Chloe shook her left wrist while replying. "The blue strings on my wrist, what are their use though?"
She looked curious. Though she'd live long enough, there are somethings doesn't have recollection of.
"They are souls," Bree said. His voice was low, heavy.
"Souls that had accompanied you in all your lifetimes willingly. They burned themselves to become strings to accompany you. It will be hard to remember the last two because you were a muddlehead in your last life."
His red eyes didn't blink.
Chloe nodded thoughtfully.
The strings pulsed softly against her skin, warm like a heartbeat. Ten of them.
Ten people who had died for her in different ways.
It made her heart tighten in a way she didn't like.
Guilt was a weight she'd carried for too long.
She looked at everyone before she said, "I feel like I haven't been reborn for twenty-two years, but an hour. My soul is exhausted and painful.
You should put away all the things that can make me remember anything from my past when I'm emotionally unstable.
I'm trying to fight with fate. If it knows that I'm back, our fate will be like the other lifetimes."
Her voice was still calm, but her fingers were gripping the edge of the table tightly.
White knuckles.
"Mom and Dad, you need to stay strong and support the kingdom, not like the last lifetimes where Ava snatched the kingdom and forced you onto the streets, being spit on.
We have three years for everything to end.
To know whether we will start another lifetime, or we will win in victory. But I hope it is victory."
Her gaze was sharp now. Focused.
Her gaze now was directed at Alex and Nathan.
"I will speak with an entertainment company to give you roles, or the new me will help you get roles if you guys will ask her for them."
Practical. Detached. Like she was assigning tasks in a war council.
"Larry should materialize himself in front of the new me in these three years."
No sentiment. Just orders.
"What should we do now?" The queen asked. Her gaze was steady, but her fingers were trembling in her lap.
"As always, Mother, behave like you don't give a damn about your daughter Chloe. Dad should stay indoors. Silence and Thomas, as always, you are the secret weapons.
Cassen and the others should try to build their own power in their own fields. Larry should continue brainwashing the new me with the novel while making her gain world faith. You don't need to worry about Ava for now. She has spies by her side.
We are doing everything secretly, but deadly." Chloe's smile was cold.
"What is everything? I don't get it," Alex asked. His mind wasn't used to thinking big.
He was a prince, not a general.
Chloe sighed. She rubbed her temples.
"There is no 'everything'. There is you and your damn life to fight for.
There is no novel, but there is the real fucking world.
Ava is reborn, and her powers are at their peak—more than Mother's.
The idea of novels and systems is what we invented. It is fictional, not reality.
We are fighting the world's fate, the heavens, and with all honesty, we are fighting with an entity like a God, or gods.
Let's say it is like a constellation."
She paused, letting that sink in.
The room was silent. Even the air felt heavy.
"We need wits this time around.
We lived our first life carefree. That's why we died painfully.
We tried to change in the second life, but our actions were detected and forced to act accordingly.
We tried following the plot in our third lives, and the ending was worse than all—tragic.
But in this life, we need to be the victors by shaping our own ending."
Her eyes were cold now. No room for doubt.
"Your time is limited. How are you going to do so?" Nathan's eyes narrowed.
He didn't like plans that were about 'trust me, it will work'.
He needed structure. Control.
"I had already texted Nillan. She knows what to do. The others, I'm sure the new me will know what to do. Dylan, you need to go to school. No compromise. Cassen already has a business in his name." She listed them off like a commander checking supplies.
Chloe looked at Lenox before saying, "You should stop behaving the way you usually do. You don't have any powers in this continent, let alone country.
You should find out what you're interested in the next one week before asking the new me for help."
She looked at everyone.
"Any other thing? I still have around thirty minutes."
"How will Nillan contact us or the new you about our profession?" Cassen's voice was heard.
His tone was lighter now. The storm had passed, for now.
Chloe smiled when she heard his cheerful tone.
"You don't need to worry about Nillan. She knows what to do.
And all of you, if you have any problem, feel free to contact her.
I did start a group long ago that has all the professionals all around the world.
You guys will be tagged in, but not now."
Looking at everyone who looked like they understood her, she stood up and started hugging her mother, then her father.
"Some of you, this hug is one of a year. Savor it to your hearts' content."
Her voice cracked slightly on the last word.
As she hugged her mer husbands, they really took advantage of her by kissing her.
She let them. For now.
She went to sit down after her parents and the two mers, Silence and Thomas, had left.
The room now felt emptier.
Quieter.
Chloe leaned on Larry's shoulders while wrapping her hands around his waist before sleeping soundly.
Sleep came fast. Like a mercy.
Thirty minutes later, Chloe stirred.
She blinked her eyes to adjust to the light.
She felt like she'd slept for a long time.
Like she'd been dead and woken up.
She raised her head to the sleeping blue-haired mer.
Her hands moved to his stomach before squeezing slightly.
When Chloe felt their sturdiness, she squeezed again and became playful.
Her fingers traced abs like she was mapping a country.
Her lips curved.
She gulped, a feeling she was well used to rushing to her stomach. She wasn't ashamed, not in anyway a pervert. She was honored. Honored to be a victim of that feeling. Her legs clenched tightly. She can't be blamed, she'd been playing monk for too long that she doesn't know the taste of meat.
Like a map, her perverted hand circled the stomach,with eargernes, she moved to his waistline, her eyes widened with amazement.
No belt just tied loosely with trouser strings. Like a pro, she untied with one hand.