By then, all the people who had gathered to watch had left.
Yveta hesitated. "Then what treasure will you give me?"
He climbed down from the carriage and glanced over the old woman's stall. It was covered in pottery jars that didn't look particularly valuable.
"Child, are you looking down on these jars? You can't judge things by their appearance." The old woman coughed. Without even looking, she casually picked up a brown jar. "This jar comes from the Ancient Civilization. Legend has it that the tyrant Xiao, whom the Church despised, once drank water from it. Later, it vanished during a capital-city fire that raged for ten whole days and nights."
"Afterward, the tyrant Xiao accused the Church of arson. He really did kill a lot of people."
The old woman picked up another small jar. Its surface was covered in figures painted with black pigment. "The first emperor in the world used this to rinse his mouth."
"That emperor marched against a vast empire, crossing paths with the Empress of Myriad Cities, and lost it along the way."
"These are priceless ancient artifacts. They have no magical power, but they are priceless."
"A few pennies and a couple of shillings can't possibly make up for them."
Yveta stared, speechless, at the so-called antiques piled carelessly on the ground like junk.
He turned to the Old Witch, who shook her head.
He looked at Leili and Black Wolf. No point asking them. They were both men of action who could barely read, so naturally, they shook their heads too.
Black Wolf lowered his voice. "Your Highness, I think we may have run into a con artist."
"If these were really antiques, there's no way she'd just leave them lying on the ground. They're obviously just broken pottery."
"I don't think her mind is quite right."
Yveta maintained a strained politeness and asked awkwardly, "So, are you giving these things to me?"
Yveta had a thought. Maybe I should try selling them.
What if someone really does buy them?
Wouldn't that give me the funds to reclaim my kingdom?
The old woman flatly refused. "I refuse. These things are my collection."
"I won't give them to you. What I'm giving you is this ring."
She tossed a ring over. Yveta caught it and found it was a simple, old-fashioned black obsidian ring, made of volcanic rock.
The old woman told the bewildered Yveta, "You must take good care of this ring. It's very useful."
"Remember, you can only wear it on your left thumb. Nowhere else."
Yveta could only say, "Then thank you."
The old woman continued, "As a gift, I can also tell your fortune once for free. I'll help you ask about your fate's fortunes and misfortunes, and the character of the season."
"What would you like me to divine?"
Yveta's heart stirred. He had just heard about Divination Technique and wanted to learn Spirit Mirror Divination.
Although he didn't know who this old woman really was, he was genuinely interested in watching someone tell a fortune, whether or not it involved magic.
Even ordinary fortune-telling seemed rather interesting.
Yveta thought for a moment. "Well... I want to know what I should do when I go to the Adventurer's Guild in Kali Town to find a mission that could earn me territory or win the allegiance of powerful people."
The old woman didn't seem to think his request was unreasonable. Without even looking up, she picked up six sheep's knucklebones engraved with symbols from beside her feet.
She grabbed the six knucklebones and tossed them into the air, then caught them. She tossed them again, then caught them once more.
The Old Witch suddenly sneered, watching the woman with malice, as if she knew the woman was about to make a fool of herself.
The old woman tossed the bones three times in all, catching them each time. Then she threw all six knucklebones onto the ground, bent down, and studied how they had landed. "It seems to be this... Hmm, it's telling me... It wants me to tell you..."
"Hmm?"
She suddenly raised her head and looked at Yveta in disbelief. "It actually shows two opposite results."
One told her to get away from Yveta as quickly as possible, because unfathomable malice swirled around him, making it impossible to see who he was.
The other said she could trust Yveta, though his identity was just as impossible to discern.
So who was he, really?
She had thought he was merely a promising young man worth investing in.
But now it seemed things weren't that simple.
And the most terrifying part was that the divination's result had actually been about her.
Generally speaking, only the presence of an overwhelmingly powerful source of spirituality could disrupt Divination Technique so badly that its subject became impossible to discern.
But this child before her was supposed to be ordinary, just a Wizard Apprentice.
A Wizard Apprentice of his age certainly had a bright future ahead, but why would he interfere with the results so profoundly?
The old woman calmly picked up the six sheep's bones, pretending nothing had happened. "I want to divine once more."
"That should make it more accurate."
Black Wolf frowned. "Your Highness, are we really not just wasting our time?"
Yveta said, "Give the old woman a little time."
The Old Witch seemed to have expected this result all along. Tell the fortune of the demon god, Your Grace?
Foolish.
You're asking for death.
A being that powerful was like a stream of fate flowing past a mountain. Every path would be thrown into disarray.
It was common knowledge that one should avoid powerful sources of spirituality and immortal divine nature when performing divination.
If her apprentice had made such a mistake, she would have turned him into a toad.
The old woman seemed to feel she had lost face. No longer able to maintain her mysterious air, she grew cautious, her eyes serious.
She took a small white flower, about the size of her little finger, from her pocket and tucked it into the pocket at her collar.
The Old Witch glanced at it. "Julius Caesar's Summer Flower! This can protect a spell from interference, but wasn't it already extinct?"
"Hmph. In the eyes of you witches, what hasn't gone extinct?" the old woman retorted. The two women had never met before, yet they seemed to have a deep-seated grudge against each other.
"Whatever." The Old Witch didn't want to argue with her. "It's just a relic of the old age. This is no longer your era. There's no place for you in mainstream civilization. You're worse off than us witches. The Church may target us both, but in the Magic Black Forest, we magic-users still have the absolute advantage."
The old woman repeated the same process of tossing the sheep's knucklebones.
This time, after examining how the bones had landed, she let out a breath of relief. The divination had returned to normal.
"It tells me that you should take the last mission posted on the last board at the Adventurer's Branch."
"All right, I'm leaving. I need to find out a few things."
The old woman hurried to go and began gathering up the things on the ground.
Watching her handle the so-called antiques so roughly, Yveta found it hard to believe the jars were truly priceless treasures.
Could it be because I'm just too poor?
After she left, Black Wolf asked Yveta, "Your Highness, you're not actually going to believe her, are you?"
The Old Witch said, "You can believe her. Her divinations are more accurate than a witch's, because the Spirits of All Things tell her the results."
"Unfortunately, they're on the verge of extinction. There are very few of them left."
"Most of them live miserable lives."
"I never expected to see one of their remnants here."
Yveta asked curiously, "Who exactly is she?"
The Old Witch glanced at Yveta. "Your Grace, your fever seems to have gone away. Well, this is where wizards have an advantage over them."
"Magic grants us supernatural powers, allowing us to recover quickly."
"Ordinary illnesses will heal on their own if you give them time."
So I recovered on my own before I even saw a doctor...
Yveta thought in dismay. But the question is, who was that woman just now?
Before you continue