I Became a Fortune Teller in the Game My Little Sister Made – Chapter 205

“……Ah.”

The lucid dream ended.

Rain, who became aware of it, quickly rose up.

“Bro…!”

“Yeah.”

As soon as she awakened from the lucid dream, a ghostly drowsiness overwhelmed her, but while she somehow endured it with her superpower, Lucas cast a spell on Rain as well.

It was the special insomnia magic created by the Principal. After receiving it, Rain sighed as the drowsiness faded and looked around her.

The scene was── nothing had changed since the time she fell asleep.

A space shimmering in rainbow hues. Still a writhing, dark, grotesque mass.

And her mother, who had yet to wake up…

“…….”

“…Rain.”

“Why? Do you have something you want to say right now?”

“I will respect your choice, Rain. So choose as you wish.”

“…………….”

“The one who has the right to decide your mother’s fate is… only you.”

After finishing that sentence, Lucas walked away to a somewhat distant place.

Leaving the two alone, perhaps to give her enough time to think.

With a faint smile at the unexpected consideration she never would have received from him in the past, Rain looked down at the Principal.

“………….”

Inside the lucid dream, she saw the past.

But that was all.

‘So obvious. Cliché. Disgusting. Just pure emotional manipulation.’

That thought never changed.

No matter how unfortunate the Principal’s past was, it was none of Rain’s business.

To her, the warmth she received from the Principal was the only truth.

And since it was revealed to be a lie… the warmth she had once received turned into betrayal.

‘Does a good intention justify everything? That can’t be right.’

“You are… the worst kind of person, just like my father.”

Looking at the past, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t shaken.

Seeing the Principal from a pure time. The Principal who believed wholeheartedly that he could protect the world with his uniqueness. The Principal who tried to fulfill the duty of a special being.

Could anyone ever follow such confidence?

………She really didn’t want to think about it.

The Principal from back then resembled Namgoong Min.

Overflowing with uniqueness that even others would be captivated by.

Sometimes… someone who made her wonder if they were the protagonist of this world.

‘But you’ve changed.’

In the face of a comrade’s death. In front of a fleeing job holder. In front of the truth that she could not protect the world.

She became narrow-minded, lost her broad vision, and obsessively drew lines based solely on her born uniqueness.

And at last.

She fell.

“Perhaps… you are Namgoong Min’s future.”

The dream of wanting to protect the world, and the overly caring desire to solve everyone’s worries.

It seemed eerily alike—was that just Rain’s delusion?

But at this point, all of that was meaningless.

What reminded her of Namgoong Min was solely the Principal of the past.

The current Principal was merely a vile human who regarded his own daughter as an experimental subject, having crossed a taboo.

…She reached a conclusion.

“………….”

Her gaze faltered, and she bit her lip for a moment. Even if they were acting, even if it was hypocrisy, the warm memories she spent with her mother suddenly came flooding back.

However, right afterward, the memories were sullied and damaged in a different hue. The face of her mother, smiling in her recollections, transformed into the face of a disgusting hypocrite.

That accelerated Rain’s conclusion.

“…Goodbye.”

As she summoned her superpower, while shedding tears, Rain swiftly targeted the Principal’s neck—

Tick.

“………Huh?”

Was it because she became emotionally overwhelmed, moving her body roughly unlike how she usually controlled her superpower with a mere finger?

A tarot card, which she had cherished in her pocket, fell between Rain and the Principal.

The blade of her superpower was… just about to sever the Principal’s neck.

The Major Arcana card number 6, <The Lovers>.

The most precious gift she received from Namgoong Min caught her eye.

“…………….”

At this timing. At this moment.

Was the falling of the <The Lovers> card merely coincidental?

Rain’s gaze quivered. Her eyes were searching for the hidden meaning within the tarot card.

‘<The Lovers> card… it signified marriage, empathy, harmony, alignment, choices.’

Thanks to it, hadn’t she met Namgoong Min and managed to continue this bond until now?

“Alignment…”

Just like that day when she trailed after Namgoong Min, just as he had given it to her.

The <The Lovers> card was upright.

“………….”

Her head felt dizzy.

Until just a moment ago, she had believed without question that her choice was correct.

Yet, it was maddening that her thoughts could be swayed by a tarot card that had simply fallen by chance.

Time and again.

Time and again, she had been on the brink of severing the Principal’s neck with her superpower, but—

“I can’t…”

“I can’t do it…”

“It’s too, too heavy…”

The memories just kept flooding in.

