Chapter 60: Fate or Destiny

“…Huh?”

A young woman’s voice. I couldn’t help but be surprised when I looked at her.

Weren’t most sorcerers old? This woman looked barely twenty.

Then again, she did have an unusual aura about her. The fact that she calmed down that rampaging old woman was anything but ordinary…

“First, I must apologize. I’m sorry you were caught up in this unpleasant situation.”

“Ah… yes.”

“My name is Ran. I’m the granddaughter of the old woman over there. Having inherited her blood, I’m also skilled in sorcery. I don’t know what your purpose is in needing a sorcerer, but if you take me with you, I’m confident you’ll achieve your goals.”

“I might seem young and unreliable, but in this village, Ran is known to have even greater talent than her grandmother.”

I was planning to take her even if she was a bit lacking, since I didn’t have any other options, but the villager’s added explanation made my ears perk up.

I readily nodded, then frowned slightly when I spotted Cruel standing to one side.

“For the record, the man standing over there isn’t with me. If you were assuming he was part of my group…”

“I will follow you, esteemed guest.”

As if to assure me, the woman’s eyes clearly focused on me.

I glanced at Cruel, who was observing the situation without any particular reaction, and a faint smile touched my lips as I extended my hand.

“Then, I look forward to working with you.”

***

Losing the sorcerer didn’t matter. Regardless of proving her worth, the Duke desired his victory, and to achieve it, he would eventually find a new sorcerer or offer another solution.

Since he had a reason to stay here, Cruel willingly watched the only sorcerer join Demon’s group without raising any objections.

Now, it was time to accomplish the purpose of staying here without immediately leaving.

Cruel watched Demon’s group disappear into the distance before turning his gaze. His rough, green stone-like eyes settled on the old woman who had been a sorcerer.

He had much he wanted to discuss with her.

The flying stone, the cry to kill, and the disaster. Cruel, considering how on edge everything had been, pressed his lips together and strode towards the old woman.

As he approached the exhausted woman, subtly revealing his fierce aura as he spoke, the old woman suddenly looked up.

Their eyes met, and the old woman’s eyes softened into a gentle curve.

“Oh, you’ve come too, dear. Shouldn’t you be busy instead of lingering here?”

“…!”

The momentum that seemed ready to erupt faltered instantly.

The old woman, with clear and innocent eyes, looked up at him, as if her earlier outburst towards Demon was a lie.

Despite being a skilled sorceress, whether she didn’t know he was Demon’s brother or not, the old woman gently spread her arms with a virtuous demeanor. There wasn’t a hint of caution in her expression.

“Come here, dear. Let me give you a hug.”

“……”

“Come on.”

She was supposedly senile, but was this also part of her senility?

Not wanting to worsen the old woman’s condition for no benefit, Cruel awkwardly walked towards her.

The old woman gently pulled his slowly approaching arm and embraced him, whispering affectionately as if speaking to her own grandson.

“You’ve suffered so much.”

“……”

“You’ve really suffered.”

Cruel quietly looked down at the old woman’s face, filled with heartfelt pity. Despite her tearful expression, his own eyes remained still and calm.

“Dear boy.”

“……”

“You are the child who will bring about destruction.”

“…!”

“Don’t worry.”

Just as he was about to retreat, fearing she might harm him, the old woman held him tightly and continued in a gentle voice.

“I will never hate you. If even I hate you, there will be no one left in this world to love you.”

This wasn’t his intention. This wasn’t why he sent Demon ahead.

His mind was spinning. All sorts of suspicions and calculations arose and disappeared in his head.

Why is she being so kind to me? Why is her attitude different from before? Is she even the same person? Is this another form of her senility?

What’s the possibility that it’s all an act? If so, what does she want? What is this old woman, this former sorceress, seeing?

Unable to even grasp his chaotic thoughts, Cruel simply opened and closed his eyes slowly. His gaze, now more intense, fixed on the old woman.

As if understanding without needing to see, the old woman smiled faintly with her eyes closed.

“A creature that is not loved tends to have a short lifespan. You need to live a long life, don’t you?”

—To win the unspoken bet with your brother.

Snap! At that moment, Cruel grabbed the old woman’s shoulders and roughly pushed her away. Her body swayed weakly in his grip.

Despite the unpleasant scene, Cruel couldn’t care less. His mind was filled with only one thought.

‘How?’

How in the world?

Just as the old woman said, he was in an unspoken competition with Demon. They hadn’t exchanged any words. No signals had been given.

It simply happened as they pursued their own goals.

A fight to see who would survive longer.

Demon was probably in a fight to see ‘who could kill the other first.’ It might seem different, but to him, it was the same bet.

After all, he would only die after Demon was already dead.

“Please, try to win.”

“……”

“If you win, the disaster won’t happen. Then the beginning of destruction won’t even come. So, if you feel like you’re about to die or want to die, kill that child first and then die.”

“…Ha.”

It seemed the talk about her being senile wasn’t entirely wrong. Judging by how she couldn’t distinguish between what should and shouldn’t be said.

