This time I woke up in a room resembling a hospital room.

‘The hell! System, what happened?’

You are currently in the infirmary of the academy after fainting on your way to the dormitories. While you were in the process of receiving your reward, you were killed and the Game System transferred you back to your last Save Point. Afterwards it resumed to transmit your reward, resulting in creating this situation.

‘Killed? But I just arrived! And I did not feel anything!’

Notice: Due to the disturbance while transmitting your reward your body is suffering from a backlash. Right now all your Stats are lowered by 10 points.

Your skills are influenced by your low Stats.

‘What! Status Window!’

Status Window

Name: Sophien Alma Rubien

Age: 17

Race: Human

Level: 21

Health: 21/21 → 10/11

Mana: 25/25 → 15/15

Stamina 21/21 → 11/11

Attack: 12/12 → 2/2

Defense: 19/19 → 9/9

Speed: 21/21 → 11/11

Mental Health: 21/21 → 7/11

Mental Fortitude: 21/21 → 9/11

Aptitude: Fire, Light, Darkness

Skills: Fire Ball Lvl. 3, Fire Wall Lvl. 2, Barrier Lvl. 1 (locked), Mana Breath Lvl. 3 (New↑), Calmness Lvl. 5 (affected↓), Poison Resistance Lvl. 5, Body Enhancement Lvl. 3 (affected↓), Sense Enhancement Lvl. 4 (affected↓), Awareness Lvl. 4 (affected↓), Enemy Detection Lvl. 1 (affected↓), Evasion Lvl. 1 (affected↓)

Special Ability: Save Point System

“Please, you have to be kidding!”, I cried. Pain drove itself deep into my heart. It had been a while since I last felt like this. My breathing became harder and uneven. I had to reprimand myself to keep calm.

Terrifying.

It was terrifying how much I already depended on my skills. Calmness and Awareness were only lowered by one and two points but without them I felt incredibly insecure.

‘This isn’t permanent, right?’

Much more worrying than my skills were my Stats. I barely caught up with the other nobles and now I was back at the beginning? Furthermore some Stats were even lower!

As the Game System already explained, your body right now is experiencing a backlash from interrupting the incoming information. It is a weakened state and can be nourished back to health, however, each death in a weakened state could worsen your current condition by a lot. You have to be careful.

How could I be careful if I could not comprehend what killed me in the first place? I was in a dream-like state! Furthermore in Sophien’s memories, she was either killed during her suspension or returned without experiencing the Assassin Flag. There was no case of being targeted right after returning to the academy!

“Can you at least give me a hint how I died!”, I groaned.

“My lady?”. I heard Ines' voice through the door. She entered right after. “My lady!”, she exclaimed. It had to be difficult to work for a noble who had a preference to collapse without prior notice, I thought sarcastically.

“Are you alright? Shall I call for the doctor?”, she was already about to turn around when I stopped her.

“Call for more guards instead. I collapsed because of fear. I saw an intruder.”

Satisfied with my improvisation I added a call for dinner. “Only silverware Ines. This rule applies especially in the academy.”

It was cute to witness her increasing disbelief.

After Ines left to carry out my orders, I sank back into my fluffy cushion. “I can’t believe this happened right after returning to the academy”, I mumbled to myself whilst slowly calming down.

Being told that you just died while also having proof of returning to the past right in front of your eyes was one thing but being unable to recall how you died was far more fear inducing.

Die from a monster? Try to avoid it. Die from Poisoning? Don’t eat or drink! But dying without a clear cause…

Villainess Reputation – 10 currently 20/100

…

“Hahh”, I sighed. Losing Reputation from being attacked? Well, it was not really an attack yet…

“My lady? There is a guest, do you want to receive him or do you want to continue to rest?”, asked Ines who just returned from carrying out my orders.

A guest? Was it because of my talk about an intruder?

“Let him in”, I answered her while sitting up in an orderly manner. However, instead of someone official from the academy or a guard, my former guide stepped into my room.

He gave me a small bow but didn’t wait for me to tell him to rise. “Are you alright?”. He asked me worriedly.

I couldn’t even blink when he had already settled down on a nearby chair. “I was quite worried, you know. You just collapsed right in front of me while looking like some scarred cat – Ah! I’m sorry”, he readily bowed his head again and I was somehow amused by his brave temper.

“I am alright, Mr…?”, I wanted to reassure him but it was only then that I noticed how we never formally introduced ourselves.

“Ah! You don’t have to worry. I am a commoner. You can just call me Carnelian, Carnelian Lope”, again he gave me a silly grin. A little bit reserved I too gave him a small smile and his eyes behind those glasses seemed to pop out. It was an amusing sight.

“Carnelian it is”, I said. “Will you still guide me through the training grounds after I’ve recovered?”

Yet this time he tilted his head. “The training grounds? Don’t you mean your room? …Well, anyway leave it to me, I will gladly show you both!”

Realizing that he hadn’t made me that offer yet I bit my lower lip. This was going to be difficult. I had to be careful not to mix up the timelines. Luckily, there were not that many differences so far.

The next few minutes went by in a flash. Carnelian had been going to this school for three years which was an incredibly long time for a commoner. The prices of the academy were nothing to scoff at. I was wondering how he managed to achieve that but his answer left me stupefied. He was an orphan who had been working as an adventurer since he was young.

He must have saved up all these years in order to get a knight license and a stable income. The most incredible thing was how he reacted as if it was nothing. He was a good kid.

That night I asked Ines how many knights were distributed to me and whether they found the intruder. There had to be one otherwise I could not explain why I died this time whereas Sophien survived.

The answer was unsatisfactory. There were no traces of anyone intruding… If it was the same Assassin Guild which managed to bypass the Duke’s security then I wasn’t surprised just… that would make things difficult.

‘System can you sense danger’, I asked him just in case because with my body in this condition it would be incredible to sense anything. My hands and feet just felt numb. It was an unsettling feeling.

Sadly no as I have no physical manifestation in this game world.

‘Oh, do you have a physical body in another world?’

Of course, at least I am able to create one at will but I am an outsider here and therefore have no right to interfere too much.

That was an interesting piece of information. ‘In which worlds can you manifest a body?’

Hmm, strictly speaking in all worlds as a visitor and only in a selected few as an outsider. Your world belongs to my jurisdiction so I was tasked with overseeing your settlement in this advancing game. Should this game successfully advance it might be added to my jurisdiction.

Together with the system I strove to confront my Death Flag but my weakened body couldn’t hold up. In the end, I fell asleep.

Be that as it may, it was a light sleep and when I noticed a presence approaching I regained my senses.

“Guards!”, I cried out. I knew there was something or someone but I could not pinpoint it. I also could not perceive whether this presence was in this room or not and why nothing happened. Was this presence playing with me?

This whole thinking process happened in seconds and I saw my door burst open.

The moment the first guard entered the room, he fell. Incredulously I witnessed how blood gushed out of a wound on his neck. “No”, I murmured.

“Be careful!”, I shouted but it was to no avail. Helplessly I had to observe how my guards came to fall one after another. They were guards of the academy but a large portion belonged to the Duke as I recognized their uniforms.

“Stop it”, I whispered. “You want me, don’t you? Come get me!”

I did not realize when I left my bed but I activated all my fitting enhancement skills and jumped out of the window. The glass shards were glittering all around me and through one shard I got a glance at yellow, cat-like eyes. It was a pair of eyes I would never forget.

I screamed.

“Ahh! What is it?”, a bewildered youth with dark brown hair and glasses looked at me. His deep blue eyes barely noticeable behind his glass frames calmed me. And then I fainted for real.

It was the second time since the beginning of this game.