Chapter 288: A Black Flower (4)
Her sapphire eyes were profound yet rather dark and anyone seeing her eyes would consider that to be the gaze of a soothsayer.
Bom was no longer nervous in the slightest and immediately immersed herself into the situation to act like the perfect soothsayer. She then scrupulously observed for a hint.
I have no ideaa…
Regardless of what was inside her mind, it was fine since it didn’t show on the outside.
Meanwhile, it was about time for her to have physical contact with Yu Jitae. In order to receive his thoughts naturally in front of the eyes of such powerhouses, it was wiser to rely on the empathising ability of dragons to receive his memories and emotions rather than using mana to convey each other’s thoughts.
“Mhm…”
Thus, Bom closed her eyes and stumbled as some of the advisors gasped, “Aht,”. Their minds linked that image of the mysterious girl stumbling to her foresight ability.
Naturally, Bom leaned on Yu Jitae and their bodies touched.
“Are you without any injuries, Soothsayer.”
At that moment, Bom was dismayed by two things.
One, she was simply following the script but being actually hugged by Yu Jitae threw her mind off,
And two, she was expecting him to use polite language but it sounded like he was reading a passage from a textbook and that threw her off even more.
“Thank you for supporting me so naturally. Season.”
[Why is your acting so unnatural?]
“Was there a revelation,”
[Did you receive my memories?]
“Yes.”
[Yes yes]
After receiving his memories, Bom slowly heaved a deep sigh.
“There is something unfortunate that I must convey.”
Her words immediately intensified the tension inside the conference room.
“Ah…”
“That’s…”
People stuttered, not willing to be rash with their words.
“Who might that be, Soothsayer,” Chaliovan asked.
“One who has either formed a connection with an individual or an organisation presumed to be Q, or has aligned themselves to their goals…”
Bom slowly turned her gaze in the middle of her speech and identified one middle-aged man.
“South East Asia’s 7th Corps Commander, Edrei. Please stand up.”
When a veteran soldier who had served the Association for 30 years stood up from his seat after being called by her, the conference room was filled with astonishment. Christoph in that instant twitched but BM laid his hand on the shoulder of the old man to prevent this emotional old man from murdering someone.
The silence elongated like a cheese stick. Although the true ‘traitor’ was revealed by the Soothsayer, the conference room was dead quiet with not a single sound to be heard.
Some were furious; some were shocked while others were in doubt.
“Hah.”
The Albanian, Edrei, opened his mouth and gathered the eyes of the crowd.
“I wonder what you saw from the future to make you say that… I have no idea, Soothsayer.”
At the centre of all sorts of gazes, he shook his hand with an awkward smile.
“Why are you looking at me like this? I have done nothing wrong. Me betraying the Association? And how would I meet Q in the first place?”
“Edrei. You have come into contact with either an individual or a group that you yourself consider to be Q.”
“No? I have never done so, Soothsayer. Please think rationally. I am an old man in my 50s and yet I have the commander title of the renowned Association at this age. Why would I ever do such a thing?”
In response, Bom replied with a bitter voice.
“You are right. I wonder why…”
Edrei twitched his eyes in response.
“No. No no no! In the first place, how are you foreseeing the future, young lady? How does that prediction of yours work?”
The coarse manner of speech of a soldier took the best of him as he began referring to her as a young lady instead of a soothsayer. He had an awkward smile on his face but that was hiding the teeth-shattering anger he was feeling.
“Is that interrogation from before a prediction? Even if that was true, how would that be a prediction? That would be just mind-reading! Am I wrong?”
While spitting saliva everywhere, Edrei threw his arms into the air and frantically preached. His eyes gazed around looking for agreement.
People that were absorbed in by Bom’s aura slowly came to themselves and began to realise that something indeed was odd.
“That is true.”
“Rather than prediction of the future, that’s more like…”
“Then, are you sure you have never done anything dishonourable, Commander?”
Edrei shouted out loud.
“Of course I have never done such a thing! This is an outrageous insult!”
“I have merely stated the truth,” Bom replied.
“No! You stay quiet, young lady! Who even is she? How come a scammer can call themselves a soothsayer without going through any verifications? Even though it was the Prophet that brought her here, how can a person without their identity checked be here at the heart of the Association?”
