Chapter 57
“……”
“……”
“Alright, the fortune telling is over! You can leave now.”
The fortune teller abruptly changed his demeanor, leaning back in his chair with an air of arrogance. But Sue couldn’t move. She covered her face with her hands, her expression desolate.
“…Sigh…”
“Hey, why are you still here?”
I can’t tell if he’s a scammer or not.
The fortune teller, annoyed by the interruption to his business, gestured for her to leave, but Sue just groaned.
“…Are you really a former Imperial mage?”
She asked in a low voice, her tone cold and suspicious. The fortune teller’s eyes widened in mock horror.
“Oh my, you’re doubting me?”
“Of course.”
“And you’re not even using honorifics! How rude!”
Sue ignored his half-hearted scolding. The fortune teller clicked his tongue and stroked his white beard.
“Kids these days have no manners.”
He muttered petulantly.
“But even if I wasn’t a former Imperial mage, your future is still filled with darkness, isn’t it?”
“…Hmph.”
Sue couldn’t refute his words and turned her head away. But her mind was racing.
Was the gamble a failure? Or should I just go for it? No, there’s no way this guy is an Imperial mage… But he created this night sky space, so he must be skilled, right? And it’s true that my future is bleak.
The fortune teller watched her tap her fingers on the table impatiently. Then, he grinned, a sly look in his eye. It was a slightly sinister smile, but it was hidden behind his beard.
Third name. Skia. High-ranking lady.
I can squeeze more out of her.
“…Ahem, ahem. Lady Sue, it seems you have something on your mind?”
The fortune teller cleared his throat and spoke in a deep, authoritative voice, his expression composed. Sue’s eyes widened slightly. He observed her reaction and suppressed a chuckle.
“I can offer you a consultation. For a price.”
“……”
Sue’s expression was unreadable. It was a difficult decision.
‘He seems to be a skilled mage…’
But she wasn’t looking for a skilled mage, she was looking for the most skilled mage in the world. But there was no way such a person would be running a fortune-telling stall at the National Founding Festival. Sue chuckled wryly at her own ridiculous thoughts.
“Alright, I’ll take a consultation.”
But she made a decision that was the opposite of what she had been thinking.
Well, I have nothing to lose.
She was certain that this fortune teller wasn’t from the capital. If he was, he wouldn’t be running a stall just for today, and he wouldn’t be this popular. And she would have heard of him if he was this well-known.
It didn’t matter if he wasn’t a former Imperial mage. Even if he was a scammer, it was fine. There was little chance that anything she told him would leak out. The Imperial Family wouldn’t believe the words of an unknown person from outside the capital.
“…But I would prefer it if you really were a former chief mage.”
The fortune teller puffed up his chest at her blunt words.
“Hey, I told you to believe me, didn’t I?”
Sue ignored him and placed two gold coins on the table. The fortune teller’s eyes darted back and forth between her and the gold coins, his surprise evident.
“Please understand that what I’m about to tell you is very serious.”
Sue said earnestly, and the fortune teller nodded, composing himself.
“Ahem, ahem. Well, let’s hear it.”
“First of all, I want you to forget everything I tell you the moment I leave this tent.”
Sue took out another gold coin. The fortune teller hid his trembling hand under the table, trying to appear calm.
“Well, I keep all my readings confidential, even the ordinary ones.”
“If anything I say here leaks out, I will use every means necessary to find you and kill you.”
“What? …Puhahaha!”
It was a bold threat, even for her. But the fortune teller burst into laughter, the most genuine laughter she had heard from him all day.
“Do it if you can!”
He was either competitive or truly confident.
She still wasn’t sure, and she felt like she was stepping into an abyss. But she couldn’t back down now.
“Can you really keep it a secret?”
Sue leaned forward, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. The fortune teller clicked his tongue, exasperated.
“I told you, it’s real. Have you really been living under a rock your whole life?”
“…Alright…”
Sue paused, clenching and unclenching her fists. Can I really tell this to a complete stranger? She hesitated until the very last moment, then finally spoke.
