CHAPTER 45……….
The highlight of tarot reading was the semicircular spread of cards laid out at even intervals over a velvet cloth.
How should I spread them?
Everett’s anticipation crumbled in an instant.
Forget a neat semicircle — she simply shoved the cards clumsily into a straight line with her hand.
Everett was so dumbfounded she couldn’t even sigh.
Surely this isn’t how they use the Arcana in this world…?
Angelus neither hesitated nor showed embarrassment.
Her confident demeanor only left Everett more unsettled.
From Angelus’s hand, laying out the Arcana, Everett noticed something familiar — a peculiar scar beneath the right thumb.
It’s the same mark I saw on the masked young lady’s hand at Madame Charlotte’s gathering.
It was hard to see clearly from her kneeling position.
I need to get a closer look.
When Angelus reached forward, Everett suddenly grabbed her right hand.
“Lady Gronji, what are you doing?”
Angelus’s sharp voice rang out, startled by Everett’s sudden action.
“Please, Your Holiness… I absolutely must meet a wonderful young gentleman. And today is my birthday. Please, make a prophecy that I will marry a handsome nobleman.”
Everett rose to her feet and kissed Angelus’s right hand.
Angelus scoffed.
“Lady Gronji, it is Lord Anishu who will speak such words. Now, let go of my hand. Otherwise, how am I to deliver your prophecy?”
Still, Everett kept kissing the back of her hand, studying the scar closely.
Yes. That’s definitely the same scar.
Back then, she had thought the shape was quite unusual. She had only seen it once, but remembered it vividly.
I thought at the time her eyes were scanning every detail… so she really did come to learn how to use tarot cards.
That day, the masked lady hadn’t taken her eyes off Everett for even a moment, as if trying to memorize her every movement.
Even without seeing her eyes through the mask, Everett had felt goosebumps all throughout the gathering.
Good thing I trusted my intuition and didn’t show my real tarot technique. If I’d done it as usual, she would have copied it exactly.
Finally losing patience, Angelus slapped Everett’s hand away.
“My lady! Draw your cards.”
Her voice was edged with irritation.
Everett drew four cards, then knelt once again.
A waiting priest approached and flipped the drawn cards over, arranging them in order.
Meanwhile, Angelus propped her chin on her long fingers and blinked her platinum eyelashes.
The showy gesture almost made Everett snort aloud.
Your Holiness, please hurry with your prophecy. I want to know if the criticism I read in that book was true.
Everett’s gaze sparkled more calmly than ever.
The entire room fell silent, waiting for the saint’s words.
Meeting their expectant eyes, Angelus first let out a long sigh.
“Lady Gronji.”
Angelus deliberately used a low, solemn voice.
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
“You are fated to live alone for the rest of your life.”
Everett wanted to burst out laughing. Instead, she widened her eyes in apparent shock.
“M–Me? Why?”
“Lord Anishu has so foretold. You will not only fail to marry, you won’t even have the fortune to meet a nobleman. You will live gloomily at home until you die of old age.”
“That can’t be. How could such a prophecy come out?”
Everett sprang up and quickly scanned the overturned Arcana.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Unlike the crude cards Angelus had drawn earlier, these were precise and beautifully illustrated.
That’s the Two of Cups. Even a novice would think of marriage or vows from this card.
A man and woman stood facing each other, holding cups.
“Your Holiness, this looks like it symbolizes marriage. Anyone would say it represents love.”
At Everett’s remark, Angelus swiftly flipped the card back over.
“Lady Gronji, are you calling Lord Anishu’s prophecy a lie? That borders on blasphemy.”
“I just… can’t believe it. Why must I live alone forever?”
Tarot reading styles varied from person to person.
Everett preferred to soften bad news.
If Angelus were simply an intuitive reader, Everett could accept that.
But the cards she had drawn all carried positive meanings — twisting them into bad omens was almost impossible.
If she’s insisting on such a negative interpretation, it’s either deliberate… or she doesn’t understand the Arcana at all.
The feelings Everett had while reading that book came flooding back.
