Chapter 38. Fate (1)
'A prophet who goes around with a child, huh. I thought it was unusual, but it truly is a strange combination.'
Verden quietly observed the old man's behavior.
She received a small offering, shuffled her cards, then laid them down one by one from the top, foretelling the fate of the person before her and giving her own advice. Whether or not to accept that advice was entirely up to the person.
And so, in the end, one simply moved according to one's own fate.
'Superstition.'
Verden did not believe in fate.
To claim that everything was governed by predetermined, inevitable laws — that was a denial of his life itself.
The struggles he endured to survive in the Magic Tower, the way he finally achieved Defying the Heavens. That effort, that desperation, could never be explained away as mere fate.
Losing interest, Verden was about to leave.
Just then, the young girl tugged at his sleeve.
"Hello, Mage! Did you come to have your fortune read by my grandpa?"
"I was just passing by."
"Ehh, don't be like that, have it read once! My grandpa is really accurate! Grandpa!"
"Ah, so it's you, the Mage from before. Thanks to you, Aisha got to enjoy her ice cream. This may not be much of a return gift, but I'd like to read your fortune, what do you say?"
The gazes of the people around gathered on Verden.
Their eyes urged him to hurry since others were waiting their turn. Aisha also seemed unwilling to let go.
Verden let out a small sigh and nodded.
The old man shuffled the cards.
Then she laid down three cards, one by one, from the top.
The first, the Reaper (Reversed).
The second, God (Reversed).
The third, Human (Reversed).
After a brief silence, the old man spoke to Verden.
"It says you need only continue living as you do now. A very good fortune."
"...I see."
Not that he ever intended to believe it.
Verden gave a perfunctory thanks and went on his way.
The old man's fortune-telling continued until evening.
While tidying up, Aisha seemed to recall something and asked her grandfather.
"Ah, Grandpa, about that handsome Mage's fortune, did it really mean what you said? It was my first time seeing such a result."
"Of course. You know better than anyone how good your grandpa's skills are, don't you?"
"Yes, I do!"
Aisha replied with a giggle.
The old man stroked her granddaughter's hair. It was a gesture full of love, yet also tinged with apology.
'I'm sorry, Aisha. I lied.'
She recalled the Mage's fortune.
The Reaper signifies death, God signifies birth, Human signifies life.
Reversed death.
Reversed birth.
Reversed life.
In other words, chaos.
Such a reading could not possibly contain a glimpse of the future. Since he had strayed from his destined path, before him lay nothing but a world of uncertain possibilities.
He could vanish without achieving anything.
Or he could obtain everything and reign supreme.
'O God, what is the meaning of this.'
The old man could not discern what effect the Gray Mage would have upon the world.
Thus she prayed to God.
Praying that the possibilities he carried would not darken the world.
***
Having gathered materials, Verden returned to the inn and poured his time into repairing the ring.
He had Appraised many magical items, but never created one himself, and had only some degree of knowledge. For an amateur, failure to restore something even experts found difficult was, in a way, natural.
Still, he clung to it, thinking at least he might discover what effect it possessed.
Three days passed like that.
No progress at all.
'I'll try for a few more days, if not, I should seek an expert.'
To clear his head, he went to the window to feel the breeze.
Looking up, the dark sky sparkled with starlight, and through the clouds, a crescent moon shone.
'Quite a nice view.'
He had just enjoyed the night air enough and was about to return to work when—
'Light...?'
The ring was faintly glowing. Holding it carefully, he saw the light came from the pattern at its center.
What kind of mechanism caused this? As he pondered, he stepped closer to the window, and the glow brightened further.
"Moonlight?"
He quickly raised the ring to the crescent moon.
Then the white light changed into a gentle gray radiance like moonlight. Curious though it was, no further changes occurred.
'Should I try wearing it?'
Rings were meant to be worn on fingers, after all.
He carefully slipped it onto his index finger. The gem responded. The moonlight slowly expanded, then burst forth, illuminating the entire room.
"...A map?"
Before Verden appeared a map woven from light.
A map he felt he had seen before, familiar to his eyes.
'Looks like the map of a duchy.'
It bore no fiefs or cities, but mountains and rivers were distinctly marked, enough that with knowledge of the surroundings one could roughly tell their location.
How had such a thing been engraved within the ring?
Even among the Magic Tower's treasury, an artifact with such craftsmanship would be counted on one hand. But that was not what drew Verden's attention.
At the very bottom right of the map.
A tiny light blinked between mountain ranges, as if beckoning him to look. He searched the entire map, but that was the only such light.
"..."
Verden stared at the map in silence.
He shook the ring, rubbed it, in case something else would happen, but nothing did.
Soon dawn broke.
The crescent moon hid behind the clouds. As the moonlight vanished, the ring's glow faded, and the map disappeared without a sound.