“…I have a curse on me. Can you break it? Or can you at least create a counter-curse?”
“A curse? On you, Lady Sue?”
Sue nodded slowly. The fortune teller stared at her, surprised by her unexpected words.
“Hmm, a curse…”
The person he was dealing with was a noble, a Skia who lived within the canal. The idea of a Skia being cursed was strange. And she was asking him, a complete stranger, to break the curse. What about the other mages or the priests of the Grand Temple?
He was about to ask those questions, but he stopped himself. She wouldn’t be consulting him if she didn’t know about the Imperial Family or the Grand Temple.
And she didn’t seem to be lying, judging from her trembling lips and her wavering red eyes.
‘She must have had a difficult life.’
Well, I’ll help her. I got paid, after all.
He made up his mind and slowly extended his right hand.
“Alright. Then would you lend me your arm? I need to get a sense of the curse.”
“You can tell what kind of curse it is just by holding my hand?”
“Yes. I might not look like it, but I worked for the Imperial Family for quite a while. It’s true.”
The fortune teller shrugged. It was a casual statement, but it gave Sue a sliver of hope for the first time.
Sue extended her left hand. The fortune teller took her hand and wrist and closed his eyes. He didn’t chant any strange spells this time. Sue didn’t know, but he was reading the flow of her magical energy and detecting any impurities.
It didn’t take long for him to find the curse on her.
“…What the…?!”
He suddenly jerked back, his voice filled with shock, as he detected an unbelievable ‘impurity’. He stared at her as if he had seen a monster. His trembling voice echoed faintly in the otherworldly space.
“What kind of curse is this…? Ah, no… This is… a binding… curse?”
A surge of elation, stronger than sadness, coursed through Sue Byron’s body as she saw his reaction.
‘He’s not a scammer…!’
There wouldn’t be many people, even in the capital, who could identify the curse on her and react with such shock just by holding her hand.
Sue’s mind, which had been clouded with doubt, cleared. She cheered inwardly and spoke,
“Yes, that’s right. It’s a binding curse. A curse that binds me to someone for life.”
“No, I know that, but… This is impossible…”
The panicked fortune teller kept muttering the same words.
“…Listen, young lady.”
After a while, he finally calmed down and started explaining the curse he had detected. His voice was slow and gentle.
“First of all, the structure of the curse is completely different from any ordinary curse magic. So it’s not a common curse, but something created by someone using an unknown method. Even if I try to read the surface structure, I can’t decipher it.”
“……”
“In short, your curse is designed to be unbreakable. The structure itself is… hmm… yes. It’s like the entire spell is written in a foreign language I’ve never seen before. And if the structure is this unique and convoluted, there’s probably a mechanism that prevents even the Grand Temple priests from purifying it. Were you rejected by the Imperial Family? Hmm… No, maybe it’s political. You’re a Skia, so that’s possible. Is that why you came to me?”
Sue remained silent, not bothering to answer. His detailed explanation hit her like a ton of bricks.
The fortune teller, leaning back in his chair, looked at her with pity.
“Anyway, it’s a nasty one. Do you know who created it?”
Sue nodded. The fortune teller clicked his tongue.
“Of course. You wouldn’t have come to an unknown fortune teller if you knew. To think there’s someone else with this kind of skill. I’d like to meet them.”
“……”
Sue felt a growing sense of certainty as she watched the fortune teller brag.
He had identified the curse just by holding her hand, and his detailed explanation wasn’t something he could have made up. He even knew about the skills of the Grand Temple priests. Even a scammer wouldn’t be able to lie this convincingly. She gulped and asked in a low voice,
“…So if you can’t even read the structure, you can’t break it?”
“Not immediately, no.”
“Not immediately…”
So he might be able to break it later? The fortune teller continued, as if reading her mind,
“I would have to start from scratch, deciphering the structure. And then I would have to create a new spell to erase it. It’ll take a long time.”
“…How long?”
The fortune teller answered,
“At least three years. Five years at most. If I do it.”