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Episode 8
“Gaggh!”
I slammed a sharp, blue bullet of magic power straight into the man’s chest. Right after that, I sent another one flying straight into his forehead.
Since my rank was low, the attack power wasn’t very high, but if it hit right, it was more than enough to knock a person out cold.
‘Normally, I would’ve been too terrified to even step forward.’
The man in hiking clothes—who looked like he was about to end up back in the slammer—had his eyes roll back as soon as the Magic Bullet hit his forehead, passing out and falling backward.
Thump—!
Fortunately, he didn’t collapse on top of the gasoline. He didn’t hit the edge of the table either. If he had, he would’ve definitely tried to demand financial compensation for getting injured.
Though it didn’t really matter. I could just pay for it.
Still, seriously…
‘Getting drunk first thing in the morning and getting knocked out by an attack from a mere F-rank?’
I didn’t know his full story, but seeing him sprawled out on someone else’s business premises looked utterly pathetic.
Just thinking about the chaos he’d cause once he woke up gave me a headache.
If he just lay there quietly, he was no different from the nightmare customers I dealt with while working part-time jobs, except he was an extortionist with a criminal record…
‘At least I put out the immediate fire.’
Even if my chances of surviving through a inferno were high, I wanted to avoid such troublesome accidents and incidents whenever possible.
“Ma’am, you saw that, right?”
I turned around to look at the cafe owner and said:
“I just saved your cafe from burning down!”
The owner gave me a dubious, disgruntled look, staring blankly for a moment before throwing out a question.
“You two aren’t running a scam together, are you?”
“Why on earth would I?”
“That guy is a C-rank hunter, you know.”
“Well, alcohol turns anyone into an idiot.”
“Can’t argue with that.” The owner grunted out a sigh-laden mumble and pulled a phone out of her pocket.
“Anyway, scumbags like him love ruining everyone’s morning. A quiet conversation could’ve solved this. Hey, if you’ve got nothing to do, help wipe up the gasoline on the floo—”
At that very moment.
A gust of wind swept through the open window, and a sudden blaze erupted right from the windowsill.
Flames extended like long talons over a cozy table. The fluttering curtains and the fire tangled together, violently swirling into the cafe’s interior.
The owner and I widened our eyes, frozen by the completely unexpected turn of events.
‘Was my Magic Bullet the problem? No way, that’s impossible!’
My Magic Bullet was hardly capable of igniting flames.
An awakener’s elemental magic properties are fixed depending on the individual, and my magic property leaned on the colder side, meaning it wasn’t something that fueled flames. So there was no way a fire like that started because of my Magic Bullet.
Besides, the rank of my Magic Bullet was a mere F! Just an F!
That was the result of living as an office worker rather than an awakener. Why on earth did it catch fire? Is this what happens just from hitting someone with a pea-shooter Magic Bullet on the forehead and chest?
‘Curse this Greek mythology-style prophecy!’
The man who claimed he had been scammed had somehow managed to splash gasoline into every nook and cranny of the cafe in that short timeframe.
It had mostly been concentrated around the window and the window-side tables, but absurdly enough, this lunatic had also splashed gasoline over the giant Monstera pot near the entrance.
The edges of the tall, vibrant green Monstera leaves instantly wept in blotchy black marks.
Watching the Monstera burn furiously, my mind went completely blank.
The peaceful morning scene shattered far faster than expected.
While I was panicking and stuttering, unable to speak, the owner moved busily, gathering various belongings and shoving them into my arms.
“Hold onto these for a second.”
“Huh?!”
Where did an elderly woman who was just complaining about her aching knees get this kind of strength?
I was surprised by how heavy the plastic cat carrier was.
Holding a shopping bag packed with various documents and a small safe tucked under both arms, the owner seemed to have better stamina than I did.
Glancing down, I caught a glimpse of the cat’s black fur huddled completely still inside the cracks of the carrier.
Watching the flames gradually fill my field of vision, my hollowed-out heart began to race as if it had caught fire itself.
Feeling anxiety fill my lungs faster than the acrid smoke, I shouted out to change the atmosphere—mostly for my own sake.
“Look, ma’am! See?! It really caught fire!”
Setting the rising hollow feeling aside, I didn’t even know why laughter was bubbling up along with it.
“Hahaha! Ah, I think I’m actually going crazy!”
It was my first time being this close to such a massive fire.
The red light of destruction shared the exact same color palette as the flames now occupying the cafe window and the iron front door.
Clang—!
At that moment, a crisp, loud crashing sound echoed from the window where the fire had originated.
A thick, dark cloth unfurled with a sharp whoosh, temporarily blocking my sight.
As the cloth draped over the window area, snuffing out the flames, heavy smoke filled my field of vision.
Soon, the sound of water evaporating and leaving heat behind echoed along with a stranger’s shout.
“Ma’am! Are you in there?!”
Being the youngest one there, I had my back turned to the flames while sheltering the elderly woman and the animal. I didn’t have a free hand.
