Caelus Online

The clothes Astaria was wearing really did accentuate her figure, maybe more so for the jeans that were on the cusp of being too small for her to fit into, but either way, she would be mesmerised by her appearance if she saw herself walking down the street in what she was currently wearing. She was thankful the hoodie looked to be a little on the larger size since it would help cover up some of her curves and lower the number of people staring at her, at least by a small amount.

Having properly cleaned herself up from her three day long session inside Caelus Online, she felt fresh and far more invigorated than when she had first exited the pod. Out of reflex, she looked around for her footwear, spotting a pair of white trainers near the door and tugged them over to the ground next to her with a slight manipulation of her mana.

She sat down on the bed, slipping the first trainer on before she paused and the realisation hit that she was able to use her magic in the real world. Now consciously paying attention to the fact, she let her senses free as she tried to sense mana in the surroundings, and she was rewarded with what she had been expecting, feint traces of mana in the world around her. The levels were incomparably lower than what they were once the great upheaval had occurred but there was mana present.

This at least confirmed that the scientist’s future speculations that the VR devices that allowed people from Earth to enter Caelus Online had always operated with some magical input were indeed correct. The fact that she now had free access to manipulate and use her mana however she pleased in the real world was not lost as it opened up so many doors and would make her life that much easier, especially when explaining what happened to her to the people who needed to know.

As she thought about it, Fortuna’s words rang out in her head. “You should also be careful for the next 3 months, you will understand why when you return”. This must have been what she was talking about, someone running around casting magic would draw attention, both positive and negative. She would need to become stronger than she currently was before she even thought about making anything public, as if she was careless she would have other countries all scrambling towards her like piranhas. Her plans for turning Branford Manor into a fortress would have to be changed slightly to account for the fact she could now start implementing magical protections.

Astaria decided to think on this later, first she needed to see what her current situation was. The apprehension was starting to cause her anxiety to rise as more time passed, so she stood up, pulling the cord that was attached to a bell, dangling near the bed to summon Harold back to her room.

After waiting for a few short moments there was a knock at her door as she called out for Harold to enter.

“Your Grace, are you ready?”

With a light nod, Astaria stood from the bed and followed Harold out of her bedroom.

“Yes, I am. First I must ask, has everyone been informed of the situation? And how much have you relayed?”

Harold moved to the door and held it open as he started to lead Astaria along the short distance through the mansion to her office.

“Well, I have explained that Chester has not actually died like they had all suddenly started believing. I explained that a divine entity had a hand in the current situation, and waited told everyone to wait for your return to confirm the veracity of my words.”

Astaria walked into her office, followed by Harold who once again held the door open for her.

“I see. That's good. After this, have everyone gather in the dining room where I can speak to them. It has thankfully become a lot easier to convince people of the situation now.”

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Harold raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he looked at Astaria who simply smirked as she raised a hand. A small ball of light formed on her palm, morphing into the shape of a bird that briefly began to fly around the room before fizzling into small particles of light that slowly vanished.

Harold, for the first time seeing actual magic stood unmoving, his face a clear picture of shock as his eyes remained focused on where the small bird made from light had just disappeared.

“That’s just a tiny fraction of what I can do now. I don’t know if it is because I have already had my body changed or the gods decided to let me have access to magic early for entertainment value, although I’m more inclined to believe the latter, but it will conveniently make our lives that much easier.”

Broken out of his shock by Astaria’s beautiful voice, Harold took a few moments to register her words before he spoke again.

“I… see. Well… ok. That is a lot to process, so for now let us focus on the documentation. Proof of my reality breaking can wait. God, I’m going to need a holiday after all of this.”

Letting out a laugh, Astaria sat down in her big leather desk chair as she looked over the stacks of documents filling her massive desk while Harold positioned himself to one side.

“Now, let’s see everything the gods have organised for me.”

First, she picked up a few cards that were placed directly in front of her. On the top were a couple of bank cards with her new name and details on with her old account number sat at the bottom, a new driver’s license and passport. She also noticed that there was a student ID sat among the cards, showing her image next to the crest for the University of Melbourne, something that confused her significantly.

Moving on, she looked next to where the small stack of cards was placed to a pile of mixed pieces of paper, some of which looked quite aged. She skimmed through the pages, seeing school graduation certificates, birth certificates, a document with her national insurance information on, and many others that detail important information of her new life.

In the next pile of documents Astaria picked up, there was a letter addressed to her sitting on the top. She noticed the letter was made with a shimmering golden paper of some kind, something incredibly unique which almost cemented that this was a letter directly from the gods.

Taking her letter opener from one of the desk draws to her right, she slid the blade under the wax seal that had an imprint depicting the Pantheon and pulled out the pure white letter handwritten in golden ink. Opening it up, Astaria started to read.

Aurora,

I hope this letter finds you well.

As you will see, all of the necessary paper needed for you to be a registered human in your society have been sorted. It took me a bit of time and some help from Minerva, but I managed to get all the complicated bits done and it is all in order for you to start living as Aurora. I’m not entirely sure why you all need to make things so confusing, if someone is there, then they clearly exist. It’s so silly!

So, the other day Jupiter and some of the other gods, on a whim, agreed on a few conditions for you to have to fulfil in order for you to properly take your place as Aurora. Originally when I came to speak to you, nothing had been discussed about giving you a task to complete or goal to achieve. But from what Vesta told me, apparently Bacchus had come up with the idea when drinking with Jupiter, and thus here we are.

She had told me it was brought up in one of their ‘Council of the Gods’ meetings, and most of them agreed. Most of the male gods that is. Apparently, according to them, it will be ‘interesting’, however, I am starting to think they are seeing this whole situation as some sort of drama, you know, like the ones they act out on a stage.

So firstly, Jupiter agreed that you need to complete your last year of a ‘Philosophy, Politics and Economics’ bachelor’s degree like you did before. Jupiter had apparently given further justification saying that it would be hard for the other humans to accept someone without the right education to take over your former role. I don’t see why that would be an issue when we can just make them accept you like what we did with the rest of your current situation, but that’s what Jupiter decreed, so what can I do?

You should have a meeting with the ‘Vice Chancellor’ of the university you previously went to, the London School of Economics? —on-the— some time soon, so you will need to go to that.

Next, is a task that Apollo suggested. You will need to star in a movie that will become popular. Now, out of all the requests that were decided upon, this is one that I am actually excited about and agree with. Just imagine all the fans worshipping you like they do me, it would be wonderful! Maybe we could- never mind, Jupiter would never allow it.

Anyway, Jupiter reasoned that it would help you in gaining influence over your planet, and that is all he said. Either way, with effectively no restrictions defined, I guess you have free reign in how you handle starring in a movie.

That’s all from me. I also managed to sneak in some of Fornax’s chocolates, they are divine, you just have to try them! Best of luck with handling all those complicated papers, I will be watching over you and cheering you on!

Your Goddess representative and friend,

Fortuna

Ps. I can’t imagine why they picked me to be your representative, but I am so glad!