Chapter 530: Realization
The luxurious carriage drove on the main road and soon met heavy traffic along the way.
"See? I told you, Mr. Charles. It would take more than 20 minutes to reach the airport now," Jessie said as she looked outside and sighed in disappointment. At that moment, she saw more than hundreds of carriages were moving up ahead of them and appeared crowded. Not only that, more than thousands of people were walking here and there on the roadsides, and everyone seemed to be in a rush.
'But it's normal in the morning time-.'
No, she noticed something was odd in the streets.
At that moment, she saw many robed mages and security guards were stopping the people randomly and checking them.
"Why is there tight security here? Did something happen?" She muttered with a confused look on her face.
On the other hand, Charles suddenly thought of something and added.
"It might be due to Elder Seer's death."
"What?! Elder Seer died?!" Jessie almost jumped up and hit her head on the wooden top as she heard his words.
"H-How did you know, mister?" For the first time, a hint of suspicion appeared on her face.
'Even our Teacher felt troubled to predict these types of accurate futures.' She muttered inwardly.
After noticing his silence, Jessie shook her head and spoke in a grim tone.
"It's better to take a shortcut route to get to the airport."
Meanwhile, Charles touched his space ring, took out a pocket watch, and checked the time.
"8.15 A.M. No worries. I think we can still make it in time." He spoke in a solemn tone.
"I think the opposite, Mr. Charles."
Saying so, Jessie closed her eyes, activated her [Mind Storm] skill, and soon created a virtual map of the city in her mind.
"There are three ways to get to the airport sooner. First, we can enter the next right-side alley route, go to Wetland Lane and then move to the airport through Garden Street. The second option is to go through by using magic spells. Although the city array prohibits anyone from using fly spells and teleportation spells, it doesn't prohibit anyone from using other movement-type spells. The third option would be moving to the Bronze Lane to reach the airport, but you already opposed that idea."
Charles frowned as he heard her words and soon spoke.
"If so, choose the first option then."
Meanwhile, Jessie nodded and told Oliver to enter the right side alley.
Under her guidance, Oliver drove the carriage into the short path, entered Wetland Lane, and moved to the airport in a different route. After multiple turns, the carriage finally reached the airport around 8.40 A.M.
As Oliver parked the carriage near the airport building's entrance, Charles and Jessie stepped out of the carriage and hurriedly moved towards the airport's entrance. Both soon showed their Azure Airship tickets to the security guards, had gone through a basic checkup, and moved inside.
After that, they walked past the luggage counter, entered the large hallway, and soon moved towards the zone-3 area.
Within a minute, they reached a large hall-like place and noticed more than 200 people were seated in the hall.
Charles and Jessie also found a pair of seats around the corner of the hall and sat down.
Then, Charles took out his airship ticket and checked it carefully.
[Airship name: Azure Flyers
Airship Number: Azure-553
Passenger ticket number: 34-G
Class: Normal
Passenger's name: Charles Nightwind
Passenger's identification number: ARCRIV35674
Time of Departure: 9 A.M,
Date of Departure: May 14th, Year 6418, Second Arcane Era.
From: City of Miracles
To: Crystal City, Azure Federation.]
'Departure time is 9.A.M.' He nodded inwardly, took out the pocket watch, flipped open the outer case, and looked into it.
Minutes passed quietly, but no sign of announcement appeared about their departure.
Soon, it was 8.55 A.M!
Around this time, many passengers went towards the airship staff and inquired about the delay but got no replies.
In the meantime, Charles also observed the surroundings and silently signaled Jessie to get ready for any unexpected situation.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
Just as he muttered inwardly, a black-haired young woman entered the waiting hall through the right side door and clapped both hands to get everyone's attention.
She then glanced at everyone and spoke loudly.
"This is an announcement for passengers on Airship Azure-553 to Crystal City. The airship has been delayed due to some technical fault in the airship's propellers. The flight crew has arrived at the zone, but the ground crew is repairing and also rechecking the other propellers of the airship. Our new departure time is 10:50 A.M."
Upon hearing the sudden announcement, Jessie's face went pale in an instant.
On the other hand, Charles also turned gloomy and hurriedly asked a question in his mind.
'Genesis, is it possible for the 'Future-Time' spell to affect my Luck?'
Indeed. Even though no 'Luck' power appeared around him, Charles felt that he had been too unlucky after entering this city.
[The main thing about the 'Future Time' is to cause variations in Fate by breaking the Fate strings, Host. Although 'Luck' power is quite the opposite of the manipulate 'Fate' power and creates variables like Present Time power, there is a high possibility that this 'Future Time' spell shattered the fate strings around you and even erased the Luck power. That might be the reason for your unfortunate encounters or disturbances.]
'Oh? That explains why I encountered too many disturbances in this mission.' He muttered inwardly and soon froze as his heart started to beat uncontrollably.
'An omen?' He instantly perceived the change and furrowed.
He then hurriedly glanced around and soon saw multiple security guards entering the hall with different weapons in their hands. A few people also came from the other two different exits, locked the doors stealthily, and cautiously moved in their direction.
At that moment, Genesis's voice echoed in his head all of a sudden.
[Alert! Alert! Alert!]
[Multiple Powerhouses are scanning Host's body!]
[Abnormality Detected!]
...
'Oh? But why couldn't I perceive their scan?' Charles asked in a startled tone.
[It's due to low wisdom power, Host.] An instant reply appeared in his head.
'What is the possibility of my escape?'
[The possibility of getting killed by the defensive array mechanism is extremely high. Chances of escaping from this situation: 0.5%.]
'Only 0.5%?' He narrowed his eyes and soon noticed Jessie also seemed to have seen the guards' approach.
'Stay calm. I'll think of a way to get us out of the situation.' Charles said to her telepathically and pondered.
At that moment, Genesis's voice echoed in his head once again.
[The chances of escaping from the current situation have been reduced from 0.5% to 0.3%.]
'More reinforcements are coming to capture me? Wait. Something is wrong.'
He realized something at the last moment and soon thought of an absurd possibility.
'If it is true, then I have no choice but to take a gamble now.'
Muttering inwardly, he raised his hand, pointed his finger at the black-haired woman, and cast [Finger of Destruction] spell on her.
Just as a dense ray of chaos bullet appeared out of his forefinger, the defensive array that appeared on the ceiling activated and released an eerie blackish ray.
Before the chaos bullet could come out of Charles's forefinger, the blackish ray directly landed on Charles's head and disintegrated him into minute particles!
...
Gasp!
Charles instantly opened his eyes in the airship and soon muttered in a shocked tone.
"As I thought, it's a Time-Loop spell!"