I Will Save the World and Retire Chapter 272

Prophet (3)

It’s a mess.

If you just listen to it roughly, it seems like these so-called prophets would be very useful, but that’s not really the case.

If that sounds like it, it’s a trap.

A future where we don’t even know how valid the information we have is?

What if you guide with the confidence that what you know is absolute, only to have the next prophet run away after using that knowledge?

If you go around and around like that, it will be harder to distinguish between what is really useful information and what is useless information. In that case, it might be better to not know anything at all. Even if you know it halfway, it might make things worse.

Look at me.

In the first place, I am not even able to properly enjoy the benefits of being from the future. At best, I was a ten-year-old kid in this era, and I didn’t know anything. At that age, I was just thinking about how I could get one more snack at the daycare center.

Rather, if I had gone back to about 5 years ago, I might have actively tried to come forward and do something. But it was vague… No, it wasn’t even vague. If I had come to a time when I didn’t know anything, the knowledge I could gain from the future would have been nothing more than someone who would later become a great wizard.

The management office database of the magic watch that came with it is not of much help at this point. That is why backing up past data is also important… .

That doesn’t mean Alex Hope’s words are completely useless.

At least I learned that my arrival in the past wasn’t a random dice roll. Well, well, it couldn’t have been random, since I knew that my father and sister could have planned this… but I could see that those two had a reason to carry out such a reckless plan.

How fortunate. My father and sister at least thought about it.

-So you have no more questions? Really? After hearing this, don’t you have any thoughts? I told you something really, really important?

“Even if you say so.”

Hong Seok-young looked at Gamble, who was sitting there sulking, and then looked at me.

Then, I saw Kim Chae-min, who was like, “Oh no.”

Oh, well… . Yeah. I’m glad I’m thinking about it.

“It’s exactly as you said.”

Hong Seok-young slowly looked at Alex Hope on the monitor. At least it was easier to see than a palm-sized cell phone.

“In front of me… It may seem like nothing special when I say it like this, but how many people do you think I’ve caught who claim to be from the future?”

-Ah, as expected!

“So it’s not surprising. It would have been stranger if it had stuck out that much without a name.”

Hope burst into laughter at Hong Seok-young’s words. He looked calm and composed, which was not in keeping with what he had said.

But there were some questions.

How many times have I been… a prophet? No, I’m not their prophet. Anyway, since I don’t even know how many times I am, I wonder if there are others who have returned to the past after me.

“I have a question.”

-Yeah! I can’t say I know everything, and to be honest, I can’t say I’m good at explaining things, and, uh, there’s probably a lot I don’t know, but I’ll tell you what I know as best as I can!

“… … .”

Aren’t you just saying you don’t know everything?

Still, even a little explanation is better than nothing.

“There are a few.”

-Okay! Just tell me! I’ll tell you after I listen!

“first.”

I frowned.

The item I picked up… The item that sent me to the past was something that sprang out after killing a monster. I recall the corpse of a fox that filled my field of vision.

Tsk. I clicked my tongue lightly inside.

“They are in the dungeon.”

-yes.

“But I heard that the item only comes out if you die. I heard that dungeons can’t communicate with each other, so how can I use it to find another prophet… to return to the past?”

This would be impossible unless prophets were born one after another in the same dungeon.

-Oh, that.

Hope’s face brightened. She seemed relieved that she had something to say.

-It’s not that great. I’m not entirely sure, but… maybe he ran out of the dungeon and crawled into another one?

“Is that possible?!”

Instead of me, Kim Chae-min shouted.

But Hope just tilted her head.

-Why do you think it’s impossible?

“Huh? That, that’s it.”

-The Awakened can enter and exit the dungeon as they wish. The port you first board has a complicated exit procedure due to its protective function, but… Once you’re out, it’s easy to enter another place. You just have to pay the toll.

I didn’t know that toll also applied to monsters.

-But since you went out and came back in once, it’s the same that you can’t live long.

“… … .”

-Or maybe it was just a coincidence that the dungeon exploded at the same time and we met by fate on a strange land called Earth?

I don’t know if it’s right to use the word fateful there.

-Anyway, it doesn’t just disappear and then appear in front of the next prophet. If that’s what you’re curious about.

“… … Okay. Then.”

I frowned.

“The guy at Mont Saint-Michel you mentioned.”

That fairy who possessed Noah Michelle.

“Is he a prophet too?”

Hope blinked a couple of times.

-ah….

Hope tilted her head to the side.

-huh.

The answer was simple.

-Yeah. That’s right. The king is also a prophet. I completely forgot.

I suddenly felt annoyed, wondering if it was something I could forget.

