Chapter 295. What’s Going to Happen from Now On (2)

The expedition members left the outpost on that very day, leaving behind the successfully raided Hala Forest. However, they didn’t return immediately to Shalyh. After judging that there must be a reason behind the Last Dragon’s vehement recommendation, they went to the place she suggested they go. Although the morale was still low among the expedition team during the march, it would have been a lie if Chi-Woo said he was not looking forward to the trip.

Since it was under the Cassiubia League’s rule, Chi-Woo thought it must be a developed place, and it might be a busy city that made Shalyh pale in comparison. Although Chi-Woo went with such expectations, all they saw were unoccupied plains when they arrived. There wasn’t a single town or village, let alone a city. The only thing they could see was a mountain range that boasted steep and rough slopes.

While Chi-Woo was feeling indignant, thinking that the damned dragon had deceived them, Ru Amuh said, “Sir, why don’t we go a little bit further first? Judging by the map, we’re not there yet.”

Chi-Woo thought Ru Amuh was right, so he decided to go a little further. His anxiety persisted as they entered the mountain and climbed the slope, but when they reached the top, everyone’s eyes widened. There was a single house on top of the mountain. It was more of a thatched house on the verge of collapsing than a proper building, but it looked like someone was living inside.

Chi-Woo looked at the house blankly for a moment, and after clearing his throat, he carefully knocked on the door. “Is anyone here?” There was no answer, but Chi-Woo could sense someone walking toward them.

“Who is it?!” Soon, the door cracked open, accompanied by an angry shout, and someone poked their head through the gap. Chi-Woo was slightly surprised to see a familiar face. A face that looked like a raccoon… ‘Ah, right.’ Bogle from the Dingo tribe also had the face of a raccoon. The dingo in front of him had a monocle on her left eye and looked much older, and she appeared much more irritable than Bogle’s gentle appearance.

“Who the hell is coming to such a remote place without… A human?” The old dingo was also surprised to see Chi-Woo, and immediately, her expression turned suspicious. “What brings humans here? How did you find out about this place?”

Chi-Woo replied, “I was told about this place.”

“Told?” The old dingo’s expression turned into a scowl.

Flustered, Chi-Woo wondered if he had made a mistake.

“You walked all the way here for nothing,” the dingo said quickly, “I don’t know who told you about this place, but it’s been more than 20 years since I last received customers. Go back the way you came!”

“Wait! Please wait a minute!” As soon as she tried to close the door, Chi-Woo quickly reached into his pocket. He took out the red ruby that the Last Dragon gave him. The dingo, who had turned around without hesitation, glanced back and paused; her eyes narrowed when she saw the jewel. She accepted the ruby that Chi-Woo held out and inspected it closely with her monocle. After looking at it for a long time, she turned back towards Chi-Woo and the other expedition members.

“…Did the dragon send you?”

“Yes.” Chi-Woo quickly nodded. Then the old dingo sighed heavily and mumbled something. Listening carefully, Chi-Woo caught snippets like ‘No, why give this to me?’ and ‘That blasted girl, I don’t think she’s messing with me’. That led Chi-Woo to think the old dingo must be no ordinary individual.

She talked to herself for a while, and after smacking her lips, she asked, “Is it just you?”

“Sorry?”

“I’m asking if you were the only one who received this gem, or did everyone including you receive this together?” She was asking if this was an individual reward or a group reward to everyone. Chi-Woo didn’t have to think about his answer because when he received the ruby, he thought he should sell it and share the money with everyone.

He answered, “We got it all together.”

“Shit.” The old dingo cursed and huffed for a long time before she eventually sighed in resignation. “Yeah, I guess I have to clean up my karma properly before I die. Tsk, come on in.”

“Uh…all together?”

“Do you always need to stick together? Come in one by one!” The old dingo opened the door wide and said while pointing at Chi-Woo, “You, who directly received this jewel, come in last.” With that, she swiftly went back inside her house.

Chi-Woo looked back with a stunned face, and all the other expedition members shared a similar expression.

“She said to go in one by one.” Apoline looked left and right before she stepped forward. “Then I’ll go in first.’

Chi-Woo felt a little uneasy when he saw Apoline entering confidently with a face that seemed to be saying, ‘I don’t know what this is, but if it’s something pointless, I won’t let it go easily.’ However, Chi-Woo decided to wait calmly since they had come all this way. Surprisingly, nothing much happened. He didn’t hear shouting or noises of fire magic flying around, and Apoline didn’t storm outside with her face red. Instead, Apoline walked out quietly about ten minutes later.

She glanced sideways with her face slightly flushed, and when her eyes met Chi-Woo’s, she flinched and turned away. Several people gathered around her and asked what happened, but Apoline shook her head and refused to answer. She just waved for the next person to go in quickly.

