CHAPTER 196: GO ON A DATE

Immediately she spoke, a purple aura formed inside the room and slowly took shape, its eyes glowing bright as it stared at her.

"What do you want?" it asked.

"What did you see?" she asked.

"Why should I tell you? That’s not part of our deal. I heal, and the price for that is for me to get to see their future," the voice spoke. It dragged its words, speaking slowly.

"Just tell me. I know you saw something shocking, I felt it," she said.

"Sigh, persistent human. Well, I will tell you. That kid is set to die, and his death will not come easy.

Pain after pain, he’ll be through it all. He’ll fight for family, his love, his friends. He’ll fight battles that will break and shatter him for people that will leave him in the end.

I peeked into several variants of his future while I healed him, and nothing good came from any. It was all blood-covered. There were some lights in his life though, but those lights were the reason he fights, and why his pain will not stop," the voice explained.

Ariel’s eyes widened. She knew Zaferoth more than anyone. She knew that the future he saw was something that was going to come to pass.

She stepped forward. "How do you stop that future from happening? What do I do? I can’t stand by while he throws his life away," Ariel said.

"Hahaha, you’re still the same little girl I met, wanting to save people. Just because you know their future doesn’t make you responsible for them," Zaferoth said.

"Shut the hell up and tell me already!" she roared at him, her fist clenching.

"Fine, fine. The only way to stop his future is by him not meeting his family today. If he steps on his home soil, there’ll be no going back for him.

He’ll be forever set on the path that will lead him to death," Zaferoth said.

Her eyes widened. She looked at Zaferoth. "He won’t stop. It doesn’t matter what I say. He wants to save his family," she said.

"That’s not my business, and it shouldn’t be part of yours. Tampering with fate causes issues, you of all people know that," Zaferoth said and vanished.

Ariel took a deep breath. She calmed herself, closed her eyes for a few seconds, thinking about what to do now.

She opened her eyes, a resolute look in them. She walked to the door and left the room.

[...]

Riven, on the other hand, walked through the hallway. Noel led the way to the headmistress’s office while Riven was lost in thought.

’The demons... I never thought they’d actually be the ones causing the changes to this world. I don’t have any more time. The devils might come soon and what happened to that world will happen here.

I have to get stronger. If I don’t, Noel and the others will die. It took me dying and almost dying again to kill one devil that wasn’t fully powered.

If more are coming, then this world will be destroyed. I don’t think staying inside this academy and doing nothing is helping.

I don’t have four years to sit around learning when warriors are dying every day. I have to stop it. I have to at least try.

But what can I do? I’m not strong enough, neither do I have the information I need. But how do I get the information when I’m sitting behind a desk every day?

I have to find a way out of this, a way to head out into the dungeons and actually get stronger. The academy might be holding me back, and everything that I know about the story is already twisted and changed. My knowledge is not getting me anywhere good.’

"Hey, bro," Noel suddenly called out to Riven.

"Yeah?" Riven replied.

"I know we’re acting like nothing happened, but I saw death. I walked the path to get judged, and something tells me that it was you that did it, in fact, I know it was you.

I don’t know what you did, and I honestly don’t want to ask. I fear that I’ll never be able to live without feeling utterly indebted to you if I know.

I already am indebted to you. My life as a whole now belongs to you. You’ve done so much for me that I begin to worry that you have no time for yourself.

Conflict after conflict after conflict, you are thrown into battles nonstop. You haven’t once stopped to breathe the air that is life.

You have three fiancées, but you know barely anything about them. You know very little about love, as you shy away from emotions and emotional growth.

You act empty, as if scared that you’ll be distracted from the goal if you fall in love. So do me this one solid, and promise me something, Riven," Noel said. He stopped and turned around.

"After we ascertain that Ribest is safe, I want you to take out time to breathe. You don’t have to worry about the planning or anything, go on a date with your fiancée, and laugh a bit, feel love a bit, forget about everything else," Noel said, placing his hand on Riven’s shoulder.

’Do I have the time for love right now? Of course I do, I have three fiancées, and any boy would dive at that opportunity. But is now really the time for that?’ Riven thought. And as if Noel heard his thoughts, he responded.

"And before you start worrying that now is not the time for love and relaxation, I’m telling you it is. Because when you finally let go, you’ll come to realize that happiness is also a very good fuel to fight better.

Fight to protect the positive, not to stop the negative," Noel said.

"Wait, isn’t that the same thing?" Riven asked.

"No. Fighting to stop the negative simply means you don’t really care for the positive, you just don’t want more negative to come," Noel said as he kept walking.

’Sometimes I wonder if you really are a kid,’ Riven wondered.