The Blind Prophet's Second Revelation
“Huh.”
“Raul?”
“R-Raul, please calm down!”
Only after hearing the three voices cross at once did Raul realize that he had not merely frowned without meaning to. He had been leaking killing intent.
“Ah.”
When he came back to his senses and looked ahead, he saw a girl with sky-blue hair crouched there, both hands clasped tight against her chest, trembling all over.
“...I’m sorry.”
“P-Please... do not be angry... I-I am only... delivering the prophecy formed within a dream...”
“Sorry. I’m sorry, Violet. Calm down.”
Raul apologized at once for his mistake.
People like astrologers, or anyone who could see what was invisible, were especially sensitive to qi like killing intent.
If things went badly, they could faint just from coming into contact with it.
Raul carefully gathered up every trace of killing intent, divine power, and all the other currents of energy around him, then spoke again.
“I’m truly sorry. I was shocked too. I’ll be careful.”
He apologized again, deliberately softening his voice, and only then did Violet slowly draw in the breath she had been holding.
“Th-Then... I will begin again. Hoo.”
The girl pressed lightly at her chest with both hands and spoke in a solemn tone.
“The cradle of ascension has already been completed, so the duke who has stolen the essence of the black sun shall rise to the heavens.”
It was the same prophecy as before.
But as Raul had vaguely expected while apologizing, that first prophecy was not the end of it.
“O light not yet prepared. If you would halt the duke, then first, grasp the sacred relic of the beginning.”
“The sacred relic of the beginning...”
Raul muttered the words as if turning them over, the latter half of the prophecy clearly directed at him.
“Light not yet prepared” would be him.
And “the duke” was obviously the Abyss Grand Duke.
The black sun referred to the eclipse.
And “ascension” meant that ascension he had seen yesterday.
In other words, the Abyss Grand Duke had already finished preparing himself to ascend.
He was a meticulous and cowardly bastard to begin with.
He must have prepared something that Raul could not interrupt, something that would prevent him from interfering with the ascension.
So the first prophecy seemed to mean that Raul should forget about stopping the duke’s ascension and focus instead on finding the holy sword.
As he mulled it over and rubbed his chin, Raul soon asked in as gentle a tone as he could manage, “I’m asking just in case, Violet. Do you know what this prophecy means?”
Violet flinched like a frightened rabbit and answered in a tiny voice.
“N-No?”
Whatever aristocratic poise she had worn a moment ago was nowhere to be found.
In front of Raul now was just a girl, thoroughly scared out of her wits.
With no other choice, Raul rose from the bed and lowered himself to one knee so that he was at her eye level.
“I’m sorry for frightening you. But Violet’s prophecies are a huge help to me. So, could you tell me the second one too?”
The words about being a help were enough to make the girl’s hunched shoulders spring straight.
Raul looked at her face, now freed from fear, and felt relieved in spite of himself.
“I-I’m glad it helped. Then... here is the second prophecy.”
Violet took a longer breath than before.
Then the girl opened her mouth in a bright, ringing voice.
“Send the knights of the snowfield and the golden hammer, the spirits of the forest and those who wear the skulls of mountain goats upon their heads, toward the cradle. Hope sleeps beneath the White Shadow Mountains. O light, take up the sword.”
Unlike the first prophecy, Raul understood everything the moment he heard it.
The knights of the snowfield surely meant Fatal’s forces, and the golden hammer obviously referred to Motala’s paladins.
This prophecy was plainly telling them to head for Therion Royal Castle, where the cradle of ascension lay.
And yet...
Raul had not exactly meant to do it, but he had already accomplished more than eighty percent of the prophecy.
Celia and Princess Elenoa had ended up in the same place back in Fatal, along with Arvato, the lord of Fatal.
By now, they would already be heading toward the capital under Princess Elenoa’s banner, with all manner of filthy, despicable scum waiting there.
That made this prophecy the exact opposite of the earlier one, the one saying the duke’s ascension could not be stopped. It was unexpectedly encouraging.
And then there were the “spirits of the forest.”
Of course, Raul had already forged an alliance not only with those elves but also with their “chief god,” the World Tree itself.
