Chapter 13

A/n: Warning: HEAVY SPOILERS FROM TBATE NOVEL AHEAD. But if you don't mind about them then enjoy the chap.

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Third person's POV:

"Future foresight? What is your proof?", Virion frowned at Vigor.

"You know what I mean, Elder. There's an elf in your kingdom with the similar power like me. Specifically, your people called her a "diviner".", Drinkard stopped mid sentence to see the Elven Royalty's faces soon turned pale.

"If it's possible, I want to meet Rinia Darcassan–

"How?!!!", Alduin hastily slammed the table in frustration and undeniable shock.

All of sudden, Aya and the guards withdrew their swords and pointed at Drinkard. All of them were utterly shocked as well and considered the human adventurer as an absolute threat due to their king's reaction.

"Admit right now!! Who gave you that information??!! Who are your spies??!!"

"No one, no spies but my foresight.", Drinkard half-lied in a monotone voice.

He was expecting this reaction. The worst situation would be getting thrown into the cell which he thought wouldn't happen since he simply would reveal way too many facts and information that the Royalty couldn't deny. But if things went south, Vigor had already prepared an escape plan.

Alduin with irritation: "Don't you dare lie–

"Alduin, calm down.", Virion spoke to his son.

"You're believing his words father?!", The king snapped back.

"If he had actually been spying inside our kingdom for a time then he wouldn't need to take the freed elves to lead his way here, while according to the village chief, it was the opposite. There is only one way to check if he's telling the truth or not, we have to call Rinia."

*Knock* *Knock*, the sound of someone knocking at the door interrupted the conversation and followed by the voice of herself:

"I believe your guest has something to say with me."

The Royalty instantly realized and told a guard to open the door and welcome her in.

"A fascinating pleasure to meet you, Adventurer Drinkard.", Rinia smiled at the armored human boy while the King and Queen looked flabbergasted. Virion couldn't hold back his shocked face well either.

"Greetings to you too. And thank you elder Rinia, you've just made my plan much smoother", Drinkard replied as he thought he would get held for a long time before Rinia arrived at the palace to act as his confirmation.

"Rinia, explain for us please.", Virion demanded.

"From my vision, I saw him and his actions. Simple as that."

"That's impossible, only our race has Diviners who can see the future!", Alduin exclaimed.

"Yet here I am, your royal Highness.", Drinkard responded and took out the wine flask from his ring, but one guard stopped him from drinking in front of the Royalty.

'Fuck you!', Drinkard shot a dead glare at the guard, but no one noticed because of his helm covering his face.

"His ability is similar but not the same as mine, your Majesty, but you can trust me that he's speaking the truth.", Rinia added in.

"Then can you explain the difference between you and him?", Merial asked.

"I will, right after we listen to the important matters he has to tell us."

Virion ordered Aya and the guards to stand down and drew their swords away from Drinkard with a gesture.

As the King and the Queen recomposed and accepted Rinia's words, they let Drinkard to speak.

"First of all, may I ask just for confirmation, my king, my queen, have you recently gone to meetings with human and dwarven royalties?"

"Yes, just last week, and king Glayder is offering many methods and policies to heal the relationship between us and human kingdom.", Merial replied.

"Did he discuss with you the discovery of a foreign continent?", Vigor dropped a bomb which silenced the whole room.

"Aya, you and your men dismiss. This is confidential intel from now on.'', Virion ordered.

"Yes Elder.", Aya and the guards complied and left.

Next was a long and stressful explanation of the whole background story about the source of all the incoming catastrophes by Drinkard that lasted for almost 2 hours. Conflict between Alacrya and Ephoteus, the two Asuran tyrants Agrona and Kezess and last but not least, the invasion of Dicathen, and the bloody war with many terrible deaths.

He pointed out important details such as the invention of steam ship by a human artificer(Gideon) would fasten Alacrya's plan as well as the betrayal of the Greysunders from the beginning with the Glayders. And a group of human noble leaders at the Grand Mountains' Wall would cause severe damage to Dicathen's side.

Drinkard intentionally skipped the part of betrayal of king Alduin for letting the enemies enter the castle under Agrona's threatening that the Elderwood guardian beast will would kill Tessia because for obvious reasons. He also did not "spoil" the deaths of Alduin and Merial, much to how baffered he imagined them would be. Furthermore, he did not mention that their daughter was Agrona's target to capture since she was the chosen vessel for Legacy.