No matter how much he pretends to be human, we must not forget that he is fundamentally a monster.

-He was a very early prophet. So, should I say that he doesn’t really show himself as a prophet?

Hope added urgently, perhaps noticing the discomfort in this area.

“…infancy?”

-So, he is a prophet who was born before we escaped to this world.

“then.”

Hope explained in a somewhat timid voice.

-I saw it when I was young. It was before the usage restrictions were lifted, so… If you pass the qualifications, you can see how great of a fairy it is, right?

“I don’t know how great the qualifications are, so I don’t know.”

-If we put it in terms of terminology… Let’s see. Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

I knew from the beginning how nonsensical it was. I knew from the beginning when you said you loved peace and stuff.

A peace-loving race would never decide to kill the natives.

-That’s unfair! No matter how much you love peace, if a cockroach appears, you’ll scream and spray poison!

Hope protested with a resentful look on her face.

-It’s not that humans are cockroaches, but we have to look at it from the perspective of the species. Just like that old man over there is called a hero!

“Huh? Me?”

Hong Seok-young, who was suddenly nominated, opened his eyes wide in surprise.

-Tch. I don’t know exactly when I returned to the past. It was so long ago that I probably wouldn’t know that much information… . At this point, it probably doesn’t matter that much that the king is a prophet, right?

Hope had a point.

“How long did it take for you to escape to Earth?”

-If you calculate it in Earth time… .

Hope frowned and groaned for a long time.

-It’s not exactly accurate, but if you count from the day I paid the price to the day I entered the dungeon, it’s about 300 years. You know, since I came to Earth, right?

It is a realistic number that seems strangely long but also short. If we were to replace the world with countries, it would be considered that an invaded country survived for 300 years before it was destroyed.

And if we count the time when dungeons appeared and threatened humanity separately.

As Hope said, if enough time were to pile up, there would be little advantage to being a prophet.

-Still, she’s a great fairy.

“If he is not great as a king, then that is also a problem.”

-That king doesn’t mean exactly the same thing as this king, but… it’s similar.

Hope shrugged.

-Next question?

Besides that, I asked a couple more questions, and Hong Seok-young and Kim Chae-min also asked questions.

But the conclusion was not much different from what I first felt.

It is true that the existence from the future is a variable. If used well, it can be used very usefully.

But I am here.

Yeah. Me.

There may be someone who kills me and goes back to the past. That’s a future event that hasn’t happened yet.

But well. I shouldn’t be proud, like my father told his past self… Honestly, I think it’s quite possible that I’ll be the last in line.

Think about it.

I saw Hong Seok-young. He had his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face, but he looked strangely relieved. At least he seemed satisfied with the fact that the identity of the crazy monster that had been attacking him had been revealed.

I come from a time when the supposed savior of humanity failed. The Earth was going to be destroyed, and the humans who survived that hell would not last long.

I don’t know if Noah Michelle got what he wanted, but at least those who escaped by boarding the escape port called the Dungeon were successful. They adapted to the harsh environment of the world they fled to, killed all the natives, and took over the place.

Do you understand?

They succeeded.

There is no need to go back to the past.

Rather, if there is someone who wants to go back to the past, we should stop them. If we touch the wrong person after working so hard to succeed, wouldn’t it all be ruined?

If those guys succeed like Hope, I wonder if they’ll be in a difficult position.

So, even if I’m not the last, I’ll at least be close to the last.

How to check that….

“Is there any way to confirm that I came back from the future?”

-If there are two that are the same, then it’s from the future.

“… That’s too vague.”

– Or maybe he’s just saying he came from the future? It’s not impossible that he’s just crazy. Ta-da, even monsters have mental illnesses!

If they had human-like intelligence and could even feel emotions, it might be frustrating to be locked in a limited space like a dungeon indefinitely… .

This would be even more so if the fairies weren’t all gathered in one place.

-The most certain way is to kill him and see if the item drops or not? But this only works for the last prophet, so it doesn’t seem certain.

“Oh. I have a question too.”

Kim Chae-min suddenly intervened.

“If things like time paradoxes don’t matter from the perspective of time… then even if your past self dies, it doesn’t have any effect on the person who returns from the future… right?”

-huh.

Hope answered firmly.

-Look. Imagine that a future wizard appears in front of you right now. Then, would you consider that wizard to be the same as you? Like an alter ego of yours?

“… … .”

-Since we’ve already returned from the future, time is a different entity to our perception. The accumulated time is different for each person. Time is not all on the same line.

Hope smiled meaningfully and continued.

-Time is fair to everyone, but not equal.

Fantasy, contemporary,