*
The ability to see the future.
Is the world really going to be easier with just that?
If it’s just knowing the lottery numbers for next week or the answers to a test, that would be lucky.
But what about knowing a future that might not happen 100%?
If you blindly trust only that, misfortune might come knocking.
‘Possibility.’
What the Sage Azmodius can see is the possibilities.
When she closes her eyes for a moment, visions appear like rewinding a videotape.
For example, let’s say she sees a future where a coin lands on tails.
In reality, it could come up heads.
It was the future of routes that diverged based on choices in a game.
So she acted as a signpost, checking which route the player was on and keeping tabs.
Unlike a game, this was practically the real world, similar to looking at one of many world lines.
A future that could have happened.
A step away from a happy ending.
Since birth, Azmodius’s visions always leaned toward such outcomes.
“….”
Honestly, she wished she had never had this ability from the start.
It was a thought she often repeated inwardly during her childhood.
Before Emperor Rock unified the empire and before she became known as a sage in the Wizard Tower.
“Hey, look! There goes the liar!”
“What nonsense are you going to spout today!”
Every time she walked the streets, she heard the jeers of the townsfolk.
Insults mixed with sneers, and sometimes even stones were thrown when it got out of hand.
In her childhood, Azmodius was branded a liar in the village.
“Azmo! Are you going to tell another weird story? You made my grandma hurt!”
She only tried to warn them of futures where flower pots broke or when a carriage would collide with a child.
But fate is cruel, and saving one person often led to another’s misfortune—a butterfly effect.
At that time, no one understood that she was seeing ‘possibilities’ rather than confirmed futures.
People acted out of concern, but their actions turned into daggers that stabbed back at her.
“Azmodius, won’t you tell us the future again this time?”
“…Please go away.”
A middle-aged woman was begging her with dim eyes.
She was one of the few merchants who actually cared for Azmodius.
Originally, she started off running a small fruit shop.
With many mouths to feed, she often worried about making ends meet.
“I’ve got good luck this time! I’m really sure I can strike it rich!”
As soon as Azmodius predicted a drought, which would be good for earning money, the woman suddenly became rich overnight.
From then on, she began to blindly trust Azmodius’s predictions.
Even when the futures turned out incorrect, she gathered all her assets and invested without a second thought.
“..Azmo? Where are you going..?!”
Now, she had become a beggar chased by loan sharks, wrapped in rags.
Azmodius bowed her head and started to run away.
“She’s a little shepherd girl! What she says never comes true!”
Little shepherd girl.
The words she heard as she ran away from people.
Due to her demon blood, she had an appearance different from everyone else.
Yellow irises, with her whites entirely filled with black.
The strange horns on her head resembled those of a sheep.
The townspeople called Azmodius the little shepherd girl in a derogatory way.
‘I, I’m not a liar…’
Shouldn’t I have just not helped people?
Whenever she closed her eyes, the future flashed through her mind.
The futures seen by a little girl couldn’t just be dismissed as dreams or illusions.
There were times she saw futures where people died.
“Yowch..!”
Azmodius stumbled over a stone.
Falling on the ground, she tried to get up using her hands.
Red blood flowed down her knee. The stinging sensation made her wince.
She got hurt from falling.
“…..”
What use is it to see the future?
This worthless ability even made her unable to foresee her own injuries.
Overwhelmed with injustice, tears streamed down her face.
“Are you alright, girl!”
“….Huh?”
In her field of vision, there was a rough hand.
A hand calloused from holding swords for a long time, riddled with scars.
“..I see you’re bleeding from your knee!”
A man helped lift Azmodius up.
Without hesitation, he tore off some of his own clothes to bandage her leg.
“There, this should do it.”
The man, who was giving a gentle smile, was Drake.
Due to a deficient mana capacity, he was a Grand Sword Master who clumsily used healing magic.
“..Thank you.”
“Wahaha!! A pretty little lady crying is no good!”
With deep scars from swords marking his face, he spoke loudly to not appear scary.