He stopped at "Dicathen will lose.", and didn't reveal any further detail in the novel he got rehearsed.

Pressure and tightness washed over everyone as they digested each word spoken by Drinkard except for Rinia. The room's atmosphere was tense even though there was no mage leaking out their killing intent. The amount of details was overwhelming for anyone to doubt if Drinkard was lying, except for Rinia.

"Was that all? What about the survivors?", Virion asked first, breaking the unpleasant silence.

"The cities will be occupied by Alacryan armies, those who couldn't flee away would become slaves or turn into their side. Others and the remains of our army, led by you, will have to evacuate to a place named the Sanctuary lying deep down underground ehmmm... somewhere? I forgot this part.", Vigor scratched his head.

"In the desert of Darv, Dwarven Land. I have a dwarf friend who knows the location.", Virion added.

"Father?"Alduin and Merial looked at Virion.

"Sanctuary is an abandoned hall which is assumedly constructed by ancient mages, just like the portals. Conveniently it provides a more than enough amount of space to withhold an entire town, and even with artificial lights! A very suitable place for large scale evacuations. Hah! Excellent job, future me!" Virion casually complimented ...."himself" with a proud face with a soft laugh and earned rolling eyes from everyone.

But his humor failed to break the stressful atmosphere.

"Then what's next? Did we have any chance to strike back?", Alduin questioned with tension.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you more."

"Why?"

"By somehow, my foresight is retrained, I tried to see further events but gained nothing besides failed attempts.", Vigor lied, blatantly as he continued:

"That's why I'm here, I choose to put my trust on you, your Majesty. You are the only leading figures who weren't corrupted and did not turned your back with not only your people but also the continent. It is best to prepare as soon as possible."

"B-but what about the deities– I mean..Asuras on our side according to your foresight? So they just abandoned us like that when we lost?", Merial asked.

"I do not have any further idea, but it was likely the chance. I believe that after Agrona had successfully conquered Dicathen, he would pour everything left of his resources and men to reconstruct an even bigger army to face Epheotus.

As the truce between him and Kezess will inevitably be broken, another war will happen, but with a scale beyond imagination considering the mass destruction of Asura's magic. And we, the Dicathians whose freedom was taken away, would become the pawns of that bastard's chess game, to be used for fighting and dying for a war against our wills until none of us is left."

Drinkard finished and took a wine sip.

"Rinia, what's your opinion? What about your own vision?", Virion asked.

"The adventurer saw far further than my capability, if I want to reach to where he "had been", it shall take too many "years" of mine.", Rinia explained, mentioned about the biggest drawback of her ability, which Virion and Alduin knew well with their faces darkened, remembering about the cause of the death of Lania Darcassan(Virion's deceased wife, Alduin's deceased mother).

Rinia shifted her gaze to Drinkard:

"While I can see different paths leading to different outcomes, you, human adventurer, are stuck at only one, am I correct?"

"Yes.", Drinkard confirmed with a nod.

"Very interesting.", Rinia commented with studying eyes.

"But then Drinkard, does it any differ from telling us that the fall of Dicathen is casted? When even the deities failed to help us? What are any chances left to stand against them?" Merial with a depressed expression.

"The chances are small, but they aren't nonexistent. Although I can't even be absolutely certain of my own capability, I still have hope in my actions to alter the future, regardless how impossible it seems. As I do all of these not for my own self-insert, but for my family and my continent.

Then what about your Majesties? Will you just helplessly accept your home to be invaded and your people to be killed and enslaved? Or will you stand your ground and fight with all everything you got for your freedom like what the true leaders of the kingdom ought to do?", Drinkard stated, which caught everyone by surprise(except for Rinia).

After a moment, Alduin immediately snapped back:

"Of course not! We are the people of Elenoir, and we will never tolerate any oppression bestowed upon us!!"

"Not just as a ruler but also as parents, there's no chance we would ever let our people and our daughter live in torment and hell.", Merial with a very serious expression and tone as well.

"Ha…hahahahaha!! Very good , my son and daughter in law!! And I like your guts, tin head!! We sure won't give up that easily.", Virion exclaimed with a laugh, showing his agreement with Vigor's opinion and addressed him with a "new nickname".

