Chereads / Nexus Convergence (Canceled) / Chapter 20 - Oracle

Chapter 20 - Oracle

As we made our way towards the marketplace, we passed by the public library when Anise suddenly stopped and said: "Let's stop by the library for a moment."

I was a bit confused about the reason, but I agreed nonetheless and we both stepped inside. The same old man as last time was sitting behind the counter, reading an old book. As he heard us walking towards him, he lifted his eyes form the book and a small smile appeared on his aged face as he stood up and came towards us.

Anise bowed towards the old man and said: "Grandpa Cyrus, it's good to see you.". I was a bit curious about their relationship, but decided stay silent and bow towards the old man as well.

Grandpa Cyrus came in front of Anise and ruffled her hair as he said: "Little Anise, what brings you to the city?"

Anise blushed as she answered: "I was walking around town with my friend Ethan here and decided to pay you a visit." She then turned towards me and said: "Ethan, this is grandpa Cyrus, a former teacher at the academy as well as my mentor when I started practicing magic."

I was about to tell her that we already met, but Cyrus beat me to the punch replying: "Oh, we already met a few days ago. He took on a quest to help me sort some books in the library."

"It's good to see you, sir." I replied politely.

"Good good." Cyrus nodded and continued: "Let's go to one of the reading rooms. We'll talk over a cup of tea.". After that, he patted my shoulder and started walking towards one of the reading rooms without really waiting for us to answer.

After we entered one of the reading rooms, we both sat down as Cyrus served each of us a cup of tea. After he finished pouring our tea, he pured a cup for himself before sitting down opposite from us.

Taking a sip of his tea, he asked Anise: "How's you mother doing? I haven't had time to visit the academy in a while."

"She's doing well, thank you for asking. A bit occupied with all the war business, but otherwise fine. How are you sir? I'm sorry I didn't find time to visit you earlier."

"Haha, I'm enjoying my retirement with my nephew, nothing to feel sorry about."

After being done with the pleasantries, Anise expression suddenly turned serious as she asked: "Grandpa, did you see anything about the war?"

The old man shook his head and said with a sigh: "Not really. You know that I haven't been able to see much for a while now."

I was silently listening to their conversation, not understanding what they were speaking about, when the old man turned towards me and continued: "But your young friend here might know something since the last time I checked his fate flow he didn't seem to have one. The only person I've ever seen without a fate."

The word 'fate' startled me and I was about to ask him what he meant, but Anise beat me to the punch as she said: "That is probably because he's not from this world. He was summoned here from another world by me by mistake."

Cyrus shook his head again and said: "He might arrive here with a blank fate, since he was not related to the world itself, but as soon as he entered in contact with someone, his fate will get entangled with theirs. Not having a fate on the other hand can only mean the world itself is protecting him from my sight."

[Ethan, he must be some sort of seer or prophet, people able to read the flow of fate.]

Seeing Anise's questioning glance, I replied: "I have no idea what you two are talking about." I started to regret agreeing to Anise's request to come here.

Anise was about to say something when Cyrus suddenly said: "Forget about it. It appears my vision is getting worse and worse these years. I can now see a small flow of fate, so my vision might have acted up before."

Anise, who was initially intrigued by the old man saying I don't have a fate, seemed to believe his explanation, but I didn't really buy it and asked Ai:

'Did you let him see my fate or something?'

[No, he must be lying. It's impossible for anyone to see your fate, even me.]

'But why would he choose to say that he couldn't see my fate first and then immediately change his mind and say that he can see it? Why say anything about it in the first place?'

[*He was closely observing you, probably to check your reaction. Be careful of him, he's definitely a sly old fox.*]

I decided to follow the old man's lead and play the fool since I really didn't want to speak of this subject and Senna's words also made me want to act a bit more careful. Looking confused, I asked: "Can you two explain what all of this is about?"

Anise was the one who replied as she said: "Grandpa Cyrus has a gift. He is able to see and read the flow of fate of any living being. Reading the flow of fate is almost like taking a look into the future."

Cyrus sighed at her answered and said: "You can say I used to have this gift since these days I can only see the threads at most, unable to read them at all."

"I see. Do you know what happened? Why can't you read the flow of fate anymore?"

He shook his head as he answered: "I don't know. My power suddenly stopped working. I figured it might have something to do with me getting older."