Now she knew. The mother in her memories was nothing but an act. That it was all a lie and deception.

But even an hour ago, that had been an unchanging truth for Rain.

Who could say that perhaps even that was a lie?

“Ah… ah….”

Rain realized.

I am, in the end, such a person.

A person who cannot decide unless Hector, Lucas, Liu, or Namgoong Min make the decisions for her.

Having grown up in a place where the strong preyed upon the weak, she had become someone who depends solely on their choices.

Even now that she had distanced herself from Hector, in the end, she was still—

Never having escaped the cycle of the strong preying on the weak.

“Ha, haha. Hahaha…”

Tears did not flow.

It was a painfully profound self-reflection, but… she could not deny it.

Even shedding tears felt like a luxury.

‘I… can’t choose.’

Memories with the Principal, her past, the current Principal, the things the Principal did, Rain who had been an experimental subject.

All those thoughts tangled and mixed together.

Rain could not sort out her mind.

“Instead… let someone else decide…”

Or give me some time.

At least, some time to sort through this chaotic mind.

Anyone──

“…Rain.”

“………Namgoong Min?”

“Have you made your choice?”

“…………….”

“So it’s still not time. I can wait for as long as you need.”

“…W-wait a moment.”

“Rain?”

“Namgoong Min, please. Choose, make the choice.”

“…What?”

“I can’t possibly do it. I can’t bear it… so please….”

Take this heavy burden for me.

With the logic of the strong, let me, the weak, follow.

Please.

“………Rain, are you saying you want to entrust everything to me?”

“Yes, yes! Definitely, of course.”

“Really…?”

Namgoong Min asked back.

Of course, it was natural.

This was something Rain should fully decide on.

It was her task to tie up the relationship between the Principal and herself.

That was supposed to be Rain’s responsibility.

But she had run away.

As always, fleeing into the warm, cozy embrace of Namgoong Min.

In a filthy, disgraceful way.

She had fled.

“……….”

Only after meeting Rain’s gaze did Namgoong Min exhale a deep sigh.

What could that sigh possibly mean? Rain could not grasp it all, but—

She knew.

If it was Namgoong Min… he would certainly accept even this unreasonable request.

“I will──”

That’s why Rain smiled brightly.

As long as she followed the words of the strong, everything felt so much easier.

To think for herself, to take responsibility, and to choose—

Was far too difficult.

*

“So you locked me up in this prison?”

“Don’t even think about escaping, mother. Arthur is originally from an executioner family; nobody knows better than him how to imprison a sinner.”

“Of course not.”

In the depths of the Arthur family’s estate, underground.

Though secretive, Arthur, who practically ruled Europe, had their own set of laws and prisons.

It was practically as if the family named Arthur was recognized as a state, yet the heads of the Arthur lineage had been wise.

While families might have many ways to escape, it was different once they became a state.

Of course, if they were officially recognized, the range of things they could do would widen, but the heads of the Arthur family desired no more than that.

Given that they were once of the lowly status of executioners.

They wished to remain free as the Arthur family, unbound by anything.

It was ironic that daughters born under such a family were used in marriage alliances without any freedom.

Ultimately, the point was one.

No matter how esteemed a Principal might be, they could not escape Arthur’s underground prison.

“You’ll find the magic nullification cuffs and… spatial confinement… ha, you even blessed it with the church’s sanctuary? You’ve really made an effort.”

“You won’t be able to use that grand <Battle Magic> you were so proud of.”

“Ha, ha… I’m grinding my teeth. To just sit with such power, such uniqueness? If you had used that power to protect the world…”

“Don’t talk nonsense. I’ve already extinguished your disgusting creation. You’ll rot away here for the rest of your life.”

“…You said you passed this choice to that kid.”

As Rain glared at the Principal, bound by countless chains and cuffs.

The Principal flinched at her words.

“I see it clear as day. You must have seen my lucid dream? You must know how I regarded you.”

“………And so?”

“If it were me, I’d have torn you apart. It’s ironic to say I did something worthy of being torn apart, but if I were you, I would have killed myself.”

“…………….”

“And yet, not doing it and instead begging that kid to choose… well, actually, the choice was already predetermined.”

Rain didn’t lack the courage to strike down the Principal; she wanted to save her in the end.

But she couldn’t bring herself to verbalize that desire.

And because of that… she entrusted it to Namgoong Min.