He reminded everyone of how Bom was an outsider. As more and more doubt appeared in the eyes of the onlookers,
“Be quiet, Edrei.”
Chairman Chaliovan cut his words off.
“Your Honour Chairman. Please see this injustice through. That young lady is a scammer!”
Edrei turned towards him in fury as Chaliovan’s eyes, resembling that of a beast, curved like a painting.
“Why are you so agitated like someone who’s done something wrong.”
“I have done nothing wro…”
“If you’re confident, stand still with your mouth shut.”
“…!”
Bringing the situation back to the topic, Chaliovan turned towards Bom.
“However, he is not wrong. Soothsayer Haru. What did you see from the future?”
“Dark place. Scent of burnt tyres. Cheap mixed whiskey. A pen writing words down on a paper – a report for Q to see.”
Bom said pretending to be mysterious but Edrei shouted back, “That’s utter nonsense! I do not even know such a place!”
“Do you mean that is due to happen in the future?” Chaliovan asked.
“Yes.”
“But doesn’t that mean it might not have occurred yet?”
“The records of the report…”
Slurring the end of her sentence, Bom glanced back at Yu Jitae. With too much detail, they would end up creating leeways for counter-arguments. Predictions had to be ambiguous and thus Yu Jitae was the only one that could solve the situation.
“Executives, please do not ask for details from my Soothsayer. There is Providence that should never be interrupted within a prediction and there is a limit to how much can be shared.”
Aigo, it’s over.
Bom thought it was all over. The textbook passage from before was comparatively better off and now, he sounded as if he was reading an essay.
Due to that, the skeptical eyes of the crowd remained in place.
The executives found a colleague who they had been working with for over 30 years to be more trustworthy than the soothsayer whom they were seeing for the first time today, even though she was brought by Season.
People buzzed with noise. Their heads tried to see the situation objectively but their hearts completely refused to raise doubts against their long-time colleague.
“BM and Carrefour. Take Edrei to the underground prison for me.”
“This is nonsense! It’s not me! I have not been brainwashed or anything! Your Honour Chairman, do you not trust me sir?”
In response, Chaliovan turned towards him and Edrei had to immediately shut his mouth with a gasp.
“My trust is not of importance here.”
It was when two of the five transcendents stood up and carried Edrei by his arms.
“Chairman. It is too radical and I must say that it is a regrettable turn of events.”
“That is right sir. How can we doubt Edrei this easily. That is devaluing all the time we have spent with him.”
Other commanders who had gone through various hardships with Edrei stood up and took his side, resulting in the eruption of other suppressed doubts.
Several soldiers and executives threw glances at Bom and their hostile gazes spread to everyone else. Before long, everyone’s eyes were on Bom.
Who even is that young girl and why is she creating such a fuss? In their eyes, it looked like a new nail trying to force out an old nail to claim its spot. The things about Q, brainwash and whatever all sounded like excuses as their minds reflected on the 30 years they had spent with Edrei.
Was she even an actual soothsayer in the first place? Those suspicions budded up but what dissuaded them from continuing with such doubts was the relaxed appearance on Bom’s face as well as her straight and unwavering gaze.
As if she fully understood their doubts, the sapphire-eyed soothsayer opened her mouth.
“It is fine to hate me. Should you come and curse at me, I will stand and listen to it all. It is okay because I believe heartfelt emotions will one day reach everyone.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It might be everyone’s first time seeing me today, but I have spent half of my life in this place,” said the young girl who appeared to be in her 20s.
The soothsayer then continued.
“Zhuge Haiyan. Our personalities were quite a good match.”
Both Yu Jitae and Zhuge Haiyan twitched their eyes at the same time. For Yu Jitae, it was because Bom suddenly started saying things that weren’t part of the script. He wondered what was wrong with her.
After that, Bom looked at the one sitting next to her, but that person didn’t have a name tag. Slowly, Bom reached for Yu Jitae’s hand and after realising her intention, he quickly allowed her to receive his memories.
“Carlie. Mao Jing. Mekia Ivankov. Jung Bongman. Christoph. You guys were truly noble and sublime warriors. You always stood at the frontlines unwilling to back down.”
