Ch.21Chapter 21. First Time is Chance, Second Time is Fate.

Astrologer Irie Haven.

As the last descendant of the God of Destruction and one who came to this land with a mission, she held her breath as she etched the horrific scene revealed in the crystal ball into her eyes.

A scene where everything visible was burned and collapsed.

But what particularly caught her eye was the hazy powder covering the ruins, even though not everything had been completely burned yet.

Sand, or perhaps ash?

Whatever it was, it could serve as a clue about the being that caused this scene.

‘For such an absurd event to suddenly occur, even altering the previously foreseen future….’

This is something that rarely happens.

For an event devastating enough to lay waste to an entire nation, there should be preceding signs, and an astrologer’s foresight is designed to derive predictions by considering all such signs.

In this situation, the fact that the future she had foreseen changed in an instant meant that the perpetrator had suddenly decided to commit such an act without giving time for any preceding signs to appear.

So suddenly that even the one beyond the vast universe who grants her revelations had only just noticed it.

‘…Ancestor, is this the future you read?’

Angolmoa, the God of Destruction.

A being who descended to this land in ancient times following a revelation to destroy the world, but ascended back to the heavens for some reason.

His bloodline remained on this land through his union with humans, and now his descendants have gathered their powers to bestow them upon her.

Yes, in essence, she has now awakened the same power as Haven, the first demigod.

Born with such power, she understood.

The power to read the movements of stars that this clan possesses exists because of the intervention of the God of Destruction who exists beyond this world.

“…God of Destruction,”

Irie, who vaguely sensed such intervention.

Soon she gathered her power in the crystal ball and attempted to communicate with him.

“Until now, our clan has only been able to see the future by reading the movements of stars, but we haven’t figured out how to modify that future in the desired direction.”

Even if one could change the future, fate tends to split into countless branches at every moment.

With powers that fade over generations, even finding the right path among destinies is challenging.

Even now that she has gathered all that power, at most she can only confirm the method to reach the future she wants to pursue through sentences or blurry scenes.

As if someone is indirectly conveying that fact rather than directly confirming the possibility.

“The reason we gathered our powers was to prevent the mortal future that will soon come to this land. You originally intended to destroy it with your own hands, but now you’re taking a completely different path from the future where you would withdraw after reading the moment of impending doom.”

Reading the future and being taught how to modify that future are all possible because a being called a god is watching over this land.

Having realized this point only after attaining the same status as the first demigod, Irie took this moment to ask a question she had been harboring.

“Are you giving us constant revelations to prevent mortality because you also wish for this land not to be destroyed?”

[…..]

There was no answer.

Nevertheless, Irie asked him again.

“Or is it that despite our struggles, the future is predetermined, and you’re watching your descendants’ struggles as entertainment?”

Despite feeling his presence whenever she read the movements of stars, she couldn’t bring herself to trust him.

After all, that being originally desired the destruction of this land.

Even the intention behind creating his bloodline on this land by uniting with a human could be mere entertainment, so how could she, who grew up as a human, unconditionally trust his intentions?

“Is this modified future something that will soon come to pass if I don’t intervene?”

Nevertheless, she asked him with desperation.

Regardless of his intentions or feelings, whether beings as insignificant as themselves had the right to struggle.

[Yes.]

When the answer appeared in the crystal ball, Irie exhaled heavily and put strength into her hands.

She still didn’t know his intentions, but fortunately, he was at least providing fragmentary answers about the power to read the future.

Yes, for now, that would be enough.

She would follow the responsibility she had shouldered and try to change what she could.

‘This future is too sudden, but I can’t just blame him for it.’

After organizing her thoughts, Irie once again etched the devastating scene floating in the crystal ball into her eyes.

The future revealed by reading the movements of stars… more precisely, the future that the God of Destruction derived while observing this land from that universe.

‘Is the sudden change in the future due to an error in his judgment?’

No, that’s not it.

Communicating with him and sensing his vessel now, Irie rather believed that it was because he was such an extraordinary being that he could immediately reflect the modified results.

After all, this is the result of the whims of beings that even he finds difficult to predict, beings that the Haven clan defines as “Transcendents.”

‘What he provides to us is, metaphorically speaking, similar to looking down at an ant colony with a magnifying glass and writing a journal.’

Observing the ecology of ants and meticulously recording the findings.

After accumulating a certain amount of information, one can roughly predict all the ecology and processes occurring there just by briefly examining the sections, without having to check the ant colony in detail.

Even a mere human can do that much, so it wouldn’t be difficult for a being called a god to predict the future of an entire planet.

‘But that’s only applicable to normal ecology. No matter how perfectly one tries to control the environment for observation, variables can always emerge.’

What if a mutant is born in that ant colony that wasn’t predicted?

Or if a predatory animal invades from outside the ant colony, or if disasters like heavy rain or earthquakes occur?

Such variables make prediction difficult and often lead to the observer discarding or completely revising the accumulated data.

The immediate reflection of such revised results is the alteration of the future.

The Transcendents, as defined by the Haven clan, are beings who, without any preceding signs, deviate from the expectations of the god observing them through mere whims.

‘Of course, after recognizing such whims, he would make adjustments. Rather, they would exert enough influence to drastically change the future, so reading the signs from that moment would be easy for him.’

The key is whether she, having learned of such a future, can actually change it.

Ironically, an astrologer can read the future, but there are limitations to what they can change with their own hands.

To overcome these limitations, the help of others is inevitable, but as is often the case with fortune-tellers, it’s not easy to gain the trust of ordinary people.

Even if they tell the truth, if it’s not what people want to hear, they might be called frauds or spreaders of false rumors, and when reading the future of someone who pretends to comply, they often find themselves being betrayed…

“…Great ancestor.”

