I Became a Fortune Teller in the Game My Little Sister Made – Chapter 38

The fortuneteller laid out and folded the card adorned with a mysterious pattern on the table.

Mandrick, who had been staring blankly at the scene, suddenly realized he hadn’t yet responded and awkwardly nodded his head.

“Ah, yes.”

“Very well, then please take a seat over here.”

Swish.

Even though there might be an age difference, the fortuneteller’s polite and respectful manner naturally prompted Mandrick to reciprocate with similar decorum.

As he sat across from the fortuneteller, he couldn’t take his eyes off the flamboyant card shuffling skills being displayed.

Like an audience captivated by a magical performance, Mandrick stared wide-eyed at the cards, which were being elegantly organized beneath the white gloves.

Clack.

“Ah.”

It was only after the cards neatly settled on the table with a sound that he regained his senses.

He had seen some tarot cards being thrown during the entrance ceremony, but indeed, the fortuneteller was exceptionally adept at handling the cards.

With an unwavering smile and precise movements, Mandrick felt a sense of affinity and trust toward the fortuneteller, easing his expression somewhat.

Anyway, the cards were organized, and he was seated, ready to speak—but just as he was about to open his mouth—

“You seem to have a worry.”

“Uh, how…!”

“Weren’t you the one who didn’t respond earlier?”

Ah. That’s right.

Mandrick was flabbergasted, thinking his thoughts had been read, and soon bowed his head in embarrassment.

Had the card show taken hold of his soul?

Nervously fumbling, he gathered himself and looked up again.

“Y-yes. I do have a worry.”

“It’s a worry regarding your studies, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right…?”

Wait, did I say that?

He couldn’t recall expressing that.

“How do you know it’s about studying…?”

“Am I not a fortuneteller?”

“Oh.”

The mystery was solved in an instant. Why had he even asked such a thing to a fortuneteller?

At the same time, the doubts he had about the “fortuneteller” gradually faded away.

He hadn’t really been a believer in fortunes or cared much about them, but if the fortuneteller was this capable, perhaps he might receive some helpful insight.

“Even though I’ve only been here for barely a week since starting, I feel like I’m falling behind the other students.”

“I see. Are they progressing ahead of you?”

“… Yes. I was dead last in the <Fighter> training yesterday… and my rank in the entrance exam was the lowest…”

“And you lost in the sparring match the day before yesterday.”

“Yes. I did lose in the sparring match…?”

So he figured that out through the cards too.

Could it be that the fortuneteller was actually quite amazing?

“I see, as you can tell from the cards, I’m worried because I’m falling behind in various ways, which is why I came here.”

“In such cases… it seems we should first break down your answers more specifically.”

“Yes?”

Flourish.

At the fortuneteller’s gesture, three cards were laid face up on the table.

Red, green, and black.

Three cards with the same design but differing colors caught Mandrick’s eye.

“What’s this…?”

“[Three Pieces of Advice].”

“Three… pieces of advice?”

He had expected the usual insights from tarot or palm reading, but this was an entirely new approach that left Mandrick tilting his head in confusion.

“Divination is a more complicated study than one might think. People come seeking answers to vague questions, while the cards provide insight in exchange for unknown conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“Effectively, the questions people bring are quite similar. ‘What will my future be like?’ ‘Does that person like me?’ ‘What should I do in the future?’ It’s usually along those lines.”

Thinking back, he realized that was true.

When Eileen first told him about the fortune teller’s shop, most of his classmates were asking those kinds of questions, too.

‘My question fits into that category as well, as I came here to ask what I should do going forward.’

As he naturally accepted the fortuneteller’s words, he absentmindedly nodded along.

Just then, the red card flipped over.

“Uh…?”

“The red card provides the most straightforward answer. The more you ponder, the more it seems obvious, and you may wonder if it even qualifies as advice. But it’s that easy to understand.”

The revealed illustration depicted a woman seemingly training a lion.

Below it, the word ‘STRENGTH’ was written.

‘Strength?’

“Now, let’s move on to the green card.”

Flutter.

The green card featured a wheel in the sky surrounded by strange animals.

It was a card Mandrick recognized—’Wheel of Fortune’, a card so famous it knew no introduction.

“The green card whispers ambiguous advice. The more you hear, the more it sounds familiar, yet the harder it is to grasp as you think about it. You must contemplate deeply to uncover the answer, and that answer will indeed be of great help.”

“Ah…….”

