Chapter 55
Kyle’s gaze was caught by the magical devices filling the interior of the tarot shop.
Everett, watching him, felt her mind grow complicated.
Though half of her face was hidden by a mask and he would find it hard to recognize her, the unease would not leave her.
‘What do I do… Should I just say I can’t give him a reading and ask him to leave? But it feels too late for that.’
If he had still believed, as before, that she couldn’t speak, she wouldn’t have worried so much.
She had already spoken quite a lot with Kyle, and he was quick to catch on to things.
‘If I do a tarot reading, he might figure out it’s me…’
No matter how much she thought about it, no good solution came to mind.
‘There’s no helping it. All I can do is lower my voice and change my manner of speaking as much as possible.’
Just then, Madam Charlotte, who had followed them in, called Kyle’s name in an amused tone.
“Sir Kyle, is it that fascinating? Didn’t I tell you? This is a special place.”
“I see. To create such a space with magic… Anyone who saw this would be quite excited.”
Kyle gave a small chuckle as he thought of Yankeller.
“Please, have a seat, Sir Kyle. Lady Naz is waiting for you. Will you just keep looking around like that?”
“Ah…”
Only then did Kyle notice Everett seated across the table. He quickly bowed his head.
“My apologies. I’ve been rude.”
Everett spoke with deliberate firmness in her voice.
“It’s fine. Please, sit. Madam Charlotte told me she was bringing a distinguished guest, but I never imagined it would be Your Excellency, Sir Kyle.”
Kyle, wearing his uniform, had his hair neatly brushed back for once.
‘Dressed like that, he really does look like a prince.’
Her fingertips itched again at the sight. She prayed desperately that he wouldn’t realize it was her.
‘If I get through this, I’ll have to ask President Pan to find me a magical tool that can change my voice.’
But as Everett spoke, Kyle suddenly stopped lifting his head, staring straight at her.
‘No way… Has he already realized?’
Behind the mask, Everett’s eyes trembled ever so slightly.
“You seem younger than I imagined.”
At that, Everett let out a small, inaudible sigh.
“Did you think I would be older?”
She tried her best to sound calm, flat, and stiff.
“As the foremost diviner of the capital and one who possesses so much information… I assumed you would at least be middle-aged.”
Kyle replied as he sat across from her. Madam Charlotte also sat down, laughing lightly.
“Lady Naz hears that often. She sounds young when you only hear her voice, but once you speak with her, you’ll see you were mistaken.”
Even Madam Charlotte said she had never seen Naz’s face.
Under the dim light, Kyle’s green eyes glimmered as they fixed on Everett’s mask.
“Thank you for thinking me young. Now then, shall we hear the reason you came to see me?”
There was nothing for it but to conduct the reading quickly and send him away.
Everett was too flustered to even think of offering the tea she had prepared.
Her hand trembled slightly as she drew the tarot cards from their box.
“Huu…”
She let out a barely audible breath, then began shuffling the deck to calm herself. Kyle watched her nimble movements with interest.
Madam Charlotte tilted her head and whispered softly:
“Sir Kyle, have you met the Saintess before?”
“Yes, briefly.”
“I don’t know if you saw her use the Arcana, but compared to our Lady Naz, she’s utterly hopeless.”
Kyle gave a single nod.
“Even just watching her shuffle the cards is impressive, isn’t it? You’ll be shocked when you hear her interpretations.”
While the two whispered, Everett spread the cards in a semicircle.
Kyle’s eyes widened briefly at the beautiful display.
Without asking a question, Everett drew one card, glanced at it, then reshuffled the deck.
The card she had drawn was about Kyle’s disposition.
“The Chariot.”
It was the same card she had drawn the very first day she made a tarot deck, when Kyle had come to her mind.
A capable man, full of drive and initiative. One who must master conflicting forces to move forward. Without the power to control them, he would be trapped, unable to move at all.
Clutching the cards in one hand, Everett asked Kyle:
“Your Excellency, what is it you wish to know?”
“Hm…”
Kyle tapped his fingers on the table.
