"Free, huh? No hidden fees?"
"Of course not, sir! I'm not that shameless!" The woman with the pointed hat responded, raising her hand up defensively
Good…because I won't be purchasing any additional services, whatever they are. Subaru mumbled to himself
With that in mind, he followed the woman who quickly made her way inside the tent. He noted that Heinkel was quite tall, as he had to bend his back quite a bit to enter.
And about this tarot divination? Subaru didn't count on the result at all.
After meeting that fortune teller before his transmigration, Subaru no longer discredited the effect of divination. However, he believed that this one was simply a fluke. That old woman he met before had a creepy and enigmatic way of speaking and this one is just…too cheerful. No insult to her style, of course, but it didn't exactly inspire confidence.
Accurate, huh? Try divining that I transmigrated here, then! He sneered inside his mind
The tent's interior was dark, only illuminated by a single candle and several beams of light that came from the tattered holes in the tent. The woman with pointed hat was sitting behind a table covered with paper cards, which he could assume were tarot cards, and waved him over.
"How did you go over there so quickly?"
"I jumped." The woman responded flatly, before gathering all the cards on the table methodically "Take a seat, good sir."
Subaru shrugged before settling down. The woman shoved the freshly stacked tarot cards onto him.
"Huh?"
"Don't 'huh' me! Shuffle it, then cut the deck." Seeing his questioning gaze, she sighed "Everyone's destiny can only be unraveled by themselves. I only serve as a reader of it."
"Nice schtick, I suppose." He commented, to which she only rolled her eyes "No additional fees?"
"What a tight-fisted fellow…" She grumbled, before responding in a muted tone "And yes, no additional fees."
Subaru calmly reached out his hands to shuffle and cut the deck. After a moment, he gave it back to the woman.
"It's done-" He was interrupted as she snatched it out of his hand
"Ok, I got it…hm, what did you want to ask about again?"
"Past, present, and future." This was the type of tarot card interpretation Subaru was familiar with the most, so he gave the answer almost immediately.
"Really?" Her lips curled up a bit "Then I'm afraid you have to reshuffle the deck. You can only truly get the cards you want if you know what you would like to ask about."
"No, thanks. I already thought about it when I shuffled the card."
"Truly?"
Ah, so that's how she wanted to play it…
He didn't answer and just looked at her. The blond woman froze and averted her gaze, seemingly afraid. She had the look of a person about to be brutally beaten up. Subaru just kept boring his eyes into hers, and she finally relented.
"Okay, fine. I will put my trust in my customers. But don't blame me if the cards turn out to be inaccurate, since it was you not respecting the rules!" She grumbled, before picking a card from the top of the deck "This one symbolizes your past."
"This, your present."
"And finally…the future."
"Aight, which one would you like to see first?" She resumed her stances, smiling as she looked at him. Her golden eyes gazed deeply at Subaru, so much that he was almost taken aback.
Don't you think that pretending to be professional is a little late now?
"Let's see my 'present'." Subaru finally said after some thinking
"Okay!" The woman chirped as she flipped over the card in the middle.
A character dressed in colorful attire was depicted on the card, along with a ragged headgear, and a stick over his shoulder. A bindle was hanging from the stick, and there was a grayish-white puppy following behind him. It was the number '0'.
"The Fool…interesting." The woman read the card and commented on it playfully "A new beginning, huh?"
The Fool card, the '0' card of tarot, promises a fresh beginning with all kinds of possibilities. Subaru managed to remember a morsel of information from before his transmigration.
Isn't this basically my situation right now? Subaru was taken aback
"You see, the Fool card symbolizes-"
"What are you doing here?!" A woman with white hair interrupted her verdict. She was standing at the tent entrance, hand crossed and her expression was twisted with anger "Are you impersonating me? Again?! I will let you know that this is a violation of my rights!"
Subaru looked at the white hair woman. She was a lot taller than the blond woman, and her features were similarly covered with paint. White must be her natural hair color, or she had dyed it, because of how young she looked.
"Yeah yeah, the 'violating my right' schtick again." The blond woman rolled her eyes in response
"Return to your post immediately, you infuriating bard!"
A bard, huh? So he had a musician foretold his fate? It was quite poetic, indeed.
"Teehee!" The blond woman responded, seeming to thrive off the other woman's fury.
"Alrighty then. Looks like my work was once again interrupted prematurely." She leaned close to him, voice faking a whisper "Just between you and me, I'm much better than her at divination. Alas, talents often beget jealousy."
"You-" Subaru swore he could see the white-haired woman's face turning red, despite the coat of paint "Come here, you little-"
"It's fine, really. I just entertained this woman a bit, no harm done."
