Volume 3 - CH 15

Chapter 15 – An Indolent Diviner and a Profligate Attendant

【POV: A certain diviner 】

“Sorry, I don’t date men. Farewell.”

The man then disappeared from my sight. 

His servant also bowed in my direction and quickly chased after him.

“Damn, I really got turned down…I thought I was more popular!”

I covered my glasses with my hand and looked up at the sky.

My name is Cerros, Cerros Baal.

I used to be the third prince of the Baal empire, the feared conqueror empire of the continent.

I used to be — because I was now a traitor, unable to return to my homeland, for two reasons.

In the past, I borrowed the strength of a neighboring country and attempted to wrest the title of emperor from the hands of my brother. This rise to power, however, was thwarted by the awakening of an ancient weapon: I thus had to flee my homeland in order to escape the pursuers.

On that fateful day, thunder rained on me from the sky — it was a miracle that I survived.

I always had a penchant for collecting “Pseudo Magic Tools”, items of unknown function dug out of the ruins of the ancient civilizations.

Thanks to an incredible stroke of luck, one of the pseudo tools I had that day turned out to have the power to shield the owner from lightning — hence, I could save myself.

I took out the magic tool — which resembled a clumsily made child’s doll — and smiled.

“Thunder God Charm…I only kept it around because it was funny, but to think that it’d really save me…life can be so unpredictable! Yep!”

The instant before I was pierced, the name of this doll appeared in my mind — and the lightning bolt dodged me and struck the ground instead.

My face was burned due to the resulting fire, and the lightning flash robbed the sight of my left eye.

Even so, I could still breathe. I was still alive.

Luckily enough, my new career as a fortune teller was picking up.

Thanks to the complex circumstances of my birth, I spent a lot of my infancy reading the moods of nobles and court officials, so I had confidence in my observational skills.

Negotiating with the Huang Dynasty had also improved my speaking skills, so I really felt like fortune telling was a job made for me.

“Hey, Cerros, what happened?”

I was still lost in such thoughts when a girl approached me.

The young girl, characterized by a petite stature, black hair and other features of the people of the east, was Xiao Mao. She was my attendant, and had escaped the empire with me.

I had lost most of what I had, but she was still at my side.

“Hey, Xiao, welcome back…what are you eating?”

“Hm? You can’t tell? Crab. You know crab? Seafood.”

“Crab…?”

Xiao Mao peeled off the shell of that unfamiliar food and leisurely suckled the contents.

If memory served me, crab was a relatively expensive treat, but…

“Sorry, but none for you! I paid 2 silver coins for this.”

“2 silver coins!? That’s way too much!!”

I couldn’t help but raise my voice.

I was earning a bit thanks to fortune telling, but it was always an unstable business.

Our lifestyle was still pretty rough: we surely didn’t have the leeway to spend 2 silver coins on a single meal.

“Mmh, can’t help it…I can give you a little bit.”

Xiao Mao frowned and gave me a piece of the crab’s body. It looked thick and hard, certainly not appetizing by any means.

“Whoa, what’s this smell!?”

“Crab paste, they call it. I don’t like it, so eat.”

“You’re just giving me what you don’t want to eat!? This thing reeks, I can’t eat it!”

“No time to be picky. We’re poor, remember?”

“If you know that much, stop wasting money!”

As we bickered, I prepared to close up shop for the day. The sun was still high in the sky, but this pointless quarrel had drained my willingness to work for the day.

“You closed already? Poor people must work more.”

“That’s why you…aah, whatever.”

I gave up, shaking my head, then fiddled with my fake crystal ball.

“I met an interesting man today, so yes, I’m done! Satisfied and content!!”

“Really? You should work more, make me have a better life.”

“…you’re the greatest attendant ever, for sure.”

Xiao Mao and I headed towards our temporary lodging.

I closed the shop when I didn’t feel like working, went home, took a bath and went to sleep. That was the lifestyle of a third prince freed from his obligations.

“It’s a shame we had to leave the empire, isn’t it. I lost my army and many comrades paid the ultimate price…but in exchange, I have freedom now. We should enjoy this wandering lifestyle as much as we can.”

“Who wants to wander? Get rich quickly, please.”

“…is that so. Xiao Mao, you’re a tough little one, aren’t you…”

My shoulders dropped, but Xiao’s small hand held mine. I glanced at her and noticed her cheeks were flushing a bit.

“Heh…”

She was as whimsical and impudent as a cat, but also as adorable. 

Sometimes I thought of her as a sister, sometimes as a mother, sometimes as a daughter…

She was the only family I had left.

“…I’m a good-for-nothing, but I’m going to protect you…at least you.”

“Hm? You say something, Cerros?”

“Nope! Not a thing. Must be your imagination.”

I pushed up my glasses to hide my eyes and looked away from Xiao.

I couldn’t say it out loud. Even so, I wanted to express my feelings of gratitude to her, and was about to hold her hand tighter, when…

Boom.

“Whoa!?”

“Aaaahhh!?”

An explosion suddenly shook the air and ground behind us, sending us flying.