How This Fortune Teller Becomes Famous
“He gives you money, pays off your debts, and even covers the price instead. Isn’t this guy a total angel?”
“Angel or whatever, please just go back to being the original Miss Liu……”
“……This bastard is really pissing me off. Just what the hell did he think I was?”
“Do you want to hear it?”
“No. If I did, I might end up beating you to death, so let’s drop it.”
“………….”
“Look at how this bastard shuts up immediately…… Anyway, that was seriously too close for comfort. I think it was the longest minute of my life.”
“Huh? Miss Liu, you didn’t know?”
“Know what? What?”
“What else? That even the Academy has a sense of tact.”
“……What?”
In fact, to cut to the chase, the escape was a failure. The reason was obviously the time limit.
“……I went over one minute?”
“Of course. After the princess threw her princess punch, it took way more than a minute just for the students to get out, you know?”
“Ha…….”
Liu let out a sigh, seeming drained by the fact that it had ultimately ended in failure. Even as she walked leisurely toward the exit with me, she kept glancing up at the sky. It looked like she still had some lingering attachments. But why had she become so sentimental all of a sudden? That strange comment earlier only made it more obvious. The Liu Yen standing in front of me felt slightly different from the one I knew from the game.
……I wondered whether this was truly a good change. When I thought about Liu Yen’s character events, a hasty shift like this was far more likely to become poison than medicine.
'I don’t know. Whatever.'
Still, how much could Liu really change? She was just feeling a bit sentimental right now. Once she returned to her daily routine, she would go back to that eccentric personality of hers. Besides, I had always been weak when it came to human relationships. After my parents passed away during middle school, I lived alone with my younger sister Ji-soo and finished high school through the qualification exam, so I never learned those skills. Unlike Ji-soo, who made plenty of friends despite everything, I spent my time bouncing between exam prep and part-time jobs. I never had a single friend.
'So please, just go back to normal.'
You’re honestly terrifying. A kid suddenly smiling and offering to pay off debts and give away money—I have no idea what scheme is running through her head.
“……But why wasn’t it processed as a failure?”
“I already told you, didn’t I? The Academy isn’t so clueless that they’d immediately mark it as a failure just because the clock hit twelve in that situation.”
That made sense. If a dramatic success occurred with only the final minute remaining and they still declared “Actually it was time over, lol,” they would be the real devils. This wasn’t even a midterm or final exam—just a personality assessment—so the Academy had simply turned a blind eye. In the game, Romance Academy had always been surprisingly lenient about anything that wasn’t directly tied to tests.
“Tsk. It does feel a little anticlimactic.”
“Mm. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you?”
“Yeah. It would’ve been better if I never heard it…… Ah, that’s right.”
Liu, who had been walking with her hands shoved in her pockets, suddenly glanced sideways at me.
……Why is she looking at me like that?
“Hey, fortune teller bastard.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t go near that fucking bitch.”
“……Fucking bitch?”
Who counted as a fucking bitch in Liu’s book? There was Lane, the secretary-like girl who assisted her, the princess she cursed internally, and even the principal of Romance Academy. There were way too many candidates.
“That psychic woman.”
“You mean Miss Lane? Why shouldn’t I……”
“Ah, enough with the long talk. If I say don’t go near her, then don’t. Got it?”
“I’m going to be in the special class anyway. How am I supposed to avoid her?”
“Then just don’t look at her or speak to her. She’s a total scumbag.”
……What? Was she suddenly engaging in self-reflection? No matter how objectively I viewed it, hearing the most vicious paranoid patient in existence call Lane a scumbag felt strangely surreal. Was this what they meant by only seeing what was in your own eye?
“Hey. You’re not thinking something weird, are you?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Don’t lie, you fucking bastard. The only time you make that face is when you’re thinking something weird.”
“……How does Miss Liu even know that?”
“………Forget it, you son of a bitch.”
How was I supposed to forget…… But when she stared at me with those eyes, I had no choice but to forget. It felt like if I didn’t quietly erase it from my memory, she would delete it physically. So I simply nodded obediently.
