Why Are You Here?

The two personalities spoke in turn inside Aileen Teddybear’s mind.

"We saw it ourselves. How ugly Liu Yen truly is," Aileen answered.

The Saintess asked again.

"Next time, let’s stay right next to oppa."

"Yeah. Let’s do that."

"…Yeah."

"Namgung… Min?"

Why are you here?

Liu Yen’s face went blank with pure disbelief at the unexpected sight. She quickly pulled herself together and looked up at me.

"How did you get here?"

"…Well, fortune telling."

The ever-convenient excuse—fortune telling. Since Liu Yen already knew my so-called skills quite well, she gave a small nod, seemingly convinced.

I didn’t expect this to pop up suddenly either.

After the bell rang and Liu Yen left, I had been talking with Aileen when the quest window that hadn’t appeared for nearly a week since the entrance ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠exam suddenly surfaced. And it came with the grandiose label of “Job Exclusive Quest.”

Why did it come out so fast?

A job exclusive quest was simply the usual type that strengthened class skills in the game. Because it was labeled exclusive, only that specific class could receive it. Later ones differed, but the first one was a common quest every class received the moment they became second-years.

But why was the Fortune Teller’s quest so early? We hadn’t even taken midterms yet.

Anyway, it kindly displayed the exact location of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Liu Yen and the female student named Wang Pei, practically ordering me to go, so I asked Aileen for understanding and left. She looked like she wanted to say something at the time, but I could hear it later.

In the end, I ran straight to the spot, secretly listened in on their conversation, and then made my entrance.

"Fortune telling, huh. Yeah, that’s just like you."

"……"

"So why are you here?"

Liu Yen’s eyes narrowed. As I had often told Lucas Arthur, she didn’t like meddling. Thanks to her childhood experiences and severe paranoia toward others, she believed she could handle everything alone—and with her abilities, that wasn’t an exaggeration.

Anyway, the female student tied up by the snake… according to the quest, the so-called pitiful Wang Pei.

"Liu, about this Wang Pei person—"

"…Ha. So even you’re going to butt in?"

"No? You can do whatever you want."

"Huh?"

Pitiful my ass. Are all pitiful people dead or something?

How could the system call someone who gambled away even her parents’ entire fortune pitiful? Just who the hell was writing these quest windows? After sending away the servant who tried to assassinate the princess, awakening to human love now felt a bit late.

I sat down on a nearby stump, just like Liu Yen had.

"What? Then why did you come?"

"I wanted to speak with that student for a moment."

"With her? Give me a break. She’s the very definition of a degenerate."

Who didn’t know that? The quest was forcing me to do this.

When I kept smiling brightly, Liu Yen reluctantly gestured with a displeased expression and crossed her legs.

Good. Permission granted.

In front of the watching Liu Yen, I rose from the stump and squatted down in front of Wang Pei.

"Hello, Wang Pei."

"…How do you know my name?"

"Through fortune telling."

"Bullshit."

Maybe because she had already given up, Wang Pei responded with cold cynicism. Honestly, how she treated me didn’t matter. I just needed to read her fortune.

"Fortune Telling."

Tarot cards materialized and fell from the air with my voice, but I wouldn’t be using those. I had prepared something else in advance.

"Wang Pei. I’m going to read your fortune now."

"…Fortune?"

"Yes. And aren’t you curious? Depending on the result, your treatment might change completely."

"……"

For a moment, life returned to Wang Pei’s eyes. She had given up and asked to be killed, but no one in the world truly wants to die or suffer something equally terrible. Having glimpsed a faint thread of hope through my fortune telling, she focused on me even more intently.

Instead of the tarot created by the skill, I pulled out a different deck from my pocket and shuffled it roughly.

"Just pick one card from these. Simple, right?"

"…I understand."

Swish.

When I shuffled the cards with practiced sleight of hand, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Wang Pei’s desperate eyes chased after them. She was doing her best, but since the outcome was already decided, I felt nothing.

Of course. Every single one of these cards was Death.

All seventy-eight cards were Major Arcana Number 13—Death. Whichever she chose, the result would be the same.

I brought a deck made entirely of The World just in case, but it looks like I won’t need it.

Since the quest itself was called Life and Death Decision, I had prepared both death-symbolizing cards and life-symbolizing cards, but it turned out to be pointless. I stopped shuffling, spread the cards before Wang Pei, and spoke.

