Chapter 112: Prediction & Perception

Annan and Ghirlandaio left the tea room first.

To be more precise, it was to escape the crime scene.

“What do you think?”

Annan took a deep breath and said in a low voice.

Beside him, Wizard Ghirlandaio of the Prophet school patted him on the shoulder.

“Nothing bad will happen.”

Wizard Ghirlandaio, with black hair and black eyes, replied affirmatively, “Because they can’t afford to break into a fight.”

Wizard Ghirlandaio had thick curly hair, his eyes were as deep as burn marks, and his face had defined features.

“Are you so sure?”

“Naturally.”

Ghirlandaio replied confidently, “For this reason, it is necessary to eradicate variables.”

“Variable?”

“En. You can understand it as the nature, quantity, intensity aspect of the variable in the face of a fixed future.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t understand this word.”

Annan shook his head and asked, “I mean. Do the spells of the prophecy system need to exclude variables?”

“In most cases, yes.”

Ghirlandaio nodded, somewhat puzzled, “Does Swamp’s Black Tower have no prophecy instructor?”

Before Annan could answer, Ghirlandaio explained with his tone like a mentor, “In short, the abilities and spells of the prophecy system can be roughly divided into two categories: prediction and perception.

“The prediction ability is to actively search for event’s information in the ‘future node.’

“For example, if you give me 2 numbers, I can know the final result because I can calculate it, and there is only 1 result. So, I can skip the process and predict its outcome.

“Similarly, predicting the trajectory, predicting the answer, predicting the heads and tails of the coin are all simple, even without spell casting. But predicting who I will meet today and predicting where we will go next is much more complicated. To put it simply, as long as it contains predictions other than myself, the difficulty and consumption will increase. The error rate will increase too.”

“In general, the more fixed and unique the answer, the easier it is to get the result. The more variables in the process, the harder it is to predict.

“For example, I can predict what you just wanted to say…”

Ghirlandaio stared at Annan, thought for a while, and said, “You want to say, ‘Isn’t the human mind variable,” right? The answer is, ‘Yes.’

-Yup.

Annan nodded.

But, there were some differences. What Annan wanted to ask was, “Do you exclude the variable ‘thought.'”

This slight error should come from Ghirlandaio’s misunderstanding of Annan and Gerald.

“So, you can see the future for a short while?”

Annan asked.

“It’s more like seeing a glimpse of the near future,” the middle-aged man corrected. “What we can find out is the information ‘we’re capable of knowing.’

“As long as we know the uncertainty nodes affecting the future, we can see the results in advance. That is, the future in my eyes.”

Ghirlandaio said, glanced at the tea room, and then at Annan with deep thoughts, “As long as we leave, they will not be able to fight. If you and Her Royal Highness Maria stay in it, there’s a probability for a fight to occur.

“But I just took a casual look. I don’t know what will happen next. But I tend to follow a ‘certain’ future direction, rather than change the future to an unknown direction.”

“I see.” Annan nodded slowly.

A strange thought suddenly appeared in his heart.

To confirm this idea, he asked Ghirlandaio, “What about perception?”

“Perception…”

Ghirlandaio sighed for unknown reasons.

His answer this time was simple, “In short, the teacher perceives he is about to die. That is Perception. You can’t actively seek the answer, and the answer may not be helpful, but what you perceive is a certainty.

“It’s because several key nodes anchoring this future have already happened, but we didn’t realize it. Simply put, it’s too late. It is impossible to change the future with our power. By wanting to alter from the future seen through perception, it will introduce many variables instead.”

Annan roughly had an idea.

The prophecy spells basically operated either actively or passively. They obtained some fragmented information from the future self.

This was indeed a versatile spell.

The result of “predicting” was “probability in the future,” so it could be changed at will.

The result obtained in “perception” was “the upcoming result.”

It wasn’t that the future learned through perception could not be changed. But it was difficult to shake the tide of destiny with one’s power alone.

Annan was silent for a while.

That being the case.

Is the ritual used to change the fate of “Michelangelo being murdered”?

-Yup.

So far, there was no definite evidence that “Michelangelo is dead.”

They thought so only because the stone statue when they entered the door said to them.

But what if the stone statue was telling lies?

No, it didn’t have to be a lie.

The stone statue never said, “Michelangelo is dead” from beginning to end.

Not a word was mentioned.

The stone statue only announced Michelangelo’s last words. Michelangelo only declared, “The murderer who killed me is among you.”

But what if he was not referring to the “past.”

—But the “future”?

“Hey, David. Did you think of something?” Ghirlandaio whispered.

Annan looked at Ghirlandaio and was silent for a while, “What are you referring to?”

“The ritual we are in.”

The middle-aged man stared at Annan and lowered his voice, “Did you come up with something?”

“What are you all chattering about?” Maria’s voice came abruptly.

She frowned slightly and looked at Annan with her arms folded.

There was unconcealed suspicion on that immature and delicate face akin to the most high-end doll.

The muted old man Merlin lowered his head and stood listlessly behind her.

But Annan was able to perceive an inexplicable and strong sense of danger.

“We are discussing the three people inside.”

Before the middle-aged man spoke, Annan replied first, “As long as we all leave, the three of them shouldn’t fight.”

“Prophecy?”

Maria Austere-Winter nodded thoughtfully as if thinking of something.

At this moment, Annan suddenly asked, “Your Royal Highness, do you have any thoughts on our current situation?”

“What do you mean?”

For some reason, Maria always seemed vigilant every time she talked with Annan.

She was silent for a while and replied seriously, “I don’t think Melvin will be the only death.

“Someone will die next. Everyone should think the same way. Everyone knows that there is only one murderer and we cannot kill two people, so they stick to each other in pairs. Just like you, like us, like Claire And Kim.”

“So, are you thinking that Master Benjamin is the murderer?” Annan asked.

This Alteration School master who was infinitely close to the Gold Rank could undoubtedly kill a Gold Rank Wizard. He had not teamed up with anyone now. Hence, his suspicion should be the biggest.

But the problem was…

Annan knew from the beginning that Benjamin was innocent.

The reason was the same as Gerald.

Benjamin did not die here, nor did he succeed in advancement. Instead, he returned to Black Tower alive to recruit new students. One of them was Salvatore.

To some surprise, Maria shook her head firmly.

“No, I don’t think he is a murderer.” She replied.

She looked at Annan and replied directly, “I think…

“The murderer is you.”