While Yuna was out running errands,
I had nothing else to do, so I opened a book.
It’s good to study in spare moments like this, isn’t it?
I don’t think I used to live this diligently in the past, so I can’t help but wonder how I ended up like this.
“This isn’t just advanced; it should be classified as supreme, shouldn’t it?”
The spell I was studying now was called [Broken World].
It bends both the target’s vision and the surrounding light at the same time, shaking the very appearance of the world itself.
Once caught in this magic, the world overlaps, twists, and shimmers like a kaleidoscope, and simply keeping your eyes open will throw your sense of balance into chaos.
In short, it was like a mirage on a far grander scale.
Of course, it was much harder to pull off than a mere mirage spell…
Bang!
That was when someone kicked open the door to my workshop.
From that rude way of entering, I could tell immediately who it was.
“Johan Damus!!”
“Who told you to knock like that? Oracle. Close the door and knock again.”
“What are you plotting this time?!”
Well, it was about time she showed up.
Considering what I was about to do, it would’ve been stranger if she hadn’t.
“I’m the victim here.”
“That’s like a thief complaining his own feet are painful. Is that really an answer to my question about what you’re plotting?”
“Well, it’s not like I can just sit back and take it.”
“No, I’m asking what you’re plotting. The future has changed far too drastically!”
“Who knows?”
“Don’t annoy me.”
“No, seriously, I have no idea. What plan could I possibly have? I’m just struggling to survive.”
“……”
“Well… in the process, Second Prince Loki might end up dead.”
“No, you really are making up something ridiculous again, aren’t you!”
“Oracle, people die sooner or later.”
“Sounds like you’re asking to die by my hands right now.”
Good grief, so violent.
“I didn’t have a choice. You must’ve seen the paper.”
“I don’t read the newspaper.”
“Oh, what an achievement, you bastard.”
“Why would someone who already knows what big event will happen tomorrow bother reading a newspaper?”
“Well, when you put it that way.”
She’d told me before that her way of seeing the future was event-focused.
Which meant if it was the kind of incident that would make the papers, she could sense it ahead of time and come running.
“So, you’re saying you don’t know what’s happened to me lately? No rumors?”
“Rumors? What rumors?”
“You don’t have any friends, do you?”
“Neither do you.”
“I’ve got Yuna, Raven, Ollie, and Jeff—”
“Shut up.”
Ha. She’s even more of a loner than I am.
Pathetic. The so‑called mysterious Oracle….these days she’s just the saddest loner I’ve ever met.
“Fine, at least look at the paper.”
I tossed her one of the newspapers I’d been saving to clean the windows later.
Thud.
It hit the floor. She didn’t even pretend to catch it.
“Catch it, would you?”
“Oh, sorry. The idea of accepting something from you just feels… wrong.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like it either. Now pay me back for the paper, you bastard.”
“A noble is resorting to pushy sales tactics? And you lectured me about dignity?”
So she’d been holding onto that petty grudge all this time.
Oracle gave me a look of pure disgust as she picked up the newspaper.
Her expression shifted subtly as she read through the article.
“How on earth did things end up like this?”
“How should I know? It was like getting struck by lightning out of the blue.”
“You may not know the details, but it’s obvious this is your fault.”
“I’m the victim here.”
“In the futures where you didn’t interfere, nothing like this ever happened. Which means you must be the culprit.”
“Very logical reasoning. But without proof, I’m innocent.”
“So how exactly did this lead to you deciding to kill Loki?”
“Oh, I spread Loki’s weaknesses all across the empire to cover up that newspaper story.”
“……?”
The Oracle made a bizarre face.
“So basically, you’re just the bad guy from start to finish? First you stab Loki in the back, and now you’re saying you might kill him too?”
“No, you’ve got it wrong. I’ll dig the trap nice and deep, sure. But if Loki doesn’t try to kill me, he won’t fall into it in the first place, right?”
“That’s the logic of a lunatic.”
“And trying to kill someone on pure suspicion makes sense to you?”
“Loki is, in fact, a luantic.”
