Merlin’s eyes shot wide open as he let out rough breaths.

"Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!"

His whole body felt weak, as if he had fallen into deep water and barely managed to get his head above the surface. Then, shortly afterwards, a severe pain came over his whole body, and he began to hack and cough dryly.

"C-cough! Cough! Cough! Keup! Uwack!"

A dark red clump of blood came out his mouth. In exchange for seeing a future that was not currently allowed, a decent chunk of his life span had been cut off.

"Not yet…! The future still hasn’t changed?"

Merlin had made countless efforts to prepare for and change the future, but it did not change even the tiniest bit. In the future he saw, the Holy King was always destroyed, and the Crow tribe chief always died. The head of the witches was proud of her only son, and the warrior made the son’s first daughter his disciple. … And the world was always destroyed by the Demon King from the Reverse World, such that there was not even a single living thing remaining.

* * *

Caron yawned and threw stones from the top of the wagon.

"Ugh!”

The fleeing...