Chapter 325: 171. The Preparations for the Future -1 (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

Seran was floating in an unknown empty space, with no gravity to anchor her down. She gasped in surprise, and quickly looked around her new surroundings.

It was dark here. A still silence so eerily quiet filled this space up. She tried to open her mouth, but her voice didn’t want to come out.

She began touching her throat; her head spun around dizzily, as if she had too much to drink. Even her body felt incredibly heavy, like a soaked sponge.

All these sensations… Indeed, she had grown quite familiar with them a long time ago. That was because they belonged to…

‘…[Foresight]!’

The moment she realised that, someone’s voice suddenly came to her from below.

“Back then, your skin was pitch-black, son. During our travels, we sought someone to heal you, but that person told us that something was wrong with your body. We were told that you didn’t even have half a year left to live. But we didn’t lose hope.”

Seran’s eyes grew wider.

Inside this deep darkness, she noticed a lake emitting light right below her. A scene was being reflected in the water’s surface.

It belonged to a happy-looking family. She then noticed that the man currently speaking was Laurence, the commoner she had encountered a few days ago.

“And that’s when we met him. After the Farmer incident, we ended up meeting His Majesty the Holy King. That noble person bestowed a miracle onto your body, son.”

That man Laurence was sitting by a table and chatting to a young boy near him.

‘What is this? Why am I foreseeing a prophecy of such a scene?’, Seran thought to herself.

However, there was always a reason for everything, including with Foresight. That unknown reason was why she was seeing this scene right now.

The boy looked to be around ten years of age. He was sitting opposite to Laurence and while sighing, he shook his head.

“Mm? What’s the matter, Roy?”

“Ng? Ah, no it’s nothing, dad. Just feeling hungry, that’s all!” the boy named Roy smiled awkwardly.

“That’s not surprising. Dear, you’ve been repeating the exact same thing for the past five years. Every time you open your mouth, it’s His Majesty the Holy King this or His Majesty that. Can you imagine how fed up Roy must feel by now?” Laurence’s wife, Alina said while placing what looked to be breakfast on the table.

Seran began guessing some things after hearing her speak. Could it be that five years had passed since the Farmer incident? She tilted her head in some confusion.

But, wasn’t the baby named Roy only around one, maybe two years old right now, in the present timeline? Yet he had already grown into a boy in his early teens in five years?

‘Could it be because of Allen’s influence?’

Or, there could be something else she didn’t know about at play here…

The boy named Roy stepped outside his home. While holding onto Laurence’s hand, he walked down the street of a small village, a happy smile etched on his face.

Despite experiencing that horrible incident involving the Farmer, Laurence had chosen to stay in that village.

Their surroundings soon opened up to farmlands. Laurence and Roy waved their hands to greet the farmers and asked about their wellbeing.

From the looks of things, both Roy and Laurence seemed to be servants. They were certainly dressed like servants, too. The next scene reflected in the lake showed them walking towards the Ariana citadel to start their morning work.

Vitality and life filled the city streets. Travellers were busy walking along the streets, while the peddlers and shopkeepers were smiling away happily as they conducted their business.

It was the very picture of peace itself.

Laurence and Roy observed this scene, and grinned at each other.

‘So, the Kingdom of Frants in five years will be peaceful…’

A happy expression gradually filled Seran’s face.

Clang-! Ding-! Dang-!!!

The crowd in the streets flinched at the noises and raised their heads. Those noises echoing through the cityscape were actually alarm bells.

They were only activated during the monster raids or an onset of war, however.

“What’s going on?”

“A war, maybe…? Or monsters?”

“No way. It’s been really quiet for the past few years, after all. Someone must’ve rang it by mistake or something.”

“You’re right. Some kids have been sneaking into the bell tower every now and then, haven’t they?”

The citizens brushed the matter aside nonchalantly. Their reasoning was that some kids managed to climb up the bell tower and rang the warning bell there as a prank a few days ago.

However, cold sweat began trickling down Laurence’s face for some reason.

Roy asked in a puzzled voice, “Dad?”

“Mm? Ah, it’s nothing, son. This is the Kingdom of Frants, after all. As long as the Theocratic Empire exists, there won’t be an outbreak of war, and if we’re dealing with monsters, then our brave soldiers will handle them soon enough.”

Roy nodded in understanding at his father’s answer.

