CHAPTER 24
A laugh almost slipped through Everett’s tightly closed lips.
She quickly opened the box containing her tarot cards.
Inside the dimly lit tarot shop, the only white card shone as if it emitted light, instantly drawing everyone’s eyes.
Yankeller, like the others, couldn’t take his eyes off the tarot cards.
The only difference was that, unlike the others who were filled with curiosity, his eyes trembled with confusion.
‘W-Why does a fortune-teller have that…?’
But to Everett, Yankeller didn’t look much different from the other customers.
She simply assumed he found the unfamiliar divination tools fascinating.
‘Yann, pay close attention. Soon, a woman named Angelus will show up at the temple with something similar to this. Just think of this as a preview.’
Conscious of Yankeller’s gaze, Everett shuffled the tarot cards more swiftly and elegantly than usual.
‘They’re just paper cards… What does she plan to do with them?’
Everett, noticing his captivated stare, glanced sideways at him and asked a question.
“What kind of person is Yankeller Penayo?”
After posing the question, she gently spread the tarot cards into a crescent shape.
“Ah… This is my first time in a place like this, so I’m not sure what to do,” Yankeller said, scratching the side of his head.
Everett let out a short laugh and drew one card from the spread.
‘Is she showing me what to do?’
Thinking she was demonstrating, Yankeller also selected a card.
“Ah…”
Then, startled by Everett’s brief gasp, he quickly looked up.
“Oh? Did I do it wrong? I’m sorry. I thought I was supposed to follow along.”
“No, it’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Everett’s voice was lower than that of most girls her age. Combined with her slow way of speaking, some found her voice soothing, almost like a gentle melody.
‘Her voice… it puts people at ease.’
Yankeller felt the same.
Everett flipped over the card she had drawn.
‘As expected.’
The Number 1 card: The Magician.
Yankeller, who never gave up on his dream of becoming a magician despite his father’s opposition—this card represented him perfectly.
Next, she checked the card Yankeller had unintentionally picked.
The Number 12 card: The Hanged Man.
‘Hmm, this reflects not just his personality but also his current situation.’
The Hanged Man is someone who endures pain with patience and self-sacrifice. One leg is bound, and his hands appear tied, though it could also mean he is only pretending to be restrained.
He is someone who has already attained mental freedom and enlightenment.
The serene expression on the tarot card’s figure resembled Yankeller’s own as he quietly endured everything to become a magician.
“Is… is something wrong?”
The card Everett was staring at was filled with crude drawings, as if a child had drawn them.
Seeing her smile at the sight made Yankeller uneasy.
“You… have quite a talent,” Everett said as she raised her head and met his eyes.
“Almost like a magician.”
Startled by her words, Yankeller involuntarily jerked backward.
‘A magician? Did Pan tell her about me? No, that can’t be… Could she really tell just by looking at the card?’
The word “magician” was the most secretive word in Yankeller’s world.
It was like a chaos switch had been flipped—his mind spun in a storm.
“The owner of Pan’s Magical Supplies came to see me.”
Still confused, Yankeller merely nodded in response.
“Pan was very insistent. He said I absolutely had to meet you. I asked him who you were, but he wouldn’t say.”
‘Ah, so it wasn’t Pan who told her.’
A sense of relief washed over him, but he still couldn’t understand how she had brought up the word “magician” so easily.
‘I can’t just sit here shocked. I need to ask something, anything, so I can relay it back to Kyle. But what should I ask?’
But the moment she said “magician,” his mind had gone blank.
Yankeller furrowed his brow, struggling to come up with a question.
Everett offered him a teacup from a nearby side table—a calming floral tea for nervous guests like him.
“It’s warm flower tea. It smells wonderful, and of course, it tastes great too. Please try some.”
“Th-Thank you.”
The warmth from the teacup spread gently through his hands.
Everett watched his expression as she slowly began shuffling the tarot cards again.
“There’s no need to be nervous. Just draw them comfortably. Now then, shall we take a look at your daily life?”
Her voice, like a spell, eased his tension.
“Please draw three tarot cards.”
