Chapter 135
Chapter 135
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 135
Chapter Title: 16 Years Old (5)
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‘A world shrouded in death? The clock’s wheel? The deceased?’
Theo’s mind raced.
They were all hard-to-grasp words, but one in particular stuck in his ears.
The clock’s wheel.
‘Is it connected to the [Secret of Time] from the quest reward somehow?’
Quests often linked future events and clues in exactly this way.
‘The quest still hasn’t ended, either.’
On top of that, the word “wheel” immediately brought something to mind.
-The Tarot card he’d seen in his past life.
Why was the first one, the ‘Wheel of Death,’ suddenly coming back to him?
Even after securing Cassandra’s person, the fact that the quest hadn’t cleared meant Theo was clearly missing something.
He checked her body just in case, but fortunately, there were no signs the Red-White Mercenaries had done her any harm.
「The kid seems to have quite the imagination. Or maybe there really is something... Well, the higher-ups will handle it.」
In any case, the group’s orders had only been to escort Cassandra.
Once they delivered her to the destination, everything else was for the superiors to deal with.
「Still, just in case, stick with the little one and share anything you find out separately.」
「Yes, understood.」
Selperd left Cassandra entirely in Theo’s hands and turned his gaze to Arin and Ray.
“And these guys were supposed to link up two hours ago, right?”
“The fact they haven’t even shown their faces means either something went wrong midway, or they caught wind of something.”
Selperd nodded at Arin’s response.
“Yeah. So it’s probably better to get out of here before reinforcements arrive.”
“Sounds good. Staying here was making me antsy anyway.”
This was squarely Troyvan territory.
The group had zero desire to get caught by them.
Fwoosh!
Soon, the three wyverns beat their wings powerfully into the sky.
Ray rode with Arin, while Cassandra was with Theo.
Selperd, being the lightest, took on perimeter watch.
Their destination was the [Tulip Floristry Guild].
An organization located where Troyvan territory transitioned into Ragnar lands, currently garrisoned by one of Ragnar’s units.
“Figures. They were planning to backstab us the moment we let our guard down.”
Selperd snorted at the Troyvan swordsmen who appeared late, as the ground shrank to dots below, screaming their heads off.
It felt good to vent.
Meanwhile.
‘The fever still hasn’t left her body.’
Theo checked on Cassandra’s condition periodically.
A blind girl whose small frame made her seem barely ten, if that.
She was destined to become empress in the near future, but Theo couldn’t stop worrying about her.
Kek!
Umbra cried out as if asking what the worry was.
“No. It’s nothing.”
Theo gave a wry smile and stroked Umbra’s nape.
First, let’s get to the destination and think it over.
He tried to organize his thoughts that way when suddenly Cassandra stirred.
“Mommy...”
Was she dreaming?
“Me... on clouds... flying...”
Theo unconsciously looked around.
Clouds were indeed drifting right beside them.
‘Oh, right—didn’t they say the Archmage Empress’s prophecies usually come through dreams? Then?’
Precognitive dreams?
That was when the thought struck him.
“Mm...!”
“Coming around?”
Theo asked carefully, seeing Cassandra’s eyelids flutter.
“Where...?”
Cassandra’s face filled with terror again.
Unlike when Theo had rescued her earlier, she now realized she was being taken somewhere by strangers once more.
Theo wanted to ease her fears somehow.
“We’re in the sky.”
“The sky...?”
Cassandra’s expression twisted oddly.
Not a carriage or train, but the sky?
Come to think of it, the wind whipping her hair and the air’s scent were utterly different from usual.
‘A dream.’
She remembered dreaming once of riding some strange monster through the sky.
“Yeah. Clouds are passing right by. Want to touch one?”
Theo recalled her sleep-talk of ‘clouds’ and gently steered the mood that way.
Fortunately, true to her nine years, Cassandra’s attention shifted there.
Touch a cloud?
How?
She knew what clouds were.
Fluffy things like cotton candy floating in the blue sky.
Something adults couldn’t reach no matter how high they jumped.
She’d have accused old man Halbert next door of teasing her if he’d said it.
But the one who saved her said it, so somehow it felt real.
Gathering her courage, she reached out.
Something brushed her hand.
Something moist and ticklish.
“How’s it feel? You just touched one.”
“Me... did?”
In the ‘dream,’ she’d thought it’d be soft.
But touching it felt totally different from what she’d imagined.
She didn’t think Theo was lying or joking.
No reason for it, and he didn’t seem the type.
“Want to try again?”
Cassandra nodded, and Theo guided her hand.
The same sensation again.
Though this time, she felt something shatter at her fingertips.
Cassandra mulled over the feeling for a long while.
-‘You don’t need to suffer so much over the ‘dreams,’ dear.’
