The Prophet's Test
The old man introduced himself with those words: “I am called Prometheus. I am also known as the Foreseer, or the One Who Sees First.”
Coming from outside the mountain range, his self-introduction was certainly on another level. If anyone in the village—including me—were to introduce themselves, the only answers you’d get would be woodcutter, herbalist, housewife, or something equally ordinary. But a Foreseer? I never imagined such a cool introduction was even possible.
“What does ‘seeing first’ mean, exactly? You don’t mean you can see the future, do you?”
“It is not so different.”
“Really? Wow! How do you do that? Could I learn it too?”
The old man took a slow sip of his tea.
“Well.”
“Well? You’re really going with ‘well’? You didn’t say no, so does that mean if I work hard enough, I could do it? How do I start?”
“You talk more than appearances suggest.”
“Ah… haha…”
Stung by the old man’s blunt remark, I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. But I couldn’t help it. He was an outsider—the first one I had ever met in my twenty-three years of life. As far as I knew, there had only ever been two outsiders in our village: me and my grandmother.
Twenty-three years ago, the villagers told me that my grandmother had brought me here as a newborn baby. This old man was the first visitor since then. And he wasn’t just any outsider. He was an outsider who could command fire at will and see the future. Who wouldn’t get excited?
Still, I didn’t want to trouble him, so I resolved to restrain myself as much as possible. Whether I would actually succeed was another question.
“Then… may I ask why someone as remarkable as you would come to a place like this?”
“I came to witness with my own eyes the prophecy I have seen.”
“Prophecy?”
The old man gazed into the distance for a moment. His eyes wandered far away, lingering on some time that had not yet arrived.
The one favored by the goddess.
Uphold justice.
When the scales fall,
The stars shall whisper.
It was a cryptic, riddle-like sentence. I was sure I had heard something similar earlier.
“You said something like that before, but what does it mean to make the scales fall? The only scales I know are the Libra constellation.”
“What you are thinking is correct.”
“The Libra constellation is going to fall?”
The Libra constellation. When humanity, blinded by greed, abandoned justice and the gods, disappointed, left the mortal realm, the goddess who had trusted humans until the very end hung the divine scales in the sky. A stellar milestone left behind so that when humanity one day sought justice again, they would not lose their way. The constellation of Astraea, goddess of justice. It was also my favorite constellation.
And now it was going to fall?
“I don’t know what exactly you saw, but my grandmother told me that if the Libra tilts, the world will fall into chaos.”
“The order is reversed. It is not that the world falls into chaos when the scales fall. The scales fall because the world is already in chaos. Compared to that, the chaos that follows will be nothing but a drop in the bucket.”
The old man’s words were still difficult to understand. Yet one thing was certain: the vision he had seen far surpassed anything my imagination could conjure.
“Is there… something I need to do?”
“Wait. The time will come. The pursuers will soon arrive here as well.”
“?”
A question mark seemed to float above my head. The more we talked, the more new questions appeared instead of answers.
“Pursuers? What are those?”
“Those who chase after me. The very mages you have longed to meet.”
“Mages? Why would people like that be chasing you? Are you a bad person?”
“They have arbitrarily decided I am a criminal.”
Pursuers? Criminal? The situation was growing stranger by the minute. The wariness that had been curled up in the corner because of my curiosity slowly began to rise.
“Well… my grandmother did teach me that I should help those in need, but if it’s someone truly evil, then maybe… You’ll have to explain properly…”
I chose my words carefully, trying not to offend him. It would be extremely inconvenient if he got upset and punched me in the gut with a flaming fist.
“The crime is called spoiling.”
“Spoil… ing? What does that mean?”
“It means speaking of what one has seen first. I spoke of what I had seen. As a result, the mages who received oracles began to pursue me.”
I tilted my head.
“Is that such a terrible sin that the gods would send pursuers after you?”
“Gods have always been fickle beings.”
Even so, trying to kill someone just for seeing something first and talking about it? The gods might be surprisingly petty.
Still, it was a relief that this old man didn’t seem to be some heinous criminal. I had been worried he might be a murderer.
“In any case, I will stay here for the time being and observe the situation.”
“I see.”
A brief silence fell. The old man stared at me intently.
“…You’ll be staying at my house?”
“Is there anywhere else for me to stay?”
“No, that’s not what I meant, but…”
“Climbing the mountain has left me tired. Show me to the spare room.”
“……”
I had apparently made a huge mistake. I should have just stayed shut inside the house instead of following the fire down the mountain.
“Hey, star freak. Where did you sneak off to last night?”
The next morning. I had stepped outside to gather firewood when I ran into the village children. At their head, sneering, was Tom, who was the same age as me.
I ignored him and began picking up the scattered logs. But they had no intention of leaving me alone. They kept pestering me without getting tired.
“Star freak, why aren’t you answering? Are you deaf?”
Originally, the title “star” was only given to those who had accomplished great feats. Such a brilliant existence had nothing to do with me. In other words, it was nothing more and nothing less than a derogatory nickname meant to mock me for always staring at the stars.
Yet I felt no humiliation at being called a star freak. After all, I really do love stars. If they wanted to call me that, I was grateful.
Perhaps because he wasn’t getting the reaction he wanted, Tom’s mockery grew even sharper.
“Star freak, did you go visit your grandma again?”
“What are you talking about? His grandma’s dead.”
“This star freak says that when people die, they become stars. So his grandma must have become a star too.”
“Then is the sky actually a graveyard?”
No matter how patient I was, I couldn’t help but feel offended when they insulted my family. I frowned deeply.
“It’s a story my grandmother told me. She was the wisest person in the village. Unlike you lot.”
“Oh yeah? Then tell us which star is your grandma.”
