A Fair Judgment
"Some deliberate placement here." I sat in the chair opposite Teddybear, shuddering at the sheer unpleasantness of this dedicated exam. The space was unnecessarily vast, the lights glaringly bright, and the furniture nothing more than ordinary plastic tables and chairs. Everything about it was the antithesis of what a "fortune-telling parlor" should be. Fortune-telling demanded mystery. It needed to feel supernatural, fated, and quietly trustworthy. "That's why fortune-telling shops are cramped, dim, and lit by small lamps." A narrow, shadowed room created the illusion that only the fortune teller and the visitor existed. A single small light illuminated only the teller, forcing the visitor's full attention onto them. As I'd said many times, fortune tellers were ultimately just con artists peddling psychology. They manufactured that environment to manufacture trust.
"Namgung Min, eighteen years old. From the Unified Korean Empire. Correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Let's begin the exam immediately. Use your class skill."
"Understood. What would you like me to divine?"
Not that I planned to use that bizarre class skill anyway.
"Me."
"Pardon?"
"Divine something about me. If your accuracy meets the standard, you pass."
……I'd thought it the moment I entered the exam hall, but this was definitely strange. I knew the character Charles Teddybear quite well. Since Romance Academy was a student-focused game, the teachers weren't described in great detail, but Teddybear appeared frequently in various events, so I remembered him to some extent. Yet the Teddybear I knew would never have been assigned as Namgung Min's examiner. He was almost exclusively in charge of the Hero Abel Legion's entrance exam. Teddybear carried a sense of debt toward the American president he had failed to protect, and he believed that the president's death had caused his grandson, the Hero, to close his heart. Because of that, Teddybear tried to look out for Abel Legion, which Abel interpreted as provocation, spawning the Hero's character events. Ignoring all that for now, the admissions officer had simply owed the examinee a favor and tried to make things easier. "When you put it like that, it's just cheating, isn't it?" In the game it had been a tragic story of two people missing each other; in reality, it was nothing more than admissions fraud. Had I unintentionally prevented his misconduct? The Hero boasted top-tier specs even within the entirety of Romance Academy, so he would have passed the exam without issue anyway.
I set those thoughts aside and returned to the fundamental question. "Why me?" Why had he taken charge of my exam instead of Abel Legion's? The answer was actually quite simple if I thought about it for even a moment.
"Understood. Would it be all right if I start with something simple?"
"Do as you like."
This man had come to me "to have his fortune told." Charles Teddybear himself didn't believe in fortune-telling in the slightest, but he was desperate enough to grasp at even the faintest thread of hope.
"Fortune Telling."
When I activated the class skill, tarot cards appeared in the air with a pop, just like the first time. At this point, wasn't the skill's only real function just to generate tarot cards?
"……Think." First and foremost, I obviously wasn't going to perform an actual reading. That would just be guessing by luck. When meeting someone for the first time, the standard approach was to build trust gradually with statements that applied to almost anyone. Things like, "You have something on your mind, don't you?" or "You've been tired lately, haven't you?" "Well, of course someone who came for a reading has something on their mind. And if they have that kind of worry, it's only natural they'd have trouble sleeping and feel exhausted."
Of course, that method wouldn't work here. In such a bright, open space, starting with those tricks on someone whose default attitude was distrust toward fortune-telling would shatter their expectations from the very beginning. So—
I had to use the same cheat I'd used with Liu. I shuffled the tarot cards, laid them on the table, and spoke at the same time.
"You're worried about your family."
"………!!"
Good. The initial impact had landed solidly. …You may be seeing me for the first time, but I've seen you people more than twenty times already. I had the cheat called "information," after all.
"Charles Teddybear. A war hero dispatched to New York, America. Originally cheerful by nature, but the war left him with PTSD, turning him expressionless and blunt. He had a wife, but she passed away from illness, and now he lives alone with his young daughter."
I recalled the lines and personality I'd seen in the story and character events. "Because of the war, he prefers efficiency and practicality, so under normal circumstances he wouldn't believe in something like 'fortune-telling.' But his daughter's condition has been worsening, so he's willing to try anything."
I also remembered his rather moving backstory. "Bringing up his daughter directly would be a mistake. But because his social circle is small, almost no one knows about his family, so I can easily earn his trust. If I start with 'family' rather than specifically mentioning his daughter, he won't feel too much resistance."
I crafted a plan tailored to his personality. Unfortunately, Teddybear wasn't a major character in Romance Academy, so I didn't know much about him……but it was still better than knowing nothing. "In that sense, Liu was the easiest." The story about the golden toad had come up during Liu's character events, and answering questions about boxes or pouches was simple. The gifts she gave after resolving her events and becoming friendly were almost all top-tier items, so their settings and appearances were easy to remember. It was difficult to memorize a single common item, but remembering the highest-performance equipment wasn't that hard, was it? Besides, she hadn't asked me many questions to begin with, and even if she showed me a box, I could just guess based on its size and shape. If I'd been wrong it would have been troublesome, but I still had backup plans. At any rate, I really needed to fix this habit of my thoughts wandering off in every direction.