"Very well then, adventurer Drinkard. With that being said, by my order from now on, you will be the close alliance of the Eralith family as well as Elenoir. It's close the night time now, I will make preparations for your long stay as we will discuss more about the preparations for war.", Alduin concluded.

"Then perhaps, if you may, your Majesty, let him stay here as my apprentice, I want to understand more of his "seer ability" and perhaps can help him to see further, which shall greatly benefit us.", Rinia gave a suggestion.

"You are the only one with the most knowledge of future foresight, Rinia. I grant my approval for your idea, and what about you?", Alduin referred to Drinkard and looked at him.

"I accept her proposition as well, your Highness."

Everyone walked out of the room and Tessia Eralith immediately rushed towards her parents and her grandpa, asking why they were having such a long meeting.

Alduin, Merial and Virion gave her a brief explanation that they had a very urgent and important problem to take care of so they told her to have dinner with Arthur first without their participation.

Tessia expressed her displeasure but she slowly complied as she walked with Arthur while the three heads of Eralith Royalty went preparing their plans with all the information about the slave trading system provided by Drinkard to save their elven kins.

On the other hand, Drinkard's eyes locked at Tessia with killing intent behind his helm, knowing that because of her fate being the vessel for Legacy, tons of problems and tragedies were caused from her, both directly and indirectly. In the novel, she gave herself out to protect Arthur's sister: Ellie, and as a result, Agrona had reincarnated the soul of Cecilia into her body along with the absurd power of Legacy.

It was still a big mystery about the origin of this anomaly entity "Legacy" yet to be discovered in the novel. But only one thing that is important for Vigor(Drinkard) to know: He cannot let her reincarnate into this world.

And what is the most and perhaps only reasonable way to do so?

In Vigor's head, there was no option other than a quick death delivered to the vessel herself. No vessel, no Legacy. Then Agrona will lose his most crucial card to turn the tide of the war and fall. After that, Kezess would be his only issue left to worry about.

'But things…. simply are not so simple.', Vigor sighed mentally.

".....The room provided by the king is in this way if you want to stop staring at my grandniece and follow me for our talk.", Rinia called out for Drinkard's attention.

"I'm wearing a helm? Did you see the future to know that?", Drinkard asked her.

"No, I don't need to do so to recognize your ill intention to Tessia.", Rinia gave Drinkard a pair of warning eyes.

".....Let's discuss more in private then.", the armored human boy walked with the elder elf to the room.

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"Before we start. I want a clarification, what is my actual name?", Drinkard asked her as he closed the room's door and snapped out a sound proof barrier.

"Be a little more specific child, which one of yours? The "old one"? Or the "one in this world"?", Rinia answered back with questions of her own.

"Damn. You truly knew.", Vigor instantly realized and put off his helm, revealing his face because there was no other point of hiding his identity in front of a diviner...and also because he wanted to drink wine in a comfortable way.

"Again, thanks for your help. Without your participation in the conversation, I would highly be locked in the cells right now by the Royalty."

"I bet that the king and queen wouldn't give such a harsh order for our "kingdom's hero", but rather just a small restraint on you."

" Perhaps so, by the way, how did you see that I was reincarnated?"

"I observed that you were always carrying a notebook with you which….contains a bizarre form of knowledge. It was an unimaginable bewilderment for me to comprehend but I soon connected the dots and figured it out:

You were from another planet, Vigor Kinsteel, and the 'God', the supposedly "true deity" instead of Kezess, took your soul to…here.

And your monstrously fast growth as a mage for your biological age is the result of his gift to your body. As well as .... the Aether core inside you.", Rinia explained with studying eyes as she sensed the Aether in Vigor's figure.

"Correct to all of them.", Vigor replied curtly.

"Then I must guess that segment of future vision was given to you by that God as well?",

"Yes.", Vigor answered instantly.

"Fufufufu. Without batting an eye, without wasting a second, I see.", Rinia let out a small chuckle and sarcastically commented as she saw through Vigor's lie.

"Ooooh…. You sly witch grannie! Fuckin—Tch, alright! You got me.", Vigor admitted in defeat, realizing that she already, actually knew and was just baiting him.

"Why did you even ask me then, other than tricking me as your intention?"