He roughly shoved her towards the anxious young man from the village who had cautiously approached. The old woman stumbled into the young man’s arms.

Cruel stared at her coldly.

‘Using pathetic affection as bait for unnecessary interference…’

He had simply watched to see what she was saying and for what purpose, but she dared to cross the line.

‘Should I kill her?’

His right hand hovered near the hilt of his sword. The young man supporting the old woman gasped softly at the sight, but Cruel and the old woman remained calm.

A brief silence followed.

The green eyes glared at the old woman’s deep black ones for a moment, but in the end, Cruel removed his hand from his sword and turned away.

He hadn’t fallen so far as to draw his sword against a senile old woman.

***

“You said you had greater talent than your grandmother?”

I cautiously broached the subject, having silently descended the mountain with Ran for some time.

Maintaining this silence wasn’t a bad option, but there was something bothering me.

After all, she called me a ‘disaster.’ Since she even said I should be killed, I couldn’t just ignore it.

I still want to live. I refuse to die without knowing why.

Besides, the fact that the person who said that was a former sorceress made me uneasy…

“Talent isn’t something visible, so it’s hard to say.”

“…Then, let me rephrase the question. Your grandmother said something to you. ‘You saw it too,’ she said.”

“If you’re referring to your destiny and future, esteemed guest, then yes, I did.”

Ran said, looking directly at me.

“I can still see it.”

“……”

I slowly scanned Ran’s face. Her expression was completely devoid of a smile, and her eyes were clear and sharp.

She didn’t seem crazy at all. Could it be that it wasn’t nonsense?

“Perhaps you want to dismiss what she said as the ramblings of a senile old woman, but unfortunately, my grandmother’s senility started after she saw that future.”

“…Could it be that the reason for her senility is…”

Ran smiled bitterly.

“Knowing too much isn’t always a good thing.”

“…Did that old woman know me? How could she foresee my future when she’s never met me?”

“Actually, what my grandmother foresaw was not your future, but the future of a child in this village.”

She slowly turned her head to look somewhere.

“Because you are deeply intertwined with that child’s destiny, she couldn’t help but see it.”

Following her gaze, I saw a man watching us from behind a tree.

‘Whoa! What’s that?!’

Judging by his appearance, he was probably nineteen or twenty? Anyway, he seemed to be about the same age as Ran, but why was he acting like that? It was creepy.

He didn’t even try to hide when our eyes met.

As a southerner with dark hair and eyes, his dark pupils stared straight at us.

His gaze swept over me as if examining me, and I belatedly stammered, calling for Lien.

“…Sir Lien…”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Did you know about this?”

“Yes.”

Then why didn’t you say anything, you!

“You didn’t say anything, my lord, so I simply observed. Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Right, he still mistakenly believes I’m incredibly strong.

I could only sigh without saying anything.

Anyway, so my future was in that man’s future? She reacted that way just from seeing me in someone else’s future…?

“…Just what did she see?”

“One shouldn’t speak carelessly about fate and the future. If spoken aloud, it could lead to the worst possible outcome.”

“……”

“However, I can say this much. To you, esteemed guest, hatred is like a wildfire. It might seem insignificant at first, but at some point, it will rapidly grow and eventually consume everything. That’s why my grandmother told you not to hate anything.”

My head felt even more complicated, but I understood one thing for sure.

Damn it, so no matter what, I’m going to cause some big trouble in the future.

I, who prefers a peaceful life, couldn’t understand why I would cause such a big incident, but the root cause was ‘hatred’.

Currently, the only person I hate is Cruel, so he’s probably the fuse.

‘As expected, I need to get rid of Cruel first.’

He’s already an eyesore.

Thanks to him becoming a hero, I couldn’t be sure whose side the Emperor would take, and with the Duke backing him and the attention of high society, I haven’t been able to touch him until now. But I need to find a way soon.

‘Assassination has a high chance of becoming noisy, should I put a curse on him instead…?’

Hmm? Not a bad idea. I even have a sorceress by my side.

As I was considering asking about curses, Ran, whose words I thought were finished, continued.

“And that child is like a ticking time bomb.”

“Ah.”

Is he still there?

I stared at the man still watching us with a dubious gaze.

Ran, as if interpreting my gaze as ‘interest in the man’ or something similar, murmured with a faint sigh.

“When a bomb explodes, there’s fire, and when there’s fire, a bomb explodes. Because of that, I wished to avoid encountering him, but… destiny isn’t something that changes so easily.”

…What is she talking about?

More than that, she keeps talking about destiny, which feels a bit off.

Couldn’t she just call it ‘a relationship where we’ll inevitably get entangled in the future’?

Meanwhile, the man, having apparently confirmed whatever he needed to, confidently approached us. Lien raised his hand towards his sword hilt, becoming alert.

Before she could draw her sword, the man stopped in his tracks, looked directly at me, and slowly opened his mouth.

Words so absurd that they rendered my earlier tension completely pointless spilled out.

“Please, take me with you.”