She Is Not a Witch

“Lacey, Lacey, what’s wrong? You’re not moving.” Laniel gently shook her from the side. Loranhil seemed to have fallen into a brief trance.

“It’s nothing, I just spaced out for a moment.” Loranhil stood up from her seat. The opera performance had already ended.

As the curtain fell on the opera, it took the audience a long time to come back to reality from the story.

“I’ve seen this opera a few times before, why did it move me to tears today?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve appreciated such a moving opera,” an old wealthy merchant sighed.

“Dad, I want to be the Thunder God’s heir in the future and join the Lightning Knight Order.”

“Swift lightning, follow me!” A child excitedly imitated the characters from the opera.

After the performance, the audience in the theater discussed enthusiastically, all marveling at this opera performance. Even the most critical regular patrons had to admit that this was the best performance they had experienced in nearly a decade. The last time they had such an experience was with the Twilight Troupe ten years ago.

Although there were no new faces among the performers and the story was the same as before, there was an indescribable feeling. It was as if people were more immersed in the plot, their emotions rising and falling with the story, giving a roller coaster-like thrill.

“Lacey, that was amazing!”

After it ended, Laniel praised Loranhil’s singing backstage. She understood best why this opera’s impact was several levels higher than before. In fact, the actors and other accompanists hadn’t changed, and she still played the lead role. Only the backstage singing had changed. Even during her performance, her emotions couldn’t help but fluctuate with it, despite having performed this script many times.

“Thank you.”

Loranhil herself wasn’t very aware of it. This was her first time participating in a performance, and she had no point of comparison. She just thought this was how an opera should be.

Little did she know, this was actually an extremely rare situation. Even the best script gets tiresome when performed daily, and even the most beautiful song becomes annoying when heard every day. People’s happiness threshold constantly rises. Yet this performance truly broke everyone’s inherent physical sense, bringing waves of amazement.

On her way home, Loranhil felt inexplicably uneasy. Even at home, she didn’t sleep well all night.

The next day after lunch, she asked Chelsea to decline all visitors and walked alone into the small courtyard.

In the quiet courtyard, the pear tree swayed gently in the autumn wind, just as before. She leaned back in her chair, her hair falling, watching the rolling clouds in the sky, but her heart remained unsettled.

A kind of anxiety seemed to come from an invisible place, as if telling her that something bad was about to happen.

She closed her eyes, her consciousness sinking deep into her heart, constantly diving, exploring the source of this anxiety.

In the depths of her memory, fragments of time flashed by in scenes: her living alone in the Tisilan Mountain Range, scenes of studying in her previous life, scenes of laughing with friends, lively scenes of attending banquets in Vegar…

Scene after scene passed before her eyes and then dissipated.

Finally, she froze on one scene, the afternoon many years ago when she watched that young man leave.

In the forest with slanting sunlight, she sang softly, blessing that ordinary young man, hoping he could create his own miracle.

She stood quietly before this giant painting, looking at her former self sitting in the tree, silver-haired in a white dress, eyes slightly closed, lips parted, praying devoutly.

In Loranhil’s pupils, starlight seemed to flicker. In a trance, she saw many people, many things, those people clumsily pursuing their dreams, the process not smooth.

That young man wasn’t eloquent. He could only move others again and again with his clumsy actions, making them finally believe in him. This way, he gained his first few companions.

They walked between cities and mountains, experiencing one difficulty after another. Life dealt them blow after blow. Some companions fell forever, some were tempted by fame and betrayed them, and some eventually lost hope and gave up.

They regrouped, learned from each lesson, and continued to move forward. Just like that, they foolishly set out again, exploring new paths. There was still hope, wasn’t there?

Until that thunder cloud blocked the sky, and the lightning that cut through fate stepped onto the battlefield.

In the blazing lightning, those vivid faces seemed to want to say something, but nothing was shouted out. Anger was suppressed in their chests, falling with sword edges and fresh blood, their eyes unwilling and hollow as they scattered across the ground, lifeless.

The threads of fate were broken here.

Loranhil slowly opened her eyes. In her pupils, there seemed to be galactic stardust, constantly flowing, reflecting this world. Her body slowly floated up, her white dress moving without wind, her form gradually becoming ethereal, her hair slowly returning to its original silver color.

A star rose slowly from the earth, its beautiful starlight tracing a long trajectory across the sky, straight up, as if a fallen star was returning to the sky.

Or like a pebble thrown into the sky, colorless ripples gently undulating. The flowing clouds in the sky dissipated accordingly, revealing a pure mirror-like blue-purple sky, in which starlight flickered, seemingly with a specific pattern, conveying some kind of information, responding to someone’s call.

When Loranhil regained consciousness, she was surrounded by endless starry skies and celestial bodies. Stars, some as small as grains of rice, some so large their edges couldn’t be seen, moved along certain trajectories in the starry sky, not fast but unstoppable.

At this time, she could no longer feel her body and supernatural core, as if everything had turned into insubstantial nebulae.

The only thing still floating in her consciousness was the mechanical system prompt sound.

[Third Sovereign identity verification begins]

[Check item one, passed]

[Check item two, passed]

[Check item three, passed]

[…]

[…]

[Check item thirty-seven, passed]

[Verification complete, fully passed, beginning empowerment.]

[Star Crown activation loading, 10%…..48%…..72%….100%, loading complete.]

[Star’s Miracle, deduction begins!]

[Fate’s Thread, open!]

Suddenly, Loranhil’s vision was filled with endless complex trajectories, which were the celestial orbits of those stars.

These celestial bodies rotated along their own trajectories, interfering with and influencing each other during the process, ultimately leading to an unknowable future.

These stars in the sky, moving through the deep space galaxy, were like floating in the river of fate. All kinds of factors influenced them, and no one knew what they would encounter in the future. They could only struggle to swim in the turbid flow.

But a special star emerged from the river of fate, leaping out of the water. She began to observe the entire river and the individuals swept up in it.

Her gaze flowed, and based on a connection from long ago, she found that small star. Around it, points of stardust revolved. However, this star had already embarked on a dead end, the golden thread of fate had broken ahead, leaving only emptiness and darkness.

Since the original fate was broken, let me weave a brand new star line.

With this thought, the silver-haired girl’s form gradually condensed and appeared in this star world.

She carefully cupped this tiny star in both hands. Starlight slowly gathered, and the golden thread of fate began to appear before her.

At the same time, on the Wind Rest Plains, the thick thunder clouds seemed to be parted by an invisible hand, and a pure, beautiful starry sky appeared before everyone’s eyes.

So vast, so magnificent, it made individuals and life as small as grains of sand.

And now, starlight began to fall.