I thought his explanation made sense, at least before I heard Ai's words.

[All prophets have a connection with the fate system. Once the system abandoned this world, his ability to read the flow of fate and predict future evens should have disappeared.]

"Too bad. This gift of yours would for sure have been useful during the war."

The two of them, Anise and Cyrus, sighed at my world at the same time and started chatting about the academy for almost an hour until Cyrus stood up and said: "I must go and tend to the front desk. Do you two want to browse the library?"

Anise stood up as well and replied: "Thank you for the offer but we were planning to visit the marketplace. Maybe another time."

After we reached the front desk, the old man picked up a book from the desk and gave it to me.

"This is the book you asked for the last time. It took a while to find it but I didn't let you down."

I looked weirdly at the old man for a second before I accepted the book and took a peek at the title. It said "The ancient city of Atar.".

After seeing the title I was even more confused and wanted to ask him what all this was about, but the old man interrupted me by saying: "Now go, I have a lot of work to do.", before he sat down at the desk and started reading through the same book he was reading when we came in, not bothering to look towards us again.

With no other option, I left the library and Anise asked me: "What book is that?"

"Some history book. I wanted to know more about this world."

She nodded and took the lead as we headed for the market place. Seeing she didn't ask anything else, I let out a sigh of relief in my mind and followed after her.

'Ai, what was that about?'

[I have no idea. His power to see the future should be gone.]

'Hmm. I guess I'll just have to read the book. He must have had a reason to suddenly lie to Anise and pass me this book.'

Seeing Anise walking with a pensive expression, I asked: "Anise, why did you want to visit the old man?"

She was startled by my sudden question and answered: "Oh, I just missed him since he was one of my oldest mentors."

"But you seem to be troubled about something, what is?"

She thought for a moment and said: "I just think it's weird. His powers stopped working just a few month before the demon attack on the north. I still remember that he seemed troubled back then, but he never mentioned anything about the attack and just said that his powers were not working anymore. When it actually happened, he was already retired from the academy so no one really though too much into it, but I think he already knew about it and chose to stay silent for some reason."

"Hmm, so you thought that he might still have his powers and just pretended he lost them?"

She nodded and said: "I went to see him after the attack a couple of times, hoping to see some clue that I was right, but he never did anything weird or let anything slip. That was until today, when he said that you had no fate. The fact that he changed his words right after, even tho he seemed so sure at first was a bit strange. What do you think?"

[*This little girl is quite smart. She probably knows you two conspired to lie to her back there, but kept silent about it.*]

Hearing Senna's words, I sighed and replied: "He probably truly lost his powers, but something is definitely strange with him." I showed her the book and continued: "I never mentioned anything about this book the last time I saw him."

Curious, she asked: "Can I take a look?"

Seeing me nod, she picked up the book and took a look at the title before passing it back to me: "I read this book before. It's about an ancient city, a city from before the calamity."

"But why would he give this to me?" I asked with a frown as I took the book back.

"I have no idea. Maybe you will find out something after reading it."

I nodded and said: "I plan to do just that when I return to the inn."

As we kept chatting, we soon reached the market place. Anise looked around for a moment before she turned towards me and asked with curiosity.

"What do you want to buy?"

"A couple of things. Let's look around first."

She nodded and we both entered the sea of people, slowly browsing through the stores opened by the adventurers. Finding nothing of interest on those stalls, I asked her to help me pick some sets of clothes. She happily agreed and we both walked inside a big clothing store. The place didn't have a lot of people. As we looked through the displayed clothes she helped me pick some robes and some casual clothes. I also wanted to buy some underwear but they seem to make those only for women for some reason, leaving me with no choice but to give up.

We kept going from store to store, mostly browsing and only picking up some things here and there. I even bought a pair of earrings for Anise after I saw her staring intently at them when we were passing by. After we were done with the shopping, we picked up some food from one of the stalls and Anise said to me, as we made our way outside the marketplace:

"Do you want to come with me to the adventurer's guild? I want to let father know about my decision to leave the academy."

She looked a little worried so I nodded and said: "Sure, maybe you can even register as an adventurer since you will still need a way to increase your level after leaving the academy."

She agreed and we both walked towards the guild. Once we reached there, we stepped inside and walked towards the counter. After waiting in queue for a couple of minutes, Anise showed the clerk the academy medallion and we both soon found ourselves in the guild master's office.