After exchanging pointless small talk with Liu, we slowly reached the exit.
“Going past this means we’ve escaped?”
“Probably?”
I had managed to accomplish something I couldn’t even do in the game. It felt good. Just before stepping through the collapsed wall into the visible Romance Academy beyond it—
“………….”
“What are you looking at?”
……Come to think of it, how had I ended up casually chatting with Liu like this? Just a week ago, when I received my fortune fee from her, the atmosphere had been nothing like this. It felt like something was gently tickling the inside of my chest.
“……….”
“Hey, fortune teller bastard! What’s wrong with you!”
I had been thinking about Liu’s change earlier. From a future-oriented perspective, the original Liu was safer, but…… talking with the current Liu put my mind at far greater ease. Of course, this could all be an act. The version of her shown in the game never let go of her sticky, deep-seated suspicion no matter how much she smiled on the surface.
But even if every part of this was an act, if I liked the current version, then wasn’t that enough? ……I didn’t know. Being friends was surprisingly difficult. Namgung Ji-soo really had been something else.
“……….”
“Hey! Hey, Namgung Min! At least smile or something! Why are you staring at me with that kind of expression!”
Liu Yen stood before me. A short girl with long black hair, a doll-like face, and countless accessories dangling from her small frame. In the game, she and Lane had constantly tormented the heroine before eventually switching sides after a character event. In other words…… she had been a character you simply could not get close to before that event no matter what you did.
“I’m going first! I’m really leaving! And that debt repayment I mentioned? Consider it canceled, you bastard! Hey!”
I had known her only through the game and treated her exactly that way. I had believed only what the game showed me.
But the Liu Yen I was seeing now looked different from the one in the game. So I wanted to know. I wanted to know what her true self was like.
“You fortune teller bastard! What the hell are you thinking about!”
“……Miss Liu.”
“Mm? Yeah?”
“Perhaps I…… don’t actually know you at all.”
“………What?”
It was a foolish choice, but it was the only method I knew. I simply said it outright. I had never been good at beating around the bush anyway.
“I thought I understood a person named Liu Yen to some degree. That’s why I was able to speak with you during the entrance exam and why I could visit you afterward.”
“………….”
Liu Yen listened to my story with her arms crossed. I wondered what she was thinking.
“I defined Liu Yen as this kind of person and treated you accordingly. It wasn’t completely wrong, but…… it doesn’t fit perfectly either.”
“……Ha. Why are you telling me this now? You know we’ve only known each other for less than ten days, right?”
“Of course I know that. I know, but……… I still want to know.”
“Know what?”
“Who the person named Liu Yen really is. What her true self looks like.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Liu summarized my rather sincere words with a single sentence, then looked at me with a faint smile. If it had been the Liu from the game, she would have responded with suspicion. The real her was slightly different.
“So you asked because you wanted to know what my true self is?”
“………Yes.”
“Hey, be honest. You don’t have any friends, do you? To ask something like this so directly?”
“Yes.”
“……Just openly admitting it is exactly like you…… Anyway.”
Liu scratched her head lightly, then made an exasperated face.
“You and I are pretty similar, bastard.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, forget it. You think I’m going to tell you? You have to observe and figure it out for yourself, you idiot.”
“Th-that’s a bit……”
“What’s ‘a bit’ about it? If you watch people and learn about them yourself, you’ll be able to accept it, won’t you? Frankly, if I just told you ‘I’m this kind of person~’ would you believe it?”
“……….”
For some reason, Liu’s words toward me sounded like they were directed at herself as well.
“Hey, fortune teller bastard.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Starting today, become my lackey.”
“………Pardon?”
“I said become my lackey. You said you wanted to know what kind of person I am, right? Then you need to stay close and watch.”
……Was that how it worked? Listening to her, it did make a strange kind of sense. As I stared blankly, lost in thought, Liu nudged me with her elbow.
“This is funny. If you say you’re the lackey of the Great Wealthy, there’d be a truckload of bastards ready to bow and accept. Why is a guy who doesn’t even have money and wears the same clothes every day hesitating?”
