Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: 16 Years Old (4)
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A quest after such a long time.
But for Theo, it brought a chill down his spine more than any sense of familiarity.
‘As expected, a regressor like me and a prophet can never get along.’
Prophets usually foresaw fixed futures, while regressors worked tirelessly to change the futures they knew.
The two could never coexist.
Especially now, with tensions rising against the Troyvans.
If they managed to secure a prophet, even Theo couldn’t predict how the timeline might shake.
‘Above all, I have no idea what this [Secret of Time] even is.’
Theo had a hunch that this quest—and the messages—visible only to him among all the selectors might hold the key to that mystery.
Of course, completing the quest was the only way to find out.
The pursuit began.
* * *
“Damn it! Hey! What the hell are you doing drawing like that?!”
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Shit!”
“Wahahaha! Alright, time to clean you out good this round toooo!”
On a low hillside not far from Priamos.
A dozen or so mercenaries were rowdily sharing drinks in a hunter’s cabin where they’d stopped to rest.
Beneath the thick clouds of cigarette smoke, cards and piles of bets were stacked high.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Winners laughed in delight, while losers kicked at innocent walls in frustration.
As the chatter grew louder, the girl huddled in the corner just trembled all the more.
Scary, Mommy.
Please save me....
“Ned, one more round? Call?”
“Fuck off! Can’t you see I’m broke? I’ll have to borrow my damn advance pay just to get by!”
“So you’re folding?”
“I said I’m broke!”
The mercenary called Ned spat curses and shot up from his seat, only to spot the still-shivering girl in the corner and slam his fist into the wall above her.
Crash!
The girl jumped in fright and snapped her head up.
Her unfocused eyes turned toward Ned.
She was blind.
“When the hell are we handing off this brat? Didn’t they say they’d be here by now?”
“Hey, hey, don’t take it out on the poor kid who can’t even see. Right, little one? Who’s a good girl.”
The girl buried her face in her thighs again.
They were demons.
Demons who’d burned her village.
She hadn’t exactly been on good terms with the villagers either.
They’d always discriminated against her mother, calling her filthy this and that.
Still, she hadn’t thought they deserved to die like that.
In moments like this, her blindness felt unbearably unfair.
If only that ‘phantom’ who sometimes came to torment her would show up.
But even that had gone eerily quiet.
“Fuck! We gotta hand her off quick so we can up the stakes again. Ugh!”
“She’s valuable cargo anyway. Don’t even think about touching her.”
“You think I’m an idiot who can’t tell that much?!”
“Then we’re good.”
Ned crossed his arms and snorted.
He kept glancing impatiently at his watch—clearly desperate for cash.
“Well, well. Need a loan?”
“Gonna charge interest again?”
“This time it’s dirt cheap! A measly 450% a day! Bow down to the king!”
“Highway robbery, you bastard.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Hmph! Who said I wouldn’t?”
“Heh heh. That’s why I like you.”
Ned finally snatched the bets his comrade offered and picked up the cards on the floor again.
“By the way.”
“What?”
“That true? About the brat seeing the future...?”
Slap!
The fresh cards hitting the floor cut Ned off mid-sentence.
“We don’t pry into client orders. Mercenary code. You forget already?”
“Hey, hey, why glare like that? I was just curious.”
“You’ve seen what happens to guys who get too nosy, haven’t you?”
The dealer slipped another card in and continued flatly.
“Even if she sees the future, does that change you being a sucker?”
“You prick. Watch me clean you out this time. I’ll have you stripped to your undies.”
“Bring it. Show me what you got. Pfft!”
As the rowdy banter swelled and the cards flew once more, the huddled girl suddenly jerked her head up.
An abrupt, odd movement.
The mercenaries’ eyes naturally turned her way.
“The world is singing.”
She looked entranced, dazed.
“You’re all going to be buried there. Without a trace.”
“What the hell’s the brat babbling about?”
“Monsters will swarm. The dead will rise atop them. Again. And again....”
“Bullshit! What kinda nonsense is—”
Ned couldn’t hold back and started to leap up.
Boom!
The cabin wall exploded outward.
Surging sword energy poured in.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
“Aaagh!”
“Damn it!”
“Enemy attack!”
“Fuuuuck! My pot! I was finally gonna hit big, and you flip it?!”
“You lunatic! You worried about that right now?!”
The mercenaries flipped the table for cover, bracing for more strikes.
Some moved calmly to protect the girl.
Aside from Ned’s whining, their response was disciplined.
They were veterans, not rabble—properly trained.
The problem was.
“There she is.”
Their attackers were even more elite.
Shadows writhed.
A massive maw burst forth, chomping through the legs of mercenaries reaching for the girl.
“Gaaah!”
“W-what the hell?! Where’d this thing come fr—”
The otherworldly umbra’s arrival threw them into utter panic.
“N-no! My payday!”
“You bastard! Where you going?!”
Ned gripped his sword and bolted toward the girl.
His orders were to buy time in emergencies so Team 2 could evacuate her.
But broke as he was, with this game’s loss piling on massive debt, he couldn’t focus.
Screw it—grab her and run!
Pocket the full payout solo. That’d work....
Rumble!