“That’s right.”
“Which means you’re every bit as crazy as he is.”
“I’m just a cowardly, law‑abiding citizen.”
“That’s such a disgusting line of reasoning I don’t even want to keep talking to you.”
I feel the same way.
She never offers any alternatives. She just blames me for everything.
Never even dares to go after the real big shots.
She’s just picking on me because I’m the easier target. What a petty little piece of work.
“…If you’re going to do it, then do it properly.”
“Do what?”
“If you’re going to kill Loki, then do it properly.”
“You say it so casually, like it’s nothing, telling me to kill someone.”
“Come on, you know this if you can see the future too. Loki could end up becoming the seventy‑second master.”
“I know.”
Loki was cunning and evil.
If you corner him carelessly, he might just end up making a pact with a demon.
And if he does? He’ll immediately become Tillis’s target.
Loki was an imperial member in his own right and possessed formidable combat skills, but he still fell short of Tillis.
If Loki was truly that strong, he wouldn’t even need to be competing with Lobelia in the first place.
“On top of that, thanks to the Judge barging into the Cradle recently and stirring things up, the future has been shifting drastically.”
“So what? In the future you saw, does Tillis become the Demon King or something?”
“There are always possibilities.”
“Is that so? Then you’d better make sure that possibility never comes to pass.”
“I was doing just fine. I was! If you’d just stop getting in my way!”
“Blaming others when things don’t go your way won’t get you anywhere.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing the words ‘blaming others’ coming out of your mouth…”
I’ve only ever offered fair and reasonable criticism. I’m a decent person, and the people who make my life difficult are all in the wrong.
How could such a self‑evident truth possibly be called “blaming others”?
“Anyway, just do your best.”
“What are you even here for?”
“To complain. What else? Things have already changed, so what can I do? All I can do now is believe you’ll handle it well and wait.”
“How about helping instead?”
“Handle it yourself.”
What a nasty personality.
She doesn’t offer solutions, doesn’t help, and doesn’t even bother to interfere—
She really does nothing but complain.
“Oh, can I take this? It’s a fatigue recovery potion, right? You’ve been giving me a headache lately, so this is perfect.”
“Pay for it.”
“Stingy.”
The Oracle, wearing a crooked smirk, picked up one of the potions I had prepared nearby.
Honestly, even if someone was stingy, wasn’t it a bit shameless to ask for something people sold for money to be given away for free?
“How much?”
“Forty silver.”
“What a rip‑off. Put it on the tab. Johan Damus will pay for it.”
“And why should I pay for your potion?”
“Compensation for emotional distress?”
The Oracle clutched her chest and glanced up at me with feigned innocence.
“Don’t act cute. I swear I’ll kill you.”
“That was pretty cute, all things considered.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Anyway, I’m taking it.”
“…Fine, go.”
It seemed like she wasn’t in her right mind today, so I decided to let it slide generously.
***
The Oracle shook the potion she had all but extorted from the alchemy workshop and mulled things over.
Since her earlier conversation with Tillis, she had been thinking constantly about herself.
Her very first memory was of the moment she saw the future of the world.
She didn’t know if she had no other memories to begin with or if the shock of seeing the future had been so great that she had forgotten them.
The future she had seen branched into countless paths, but most of them led to the fall of the Empire and the end of the world.
For over five years, she had observed the future of the world and eventually came to a single conclusion. To save the world, she had to reach one decision.
Lobelia Vicious von Miltonia.
She would enthrone her as emperor.
That was the best choice. Lobelia might not have been a perfect or virtuous ruler, but she was far better than the others who could seize control of the world.
At the very least, she was human. That was enough for the Oracle to decide to place her faith in her and guide the future toward that path.
However, there was a major problem.
“Just a little further forward.”
She had no power.
More precisely, there was very little she could change with her own strength alone.
The leaders of the terrorist organizations, each united under their own ideals, all possessed monstrous strength, and above them all stood an emperor capable of overwhelming every one of them.
That was why the Oracle made her choice.