But now she has risen to the same status as the first demigod.

That power goes beyond just reading the movements of stars and has reached the point of communicating with the God of Destruction, who has the power to read fate.

“As your creation, I humbly request. If you can hear my voice, please teach me a way to avoid the future revealed to me at this moment.”

The moment the crystal ball, responding to her power, was illuminated with a bright light along with her desperate prayer.

That consciousness interfered with the universe beyond the clear sky, and soon reached the remnants of the God of Destruction spread there, leading to communication with him.

[Wait. Then you will meet.]

Just a fragmentary message that could hardly be called detailed,

‘…Meet who?’

[That too you will know when the time comes.]

That was the end of what he had to say.

After withdrawing her power from the crystal ball, Irie felt drained and frowned, letting out a deep sigh.

‘I might get a more proper answer if I asked more specifically… but my power isn’t infinite either.’

Just reading the movements might not consume much power, but what she wants to do is to accurately identify the future she desires among countless branches of fate.

It’s already challenging to read a predetermined future, let alone accurately identifying just the path specified by the God of Destruction’s answer among countless branches of fate.

He too must know these limitations, which is why he condenses his answers as much as possible when conveying his intentions to her.

“But if that is your answer… I will trust it for now,”

His revelations were always accurate, except when the future was modified by the whims of Transcendents.

So, following his message in the crystal ball, she sat quietly in place, and soon noticed someone walking from afar.

A man roaming the streets with a neat armor and a spear with a bluish blade on his back.

The moment she laid eyes on him, Irie could immediately guess. Yes, this man is the protagonist of the revelation given to her.

“Excuse me, passing adventurer. Could you come here… huh?”

Just as she opened her mouth to call him, the moment she recognized his existence, familiar afterimages began to appear in Irie’s mind.

The ability to vaguely grasp a person’s experiences or memories just by facing them is an innate ability of the Haven clan.

Without looking deeply, it’s just a brief result, but the more clearly that person remembers something, the more definitely it can be confirmed, as if it’s organized in a document.

That person’s personal information, chronic worries, and even the problems they currently consider serious.

“Oh, oh? You are…”

“Huh?”

The man approached Irie, who felt familiarity from the past, with a blank expression, not immediately recognizing her, just resting his chin on his hand and tilting his head.

“Hmm? I’ve seen you somewhere, who were you again?”

It’s natural. It had been several weeks since they parted.

So she too should have forgotten him, but…

“Wa, wa…”

Why on earth?

Since that day, whenever she wasn’t conscious of other things, she kept thinking about him.

“Wa, wawawait!? W-why are you here!!!!”

“Oh, so you do know me? I was just remembering who you were… You’re that fortune-teller sister I met a while ago, right?”

“Ah, yes. Th-that’s, um… Th-that is!!”

Irie Haven, startled by the sudden encounter, flailed her hands.

Then her gaze quickly turned to the crystal ball placed in front of her.

‘S-something is wrong… No, there’s nothing wrong with what he said. The whims of Transcendents don’t happen that often.’

Yes, from the point of reading the future, this is no coincidence.

The God of Destruction read that he would come here, foresaw the present where she and he would meet, and was confident that by meeting him and giving advice, she could prevent the future she had read.

‘But, that… I-if we meet like this again, that person and I might, you know…’

A second meeting that took place after reading such a future.

If this isn’t a coincidence, it’s as if it’s predestined that he and she will be together.

“Excuse me, are you alright? Your face is really red…”

“…Ahem.”

A coughing sound before the question could end.

Along with it, Irie raised her head slightly and spoke to him with a relaxed smile on her lips.

“Despite parting due to unavoidable circumstances before, we meet again in a place like this. This could be called a fate guided by the stars shining in the sky.”

“Ah, yes. It’s been a while. It was Irie, right?”

“That’s right. I am Irie Haven, a being who sees the past and reads the future by reading the movements of stars…”

With utmost calmness and seriousness.

Having succeeded in maintaining such an atmosphere, Irie chuckled and faced him with half-closed eyes.

“Come to think of it, I said I would give you a free fortune-telling once, but I ended up sending you away without realizing it.”

Yes, while the future might be predetermined, it can be changed by variables.

Regardless of why the God of Destruction read such a future and gave it to her, if she remains cautious with such a result in mind, it won’t come to pass.

Of course, one of the reasons she came to this empire was to find a partner for the prosperity of her clan, but such a partner should be chosen carefully.

There’s no need to think about that right now. With that in mind, she began to smile leisurely, intending to continue the consultation with the man in front of her.

“If you’re okay with it, would you like to continue what we couldn’t finish then?”

Regardless of how her relationship with him might turn out later.

For now, focusing only on the fact that this person is the hope who can prevent the ‘great calamity’ that will befall this empire.

***

“Well, I need to prepare, so please wait a moment.”

“Ah, yes. Preparation…”

The astrologer, Irie Haven, waved both hands in front of the crystal ball before her.

As memories of her gradually came back to me starting with her name, I brought up what happened back then to change the atmosphere.

“Excuse me, Irie. I’m curious about that time…”

“It was an accident.”

“…Pardon?”

“It was an accident. Please forget about it.”

“Ah, yes.”

Irie continued her work, speaking firmly.

Although I brought it up to lighten the mood, it seems it wasn’t a particularly pleasant memory for her.

Of course. No matter how calm she tries to appear, it would be strange if she wasn’t affected by having her adult video files discovered by a client.

Thinking I should not bring it up and understand her with a warm heart, I decided to focus on the upcoming consultation with her.