“That’s…”
I had no choice but to fall silent at Tom’s question. The sky stretched endlessly, filled with thousands upon thousands of stars. I loved stars, but I had no special talent for finding them. Asking me to locate my grandmother’s star was the same as asking me to pluck a star from the sky.
When I couldn’t answer, the corner of Tom’s mouth twisted again.
“Your grandma was wise, so why are you so stupid? Maybe you really were just picked up and not her real grandson?”
“……”
Once again, I couldn’t answer. Instead, I slowly lifted the axe in my hand. If there was one thing I had learned in twenty years of living alone, it was that sometimes a small action was far more effective than words. Just like now.
My body, hardened from cutting wood every day, wasn’t massive but was solidly muscled. Lifting an axe with that kind of physique was quite threatening. Even Tom didn’t dare keep provoking me.
“Tsk. Looks like you’re acting out now that your grandma’s gone. You’d better remember this. The moment you cause any trouble, you won’t be allowed to stay in this village anymore.”
“…So what did you come here for? If you’re just here to pick a fight, I’d appreciate it if you left.”
“The village is out of firewood. The chief asked if you could cut some.”
“Got it.”
I didn’t like obeying a request from Tom after all his sneering, but there was no one else in the village as suited for the job. Besides, I was almost out of firewood myself. I decided to kill two birds with one stone.
“Let’s go.”
Tom led the group away. As I stared at their retreating backs, a sigh—or perhaps just a breath—escaped my lips. Tom’s words and actions were especially sharp, but the villagers’ attitudes toward me weren’t all that different.
Well, it can’t be helped.
The Mite Mountain Range. With its sky-piercing peaks and the territory of giants blocking the way, this place was little more than a forgotten island erased from the continent. Not only was travel impossible, even news from the outside world never reached us. Every villager was a native, and outsiders had not set foot here since the ancient days when gods still walked the mortal realm. Into such a tightly knit society of blood relations, two outsiders had rolled in: my grandmother and me. It was only natural that they would reject us. Especially now that my grandmother was gone, I was the only outsider left.
“You don’t seem to be on very good terms with the villagers.”
Ah, that’s right. Now there was one more.
The old man must have overheard our conversation, because the moment I entered the house he spoke up.
“It’s not that bad. Believe it or not, I’m actually a valuable member of the village. They’d miss me if I disappeared.”
Anywhere in the world, but especially in a mountain village short on hands, labor was directly tied to survival. I took pride in the fact that Leon, the young man who handled all sorts of chores, was an indispensable errand boy for the village.
I ate breakfast with the old man—grain porridge, eggs, and goat’s milk. He must have eaten far better food outside, yet he never complained and cleaned his plate completely. He didn’t even thank me, but I didn’t mind. It had been a long time since I had shared a meal with another person after my grandmother passed. For me, it was a rather meaningful meal.
After we finished eating, I grabbed an axe and headed up the mountain to gather firewood as Tom had requested. About an hour later, we arrived at a forest of reddish-brown trees. The old man, who had naturally followed me, stroked one of the trunks.
“Flame-heart Wood.”
“You know about Flame-heart Wood?”
“Wood that holds the flames of Laevateinn.”
He was exactly right. Although the area was full of ordinary trees, the Mite Mountain Range was home to a particularly unique variety called Flame-heart Wood. According to the legends passed down through the village, in the age when gods still walked the earth, a fire giant rebelled against the gods and swung a fiery magic sword. The sparks from that blade fell upon the Mite Mountain Range. The flames burned the mountains, and the trees that grew afterward carried lava-like red sap within them. That was Flame-heart Wood.
It burned for a long time even in small amounts and produced fierce heat. The sap was similar to oil and could be used for many purposes. To the residents of this mountain village, it was an indispensable resource.
I never expected to meet someone who knew more about it than I did.
“I didn’t know that sword had a name. Do you also know the giant’s name?”
“The Flame Demon that Burns Stars. The Giant of the End, Surtr. He now slumbers somewhere in the north.”
“The Giant of the End, Surtr…”
Just hearing the name sent a chill down my spine. Slumbering somewhere in the north. He wouldn’t wake up later, would he?
While chatting with the old man about this and that, I continued chopping. By the time the sun hung over the mountain peaks, I had gathered a sizable pile of firewood. It was still far from enough to supply the entire village, but I didn’t have to finish everything today. This would do.
Now what?
The biggest downside of the Mite Mountain Range was that there was simply nothing to do. Thanks to that, I could work diligently, but once the work was done, there was nothing but staring blankly into space.
“Is it all right for you to stay here, sir?”
At least I had someone to talk to.
“What do you mean?”
“You came to the mountain range because there was something to see, right? Is it okay to just follow me around? Or… am I part of that prophecy?”
“Do you truly believe yourself to be such a significant figure?”
“I’m not? Oof, the flow of the conversation made it seem like it was me.”
The old man looked at me with eyes as cold as ice. Under that piercing gaze, I awkwardly scratched my head.
“If you are truly curious, I could give you a test.”
“Really? How?”
“Follow me.”
The place the old man led me to was a sheer cliff. Looking down revealed only the thick fog typical of the mountain range. The ground was nowhere in sight. If I fell, not even my bones would be recoverable.
“What are we doing here? Whoa, just looking at it makes my legs weak.”
“It is simple. I will test whether you are qualified.”
“How?”
“Like this.”
-Thud.
“Huh?”
A light impact hit my back, and my body flew forward. What lay below was not ground but empty air. I realized the old man had kicked me in the back only after it was already too late.
“Pray desperately. Pray that the stars will lend an ear to your voice.”
With those final words, an overwhelming force dragged me toward the ground.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah——!”
My scream echoed endlessly through the mountain range.