in a goddess' terms, use to her advantage if ever Ren asks something unreasonable to her.

After all, it's all his fault that she looks like a little girl now.

With her consciousness now attuned to her host's daily rhythms, she sensed that it was already nighttime the moment she was about to open the last book and she was also starting to feel sleepy, but with a pat on her cheeks to wake herself up, she felt like pushing herself to her boundaries tonight.

"Here it is, the last book! It is thicker in comparison to the other books, and the cover gives off a strange vibe...but who cares about that? Tessa will do her best to learn more today~"

Upon opening the book on its first page, the first thing she saw wasn't a wall of text, which were the case with the past books, but an image. It featured a baby wrapped in cloth and was held by who appears to be his mother, along with the caption 'MX/DX/20XX'.

"So this baby was Ren Mortel when he was born. Hm, he looked so innocent just by looking at this image...shame that it didn't carry on as he grows older."

The book featured an image on the front side, with a short commentary on the opposite page. Its scope ranged from Ren's birth up to the present day, with each page representing each day he has lived so far. It is more or less a biography, a record was written without the subject knowing anything about it.

Having someone's entire life spread open in front of her, made Tessa quite excited...and smug. Whether or not other people also know Ren's life, though, remains uncertain for her.

Because it's already late and her drowsiness has been catching up to her, she decided to skip past the 'uneventful' years of Ren's life, especially his childhood, and went straight to the part when he's already a high schooler.

"I see, I see. So up until now, the reason why everything that I've seen looks very unfamiliar to me...is because he came from a different world? Amazing! I always believed multiple worlds exist and by theory can be linked to one another...but it was difficult to even for me to prove..."

Such was the conclusion made by her. After confirming with her powers that the places shown in the background of each image don't exist anywhere in this world, Tessa then flipped a few more pages and took notes of the things the 'peculiar place' only has. The number of unrecognizable objects she saw was so many that she assumed that the people from that place, including Ren, must've been too dependent on those objects to live.

Also, in the first place, the idea of creating ultra-realistic, colorful images on paper was too farfetched even for a goddess like her.

"And now, shown on this page was the day, when his world and ours became connected for a moment...hmm?"

For a moment, Tessa stopped taking notes and focused not on Ren, but on the people surrounding him on that fateful day. She counted those people, 21 in total, and her vision gradually turned pitch black, a sign that she was about to see a glimpse of the future.

She'll be able to see things. Horrible things. Unspeakable horrors that could happen sooner or later, and without warning.

"No...please...not this again..." she cried in agony before her visions instantly took over her senses.