[Translator - Jjescus ]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
Chapter: 181
Aro hesitated at the door. I also paused and looked around.
The sll of incense perated the room. The acrid scent contained a strange and peculiar tension. The faint light seeping through the door added to the eerie atmosphere.
"......Village Chief?"
I called out to the village chief beyond the door in a low voice, but there was no answer. Even if I waited longer, I wouldn't get the answer I wanted.
I opened the door and stepped inside.
The room was filled with the thick smoke of incense. The air was heavy and suffocating.
In the center of the room, there were various objects on a table. But they were not a typical ancestral table. Instead of food or traditional ritual objects, there were old and worn-out shamanic tools and strangely shaped stone pieces.
And, in front of the table, there was the village chief.
"Grandma!"
"Village Chief...?"
The village chief barely moved. The village chief was kneeling in front of the table, but seed to have no strength to support her back, leaning against the table with her head slumped. Her head was also drooping.
I approached her, but her eyes were closed. Only a faint breath proved that the village chief was still alive, not dead. In the village chief's hand was the sacred rope that I had often seen.
"G-Grandma..."
Aro called the village chief in a small voice. It was a pitiful, trembling voice. But the village chief showed no response.
"She's alive. Don't cry yet."
"Is she really?"
"Of course,” I said that to the girl who was about to burst into tears.
I looked up and surveyed the room. The wall above the table was covered with writing and drawings that seed to have been written with a thick brush. So of them caught my eye.
They were the patterns that were drawn on the books and scrolls in the study, the stone pillars in the shrine, and the colorful pieces of cloth tied to the boundary.
At that mont, the village chief suddenly moved slightly. It was such a small movent that Aro didn't seem to notice it.
"Village Chief."
When I called the village chief, her head, which had been slumped on the table, slowly lifted. The movent seed slow and arduous, as if the village chief was carrying a huge weight.
"You've co..."
The village chief's voice was very faint, but it was clearly heard in the silence that had settled heavily in the room.
I nodded my head slightly in greeting. It wouldn't be visible to the village chief, who was facing away from anyway.
"What is all this about?"
The village chief seed to lift her head for a mont, but then slumped down again. The sound of her head hitting the table with a thud felt eerily loud.
Aro imdiately ran to check on the village chief. I also approached.
The village chief's eyes were open, but her head was slumped on the table. She seed to have completely exhausted her energy. Only the slow blinking of her eyelids was the only reaction the village chief showed.
The village chief took a breath and continued speaking with difficulty.
"Soon... I will soon..."
"What do you an by soon?"
I had a bad feeling. Both Aro and I understood what the village chief ant, but we hoped that she wouldn't just pass away like this.
"The final... preparations must be made..."
With the village chief's words, the air in the room, already filled with the scent and smoke of incense, seed to beco even heavier. I could read the clear despair and resignation mixed in the village chief's voice.
"I..."
Then, the village chief suddenly looked at Aro. All of her attention was focused on her.
"After... I leave..."
"I don't want to!"
Suddenly, she yelled. She rarely raised her voice, so it felt strange to see her shouting with her face flushed red.
"No. It can't be. Grandma, no. It's not true, is it?"
She spoke as if she didn't even want to ntion the village chief's impending death. I also found it difficult to maintain my composure.
"Until this day... the unfinished business..."
"I won't! I won't do anything. Please stop talking."
Aro was on the verge of tears. I recalled what I had seen in the study.
"Village Chief," I said in a low voice, and the village chief's eyes slightly moved towards . "Is the unfinished business you're talking about finding soone?"
At that, the village chief's eyes slowly blinked.
"Yes."
The village chief answered with a sigh, her voice very small.
I continued, "Do you want to bring those with abilities to the village?"
The village chief responded to my question. No, in fact, there was no audible response. However, the village chief moved her lips, and the movent of her lips implied an affirmative answer. She must have been in a situation where she couldn't even make a sound due to exhaustion.
"Why do you want to do that?" I asked again.
The village chief silently moved her lips a few tis, then barely managed to answer.
"The Fiery Calamity... The Fiery Calamity will happen... A great..., a very great disaster..."
Sothing ca to mind with those words. Among the things that would happen in the future, if there was sothing that could be called a great disaster, it would surely be...
"Are you saying that a war will break out?"
"Yes... Cough!"
The village chief suddenly started coughing. The cough, which had been intermittently breaking out before, started again, and the symptoms continued endlessly. As the village chief's cough grew longer, Aro's face also turned pale.
"So water..."
I looked around and found a water bottle that Sannyeong seed to have brought. I picked it up and held it out, but the village chief weakly shook her head, expressing her refusal.
