No wonder I mistook the meaning for Garudan priestess.
All priestesses were female. Hence the term paranpua was used a lot to address them.
Having solved this word, I finally obtained my final piece of the puzzle.
Perhaps it was fate that I figured out the other terms first before the most important one.
I then grabbed my cipher book and traced my gaze along the carvings on the tablet.
I began to translate the prophecy delivered by the ancient Garudan priestess.
"She...will be…captured, no, seized….and commanded, no, ordered, no…slaved…in the…"
I studied each term on the tablet, analyzing their uses and comparing the context of their usage in existing writings.
"She, no, her…road, no, path, no, destiny…will be…arranged, no, determined, no, controlled."
I flipped through the pages of my cipher book, running my eyes through the makeshift Garudan dictionary I constructed over the years.
"She will…wear, no, equip, no, to be bestowed, maybe, to receive and wear, no, to obtain and don…."
The more I translated the carvings, the more complete the text I was writing.
Their meanings began to coalesce.
Though my full attention was focused purely on translating the terms, I could not help but feel dread welling up inside me.
"She will…fight, no, battle, no, kill, no, slay…the never-ending, no, the ever-lasting, no, the forever, no, the eternal…with the weapon, no, sword of…forever, no, eternal, no, eternity…"
My hands trembled as I wrote the words.
Both from fatigue and my realization of what the archaic prophecy was about.
"She…is…the shining ray, no, the brilliant radiance, no, the fierce light, no, the burning light…"
Sun rays began piercing my window.
Morning had come.
I must had spent the entire night figuring out the meaning of the tablet's carvings.
Thump!
"Urgh!"
I suddenly coughed up a spray of blood.
Sharine was right.
My body could not take any more all-nighter.
But my rest had to wait.
There was something else I needed to take care of first.
I reached my trembling hands to the page on the cipher book where I had written the complete prophecy.
The tremble came from both my declining health and the fear that struck me upon reading the writings in front of my eyes.
I stared at the words of the prophecy as they were stained by crimson droplets.
[She will be seized and enslaved in a land of the chosen, at the dusk of Manusha's reign.]
[Her destiny will be controlled by the one of the far star.]
[She will obtain and don the wings of the absolute perpetuity.]
[She will slay the eternal snake with the sword of eternity and determine the course of all.]
[She is the burning light. She whose wings are bonded with chaos. She whose eyes sees further than the heavenly gaze of the Primal Masters.]
[She is the world's destroyer and final salvation, or its punisher and eternal doom.]
Thud!
I crashed to the floor as I was heaving the tablet and my cipher book.
Thump!
"Urgh!"
More blood coughed out through my lips.
Not yet.
My body could not fail me yet.
I needed to destroy this tablet and my translations!
"Professor?"
I suddenly heard Sharine's voice over the locked door of my study.
When did I lock it?
Perhaps after I kicked Sharine out when she was trying to drag me back to my bedroom, which I did not even remember of doing such harsh act.
Good.
I could not allow her to see the product of my life's work.
This blasphemous prophecy….
"Professor? Please, open the door."
Sharine asked again from outside the room, doorknob began to rattle rapidly.
I rose to my feet again and made my way to the fireplace. The tablet and my cipher book were still in my frail grasps.
Thump!
"Urhg!"
More blood came out from my mouth.
This time it would be more accurate to say they poured out from me. I began to leave trails of blood after my steps.
The fireplace was closer.
Just a few more steps.
"Professor! Answer me! Please!"
Sharine called out. She began to try pushing the door open.
I ignored her calling and proceeded to dump the tablet and the cipher book to the burning fireplace.
Whoosh!
The fire quickly consumed the two objects.
I watched my life's work burned away as I collapsed on the floor.
Sharine had stopped banging on the door. Perhaps she had given up.
Good…
Nobody should ever see what I just discovered.
That prophecy…
What a horrifying thing…
The dusk of Manusha's reign?
The Eternal Throne was supposed to stand forever.
The idea of the empire to come to an end was simply unfathomable!
It would take the end of the world for that to happen.
What's more…the prophecy mentioned of the Eternal Serpent being...slain.
That was outrageous!
I could not even dare use the term 'serpent' when writing up the translation.
It was simply blasphemous to think of the Creator reaching its end. Being killed, of all fate to befell the divine being!
But perhaps the most horrifying thing I realized from this discovery was…the prophecy would definitely happen.
The Eternal Throne's reign would be over.
The Eternal Serpent would die.
Everything would cease to exist.
For a mere mortal like me, I was not certain how to face those facts.
I prided myself in my endeavor on researching history. Studying the bygone days.
Although all this time I had been uncovering the tales of the past to reveal the secret of the future.
And I somehow regretted ever unlocking that secret.
I wished I had never encountered that tablet.
I wished I had never chosen to become a historian.
I wished I had never learned the fate of this world!
"Professor!"
Sharine suddenly barged into the room once a couple of huge men broke down the door.
They must be from the village nearby. Sharine probably stopped earlier to call them.
I watched the gray-haired maid cried over my bloodied body.
Well, if there was one thing I was glad of from what I did today, it would be my success in destroying the tablet and the cipher book.
At least Sharine would be spared from learning the terrible future Dunia was going to face.
She was a hardworking honest woman.
She did not need to be subjected to the cruel torture of knowing too many horrible things.
Live the rest of your life peacefully, Sharine.
I hoped your next master would treat you far better than I did.