"I stopped my vision at this very moment to save my lifespan, as I guessed that you would have a lot to say. Also, I am very curious to hear a reincarnated individual like you in person speaking about his past life."

"And can I have the right to decline?", Vigor insisted with his intention.

"So then I will have the right to stop helping you as well right?", Rinia asked right back.

Vigor then took a deep breath in frustration before he began:

"Fine!…. Promise you won't tell anyone, or not even your foresight can save you from me.", Vigor with a warning.

"No need to worry, for I don't gain any benefit from doing such thing.", Rinia guaranteed.

Alright, I'm in fact from…or to be more accurate: "was" from a planet called "Earth". There were no magic, no Mana, no Aether,...and sounds a little bit racist by the way but there was only one intelligent race "ruling" on that planet , which is humans. No elves or dwarves….", Vigor stopped in slight awkwardness.

"Mm hmmmm. Very interesting.", Rinia commented, ignoring the his statement about the races' topic.

"Not really to be honest, just a bunch of "crazy evolved apes" using all of their intelligence to develop weapons of mass destruction to stupidly kill each other off and ruin the planet simultaneously."

Vigor stopped for a moment as a wave of mixed emotions, sadness along with nostalgia hit his mind.

"And my real name is…..Erik Johnson.. I was born in a poor family. So poor that my biological parents, whose names I simply did not bother to remember, sold me to the military when I was 5. Thus, the military raised me to become a person capable of doing things for their benefits: unconventional warfare, strategic reconnaissance,counter insurgency, information operations, assassinations and even terrorisms and mass murder. Long story short: a lot of dead people.

All of those things, all of those bloods on my hands, solely for me to stay alive...until I met my final moment on the battlefield, a death by committing suicide."

"What led you to that decision ?", Rinia asked.

"Severely wounded. Surrounded by enemies. All of my team: dead. And I got nothing left but a bag of grenades, it would be a waste if I didn't use any of them , right?.", Vigor made a joke in a sarcastic tone.

"Pardon, what are… "grenades"?", Rinia with a confused face.

"Oh…. right. They are bombs, explosive weapon, Rinia. Anyway, when I died, my soul became homeless in an empty void. And it turns out God does exist in…this universe, and he chose me, the suitable individual to carry the ultimate mission: saving this world from those narcissistic dickhead Asuras whom you people called "deities"." Hence….here I am."

"And your knowledge of those series of future events?"

"First of all, it's your choice whether to believe my words or not, after I finish revealing it, you will have to help me, are we clear?", Vigor warned first again and received a nod from her.

"When I was in the military, I spent my free time reading books, novels, stories with all kinds of genres, to entertain myself. And one of my most favorite was the story of a king who stood on the pinnacle of power, but at the price of isolating himself from his only loved ones… The moment he died, a weird phenomenon occurred, making him reborn into this world. Inside the body of an infant with a new identity: Arthur Leywin."

Rinia looked at him with widened eyes and her jaw dropped. No words could describe her utter surprise and disbelief.

Vigor began to epitomize Arthur's journey in this world. His time spent with his parents, meeting with the Twin Horns and getting ambushed by the slave traders. And how he met Sylvia, got raised and tutored by her. Until he rescued Tessia and arrived at Elenoir.

He even included the part where Arthur met Rinia to ask for her help to communicate with his parents. And there was no way for Rinia to deny the story, much to how she utterly wanted to not believe it.

"H-h-how?! This is outrageous!!! Ridiculous!!! How is it even possible for us, for everyone on this continent and this very world are all imaginational??!!", Rinia rubbed her temples and sat down in confusion.

"I'm as clueless as you. Who knows? One's reality might be another's fantasy. My only take that sounds reasonable enough is that the person who wrote that story was also chosen by God to deliver the information about your world to the readers….like me. So that I can have the right knowledge to advance to be stronger such as in Mana and Aether…..".,Vigor looked at the seer elf, as if she was demented, still processing his words.

".....You wished for it, granny. And you are more than welcome to verify me by wasting some years of your life span with your foresight, which I will tell you first: it is not worth it.", he commented with plain truth.

After a long moment of consideration, Rinia breathed heavily and shook her head:

"It indeed isn't worth it. You are right. I will set that matter aside for now since the most important goal for us to focus on now is your plan to prepare against Agrona, and further in the future, Kezess as well.