"...It's no use."
The village chief's cough continued for a long ti, and it subsided just before Aro burst into tears.
"Isn't there any way to cure her illness?"
The village chief weakly shook her head again. Is there really no way at all?
"...I'm glad... I'm glad to see you before I die."
She said that in a voice as small as a breath, and it felt like the village chief could die at any mont.
Of course, just by looking at her appearance and complexion, she already seed to be on the verge of death, but even when I saw her before, she wasn't as precarious as she was today.
"The war, it... must be stopped."
I nodded my head. That was what I also wanted. How wonderful it would be if no one died or got hurt. But it was just a wish. Because it was sothing that would eventually happen.
"...Please stop it."
"How can I stop it?"
It wasn't that I was saying it was impossible to stop what would happen in the future. I was sincerely asking for the thod.
If it was possible to stop it, there was no reason not to do so. If it was sothing I could do, I would not hesitate to do it.
"Huawei..."
As the village chief's eyes slowly closed, a thin voice ca out from between her dry and chapped lips.
At the sa ti, my eyes widened.
"You know that na...?" The village chief asked.
I nodded my head and answered, "Yes, I know."
"The world... The main family that claims to be the owner of the world..."
I imdiately realized who the village chief was referring to. The village chief was referring to the Emperor of the Huawei Kingdom.
I thought she was going to tell a way to stop the war, but was that thod perhaps to kill the emperor?
I recalled the generals who were by the emperor's side. The emperor's personal guards, who were gathered from the strongest people found throughout the empire. I would have to defeat them first to get close to the emperor.
It was close to impossible.
"Those heinous people..."
But it seed that it wasn't sothing that could be solved by just killing the emperor.
"Are you saying to fight against the entire imperial family? Is that your goal?"
The village chief weakly nodded her head. It was an absurd situation. If so, then the village chief was actually antagonizing the Emperor of the Huawei Kingdom.
Even if she was a powerful shaman, the village chief was just a frail old woman. It was unbelievable that such a person wanted to kill the Emperor of the Huawei Kingdom.
"That's absurd."
"...It must be done."
"No, it's impossible."
The wrinkles etched on the village chief's forehead seed to deepen a little more, and suddenly, I began to sense soone approaching from a distance. It was definitely Sannyeong.
I looked towards the entrance of the shrine's main hall.
"......Sannyeong is coming,” The village chief said, perhaps realizing the reason for my actions.
"Yes."
Then the village chief let out a hollow laugh. The laughter was very small, but even that small movent seed to be too much for her. The village chief's shoulders and back heaved greatly.
Soon after, Sannyeong's footsteps, walking along the corridor, began to echo throughout the hall. The old hall groaned and rumbled loudly, unable to withstand the rough footsteps. And soon, Sannyeong appeared.
"What in the world are you doing?!" Sannyeong shouted angrily and threw the door open.
I had expected her to appear in a fit of rage, but Aro didn't seem to have expected it. She was surprised and started hiccuping.
"Why are you here?!" Sannyeong shouted at Aro, who was hiccuping. Her face was flushed red, showing how frantically she had returned to the shrine. She was panting heavily because of the running.
"What nonsense were you talking about again?!"
Every ti she shouted in anger, her roar hit the walls and ceiling of the hall, echoing loudly. I sized up the situation and subtly hid Aro behind my back, who was hiccuping.
"Stop it. It's all nonsense. It's ridiculous. The old woman is clearly senile."
"No, that's not true."
I shook my head and answered Sannyeong. Then her gaze, which had been glaring only at the village chief, turned sharply towards .
"What did you say?"
"You say that what the village chief said is nonsense... That's wrong."
When I argued, Sannyeong pounded her chest with her fist as if she was frustrated.
"I should have known from the mont you were listening to the ramblings of a senile old woman! You too. Get out of here!"
Her roar was deafening. But I no longer paid any attention to Sannyeong. Because the village chief's aura had changed.
As I quietly turned around and looked at the village chief, Sannyeong's anger seed to subside slowly.
"Uncle?"
Aro called , asking why I was staring at the village chief.
I couldn't bring myself to answer her call.
"......Uncle?"
When I didn't answer, she called again.
"What's wrong?"
I looked at the village chief with a heavy heart. The village chief, who had collapsed with her head on the table due to exhaustion, still had her eyes open. She had her eyes open. But...
"Uncle?"
Aro, who called once again, slowly turned her head and looked at the village chief. Then she froze as if she had been petrified.
"......Grandma?"
I could no longer sense the presence of a living person from the village chief.
[Translator - Jjescus ]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
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