1 Tribute to the Archduke

The sound of piercing wind tattered her ears, and the strong upward gust shook her body in midair. Her hair flayed violently at her descent, and yet she was only waking up from her slumber.

Artie Shen opened her eyes and stared at the lush green view of the forest underneath her and vast lands with multiple reddish peaks facing towards her. The blue sky surrounded her like a blanket, and the yellow sun softly shone on her freely falling body.

Correct, she was falling from the sky.

"What? This isn't my city?" Artie murmured to herself, but she could barely hear her own voice against the loud wind. The last she could remember was that she was biking downhill, only to fail her curb and crash into the guardrail. Her body dropped from the cliff, but she fainted before she hit the ground.

That was why she was surprised to see that she was falling from a rather high place. Erm, no, she was actually falling from the sky, but she didn't really believe it. She fell from a cliff, not from a flying airplane. She couldn't be having this view…

However…

[Welcome to Heaven Creation's interface! Little watcher, we have listened to the calls of the people, and so we send you down to the Archduchy of Ellis Plains. Your preliminary magic skills are loading at the moment while your tasks are yet to begin.]

"What is this?" Artie Shen blinked, upon hearing the voice inside her head. It seemed to be introducing a game system to her while she was falling down from the sky. 'Little watcher? I'm an angel? Wait, why don't I have wings, then?'

She looked over her shoulders and noticed her overall nudity. 'Whoa, wait! I'm naked?!'

[Please remember that we only have two active routes for now: Veneration and Apostasy. One route will help you return to Heaven while the other will cut off your connections with us. Make sure to complete all incoming tasks in order to gain points. Use the variety of tasks and quests to achieve your goals.]

"Wait, wait! How can I fly? I need to fly! FLY! FLY! Oh, wings of purity! Heed my call! Save me!" Artie began flailing in midair as the castle peaks drew near, fearing that she'd destroy something in her fall. It didn't matter if it was the castle or her body itself.

[Good luck, little watcher.]

"Good luck?! That's all you've got?! How am I supposed to live after this fall?!"

[Warning: flight anomaly! You're colliding against a physical object based on your trajectory! Pull up!]

"I can see that! Tell me how to pull up, dumb whatever you are!"

Artie could only cross her arms in front of her body as she screamed as loud as she could. Bang! She crashed through the castle's roof, barely missing the peak that could have impaled her. Loud sounds of breaking glass followed her as she crashed into the floor, once again decreasing the weight of her fall.

Bang! Her seemingly indestructible body broke through the floor and into another wall. She kept on drilling through the castle like a meteorite boring holes through stone. If someone witnessed the dangerous phenomenon, they wouldn't think a person made of flesh would have done so.

Her body's movements slowed down over time and made one last hole through a floor. She ended up getting wrapped in the carpet and taking it down with her to the ground. However, Artie felt like she was falling from a rather high ceiling. 'Oh, shoot, where am I landing this time?!'

Before she could hit the ground, she felt a mist that seemed to have caught her. Her speed decreased so much that, when she fell over something, she only felt like she had been falling from a top bunk bed. However, that didn't mean it wasn't painful.

Her entire descent was painful to her after all.

"Ouw..." Artie Shen cried as she tried to map her body and her surroundings. She was sprawling over an uneven surface with her legs hanging as well as her head. Even if she was curling up when she was bashing through the walls, she ended up unfurling like paper.

Finally, her eyes opened, and the first thing she saw was a group of men in black garbs staring in her direction. It didn't help that they were all upside-down. Wait, no, Artie was the one viewing them upside-down. She then moved her head to one side and saw more people.

One man was standing in the middle, with cuffs on his wrists. He seemed to have been abused based on the state of his worn clothes and bruised face. The men around him all wore some kind of black-blue armor uniform, armed with spears and shields.

"Ah, right… I fell into a castle..." Artie whispered to herself. She then looked around without moving her head some more, slowly recognizing the place she was in. "The decor… the knights… eh? Am I in a throne chamber?"

"...a woman fell from the ceiling..."

A voice finally sounded from the people around her, and Artie quickly remembered her nudity. She forced herself to sit up as she clutched at the carpet, only to see that someone next to her had been covered by the excess. She reached out her exhausted arm and pushed the carpet to the side.

Her eyes were greeted by a piercing glare coming from the man whose hair was disheveled by the carpet. The man was undeniably handsome like formidable king characters in her Western medieval RPGs, along with those silver eyes that channeled a cold breeze across her entire body.

If only her body wasn't aching, she would have squealed upon seeing him.

It's just that…

His mouth opened, and his cold tone echoed in the deafening silence of the throne chamber. "It seemed that Polieus wasn't lying about his… sorcery. However, what exactly is this creature that you dropped on me? It looks like a woman, but a woman wouldn't be able to break through my ceiling."

Polieus, the defendant, shook awake upon hearing the voice of the man on the throne. "She's… she's my tribute to you, Your Grace! Please make use of her as you see fit! Please release me!"

"Release?" Artie Shen twitched and turned in the direction of the man on tattered robes. 'A criminal?'

[You have unlocked your first task!]

[Active task: Seducing the Archduke (1/??)]

[The Archduke of Ellis Plain is very suspicious of outsiders. Make use of your preliminary skills, passive and active, to gain his trust! Failure to seduce the Archduke might result in death.]

[You have unlocked the skill: Gaze of Confession!]

[This passive skill will let you gaze into the conscience of the defendants of the court. Recommend an action to the Archduke based on your findings! Available recommendations: Release, Probe, Death.]

"P-Probe! You can't release him just like that?!" Artie Shen blurted out in a hurry, in case this man who summoned her would be released without question. It's just that…

"Why does the tribute think she has the right to speak?" The Archduke looked down at her, and Artie Shen felt like she was… once again… about to die.