60. Fate or Destiny(2)
“…Hmm?”
A young woman’s voice. I was surprised when I unconsciously checked the other person.
Aren’t there a lot of old shamans? I think she just turned 20.
Well, it was an unusual atmosphere. It wasn’t normal to calm down the upset grandmother right away…
“Let me apologize first. I’m sorry for getting you involved in such an unpleasant incident.”
“Ah yes.”
“My name is Ran. I am the granddaughter of the grandmother over there. I also inherit my grandmother’s blood, so I am good at magic. I don’t know what you need a witch doctor for, but if you take me, you will be able to achieve your goal. I will.”
“He may not be trustworthy because he is young, but in this village, Ran is considered to have greater talent than his grandmother.”
I didn’t have any other options anyway, so I was planning on taking him with me even if it wasn’t enough, but hearing the villager’s additional explanation was fascinating.
I quickly nodded, then noticed Cruel standing to one side and frowned slightly.
“By the way, the man standing over there is not part of the group. If you were thinking of being part of the group with that man…”
“I will follow you, nobleman.”
The woman’s eyes clearly focus on me, as if to reassure me.
I glanced at Cruel, who was observing the situation without much rebuttal, and slowly raised the corner of my mouth and held out my hand.
“Then please take care of me.”
***
It doesn’t matter if you miss the Shaman. Aside from proving his usefulness, the duke hopes for his own victory, and to achieve that, he will end up having to find a new shaman or teach him other methods.
Cruel, who seemed to have something he wanted to do by staying here, did not bother to do anything and just watched the only shaman join Deon’s group.
Now, it’s time to accomplish the objective that was left here instead of going right away.
Cruel, who was staring at the back of Deon and his group as they walked away, turned his gaze. The eyes, which look like they were carved out of rough green stone, embody an old man who was said to be a shaman.
There are many conversations I want to have with her.
Cries to kill the flying stone and disaster. Cruel, thinking that everyone was close to the edge, kept his mouth shut and took long strides toward the old man.
And the moment he spoke to her, who was breathing tiredly, with a rough tone, the old man suddenly raised his head.
Their gazes met and the old man’s eyes softened.
“The baby is here too. He must be busy. Do you mind if I stay here like this?”
“…!”
The momentum that seemed to be swirling at any moment faltered for a moment.
An old man with clear, transparent eyes looks up at me, as if his treatment of Deon just moments ago was a lie.
The old man was said to be an excellent shaman, and as if he didn’t know that he was Deon’s older brother, he gently spread his arms in a virtuous manner. It looks like there are no boundaries at all.
“Come here. Let’s hug each other.”
“….”
“Come on.”
I heard that I am senile, but is this appearance also a part of senility?
Cruel walked towards her awkwardly, as he had no intention of worsening the old man’s condition for something that was not a loss.
The old man gently pulled the man’s arm as he approached him very slowly and held him in his arms, whispering affectionately to him as if he were his own grandchild.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
“….”
“You’ve really had a hard time.”
Cruel quietly looked down at the old man’s face, which was filled with deep regret. Even though he looked like he was about to cry, his eyes were still and motionless.
“Baby.”
“….”
“You are the child who will become the beginning of destruction.”
“…!”
“Don’t worry.”
Fearing that she might try to harm me as well, the old man continued to speak in a gentle voice as he held her tightly as he tried to retreat.
“I will never hate you. If I hate you too, there will be no one in this world who loves you.”
I didn’t mean to do this. I didn’t send Deon first for this reason.
I feel like my head is spinning. All kinds of doubts and calculations appear in my head and then disappear again and again.
Why are you being so kind to me? Why is your attitude different from before? Is it really the same person? Was there such a thing as senility?
Is it possible that it was all an act? So what are you hoping for? What on earth is this old man, a former shaman, looking at?
Unable to hold his head in confusion, Cruel just slowly closed his eyes. The eyes, which had become harder than before, looked at the old man.
The old man closed his eyes and smiled, as if he knew what he was talking about even without looking.
“It is said that a living being that is not loved has a short lifespan. Shouldn’t it live a long time?”
─I have to win the implicit bet with my younger brother.
grasp! At that moment, Cruel grabbed the old man’s shoulders and roughly pulled him away. The old man’s body shook helplessly in his grasp.
Even though it was a very unpleasant scene, Cruel could not care less about it. His mind was filled with only one thought.
‘how?’
By what means?
As the old man said, he is in an implicit competition with Deon. No separate words were exchanged. There wasn’t any signal.
This is what happened as we just ran towards our own goals.
A fight to see who can survive longer.
Deon is probably fighting a battle of ‘who can kill the other person first?’ It may be different if you look at it differently, but to me, it’s the same bet.
In any case, when he dies, Deon will have already died.
“Please try to win.”
“….”
“If you win, no disaster will occur. Then the beginning of destruction will never come. So, if you feel like you are going to die or want to die, kill that child first and then die.”
“…under.”
It seems that the saying that I am senile is not entirely wrong. When you see that you can’t tell what to say and what not to say.
He was restless and pushed her roughly towards the village young man who was sneaking up on him. She, helplessly pushed away, lands in the arms of a young man.
