"...Hmm?"
A young woman's voice. I was surprised when I glanced at the other person.
Weren't there a lot of old shamans? She looked like she just turned 20.
Well, it was an unusual atmosphere. It wasn't normal to calm down the upset grandmother right away...
"Let me apologize first. I'm sorry for getting you involved in such an unpleasant incident."
"Ah, yes."
"My name is Ran. I am the granddaughter of the grandmother over there. I also inherited my grandmother's blood, so I am good at magic. I don't know what you need a shaman for, but if you take me, you will be able to achieve your goal."
"She may not be trustworthy because she is young, but in this village, Ran is considered to have greater talent than her grandmother."
I didn't have any other options anyway, so I was planning on taking her with me even if it wasn't enough, but hearing the villager's additional explanation was fascinating.
I quickly nodded, then noticed Cruel standing to one side and frowned slightly.
"By the way, the man standing over there is not part of the group. If you were thinking of being part of the group with that man..."
"I will follow you, nobleman."
The woman's eyes clearly focus on me, as if to reassure me.
I glanced at Cruel, who was observing the situation without much rebuttal, and slowly raised the corner of my mouth and held out my hand.
"Then, I'll be in your care."
***
It didn't matter if he missed the shaman. Aside from proving his usefulness, the Duke hoped for his own victory, and to achieve that, he will end up having to find a new shaman or teach him other methods.
Cruel, who seemed to have something he wanted to do by staying here, did not bother to do anything and just watched the only shaman join Deon's group.
Now, it was time to accomplish the objective that was left here instead of going right away.
Cruel, who was staring at the back of Deon and his group as they walked away, turned his gaze. The eyes, which looked like they were carved out of rough green stone, glared at the old woman who was said to be a shaman.
There were many conversations he wanted to have with her.
Crying to kill disaster and throwing a stone. Cruel, thinking that everyone was close to the edge, kept his mouth shut and took long strides toward the old woman.
And the moment he spoke to her, who was breathing tiredly, with a rough tone, the old woman suddenly raised her head.
Their gazes met and the old woman's eyes softened.
"You are here too. You must be busy. Do you mind if I stay here like this?"
"...!"
The momentum that seemed to be swirling at any moment faltered.
An old woman with clear, transparent eyes looked up at him, as if her treatment of Deon just moments ago was a lie.
The old woman was said to be an excellent shaman, and as if she didn't know that he was Deon's older brother, she gently spread his arms in a virtuous manner. It looked like there were no boundaries at all.
"Come here. Let's hug each other."
"..."
"Come on."
He heard that she was senile, but was this appearance also a part of senility? Cruel walked towards her awkwardly, as he had no intention of worsening the old woman's condition for something that was not a loss.
The old woman gently pulled the man's arm as he approached him very slowly and held him in her arms, whispering affectionately to him as if he were her own grandchild.
"You've been through a lot."
"..."
"You've really had a hard time."
Cruel quietly looked down at the old woman's face, which was filled with deep regret. Even though she looked like he was about to cry, her eyes were still and motionless.
"Child."
"..."
"You are the child who will become the beginning of destruction."
"...!"
"Don't worry."
Fearing that she might try to harm him as well, the old woman continued to speak in a gentle voice as she held him tightly as he tried to retreat.
"I will never hate you. If I hate you too, there will be no one in this world who loves you."
He didn't mean to do this. He didn't send Deon first for this reason. He felt like his head was spinning. All kinds of doubts and calculations appeared in his head and then disappeared again and again.
Why are you being so kind to me? Why is your attitude different from before? Is it really the same person? Was there such a thing as senility?
Was it possible that it was all an act? So what are you hoping for? What on earth is this old woman, a former shaman, looking at?
Unable to hold his head in confusion, Cruel just slowly closed his eyes. The eyes, which had become harder than before, looked at the old woman.
The old woman closed her eyes and smiled, as if she knew what he was thinking about even without looking.
"It is said that a living being that is not loved has a short lifespan. Shouldn't it live a long time? You have to win the implicit bet with your younger brother."
Gasp! At that moment, Cruel grabbed the old woman's shoulders and roughly pulled her away. The old woman's body shook helplessly in his grasp.
Even though it was a very unpleasant scene, Cruel could not care less about it. His mind was filled with only one thought.
'How?'
By what means did she know this?
As the old woman said, he was in an implicit competition with Deon. No separate words were exchanged. There wasn't any signal.
This was what happened as they just ran towards their own goals.
A fight to see who could survive longer.
Deon was probably fighting a battle of 'who can kill the other person first?' It may be different if you look at it differently, but to him, it was the same bet.
In any case, when he died, Deon will have already died.
"Please try to win."
"..."
"If you win, no disaster will occur. Then the beginning of destruction will never come. So, if you feel like you are going to die or want to die, kill that child first and then die."
"..."
It seems that the saying that she was senile was not entirely wrong.
