The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 91

ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:

Her words rang out in my ear like a giant gong that was rung at the beginning of every year. They say the people with the widest smiles hide the most pain in their hearts. I shifted my gaze over to the sleeping Virion and remembered the times that he joked around with his cheeky grin.

I had no idea the pain that he had gone through...

I felt like some pubescent teenager that thought the world hated him. I was ignorant of the fact that there were others who might’ve suffered from deeper pains than I had.

No words left my mouth after what Rinia said, only focusing on the ever so slight tremble of my fingers.

"The reason I bring this up isn’t to elicit pity or sorrow from you. I tell you this so that you’ll realize the gravity of what I’m about to inform you of next." There was a stern conviction in her voice that made me look back up.

Elder Rinia paused, as if readying her heart before she spoke. "I used my powers to intentionally look into your future, Arthur."

After all she told me, what she just said weighed on me all the more. "What? Wh-why?" was all I could stammer out before Sylvie sleepily walked towards me and hopped onto my lap, falling asleep again, leaving the both of us with a brow raised.

"Seems like your bond is immune to the herbs I gave her," she chuckled.

"Yeah, she probably just fell asleep naturally," I replied with a half grin.

"Well, continuing on, even before the day I first met you when you were a child, I had been getting glimpses of your future; never enough to make sense of it, but it was odd to have so many visions of a specific person. It has never happened before. " Rinia shifted in her seat.

"As you may already be aware, Arthur, things are changing on this continent. Dicathen is going through a new era. We’ve already experienced the beginning of it with the unity of the three Kingdoms and the unveiling of the Six Lances, but that’s just the beginning. Through all of these changes that are going to happen, you always seem to be in the center of them somehow, Arthur." The elderly Diviner locked eyes with mine.

"Then moving to this remote hideout..." I started to say.

She just gave me a slight nod. " With the knowledge I gained from looking into the future... your future, it seems like I’ve made some enemies."

"What exactly is it that you learned from looking into my future?" I asked.

"Here’s the tricky part. Telling you too much of what I saw can affect even the outcomes you want. On the other hand, telling you too little defeats the point of me looking into the future in order to find a better outcome," she sighed.

"How do you feel though, Rinia? You just gave up some of your life in order to see my future... are you okay?" I couldn’t help but frown.

"I’ll be fine. I’ve lived long enough, anyway. I might as well use some of it to help the future." Rinia waved her hand dismissively.

"I hate sounding like some old fortune teller warning the hero to be careful and other sorts of generic advice that he can pick up from anyone, but it pains me to say that I can only do that much." I could tell she was trying to make light of the situation to ease my guilt.

"Arthur..." Rinia’s tone became serious, almost foreboding, "You will face many hardships. Whichever future you decide, that will remain constant. You will have enemies and you will have obstructions in your path, but through all of that, what I can leave you with is that you need to have an anchor, an end goal. What is it you want to accomplish in your life? That will be what determines your path."

This sounded more like a motivational speech than a prophecy, but as if she had read my mind, Rinia continued.

"Be grounded, Arthur, and I’ll leave you with these two things. One: people do bad things for good reasons, so don’t just take them for what they do on the surface and keep your mind sharp. Two: oftentimes, the scariest enemy isn’t the one on the throne, leading the forces, but the abandoned soldier that has nothing to lose; for that, stay wary and don’t be overconfident." Rinia’s voice became a soft whisper as she warned me, leaving an uncomfortable silence in the room.

"I’m sorry I can’t say anything more, but all I can say is to follow and trust your instincts. You are a particularly sharp fellow and I know you’ll make the right choices, but sometimes, the right choice isn’t always the best choice."

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The talk with Rinia ended, leaving me with a rather bad taste in my mouth, like one would get after taking a spoonful of a bitter tonic. Helpful and necessary, but bitter nonetheless.

Rinia woke everyone up soon after, with me pretending to have been asleep with them as well. Rinia made some excuse that she accidentally mixed in some herbs for relaxation that were a lot stronger than she anticipated. No one seemed to mind and we continued on with a light lunch that Rinia prepared out of edible plants and mushrooms. It tasted good despite the lack of meat, but by Sylvie’s reaction, I’m sure she would disagree.

It was pretty late in the afternoon by the time we finished eating and had to get on our way. A bigger surprise than the fact that Rinia’s home was in the center of a mountainside cliff was the fact that, through a secret door and passage, she had her own teleportation gate.

Since teleportation gates were made in ancient times, supposedly with the help of the deities, or Asuras, as I now know, it wasn’t possible to make any more. Virion wasn’t as surprised as everyone else, including me, but knowing Rinia’s powers, I could only shrug and realize that this was something within her abilities.

After saying our goodbyes, Tess, Sylvie, and I went through the gate. Along with the dizzy feeling after crossing, we were welcomed back to the edge of Xyrus City by guards that had their spears pointed at us.

After realizing that the unknown crossers were teens who had the Xyrus Academy uniforms on, they quickly lowered their weapons.

"We apologize, the portal you were coming from was read as an unknown gate, so we didn’t know who or what would pop out from the other side. It’s rare, but there have been times when mana beasts accidentally stumble through a teleportation gate somewhere deep in the Beast Glades," one of the guards, that seemed to be the leader, said, although his eyes still watched us with a studying gaze.

"It’s fine. We came from one of the other cities of Elenoir and the guard did mention that he was having troubles with the gate from time to time," I shrugged.

With an understanding nod, the guards let us go and since there was no carriage waiting for us, the three of us walked to the nearest stop and found a carriage to take us. The sun was already setting and I could see the color distortion in the sky as the Aurora Constellate was soon coming to its peak. It was a lot easier to see it from the floating city than through the dense trees in Elenoir.

"Wow, the Aurora Constellate really is beautiful every time you see it," Tess said in awe.

"Kyu~" ’The sky is colorful!’ Sylvie also sat at the edge of the carriage, her small head gazed up in appreciation.

When we made it back to the Helstea Manor, Sylvie scurried up the stairs leading to the door and scratched at it. As Tess and I followed her up, the door opened, revealing a person that I didn’t expect to see.