1 The future is bleak

The people of a certain village were gathered around a chapel, the attention of all the villagers focused entirely on the figure that could be seen through the open door. This figure was a gray-haired lady whose body was covered with wrinkles, her limbs withered, and old age seemed to prevent her from summoning the strength to get up from the leather armchair parked on the inner wall of the chapel. Everyone already noticed, she no longer had strength in her entire body, it seemed that the simple act of looking at the crowd of people required tremendous effort.

On that day, that lady was exactly 145 years old. She wasn't like Cultivators and had no way of extending her life beyond that point, despite feeling the doors of death opening for her, she wasn't afraid. Slightly closing and opening her eyes, she looked at people with a calm face and said:

"The future is bleak."

As he left those words, her eyes slowly closed, thus sealing her fate. Some more emotional people were in tears at that moment, while most just kept their heads down while clenching their fists, looking at the lifeless body of that lady, all they could feel was sadness, frustration and guilt.

The name of the lady in question was Rose, she who had founded that village which was later named after her. It's safe to say that she was one of the most important people to them, as well as being a genuinely good woman, she also had enormous knowledge on her mind and had an incredible gift for predicting the future.

"Damn it, I should have tried to convince her a little more!" Someone said to himself.

The truth was that everyone felt the same way. Rose was such an important woman to those people who secretly decided to save a sum of money to buy a soul cultivation manual to prolong Rose's life. However, they were met with an unexpected response.

"I wish to remain human. "Rose said.

'What did that mean? Why did she decide to die like this?' everyone asked.

Among the people in the crowd was an innocent-looking boy. This one had black hair, green eyes, and white skin, and appeared to be dressed in a miniature version of the outfit most adults wore. This outfit consisted of a gray shirt with a brown collar and sleeves, pants in a slightly darker color than his shirt, and black shoes.

"What did she mean by bleak?" He thought to himself. 'Besides, why did she say those words looking into my eyes?'

As time passed, people slowly dispersed from the area. After Rose's death, most people started working on amulets and religious symbols to leave beside her grave and allow her soul to take a peaceful journey to heaven. On the other hand, the boy wandered aimlessly through the village with his hands behind his head while looking up at the sky.

"Eton! Eton!" The boy heard a voice calling him.

"My name is Ethan!" he responded unconsciously.

When he turned around, he recognized that the person was a girl his age named Maria. This girl had long hair, brown eyes and dark skin, her clothes consisted of a gray dress with a brown bow at the waist and brown sandals. Smiling widely, she looked at Ethan as she waved her arms trying to get his attention.

"Hey Hey!". After a few more screams, she finally caught up to him. "What are you doing? Are you going to help the villagers make the amulets for Elder Rose's funeral?"

"Not really. I don't do well with that kind of thing." Ethan continued on his way with her following. "But what about you? I was sure you would join the other children and roll on the floor crying over the old woman's death."

"You fool! I don't cry!" She screamed punching him. Ethan started to laugh seeing the girl's weak attack.

"I don't know if you remember, but when your hamster died you spent three whole days crying. It was even hard to get close to you without hurting my ears." Ethan said laughing even louder.

"You fool!". Maria fled in anger.

Seeing this, Ethan's laughter slowly ceased as he looked at the figure of the little girl walking away. Gradually his expression changed to a look of complete hatred.

"Ethan, can you help me with this? ". On the way, Ethan was intercepted by some people asking him to do some simple jobs. After all, Ethan was quite strong for his age, so he could carry a few crates and barrels that only adults normally carried.

Carrying a box in his arms, Ethan walked slowly toward the village warehouse. The shed served as a space to save space for the houses and store food for the winter, in addition, leaving the boxes there instead of in the backyards, as they did before, it was less likely that the so-called pests would appear and steal the grain. These plagues were nothing more than groups of Goblins that snuck through villages at dawn stealing anything that looked edible.

Sometimes these Goblins would break into some houses and steal freshly prepared food before running away. These Goblins were quite weak, so much so that they could be killed by an ordinary villager with any weapon or even a farming tool, so people saw them as more of a nuisance than a threat.

These Goblins were little green-skinned men with pointed ears and big eyes. The only thing that could provide a threat were some primitive shaped weapons that some goblins used, but most of the time these weapons consisted of wooden sticks or blunt stone spears.

Arriving at the warehouse, Ethan opened one of the two doors that formed the warehouse gate and entered. After placing the box under the others, he cautiously looked around, making sure he was the only one there, when he spotted one of the supply barrels in the corner Ethan took a step forward.

After picking up a gray package from somewhere in the warehouse, he walked over to the barrel and poured some of the package's contents inside, causing the fruit to be covered in a metallic-looking powder.

'Fortunately, this world has gunpowder... If it wasn't for that, I don't know if my plan would work'. After putting the lid under the barrel again, Ethan walked out of the warehouse and closed the gate behind him, locking it with a padlock.

The next day, people held a simple ceremony for Elder Rose, in fact they wanted to say goodbye to her extravagantly, but one of their last requests was that her burial be simple with her coffin being placed in a common tomb.

With four strong men carrying the coffin by the handles, people followed as they prayed and sang praises to the gods. It was common practice to try to please the gods after death to make them happy and thus take care of the soul of the deceased.

After the funeral, people came home sobbing, even those who still stood their ground couldn't help but shed a few tears for the eldest Rose, the only one who remained unfazed was Ethan. Unlike other people, he didn't have feelings for Elder Rose, in fact, the two didn't interact much during Ethan's lifetime.

"You look thoughtful, son. ". A man approached and started walking beside her.

This was John, Ethan's father. He was a man who shared some traits with his son, such as his hair color and eye color, but unlike Ethan, his physical frame was sturdier and larger. Among his black hair were a few strands of gray that somehow gave him a mature and wise appearance.

"The old woman's last words...". Ethan took what was on his mind.

"You're too young to think about such things, Ethan. ". His father said looking at him. "The old woman's last words might mean a lot… thinking too much about it might do more harm than help right now. ". After running a hand through Ethan's hair, John smiled and went to talk to some villagers.

"Actually, it is not known how likely the old woman's predictions are to come true. Also, as my father said, those words can mean a lot. '. Ethan thought to himself.

A few hours had passed since the funeral, try as he might, Ethan couldn't stop thinking about the old woman's last words.

'My cursed fate followed me to this world?' He thought with his eyes closed. 'I can interpret this sentence in a few ways, but... none of them seem right.'

Even at bedtime, Ethan was still thinking about it. That night he couldn't sleep, he felt a dread coming from the bottom of his soul, he feared that his new life would be a repetition of everything that had happened on earth, he was afraid of losing it all again and more than anything, he feared becoming again the person he was before.