Astrology (2)
A thief — that is, a rogue — needs good luck.
Anyone who's played an online game knows the drill: for the thief class, you raise LUK if you want your attack power to climb.
The world of Solitaire Chronicles was not so different.
"What matters most to a thief is fortune."
"…"
"And luck appears when preparation meets opportunity."
Fortune — haeng-un — meant a fortunate turn of events. It was a word that encompassed good luck and happy chance alike.
Astrology class was the hour set aside to drill that luck, that luck-force, into the thieves.
"I trust you've already learned the basics of handling qi in Professor Mopi's Qi Manipulation class."
Mibir explained that a thief could fuse the qi they wielded with luck itself.
"But luck is a difficult thing to handle, so for you freshmen we'll only cover the theory."
Luck was one of the energies that existed in this world. It came to everyone under the name of "opportunity" — and no matter how hard you tried to change it, it would not change. Raising your luck by force was nearly impossible.
"That is why the path of a sentient being to whom luck has been granted is called destiny."
Ethan nodded.
Yeah, that lines up with what we learned in Qi Manipulation.
Qi handling was the foundation. On top of that you layered the luck-force you were born with — and from the two of them you drew a power called ki-un.
Qi plus luck. Got it.
Carson elbowed Dormut in the ribs.
"Hey, orc. You following any of that?"
"I am Dormut."
"Right, Dormook."
The other cadets looked just as lost. Of everyone in the room, only Ethan was actually tracking the lecture.
There's a world of difference between feeling this stuff for real and just hearing about it.
Professor Mibir chuckled under her breath.
"It's still a difficult concept for freshmen. Unless you've actually had an audience with the Goddess herself, it's hard to feel this with your body."
"…"
"Given that thieves are a profession that has to sense and think through the body, theory always tends to feel a little detached."
She raised a single finger.
"So raising this luck — this luck-force — is extremely difficult. However."
She rested her hand on the crystal orb.
"Fortunately, there are several ways to improve your luck."
"…"
"You offer devotion to the Goddess Vespera."
Professor Mibir drew back her robe and extended her hand.
"Top cadet. Would you place your hand on the crystal orb for a moment?"
Ethan set his hand on it, and Mibir's soft palm settled over his.
"From here I'll channel qi to show you how luck-force can be raised. Of course the increase will be negligible, but… hmm?"
The crystal orb lit up.
"What? I haven't even poured any qi into it yet."
A galaxy spun inside the glass. Every star of every constellation studded through it blazed bright.
"Cadet…?!"
"…Is something wrong?"
Mibir lifted her head. She activated her spiritual sense.
Energy was gathering around Ethan — unmistakably the energy of luck. The fortune-energy that existed in nature itself.
Professor Mibir let out a quiet gasp of awe.
Ethan Cass…!
She had known he was no ordinary student. But to already be applying it like this—
"Even graduates struggle with the consumption of luck-force…!"
Under normal circumstances, the methods for handling luck-force were taught in the fourth year — third year at the earliest. It was thousands of times harder than handling qi, and the training was so exacting that almost no one could manage it.
"Good heavens…! Do you see that aura coming off him?"
"He keeps his presence erased at all times, and yet that much presence… contradictory, and beautiful."
"How does a single freshman cadet have that much luck-force?"
The assistant priests behind the professor kept murmuring among themselves.
"What are they seeing? I can't see anything."
Of course the other cadets couldn't see the aura. Luck-force of this kind — a branch of divine power — was visible only to the eyes of priests. Even a high-level thief could at best sense the faintest trace of it.
A cadet born with a destiny this tremendous…
She had lived as a priestess for more than a decade, and aside from the Crown Prince of the Imperial Palace, she had never seen a man carrying a fate like this.
I wonder where this cadet's destiny ends.
Not a scrap of qi could be felt from him — which was strange enough — and yet his luck-force was manifesting with a strength that made the skin crawl.
Having come this far, Mibir found herself curious just how deep Ethan's latent luck-force ran. She kept her hand over his on the crystal orb and began pouring her own qi into it.
"I still don't get why we have to receive the Goddess's favor or whatever."
Meanwhile, Ethan was making small talk beside a grumbling Carson.
"Isn't a top-tier beautiful goddess better than some sweaty, musclebound male god?"
"I'll give you that one."
Whether the irreverent remark grated on her or not, Professor Mibir's brow furrowed as she held the crystal.
"Cadet Ethan…!"
"Ah — Professor, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that—"
Mibir dropped the crystal orb.
Clang!
Glass shattered and sprayed in every direction.
"H-how… how is this possible…!"
The priestess trembled, bowing her head low.
"Outer God… O Outer God…!"