Drake had a map in his hands like someone visiting the village for the first time.
Azmodius studied his face carefully, looking for any sign of malice.
But as time passed, he neither hit her nor hurled insults.
‘This person… is lost.’
As she gave him a blank stare, Drake fumbled around with the map, checking it from side to side.
Her wariness subsided as he treated her wound, and she closed her eyes for a moment to foresee a future.
‘…He’s going to get into trouble for not finding the town hall.’
Drake, who was wandering until nightfall, would become a target for some ruffians.
She couldn’t foresee what would happen afterward.
“Excuse me, sir. Are you lost?”
“I’m not a sir! My name is Drake!”
Mistaking Drake for a regular wandering swordsman, she spoke to him.
At that moment, he was a Sword Master.
Even if he was caught by ruffians, he could easily escape such misfortune.
“..Follow me. You seem to be looking for the town hall. I’ll show you the way.”
Not knowing the underlying circumstances, she was just worried for Drake.
The piece of clothing tied to his leg.
She couldn’t help but focus on the part he tore to stop the bleeding without thinking twice.
“What? Really! I’m new here and didn’t know the way! Thank you, little one! What’s your name?”
Drake said this with a hearty laugh, as if relieved.
“…Azmodius. A name like a great demon, right?”
Azmodius spoke her name in a barely audible voice. A name she had never received praise for.
“Hmm, well, I’m not into what young people like! It’s a good name!”
Drake laughed heartily after hearing her name.
With his unique loud laughter, he seemed unfazed by the gazes around him.
Even with his scarred face from swords, Azmodius stopped thinking he looked scary once he smiled.
*
With Azmodius’s help, Drake arrived at the town hall.
As he walked, he heard the whispers of the townsfolk.
“Well, I can see the future!”
He thought the murmurs were about him becoming a Sword Master by slaying monsters.
But the actual topic of conversation was the girl who had led him to the town hall.
There were slanderous talks relating to Azmodius with demon horns.
“Such an inaccurate future, right? Hey, you think I should be worried?”
Chewing on the bread Drake had bought, she said.
Her face, weathered by time, suggested she was definitely not “little sister” material.
“Wahaha!! Not at all! Isn’t it a marvelous ability?”
When was the last time he felt such goodwill?
Enduring days of being looked down upon and scorned just because he could see the future.
‘..This person is unique.’
Is he kind or just foolish?
Even if he noticed that she could see the future, he didn’t poke at it.
Normally, he would have asked her to look into his future, or at least give him a way to make money.
He just smiled while looking at her.
Drake, who chased away the beggar that had been scaring her.
“Even if you’re not a sir! Isn’t it true that you basically just see possibilities, not the future?”
“…Possibilities?”
After pondering for a while, he opened his mouth.
He wasn’t the type to solve everything with muscle.
Surprisingly, he was a thinker.
He’d seen her foresee the future on their way here.
How she seemed to know a person would jump out in the alley or how she dodged falling flower pots by a hair.
There was even the event where she bought fish for a starving cat in advance.
“Right! How can a person know the future!”
Drake didn’t believe Azmodius could see the future even after witnessing those occurrences.
If that were the case, the entire village wouldn’t have scorned her.
Moreover, when he first met her, she didn’t seem to recognize him at all. Instead, she looked confused as to whether he would help her.
“Unless it’s seeing different possibilities!”
In life, there are countless crossroads and choices.
Among them, there could be a future produced by choosing differently.
“Isn’t this an incredibly good ability? Azmodius!”
“No, there are so many people who call me a liar.”
After getting information related to dragons at the town hall, he smiled brightly.
His trademark loud laughter was accompanied by a confident smile.
“You’re not a liar! You’ve definitely changed a bad future!”
He even stopped people from throwing stones at her.
Not caring about her demonic appearance, he called her little sheepish horns cute.
“You must have seen people dying, right! Isn’t that so?”
“…How do you know that?”
“Even if they call you a liar, you’re the one who tried to save lives.”
