Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Three Keys
“These three fragments are array discs blessed by the Goddess. When the time comes, the ritual will be presided over by the three of us.”
The Pontiff separated the three colored fragments. He handed the red one to Lorinna, the yellow one to Fia, and kept the blue one for himself.
“The ritual itself is quite simple. The specific steps will be explained later by someone from the Ritual Hall. It will not take much time.” After saying this, the Pontiff looked at them both. “Do you have any other questions?”
Fia responded, but what she said had nothing to do with the summoning ritual.
“Candidate Saintess Lorinna, you should have a small gathering scheduled at three this afternoon. Shouldn’t you go prepare for it?”
Lorinna, who had been secretly glancing at Fia, froze for a moment. She had not expected the topic to suddenly shift onto her.
And besides…
“How do you know I have that gathering?!”
That reaction confirmed it. Fia had guessed correctly.
She quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Neither she nor the original body could possibly have known about Lorinna’s last-minute gathering. However, this detail had been clearly written in the storyline from her previous life. She had merely repeated it.
The change in the prophecy had forced Fia to become cautious. Using small details to verify the reliability of her memories was a necessary precaution.
Fortunately, the result was reassuring.
“The maids’ preparations were not exactly hidden from others.” Fia smiled and looked at the confused Lorinna. “You should not disappoint their efforts.”
【Morality -3】
【Morality +1】
The system’s judgment criteria were somewhat strange. When she had first activated it, throwing documents around had given her a Morality -3 evaluation. In the following days, it had changed to -1. Now mocking Lorinna a couple of times resulted in -3 again. Could it be distinguishing between romanceable characters and NPCs?
However, one thing was clear: the number of ability fragments she received each time was related to the amount of morality deducted.
The later increase in morality must have come from the maids hearing her praise. With that back-and-forth exchange, she obtained three more ability fragments. She had now gathered enough fragments to unlock a low-level ability. Once she returned to her room, she could use them.
“Of course I will not! Your Holiness the Pontiff, I have no questions, so I will take my leave first.”
After saying this to the Pontiff, Lorinna hurried away in a flurry.
“That child is always so rash and impatient. Fia, you should teach her more.”
The Pontiff stroked his beard and smiled kindly. When he looked at Fia, there was not a trace of the oppressive authority one would expect from someone in power. Instead, he resembled an ordinary elderly man chatting with a younger relative.
“In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed. When I found you in the wasteland back then, you were only this big…”
He used his hand to indicate a small length.
“Your Holiness, when I brought Lorinna back to the Church back then, she was not like this.”
Fia stood up with a serious expression and lowered her voice.
If the ritual had not been so imminent, she would have gladly listened to the old Pontiff talk about the past. If she managed to please him, she might even get transferred to a branch diocese and avoid several bad-ending routes.
Unfortunately, there was no such possibility now.
The summoning ritual was unavoidable, and the prophecy had already changed strangely. She needed to handle her own situation first.
“In recent years, her behavior has become increasingly erratic. Moreover, many of her mistakes have gone unpunished despite violating Church discipline. I do not believe a person could change so drastically on their own within just three years inside the Church.”
The Pontiff’s smile gradually faded. After confirming from the corner of his eye that the maids and guards were far enough away, he spoke.
“You suspect…”
Fia slightly closed her eyes and nodded. She trusted that the Pontiff understood.
“Your Holiness, the Hero Summoning is a matter of great importance. I propose strengthening security between the front hall and the residential area. Assign enough reliable personnel, and even use magical surveillance if necessary. Strictly regulate the movement of people inside the Church to prevent any unexpected incidents.”
After deliberately emphasizing the words “reliable” and “internal,” Fia bowed and left.
The Pontiff was only one layer of insurance. She still needed to return and find a way to deal with the assassination attempt.
“This child… she will not even call me godfather.”
The Pontiff leaned back in his chair, watching the pure white figure gradually disappear into the distance. Then he glanced around and pointed at a guard.
“You—yes, you. Go summon the Chief Inquisitor and any Virtue Knights currently in the Church. Then go to the Central Council and see whether those people have finished arguing. Come back and report everything to me.”
***
“Let me see… it should be this one.”