Cruel looked at her coldly.
‘Useless interference using unequal affection as bait…’
I was curious about what was being said and for what purpose, but I just watched it and never thought it would cross the line like this.
‘Should I kill him?’
The right hand hovers near the sword handle. Seeing this, the young man who was supporting the old man gasped slightly, but Cruel and the old man, who were actually involved, remained calm, without the slightest agitation.
There is a short silence.
The green eyes stared into the old man’s deep black eyes for a moment, but eventually Cruel let go of the sword and turned around.
He was not yet broken enough to swing his sword at the senile old man.
***
“You said you had greater talent than your grandmother, right?”
I took a quick look at Ran, who had been silent the entire time we were going down the mountain, and cautiously set off.
It wouldn’t have been a bad idea to go down while maintaining this silence, but there was something that got in the way, so I had no choice.
After all, didn’t he call me a ‘disaster’? We can’t just ignore it since it’s been said that he should be killed.
I still want to live. Dying without knowing anything is a given.
Moreover, I feel uncomfortable because the person who said such a thing is a former shaman…
“You can’t know talent because it’s not something you can see with your eyes.”
“…Then let me change the question. Your grandmother once told you, ‘You saw it too.’”
“If you are talking about your destiny and future, then yes.”
While saying that, Ran looked straight at me.
“I can still see it.”
“….”
I slowly looked at Ran’s face. An expression that doesn’t look like a smile at all, and clear, clear eyes.
It doesn’t seem crazy at all. You mean it wasn’t nonsense?
“You might want to dismiss what I said a moment ago as simply the nonsense of a senile old man, but unfortunately, it was after seeing that future that my grandmother became senile.”
“…There’s no way I’m senile…”
Ran smiled bitterly.
“Knowing too much is not always a good thing.”
“…Did that old lady know me? How was she able to predict my future when I’d never even met her?”
“Actually, what my grandmother predicted was not a nobleman’s future, but the future of a village child.”
She slowly turns her head and looks somewhere.
“I had no choice but to see it because you were deeply involved in that child’s fate.”
As I followed the line of sight, I saw a man looking at me from behind a tree.
‘It’s a surprise! ‘What is that!’
By the looks of it, you’re 19? 20 years old? Anyway, I think I’m about the same age as the woman named Ran next to me, but she’s not my child, so I don’t know why she’s like that. It’s scary.
Even when we make eye contact, they don’t hide.
As a southerner is characterized by dark hair and eyes, the dark eyes look straight in this direction.
I froze for a moment as his gaze scanned this direction as if searching, and belatedly, I stammered and called Lien.
“…Lord Lien….”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Did you know?”
“yes.”
But why didn’t you say anything, man?
“My lord didn’t say anything, so I just left it alone. Is there any problem…?”
“No, no.”
That’s right, he also mistook me for an incredibly strong guy.
I couldn’t bear to say anything and just sighed.
Anyway, so you’re saying I was in that man’s future? I didn’t predict my future, I just saw myself in someone else’s future, but that’s how I reacted…
“…what on earth did I see?”
“You shouldn’t talk about fate and the future carelessly. If you say it out loud, it could lead to the worst consequences.”
“….”
“But I can tell you this much. To you, hatred is like a forest fire. It may not be a big deal at first, but at some point it grows rapidly and eventually engulfs everything. So, let us “Your grandmother would have told you not to hate anything.”
I feel like things have become more complicated in my head, but I definitely understand one thing.
Fuck, I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything big in the future.
I don’t know why I, who strives to live as peacefully as possible, end up in such big trouble, but the culprit behind it is ‘hatred’.
The only person I currently hate is Cruel, so maybe he will be the spark.
‘As expected, I have to deal with Cruel first.’
Even if it wasn’t, it was an eyesore.
Because he became a hero, it’s impossible to guarantee whose side the emperor will take, and since he even has the duke on his back, and because of the attention from the social world, we haven’t been able to touch him so far, but we have to find a way quickly.
‘Assassination is likely to make a lot of noise, and maybe I should put a curse on it…’
Hmm? Not bad? Coincidentally, there is a shaman next to me.
I thought about briefly asking about the curse, but Ran, who I thought was finished, continued talking.
“And that child is close to an explosive that will explode at any moment.”
“ah.”
Is he still doing that?
I looked at the man who was still looking at me with trembling eyes.
Ran seemed to interpret my gaze as ‘interest in men’ or similar feelings, and muttered with a faint sigh.
“When an explosive explodes, a fire occurs, and conversely, when a fire occurs, an explosive explodes. Because of that, I hoped to avoid encountering that child as much as possible, but… Destiny isn’t something that can be changed that easily.”
…What are you talking about?
You’ve been talking about fate since a while ago, but the tone is a bit off.
Can’t we just call it ‘a relationship that happens to become properly entangled in the future’?
In the meantime, The man seems to have made up his mind as if he has made up his mind. At the same time, Lien puts his hand on the sheath of his sword and stands guard. Before she can unsheath her sword, the man stops walking and looks directly at me and slowly opens his mouth. I was nervous on the
inside
. Words so absurd as to be shameless came out:
“Please take me with you.”
