“Oh?”
The cleric looked at me and gave me a smile that obviously had and underlying meaning to it.
—a shiver ran down my spine, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I immediately followed my instincts and put up my guard.
The cleric looked at me, with my over-the-top smile, as if he could see right through it with those silver eyes. What, what…. what in the world? This is bad. This is really bad! Really completely bad!! I want to leave, I want to leave right now!! I want to run away from here!
My instincts were alerting me to danger.
It was like the unmistakable feeling of meeting a predator.
“Come this way”
A slender hand reached towards me. I have to take his hand. If I don’t the prince and Madeline might become suspicious of me. But I don’t want to go. Don’t want to Don’t want to Don’t want to. An unknown feeling wells up in me and I feel even worse than before. I’m sweating. And then Madeline pushes on my back and I stumble forwards.
As I hesitated, over thinking about taking the outstretched hand, he brought his face closer.
He brought his silver eyes with my image reflected to point blank range. *gulp*
―――・・・that appearance is?
In a moment I saw “my appearance” in his eyes, the one I had been searching for. The “human-me”. Black hair. Black eyes. Black uniform. It was “Me”.
But it was only a moment, and then it vanished. Reflected in his eyes was my current form. I couldn’t clearly see it, the face as well.
But there was no mistake. That was “me”.
“hmmm, this is rare, isn’t it”
“――!”
“Don’t be alarmed. I don’t bite.”
“It’s like you isn’t it”, having been told that, alarm bells are going off in my head.
Police cars and ambulances, the siren of a fire truck, the sound of a railroad crossing, the sound when you get caught on the ticket gate, a house’s doorbell and the school’s first bell, the phone’s ringtone and the notification sound of cellphones, the sound of a car backing up, the sound of an alarm clock. All sounds from my human memory.
These sounds run noisily in my head.
—- this person, do they know? That…. i’m a dragon?
Why? How? Because they lived a thousand years? What kind of ability is that?
“So its already been a hundred years, time really does fly by. But really, how strange… ‘Who’ exactly are you? In the future i predicted ‘you’ did not exist. But this actually might turn out to be interesting. It sure seems like it. Aa, yes i’m looking forward to this. Aren’t you? Of course you are.”
The finger that strokes my trembling hand is cold. With a spellbound smile he talks and states his observations to himself. What the heck is this person. A standup comedian who can do a nori-tsukkomi? [6]
“But, hm yes. I see.”
He continues to stare into my eyes.
With those silver eyes that look like they can see right through me he was even still so close to my face we were almost touching noses. I couldn’t move, my whole body froze up like a stone, I couldn’t move a muscle. Because he lowered his voice like it was a secret meeting, The prince and Madeline probably couldn’t hear anything. I want them to hear and I don’t want them to hear.
If I knew something like this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have eaten that much!
It’s kind of late to be realizing that.
The cleric dropped the smile.
[I can only tell you this. —you will eventually die.]
On what authority are you telling me this!! Are you my shinigami?! In reality are you not a cleric, but a shinigami? Even if you say it like that, it’s still technically correct!
[Y-Yes. I will definitely someday die. Because of biology.]
My voice quivered, but I managed to say it.
[Ha ha ha, it’s not like that. I probably said it poorly. You may die, you may live, it depends on which road you follow. That’s what I mean]
Isn’t the substance completely different? Aren’t you playing around too much cleric?! It’s a matter of life and death for me!
[On both paths despair awaits you, both paths shimmer with hope. Which you choose, that is up to you.]
Well I would choose to live over dying by all means. But your words are too vague. And apparently you’re a seer too but that’s something that anyone can say that applies to everyone.
“I-If you can see into the future, why don’t you, look into the future and just, win the war?”
“That’s true, but the future is a fickle thing. The things i read into can only serve as a consolation. There has been plenty of times when I was wrong. In short–”
“You’re not omnipotent.”
Like a weather forecaster.
“well~ it just means that in the end, the future depends on you”
The cleric gave me a bitter smile that seemed to say ‘saying i’m not omnipotent, you’re pretty harsh despite your looks, huh?’.
Doesn’t that mean there’s no point in reading the future? My life is decided by my choices. However it feels kind of strange, having that said to my face.