Became the Academy Romantic Phantom Thief chapter 212

212 – The Identity of the Temple

Not much has changed after hearing Dorothy’s story.

The prophecy of Oedipus.

An expression that refers to a case where struggling to avoid the future that is scheduled for oneself becomes a rather tragic final cause.

It is a cliché that is often used in creative works, enough to make you feel familiar just by hearing a brief explanation.

She implied that my situation might be similar.

I thought it might be, but there was no clear way to solve the problem.

Suppose I listened to Dorothy’s warning and threw everything away right now.

In the first place, the action itself may be the road to the prophecy of a tragic end.

In other words, it means that no matter what you do at the point of knowing the prophecy, it is nothing more than a meaningless struggle.

Of course, I couldn’t just give up and throw it away because of that one thing.

Isn’t it unclear whether Oedipus’ prophecy is really true right now? Of course, if there was even a chance, it would be the right choice to struggle as much as possible to avoid the prophecy.

I couldn’t fall asleep easily even in the middle of the night and I was thinking for a long time. Dorothy, who had just pulled her head out of the sleeping bag, said in a low voice, perhaps noticing that I was disturbed.

“Generally, prophecies are the result of absolute causality that even God cannot avoid, but that doesn’t mean there are no ways to escape prophecies.”

Is there a way? I turned around and stared at Dorothy.

She continued to explain, avoiding my gaze slightly as if she felt burdened by my gaze.

“You make the prophecy a pun.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Usually, prophecies are often vaguely expressed without specific content. That is why we insist that the prophecy has been fulfilled by fitting it in such a way that it can be properly interpreted.”

I asked with a small frown.

“…Is that really possible?”

“Even though there are not many, there are definitely such contents in mythology. I don’t know if it’s really possible, but at least it’s possible.”

“Hmm…”

It’s a pun on interpreting the prophecy as nonsense…

I’m a little hesitant, but if it’s possible, there’s no better solution than this. I started to seriously consider the way she taught me.

Let’s start with the contents of the prophecy. According to Dorothy, the prophecy must be ambiguous, which can be interpreted in many ways.

To be honest, I don’t remember the details from beginning to end. Only the keyword “A terrible end” Was imprinted deep in his brain.

Then it means that the terrible end must be twisted, but I couldn’t come up with a clear way right away.

Should I tell Dorothy the prophecy and seek help?

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‘···No.’

That was a difficult issue to decide on hastily. You don’t know what will happen if you reveal such details to others. I didn’t doubt her, but it was hard to expect Dorothy to be of great help to her in a situation where even her goddess had nailed it as being difficult to get involved in my fate. It was a situation where I received undeserved grace just by providing such a hint right away.

Right now, it was a reasonable option to try to solve it on my own, and if it didn’t work out, seek help as a last resort.

I could barely fall asleep after deciding on a firm course of action. Even though I had a bad night’s sleep and woke up with puffy eyes.

I woke up early in the morning and continued my search. There are three places left. It was a dangerous situation to the point where I wasn’t sure if I could finish it in one day, considering the distance between each and the return time.

“Looks like it’s not even here.”

We headed north and checked one more site around noon, but it wasn’t the ruined temple we were looking for either. The 10th place we arrived about half a day after that.

The smaller the remaining temple, the more meticulously he examined it, but this time Dorothy’s answer was the same as before. A sigh escaped me in response to the calm shaking of my head.

Now, only the last place remains. There might be other hidden temples besides this one that Dorothy didn’t know about, but anyway, there was only enough time left to look around one place.

In other words, if it is not here, it is a situation where I have to return to London without any results.

I thought I had enough time on my own. I didn’t expect that finding the temple would be so difficult.

If I were to go back and ask Vivian in more detail, would she be willing to let me know?

Perhaps the odds of things going as well as hoped for are slim. It seemed that he deliberately handed over as little information as possible to avoid the wrath of the god.

I can’t help it. Even if I can’t find it this time, I have no choice but to come to Ireland and look for it again next time.

We arrived at the last place when the sun went down and the wide plain was colored with the glow of the sunset.

It is embarrassing to even call it a temple.

All that remains is a huge tree towering over the ruins of the temple grounds.

Dorothy, who was examining the temple carefully, shook her head from side to side, again unable to hide her disappointment.

“There is almost no information to specify the information of the temple. Some of them have been badly damaged, but I don’t think the owner of this temple really liked the splendor in the first place. A tombstone erected in front of the tree is the only clue. The raven drawn here usually symbolizes death or wisdom in mythology. It is unlikely that it has anything to do with time.”

“·······.”

I couldn’t respond to her continuous explanation. She just stared blankly at the scenery in front of her, stunned.

A tombstone placed in front of a tree.

The region, time, and season are different.

But this place terrifyingly coincided with that day that was rooted in my memory.

No doubt. This was the place where I first met the Goddess.

‘Why?’

My head was full of questions.

This is an island across the sea. How? No matter how long I wandered aimlessly at that time, there was no way I could have escaped Britain. I don’t remember the exact location, but it was definitely not Ireland.

Something is strange in the first place. I came across the sea to Ireland to meet the god of time, not the temple of the goddess. How to find this place in just the last place?

It was too coincidental to be a coincidence. As if this was all scripted from the beginning.

I thought that maybe this moment might be the bridle of fate heading towards the prophecy.

Suddenly, memories of the past that I had inadvertently passed over came to mind.

At the time she heard about the ruined temple from Vivian, she added a word in passing.

If you go there, you’ll know right away.

I don’t know if this is what she meant, but in the end, what she said was true.

There’s no way I wouldn’t recognize this place. It was a landscape that I had no choice but to notice as soon as I saw it.

I seem to have found my destination, but far from being clearly resolved, it only made me more confused. I was really confused about whether I understood correctly, and if so, whether the god of time who bestowed power on Hayang was the goddess.

This is not a problem that can be solved by worrying alone. I called her quietly to hear her most definitive answer.

“Goddess.”

I didn’t get an answer right away, but I didn’t give in to it and continued to speak.

“I know what you are listening to. Are you going to keep your mouth shut?”

[… It’s not like that.]

“I don’t know why, but it’s impossible to hide things like this until the end anyway. Please tell me everything.”

[Yes. Don’t talk Everything you’re curious about.]

Since she was heading to Ireland, she thought it was strange that the Goddess had suddenly gone silent, but she never imagined that it was for this reason.

What I was most curious about right now was the relationship between the Goddess and Hayang.

Dorothy said that God can only choose one apostle. However, if the Goddess is really the god of time, it doesn’t make sense for Hayang and I to appoint both of us as apostles.

Is having a transcendental person as one’s subordinate treated as a separate thing? Or is there something else I don’t know about?

In the midst of speculating all kinds of possibilities, Dorothy, who was next to me, was equally flustered.

“What is going on? Where did the voice just come from?”

“Can you hear the voice of the goddess?”

I heard no one else heard? At the moment when she tilted her head with a sense of incongruity, Dorothy suddenly stopped moving and bowed her head.

“Dorothy…?”

After she cautiously called her name, she slowly raised her head.

Is this a simple misunderstanding? In a brief moment when she lowered her head and lifted her head, her eyes changed drastically.

As if I became a different person.