The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

“Lakia… You know?”

“Yeah.”

In an unexpected moment, an unexpected person brought up an unexpected story.

It’s no wonder that not only the people of the Holy Kingdom but even Kurt’s crew were bewildered.

“…Are you mistaken? Are you saying this is a secret of the Spine Empire? But you’ve lived your whole life without leaving the village until coming to Astram, so there’s no way you could know about that…”

“I do know. Because that’s why I left the village.”

“What…”

This wasn’t just a misunderstanding or a simple illusion.

Lakia’s eyes shone clearly and unwaveringly at Kurt.

“The reason I left the village was to stop what they intend to do from the beginning.”

It was a fact that had gradually been forgotten, but her coming from Lizardman Village to Astram wasn’t simply a reckless escape following Kurt.

She was one of the only two shamans from Lizardman Village.

Like most closed-off races, the magic used by the shamans of Lizardman Village had developed independently, similar yet distinct from the regular magic practiced by common mages in the outside world.

Shamanism overall was less systematic and somewhat chaotic compared to the common magic of society, yet it also had strengths that surpassed modern magic and even employed spells that didn’t exist in the Ancient Empire’s system.

Yeah. Like Prognostication.

“Now that you mention it, you did say you saw a prophecy in a dream after leaving Lizardman Village… I was so caught up in the fun I thought you were just here to mess around.”

With that, Kurt finally recalled, sounding flustered.

However, only a few like Kurt or Kirsh, who already knew about the ability of Prognostication from the Lizardman village, could accept this.

The others, unaware of Lakia’s abilities, cast suspicious glances at the conversation between Kurt and Lakia.

“That ability? Never heard of it.”

“Are you… joking right now?”

Kurt, despite having a wide range of knowledge for someone who spent his whole life in Lizardman Village, had mostly recycled knowledge from his past life. Aside from the necessary knowledge of a hunter, his understanding of this new world was relatively limited, considering the isolated nature of his hometown.

That’s why he was clueless about how unique his hometown truly was.

For instance, the healing spell that revived his father, Iot, who was on the brink of death…

He thought that sort of healing magic would naturally exist in a fantasy setting based on the various creations he encountered before his reincarnation, but in reality, healing magic had vanished since the time of the Ancient Empire.

Although it was possible due to the exceptional regenerative abilities of Lizardmen, the shamanic ritual had taken almost a decade to complete. During that period, to maintain the spell, Kurt had put his life at risk hunting high-risk monsters to gather rare materials as catalysts for the ritual. Even after enduring all that, his father was left with lifelong side effects.

It was magic that had severely degraded compared to the magic of the Ancient Empire, but healing magic itself was considered a lost technology in the modern era, impossible to recreate even in the Wizard society, the descendants of the Ancient Empire.

If other races had known such magic besides Lizardmen, Joyra, cornered into desperation, might not have resorted to kidnapping villagers to harvest their organs.

Furthermore, delving into unseen futures was an unprecedented ability that hadn’t even been attempted in the Ancient Empire.

It was different from merely gathering experiences, knowledge, and information to make predictions.

Prognostication meant being able to see through the locked doors of secrets, things that one had never even seen or heard of happening in a country unknown, a scenario that not even the Holy Kingdom’s intelligence could detect.

If such power existed, the Ancient Empire wouldn’t have crumbled so easily.

The culture of closed-off beastkin communities often had unique cases, but Kurt’s hometown was particularly special among them, as if something extraordinary lay inside.

What Lakia referred to as Prognostication seemed nonsensical to others.

“Wait, you mean Prognostication? What does that even mean?”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”

“There’s no way that’s possible. Magic that glimpses future possibilities was considered impossible even in the Ancient Empire!”

Even Kurt’s companions, Mari, Karina, and Serena, couldn’t believe it.

In truth, while they had heard Lakia had come to Astram for some reason, they had never been informed of the specifics.

