A Real Prophecy
The day of the preliminaries for the tournament that would decide the Empire's greatest prophet was finally upon us.
"Contestants! Please form an orderly line and wait your turn!"
The guide was practically shouting, straining to keep the massive crowd under control.
There are a ridiculous number of people here.
The tournament preliminaries weren't held in the Capital. Instead, they were scattered across mid-sized cities large enough to handle the turnout. The one I'd come to was the eastern city closest to our little rural village.
"Next group. Contestants, state your prophecies!"
"I'll go with tails."
"Heads for me."
"Heads."
"Two to one, is it? Then I'll take tails."
A copper coin arced high above the crowd, then vanished into the throng as it fell.
"The result is heads! Contestants who prophesied tails are eliminated!"
"Tch, so close. Well, good luck to the rest of you."
"Damn it. I had a bad feeling about that one. Should've stuck with my gut at the last second."
The preliminary event was simply predicting the outcome of a coin toss. With so many people, four contestants were judged at a time with each flip.
What kind of prophecy tournament is this? It's basically a luck test.
The event meant to identify true prophets was nothing more than a coin flip. Watching people get bundled into groups of four like snack packs left me with a strange feeling.
Well, it is just the preliminaries. I guess it can't be helped.
There were no entry requirements and no participation fee. Thanks to the Emperor's outrageously open conditions, people had poured in from everywhere. Commoners who looked more suited to farming or hunting outnumbered the nobles from prophetic bloodlines. There were even beggars among them.
Truly, a tournament of pure equality.
"Hey, mister. Judging by those fine clothes, you're a noble, ain'tcha? Am I right?"
There was a beggar right next to me, too. He'd been assigned to the same group for the preliminaries and was standing at my side. The stench rolling off him made it hard to breathe.
"Close enough. I used to be a noble."
"Bwahaha! Sounds like you've had a rough life of it yourself, mister. Me, I was a high-flying noble once upon a time too — and look at the sorry state of me now."
The beggar launched straight into a "back in my day" monologue. It reminded me of those construction-site uncles back in Korea who always claimed they'd once been the CEO of some big company. Same energy.
...Then again, maybe it's actually true?
The thought crossed my mind for a moment. In a romance fantasy world, a roadside beggar turning out to be of royal blood was a perfectly plausible plot twist.
"It ain't too late for you yet, mister. You don't wanna end up like me — so live hard and live well!"
"Yes, I'll keep that in mind."
I answered halfheartedly, then quietly borrowed a touch of the Yongwang-shin's power.
Let's just take a quick look.
The beggar's past began to unfold in my mind.
A poor couple in a remote village cradled a newborn. Even with nothing to their name, they scraped by on borrowed milk and meals begged from neighbors, and the child grew up safely enough. But when the boy turned seven, a terrible drought struck the village. Famine followed.
The couple already had more children than they could feed. In the end, the mother led one of them into the nearby woods.
Wow! Hide-and-seek with Mom? This is gonna be great!
Close your eyes and count to a hundred, my dear. Once I've hidden, I'll call out — then you can open your eyes and come find me. Understood?
Yes! I understand!
The child counted just as he'd been told.
Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred! Ready! Mom, are you hidden yet?
No answer came. Only after calling for her again and again did the boy understand that he had been abandoned. The drought had dried up even people's pity.
Instead of returning to the home that had cast him out, the child set off toward a neighboring village he'd only ever heard about. He didn't want to go back to the place that had discarded him.
A small mercy, at least: while walking endlessly toward that village, he happened upon a merchant caravan. The traders took pity on the abandoned child, and with their help he arrived safely.
That was where a beggar's life began. He begged to survive each day, clinging stubbornly to life. But mere survival wasn't enough.
I can't go on like this.
By the time he was a young man, he'd changed his goal. Living on scraps alone might one day get him killed in some senseless, unjust way. He needed to prepare for tomorrow, not just endure today.
I'll build a crew.
He gathered other beggars and formed a group. They looked out for one another — if one of them was wronged, the whole pack swarmed in for payback. They sold information, leveraging a beggar's natural talent for picking up secrets, and took on the dirty work nobles wouldn't touch themselves.
Before long, the young man had become the natural leader of the beggars. The Beggar King. That was the nickname — and the name — that stuck to the man who had somehow become middle-aged.