...That’s pretty damn good.
The quest had barely begun, and most of it was already finished.
What could be better than that?
So according to the prophecy, Raul only had two tasks left.
The first was the ones wearing goat skulls on their heads.
As had been mentioned a few times before, the Abyss Grand Duke was not actually the Saint’s true mission.
The rightful opponent of that vile schemer was a psychopath collective who wore skulls over their heads and would do anything for revenge: the Demon Hunters.
Those bastards...
And yet what in the hell had happened to them that, with the duke running wild like this, not a single one had shown their face?
Fine. It’s better this way.
Now that they had been mentioned in a prophecy, Raul made a firm decision to track them down this time for sure.
Besides, the Demon Hunters’ base was near the White Shadow Mountains, the very same mountains named in the prophecy.
But...
As soon as he thought that far, Raul suddenly felt something strange.
The Demon Hunters’ hideout was close to the White Shadow Mountains.
And somewhere beneath the White Shadow Mountains, the Beginning’s holy sword, Oul, was sleeping?
Hmm...
Strictly speaking, wasn’t that two different quests pointing to the same destination?
...Well.
There was no need to think about it too hard.
Multiple quests pointing to one place.
That was the most straightforward, and the most common, kind of sign in Devil Hunter of Exeria.
Whether it meant something good or bad, it was that kind of omen.
This...
If he ever got the chance, he should hold a shamanic rite or something.
In addition to the prophecy, Raul asked Violet, the noble daughter of House Zern, about several other things he had been wondering.
The sky-blue-haired girl answered his questions with a wide range of expressions, looking at once frightened and delighted, and even some lively banter followed.
Once he had cleared up everything he wanted to know and stepped out into the street, dusk had already settled over the wide avenue of Asmos, the city of labyrinths.
Raul stood there, staring blankly at the scene.
The sun, red-hot and swollen, was dyeing the world vermilion even beyond the vicious blizzard.
Night, darkening and black, was closing in after the fading twilight.
And as the sun sank beyond the mountains, Asmos lost all of its color.
In its place, the starshine blooming beyond the pitch-black sky filled his eyes to the brim.
At that pure, white brilliance, Raul could only let out a long sigh.
“Hoo.”
Was Celia all right?
That thought, which he had deliberately tried not to entertain, once again filled a corner of his mind.
No matter what his intent or the process had been, in the end Raul had, without realizing it, sent Celia to the place where the Abyss Grand Duke would be revived.
If Raul had not interfered, the royal family of Therion would have become the bastards’ playthings.
The knights of Zern would have collapsed as well,
and the invasion of the Froststeel orcs would have gone through along with the summoning of a high-ranked demon.
In the midst of all that, the World of the World Tree and Exeria would have been connected.
And then, with the Fallen World Tree in hand, the Abyss Grand Duke would have revealed a full-scale invasion of all Exeria.
Raul had certainly done the right thing.
But the right thing always seemed to end with someone precious to him being put in danger.
Was this truly the fate of a Saint?
Raul could neither sneer at himself nor praise himself.
What exactly was he doing now?
All of a sudden, Raul wanted a drink.
Then a voice came from behind him without warning.
“What are you doing out here, old man?”
Turning around, he found Aila there, with red eyes the color of fresh blood.
“Jeez, you’ve even gotten hit so much you’re practically a snowman.”
She strolled up at her usual lazy pace and looked up at Raul with those half-lidded eyes of hers.
“Come on. I’ve got hot meat soup and Beast Blood waiting for you at the inn. The labyrinth pay’s been fattening our pockets too, so we ought to have a drink to celebrate your recovery.”
She didn’t seem to know the meaning of exhaustion, grinning like some old drunkard as she mimed raising a glass.
“You’re a funny bastard too.”
So what was she claiming to have prepared, when she hadn’t even been recognized as a proper adventurer and had ended up getting no pay at all...
Looking at Aila scheming to squeeze something out of him even now, Raul couldn’t help letting the corner of his mouth lift.
“Bastard? I’m a woman.”
“No, that’s not the important part.”
Raul reached into the inner pocket of his robe and flicked out a gold coin.
Tap.