“Sigh… So, this is how it all goes down…”

Just when Kurt was already perplexed trying to figure out the purpose of the Spine Empire, now he had to explain about Lakia too…

To be honest, he himself didn’t know much about prophecy, so he was at a loss about where to start. That was when…

“I see. So you are a prophet.”

Amid the confusion, there was one person who quietly nodded in understanding.

It was Tierra.

“…Are you really believing this story that Lakia is a prophet?”

“You see, I don’t just wear the title of Archbishop for show. Managing all sorts of information worldwide naturally leads to some knowledge. This is my first time seeing it myself, but I’ve heard stories that a prophet with the gift of Prognostication is born once every few hundred years among the Lizardmen.”

“…How is that even possible?”

Maybe it was because the Archbishop himself certified this existence, but the chaos among them quickly subsided. Nonetheless, they still wore expressions that indicated they couldn’t easily believe in a prophet’s existence.

“I don’t know the details either. Prophets are extremely rare across the world… I remember a rumor that some beastkin, including Lizardmen, have a third eye called the ‘Eye of the Crown’ on their heads, but only a few of those born every few hundred years develop the ability to see the future…”

Eye of the Crown.

That term meant an eye located on the head, a body part that some creatures like lizards, frogs, and sharks possess, whose role isn’t clearly understood even on Earth, Kurt’s previous life, and is believed to have regressed in most mammals aside from certain reptiles and amphibians.

Another name for that body part is the third eye.

This third eye is located deeply adjacent to the brain’s innermost area, known as the pineal gland, a spot that Tierra didn’t explain, but in Kurt’s former world’s Western philosophy, it was believed to be the dwelling place of the human soul.

Because of that, maybe, the third eye has been thought to have intuition beyond the five senses, allowing instinctive perception of danger or glimpsing into the future, granting mystical abilities.

Perhaps during the combination of that lizard body part with human genes to rebirth as a Lizardman, the ancient humans responsible chose to ignore some mysterious potential.

Tierra briefly explained what she knew, and only then did the people gathered in the restaurant slowly begin to accept that Lakia was indeed a real prophet.

“I believe you. You are a prophet after all.”

“Who are you to act so high and mighty claiming to believe me?”

“Hehe…”

In the atmosphere of settling discussion, Mari said something goofy as usual, resulting in a jab from Kurt.

“So, what was the prophecy you saw?”

“The dream I had…”

And so, Lakia began to speak about her visions.

“What the Empire fetched from the ancient ruins was a magic spell. An old spell of a nation that can no longer be obtained.”

“Ancient Empire’s magic… Certainly, Astram was once land that served as the capital of the Ancient Empire long ago…”

Once Lakia’s words started, everyone in the restaurant listened intently with heavy expressions, while Tierra’s was particularly grave.

“If that magic is a threatening weapon for waging war, the Spine Empire, with its belief in human supremacy, will surely embark on a conquest across the whole continent. So what type of magic is it?”

But Lakia simply shook her head lightly to dismiss Tierra’s worries.

“No. The magic they found is not destructive.”

“…Then what is it?”

“It’s not a spell that destroys; it’s a spell that connects. A magic that connects the heavens with the heavens.”

“Connecting the heavens…?”

“That’s right. They seek to open the Sky Gate.”

“Sky… Gate?”

Sky Gate.

It was a term I had never heard before.

But somehow, it felt like I understood its meaning…

Although I had never heard of it, it felt oddly familiar, like I’d known it all along.

With an unsettling feeling at the mention of that term, Tierra muttered it to herself a few times before finally realizing a crucial fact, her eyes widening in shock.

“N-No way…! Are you talking about the Dimensional Gate!?”

As the shock spread like wildfire among everyone in the restaurant, the person in question, Lakia, simply nodded silently with an unreadable expression.

The cause that had brought down the magnificently flourishing Ancient Empire in an instant…

Dimensional Gate.

The Empire was once again trying to open that Dimensional Gate.

That was the future she had seen.

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