The passive skill, Divine Halo, only applied to me.
Unfortunately, that meant the man who poured the gasoline wasn’t protected.
With the acrid smoke making it impossible to open my eyes properly, it was hard to even check where he was or if he was lying unconscious safely.
“…Meow-ow.”
“Eek!”
An unexpected sound leaked from the plastic carrier I was holding, catching me off guard.
Having mostly seen cats in videos rather than in real life, I recognized the origin of the cry a beat late.
Hearing that pitifully mournful cry snapped me back to reality.
I quickly bellowed at the top of my lungs toward the stranger:
“H-Here! Cough! There are people here! The owner’s here! The cat—cough!—the cat is here too, and so is the guy who went to prison—!”
“Just a moment—!”
There seemed to be a crowd gathered outside, as noisy clamor echoed through the open window.
Barely squinting through the remaining acrid smoke and heat, I spotted a man floating alone outside the east-facing window.
“…Yeah! The owner’s fine! Dad, you can come up now!”
He must be an awakener. A fairly high-ranked one, too. Seeing him fly through the air and create sprays of water with his bare hands meant he couldn’t be low-ranked.
The tall, physically built man was stepping onto the window frame when he almost tumbled forward like a marionette doll with a snapped string, failing to properly catch a thick blanket someone else had thrown up.
“Ack, Mr. Chil-soo! You almost broke my back!”
It’s not broken, so who cares! When the young man leaned out the window to protest, a playful shout echoed back in response.
Even through the smoke, I could see the flushed, heat-reddened face of the young man looking back at the owner and me.
“Ahem, ahem. I see a new face here. Ma’am, are you alright?”
“I almost got a warm send-off to the afterlife.”
“Why talk like that?”
Brushing his light brown hair off his forehead with a large hand, the young man extended his hand to me as well.
“Are you okay? How did the fire break out?”
Instead of answering, I stared blankly at his face for a moment. Even in a situation like this, it seemed my eyes for recognizing handsome looks operated independently.
“Bright…”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, no. Look at me losing my mind. I meant, it’s bright daylight out, so I don’t know why a fire broke out.”
“Aah.”
Nodding vaguely, the young man gave a small wave of the hand he had extended, signaling me to hurry up and grab it.
Normally, I was quite shy around strangers, so I hesitated. But he kept offering his hand as if I had to take it, so I grabbed it for now.
His large hand was wet. And it wasn’t just his hands—sweeping back his dripping hair, the young man lifted me right up and said with confusion:
“You don’t know why the fire broke out? Isn’t it that Monstera? Woah, you scared me. Is that guy down there the one who went to prison?”
From under the heavy cloth used as a primary measure to smother the fire, a human hand peeked through.
The light-brown-haired young man quickly lifted it to reveal the man who had been knocked out cold by my Magic Bullet.
The man was still completely unconscious.
“Check if he’s alive. Did you end up killing him twice because of that?”
“Ah, ma’am. Then please cover for me.”
In the meantime, people burst through the iron cafe door. Not only neighboring shopkeepers, but private rescue teams also made an appearance one after another.
Yet somehow, everyone acted as if they knew the owner very well.
“Gasp, ma’am! Are you alright?! What on earth happened!”
“Is that a customer? Who’s that person passed out on the floor?”
“Whoever’s holding a fire extinguisher! Check the remaining embers quickly!”
Before I knew it, I was pushed outside the building by the handsome young man.
Stepping out of the building after passing through the narrow staircase, I looked up at the second-floor window area. Except for a bit of black soot and a single broken window, it was surprisingly intact.
‘The scene I saw through the oracle was definitely different.’
The sight of the old building burning fiercely around the second floor felt like a complete dream. Did I change the future?
[Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ gasps in admiration at your wisdom.]
[Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ praises your bravery!]
[Favorability of Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ has increased significantly!]
[Current Favorability: 12%]
[A new function has been unlocked due to the increase in favorability!]
[Oracle Detail Viewing feature is now available.]
‘How is favorability rising so fast?’
He must be the type who’s easily scammed, surviving until now only because someone was secretly helping him behind the scenes, or he’s completely out of his mind because of love.
I received a wet towel from someone, draped it over my head, and headed into a dark, closed chicken restaurant on the first floor right next to the building where the cafe was located.
The light-brown-haired young man told me to sit anywhere and disappeared for a moment.
I sat down roughly in an inner seat and stared blankly as I read down the notification window.
What it was trying to explain was simple.
It meant that I had partially altered the future.
[Warning: The flow of causality will attempt to converge to preserve the original fate.]
[The fate that was supposed to occur will manifest again in a different form.]
‘Aren’t prophecies supposed to happen no matter what?’
There seemed to be key information hidden in the constellation’s responses, which I couldn’t make sense of yet due to the low favorability level.
At any rate, various A-rank resistance stats had increased.
“Isn’t this a bit excessive just for changing a B-rank future?”