To reach the best outcome, she would have to settle for the lesser evil.
“Almost there.”
For that, both power and influence were indispensable.
There was only one fastest way for her to seize them.
She had to reveal her existence to Emperor Abraham.
The public called Abraham a monster, but the Oracle thought differently.
She could see through the truth of a man who had been forced to become a monster.
It was the emperor who had sealed a world spiraling toward the worst in place with the lesser evil.
“The time for the promise is drawing near.”
When Abraham became emperor—
The Empire was already in an irretrievable state.
Abraham had inherited a time bomb called the Empire from his predecessor, and he had no choice but to act to prevent it from exploding.
The only options available to him were the worst or the lesser evil.
And so, he chose the lesser evil again and again, striving to reach the best he could.
Just like the Oracle.
He drove back the foreign invaders threatening the Empire. And drove them back again. But for every enemy he defeated, two more arose, so to break that cycle, he had no choice but to conquer everything.
By walking that bloody road, Abraham lost love and lost recognition, yet in the end, he conquered the world.
Having completely repelled both external and potential enemies, Abraham’s next goal was already set.
– If you are an Oracle, then you must already know what I’m thinking right now.
Abraham’s next goal was the enemy inside. To cut out the festering wounds inside that had formed while he was dealing with the threats outside.
But the process would not be easy.
Even Abraham who stood close to a transcendent could not completely overcome time.
As he grew older, he was forced to think about the matter of succession.
At the same time, he had to eradicate the terrorist organizations that were eating away at the Empire from inside.
The Emperor had not been sitting idly by. He too was making his own sacrifices.
The greatest reason the Imperial Palace had turned into a den of demons was that the most powerful beings loyal to the Emperor’s command were always wandering outside the capital.
They roamed across the Empire, stopping terrorist organizations.
In return, the palace became a den of monsters, and most of the imperial family was slaughtered.
And so, only the rare few who survived that den were qualified to become Emperor.
– Speak, Oracle. You already know what I’m thinking right now.
Abraham wanted a perfect Empire. It wasn’t so much a goal as it was the only choice.
For the Empire, there were only two paths: destruction or prosperity.
Abraham chose prosperity. It was the obvious choice for any human to make, even if that path was covered in filth and ugliness.
For now, this was merely the process, and he saw himself as nothing more than the cornerstone for that future.
The Empire had sown seeds in barren land, and Abraham had soaked the earth with the blood of his enemies and himself.
He believed that one day the seeds would sprout and grow.
And so, Abraham willingly became a monster.
He would cut away the festering wounds.
– You intend to kill me.
– You truly must be the Oracle.
That wound included himself and his closest aides.
But who would be the one to cut away a wound that had grown so large, and so monstrous?
– Then tell me. What do you think I’m thinking right now?
Abraham recognized that the Oracle’s existence was real.
At that moment, the future shifted dramatically.
It was no longer the future in which he killed the woman who called herself the Oracle.
– You’re thinking of killing me, aren’t you?
No….he would kill the Oracle herself.
The ability to see the future was like a sweet fruit. Yet, once tasted, it became as addictive as a drug, from which it was hard to escape.
Abraham understood its nature.
– Then what will you do?
– Even so, my choice will not change.
– Even if I’m going to kill you?
– Yes.
– I see.
That day, Abraham placed the wealth and power of the Imperial Family into the Oracle’s hands.
“Rejoice, Abraham.”
Johan Damus disrupted the plan she had set in motion.
Each time he rushed around trying to solve the problems at hand without a proper plan, the future twisted, leading to dangerous outcomes.
“It seems our end is drawing near.”
Yet it was also true that they were drawing closer to the ideal she envisioned.
After downing the potion, the Oracle glanced at the name of its maker printed on the bottle and found herself smiling without realizing it.
“Bitter and tastes bad.”
Medicine was meant to be bitter.
With the empty bottle tucked inside her robes, the Oracle set out on her way.
***
TN: Abraham wanted to kill her first because he thought she was fraud. The second time was because she would become his aide since she was the real deal. That’s what I understood.
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