The vision ended. I looked at the beggar again. He was laughing loosely, but his eyes were sharper than anyone's. Beneath the thick beard, the middle-aged man's face had a certain rough handsomeness to it.
So he really is just a beggar, after all.
An impressive one, sure — but the whole "I used to be a noble" bit had been a complete lie.
Why bother spinning a story like that?
I still didn't know why he bluffed, but it wasn't worth digging into. I let it go.
While I waited for our turn alongside Wangcho, a shrill voice cut through the air from up ahead.
"That was a mistake! I demand another try!"
"Sir, you have been eliminated. Please leave the examination area."
"I told you, it was a mistake! I can get it right if I try again!"
"There are no second chances."
"Even those worthless dregs up front passed! There's no way I should be failing the preliminaries!"
A young man was arguing with the examiner. From his clothes, he looked like a noble of fairly high standing.
"Do you even know who I am?! Who do you think you are, ordering me to leave?!"
The young man's face flushed scarlet as he jabbed a finger at the examiner. The examiner kept his mouth shut, looking exhausted. He'd clearly expected something like this to happen.
"Ha! You think staying quiet means I'll just walk away?"
The young man started toward the examiner — and then:
"Halt."
An armed man standing behind the examiner stepped into his path. Security had been posted for exactly this kind of situation.
"Who the hell are you? Out of my way!"
The young man reached out to shove him aside —
And instead found his arm seized in an iron grip.
"Ghk! You think you have the authority to lay hands on me?! You won't get away with this!"
"I do have the authority."
"...What?"
"This is by direct order of His Majesty the Emperor."
"G-Gyaaaaah!"
The guard twisted the young man's arm behind his back and dragged him out of the examination area, screaming the whole way, until both of them disappeared from sight.
"Next, please."
The examiner spoke in the same dry, flat tone as always. The moment the troublemaker was gone, he resumed the exams without missing a beat. The man had nerves of steel.
After watching a noble get frog-marched out with a broken arm, everyone else took the exam quietly. Even those who failed left without a word of complaint.
Just one more group ahead of us.
Once they finished, it would finally be my turn. Predicting a coin toss wasn't exactly difficult, so I felt no tension at all.
"Mister, you look awfully relaxed. Ain't you nervous at all?"
"Not really. I just want to finish the exam and go home."
While I chatted with Wangcho, the group ahead of us got their results.
"Tails! Those who are eliminated, please leave. Next group, step forward!"
Four of us, including the beggar and me, stood before the examiner.
"Contestants, please prophesy which face the coin will land on."
At the examiner's cue, the prophecies began.
"Heads! It's definitely heads this time!"
The man on the far left spoke with absolute confidence. Tails had come up seven times in a row so far. He was clearly banking on a heads result next.
"I'll go with heads as well."
The middle-aged woman next in line also predicted heads.
My turn. I borrowed the god's power and peered into the future.
"...I'll go with tails."
I simply repeated what I'd seen. Tails would come up for an eighth consecutive time.
Last was Wangcho. He glanced at me with a sly little smile.
"Then I'll take tails too!"
He followed my lead and chose tails.
Good instincts. Maybe that's how he became the Beggar King.
Everyone had made their prophecy. The examiner lifted the coin.
It spun high into the air — then landed with a soft clink on the ground.
"The result is tails. Those who prophesied heads are eliminated."
"What? Eight tails in a row? That's impossible!"
The man looked furious, but apparently he had no desire to get dragged out like that noble. He left the examination area without further protest.
"Bwahaha! Mister, you've got a real gift! I passed thanks to you!"
"Ah... right."
Wangcho thanked me openly, right in front of everyone, with zero interest in hiding the fact that he'd copied my answer.
The first round of preliminaries was over. I was about to leave the examination area when something caught my eye.
"Examiner."
"The schedule for the second preliminary round is posted over there. Please check it yourself."
"That's not why I'm here."
"What is it, then? I'd appreciate it if you kept it brief."
"On your way home — be careful near the water."
"...Excuse me?"
The examiner, who'd been focused on the next contestants, finally looked at me. His dark-circled eyes filled with confusion and unease.
"Take an unfamiliar route home today. Don't use the path you always take."
"W-Why would I do that? I'd rather not go the long way around..."
"If your life doesn't matter to you, do as you please."
"W-What on earth are you—?!"
Among a sea of false prophecies — a real one had finally been spoken.