The window in her room had already been modified according to her request. The glass had been replaced, the curtains had been changed to a retractable design, and they had even thoughtfully applied a Stabilization Spell. The Church’s efficiency was certainly commendable.
Fia took a book from the shelf that recorded divine rituals. After leaving the council chamber, she had rushed back immediately to study the yellow key she had received, hoping to find a way to solve the hero problem at its root.
The three keys corresponded to three summoned individuals. This had been clearly mentioned in the prologue of the main storyline. She even remembered their exact correspondences.
Lorinna’s red key summoned a sea lizard. It had no intelligence and was immediately captured by the Church knights and chopped into eighteen pieces to be served as dinner.
Her own yellow key summoned the previous hero, who was already 270 years old. When the old man trembled as he stepped out of the magic array, even the Pontiff rushed forward to support him, afraid he might trip and cause an international diplomatic incident.
Only the Pontiff’s blue key summoned Wu Gui, who truly met the requirements. He was young, a swordsman, and possessed faith.
So although it looked like there were three choices, the developers had actually arranged only one true player perspective.
But that was in the past.
She could not change a predetermined prologue cutscene, but could she not try to change the things she could physically interact with?
Spreading the book open, Fia began studying the diagrams carefully.
“This pattern determines spatial orientation… and this one defines the timeline.” Thanks to the knowledge inherited from the original body, she could understand complex magical patterns. After comparing them, Fia realized that the so-called Hero Summoning Array could actually be understood as a keyword search spell.
The array input parameters for time, space, and characteristics. It would then magically search the entire world, select three targets that matched the requirements, and pull them into the array.
That was the principle.
“So the Goddess placed the hope of saving the world on a piece of junk with a ninety-percent margin of error?”
Fia felt completely speechless. In her previous life she had enjoyed playing the game, but now she would become the actual victim.
She forced herself to continue reading.
“There are three modifiable array patterns, and only one that cannot be changed… it sounds mysterious, but in essence it means: time and space can shift, characteristics can change, but destiny cannot be grasped?”
The rest of the text became increasingly mystical and offered little practical reference. Fia closed the book and glanced at the statue in her room.
So far, the change in the prophecy did not appear to have affected the storyline. The summoning ritual would still proceed as scheduled.
The blue key would undoubtedly summon the green-haired hero. Under the Pontiff’s supervision, she could not openly harm the future hero, nor could she directly sabotage the ritual. If she wanted to achieve her goal, she would need to proceed gradually.
“Oh right, I almost forgot about this.”
Fia summoned the system and selected the option to synthesize an ability using the low-level fragments.
【Fragment Synthesis Successful. Please choose an ability.】
A list unfolded before her eyes. Various low-level abilities were neatly labeled with their effects and limitations, arranged like cabbages in a marketplace waiting to be chosen.
Not random? At least the system still had some conscience.
Fia silently complained and began selecting carefully. She wanted to see whether there was an ability that could help her disrupt the ritual.
A few minutes later, her mind touched a dark gray icon.
【Low-Level Stealth Acquired】
Her brain seemed to suddenly receive a flood of knowledge. For a moment, Fia even had the urge to clutch her head and shout “Gaia,” but the sensation quickly stabilized. When she examined it again, the techniques had already been imprinted into her body.
“So this is what mastering a low-level ability feels like?”
Fia briefly wanted to act out excitement and enthusiasm, but since there was no audience and the ability was only a low-level one, she quickly gave up the idea.
She tapped the yellow key on the table, feeling the intricate patterns beneath her fingertips. With her newly acquired ability, a plan began forming in her mind.
In the original story, there were only two ways to avoid the assassination bad ending.
The first was to spend money and raise the character’s stats high enough to defeat the assassins on the spot and rescue the Saintess.
The second was to discover the ambush in advance and call for help. The arriving knights would rescue the Saintess. After the assassins committed suicide, the Pontiff would thank the hero and decide that the Saintess should join the hero’s party. This was also the standard route that initiated the main storyline.
Defeating the assassins head-on was impossible.
As for relying on the green-haired hero to discover the plot in advance without player control? Fia was not that optimistic.
Combining these facts with the Low-Level Stealth ability she had just obtained, there was only one method left.
If I cannot defeat them…I will simply hide.