We exchanged greetings and they chatted casually for a moment, before Anise's expression turned serious. She took a deep breath and said:

"Father, I came here because I made a decision and wanted to let you know first."

Her father's expression became strange as he turned towards me and asked:

"Are you getting married? Don't tell me she's pregnant."

We both blushed at his question, but Anise didn't let him continue as she said: "Father, it's serious. Can you stop joking around?"

Anise seemed to think the he was joking but I was pretty sure he was serious. The sigh he released as soon as he heard her answer pretty much confirmed it.

"I decided to leave the academy."

He didn't have any reaction, just looked at Anise intently for a moment before he sighed and said: "So it finally happened. Does your mother know?"

Anise shook her head and replied: "I didn't tell her since I didn't have time. I plan to return to the academy and let her know after I leave the city."

"That's fine, but what about magic? Didn't you say you like magic and wanted to learn more?"

I was a bit surprised by the happy look inside her father's eyes, expecting him to be angry about it.

Anise, hearing her father's question, looked at me discretely for permission. Seeing me shake my head, she sighed and said:

"I'll just practice on my own and joint the adventurer guild to level up."

The guild master nodded and said: "If that's what you really want, I will support you, but your mother will definitely be against it."

"I know. That's also one of the reasons I came to see you first."

The guild master seem to ponder for a moment before he turned towards me and said: "Ethan, do you mind leaving us to speak about this matter in private?"

I looked towards Anise and seeing her nod, I stood up and said: "That's all right with me. Anise you know where to find me."

"I do. Thank you for your help. If nothing goes wrong I should come by tomorrow."

I said my goodbyes to the both of them and walked out, making my way towards the inn. Once inside my room, I sat down on the bed and took out the book I received from Cyrus. I quickly skimmed through the pages to let Ai record it, before I said:

'What do you think, Ai?'

[The book is full of information about ancient ruins that seemed to be part of the city of Atar. The whole city appears to have been cut into pieces and spread throughout both continents.]

'But, what does that have to do with me?'

[The people that lived in that city specialized in space, time and life magic. As a result of a failed teleportation, the entire city was split into pieces, each piece teleporting to a different place in the world. Also, most of the pieces seem to have been guarded by golems.]

I stood up as soon as I heard the world golem and asked: 'Do you think that cave inside the village was one of those ruins?'

[There is a really high probability.]

I sat back down and asked: 'But, if his powers are gone, how could he know about all this?'

Ai went silent and Senna's voice sounded:

[*He might be an avatar.*]

'Avatar? Like my body?'

[*Yes, but usually avatars are used by spirit beings to walk the mortal world. For example, if I wanted to manifest inside this world I would also have to create one.*]

'I see, but whose avatar it is?'

[*Isn't it easy? Considering what he knew about you, it should be the world will's avatar.*]

'It does make sense..' I replied with a pensive look 'But, what does the avatar want from me?'

[It's not an avatar.] Ai suddenly interrupted our conversation.

'Hm? How do you know, Ai?'

[The world is simply not big enough to be able to produce an avatar. He should be the world's oracle. An oracle is able to understand the world's will and hear it's voice. If he really is an oracle, he is unable to read the flow of fate anymore, but he can still see into the past. This would explain how he was able to know about Anna.]

[*That also makes sense, which means the world must be observing you.*]

'Is that bad?'

[*Not really, you might be even to make use of it to find out other info.*]

[Try not to interact too much with the oracle. The world will is not supposed to interfere with the fate system and the fact that it passed you this book suggests that it already suspects something is wrong with the system.]

'Fine, I'll not go out of my way to seem information from him. Ai, are there any of those ruins around here? I think I should go and visit, maybe I'll be able to find out more about the place Anna was teleported to.'

[There are a couple, but they have long been explored by other people.]

'Can you mark them on the map anyway? I'll just try to pick up quests around those areas and check them out. You never know if I'll be able to find something that the others missed. Maybe Anna was even teleported inside one of those ruins.'

[All right. I already marked all of the discovered ones that are in the southern continent. As soon as you obtain a map of the northern continent I'll mark those as well. Remember that it's possible there are still more ruins that were simply not discovered before.]

'Thank you.' With that out of the way, I asked Ai to pull me inside my soul space and started working on the lightning spell together with her and Senna.