She then began calling everyone sitting there one by one by their names and looked into their eyes. A few of the superhumans glared back at her with confusion.
“Steel Patrick. Mahatma Gideon. Wang Yuhao. Koizumi Yuuta. Elbappe McKnight. You were excellent commanders. You had saved countless people and defeated countless monsters to maintain peace on this land.”
Wasn’t it their first time seeing each other? They realised that this too was a prophecy. Bom called 52 of them by their names without getting a single name wrong,
“Chaliovan Greenrain. You had always trusted and supported me.”
And mentioned the future they had spent together.
“Though some of us here might not stay with us till the end, that is something I cannot say with my lips. However, I, will stand with everyone until the day my eyes come to a close and become your strength.”
Saying that, Bom elegantly gave a bow.
“Please take care of me.”
The conference room was yet again met with a fairly big shock. Her voice was ever so filled with sincerity to be called a lie; her gestures were natural and her gaze was profound.
In alignment with that, the eyes filled with fury also dissipated by little. Even though they didn’t know her, the opponent showing so much care and expressing that affection to them raised a fairly big commotion in their hearts.
After listening to all that, Yu Jitae wanted to compliment Bom.
While saying that it was okay for everyone to be mad, she was naturally demonstrating the credibility of her prophecies. And besides, she linked it to the salvation of humanity which the soldiers and executives of this place found to be their pride.
He was expecting her to do it well due to her intelligence but this was even better than what he imagined. Her lies were also very well crafted.
In any case, the rice had already finished cooking and it was now time to open it.
“I will take part in the investigation.”
It wasn’t anything difficult.
After two hours, a record of Edrei having contacted an anonymous person over an encrypted communication artifact was discovered. Twenty investigators of the Association entered the case and decrypted the code. Even then, Edrei continuously yelled of his innocence.
“You guys will regret it! You will regret being controlled by that scammer! You know that—!!?”
However, concrete evidence was soon discovered. They even heard the voice of Q.
“Edrei. Why did you do that?”
Only then did the middle-aged Albanian lower his head and turn quiet.
He smiled.
At the start, he appeared to be holding his laughter back as if it was ridiculous but later chortled out loud as if there was something funny.
“How did the brainwash happen,” asked one of the investigators.
“Brainwash? A brainwash? It’s nothing like that.”
The investigators felt miserable seeing the purplish-black stigma that appeared on Edrei’s forehead.
“Do you even know of that person’s despair? How much sorrow and pain that person had gone through? Brainwash? Hah, brainwash! This is sympathy – empathy and voluntary participation! If only I could sit on that person’s right side and wipe those tears! Lick that person’s wounds so that it’s no longer painful!”
Like that, he began talking nonsense like a lunatic and was sent over to the security department of the Association. That night, he died after vomiting out every secret.
On the other hand, it resulted in a large and shocking change to the eyes of the executives facing Bom and Yu Jitae.
A girl that suddenly appeared out of nowhere referred to herself as the soothsayer and pointed at one person as the evil. Some asked for proof and logical reasons but there was no such thing. To be fair, it made sense for an absurd ability like foreseeing the future to have no logical explanation behind it.
However, the Association always had to move with proof so they all doubted – everyone. But the result was one that completely flipped the doubts of every executive member of the command centre.
The prophecies were correct. They were accurate.
– I still cannot believe it. To think a soothsayer actually existed…
– I am also very shocked by it.
Everyone in the Association were talking about the Soothsayer and it wasn’t difficult to hear such conversations.
– I actually even thought the Prophet had something else in mind.
– Something else?
– It is a bit extreme but it seemed like he was constantly instigating conflict between governments and the Association. So that just made me think that he might be a new type of demon…
– Ahh, doing that to kill more of humanity than a simple collapse of the Association, huh. I guess that would make some sense, but…
– Yes. I had it wrong. The soothsayer actually existed…
Bom, who coincidentally heard the conversation from the office, blinked her eyes and smiled at Yu Jitae who was sitting next to her while biting her tongue. I did well right? That seemed to be the meaning behind her smile. Yu Jitae was also satisfied and caressed her cheeks with his fingers.
So far, it was going according to plan.