"……You figured that out from the reading?"
"Of course, Instructor Teddybear."
I pulled my thoughts back and focused on the instructor before me. Both to clear the tutorial and to be recognized as a "Fortune Teller."
"Shall we continue?"
The first customer was always important for a fortune teller. Namgung Min smiled and spread the tarot cards across the table. Now then, time to start talking.
*
"This is……unbelievable."
"……The rightmost one."
"Hmm, Major Arcana 4, The Emperor reversed. It symbolizes doubt and confusion. You seem quite flustered right now."
"………."
Charles Teddybear was not the kind of person who believed in fate or anything supernatural. If anything, he could be said to despise such things. From a young age he had preferred rational, logical matters, and that preference had only intensified after experiencing war. It was almost to the point of obsession. But what about the scene unfolding before his eyes?
"…Fifth from the left."
"Minor Arcana, Four of Swords. It symbolizes rest and withdrawal. Instructor Teddybear, it seems you're planning to retire soon."
"………That's impossible."
His common sense was being shattered from the roots. He was merely picking any of the face-down cards at random, yet this fortune teller could see straight through to his thoughts just by looking at the card.
"I had expectations. But……" If someone had entered Romance Academy with the class "Fortune Teller," didn't that mean their fortune-telling ability was guaranteed? Teddybear had been so desperate that he'd abandoned supervising the Hero's exam, something he felt guilty about. For years he'd tried every possible method to cure his daughter, who had been suffering from an unknown illness, but all had failed. In the end, he'd even turned to fortune-telling and religion—things he had once despised. "Even the Saint couldn't cure her." ……Yes, even if the fortune teller before him had read his heart through divination, that didn't mean he could cure the illness. But watching someone who seemed to see through all his thoughts……it was only natural that a faint hope would begin to bloom. "No, that's not it. He might have already heard about me……?" For a moment it seemed like a plausible theory, but Teddybear soon rejected it himself. He had been a war hero, which meant he also had many enemies. If news of his daughter's illness spread, there would have been malicious attempts to take her hostage. That was why, even while searching for treatment, he had only asked for help from people who could keep their mouths shut. How could someone from the Unified Korean Empire—where he had the most enemies—possibly know about his family? Moreover, he had only decided to retire a week ago and hadn't told anyone.
"……Is it real……?" Then it really was true. He had divined everything just by reading the cards here? All the fortune tellers he'd met until now had been frauds, and now, of all times, a "real" fortune teller had appeared.
"………The middle card."
"Minor Arcana, Two of Pentacles reversed. Instructor, if you'll excuse me, your expenses have increased significantly over the past few years."
……Of course. He had been spending the money he'd saved his entire life to find church healers or skilled doctors.
"Third from the right—no, second."
"Minor Arcana, Nine of Pentacles. And it's reversed, so it seems you've been scammed recently as well."
Right. He'd chased down a quack doctor who'd taken the advance payment and fled without even providing treatment, and personally thrown him in prison.
"Leftmost. No, rightmost……ah, no. Sixth from the right."
"Major Arcana, 20, Judgement reversed. The meaning is hesitation and indecision."
As if entranced, Teddybear had been selecting the cards Namgung Min laid out when he suddenly looked up and met Namgung Min's eyes. Reflected in those pupils was himself……trembling slightly, cold sweat running down his body. An empty, vast space. Bright, flashy lighting. Plastic tables and chairs. The worst possible environment for fortune-telling, and far too poor for creating any sense of mystery. Yet before he knew it, Teddybear found himself hanging on every single word from Namgung Min. Look, how did he know I was hesitating right now? Was fortune-telling actually real? None of the fortune tellers he'd met before had even come close to being accurate. Was this young student really reading all my thoughts?
"Instructor."
"………Uh, y-yes."
"Please look at your left hand."
"……What?"
Even as Teddybear was gradually being drawn into the fortune-telling, Namgung Min only wore a faint smile. With his white gloves, he elegantly shuffled and laid out the tarot cards. The combination of a rarely seen red dress shirt, white tie, and black suit suited the fortune teller Namgung Min perfectly, while also conveying that he was clearly skilled. Above all, there was confidence in his movements and smile, along with his pleasant voice. Teddybear looked at Namgung Min with eyes mixed with expectation and disbelief, then turned his gaze toward his left hand, where he felt something.
"……A card."
He had no idea when it had appeared. No idea how it had ended up beneath his hand. A single face-down tarot card.
"Would you turn it over?"
"…………."
After a moment of hesitation, he flipped the card. Beneath his hand was──a judge holding a sword in his right hand and scales in his left. Major Arcana 11, Justice.
"Its meaning is……a fair judgment. What do you think, Instructor?"
"…………."
"Do I pass?"
Teddybear couldn't say a single word. The fact that he, known throughout Romance Academy for being the strictest about failure, remained silent was already answer enough. The judge who didn't believe in fortune-telling had rendered a fair verdict. Namgung Min wore a wry smile.