Prologue — The Wrong Book at 3 a.m.
Arc 1: The Fractured Future — Year 2025, Earth
I was tired in a way that sleep couldn't fix.
Not the cute kind of tired — not the "haha, I stayed up watching dramas" kind — but the kind that lived in the hollow behind your ribs and whispered, You can't keep doing this forever.
College deadlines, internship rejections, parents asking what my "plan" was. My plan, honestly, was to keep existing until something stopped me.
So, I did what I always did when the world felt too heavy — I reread Eclipsed Destiny.[1]
It wasn't just a book to me. It was the book.
A fantasy romance that had broken my heart and taped it back together in the same chapter. The story of knights, mages, kingdoms, war… and two side characters who died to make the heroine look brave.
Liora Ventis — noble-born, loyal, and doomed.
Kieran Rael — genius mage, cold, and equally doomed.
They weren't even supposed to be the main focus, but they were the only ones who felt real. The author had written their deaths beautifully. I'd cried the first time I read it, screamed the second time, and then obsessed for years. I wanted to shake the story and yell, They didn't have to die!
So, naturally, I was rereading their deaths again at 3:12 a.m., wrapped in a blanket burrito, half a bag of chips on my chest, and my phone threatening to overheat on my knee.
"This is so unfair," I muttered to the screen. "You deserved better, Liora. You too, Kieran, you emotionally constipated idiot—"
That's when the world stuttered.
The lamp flickered. The hum of my air conditioner stretched and slowed, like someone was pressing down on reality's "pause" button. My heartbeat doubled, then tripled, then—
[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
[Initializing FATE PROGRESSION INTERFACE.][2]
[Welcome, Aria Lysander.]
[Detected: emotional imprint — "I wish I could've saved them."]
[Eligibility confirmed: Transmigration Trial [3]initiated.]
My brain short-circuited.
"…Excuse me?"
[Target world: Eclipsed Destiny.]
[Assigned identity: Liora Ventis.]
[Role: Side Character.]
[Predicted lifespan: 23 chapters.]
[Objective: Survive.]
"Ha. Hilarious," I said weakly. "I'm hallucinating from burnout."
[Transfer commencing.]
[Error: host consent not detected.]
[Override accepted.]
And then my heart stopped.
The next time I breathed, I wasn't on my bed.
I was flat on my back, staring at a carved wooden ceiling. The air was cold and sharp, tinged with lavender oil and something faintly metallic. My phone was gone. So were my sweatpants. In their place — white linen, embroidered cuffs, and the subtle weight of jewelry I'd never afford.
A girl's voice — soft, careful — came from beyond the doorway.
"Lady Liora? Are you awake?"
Lady.
My throat closed. That name wasn't mine.
The memories came like flashes of lightning: sword drills, dinner etiquette, a family crest with a silver falcon, a sister's jealousy, a father who smiled too sharply.
Ventis family. Knight lineage. Minor nobility.
I dragged myself to a sitting position. The room swam. My reflection in the mirror was wrong — too delicate, too polished. Blonde hair that fell like it had been designed by Photoshop. Gray eyes that had seen battlefields in prose, not real life.
[Welcome, Liora Ventis.]
[Death flag: Chapter 23, "Sacrifice at North Gate."]
[Current survival index[4]: 8%.]
"Eight?" I croaked. "Eight percent? That's not even a passing grade!"
[Tip: Avoid North Gate.]
"Oh, wow, thanks. Genius advice from the omniscient death app."
[Sarcasm detected.]
[Emotional stability: 61%. Suggest meditation or denial.]
I took a deep breath.
"Okay. Okay, this is fine. Totally fine. I'm inside my favorite novel. As a doomed side character. Who dies horribly. And there's a creepy talking interface in my brain. Sure. Normal Thursday."
[Correction: Saturday.]
I glared at the empty air. "I swear, if you're going to narrate everything I say—"
[Narration disabled.]
Blessed silence. For two seconds.
Then the system chimed again:
[Optional Objective: Break one plot event before Chapter 10.]
[Reward: +5% survival rate.]
Break the plot?
If this world really was Eclipsed Destiny, then that meant… every single event, every war, every death, every heartbreak was already written.
But I wasn't just a reader anymore.
"I can change things," I whispered. "I have to."
[Warning: Interference may cause paradox.]
[Proceed anyway?]
I smiled. "Obviously."
[Proceeding… You are now an official deviation.]
The air seemed to shift. The world around me noticed.
For a long moment, I just stood there, staring at the reflection that wasn't mine, heart hammering like a bass drum. Somewhere beyond the castle walls, the mages were already preparing for the next border skirmish. And among them, a young prodigy — Kieran Rael — was sharpening his magic, completely unaware that his fate had just been rewritten.
I pressed my palm over my heart.
"Alright, Liora Ventis. Let's survive your story."
The blue text flickered one last time before fading from sight.
[New Objective Registered: Defy Fate.]
prologue end —
[1] Eclipsed Destiny — The in-universe fantasy romance novel Aria Lysander (now Liora Ventis) read before dying. Its original plot kills both Liora and Kieran Rael to strengthen the heroine’s character arc.
[2] Fate Progression Interface (System) — A mysterious, semi-sentient interface that governs narrative fates. It records probabilities, objectives, and deviations from the original story.
[3] Transmigration Trial — A phenomenon triggered when a person forms an emotional attachment strong enough to breach fictional boundaries. Aria’s wish to “save them” initiated her transfer.
[4] Survival Index — The System’s measurement of how likely Liora is to avoid her fated death. Starts low due to her fixed “death chapter.”