“I’ll go in next.” Emmanuel tilted his head and strode inside. He reacted similarly to Apoline. Although he had looked gloomy and quiet the whole time on their way here, he looked deep in thought when he came out after some time. It was the same for Ru Amuh, Yerial, and Hawa. Every person re-emerged with a dazed look, as if they had just heard something extremely shocking. Chi-Woo was getting curious. What on earth was happening inside for people to react like this?

“She told me to send you in now.” After a while, Evelyn opened the door and looked at Chi-Woo with a faint smile. Strangely enough, she didn’t seem to be in a bad mood. She looked slightly elated, actually, which made him even more curious. It was now time for him to find out the secret. Chi-Woo took a deep breath and went inside. After opening and closing the gate and opening the old, wooden door, he saw a small room.

“Close the door and sit,” a curt voice ordered. The old dingo sat alone with a small table in front of her. He didn’t see anything besides this. Chi-Woo felt his expectations dwindling at the plain sight, but didn’t make it obvious and sat down.

“Name,” the old dingo asked once he sat down carefully.

“It’s Choi Chi-Woo.”

“Date of birth.”

While Chi-Woo relayed the information, the old dingo scribbled on a piece of paper and flipped over two pages on an open book. Then she flinched, and her quill stopped moving as if she was suddenly put under a paralysis spell. Judging by how her quill pen slightly quivered, though, that didn’t seem to be the case. Then the old dingo looked between Chi-Woo and the book and began to flip the pages like crazy. Chi-Woo had no idea why she was doing this, so he patiently waited. He lost track of time for a while.

“…Ha…” The old dingo raised her monocle with a look of disbelief. “What a guy…in all my years…”

Chi-Woo glanced at the old dingo as she murmured to herself, his mentor’s words crossing his mind again—if there was someone who said something similar along those lines, he had to cling to them no matter what and ask for help.

“Yeah, it all had a purpose. But even then…” She nibbled her lower lip and put her pen down. “Punk, you have two choices now. To stand up quietly and walk out, or sit tight and waste your time listening to the nonsense of a cranky old fart.” She looked at Chi-Woo. “Of course, I recommend the former because this is something you shouldn’t tread lightly upon. Mister, I’m sure you know what I mean.” She changed the way she addressed Chi-Woo from punk to mister in the span of a few sentences.

Chi-Woo racked his head. It seemed she was a fortune teller or a prophet. Chi-Woo had several masters, including his mentor, but he had never done fortune telling or divination. His masters had never told him to try it in the beginning, and when he thought about it, he felt that he shouldn’t do it. However, it was different this time. The old dingo seemed to want him to pick the former option, but Chi-Woo wanted the latter. He didn’t know why, but he fervently wanted to hear her out.

“…Yeah. There are always people who don’t know what’s good for them.” The dingo seemed to have read his mind and grumbled to herself, closing the book. “Do you know?” She pushed the paper and pen aside. “All those six people who came before you directly or indirectly mentioned you in their previous questions.” She continued while rummaging under the table, “At first, I didn’t know why, but…now I can see it. It’s unusual, to the point that it’s pitiful.” She placed something on the desk and clicked her tongue. She sounded genuinely sorry for him.

Chi-Woo suddenly tilted his head while listening. He had felt down the whole time since they finished raiding the Hala Forest, but the few words she uttered gave him comfort. He hadn’t known it at first, but this dingo was very mysterious. He felt a strange power from her words. Yeah, like his past mentor…

“Anything is fine.” She placed a bunch of cards on the desk. “Ask whatever you want to get an answer. Like I just said, it doesn’t matter to me how trivial it is. For example, you can ask me when will be the next time I poop or pee. However, you only have one chance to ask a question.”

The old dingo told him any question was fine. Chi-Woo felt conflicted and couldn’t open his mouth easily. He had too many questions to ask, and he didn’t know which one to pick.

“If it’s hard to choose one, it’s not a bad idea to say the first thing that comes to you. The bigger the worry, the more likely it will linger in your mind.”

The first thing he could think of… “What…” Chi-Woo immediately asked, “What should I do from now on?” He laughed dryly after asking the question because he thought it was ridiculous himself. It was the same as someone being asked, ‘What do you want to eat?’ and replying, ‘Anything’. Chi-Woo was sure that he would get a scolding, but the old dingo didn’t say anything.

Instead, she put her hand on the cards and pushed it to one side. “Pick one.” She tilted her chin at the cards that were spread out in a parabola. Chi-Woo wriggled his hands and chose one without thinking.

“I told you to choose, not to flip it over.” When Chi-Woo was about to flip the card, the old dingo stopped him in a reproachful tone. “Just put it in front of you and pick two more.”