I felt that there were many things else important from that… "story" you read which you did not tell the Royalty? For special reasons?"

"Yes.", Vigor took a big gulp of wine before continuing to summarize(mostly under Arthur's POV) all the events, the characters as well as their goals and backgrounds which were the crucial connections in the plot of the story….or now, it could be understood as the fate of this entire world.

An hour of tension passed and Rinia remained in absolute silence of contemplation. She was depressed to know the fate of her family and eventually, even about her own death when she drained all of her lifespan to use her foresight. Much against it was a hope…the only hope of Dicathen, which was Arthur Leywin , as Vigor told how he managed to survive his death, achieved Aether core, killed off many enemies and returned back to the continent to successfully defeat the Patheon asura Taci.

"Now I understand why you were staring at my grandniece with such deadly intent. It….hurts me to admit but it seems she is unfortunately the biggest source of problems bestowed on us.", Rinia said after being quiet.

"Hmm. And I thought that you would be much concerning about your own demise first.", Vigor commented.

"Fufufu, please. At that point, I have lived long enough, if anything left in my remaining days breathing on this world was utilized by myself to help this continent and the people, I would gladly believe that was a very "me" thing that I would have done, without regrets.", Rinia let out a small painful laugh.

"....You're not wrong at all, elder. As you purposely let Tessia run away to the city, trying to save her parents….And the result would be Arthur went there to save her from Cadel and Nico, he succeeded with a broken mana core and got yeeted to a Relictomb in Alacrya. And it was because of that very reason, he got Aether's power and advanced to be much, much stronger. All of those actions you have done, based on your precise foresight.

Without you, Arthur would never have become that powerful enough to get Dicathen a winning chance. So I admit it, Rinia, "you" contributed a lot for this continent."

"That should be enough of flattering, child. But thank you, this old lady appreciates it.", Rinia with a scoffing sneer.

Vigor continued:

"Now, these are the problems: 1, the story I read wasn't finished, it stopped at the part I just finished telling you. I tried to ask the angel who reincarnated me but he refused to explain. 2, my presence in this world from the day I was born has already caused this whole timeline to differ compared to the timeline in the story which I will call the "original timeline".

From now, although the people with their goals and characteristics may be unchanged, the events will definitely not be the same, and perhaps many of them won't even exist anymore. So there might be a big chance that my "fake foresight" will slowly become useless as the time passes.

One of the main goals to get our chance of winning was obviously the individual which you already could clearly see."

"Arthur.", Rinia answered and Vigor nodded.

"He can be known as "the main character" for the whole story to focus around, and for us to see from his perspective, as the author knew that he would be the only one with the most capability to save this world.

However, just like Tessia, he made great mistakes, causing a lot of troubles leading to the war.

The question is how can we and how should we interfere with his actions?"

"I have an Aether art for long distance observation, I can update you about his actions. But it is impossible for me to do so consistently."

"Then how about the one who has the real capability? Taci mentioned something very interesting when he encountered you. He addressed you as "the student of the lost prince".", Vigor said, which caught Rinia off guard.

"*Sigh*, there's no way to hide it from you then."

"Mordain Asclepius, the former leader of the Phoenix race. Bring me to him.", Vigor with a determination, meeting that Asuran would make his progress significantly faster, considering what kind of powerful mana arts he could learn from a Phoenix

"It has been decades ago since the last time we met. I'm sorry to disappoint you child, he had resided in the deepest part of Beast Glades where I had no clue of."

"So how did you…and maybe also your older sister become his students?"

"He reached us first, seeing that we had great potential. But I will try to contact him, see if he allows for you to arrive at his place.", Rinia explained.

Next, it was a half of an hour of more discussions between Vigor and Rinia, for their plans to prepare for the best solutions which could lead to the desirable outcomes for the continent.

"I think that we should continue tomorrow. You gave me enough headaches for a day.", Rinia rubbed her temples and forehead again from digesting that large amount of information coming from Vigor.

"....Very well, I also have other matters to settle too . I hope I can trust you for now on, elder.", Vigor said as he dispelled the soundproof barrier.

A feeling of noticeable fatigue struck him as he sensed his mana core was emptied in half as the result of holding the spell for more than an hour.

As Rinia walked out of the room, the human boy collapsed on the bed and put his helm back.

'What a long day.'