“That is why I chose you, after all,” she said.
“It’s an honor. As both a warrior, and your husband,” Fatoum said as he smiled at his wife.
“Nothing unexpected will happen for a while, though. The changes to the peace conference, as well as the Eltram and Vennsayle incidents, will be very few. The same goes for The Tournaments after that. There will be some deviations, but they will be negligible overall. I had to be especially careful while calculating the time for Albert to join the lottery, though.”
Altar and Dryfe would hold a peace conference. It would break down, leading to conflict which would end with Claudiah suggesting a Master-only war, which would in turn cause Altimia to set up The Tournaments to prepare for that.
At that point, there did not exist a single tangible sign that these Tournaments would even happen—and yet La Place was making plans as if they had already been announced.
However, Fatoum didn’t even think of arguing against her idea. La Place was often called a witch who could see the future, and he had absolute confidence in this power of hers.
“I will not be wrong about this. Things are different this time.” The smile on her face vanished before she continued. “A piece as eccentric as Ray Starling will not appear again.”
A strong enmity could be seen in her eyes as she spoke that name.
“Are you still bothered by that?”
“Of course I am. It’s rare for me to calculate so thoroughly and be so wrong.”
La Place reached into an Inventory she had on her and took out some documents with text on them, reading things like “Altea Blockade Project” and “UBM Release Project.”
Going through these documents, La Place continued talking.
“I consolidate all the information I receive and use it to paint an image of the future. I am confident that my overall world prediction ability rivals that of the Incarnation of Influence.”
She then brought up one of the custodians—the twins claiming to be control AI No. 11. The power they’d demonstrated two millennia ago was immense, yet La Place casually claimed that she was on their level.
“But there are some that render my calculations meaningless.” Her fingers stopped as she came across a photo. It showed a single Master—a young man raising his right arm high before a creature engulfed in flames. “Those without vessels for me to read, and Masters who entered this world after the calculations—those who didn’t even exist here—simply could not be included in the equation. Naturally, I failed to consider them. However, such entities usually did not have enough influence to affect my results...with some exceptions.”
She glared at Ray’s photo, clearly displeased.
“This is who we have to blame for the divergence of the Gideon incident, as well as the immediate disappearance of the Monochrome I had you awaken... Actually, he’s also the reason the Altea blockade ended a few days earlier than planned.”
La Place and her Sefirot clan had multiple schemes in place for the kingdom. Some revolved around Dryfe’s acts of terror, while others were of their own devising. However, a good few of them—some of them very important—had been ruined by Ray Starling.
First had been Dryfe’s plot to assassinate the Grandrear sisters. While their deaths wouldn’t have had much of an impact on the war between Altar and Dryfe, they were qualified to inherit the Granvaloan pirate fleet, so their deaths would’ve exacerbated the turmoil that would occur there after the war.
That would have been successful, and all Caldina had to do was watch.
However, Ray’s involvement had turned the assassination into a failure.
Next was the Altea blockade. Caldina had arranged this act of terror to make Altar’s situation worse.
But after Ray’s death, Shu had gone out to Noz Forest to avenge him. Then, thanks to Ray meeting Figaro in the Tomb Labyrinth, the blockade at the Sauda Mountain Pass had also been broken earlier than planned.
He was actually somewhat responsible for the destruction of the western blockade too. When Lei-Lei learned her friend’s little brother was having a welcome party, she chose to stay at the capital longer than originally planned. And then, when her order for the party was stolen by Goblin Street, she went to the Wez Sea Route to get back at them.
And while the east blockade hadn’t been broken because of Ray directly, it was still the PK of a newbie faithful that had caused the Lunar Society to take action, creating a result.
It went without saying that the same applied to the events surrounding the Gouz-Maise Gang, Gideon, and Monochrome.
“Because of him, my calculations have been thrown off even now. The damage to the world has been less than it should’ve been.”
She’d had a hand in many of the incidents in the kingdom—yet through Ray Starling’s involvement, some of the more important ones had ended differently than she’d calculated.