‘Should I speak around it? Or should I just ask directly from the start?’
It wasn’t foresight he was after.
He wanted to gauge Naz’s ability to analyze and interpret information.
‘Anyone can gather some information if they try. The real question is how you assemble all the pieces and draw the right conclusion.’
Kyle stopped tapping and lifted his gaze, staring into Everett’s shadowed eyes. His gaze was so sharp that Everett felt as if her mask had been ripped away, her face exposed.
‘What on earth is he about to ask that he’s taking this long?’
The eyes of a lion watching its prey.
The suffocating atmosphere pressed against her chest.
An ordinary young lady would have trembled like a rabbit before a lion.
But Everett was not like other young ladies.
Shrrk—
She spread the tarot cards again, deliberately louder this time.
The sudden sound made Kyle’s brow twitch.
‘Kyle von Bartman. What situation are you in right now?’
She asked inwardly as she drew three cards.
A knight charging recklessly.
An emperor watching him from the corner of his eye.
And the Four of Cups, a man lost in indecision.
Everett laid the three cards before him.
“A fledgling knight, eager to rush toward the emperor, though his heart races ahead of his steps.”
“…What did you just say?”
Even Madam Charlotte was startled by Everett’s blunt words. She swallowed hard behind her handkerchief.
“The winds are still strong. You wish to break through them, but you cannot run as fast as you want. And…”
Everett paused to sip her tea at last.
From Kyle’s surprised expression, she knew she had tamed the lion.
“…your direction is wrong. If you keep charging blindly like this, Your Excellency will only exhaust yourself.”
Such a direct reading suited a man like Kyle.
‘He must be here to test me. If he came with Madam Charlotte, he must already know what kind of work I do.’
Everett stole a glance at Charlotte, who still looked shocked.
‘Still… unexpected. I didn’t know she was close to Kyle.’
At last, Kyle asked:
“Then are you saying the emperor watches me from behind?”
“Yes. But the emperor does not move. He must guard his throne. All he does is dart his eyes about.”
Kyle nearly laughed aloud.
‘Does she know what I’ve been doing, what I plan to do, to say this?’
Her words were vague, but he understood well enough.
His hasty return from the north had twisted parts of his plan. Fixing it would be troublesome, and the emperor’s suspicion of him had grown more relentless than before.
The ice quarry project he had planned with Lord Olbreno had been for the northern people, but also to divert the emperor’s gaze—he had to keep proving his lack of interest in the throne.
‘So is she saying my method is wrong?’
And now the sudden obstacle of marriage had arisen.
Even if he refused, circumstances might eventually force him to wed someone.
“Right now, Your Excellency is a knight standing in a whirlwind.”
Her words struck true.
Kyle pointed at the last card. His expression and voice had softened from before.
“What does this card mean?”
Everett indicated the man sitting with arms crossed.
“This man has many choices before him, but he doesn’t know which to take. He’s lost in his own worries and fails to see another solution.”
“Another solution?”
“Yes. A cup offered from the heavens. That is the answer, but this man is so caught up in his own thoughts that he cannot see it.”
“Caught up in his own thoughts…”
Kyle muttered, then suddenly burst into loud laughter.
Both Madam Charlotte and Everett were startled.
“Oh my, Sir Kyle—what makes you laugh so suddenly?”
But Kyle only kept laughing.
Everett silently gathered the cards back into a neat stack.
At last his laughter subsided, and he fixed his gaze intently on her movements.
“A bold one, aren’t you.”
At his words, Everett looked up. A bright smile was on his lips.
“You’ve got guts. To speak of the emperor and his knight right before me.”
Everett gave him a gentle smile.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Her reply drew a short exclamation from him.
“Are you saying that if I change course and heed another’s advice, my sword will strike the emperor true?”
To an outsider, it might have sounded like treason.
A raw, unfiltered question.
Everett pressed her lips shut for a moment.
Answer me.
Kyle’s eyes gleamed in the shadows, commanding her to respond.
Slowly, she opened her mouth.