“Ah. Look, Roy. Over there…”

Laurence pointed to a spot further up ahead on the street. An old man in his seventies and wearing a butler’s outfit was waving his hand at Roy and Laurence from the middle of the marketplace.

“Isn’t that Mister Klare the butler? Let’s quickly go and say hello.”

“Alright, dad.”

Seran, watching on from above the lake, was surprised. Butler Klare was a loyal retainer who had been serving the House Ariana with unyielding devotion for nearly fifty years.

‘He hasn’t changed at all in five years, has he?’ She smiled gently at this sight.

Roy bowed his head towards the butler, “Hello, Mister…”

But then something happened.

SPLAT-!

“…Klare?”

Roy’s eyes caught sight of a huge boulder crushing Butler Klare to death.

Seran’s expression froze stiff in an instant. The boulder responsible for crushing the old butler continued to roll forward and destroyed the marketplace.

Ka-boooooom!

Explosive noises suddenly rocked the city.

DANG-! DING-! DAAANG-!

The noisy alarm bells continued to ring on and on.

“Kkyaaaaahk!”

“A p-person was crushed!”

“What was that?! Where did that boulder even…?!”

“H-help me! My leg… My leg…!”

Roy and Laurence froze up in their spots.

Seran, watching all these things happen through the pool, quickly covered her mouth with her trembling hands.

That boulder suddenly flying in generated screams and tragic cries from seemingly everywhere. The street was instantly bathed in blood, and a person who got his leg crushed under the large rock pleaded with the others to save him.

Roy cautiously looked up. He was greeted by the sight of countless boulders descending on the city.

“Ah…!” He hurriedly grabbed Laurence’s arm and ran away from there.

CRUNCH-!

Boulders began pummelling the ground; more screams could be heard coming from behind the fleeing duo.

“H-help me-!”

The powerless citizens minding their own business on the streets earlier were crushed to death by the falling boulders, their blood and flesh splattering everywhere. The buildings collapsed and blew apart, trapping even more people under the debris.

“Kkyaaaaahk!”

“Run, ruuuun-!”

“What is going on here?!”

The once-peaceful city was transformed into a pandemonium of blood in the blink of an eye.

‘Oh no!’ Seran inwardly cried out. She hurriedly reached out and dipped her hand under the pool’s surface, but she wasn’t allowed to interfere. All she could do for now was to passively watch the future unfold.

“Hurry and run, dad!”

“Huff, huff…!” Laurence panted roughly away as they ran.

Right at that moment, a carriage suddenly pulled up and blocked their path.

“You two, hurry up and get in!”

“Lord Harman!” Roy cried out the name of the Paladin riding on the carriage driver seat.

“Just what is happening here, sir?!”

“I’ll tell you the details later on. Hurry up and get inside already!”

Roy and Laurence boarded the carriage.

“Mom? What about my mom!” the boy cried out again.

Harman quickly replied, “Other Paladins have already been dispatched to your village. They will ensure the safe evacuation of the villagers there.”

Roy relaxed a little at the Paladin’s reply, only to flinch in surprise and freeze up once inside.

“Sister. Are you alright?!”

“S-sister, please hold on! At this rate…!”

He discovered that the twin brothers, Marvel and Marcel, and in the middle of the duo, Seran, were already inside the carriage.

‘…What’s going on?’

Seran took in the sight of how pitiful her future self looked through the lake, her eyes trembling in shock.

The ‘Seran’ of five years in the future had no focus in her eyes, her head remained faltered. Her normal personality was energetic and outgoing, so why was she making such a miserable expression right now?

Why did her eyes look so… dead?

Just as Seran’s puzzlement threatened to grow even deeper, she got her answer.

“Uncle… Mom… Marcus…”

Her expression hardened when she heard her future self mutter those words.

King Zayner, then Runan Ariana, and her younger brother Marcus…

Those three, they had been…

‘No, no!’ Seran screamed, only for it to echo in her mind and nowhere else.

“We’re departing!” Harman roared out and drove the horses forward.

The carriage broke into a sprint as more boulders rained down from the sky.

The horses, clearly terrified by the destruction taking place all around them, dashed this way and that to evade the boulders.

“Just a little bit further…!”

The exit that led outside the city limits could be seen right in front of them.

“We did it!” Harman cried out just as the carriage escaped from the city. Almost at the same time, however, the ground rumbled ominously.

Roy turned around and urgently yanked open the carriage’s fabric flap. That was when he got to see them.

“Wha… what are those…?”