“The worst of it was Altar refusing Caldina’s cooperation offer. According to my calculations, they should have accepted it. And yet they didn’t. It’s as though Altar still stands unbroken.”
That had been Ray Starling’s influence. Through the battle in Gideon, he’d shown them hope, and through the battle in Quartierlatin, he’d formed a bond with Altimia. Without him, the board would have played out closer to how she predicted.
Her stern expression made it clear just how much this irritated her.
“It’s not like you to be vexed by the past,” said Fatoum. “You have always been someone who looks toward the future.”
“...That is true.” Her husband’s words made her relax a tiny bit.
“Speaking of, what do you believe the future will be like?” he asked. “The ramifications of that miscalculation and the overall increase of variables in the world means that our window of prediction has been narrowed, but I foresee some significant incidents in the near future. Though, I have already told you about most of them.”
La Place nodded before continuing.
“The ones that involve us the most will be the Eltram incident and the events at Vennsayle. And even with three members of our clan sent to the west, we can still direct these in our favor. If anything, we won’t even have to employ the two elders or Rainbow...our Prismatic Fortress.”
“That is good to know.”
“IF is involved in both, but I say we let them do as they please. Many of their activities are positive in terms of world damage.”
“Should we tell that to Moneygold too?”
“No. All that matters is that he does not encounter the Irregularity there. We don’t have to tell him to be considerate. He won’t end up killing The Weapon, Murder Princess, or the Great Soul Daoshi regardless. I see the shadow of death upon him, though. You might get to see him lose all that weight,” she said with a smile, presenting her prediction in a joking manner.
“Now that’s something to look forward to,” Fatoum said with a chuckle.
Her words would come true—Splendida would kill Moneygold shortly after the Eltram incident.
“So, what are the ‘things that do not involve us’ and the ‘things you haven’t told me about’?” Fatoum continued, noticing that his wife was omitting something.
La Place responded with a mischievous smile. “I saw something very interesting. It isn’t confirmed to happen yet, but it would be good news for us if it does.”
“Do tell.”
“I looked into the future of Altea...and saw a large crater,” she said with a hint of delight.
“You don’t mean the King of Blaze incident?”
“No, it’s not the act of terror during the peace conference. That one is bound to fail, anyway. Now, the disappearance of Altea would destroy both the save point and the barrier there. On top of that, it would cause many deaths and allow countless Resources to flow toward the vessel without any needless obstruction. If the vessel doesn’t die when the capital vanishes, our victory might be guaranteed then and there.”
“Perhaps I should head west too?”
“No. I’m already having you work against Granvaloa. If I changed your objective now, I’ll be unable to do much calculating for a while after that. Altea’s disappearance would be simply a nice bonus... Ngh.”
As she spoke, La Place clutched at her head as though struck by a sudden pain.
“...So there,” she managed. “The three we sent will be our final interference with Altea... With the west. Once Albert’s Tournament ends, Dryfe will surely swing into action. That High-End’s...final struggle is...”
“La Place. It might be time to switch.”
“You’re...right. I might’ve done one too many repeats... I’ll let the device...the brain get some rest.”
La Place then sat down on a chair and closed her eyes. Fatoum watched over her, and it looked as though she had fallen asleep.
About a minute later, her eyes opened.
“...Oh. She went to sleep. I see she worked quite hard today as well.”
There was something strange about La Place’s words. Her manner of speech was different, her very presence had changed, and she spoke of herself as if she were someone else.
“She did. Does your head hurt, Shashie?”
As though it were the most obvious thing in the world, Fatoum called his wife by a different name.
“Oh, my brain is only a link... She does the calculations herself from the far-flung place where she resides.”
“But none of this is within the capabilities of normal people. It burdens your brain too. You should rest... Do you think you can eat? If you can, shall we go have something together?”
“My... I would be happy to,” La Place said, smiling like a cheerful young woman.
She had the same face as the cold and calculating clairvoyant witch she’d been moments before, but her behavior was nothing like it had been.
“Let me take the lead. I reserved a table at our leader’s business.”
“Oh my... I cannot wait.”
Fatoum treated both of them the same way—it was as though to him, both these personalities were one and the same.