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

After doing as she said, there were now three cards neatly placed in front of him. However, the old dingo remained silent for quite a while. She looked extremely nervous, as if she was opening Pandora's box that should never be opened.

“First of all, flip over the leftmost card that you chose first.” Soon after, the old dingo said, “You may flip from top to bottom or from bottom to top. Or from the left or right. Flip in any direction you want.”

After thinking hard, Chi-Woo decided to flip the card normally—from left to right. There was a picture on the card. A man wearing something like a red turban was standing, and the red turban flowed down to his neck and hung over his shoulders. The surrounding background was bright like it was bathed in sunlight, and vast landscapes with vegetation such as trees and mountain peaks were seen in the distance. The man held his hands together and was holding a gold coin with a pentagonal star over his head.

“Hmm.” The old dingo mused. “A pentacle on the coin.” She tilted her head. “Flip the card in the middle. Again, flip it any way you want.”

Chi-Woo flipped the card from left to right once more. The second card also showed a man. He was sitting on a long wooden chair with a hammer in one hand and seemed to be carving a pentagon star into a gold coin that was identical to the one on the first card. Moreover, there wasn’t only one pentacle. Excluding the one in his hand, there were seven more scattered around him. One of the seven was placed neatly beneath his feet, but the other six were all over the place.

“Wow.” The old dingo couldn’t help but show her fascination. “Two pentacles in a row…hmmm.”

“Should I flip the last remaining card?” Chi-Woo asked as he reached out to the final card.

“No.”

Chi-Woo stopped at her firm reply.

“I have a feeling that I don’t want the last card revealed. Not yet at least. I’ll tell you about the two cards first.” The old dingo tapped the card on the far left and licked her lip.

“What does it mean?” Chi-Woo asked, unable to overcome his impatience.

“…People are often mistaken.” The old dingo snorted. “That the future or fate is fixed. Even though that’s not the case at all.” She bent down and said something that was seemingly unrelated. “This is the same. Although there is meaning given to the card, it’s only fragmentary information.” She tapped the card and stared at Chi-Woo. “The interpretation depends on the ability of the fortune teller, and likewise, it depends on the ability of the listener to accept the interpretation.”

Chi-Woo stared at the eye behind the shiny monocle, which had an immeasurable depth. At that moment, the image of the old dingo and his mentor seemed to overlap, and Chi-Woo fixed his posture as if he was entranced. He kneeled and raised his head with his fists on the floor. With an expression more serious than ever, he said, “I’m sure you’re aware of Liber’s situation.”

“Yeah, of course.” The old dingo nodded.

“Although I entered this world without knowing anything, I’m now moving with a determination to save Liber. It’s for myself and no one else. But…” Chi-Woo talked continuously without stopping, but then hesitated and shut his eyes tightly. “It’s hard.” Then he said it once more, “It’s very difficult.” He made a confession that he had never revealed to anyone before.

“You say that, but I think you’ve done a good job so far.” The old dingo spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

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“I think this might be my limit.” Chi-Woo shook his head. “This is the last…no, even if I hold out in the future somehow—I have at most one or two tries in me.” He continued with an expression of great fatigue. “I tried to solve the matter on my own somehow…but the situation…the events won’t let that happen.” He clenched his teeth and lowered his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t know what I’m talking about…but I’m certain about one thing.”

The old dingo listened with deep eyes as Chi-Woo poured out his inner thoughts, “At this rate, I’ll be done sooner or later. I think we’re going to meet a bad ending one way or another.”

“Who said that?” asked the old dingo.

Chi-Woo answered with difficulty, “I don’t know if you’ll believe me…but it’s my intuition.” This was the reason why Chi-Woo had been in a gloomy mood like his other teammates even though he succeeded in carrying out the expedition. His intuition told him that he’d done well so far, but it’d be over soon. If he continued to deal with his problems like he had done in the Hala Forest, his success would end sooner or later. He had no basis for this intuition, but he was convinced. If he went berserk again, he really wouldn’t be able to come back then…

It was a desperate and anxious situation for Chi-Woo. Although he had tried his best to acquire his own power, he was still too lacking to deal with Liber’s current situation. He needed to draw out an insane amount of power to save Liber, but that also seemed to be pushing his limits.

“…So you’re saying.” The old dingo paused. “You feel that way yourself. To the point that you’re completely certain of it.”

Chi-Woo nodded. “What…should I do now?” It was the same question as before, but the meaning had changed because of his confession.

The old dingo took off her monocle for a moment and then put one hand on the card on Chi-Woo’s left. “Don’t worry too much.” For the first time, she smiled softly and said soothingly, “A new suitor will appear soon!”

“…Excuse me?” Chi-Woo’s eyes widened.