But Ned’s thoughts didn’t last.
A thunderclap roared, and blinding yellow light erupted before him.
-The world is singing.
The girl’s earlier words flashed in his mind.
-You’re all going to be buried there. Without a trace.
What he’d dismissed as nonsense was real.
‘She really sees the future—!’
His vision drowned in yellow.
His thoughts ended there.
[Thunder Calling]
Lightning pierced the roof, bisecting and charring Ned in an instant while spewing fan-shaped blasts of heat and lightning shards from the impact.
[Flame Dancing]
Flames engulfed the area—save for the girl—incinerating over half the mercenaries,
While Theo’s group smashed through the broken wall, shattering their cover in one go.
The dual assaults dismantled their formation instantly, herding them into death’s abyss.
“You’re safe now. No need to worry.”
Theo rescued the girl right around then.
A firm chest.
Far warmer than any body heat or voice she’d known.
Without even knowing who he was, the girl finally relaxed.
* * *
The girl dreamed.
-You’re a very precious and special child, Cassandra. Never forget that, no matter what.
Her mother always held her close and said those words.
Back then, she didn’t understand.
What they meant.
But it didn’t matter.
Life in the village with her mother, friends, and everyone was pure bliss.
Not being able to see?
It wasn’t so bad.
The only minor annoyance?
The ‘dreams’ that visited her now and then?
-Dream again?
-Yeah!
-What’d you see this time?
-A super handsome big bro appeared.
-Big bro?
-Yeah. This ridiculously good-looking big bro was riding some weird thing and zooming through the sky with me!
But sometimes, those ‘dreams’ weren’t so bad.
In them, she could actually ‘see’—if only then.
Still, she hated most of them because they were nightmares.
Like the one from that dawn.
-Mommy... asleep?
-Oh dear. My girl had another weird ‘dream,’ didn’t she?
-Yeah.... But in it, you and everyone, they were all...! All!
Even calling them nonsense dreams, it was hard to blurt out one where her mother and villagers all got hurt.
What if it came true?
-You poor thing, so scared.
-Yeah. Hug me.
-Aw, still such a baby. But don’t worry, Cassandra. No need to fear the ‘dreams’ so much.
After every nightmare, her mother always pulled her tight and soothed her.
-Whatever you saw, the world is far wider and more vivid than that. Someday, a friend will come take you to that world.
Her embrace was so warm, Cassandra drifted back to sleep easily.
But she didn’t know then.
That ‘dream’ would come true.
And that the man from her ‘dreams’ had appeared.
-You’re safe now. No need to worry.
The one who always carried her on bizarre monsters, soaring through the skies.
He was right there.
“Are you okay?”
As consciousness tentatively returned.
The same gentle voice from before drew near.
* * *
“Th-that! That’s a m-monster!”
“That all you got to say?”
“I’m serioussss! So let me go alr—”
Selferd lopped off the throat of the trembling, shrieking mercenary.
Splurt—
Thud!
“Death? Curse? What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
Selferd scratched his head in irritation.
He’d interrogated hoping for intel, but it left a sour taste.
Clunk—
Selferd flung the door open irritably and stepped out, spotting Theo with the ‘target’ nestled against his thigh.
“Well, well? When’d you two get so cozy?”
Even a blind girl could pick out a handsome guy?
A random thought crossed his mind.
“She just fell asleep a bit ago. Must’ve been exhausted.”
“Can’t blame her. Sigh.”
“Learn anything?”
Arin’s question drew a grim nod from Selferd.
“These were the Crimson-White Mercenaries.”
“Dragon Church affiliates, huh.”
“Yeah.”
Crimson-White Mercenaries.
Originally vassals to House Ragnar, they’d defected to the Troyvans with the North War’s outbreak.
“Always ruthless, even got sanctioned talks in Winterhold plenty... but this time, they crossed the line hard.”
“Agreed. How do you even do that wearing human skin?”
Theo narrowed his eyes, stroking the sleeping Cassandra’s hair.
Chasing them here.
They’d witnessed too many horrors.
Not just pillaging—massacres everywhere.
They’d even found mass graves nearby.
The ordeal Cassandra endured, orphaned overnight by these bastards losing her family and friends.
Theo’s heart twisted, recalling his past life’s final memory of losing his household in an instant.
“Traitors always hit hardest. Gotta wipe ’em out someday.”
Selferd ground his teeth, then eyed Cassandra.
“But... that kid. Hmm.”
“What is it?”
“Anything else unusual about her?”
Theo’s eyes darkened deeply.
He had a feeling what Selferd meant.
「Thing is, ha! These idiots all spouted weird shit. Said the brat’s cursed or something? That’s why they all croaked.」
‘Future sight!’
Selferd switched to mental transmission, probably not wanting Cassandra to hear.
Unaware of her true nature, though, he seemed unsure how to process it.
Theo feigned ignorance.
「Any reason they thought that?」
「Said the brat saw them die. No clue what that means.」
「Hmm! Anything else she saw?」
「Yeah, one more. But it’s wild.」
Selferd scratched his head again.
「Said a king appears over a world shrouded in death, rewinds the clock’s wheel, and all the dead rise and walk?」
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