Yankeller set down the teacup and carefully examined the cards before pushing three of them toward Everett, one at a time.
‘Yann really is such a considerate person.’
Most customers would pull the cards toward themselves or pick them up with their fingers.
Some couldn’t resist flipping them over immediately out of curiosity.
Just as personalities differ, the way people draw tarot cards varies in countless ways.
‘Of course he’s the one meant to bring Kyle and Angelus together. With a heart that kind, it makes perfect sense.’
Everett gathered the remaining cards, leaving only the three Yankeller had chosen.
His eyes remained glued to the tarot cards.
‘Why is he staring so intently? Is he really that fascinated?’
Everett turned over each of the cards he had selected.
‘These are powerful cards… Must be because he’s a main character. Their energy is on another level.’
Tarot cards are divided into the Major and Minor Arcana, with Major cards generally carrying stronger energy.
Yankeller’s cards were: Number 10, the Wheel of Fortune; Number 1, the Magician; and Number 6, the Lovers.
The last card, the Lovers, puzzled Everett the most.
Being a priest didn’t necessarily mean one couldn’t marry.
Yankeller, as the son of the High Priest, was expected to marry a noblewoman with a strong background to inherit the temple.
He once had a crush on the female protagonist of Saintess of Arcana, but Angelus wasn’t due to appear in the story yet.
So Everett interpreted the Lovers card not as a future event but as a reflection of Yankeller’s current emotional state.
‘But why does that Lovers card keep bothering me? Am I missing something? It feels like I’m on the verge of remembering something important…’
She stared silently at the third card, eyes fixed.
‘Ah!’
Feeling Yankeller’s gaze, Everett looked up.
“The energy in your cards is so strong… I didn’t mean to stare so long. I’m sorry.”
“Energy? You mean you can feel something from the cards?”
He must have thought it sounded ridiculous.
Everett offered a faint smile and nodded slightly.
“Of course. Tarot cards reflect the energy of the person who draws them. As the master, my role is to sense that and interpret it.”
She picked up the first card—The Wheel of Fortune.
“This card represents a change in fate.”
“A change in… fate?”
“Yes. It means you’re entering a phase where your destiny is beginning to shift.”
Yankeller tilted his head, confused.
“I don’t really understand. Nothing has happened that would change my fate.”
Other than visiting the library to read magic texts or stopping by Pan’s shop, he rarely left the temple.
‘I spend all day in the temple, but my fate is changing?’
The corners of his mouth twitched upward, almost scoffing, but Everett continued without reacting.
“A change in fate doesn’t always mean something dramatic or obvious. It can be subtle, internal.”
She set down the card and met his gaze directly.
“Recently, something must have happened that brought you a very satisfying result. Something that made you think your life might change from this point forward.”
As she spoke, one word surfaced in Yankeller’s mind.
Teleportation orb.
‘Right… After I succeeded in teleportation magic, I thought: Now I’m truly a magician.’
The current situation amazed him—and baffled him.
‘Who is this fortune-teller? Is this what they call foresight? Or what?’
Everett felt satisfied seeing Yankeller’s dumbfounded expression.
‘His life revolves around the temple and magic. That doesn’t change even after Angelus appears.’
She interpreted the Wheel of Fortune card together with the second—the Magician.
He had always been someone who pursued higher mastery in magic.
‘The Wheel of Fortune indicates he achieved a result he long desired through magic.’
Pan had said something when asking Masha for help.
That Yankeller was unsure whether to continue pursuing what he loved against his family’s wishes.
If it weren’t Yankeller, Everett would have believed that story.
‘But there’s no way Yann would hesitate like that. He probably said it just to persuade Pan to help.’
More than anything else—even Angelus—Yankeller loved magic.
Maybe the reason he could give up on Angelus so easily was because he had magic in his life.
‘Yann has no reason to come see me for a fortune… So why did he go so far as to ask Pan to bring him here?’
Everett found herself just as confused as Yankeller.
“This is just the beginning of the change. From now on, your life will begin to shift.”
“You mean… my life is going to change?”