"What will Wang Pei’s fate be?"

She flinched. At my words Wang Pei trembled, but soon her gaze fixed on one of the cards.

"…This one."

"Alright."

The quest had demanded I use the class skill, so I did. But since the result was already fixed, I had no particular thoughts—

"…Huh?"

The card I had prepared and Wang Pei had chosen. All seventy-eight cards were supposed to be Death. I had even checked while shuffling.

"This is a good card, right? I picked the good one, didn’t I!?"

—The World. Major Arcana Number 21, the card that symbolized life.

…It was a card I had never put in the deck.

The moment the skill result appeared before me, Liu Yen, who had run out of patience, stood up from her stump.

"Done now? I’m taking this bitch with me."

"She lived! I drew a good card!"

"Yeah, yeah. I’m not going to kill her, okay? I did consider just killing her, but I think working you for the rest of your life is more fitting."

"Uwaaaaaah! Fortune teller! You fraud bastard!!!"

I ignored both Liu Yen’s voice and Wang Pei’s scream. I simply stared at the status window floating before my eyes.

She lived? Because it has to be fair?

Was that why?

I checked the tarot card in my hand again. All seventy-seven remaining cards were Death. That was only natural—I had rigged them that way.

But the single World card was different. A card I had never inserted. A card that should never have been drawn.

Because it has to be fair? So one card changed into The World?

I took out the other deck from my pocket. This one consisted entirely of seventy-eight World cards. I checked every single one, but none had changed into Death.

In a way, it was obvious. I had already cheated in countless fortunes, and none of them had been fair.

If there was one difference, it was this:

"The class skill…"

This time I had actually used Fortune Telling.

It was a skill I normally used just to generate tarot cards. Other than the very first time, I had hardly used it properly. Its performance ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was absurd. It was a skill I simply couldn’t utilize.

Does real fortune telling have to be fair?

Bullshit. Then that cult bastard’s fortunes should have been fair too. My parents shouldn’t have poured their entire fortune into that bastard and then killed themselves. Would the system call that fair as well?

…Huu.

For now, calm down. This was just a quest window. Thinking of it that way helped settle my mind.

As I emptied my thoughts for a moment, the fortune result caught my eye again.

She lived.

A concise, clear answer—completely different from the first fortune I had given.

Only then did I look around. Liu Yen and Wang Pei had already disappeared somewhere.

…She said she wouldn’t kill her.

I remembered Liu Yen’s words. She had said she wouldn’t kill Wang Pei. Instead, she would work her so hard that death would seem preferable.

Wang Pei was an academy student, but with Liu Yen’s wealth, forcing her to “withdraw” was simple. It had been one of the bad endings in the game.

Anyway, in the end, she lived.

…The fortune was correct.

Had the 17% probability actually hit, or had Liu Yen planned to spare her from the beginning?

Fortune telling is a scam. That was the clearest truth of all. It was deception, a trick, a tool the fortune teller manipulated at will and disguised as fate.

But this time the fortune had been right. No matter what the process, in the end, through a “fair fortune.”

"…Yeah. I was thinking too complacently."

I had already used general skills in ways completely different from the game, yet I had neglected the most important class skill. There were probably many reasons—my disgust toward fortune telling, the utter uselessness I felt the first time I used the class skill… But none of that served as an excuse.

I decided to see the ending.

So far I had managed with game knowledge and general skills, but I was essentially walking a tightrope. Game knowledge could diverge from reality at any moment, and general skills had clear limits.

Just look at Liu Yen. If I had trusted the game knowledge, becoming this close to her would have been impossible. And what about Aileen Teddybear? A character who wasn’t even important in the game had become a Saintess and enrolled in the academy.

It was obvious I couldn’t keep relying on knowledge and general skills forever.

Therefore, the class skill.

The important thing was ultimately to see the ending and return. I should set aside thoughts of that cult bastard for now. I had to.

So the most crucial element that made the class a true class—the job skill Fortune Telling that I had turned away from until now—I needed to face it properly, even at this late stage—

"……"

The probability had gone up. The accuracy rate that used to be basically fifteen percent with tarot had risen to twenty percent. It was an enhancement… it had definitely gotten better…

"Damn it."

Perhaps because I had once again confirmed the reality of the Fortune Teller class, I couldn’t hold back the curse.