Aila caught it as lightly as if she were breathing, then burst into a bright smile.
“My share, right? A gold coin, too. As expected, old man. Big spender. Since it’s come to this, maybe two more bottles of Beast Blood...”
Raul cut off Aila’s delighted, drunken rambling.
“No, that’s your travel money. Use it and get back to the Empire quickly.”
At that, the smile vanished from Aila’s face at last.
“Why? Something happen?”
“What do you mean, something happen. You were never supposed to be here in the first place. I’m just telling you to go back where you belong.”
Then Aila’s face hardened, as if she were thinking something over, and she looked at Raul with eyes gone round.
“Am I not allowed to stay here?”
“Huh?”
“Who decided that?”
“...What?”
“I’m asking who decided where I’m supposed to be. I never agreed to that.”
Raul was struck speechless by Aila’s sudden words.
Aila continued.
“Just because I’m an Ember, does that mean I have to go to the Empire? I don’t want to.”
“...You don’t want to?”
“Yeah. If I go back to the Empire, I’ll probably just get yelled at for failing the job and somehow still crawling back alive. It’d drive me insane. A failure is a failure. So why the hell should I die there? Even you can see it’s a mess, right? That ‘tradition’ of ours.”
Raul blinked at the Ember who was spitting out the least Ember-like words in the world without stopping for breath.
Then Aila showed him another smile that was, again, completely out of place.
“If I’m going anywhere, I’m going where you go, old man.”
“Why?”
“Because if I hang around with you, I feel like every day will keep my heart racing. Oh, not in a weird way. You’re way too pretty for my taste, anyway.”
“...Nobody asked.”
“Hey, come on! Old man, at a time like this you’re supposed to say you’re flattered, even if you don’t mean it.”
Raul let out a long, exhausted sigh as he looked at the Ember assassin, who kept saying the most absurd things imaginable.
Then the Ember’s red eyes glittered, and she smiled with a faint snort.
“Anyway, I decide where I belong. Even if it’s you, old man, you don’t get to order me around. Right?”
“When you put it that way... yeah, that’s true.”
“Besides, even if you said no, I was planning to trail after you anyway.”
“Have you ever heard the word stalking?”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“That’s...”
Raul was already rubbing his forehead. “Forget it.”
“What? What is it? You’re trying to make me look stupid over some tiny little thing again, aren’t you?”
Raul pressed a hand to his forehead as Aila immediately began snapping at him.
Good grief...
Who would have guessed the second companion he met in this world would turn out to be an Ember?
And not even a proper Ember, but the one he had kept alive on a whim, the least Ember-like Ember of them all.
Raul sighed, then firmly pressed a hand down on Aila’s head, who was already chirping, “What? What? What is it?” like a parrot, and turned back toward the inn where his luggage had been left.
Cold snowflakes were still drifting through the air on the wind.
The view of the dark street remained unchanged, still all grayscale, but for some reason Raul found that he could forget the weight of his earlier thoughts, if only a little.
Between the thick brush, a bright red spark flicked and flew.
Behind Princess Elenoa, who had been staring at that campfire with brown eyes, a gauntlet smeared with field camouflage moved quietly closer.
“Eat. Elenoa.”
It was only a few words, but the voice was fresh and calm.
When Elenoa turned her head, she found the paladin Celia standing there with two rough wooden bowls in her hands.
“Thank you, Celia.”
“It’s nothing.”
She walked up to the fire beside Elenoa and sat down near the princess.
“We’re getting close to the capital now, so they say this will be the last meal cooked over a flame.”
“So we must part ways with warm food that isn’t hard as stone once again.”
Elenoa smiled faintly as she glanced at Celia, who had naturally taken the seat beside her.
They had not spent all that long together, but the princess found Celia’s side to be the most comfortable place of all.
As Raul had said, Princess Elenoa had persuaded the Motala paladins who had arrived late in Fatal and secured their cooperation.
She had intended to organize the troops and build a large-scale expedition to retake the royal castle, but the paladins shook their heads in an unusually firm refusal.
-Including those gathered here now, and anyone nearby who can be summoned at once, we have at most forty. That is enough for an expedition.