For the first time, Drake displayed a somewhat lonely expression.
The starving cat he saw earlier had kittens.
It was a mother cat who prioritized feeding her kittens before herself.
Azmodius had prepared the fish because she knew that.
Seeing through her heart, Drake smiled.
“The past can’t be changed, but the future can be changed!”
He spoke loudly as if to make sure everyone around could hear.
He was drawing attention but didn’t seem to care.
“For instance, I want to become a Grand Sword Master! Little girl.”
“That’s impossible. How can a mere human reach that level without being a hero….”
A realm where concepts could be broken.
For an ordinary human to reach such a level was nearly impossible.
Even if the sage closed her eyes, she only saw futures where he didn’t become a Grand Sword Master.
“Then, if you don’t believe me, make a promise with me! Azmodius!”
Drake thrust a piece of paper at her.
It was a letter of recommendation to attend the Wizard Tower—an educational institution famous for magic located in the Water Nation.
“Why are you giving me something so precious…?”
“I believe everyone has the chance to change their given life!”
How on earth did he manage to get such a recommendation?
“I’m going to be a Grand Sword Master, so how about you go to the Wizard Tower and become a sage!”
Sage is actually a collective term.
It refers to those particularly gifted in the Wizard Tower.
Even if her future foresight were to be wrong, he was assuring her she wouldn’t be scorned like this.
Seeing possibilities instead of confirmed futures.
He believed that at the Wizard Tower, they would accurately see Azmodius’s abilities.
Could they really change the future? Just then.
“I’ll be looking forward to it. Sage!”
Drake smiled brightly at the girl of demonic descent.
From that moment on, Azmodius began striving to change her future without despair.
For the sake of the Sword Master who never called her a liar.
To truly become a sage and save people.
When everything was denied in the world, it was only that one person who positively believed in her.
The demon girl’s first love began long before.
*
“So that’s how you became the current sage.”
“Yeah, in the end, I was able to change the future. Thanks to Drake….”
An old story before the empire was founded.
She entered the Wizard Tower and came to understand that her future sight was seeing possibilities.
She was recognized for her outstanding talent in the Wizard Tower, rising to the position of sage.
Drake also became a Grand Sword Master, contrary to the vision of the sage.
‘He’s been the same since olden times.’
He had always viewed people without discrimination.
Thinking about it, he accepted me as a junior, even though I couldn’t use magic and had no talent in swordsmanship.
Surprisingly, he must be quite intelligent. Our esteemed teacher.
He must have realized at the beginning that the sage’s future visions were a collection of possibilities.
“How interesting. I haven’t heard your story from my teacher…”
“W-What?! Did you promise such a thing with a person?!”
The sage stammered, seemingly in disbelief.
Drake doesn’t seem to think of the sage as particularly special.
A one-sided crush from one side. How can I resolve this?
“Sage, what will happen between you and Drake in the future?”
I asked the sage how to connect my teacher and her.
If she can see possibilities, maybe she has an idea.
“…..”
But all that came back was silence. Her face turned increasingly red, her pupils widening.
The future she envisioned must be blocked. So perhaps she doesn’t know the future? But that can’t be true. At least the future she saw in the past….
“Sage? Why is your face turning red..?”
“I don’t know!! I don’t know!! Why should I tell such lewd things to my student?!”
Ah, now I understand why these two end up as unrequited loves. The sage waved her hands as if trying to push away something shameful.
If she did see that future, it wouldn’t be too much for her to take a more active approach.
‘She’s just like my past self.’
Not having a solid future made her even more afraid.
‘Just because I saw the possibilities, does that mean I can believe he will like me?’
“..Pina, why don’t we help them out?”
“Yeah. Su-hyun.”
I sighed and sought her help.
At least in this field, Pina and I were experts.
“But Su-hyun, what does it mean by lewd things..?”
“……”
Seeing her lick her lips while looking at me made goosebumps rise all over my body.
How could I possibly explain making gray wolves?
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