Yet the image remained vivid in Verden's mind.
His heart pounded.
He did not know what that light meant, nor what lay hidden there. But Verden was not one to simply ignore it.
Mages were a people of curiosity, and the unknown was brimming with curiosity. Even if he found nothing at all, as a Mage, he had no choice but to go.
The Duchy of Riviant, the Vard Mountains.
Verden's next destination was decided.
***
Inside a cave with its ceiling torn open to the sky.
The old man, Harkan, gazed upward.
'What on earth is that star?'
Harkan had always read fragments of fate from the constellations of living beings.
None of the futures he had read had ever been wrong, and so he had surrendered to fate. No matter what he did, there was no escaping it.
But recently, a strange star had appeared before his eyes.
It shone brightly, yet revealed nothing. Not only that, it twisted the destinies of countless others as well.
The star that should have fallen long ago still remained, and the fate that should not have disappeared was gone.
At this sight, unfamiliar to him, Harkan felt fear.
A star of Defying the Heavens, that rebelled against the sky.
"At this rate..."
Cough, cough! Dark red blood poured from his mouth.
Harkan's life had little time left. The end of his fate was drawing near.
But there was still something he must do.
To find someone to inherit everything he had built up until now. Time was short, but he did not despair.
Because it was already determined, that a great change would come once more to his remaining fate.
Of course, that change could mean being murdered by someone. But Harkan believed, he had to believe, that it would fulfill his earnest wish.
'Please, may that star not twist my fate.'
The old man waited in desperate hope.
For he did not want to see the things they had created trample the world mercilessly.
***
Verden quietly left Cohen.
Since he did not know what lay where the ring pointed, he did not bother to leak the information to Pale. An information broker might very well sell Verden's information.
From Cohen to the Vard Mountains.
The distance was considerable. Verden gave up on flying and hired a long-distance carriage. It cost a fair amount of money, but his budget was more than sufficient.
He even withdrew part of it in cash, and tucked it separately into his clothes.
'Since there shouldn't be a city beneath the mountains, of course, there won't be a bank either.'
Stopping occasionally to rest the horses, he reached a frontier city after about three weeks. From there, another three days of flight brought him to a village beneath the Vard Mountains.
It had been a long journey. He entered the village feeling weary.
'Not as poor as I expected.'
A wagon loaded with animal furs left the village with hired mercenaries.
Was it because there were many hunters so close to the mountains? Nobles were hardly few in number who favored furs, so with good business, a single village could easily flourish.
'Hopefully there's a decent place to eat.'
Verden wandered through the village, looking around.
He planned to eat first, then hire a hunter familiar with the mountain terrain. The ring only indicated the mountain range, not a specific spot.
If he recklessly searched the entire range alone, it could take months.
Just then, people in black robes came walking from the opposite direction.
Their eyes briefly met as they passed, but there was no real friction, each simply going their own way.
'...Suspicious.'
In every way, they didn't fit with this village.
The fleeting eye contact carried a faint chill, and for a moment, the sticky gaze lingering on Verden was unpleasant.
But he quickly lost interest and entered a restaurant.
For now, his attention was focused solely on the place the ring pointed to. He had no time to waste elsewhere.
Verden sat down and ordered a steak.
***
A woman pulling her black hood low, Ferris, squealed and fussed excitedly.
Her face flushed red. Biting her lip with her front teeth, clutching her own cheeks as if shy, Ferris looked every bit like a woman in love.
"Hey, hey, did you see that guy earlier? He was super handsome!"
"Handsome? More like just passable."
"If that's just passable, Chen, then you're trash. Ah, but what do I do? I absolutely want him in my collection. Cardin, can't I go see him just for a bit? I'll be quick, okay?"
Ferris laced her fingers together, acting coy.
She had such a cute appearance that passersby would turn their heads, but Cardin didn't budge an inch.
"Be quiet, Ferris. No personal action before the job is done."
"Then after the job? After we kill that traitor Harkan, can I go?"
"I wouldn't care then. In a place like this, even if someone disappears, nobody cares."
At that moment, they ran into a drunk man in the next alley.
Had he overheard them? Well, it didn't matter. In fact, it was better if he had.
They needed a pretext to kill.
"Chen."
Shhhhk!
A dagger hurled with Telekinesis sliced clean through the man's neck. Then Ferris snapped her fingers, and the corpse went up in flames.
In mere moments, all traces of life were gone, leaving only black ashes in the alley.
Cardin raised a gust of wind, scattering the ashes high into the sky. The three of them curved their lips upward, reveling in the pleasure of killing without a hint of hesitation.
Their robes fluttered, revealing their wrists.
An inverted triangle, and within it, a chilling gaze.
The shadow of the death-worshiping sorcerer group, "Black Hour," had fallen upon the Vard Mountains.