“But unfortunately, there are times when the answer cannot be discerned at all, and that’s just the way of things. I merely interpret the cards; it’s the cards that provide the answers, meaning it’s understandable if you find them hard to interpret.”

“That… makes sense.”

So, it’s an insightful piece of advice that’s somewhat difficult to understand.

As Mandrick began to piece together the concept of [Three Pieces of Advice], he naturally turned his attention to the last card.

If the first was straightforward but obvious advice, and the second was ambiguous but helpful, then the third…

“The final black card communicates indecipherable sounds. Those sounds seem completely unrelated to your question and might come off as completely random or even nonsensical, making it impossible for anyone to grasp their true meaning.”

“However, the last card…”

“Yes. As you may have guessed, the black card, while confusing, provides the most definite answer. You may realize the answer only after everything has concluded, or perhaps you may never grasp its meaning at all. However, if interpreted correctly, it can be more effective than any other advice.”

Flick.

The image that entered Mandrick’s view was that of an elderly man meditating in a gray robe amidst darkness.

‘THE HERMIT’, the Hermit.

Now, the table held the cards of Strength, Wheel of Fortune, and the Hermit all in a row.

“What kind of advice would you like to hear?”

“Uh….”

“Worry carefully. You can only hear one out of the three pieces of advice, and if you wish to hear more, the cards will not respond again.”

So he could choose only one.

But wouldn’t anyone in his situation be pondering heavily?

‘First of all, the red card is out. It’s straightforward advice; I expect something like “you should try harder,” but what I urgently need is advice that’s helpful right now.’

The first evaluation for the <Fighter> class was just two days away.

He wanted to achieve some level of progress by that time.

‘Then green? Honestly, that’s what I’m most drawn to… It’s said to be difficult to interpret, but that means there’s good advice in it, right? But…’

Why was he suddenly fixated on the black card?

‘No! I just heard, it’s going to be really hard to understand. What if I choose it and end up knowing nothing?’

As he tried to think more realistically, he still felt drawn back to the black card.

‘But… you won’t know until you try. It’s the best advice, so it should be effective, and surprisingly enough, it could turn out to be easy to decipher.’

Suddenly, the thought that perhaps it held something unknown snagged him.

What kind of advice should he choose?

After some time in a flurry of consideration, Mandrick finally extended his hand.

“I’ll go with this piece of advice…”

“Understood.”

As he chose the black card, ‘the Hermit’, a nagging thought crossed his mind, doubting if this was really the right choice.

‘But this should be it!’

Mandrick selected the option that could possibly provide him the best advice.

Since he had come all the way to consult the fortuneteller, this was the final stop. If he could hear something, it should surely be the best advice…!

“Please wait a moment.”

“Ah, yes.”

The fortuneteller who took the Hermit card pivoted it, then drew other cards.

He inserted the turned Hermit card back into the deck and began shuffling it—all the while splitting it, arching it, and rolling it within his hands.

When the dazzling card show concluded, the cards were presented face up on the table.

“Uh…?”

However, all the cards laid out were just the Hermit card.

There appeared to be well over a hundred cards, nearly filling the table, and all depicted the image of the old man meditating in darkness.

Whether he looked here or there.

Only Mandrick’s eyes widened at the bizarre spectacle, at which point the fortuneteller finally found another card among the multitude of Hermit cards.

There it was──

‘… What is that?’

THE……TOWER?

‘A tower?’

He had no knowledge of tarot, and even glancing at the picture, he couldn’t comprehend what it was.

Gulp.

Feeling tense, he could only watch as the fortuneteller gazed at the ‘Tower’ card.

It didn’t take long for the fortuneteller’s mouth to open.

“… Um, I understand.”

“Did it finally show up?”

“I’ll now tell you the advice from the black card.”

Finally.

Mandrick readied himself to memorize the advice, heart racing as he stared at the still smiling fortuneteller.

“[From the highest tower to the lowest and most wretched place. Yet it is essential and harbors warmth. There, a child is shedding hot tears.]”

“… Huh?”

“Would you like me to repeat it?”

“Oh, no. I firmly remembered it.”

“Yes, well then, that concludes it.”

“Is it… over?”

“Yes.”

He recalled it. It wasn’t an exceptionally lengthy sentence, so he could definitely remember it.

But the advice from the black card had surpassed Mandrick’s imagination.

‘Well, I was prepared for anything, but…?’

To think such an impossibly vague sentence would come out.

Mandrick broke out in a cold sweat, pondering how after going to a fortuneteller, he stuck with these clouded ideas.

