Free Web NovelChapter 540: Chapter 541 The Two Lines of the Future_1
"The most scarce thing is the most precious," Melifilia responded with a thought-provoking statement.
"What do you mean?" Aiden didn’t understand at first.
"Calculating the future means that most of the time you won’t make mistakes," Melifilia spoke softly, "After I gradually gained the power of ’omniscience,’ I began to be able to foresee the direction of my future and then make the best choices in the present."
"Isn’t that very good?" Aiden said.
"Then imagine one day you find that you can see two paths before you, one leading to the most perfect future and the other to the unknown chaos. Which would you choose?"
"I’m a common man, of course, I’d choose the former," Aiden answered.
When buying a lottery ticket, if one could know the winning numbers in advance, a normal person would naturally choose to know before buying, rather than throwing money into a gamble with such slim odds it’s almost like casting money into the water.
"So you follow the path leading to perfection, taking the shortest route to obtain everything you want, reaching the summit you’ve aspired to. After reaching that summit, you find you can see even further into the future, that path becomes even clearer, and you can calculate everything just by understanding the necessary conditions—reaching the next peak almost effortlessly..." Melifilia moved her chess pieces as she spoke, her tone as flat as if she were talking about something completely unrelated to herself. freeweɓnovel.cøm
Aiden listened intently; it was clear that Melifilia was talking about her own experiences, and the so-called second peak was probably about her obtaining the power of "Desire."
"But this time, you feel no sense of achievement, because everything happened just as you predicted. Then this feeling plays out countless times, and after hundreds of years, your heart no longer stirs. Until one day, you find something slipping beyond your control due to an accident, yet you feel an indescribable pleasure. Then you realize, the path leading to a perfect future can no longer satisfy you, wouldn’t you want to try following the guidance of the other path?"
"That’s quite a luxurious pursuit," Aiden commented.
Tired of days when everything is under control, one then starts to pursue an uncontrollable future, believing that to be the true pleasure. It’s like a wealthy individual who has become sick of rich delicacies suddenly finds pleasure in simple and bland food.
For ordinary mortals, being able to keep everything they want under control is undoubtedly the stuff of dreams.
But at least that reason makes sense, which means Melifilia’s game could be "real."
"Speaking of which, what are the things you can’t control? Do you also encounter such things?" Aiden was a bit concerned about the topic that had been glossed over.
"Even I have embarrassing past events I don’t want others to know about," Melifilia casually refused, "Please don’t pry any further, let’s change the subject."
"Alright, the soothsayer seems to have prepared the last piece of the puzzle for me," Aiden pondered over the chessboard and simultaneously considered two things, which made it a bit difficult for him to concentrate fully on the game.
He hadn’t played a game where he had to win with his intellect against Melifilia in a long time, and he was almost certain to lose this game of chess, but Aiden still gave it his all. It wasn’t due to pride; it was simply a matter of principle. Besides, he wanted to test how long he could last in a game of wits against the goddess of schemes.
"Hold on to it tightly, since you’ve already had a confrontation with that man, he should already know that you’ve touched the power. I’ve stipulated that only complete eradication of you will be considered passing the test. For every time he kills you without fulfilling the condition, I’ll raise the difficulty of the test, but you can’t take it lightly either," Melifilia said.
"I will move what he wants to a place where it’s difficult for him to get," Aiden replied.
"Oh? Have you already stolen the Hand of Erasure?" Melifilia laughed.
"No, I’ve just prevented him from stealing it; that is the limit of what I can do at the moment," Aiden thoughtfully moved another piece on the board, "I’ll find a way to get close to the power, for I really have no other choice."
Without dealing with Mr. Blood Robe, talking about escaping the control of the goddess of schemes was nothing but a fool’s dream.
"Here, you’ve been negligent," Melifilia suddenly smiled and made a key move.
"Ah!" Aiden realized he had fallen into a trap.
The game wasn’t at its final step yet, but he had foreseen that within a few moves, Melifilia would inevitably drive him into a corner.
"To lose even at Dou Shou Qi?" Aiden sighed.
"In a simple game like this, I can certainly play through all possibilities, and you need to do the same to have a chance at winning me, and even then you must go first," Melifilia said, "But if two absolutely correct players play against each other, it becomes very boring, everything becomes predetermined."
"Being slaughtered by you is also predetermined, right?" Aiden frowned, "Why did you suddenly want to play this game today? Don’t you like to pursue uncertainty?"
Although he had guessed the outcome, he was quite unsatisfied with his loss this time.
Because he had a vague feeling that just a few more correct moves might have changed the result.
"The uncertainty in our game lies in the process of me crushing you. The unknown factor is how far you can struggle before I finish you off, right?" Melifilia laughed, "To be honest, I’m quite surprised. This is the first time you’ve come so close to a draw in chess. You must feel it too."
"I’ve been slaughtered by you so many times before, I must have gotten better at chess," Aiden said.
"You, you’re becoming more like me," Melifilia remarked as she began to pack up the chessboard, "It’s very gratifying, another game?"
"No, let’s stop here. I still have a lot of work to do," Aiden said as he got up.
There were still matters waiting for him to handle; he didn’t have the luxury to idle away time playing chess.
"Then I’ll look forward to your triumphant return," Melifilia showed no desire to detain him, smiling as she watched Aiden leave.
...
After returning to the surface, Aiden dealt with some official duties and was about to leave the office to make his rounds when he saw prison guard Isabella hurry over in a fluster: "Warden!"
"What’s the matter?" Aiden sensed her urgency.
"She’s here!" Isabella blurted out without preamble.
"Who?"
"Lady Freshflowers! She came to the reception this afternoon, asking for you by name!"