He was restless and pushed her roughly towards the village young man who was sneaking up on him. She, helplessly pushed away, lands in the arms of a young man.
Cruel looked at her coldly.
'Useless interference using unequal affection as bait...'
He was curious about what was being said and for what purpose, but he just watched her and never thought she would cross the line like this.
'Should I kill her?'
The right hand hovered near his sword handle. Seeing this, the young man who was supporting the old man gasped slightly, but Cruel and the old woman, who were actually involved, remained calm, without the slightest agitation.
There was a short silence.
The green eyes stared into the old woman's deep black eyes for a moment, but eventually Cruel let go of the sword and turned around.
He was not yet broken enough to swing his sword at the senile old woman.
***
"You said you had greater talent than your grandmother, right?"
I took a quick look at Ran, who had been silent the entire time we were going down the mountain, and cautiously set off.
It wouldn't have been a bad idea to go down while maintaining this silence, but there was something that got in the way, so I had no choice.
After all, didn't she call me a 'disaster'? We can't just ignore it since it's been said that I should be killed.
I still want to live. Dying without knowing anything is a given.
Moreover, I felt uncomfortable because the person who said such a thing was a former shaman...
"You can't know talent because it's not something you can see with your eyes."
"...Then let me change the question. Your grandmother once told you, 'You saw it too.'"
"If you are talking about your destiny and future, then yes."
While saying that, Ran looked straight at me.
"I can still see it."
"..."
I slowly looked at Ran's face. An expression that didn't look like a smile at all, and clear eyes.
She didn't seem crazy at all. You mean it wasn't nonsense?
"You might want to dismiss what she said a moment ago as simply the nonsense of a senile old woman, but unfortunately, it was after seeing that future that my grandmother became senile."
Ran smiled bitterly.
"Knowing too much is not always a good thing."
"...Did that old lady know me? How was she able to predict my future when I'd never even met her?"
"Actually, what my grandmother predicted was not a nobleman's future, but the future of a village child."
She slowly turned her head and looks somewhere.
"I had no choice but to see it because you were deeply involved in that child's fate."
As I followed her line of sight, I saw a man looking at me from behind a tree.
'Who is that?'
By the looks of it, he was 19 or 20 years old. Anyway, I think he was about the same age as the woman named Ran next to me.
Even when we made eye contact, he didn't hide.
A southerner, characterized by dark hair and eyes. The dark eyes looked straight in this direction.
I froze for a moment as his gaze scanned this direction as if searching, and belatedly, I stammered and called Lien.
"...Sir Lien."
"Yes, my lord."
"Did you know?"
"Yes."
But why didn't you say anything?
"My lord didn't say anything, so I just left it alone. Is there any problem...?"
"No, no."
That's right, she also mistook me for an incredibly strong person. I couldn't bear to say anything and just sighed.
Anyway, so you're saying I was in that man's future? The old woman didn't predict my future, just saw me in someone else's future, but that's how she reacted...
"...What on earth did she see?"
"You shouldn't talk about fate and the future carelessly. If you say it out loud, it could lead to the worst consequences."
"..."
"But I can tell you this much. To you, hatred is like a forest fire. It may not be a big deal at first, but at some point it grows rapidly and eventually engulfs everything. So, please listen to grandmother when she told you not to hate anything."
I felt like things had become more complicated in my head, but I definitely understood one thing.
Fuck, I don't know what it is, but it doesn't mean I'm going to do anything big in the future.
I don't know why I, who strives to live as peacefully as possible, ended up in such big trouble, but the culprit behind it was 'hatred'.
The only person I currently hated was Cruel, so maybe he will be the spark.
'As expected, I have to deal with Cruel first.'
Because he became a hero, it was impossible to guarantee whose side the Emperor will take, and since he even has the Duke backing him, and because of the attention from the social world, I haven't been able to touch him so far, but I had to find a way quickly.
'Assassination is likely to make a lot of noise, so maybe I should put a curse on him...'
Hmm? Not a bad idea. Coincidentally, there was a shaman next to me.
I thought about briefly asking about the curse, but Ran, who I thought was finished, continued talking.
"And that child is close to an explosive that will explode at any moment."
"Ah."
Is she still talking about that?
I looked at the man who was still looking at me with trembling eyes.
Ran seemed to interpret my gaze as interest or similar feelings, and muttered with a faint sigh.
"When an explosive explodes, a fire occurs, and conversely, when a fire occurs, an explosive explodes. Because of that, I hoped to avoid you encountering that child as much as possible, but... Destiny isn't something that can be changed that easily."
...What are you talking about? You've been talking about fate since a while ago, but the tone is a bit off.
Can't we just call it 'a relationship that happens to become properly entangled in the future'?
In the meantime, The man seems to have made up his mind. At the same time, Lien put her hand on the sheath of her sword and stood guard.
Before she could unsheathe her sword, the man stopped walking and looked directly at me and slowly opened his mouth. I was nervous on the inside. Words so absurd as to be shameless came out:
"Please take me with you."