He intended to squeeze more information from the fortuneteller but──

“Well then, goodbye.”

“──Ah.”

The fortuneteller waved his hand.

As if to indicate there was nothing more to be said, as if replying to any inquiry would be futile.

Now, everything hinged on Mandrick.

He was still smiling.

*

“Quite peculiar… isn’t it?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Both the fortune telling of [Three Pieces of Advice] and the advice itself.”

After Mandrick left with a gloom, in the dimly lit fortune teller’s shop, Eileen spoke to Namgoong Min, who was organizing the cards on the table.

She had returned from the upper floors, having posted a sign reading by the building of the fortune teller’s shop.

“The divination changes every time. Different questions and clients call for different forms of divination.”

“Weren’t all five visitors today treated to the same [Three Pieces of Advice]?”

“Correct. For a while, that will be the case.”

“I see.”

Namgoong Min’s words contradicted what she had just said.

Yet Eileen nodded along without asking any questions.

It was a faith beyond simple trust.

“You really are amazing.”

“Excuse me?”

“Ah, Namgoong Min is already great and impressive, but… Today you were particularly outstanding.”

“That’s flattery.”

“No, not at all. To think you could determine what someone’s worry was, what happened recently, just from a casual chat…!”

Could it be?

‘Of course, I have no clue why they came.’

The five visitors who came today── all students from the <Fighter> class and acquaintances of Eileen, were just strangers to him—no different from anyone he had encountered for the first time.

Characters that hadn’t appeared in the game, after all.

But gathering information from them wasn’t too difficult.

‘Thanks to Eileen’s discussions.’

When she introduced her friends, Eileen talked about their friends. She was likely delighted to have made friends even while calling herself a skeptic.

There, he gleaned a bit of their names and information.

‘I also asked Charles Teddy Bear.’

Charles Teddy Bear was a <Fighter> and also the instructor for the <Fighter> class.

While there were multiple <Fighter> classes at the Academy, Eileen wasn’t in his class, but as a senior instructor, he had information about the students.

Thanks to their personal rapport, he managed to learn more about these friends’ information under the condition that he would not misuse it.

Though in the end, it was only basic information since they had been at the Academy and regarding evaluations during class or the outcomes of sparring matches.

But enough.

‘And with Observation too.’

Having used it many times recently, it couldn’t last very long. Yet when visitors like Mandrick bowed their heads or distractedly stared at the cards, he gathered more information through Observation.

‘I borrowed money from Liu.’

He had borrowed quite a bit of money from Liu to run the fortune teller’s shop. After all, this shop didn’t spring from the ground.

The <My Personal Fortune Teller's Shop> skill had a three-hour cooldown once he used it, so he couldn’t use it as an ongoing operation. Starting fresh was the way to go.

That being said, they drew up a loan agreement, but he wasn’t too worried as he would be able to repay it soon. Curiously, after borrowing the money, Liu seemed in high spirits.

With information and money, anyone could engage in charlatan fortune telling.

“Anyway, thanks to Eileen, I got a full quota of five clients. Thank you.”

“If I could assist Namgoong Min, it would be my utmost honor…!”

“Ha ha, yes.”

The vice principal had two conditions.

One was to see at least five clients each day.

Naturally, the condition to grant his fortune-telling permission was to ensure he kept receiving divinations consistently to not raise his prediction rate too high.

The second was to see over fifty clients within this week.

‘Even considering word of mouth, the number I could reach with my acquaintances would still be way too low.’

Thankfully, with Eileen’s sociable nature, it became significantly more manageable.

After all the cards had been organized, and as he stood up from his seat, Eileen, who had been waiting silently, seemed to suddenly remember something.

“By the way, why just five clients? Surely there will be skeptics coming back for more.”

“I don’t need any more. Five is enough.”

“Excuse me?”

Five. It was the minimum required by the vice principal and certainly not a number one could consider abundant.

But Namgoong Min was confident.

‘If just one of the five hits, that will suffice.’

Among the five visitors, three had chosen the black card, which he was aiming for.

Just one out of those three understanding the interpretation──

──Could lead to a surge of fifty clients, or even over a hundred.

Even though it wasn’t his intention, recalling that trend he inadvertently created.

“You just have to wait now.”

“……Yes, Namgoong Min.”

“……….”

Namgoong Min looked at Eileen.

There was some doubtful glimmer in her gaze.

“If you keep staring at my chest like that….”

“I’m not!”

“If Namgoong Min wishes, I could offer you even more than just looking…!”

“Absolutely not, so don’t worry.”