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Chapter 746: Turning Point

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

After I arrived in Bardi, I went to go visit a woman who was single and pregnant, and then she kicked me out...

Ahem, that sounded rather dirty, so to explain better, I simply went to visit my “sister-in-law” Leona. Previously, I had asked dragon knights to “transport” her to the Bardi capital. It seemed that she was still angry at me for that.

Leona’s complexion seemed to be better than it was several months ago when I saw her last. Maybe it was due to the pregnancy bringing out her motherly nature, but not only did she seem gentler than before, her face had also become rounder.

“She seems womanlier now.”

Maybe my words were a bit sexist, but Leona had indeed obviously changed.

At the very least, she didn’t directly draw her sword against me the moment that she saw me. It seemed that her upcoming motherhood had softened her somewhat.

When calculating the time, Leona was now approximately four or five months into her pregnancy. There was no evident bulge in her belly yet. It was also possible that her pregnancy wouldn’t last nine months like an ordinary human’s.

Fine, all of that was just me making stuff up. I had been single for more than three centuries already. How would I possibly know anything about pregnant women?

In order to avoid making a pregnant woman angry, I left after leaving just a letter behind. I arranged that we would go visit “Truthful Environment” archmage Akama tomorrow for a prophecy. As for how I had just recently met Karwenz, I didn’t have the time to tell that to her... Alright, I admit that I forgot to talk about Leona with Karwenz when I met him, which made me feel somewhat guilty now.

For once, I had some rare free time to myself as I walked down the streets of Bardi.

Prophets would always have a lot of rules, easily being able to come up with lots of excuses and reasons. Being able to easily access prophecies would only make them seem cheap, after all.

Being able to meet with Akama tomorrow was a rare instance of my reputation working in my favor. This was thanks to my Truth emblems, as no matter what, I was also nominally a member of the Mage Country’s Truth Symposium.

Actually, with the current situation as it was, I didn’t have too much hope that Akama would be able to prophesize anything for me.

“Does Karwenz intend on destroying the dimensional barrier?”

This was my original foundational question, but it no longer needed to be asked.

“How is he going to destroy the dimensional barrier? What is his ultimate goal? Where can I catch him and stop him?”

Answers to these questions would be quite valuable to me. However, it was quite obvious that Akama wouldn’t be able to prophesize such answers.

The basic rule of prophecy magic was that “yes or no” questions were the easiest to prophesize; the more specific the question regarding an individual, place, time, and so on, the greater of a price there would be for the answer. Also, the more powerful the target of the question, the greater of a price there would be as well.

This was just like trying to look up information on someone random on the internet in my past life. It would be really easy to find out if a random person was male or female, and if they were alive or dead. However, if you wanted to know what that person was thinking, what they were doing right now, or if they had any perverted fetishes... that would probably require dissecting their brain.

Prophecy was a technique of its own. Skill was required in order to ask the questions which would be easiest to prophesize.

This was even more so after the God of Fate cut off the River of Fate. All prophecies about the future became no different from trying one’s luck on gambling on a horse race. But, if the question was about the present, and if more people knew about the information, then the prophecy would be easier to receive.

Besides, the God of Fate was on my side as Catio was a Hell God. I could probably get him to go easy on me.

I toured the streets of Bardi in my boredom while also thinking about the most appropriate prophecy question to ask Akama.

“Is Karwenz searching for the Chaos Girls?”

If this was really true, then it was happening already. It was likely that some among his subordinates or allies also knew about the Chaos Girls. Asking this question probably wouldn’t require a large price, and if I received confirmation on this question, then I would ask my second question.

“Is searching for the Chaos Girls the most important thing to Karwenz right now?”

In a way, this question was asking in a roundabout manner if the Chaos Girls were connected to the dimensional barrier. Karwenz’s primary goal was most likely to shatter the dimensional barrier, after all.

My System also had her guesses about the Chaos Girls, but receiving confirmation would be even better.

“If I stay here, will that give Karwenz a headache?”

This was quite an abstract question, but it was asking about the future. The more abstract the question, the less the required price would be. Of course, the answer received would also be quite vague, but even a vague answer would be somewhat helpful in making my own decision about the future.

Since Leona and I were “connected” to this question, the price for asking this question was probably acceptable.

After that was the most important part of all.

Using indirect methods to ask about “Karwenz’s location” would require analysis of the specific information received. The most practical method would be to ask about important locations where he might be, and then directly make it a “yes or no” question.

That was the correct way to use prophets. Any novice who directly asked “Where’s the treasure?” or “What’s the demon king’s weakness?” would either be scammed by the prophet or directly kicked out.

After deciding on the questions that I would ask Akama tomorrow, I now felt more reassured as I toured the streets.

I had visited Bardi’s capital several times already. This place was incredibly important and flourishing as it was one of the oldest human cities in all of Eich.

Simply by sitting at a table outside a café and watching the busy citizens and horse-drawn carriages passing by in the street would help one to understand this city’s condition.

Everyone being busy wasn’t a bad thing. It meant that there were things worth them being busy with. Not many seemed to be worried or depressed. In fact, many people kept pointing up at the dragons passing by in the sky with proud and delighted expressions.

This was completely different from numbness or despair due to major trouble about to befall. I felt reassured at seeing this as it meant Bardi’s situation was still stable.

With such a major problem in San Antonio already, if there was also a similar problem with Bardi, that would be two foundational pillars of humanity collapsing, which would give a huge impact to morale and the actual situation. That would be quite difficult to withstand.

“Right, I have some bad news for you,” Harloys suddenly told me.

These days, she often went into a blank state as her focus was on the elves since the elven migration caravan was getting ever closer to the Northlands. She had much to be busy with regarding the government of the Northlands Elven Empire.

Sometimes, I would pull on her hand, which meant that an expressionless young girl would follow me obediently wherever I led... People would say things like “Such a cute daughter you have” and “Such a good girl, you’re out having fun with daddy?”, while I would happily respond with sentences like “Alice is really cute, isn’t she,” “She’s afraid of strangers”, and so on. This greatly annoyed Harloys and worsened her mood.

By the way, it should be mentioned that the appearance-altering age bracelet was ineffective on her because its designer had never even considered to adjust its settings so that it was possible to make one appear to be several tens of thousands of years younger.

Harloys’ state of mind then exploded on me. She even regretted successfully reaching Level 4.

So, she was telling me that she had bad news at this time with such an abnormal smile? Could it be that she was happy at another’s misfortune? This was... too normal.

“Can you guess who’s leading the wood spirits’ reinforcements that are coming to Bardi?”

“...You’ve already said that it’s bad news, so it’s probably Amelia? Didn’t she go to the Northlands...? Indeed, it’s been about three months, so it’s about time that she returned.”

Harloys continued to smile wickedly. “Originally, only two of the Virtues were coming, but Amelia immediately rushed over when she heard that you were in Bardi.”

“That’s a good thing. Our forces here will be even more powerful.”

“Ha, just keep pretending. Last time, you intentionally ran away from her. Don’t run this time if you dare.”

“Haha, I did nothing to feel guilty about at all.”

Although I was saying this, I was currently considering whether or not I should immediately run now after I asked Akama my prophecy questions... er, I meant starting a new journey! I felt like I had promised Halent too quickly to help him, so yep, I should probably go back and tell him that I had changed my mind.

But at this moment, two royal guards located me.

They had nervous expressions as if something had just happened, and when they carefully whispered to me what had happened, I became certain that even more trouble had come for me.

“Your Highness Roland, His Majesty Halent is asking you to return to the palace. Prophecy archmage Akama was just assassinated half an hour ago.”

“What? He’s dead?”