"Perhaps you think so, but this-" She grabbed the blond woman's ear "This cheeky bard is provoking me on purpose! What she said is absolutely not true! Unlike her, I'm a professional! She was tarnishing my reputation!"
"Hey! I will let you know that my music makes so much more than you!"
"You'd been a recruit for a few days, and you dare talk about revenue?!"
"Uh…can I leave now? Because I had something going on, and…"
"Fine! I had no mood for any more divinations anyway." The white-haired woman said before stomping off
"Always such a dramatic…" The blond woman sighed
Subaru just shrugged and turned to leave. It was then that the blond woman decided to grab the hem of his shirt. It was quick, but the hat he wore was knocked askew, revealing his red hair.
"Such a distinctive color." She commented "And the attire checked, too. You must be Reinhard's father."
Subaru froze. His expression hardened as she acknowledged the woman. She knew Reinhard and was with unclear intentions. Subaru tightened his grasp on the dagger in his pocket.
"To be honest, you seemed…tamer than the rumor suggested." The woman commented off-handedly
"Get to the point." He answered warily
"I was just getting to that…" She sighed, twirling her hair like a habit "I can be considered a good friend of Reinhard, you know? I had known that boy for about two years, now. Before the…unfortunate accident in your family."
She glanced at him, seemingly gauging his reaction, while Subaru remained expressionless.
Perhaps if he was Heinkel, his emotions would be bubbling right now.
But he couldn't feel it. Memories and impressions were all he had.
"Huh…I thought that would get a reaction out of you." She seemed surprised, but regained her composure quickly "You must have heard about the recent rumor about you…and it didn't paint a pretty picture for you."
"What rumor?"
The woman froze at his word, then an ugly expression twisted her young face.
"How could you not know?!" The woman gritted her teeth "You are his father, aren't you? So tell me, what's the cause of the bruises in his body?!"
Subaru's breath hitched at the revelation. The uncertainty gripped his body like a vice, and perhaps some of it bled through his façade.
"…" A simple 'I don't know' was at the tip of his tongue, but somehow Subaru couldn't bring himself to say it.
Subaru expression turned grim at the implication.
I don't know. I don't have anything to do with it! That was what he wanted to say.
"Why are you acting as if you didn't know…?" The woman's words kept coming, and Subaru just wanted her to stop "What kind of father are you?"
What kind? What has Reinhard got to do with him? He was just the son of an already dead man, a man whose body he was currently in. It didn't make him his father. What did she expect him to do?
"If you have anything to do with this, I will find out, you hear?" She grabbed the collar of his shirt, and there was a fire in her golden eyes "As a bard, I had countless ways to make your life hell, okay? Forget about your job, you won't even have a morsel to eat when I'm done with you! And I don't care if you are a policeman or whatever, that boy is a kind soul…I won't just stand by when push comes to shove, you got it?!"
Subaru, for the life of him, couldn't understand why he was getting so irritated. Perhaps Heinkel's memory was truly affecting him, after all.
"You won't have to worry about it." Subaru intoned with more emotions than intended, and the blond woman was taken aback "He is my son, after all. I will take care of him."
A lie.
Why did he say it, when all he wanted was to come back to his family and leave this child behind?
Subaru didn't know. He just didn't want to be acknowledged as-
"Hmph…you are really shameless…" The woman sneered
Subaru took a deep breath, recalling the memories of Heinkel. To get out of this situation, he had to impose some weight.
"As you had good intentions, I will let the act of assaulting a police officer slide. But if you do it again." He pried off her hand on his collar, with more force than intended, then took a step toward her. He crouched down and looked straight at her in the eyes, and she gulped at his intense gaze "Got it?"
All her former bravado seemed to have disappeared, as she fell onto the ground with a thud.
Subaru just turned and walked away.
He didn't know it, but a nasty scowl was present on his face.
Subaru quickly ran home, being careful so the hat hid his red hair. He made his way upstairs and was relieved to find the door still locked.
"Good…I must do this before the kid returns."
Subaru decided to carry out the luck enhancement ritual anyway. He had brought the ingredients, after all. As much as the thought of leaving Reinhard behind pained him…
He had to see it through.
His parents…he just can't leave them like that.
Subaru started to translate the luck ritual incantation into ancient Hermes language. In this world, this language is regularly used for ritual, after all. Heinkel did quite well in studying this language, so he managed to translate it seamlessly, although he took a while to recall all of the words.
After getting everything ready, Subaru took out the cheap staple foods he bought, which were just some brown rice,e and placed it around his room.
With a deep breath, he came to the center of the room. Solemnly, he took a step forward and went in a counter-clockwise direction in the shape of a square.