The warrior known as the Inquisitor, who commanded the other paladins, favored a small elite force.
The reason was simple and clear.
He said that if it was the paladins of the Saint Hunters he led, then they could overwhelm the Therion royal knights and court mages wholesale...
If those words had come from anyone else’s mouth, they would have been an outrageous insult worthy of being thrown into prison for insulting the royal family.
But Celia, who knew that Inquisitor well, had agreed with him, and so the expedition had been reduced to the size of a modest adventuring party rather than an army.
“Hoo.”
The princess let out a sigh halfway through bringing soup to her mouth.
Of course, Celia asked in a warm voice, “Do you have something troubling you, Elenoa?”
“Celia... I would never dare to doubt a believer of Motala, but I... honestly, I am afraid. Truly, I am afraid that with such a small number, we will be able to retake the royal castle and bring down the demons who tried to swallow the entire nation.”
When the princess spoke openly of her fear, Celia blinked her golden eyes once, then said, “Elenoa. Do you remember the enormous demon that appeared in Fatal?”
“O-Of course.”
“Then do you also remember the power of Raul, who cut that demon down in a single blow?”
Elenoa turned her head, trying to understand what Celia was getting at.
“Of course I do.”
Meeting her eyes, Celia curved her lips and offered a lovely smile.
“To be honest, I know very well that when I look at Raul, I am not seeing him with completely objective eyes.”
“Th-That is true. He is an exceptionally precious person.”
“But I can tell you this for certain. Elenoa, Raul is powerful enough that even I cannot keep up with him, not even close. But even Raul... wouldn’t be stronger than our Inquisitor.”
Elenoa’s eyes widened at that shocking statement.
It was Celia saying it, of all people. Celia, saying someone else was stronger than Raul.
And without the slightest hesitation.
Elenoa turned to look briefly toward the Inquisitor, who had been sitting with his chin in his hand and wearing the same irritated expression he always wore in a corner of the expedition.
A huge frame, a hard, rugged body.
And even a scholarly face, oddly enough, with a monocle that somehow did not suit that body at all.
Elenoa looked back at Celia with stunned eyes and said, “Truly? More than Raul?”
“Yes. So trust the Inquisitor and settle your mind. Your role begins only after the royal castle has been safely retaken.”
It was an extremely realistic and also a very cold piece of advice.
Whether Elenoa was anxious or not, the knights and warriors who would actually throw themselves into retaking the castle were already chosen.
Though she felt helpless at that unavoidable reality, Elenoa eventually accepted that Celia was right.
As she slowly brought the now-cooling soup to her mouth, she suddenly noticed something odd.
“Now that I think of it, Celia, I do not see that handsome golden-haired paladin who has always been at your side, attending to you.”
“Annie?”
“Ah, yes. Annie. Did something happen to her? I don’t think I’ve seen her since yesterday.”
Elenoa asked lightly, hoping to change the mood a little, and Celia suddenly wore a chilling smile.
Smiling, she said in a voice edged sharp enough for anyone to hear, “Annie left for the north to track down Raul.”
“...Pardon?”
As Elenoa blinked and asked again, Celia clenched her teeth and went on.
“That damned Inquisitor bastard... n-no, our cool and collected Inquisitor said that my relationship with Raul is so deep that he cannot believe my claim of Raul’s innocence.”
“I-I see...”
Elenoa trailed off awkwardly, though inwardly she found herself agreeing with the Inquisitor’s opinion.
Honestly, given the way Celia lost all reason whenever Raul came up, it would have been stranger not to think that way.
Then Celia snapped her head around with a razor-edged smile and spilled out something bizarre.
“But why did they have to send Annie? The tracking party is mostly sweaty men. Why did they send a biological woman, of all people? What do you think, Elenoa? Isn’t it obvious they did it on purpose just to piss me off? Right?”
It was the chilling smile of someone furious to the tips of their hair.
“I-I... w-well... I’m not sure, Celia.”
Elenoa carefully turned her face away and avoided Celia’s eyes.
Then she took one more step away from her.
As expected, whenever Raul is involved, people start acting strange...
And then, all at once, Elenoa found herself wondering how Raul was doing.