“G-give me some time……”
“Time? Good point. I’ll give you exactly one week. Decide by then, got it?”
“Yes……”
“Answer properly.”
“Yes!”
“Good.”
Satisfied with my clear response, Liu smiled slyly and walked through the exit first. I followed after her, quietly organizing my thoughts.
'There’s a lot I need to remember from today.'
The Saint who was targeting me, though I had no idea where he went. The maze escape where I seemed to have made a good impression. Being able to speak separately with Lucas, Lane, and Sasaki. The deal with the princess. And deciding whether to become Liu’s lackey within a week.
“It’s only just past morning on the first day……”
Why was there already so much to deal with? Still, there were no classes today, so it was fortunate I could return to the base and sort through everything. Just like the cleaning had been a lie, there were no classes after twelve o’clock, and they had given the students who suffered through the maze a full day to rest. Returning now would be fine.
“……She’s gone.”
Before I knew it, when I looked ahead, Liu had already disappeared somewhere. She had moved energetically, so she was probably tired. There were no other students visible nearby either. It seemed everyone had gone back.
I desperately wanted to return to the base and rest, but.
'There’s still something left to do.'
On the day of the entrance exam, I had made a promise with instructor Charles Teddybear. I needed to go meet his daughter.
“……You called for me, Miss Liu.”
“Yeah.”
Inside Liu’s office at Romance Academy. In the somewhat messy room—just like when Namgung Min had burst in last week—a female student was kneeling. Liu didn’t even spare her a glance. She simply crossed her legs and flipped through documents.
“You did the background check on that fortune teller bastard I ordered, right?”
“Yes. I followed and observed Namgung Min as instructed. As detailed in the report, his base is located outside the Academy, he appears to be the catalyst behind the recent treasure hunt craze, and he seems to lack money since he wears the same clothes every day……”
“Stop.”
“……Yes?”
For a moment, even knowing it was taboo, the kneeling female student questioned her. Liu Yen was telling her to stop the background investigation? The girl had handled all sorts of dirty work for her for years, but she had only witnessed this once before—when the target of the investigation was already dead.
“Did Namgung Min…… die?”
“What kind of bullshit is that? Ah, since he’s a son of a bitch, maybe dog talk is appropriate. Anyway, what the hell are you saying?”
“S-sorry!”
“As expected from a stupid bitch who only spouts nonsense. So the order I gave you to approach Namgung Min is canceled too. Just don’t get close to that fortune teller.”
What was this about now? Last time she had demanded a thorough investigation. Now she was ordering absolute avoidance. Liu, who had thrown away all the female student’s careful preparations with a single sentence, frowned.
“Don’t speak to him. Don’t even make eye contact. Understood?”
“Y-yes!”
“And I said talking back would double your debt, didn’t I? I’ll do exactly that, so keep it in mind.”
“Yes!”
……Fucking bitch. The female student’s eyes burned with hatred even as she bowed her head to the floor along with her knees. For now she had no choice but to submit to that devil woman, but an opportunity would surely come. The girl waited for Liu’s next words while sharpening the blade of her revenge.
“So the background check on Namgung Min is over. Now look into this instead.”
“……This is?”
“That fortune teller caused the treasure hunt commotion, right? He set the stage so nicely. It would be a waste not to take a share. The name Great Wealthy can’t afford to look weak.”
What Liu tossed beside the female student was a single photograph. The girl didn’t know it, but it was a location Liu had already marked after sensing an intense golden aura with her Eyes that Chase Wealth.
“There’s only the photo and no location information, so find out where it is. If you do, I’ll clear double your debt.”
“……Yes.”
Essentially, she was being told to work for free. Liu Yen only suspected those who might threaten her. Everyone else was either an idiot or a useful pawn. Among all her pawns, the female student with the thickest collar picked up the photograph.
A stone coffin engraved with strange patterns, sitting inside a cave full of puddles. The female student endured once again today, waiting patiently for her chance.
……The day that would surely come. The day she would stab Liu in the back.