Lich for Hire

Chapter 229: Harvey and His Impending Death

Catherine frowned. "You're far too full of yourself. What you're saying is practically blasphemy."

Who could hope to bargain with gods? To do so was to place oneself on equal footing with them, and was nothing less than outright sacrilege.

Ambrose shook his head. "No. This isn't arrogance. After everything I've been through, I understand my place more clearly than ever. The elven gods must see that too. That's why they gave you that crucial blessing to help me pass this trial of fate. If that's the case, why not be a little more generous?"

Centuries ago, Ambrose had been nothing more than an insignificant bystander in this world. But ever since the fall of Alkhemia, he had been steadily stepping toward center stage.

Lyon had lifted its bounty on the undead. He had saved the Court of the Silver Moon from annihilation. He had practically sold off Alkhemia itself. He had taken control of the Dreamveil Barrier of the Emerald Dreamwood. And, at just about any time, he could return to the Ragetide Kingdom and assume the identity of Monge Greywater.

Step by steady step, he was closing in on the center of the world. That was why so many gods had begun extending olive branches to him. Even the elven gods had chosen a roundabout way to offer him aid. His moment as a "protagonist" had finally arrived. Who knew when such an opportunity would come again? It only made sense for him to extract as much benefit from it as possible.

Catherine didn't understand where his confidence came from. Even so, she did accede to his request. "I'll pass along your message if I can... though, honestly, even if I warn you that this might incur divine punishment, you won't care, will you?"

"Seems like you really do understand me," Ambrose said with a grin. "Come on. Time to head back."

Naomi transformed into a time dragon once more.

The hourglass artifact hovered before her head as strands of silvery light flowed from her body and wrapped around it.

The hourglass inverted. Grains of starlike sand began to fall, and the desert landscape changed.

Winds howled. Sandstorms rose and collapsed in rapid succession. Waves of sand surged and fell hundreds of times in mere seconds. The sun and moon spun overhead like wheels, alternating so quickly it was dizzying.

The three of them sped through months of time, returning to their original point in the timeline.

As everything finally stilled, Naomi collapsed again. This time, however, though her time dragon form had been forcibly dispelled and she looked utterly exhausted, she hadn't fallen unconscious.

Ambrose fed her a potion and let her rest inside his extradimensional space. Then he turned to Catherine. "We'll part ways here. Hopefully, you'll have good news for me the next time we meet."

With that, he turned and flew toward Sweetdew City.

Catherine watched him disappear over the horizon.

She wasn't even sure what she was looking at. He was a greedy, scheming lich who constantly took advantage of her, and yet, she felt a faint sense of reluctance at watching him leave like this.

Only a little, though. She quickly summoned her giant eagle and flew off in the opposite direction.

After all, she was destined to work for him until she cried. They would definitely meet again.

Ambrose returned to Sweetdew City. For him, less than half a day had passed; for the city, however, the battle against Lyon had taken place months ago.

He went to check on the "undead sand lizard" he had prepared. As expected, it was still lurking underground. Everything had gone according to plan.

All that remained was for Harvey to form an adventuring party and "die" in the jaws of that creature.

At that very moment, Harvey was in a tavern, tossing all his coins onto the gambling table.

He didn't care about the stakes, nor the results of his gamble. He was chasing nothing but amusement.

The two women at his side shrieked excitedly, far more thrilled than he was.

They had earned quite a bit after escorting him around for two days. The young mage by their side was clearly wealthy and completely unconcerned about money. Harvey raised a bottle of wine and took a long swig. The liquor was strong. Half a bottle in, he was already mostly drunk. Why die sad and lonely?

Just as he was losing himself in the moment, a cloaked figure approached. "Friend," the man said curiously, "you're a diviner, aren't you?"

Harvey looked him over. The man was unusually tall: over two meters in height. He was wrapped head to toe in a sand-colored cloak, not too strange in the desert, but his accent marked him as a foreigner. And with his face hidden behind a mask, exposing not a whit of skin... Well, it was suspicious, to say the least.

