novelraw Chapter 875: Trusting the Prophet
Chapter 875: Trusting the Prophet
“The Prophet was wrong about his prophecy...?”
Prusius’s wavering tail froze mid-sway.
“Maybe... not... yet,” Ophelia said.
Prusius quickly tried to console Lu Li, whose expression had shifted.
“Yes, Mr. Lu Li, remember what the Prophet said? That it wouldn’t be a bad ending? We have to trust him.”
“Is there water in Hell?”
Lu Li’s gaze fell on the basin of water in Gades’s hands, his thoughts drifting.
“I don’t ask your secrets, and you don’t ask mine,” Gades replied, unwilling to explain.
Now that Prusius was awake, they decided to take him with them. Seeing that Prusius was leaving, Gades showed a rare flicker of reluctance.
“You should have let the little guy rest a bit longer.”“I want to follow Mr. Lu Li!” Prusius cried out.
“Well... when children grow up, they always push back against the good intentions of their elders.”
Gades seemed genuinely downcast, like a disappointed old man. In moments like these, Lu Li could feel the weight of the past twenty-four years more clearly.
Prusius went to comfort him again, but he also had another motive; he hoped Gades would return to the surface as an exorcist to help them.
“Return? Not a chance. And I haven’t been an exorcist for a long time,” Gades refused, even with Prusius pleading.
Lu Li glanced questioningly at the Trader; the Trader could identify who was an exorcist.
“He is not an exorcist,” the Trader confirmed.
“See? Even the Trader says so.”
Lu Li then offered to buy some bullets.
Winnelag had assembly plants, but no blueprints for ammunition. It would still take time to produce silver-plated bullets suitable for a spirit gun.
“Are you still using such old weapons on the surface? Fine, it’s not my business, and don’t you dare tell me what’s happening up there. One hundred shillings a bullet.”
Whenever a deal was mentioned, Gades would flash his gold tooth out of habit, and his fear of death made him actively block out any information from the world above.
“Deal.”
Bullets stored in the dry, hot climate of Hell were likely still usable. Gades wouldn’t let them be used here, of course, and took no responsibility after the sale.
Lu Li still bought two boxes of silver-plated bullets from him using shillings that were worthless to Prusius.
“Mr. Lu Li, have you found a way to fight the curse?” Prusius asked hopefully.
“Wait! You can talk about that after I’m far away!”
Gades yelped, pulling his umbrella far away from Lu Li and his companions.
“No.”
“Then what should we do?”
“I... can’t... tell you... yet.”
Once they left Hell, Prusius’s mind would still be deceived by the heretics; Lu Li and his companions had to keep their plans hidden from them.
“Then... what should I do?” Prusius asked.
“Remain ignorant,” Lu Li told him.
“Oh...”
Prusius seemed to understand.
The Trader soon departed from Hell. Lu Li and the others had to remain there a while longer, waiting for his return. The news he brought back would determine their next move.
“Why... does... that... man... live... in Hell?”
Ophelia watched Gades from a distance. He had climbed onto the city wall to observe the lesser demons hauling stones below.
“He believes Hell is safer than the surface.”
Judging by the state of the world, it wasn’t an entirely flawed assessment.
Gades clearly had his secrets. For instance, his firm conviction that their world was doomed, and whatever power he possessed that allowed him to resist the constant erosion of his soul in Hell.
But Gades didn’t want to talk about it, and Lu Li had no desire to pry.
The Trader soon returned with good news.
It was time for them to leave.
The dark red earth stretched into the distance. The mountains on the edge of the chasm were as majestic as the World’s Spine Mountains, and beyond them, waves of heat rose from a sea of lava, churning into the clouds to form a magnificent spectacle.
He still had unsettled business in Hell.
But not now.
After giving Prusius the medicine the Trader had brought to make him fall into a deep slumber, they passed through the Gates of Hell, leaving the searing heat for the biting cold.
The members of the Church of Shadows were no longer on the streets, and the wormhole leading back to Belfast lay just beneath their feet.
...
The snowfall in Belfast was as relentless as the crashing waves of the sea.
The creatures in the fog hadn't vanished either, their tracks marring the fresh snow.
Lu Li and his companions emerged from the wormhole, skirted Agate Lake, and entered Belfast.
The Church of Twisted Vines didn’t send any followers to escort them—or rather, they didn’t send anyone according to the plan. But one believer from the Church was waiting for them on the street.
It was the same tight-lipped believer who had led them out of Belfast a few days ago.
“Have you been waiting here for us this whole time?”
Lu Li noticed a set of footprints leading from a house behind the uncommunicative believer.
He must have been here for quite some time.
“The Prophet... knew... we would return, and he knew... the outcome... of our... journey, didn’t he?”
“He told me to give this to you.”
The believer didn’t answer, simply handing Lu Li a piece of parchment.
Under the light of the oil lamp, the parchment with its shimmering edges revealed a dialogue that had already happened, or one that was yet to happen.
Lu Li: Have you been waiting here for us this whole time?
“Just as you think.”
Ophelia: The Prophet knew we would return, and he knew the outcome of our journey, didn’t he?
“I have seen everything in the river of time.”
Ophelia: Why didn’t you tell us?
“To know the future is to change the future, which will only worsen the outcome.”
Ophelia: I don’t think so.
“You, who were meant to step with your left foot, would step with your right instead. The length of each stride would change, the time of arrival would change, your encounters would become different, the dialogue would be warped... An avalanche begins with a single, insignificant snowflake.”
Lu Li: What is our plan?
“You suspect that the entity that deceived Prusius and the one that abducted Katerina are one and the same. Let the Church of Shadows follow you to the Sentry Post to retrieve Prusius. Let the Trader approach the Church of Twisted Vines to cooperate, and together you will lure out the heretics and rescue the abducted Katerina.”
Ophelia: And what is the result?!
“Remember what was written before? I cannot tell you.”
Lu Li: Who abducted Katerina?
“That, too, cannot be said.”
Lu Li’s eyes lifted from the bottom of the parchment.
The unasked questions were indeed the new questions that had formed in his mind as he read the preceding ones. It was likely the same for Ophelia.
Lu Li could understand the Prophet’s avalanche analogy—it was like the old story of the missing horseshoe nail—but the feeling of being kept in the dark and manipulated was unsettling.
Though they knew the Prophet was merely an observer, guiding the outcome as a favor for Lu Li’s past help, like an author writing a book.
All they could do now was trust the Prophet. He was on their side.
Lu Li had only one question left.
“On the back... there’s more.”
Ophelia suddenly pointed to the faintly visible text on the other side of the parchment.
Lu Li flipped the parchment over.
It was the final question.
Lu Li: What can you tell me about Anna?
“I will say again, it is not a bad ending.”