She had only planned to test the saint’s skill, but now she wanted to hear exactly why she was interpreting it that way.
“Your Holiness, the card beside it looks like it’s showing great riches descending from the heavens. Doesn’t that mean good fortune?”
Everett’s voice rang through the temple, stirring murmurs from the waiting crowd.
With an irritated expression, Angelus gathered all the cards.
Turning to the priests, she said:
“I cannot give any more sacred prophecies to such a rude lady. Remove her immediately.”
When the priests approached, Everett raised her right hand to halt them.
“Reverend priests, you know how much I’ve donated to this temple, don’t you?”
Everett’s donation had been the largest in the temple’s history.
“Even if you combined the contributions of all the nobles here, it wouldn’t come close to mine. And after all that, you tell me I can’t get married? How exactly am I supposed to take that?”
None of the priests could answer.
Angelus repeated her command, but they only exchanged uneasy glances.
One priest quietly slipped away.
Everett and Angelus stared each other down in tense silence.
Clicking her tongue, Angelus finally held up the last card Everett had drawn.
“Lady Gronji, you wanted to know why such a prophecy came out? Look. This is Lord Anishu’s sign that you will die an old maid.”
It was the Nine of Pentacles.
A wealthy woman stood against a backdrop of abundance. The mere fact that she engaged in falconry — a pastime for the elite — made her prosperity clear.
She read it as ‘growing old alone’ just because the woman is by herself?
Though the card could signify solitude, it was far from the same as loneliness.
Everett’s lip curled slightly.
In a calm, even voice, she asked:
“Your Holiness, to my eyes she looks like a woman enjoying life with great wealth.”
“How absurd, Lady Gronji. What part of this card makes you think that?”
Everett slowly shook her head.
“Shouldn’t you be the one explaining that to me? Why did that card lead to such a prophecy?”
Angelus’s jaw jutted as if she were grinding her teeth.
“You may find me rude, but with the amount I’ve donated, I think I have the right to hear such an explanation.”
Angelus’s face grew redder as she neared her breaking point.
She raised her fist as though to slam it onto the table.
At that moment, a deep male voice came from among the onlookers.
“I’d like to hear it too. Why exactly did that prophecy say she can’t marry?”
All heads turned toward the source of the voice.
“We greet Your Grace.”
Everyone bowed as Kyle appeared, dressed in a deep navy knight’s uniform.
He rose from a chair tucked away in the corner, where he had been sitting with legs crossed.
Gone was the shabby hood from the previous day — now his dark blue attire, unmistakably noble, matched his neatly swept-back red hair.
Why is Kyle here…? Ah, he must be here to see Yan.
Everett’s heart gave a heavy thud.
She had been trying to avoid any meeting between the saint and Kyle, yet here he was.
Kyle caught her eye, and his lips quickly curved.
You find it funny that I supposedly can’t get married? Why are you smiling like that?
As Kyle moved forward, people instinctively stepped back.
Angelus, too, was startled by his appearance.
He didn’t come when I was waiting — so why show up now, of all times?!
It was clear she had been about to get into a full-blown fight with Everett.
How long has he been sitting there? What if I don’t seem like a beautiful, graceful saint to him…?
Angelus quickly composed a demure smile.
Although she had been waiting to meet Kyle, this was actually her first time seeing him in person.
Wow… he’s handsome.
Her lips, previously pressed together, parted slightly without her realizing.
Truly, the only man worthy of me is the Grand Duke Kyle Sow Bart.
His manly, noble air captured her heart instantly.
The reason she had been grudgingly playing the saint and meeting nobles in the temple every day — it was all to fall in love with Kyle.
And now, the man she had waited for was approaching her.
Angelus already felt as if she were in love.
There’s no way Kyle won’t fall for me.
She clasped her hands gently and gave him a bewitching smile.
You’re mine.
Gliding forward, she moved to greet him as he came up the steps.
“We greet Your Grace.”
Her long platinum hair slipped gracefully off her shoulder.
What kind of expression is he giving me?
With high expectations, Angelus lifted her head — but Kyle wasn’t standing in front of her.