She could see it. Luck-force swirling around Ethan like a supercluster of galaxies. The hollow weight of something that pressed down on the world itself. And a power of destiny so vast it could, perhaps, drive the entire continent to ruin.
It overwhelmed her — a high-ranking priestess from the Holy Kingdom.
The assistants behind her, lower in rank, caught only a fragment of that power. Even so, it was more than enough to throw them into panic.
"U-uaaah!"
"W-wait! That… that cadet…!"
"Good heavens, what am I looking at right now?"
Mibir pressed her forehead to the floor.
"We greet the Outer God!!!"
The young priests behind the professor all flung themselves down and pressed their heads to the ground as well.
"We greet the Outer God!"
"We greet the Outer God!"
"We greet the Outer God!"
Ethan's classmates wore expressions of pure bewilderment.
"W-what are they talking about? Ethan is an Outer God?"
"Why are these people on their knees?"
"Okay, this situation just got interesting!"
"What even is Ethan…?"
Their faces all said the same thing: The Ethan I know can't possibly be some Outer God.
The other cadets had huddled into a corner, shaking.
"E-Ethan is an Outer God…?!"
"I-I'm scared! Ethan, I'm sorry I took two extra scoops of the spicy vegetable stew last time!"
"S-Sapphire Dorm will c-cooperate with Ethan! Please, have mercy…"
Something had gone spectacularly wrong.
"Was this webtoon's genre Cthulhu the whole time?"
As if. Cthulhu never showed up in the world of Solitaire Chronicles.
Ethan, for his part, was simply regretting that he had ever come to Astrology class.
Shit. I should've skipped.
Every cadet outside their group had fled. Ethan was left sweating through the work of calming a professor whose face was a mess of tears and snot.
"O Supreme Being…! I serve as Vespera's proxy — please take pity on the lives of my people, take only this insignificant life of mine, and spare the cadets of this school! Aaaaaaah!"
"Professor. Breathe. Just breathe."
In the end the assistants dragged a still-wailing Professor Mibir out of the tent.
I'd heard the professors at Thief School each had a screw loose somewhere, but I didn't think it was this bad.
The tent flap opened again, and a young man with neatly combed red hair and glasses stepped inside.
"Ah… I'm Teaching Assistant Castar. Professor Mibir isn't well, so I'll be wrapping up the class."
Astrology felt like a half-and-half blend of theology and destiny studies. In other words — a world where sorcery existed alongside holy knights who wielded divine power?
"In the East, even when luck was carefully framed, it was often dismissed as coincidence or superstition."
"In the Empire, luck has been regarded since ancient times as one of the virtues necessary for success."
"And a very serious virtue at that."
It was the most boring lecture Ethan had sat through yet. Apparently not being a thief didn't automatically make you a good teacher.
When are they going to teach tracking?
He was on the verge of yawning through the endless theory when a word snapped his eyes open.
"Furthermore, in Astrology, one can also weave in the tracking techniques taught in Land Navigation class."
Finally. Land Navigation applications!
"I'll demonstrate. If you gather luck-force into the crystal orb with a heart of gratitude toward the Goddess Vespera, like so…"
The crystal glowed, and glittering lights like stars bloomed into being. Point by point they climbed the assistant's arm and were absorbed near his shoulder.
"You can also use this to reveal a hidden place."
He drew a line across the globe set beside the crystal. With a soft rustle, like paint spreading, the outline of a building that had not been there before etched itself onto the surface.
That stardust-like power felt different from the green mist they had handled in Qi Manipulation class.
"This method first requires offering devotion to the Goddess Vespera every night to accumulate a sufficient store of luck-force, and using it recklessly can be fatal."
The assistant issued a warning.
"Unless you have formed a direct contract with the Goddess yourself, you would do well to abandon any thought of casually spending luck-force."
"…"
"Drawing on luck-force without restraint is nothing more than mortgaging your future to satisfy petty material desires in the present."
I already buddy-systemed with big sis Vespera, though. So does that mean I can just snap my fingers and turn on map hacks on a chart?
"What about a cadet who has formed a direct contract with the Goddess?"
The assistant tilted his head.
"A direct contract with the Goddess Vespera is essentially impossible unless one is something on the order of the Pope of the Holy Kingdom."
Ethan entertained another irreverent thought and waved a finger through the empty air.
"And if that Goddess, by accident, handed over her power with no restrictions whatsoever — would it be all right to use it then?"
The assistant's eyes narrowed.
He had been brought in to assist with Astrology classes at Thief School for five years now. But—
The sentient beings of this land are mere insects compared to the ancient gods.
To extract a direct, unrestricted contract from a higher-dimensional being…
In all his life, he had never heard a question quite this absurd.