She recalled her mother’s words, always holding her feverish body after the dreams.
-Whatever you saw, the world is far wider and more vivid than that. Someday, a friend will come take you to that world.
A world utterly unlike the ones glimpsed in dreams was right here.
‘Mommy...’
But missing her mother’s embrace—someone she’d never see again—
Cassandra couldn’t help but shed tears.
Theo moved to comfort her but froze, noticing blue light leaking from her.
Shiiiine—
‘This?’
The light that always appeared to guide quests.
His vision inverted suddenly, making his body sway.
[‘Skill: Hatchling Synchro’ forcibly activates, glimpsing a portion of Prophet Cassandra’s foreseen future.]
Fwoosh!
‘This?’
A vast plain.
Petals soiled with mud and dust littered the ground, as if there’d once been a flower garden,
Black smoke billowing over them.
Tss tss—
At the same time, the dead buried in the earth began rising one by one, chasing the smoke.
Like puppets dangling from strings.
At the center of that eerie scene stood a black silhouette.
Hard to tell if man or woman in the shadow, it paused looking ahead and slowly turned this way.
Just as their eyes met.
Flash!
The figure’s eyes burst with bright light, and the vision shattered.
‘Who the hell?’
The blue tint meant it involved Theo somehow, but nothing came to mind.
Someone handling the risen dead sounded like a necromancer or voodoo practitioner, but rummaging through past-life memories yielded no connections.
‘It’s tied to the quest not ending, too.’
How was he supposed to unravel this hint?
The problem was.
‘It feels familiar somehow.’
Even without seeing the face clearly when their eyes met, the aura felt very familiar.
He was still wrestling with the unsolved puzzle when.
“You saw... my dream...?”
Cassandra murmured blankly.
Eyes closed, yet it felt like she was looking right at Theo.
“You’re the first to see it with me! Wow! Amazing!”
Cassandra seemed delighted, somehow.
She must’ve been thrilled to finally share the secret she’d suffered with alone.
Theo wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not.
He managed an awkward smile.
* * *
The site where Theo’s group had departed.
A man in wooden armor entered the half-demolished cabin, right arm clasped behind his back.
His empty left sleeve flapped like a flag with each step.
His name was ‘Arct.’
The ancient word for the number ‘8.’
One of the nine meritorious retainers Troyvan boasted of.
「You idiots let the target slip right under your noses?」
“Th-that’s...! They suddenly ambushed us...! W-we were outnumbered...!”
Red-White Mercenary leader Otan paled, scraping together excuses.
Step—
“W-we’re j-just a m-mercenary b-band! We n-never had the p-power to f-face Ragnar’s e-elite...!”
Step—
“S-so please, mercy...!”
Step—
No excuse stopped Arct’s advance.
Otan’s pallor deepened, his voice trembling finer.
He’d really die like this.
In desperation, he squeezed out one last shout.
“P-plus! The ‘Blue-Black Corps’ that w-was supposed to arrive by the set time d-didn’t...!”
Halt!
Arct now stood before Otan.
The gaze piercing through his mask was so sharp, Otan’s mind went blank.
「So it’s our fault?」
“N-no, not that, b-but please consider it to some extent!」
「You know Mount Dragon was delayed shaking off that persistent tail, and you still whine like that?」
Mount Dragon.
When he learned that Ragnar elder had left the north, the shock had been electric.
His own left arm being gone was all because of that.
The Blue-Black Corps more than half-wiped out.
“Th-that’s!”
「Delayed by a mere two or three hours at most. This isn’t Ragnar territory—it’s the front yard of their eastern main house—and you make excuses like that?」
“Sp-spare...!”
「And the part that pisses me off most.」
Arct unclasped his hands, raising his hand blade.
“Please!”
「Is that you morons lost that child of all people to Ragnar of all places. While gambling carefree.」
Slash!
Spurt—
Otan’s head rolled across the floor, expression still pale.
Splat!
Arct crushed even that underfoot.
「From today, the name Red-White Mercenaries will never reach my ears again.」
“As you command.”
A waiting subordinate vanished instantly.
Thus sealed the fate of the Red-White Mercenaries, who’d dreamed of glory switching patrons.
「We must secure a <timeline> that leads to victory no matter what. For that, we need that child.」
Arct clasped his hands behind again and muttered softly.
「So retrieve her at all costs.」
The Blue-Black Corps.
Those who’d reigned as reapers of the battlefield, like their name ‘Blue Devils,’ bowed their heads and soared into the air in unison.
Arct quietly gazed after his vanishing subordinates.
The celestial flow along the blue sky was shifting bit by bit.
「Of all the complications.」
Grind!
Only the sound of his grinding teeth spoke for his seething rage.