And Namgoong Min could not have been unaware of that.

Namgoong Min had consistently shown Rain consideration.

“…Your life was spared because of that choice, is not something you should be saying.”

“True, I have no right to speak here. But let me say this for certain.”

“What…?”

“I will definitely escape from this place. And I will kill that kid.”

With an endless obsession and thirst for revenge.

The Principal turned her frenzied, wild eyes toward Rain, with her disheveled hair.

“I don’t care how I ended up like this. But I must pay for the sin of killing my magnum opus, the guardian who could protect the world…!”

“……You’re insane.”

Whether she had nothing more to say or perhaps saving her words for future chances, as she turned her back on the raging Principal and walked toward the exit of the underground prison.

“Only to rely on others until the very end, as a special job….”

“………….”

“Indeed, I was a failed product.”

Creak.

Thud.

*

“R-Rain! It’s serious!”

“What happened?”

“The, the prisoner in solitary confinement…!!”

“………What?”

“Suddenly vanished! A crack appeared in midair, and then, the prisoner disappeared with it!”

Ah.

“…Namgoong Min.”

*

It was burning.

Rain suddenly thought she had seen this scene somewhere before.

Months ago, when she had returned to the Dream Within a Dream to settle matters with the Principal.

It was similar to what she had seen in the lucid dream with Lucas── the town where she lived as a child.

Everything was burning, leaving only ruins behind.

“Namgoong Min…?”

Bang!!! Crash!!!

At the Romance Academy, centered around Namgoong Min’s stronghold.

For hundreds of meters around, everything was burning and collapsing.

And at the center of it all… stood a wild-haired woman.

“Look, failed product.”

“Ah, ah.”

“I said I would escape and kill you, didn’t I?”

“Aaaaaa!!”

Crack.

With her superpower, she tore the Principal’s arm off.

Despite her arm being ripped off while still living, the smile on the Principal’s face never faded.

Thud.

The arm, still holding Namgoong Min’s head, was hastily brought over with her superpower.

‘It can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t be!!!!’

No matter how many times she repeated it, how could she deny it?

The head cradled in Rain’s arms belonged to none other than Namgoong Min.

“Ah, ah, ah…!!”

“I heard a voice. The voice I’ve heard since I was a child… the voice tempting me to downfall. Even though I knew this ending would be my fate, I accepted it.”

“Kill… kill… kill…!!!”

“I should have smashed my vocal cords. So I wouldn’t be able to answer that voice.”

“I’ll kill you!!!!”

“I ought to have smashed my arms and legs instead. Even if I escaped because of that voice… so that I couldn’t move.”

Crackle.

It was hardly even a fight.

Rain’s superpower had grown day by day, and the Principal, the strongest Battle Wizard, had rotted away in prison for months.

In an instant, Rain’s power directed all of the Principal’s arms and legs in peculiar ways. She couldn’t even move a finger, pinned down hard to the ground.

But even then.

The Principal’s smile never left her face.

“Still… that kid. Even as just a fortuneteller, he managed to injure me… I almost died. Ultimately, however, it was I who won.”

“Shut up!!!!”

“Why should I? After everything, I’ve realized something.”

As Rain approached the Principal.

With a blade made of superpower.

To bring everything to an end.

“That kid was far more special than you, who was born special.”

──Hector, if the fortuneteller you met had been such a person…

Swish.

The head rolled.

And Rain fell to her knees, as if she was collapsing.

“Ha, haha, hahaha……….”

Thoughts meandered back to months ago, back in the Dream Within a Dream.

If only she had made a decision back then.

Even if it meant bearing the burden of her heart for a lifetime, if she had resolved to take responsibility for it.

‘I should have killed him.’

In the end, Rain had slain the Principal with her own hands.

Though it had mirrored choices made before, far too many things had occurred in between.

Why on earth did I run away?

Because of that, because of that, Namgoong Min…

“……Ah.”

Suddenly.

Rain realized that a tarot card had fallen from her embrace.

The card <The Lovers>, which she had always cherished.

That card was… lying cut in half alongside the Principal’s head.

Reversed.

“…………….”

She heard the sound of people approaching. Liu, the Crown Princess, the Crown Prince, her Older Brother, the Hero, and the Saint were all approaching.

Among all those consequences.

Rain gingerly lifted Namgoong Min’s head.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry….”

And.

“I love you.”

Silently.

She kissed him.