※ All contents of this novel are works of fiction and have no relation to actual history, places, people, events, or organizations.

Chapter 1. A New Beginning

Please save me.

Melissa begged desperately while locked in prison.

Her small hands gripped the iron bars and shook them violently. However, she was imprisoned in the temple of the Artzen Empire. The temple’s prison, more secure than any other place, would never crumble from such feeble attempts.

Several days passed while she shook the bars. Finally, Melissa collapsed when her strength gave out. Her silver hair, disheveled from her long imprisonment, turned black from dragging across the prison floor.

Melissa thought it resembled her current situation perfectly.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

She asked unconsciously, but she already knew the answer.

It started six years ago when her mother died, leaving her with an ability far beyond her means.

The power to see the future.

From the moment she received that brilliant power, all sorts of titles followed her.

The saintess of the Artzen Empire, the woman beloved by God, the blessing of the imperial citizens, ‘Lucid’ the child of the main deity.

But Melissa knew. None of it belonged to her.

Lucid was the name of their clan’s ancestor. Melissa inherited the power simply because she was a distant descendant. The true owner of precognition was only Lucid herself.

Proving this fact, every clan member except the first Lucid had to pay a price whenever they used precognition. They had to endure pain proportional to the scale of their predictions.

The power continued to pass down to those who inherited Lucid’s blood, and finally reached Melissa, the last remaining member of the clan.

The Lucid clan had no right to refuse this power. No matter how much they struggled, others would not let go of the clan. Today marked the end of that path.

“Lucid! Please raise the empire again with your precognition!”

Voices from outside leaked through the small window. It was the sound of people gathered in front of the temple for days. Their voices now carried traces of madness.

People had already lost their reason.

The monster invasion that started in the northern part of the empire gradually ate away at the citizens’ daily lives. The Artzen Empire, boasting five hundred years of history, crumbled helplessly.

People abandoned their humanity to survive and gradually turned into monsters.

The Artzen imperial family proved no exception.

The imperial family committed unimaginable acts to avoid taking responsibility for failing to protect the empire.

[Sacrifice yourself for the Artzen Empire, Lucid.]

For instance, using a woman who had barely come of age as a shield.

When tomorrow’s sun rises, Melissa would make predictions for the empire and be thrown into the abyss.

She would marry an unknown man, bear his child, and suffer in terrible agony unable to die until that child grew up safely to become the next Lucid.

Knowing all this, the temple, far from trying to stop the imperial family, proclaimed how noble Melissa’s sacrifice was.

None of it had anything to do with her wishes.

“……This is a curse.”

Melissa muttered while wrapping her arms around her body, worn out from frequent use of her power.

She hadn’t always been treated this way. Before inheriting the power of precognition, Melissa’s life had been brilliant. And there was always one person by her side.

Melissa Lucid’s first love and fiancé.

Just when she tried to recall him, the prison door opened with a creaking sound.

Her eyes widened when she looked toward the door.

“Edgar!”

Melissa grabbed the bars and peered outside. The person she had been desperately waiting for entered the prison.

He stood right in front of her. She stared at him mesmerized. Blue eyes sparkled beneath jet-black hair.

Edgar. Edgar Shortiras. My fiancé.

“I’ve been waiting.”

Melissa spoke with a choked voice.

Edgar was a talented individual who had already been chosen as the next Tower Master and gone to the Magic Tower in the same year Melissa became ‘Lucid.’ Moreover, he was the only precious young master of the Shortiras ducal family who sponsored the Lucid clan.

He must have found some solution. The only reason Melissa hadn’t completely lost hope in this hell was because of Edgar.

[I like you, Melissa.]

[I’ll always protect you. You’re my lifesaver after all.]

Before leaving for the Magic Tower, he had promised the crying Melissa who had become Lucid.

That he would definitely return to save her.

* * *

On a warm spring day.

The priests dragged Melissa to the highest point of the temple.

“The precognition will begin.”

The priest quietly announced the start of the ceremony.

Melissa gave up everything and performed the precognition. The imperial palace mage waiting nearby transmitted the contents to people through amplification magic.

“The safest place will be near the western border of the empire. Monster invasions will be relatively fewer there. And……”

The moment Melissa spoke her final words,

Boom.

A massive sound echoed from far away.

It was the footsteps of monsters they had heard countless times recently.

People who realized this moved urgently. The area in front of the temple instantly turned into chaos with people trying to move west. Screams of people caught in the confusion rang out everywhere.

The priests and mages moved hastily too.

Melissa sat still watching the chaotic scene. More precisely, she couldn’t move her body. She didn’t have strength left to move even a finger.

An indescribable pain struck her body.

“Aaagh……”

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts so much.

The pain proved incomparable to what she had expected.

But no one cared for Melissa while she reached this state. People would only remember they had abandoned her when they safely reached the west and needed Saintess Lucid again.

‘Maybe this is for the better.’

Even if someone saved her now, the only ending left for her would be repeating days like today.

She hated that.

Her entire body already screamed for help from the tremendous agony. She couldn’t bear living like this for her whole life.

Melissa wanted to rest.

She gathered her remaining strength to grip the railing and stood up.

Then she sat on the railing with her legs dangling in the air. Perhaps her senses had gone numb from the extreme pain, but she felt nothing anymore.

While blankly looking down, a familiar person caught her eye. Someone was standing completely still among the frantically moving people, like their feet were glued to the ground.

‘Edgar?’

Black hair and blue eyes.

The person before her eyes was definitely Edgar Shortiras.

But he shouldn’t be here.

Then was this a hallucination?

No, it didn’t matter what it was.

“……You shouldn’t have promised to save me at least.”

Then she wouldn’t have lived only looking at Edgar.

Melissa bid farewell to the figure before her.

“I hope……”

I hope you’ll be miserable for the rest of your life.

Her body, finished with its task, threw itself down. Her body swayed helplessly like a piece of paper in the air before crashing into the pond in front of the temple.

Following the impact of hitting the water surface, pressure squeezed her from all directions. Ironically, she felt comfort in that sensation, and Melissa thought:

‘I wish I hadn’t liked you.’

She remembered Edgar who hadn’t moved an inch even when she jumped.

Then Melissa’s eyes closed.

Like her gradually fading breath, she thought this terrible relationship was finally over, that she had finally escaped this hell.

……No, she was mistaken about that.

“Lucid.”

Melissa took a deep breath and opened her eyes at the familiar voice.

When she lifted her head, she saw Edgar’s father, Duke Shortiras, looking at her indifferently.

Looking slightly younger than in her memories, he spoke words she had heard before, very familiar words.

“Your mother is dead. You’re this generation’s Lucid now.”

* * *