Under normal circumstances, Harvey would have avoided someone like this. But now? With death approaching, he was happy for any distractions.

He released the women in his arms and asked, "Not many people are familiar with divination these days. How did you tell?"

Becoming a diviner was so difficult that divination was quickly turning into a forgotten art.

"It's simple." The man chuckled. "Name's Hastin. I'm an adventurer who just arrived in Sweetdew City. I've got a job that happens to need a diviner like you. Interested?"

"Hastin?" The name rang no bells, but his intuition stirred. He was certain that he was linked to this stranger by fate.

Could this be the "teammate" from his prophecy?

In his vision, he had seen himself joining a party, venturing into a cave, and dying to an ambush by a magical beast. After waiting for so long, was fate finally catching up to him?

Harvey made no attempt to resist. He had already given up hope.

After receiving his prophecy, he had spent half a month recording everything he could, then convinced Sawtooth Blade to release him.

At first, she hadn't believed him. But after he accurately predicted several days of desert weather—and exposed a traitor within her tribe—she finally accepted that he could see the future.

Harvey left everything he owned to her, then began enjoying what little life he had left.

It was finally time to die.

Just as he was about to agree, a cold snort interrupted him. "Don't listen to him. Hastin specializes in scamming newcomers. He's taken a commission to hunt a legendary sand lizard, but the reward is only three thousand gold. He can't even afford to hire you."

Harvey turned. In the corner sat another cloaked, masked figure, this one much shorter than the first.

Harvey blinked. He had been ready to embrace death. Why would someone suddenly appear to stop him? Was he drunk, or perhaps hallucinating?

This was a strange, but interesting, turn of events.

Harvey settled in for a show. "Is that true?" he asked Hastin. freewebnoveℓ.com

"So-so. You think he was trying to help you out? He took the same commission. He just wants to poach you."

Harvey turned to the shorter man. "What's your offer?"

Hastin cut in. "I'll offer you a hundred gold upfront, and we'll split the bounty equally. Let's hear your proposal, Hares."

The short man, Hares, ignored him completely and stepped closer to Harvey. "Don't listen to that idiot," he said quietly. "You know how dangerous this mission is. There's a reason it's been sitting unclaimed."

He pulled out a blackened disc. "This is a sand lizard scale. Team up with me, we take a trip to the site, turn this in, and say we fought it. Three hundred gold, easy. No risk."

Harvey smiled. "What's the point of recruiting me, then?"

Hares grinned. "No one would believe me if I tried to claim the bounty alone. D'you think I could defeat a legend all by myself? I need teammates to make the whole thing look legit. Don't worry. I've already found others. I just need a mage."

As Hares whispered to him, Hastin dragged Harvey aside. "Don't listen to him! He's the real scammer here. I'll split the reward with you, fair and square. I can deal with the sand lizard, but my plan doesn't have a high probability of success. That's why I need a diviner."

Harvey was being offered two choices: low risk and low reward, or high risk and high reward.

To be frank, Harvey cared neither about the risk nor the reward. There were more pressing questions.

Which of these mercenaries would be standing beside him when he died? How could he reach the ending he had foreseen?

After a moment, Harvey scooped up a handful of coins from the table. "How about this?" he said. "I'll pay both of you. The three of us can go hunt the sand lizard together."

Hastin and Hares froze. This certainly wasn't anything they had bargained for. But seeing the shining gold coins before them, they both agreed immediately.

Harvey happily stuffed coins into their hands. "So, when do we leave?"

"Two hours, by the city gate," they answered in unison.

Harvey blinked. Weren't they rivals? Why were they so coordinated? He almost cast a lie-detection spell, but stopped himself.

Did it matter? Everything was predetermined, anyway.

Still, not long after, he began to regret his decision.

Though he waited at the city gates for five full hours, neither of them showed up.

The desert wind roared, sobering him up. He belatedly thought to himself, "Did I just get scammed?"