Chapter 83: The Seer

I followed Diana through the narrow back streets of the settlement, leaving behind the noise of crying families and relieved embraces. The deeper we went, the quieter everything became, until the only sound left was the crunch sound of my footsteps.

We eventually stopped in front of a small, weathered hut sitting at the very edge of the village, half-tucked beneath the shade of a leaning tree. It looked like nothing special, wooden walls patched here and there with mismatched boards, a single crooked chimney letting out a thin trail of smoke. There was no one else around this part of the settlement at all, no neighboring houses, no passersby, just silence.

"Wait here. I need to tell her you’re here." Diana gestured toward the old wooden bench beside the door. "You can sit there for now."

I settled down obediently, glancing around the small, quiet clearing while Diana slipped inside, the door creaking shut behind her.

’Master... whoever that is.’

I didn’t have much to go on, but something about the way Diana had spoken earlier, the sudden shift in her tone when she mentioned this person, told me this wasn’t just some village elder handling routine matters.

A few minutes passed before the door creaked open again.

An elderly woman emerged slowly, leaning heavily on both a worn wooden cane and Diana’s steady arm for support. Her back was bent with age, her thin white hair pulled back loosely, deep wrinkles lining a face that had clearly seen far more years than most. Despite her frailty, her eyes, when they finally landed on me, held a sharpness that didn’t match the rest of her at all.

"So, you finally made it," she said, her voice rough with age, yet surprisingly calm.

I blinked, caught off guard. "Do you know me?"

She only smiled faintly, saying nothing, and gestured instead for me to take a seat back down. Diana carefully guided her to a small chair nearby, settling beside her, her expression carefully watchful as her eyes flicked between the two of us.

I waited, expecting an answer.

"Yes, I know who you are. But I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting you to arrive this early."

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?"

She smiled again, and once again, offered no explanation.

After a long, silent stretch where neither of us budged, I let my shoulders drop in defeat.

"Okay. Look, I don’t really understand whatever it is you’re talking about. I just want to get back home. Do you have some way to send me back?"

She tilted her head slightly, her smile remaining perfectly calm. "No. I don’t have any method to send you back."

My stomach dropped. I glanced sharply toward Diana, the woman who had supposedly brought me all the way here specifically so I could return home. She avoided my gaze entirely.

"Wait, what? Then what was the point of—"

"Don’t blame her. I was the one who asked her to bring you here," the old woman said, cutting in with a gentle voice.

"You told her to bring me here? Then you already knew I was coming to save those people. But how could you have known?"

She only smiled once more, saying nothing at all, which was genuinely starting to grate on my already thin patience.

"Think of it as fate. This was a path you were always meant to walk. But strangely, that path seems to be changing again. It’s branching in ways even I can’t predict. Things have become rather complicated."

I glanced helplessly toward Diana, completely lost.

"Master has the ability to glimpse fragments of future events," Diana said quietly, finally breaking her silence.

My eyes widened. I hadn’t known something like that was even possible. Precognition, true precognition, wasn’t something the anime had ever touched on, not once, not even as a passing mention.

I studied the old woman more carefully now, a grudging respect settling over my earlier frustration.

"Alright. If you already knew I was coming, and Diana knew it too, then why did she betray me back at the fortress?"

The old woman’s smile finally faded. Her gaze didn’t shift from mine, though her words were clearly aimed elsewhere.

"Diana. Is what he says true?"

Diana swallowed hard, an uncharacteristic flicker of nervousness crossing her usually composed expression, the first time I’d seen anything like it from her. She gave a small, reluctant nod.

The old woman didn’t even look at her. She simply waved one of her hand toward the door, dismissing her without another word.

Diana rose quietly and left without protest, the door clicking shut softly behind her.

Once we were alone, the old woman’s expression softened considerably.

"Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Senya, the elder of this settlement. Most people here know me as the Seer." She paused, her eyes quietly observing me. "And don’t hold Diana’s actions against her. She only betrayed you because she wanted to keep her people safe. After everything we’ve been through, trusting an outsider isn’t something that comes easily."

"Why’s that?"

She let out a long, tired breath, her gaze drifting toward the small window beside her, as though looking somewhere far beyond the walls of her hut.

"Eight years ago, a human wandered into our territory. Injured, half-starved, claiming to have lost his way after fleeing some disaster back in the empire. We took him in. Nursed him back to health. He stayed with us for nearly a year."

Her eyes grew distant, the weight of old memory settling heavily over her words.

"Diana was young back then, hardly more than a girl. He treated her kindly, spoke to her sweetly, and knew exactly how to win her trust. Before she realized what was happening, she’d fallen for him."

"She started telling him things she shouldn’t have. The paths we usually took, the locations of our hunting grounds, even where our scouts kept watch... and which places they left unguarded."

My stomach twisted slightly, already guessing where this was going.

"He was never lost in the first place. He was a spy, sent ahead to find settlements that were easy targets. They were slavers, searching for places they could take advantage of."

"Once he had learned everything he needed, he disappeared during the night. Three months later, the first raiding party came. They followed the very paths he had learned from us, knowing exactly where to strike."

She closed her eyes briefly, the weight of old grief flickering faintly across her face before she composed herself once more.

"We lost nearly forty people in that first attack. Diana’s own mother was among the dead. Ever since then, she’s carried the guilt of what happened, even though she never meant for any of it to happen."

"After that day, she stopped trusting humans altogether. Not a single one. And even after all these years, that fear and distrust haven’t left her."

I sat in silence for a long moment, letting her words settle, the earlier sting of betrayal slowly giving way to something closer to understanding.

"I see... That actually explains a lot."

Senya watched me carefully; her sharp eyes studying my reaction with quiet patience.

After a while, I finally leaned forward slightly, deciding it was time to stop dancing around the real question burning in the back of my mind.

"Alright. Let’s get to the real reason I’m here." I looked straight into her eyes. "You’re not just someone who can see fragments of the future, are you? There’s something more to your power than that."

A faint, knowing smile appeared on her aged face again, while her eyes gleamed softly in the dim light of the hut. "Clever boy. Yes... there’s much more to it than that."

...

[A/N: New Target For this Week!

>Reach→100+ GT (2-Extra Chapter)

>Magic Castle→ (3-Extra Chapter+Fav. Character’s POV)

>Space Craft→ (7-Extra Chapter+Fav. Ch. POV)

>Gachapon→ (10-Extra Chapter)+Fav. Ch. POV]

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