When he took the first step, he chanted in a low whisper,
"Blessings Stem From the Ageless Sage of Heaven and Earth"
"Blessings Stem From the Ageless Sage of Heaven and Earth"
"Blessings Stem From the Towering Sage of Heaven and Earth"
"Blessings Stem From the Exalted Ruler of Heaven and Earth"
"Blessings Stem From the Favored Chosen of Heaven and Earth"
The anticipation grew with every step Subaru took. When he returned to his original spot, Subaru closed his eyes as he waited for a sign.
Would I manage to go home?
What if I couldn't?
What if this brings about some negative effect, and I die immediately?
Countless thoughts vied for their places inside Subaru's mind, and he was becoming uneasy by the moment.
It was then that he felt the air surrounding stopped and melted, the thick and honeyed feeling once again wrapped around his body.
Immediately after, a low whisper could be heard beside his ears. He couldn't figure out if it was real or imaginary. The voice seemed alluring, and emotional, yet at times crazed and irrational.
He couldn't make out what the murmuring was about at all. He strained his eyes, curious at the meaning it wanted to convey.
What responded was an immediate pain in his head. As if he was being hit in the head with a dull rock again and again. Soon, his head was as if split open, and the rock kept digging into the inner of his brain. Pain muddled his thoughts as he tried to gasp for breath.
No…something is wrong…
He tried to move, to do anything, but his body refused to respond. He felt as if he was embraced by countless hands, each trying to rip his body into smithereens.
Damn it...what's happening…
Everything hurts. His mind felt too sensitive to the undulated pain.
Will I die for real this time?
When his mind was about to fracture, the murmuring voice ceased and an eerie quiet took its place. The feeling of oppression seemed to disappear, and an erratic sensation filled his body.
Subaru hastily opened his eyes, this time his body listened, and he saw a black miasma covering his vision. It gave off a vague and endless feeling.
"Uh…what happened?" Subaru looked around him and then lowered his head. His body was floating at the edge of the miasma.
The miasma, although had an inky and murky feeling to it, he could see there were countless crimson stars below, of various sizes. There are some deep behind the miasma, but there were also rare ones floating over the surfaces.
Subaru reached out in his hand, confusion still marring his mind, and touched the crimson 'star' floating right near him.
When his hand touched the star, something behind him burst forward, and the star seemingly ignited, as if it was burning.
With curiosity, Subaru touched another crimson star and saw it burst into splendid light as well.
Then suddenly, an empty feeling filled his mind and his spirit dissipated.
In the Loen Kingdom's capital, Blacklund. A girl with green hair can be seen by the window of a luxurious-looking villa in the royal district.
Crusch Karsten was currently sitting in front of a dresser. There was a cracked bronze mirror lying on the dresser, reflecting her fair appearance.
"Mirror, mirror, awaken…"
"I implore you, to come to life in the name of the Karsten family!"
…
Crusch sighed as she had been trying for more than 10 minutes, switching between different sayings, yet the mirror remained unresponsive.
She grunted and clicked her tongue. "It seemed that I was too naïve to trust the word of Father."
That old fox…He always tells me that this mirror was the possession of a sage, and possessed latent power…
Her thought was cut off abruptly as the bronze mirror suddenly glowed with crimson light and enshrouded her entire being…
In the Sonia Sea, a merchant vessel of humble appearance was navigating through a storm.
Otto Suwen was trying to maintain balance before the storm. He gritted his teeth in frustration.
"What rotten luck…"
He wore a green tabard, with small chains adorning the simple pieces of clothing. He turned to look at the bottle in his hand, which was in an unusual shape. Countless weather phenomena appeared within the glass surface.
"That bastard…he'd better give me the rest of the ingredients…" Otto murmured spitefully.
At that moment, the glass bottle in his palm pulsed. Immediately, crimson burst out and enveloped his frame.
In the black miasma, Crusch Karsten regained her sight. To say she was startled was an understatement. Her hand moved to the hilt of her sword as she scanned her surroundings. There he saw the blurry image of a man opposite her doing the same.
Immediately after, the both of them discovered another mysterious person standing not far from them. But this person was different, as miasma was condensed as if liquid, dropping off his form. She couldn't make out his face, as if it melded with the darkness.
This 'mysterious person' was Natsuki Subaru, of course. Although similarly dumbfounded, he did his best to not let that show on his face.
Heinkel was really excellent at this skill.
But he didn't know that his effort was unneeded, as his face was completely hidden.
"Can you tell me what this place is…sir?" Despite being startled at first, Crusch decided to pose the question. "What are you planning on doing?"
Otto just stayed silent, although unease started to creep up on him.