"What happened?! Where am I?" She gasped, bolting upright.
"B-Be careful!"
She turned around, ready to brush off whoever had entered.
At first, there was nothing remarkable.
Just a girl. Average, plain even.
But then it clicked.
Those sharp violet eyes.
That telltale posture of soone who never had to beg for attention.
The kind of presence that turned heads not because of beauty, but because of who they were.
It was like a slap to the face.
Admiration? Not a chance.
Horror crept in first. Then disgust.
Oh, hell no.
Of all people. Of all the walking disasters in this academy. Why did it have to be her?
Beatrice Faulkenridge.
A red flag? Yes. But not the fun kind. Not the obsessive, possessive, "you're mine forever" brand of psychotic love interest people liked to romanticize.
Beatrice was worse.
In simple terms, this girl was a hoe.
An awkward, overlooked ugly duckling, she had blossod into a breathtaking swan in the later volus and had no idea how to handle male attention, so she just bathed in it like it was river.
She collected admirers like trinkets, never choosing, never committing, just keeping them on the hook because she couldn't stand the idea of losing even a sliver of their attention. Unintentionally.
Now, she was looking at her with those wide, starry eyes, like she was pure and innocent.
I can't believe I have to deal with the most insufferable self-insert in female-oriented romance history...
Not only that, but the series that focused on Beatrice's POV was by far the steamiest, smuttiest, most scandalous one of them all.
The volu of naughty scenes was horrendous. Downright criminal. An assault on her innocent, asexual eyeballs.
This girl genuinely, truly believed that her only real worth, the only way she could be loved, was through her body.
And that was just about the polar opposite of Verena, who, as an asexual, had about as much interest in all that as a rock did on romance in real life.
Which is to say, none.
"Ah, you know what..." Verena looked away, desperately fighting the urge to cringe. "I can handle myself..."
"W-Wait..." Beatrice gasped, eyes wide, hands flying to her mouth in sheer, dramatic horror as she scrambled to her feet. "How did you—?"
Her gaze dropped to Verena's hand.
To the obsidian stone.
The mont Verena followed her line of sight, sothing cold and electric shot through her.
The mories crashed in, the void, the voice, the overwhelming feeling of being pulled into sothing vast and unknowable.
[Debuffs have been removed!]
[Congratulations! You have successfully connected to the unknown source.]
[You have beco an Awakened.]
"Okay, nope. I need an explanation. Imdiately."
She was way too shocked to even begin processing this.
Beatrice, still visibly shaken, swallowed hard and began explaining.
Apparently, the obsidian relic was an ancient artifact, crafted from the dust of a forgotten constellation.
It is common knowledge that there's only twelve constellations, atleast according to most studies. But there was a secret.
The Thirteenth Constellation.
The relic had once been used as a bridge, a forbidden ans of communicating and connecting with the a certain Zodiac. But the Fates, along with the other twelve Zodiacs, had repeatedly intervened to sever that connection.
No matter how many tis soone reached out, the link would be denied.
Unless—
In theory.
It was soone who already had the strongest possible connection to it.
Beatrice inhaled sharply. "In other words..."
"Is it... what I think it is?"
Beatrice gave her an almost reverent look. "You are the Conduitor of the Thirteenth Constellation."
Her next words sent a shiver down Verena's spine.
"The lost and forgotten Zodiac. A disruptor of the celestial cycle itself. The outcast unrecognized in traditional astrology."
Verena stared at the relic in her hand.
...Well. Shit.
"What's happening over here?!"
A sharp voice cut through the tension as a man stord in.
His dark hair slicked back, his black eyes piercing, and his perpetually grumpy expression making him look like he had been woken up way too early for nonsense.
Wrinkled, scowling, but still annoyingly handso.
"Professor Sirius!" Beatrice gasped, practically tripping over her words.
"Girl, wha—" Then he froze. His jaw slackened as his gaze landed on the relic in Verena's hand.
"What?..."
"Professor... Lady Verena is the Conduitor!"
Silence.
The sheer audacity of that sentence hung in the air like an unspeakable cri.
There was no way anyone was just going to accept that. Not easily. Not without questioning the entire natural order.
But... it made sense.
Fate had always found a way to shove Verena to the sidelines.
Even in the novels, she had never fit in, never belonged, always excluded from the plot like an uninvited extra in soone else's story.
She had tried to be part of it, only to be constantly pushed away.
Maybe that was because... she was never supposed to be part of their story.
She was sothing else entirely.
And not only that, her existence was an anomaly itself.
A transmigrator from another world.
"I, um..." Verena let out a nervous giggle, already bracing herself for rejection. Any second now, they'd tell her to get lost—
"You passed!"
"...What?"
"You passed the entrance exam! Welco to the Eclipsor Departnt!"
Verena blinked. Once. Twice. Brain? Now would be a great ti to reboot.
It made sense, technically.
She had done the impossible.
She had sohow went right through a barrier ant to keep out literally everyone who wasn't a Zodiac-certified weaver.
Oh, and minor detail, she was now the Conduitor of a constellation that wasn't even supposed to exist.
But still.
She hadn't even tried. Hadn't studied, hadn't trained, hadn't sched her way in.
Fate just shoved her into the plot like an overworked writer trying to make the deadline.
Everything was connected. And, apparently, so was she.
Verena barely had ti to react before she was ushered down a hallway. The lanterns burned an eerie violet-blue, and shadows flickered strangely, as if watching.
Then, the corridor abruptly ended.
An obsidian archway stood before her, its surface rippling like liquid darkness. Beatrice walked through effortlessly.
Verena, not wanting to be left behind, took a breath and stepped in.
The mont she erged, she was in a vast do-shaped chamber.
The ceiling was a swirling void of stars, and in the center, an enormous astrolabe spun lazily.
She wasn't alone. Other accepted applicants were already gathered, whispering amongst themselves. So glanced at her, curious, wary.
"The next accepted applicant... Verena D'Auvergne!" Professor Sirius announced, his voice echoing through the vast chamber. "The Conduitor of the Thirteenth Constellation."
The room fell silent.
Then—gasps. Whispers. Staring. So much staring.
Verena was still under the weight of their eyes.
Great. Love this. Attention is my favorite thing.
Her gaze darted around until she spotted Evelyn, staring at her, bewildered. Verena let out a silent sigh of relief. At least soone familiar. Soone... safe.
Then, she saw Anastasia.
The woman's face had gone through at least three emotions in five seconds, shock, fury, and pure, unfiltered disbelief.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just her.
"T-Thirteenth Constellation?..." soone murmured.
"Isn't that the forgotten Zodiac?"
Forgotten. Lost. Erased.
The title of Conduitor should have ant belonging.
However, it was to the rejected Zodiac.
Verena could already feel it. That creeping, familiar sensation.
Just because she had finally discovered her fate didn't an fate wasn't going to push her away all over again.
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