Chapter 173
Chapter 173
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 173
>Chapter Title: Fury!
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mysern followed the three boys in secret, drawn by curiosity.
He had originally planned to approach the boy they were seeking the moment he spotted him, reveal what he knew about the "Children," and ask for their help. But curiosity had gotten the better of him.
'All three of them have personalities that would make the spirits shake their heads?'
It hadn't been a long time, but from their tone and behavior, he could get a rough sense of their character.
He didn't possess the spirits' unique insight, but Mysern had the eye that time had gifted him.
Yet so far, none of the three had seemed particularly problematic.
That only made him more curious.
In any case, by tailing the three boys, Mysern learned a few things, the most notable being their names.
'The gray-haired one's Aster, the platinum blond is Damian, and the brown-haired one's Chenby, huh?'
Their personalities were starkly different.
First, Damian.
"Hey, friends, let's check out that house over there this time. The play said that even if you see the same stars, the interpretation changes, so you have to compare a bunch of places."
So bright and cheerful. Incredibly so.
Everyone knew about the seasonal rip-off scams during the fairy dance performances in the Amera region, and here he was, completely falling for the theater troupe's sales pitch tied to the astrology district!
Oh, and for reference, this "Fairy Festival" was an annual event. They just shifted the schedule to align with the fairy dance when it happened.
It was the collective effort of the locals in Amera, honed over years of fleecing tourists.
Of course, any other region pulling this would have gone bust ages ago, but Amera—with its beautiful lakes and fame as a tourist spot—could get away with it.
Ahem. Anyway, next up was Aster.
"Hmm, yeah. I see."
From quiet observation, every response started with "Hmm."
It was a signal to the other person that 'I'm listening to you,' typically used when you had zero interest in what they were saying—a basic interjection.
And after the "Hmm," it was always "Yeah, I see" or "Didn't know that," occasionally "That's cool."
It felt like he had two or three canned responses and just rotated them as needed... Like, well, a biomechanical golem with half its soul missing.
And last was Chenby.
"Aster, just so you know, I drank seven cups of coffee yesterday. The play raved about Amera region's coffee. So I recommend skipping the plays today."
He felt less like a conversation participant and more like a commentator.
Subtly hanging back a step, steering the conversation partner toward Aster.
He lacked soul too, but in a different way from Aster.
If Aster was a biomechanical golem with its emotion switch temporarily flipped off, Chenby felt like one whose emotional energy had worn down and evaporated.
The faint smile on his lips... no, resignation—that was the proof.
Oh, and for reference, he learned this while observing them: Fury had shaken its head only at Aster and Damian.
Meaning Chenby was still within the normal range.
But Mysern figured it was just a matter of time.
'Stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares back.'
And here there were two abysses. Not one, but two.
It'd be weirder if he didn't get stained.
Anyway, the three toured the astrology district like they were on a dojo-crawler rampage, and the results truly fit the term.
They hit a total of fifteen astrology shops.
Of those,
Temporary Closure
Already five had abruptly put up temporary closure signs, and seven had sprinkled salt in front of their doors.
The remaining three?
No response.
So after the boys left, curiosity got the better of him and he peeked inside. What do you know?
A dark astrology shop.
"Th-this..."
The fortune-teller, fist clenched, trembling violently.
His face flushed beet red, shaking with rage until he spotted Mysern and finally jumped up to lock the shop door.
'...So that's eight temporary closures.'
Temporary closures 8, reopenings 7.
8 to 7, temporary closures win.
At this point, he couldn't help but wonder.
'Damian, was it? Looks like the one following him is... right, just Tohoman. Meaning he's direct lineage from the Blandoga Family.'
He had little connection to the Blandoga Family, but compared to certain inhuman clans, he knew they at least had decent character.
So how the hell did they provoke reactions like that from astrology shops?
Risking a bit of detection, he eavesdropped.
"Fury, please."
Fury!
Of course, there was no actual sound effect, but Fury vanished in a whirlwind 'Fury!' sensation.
Soon, the conversation Fury heard reached his ears. Oh boy.
"Huh..."
Mysern let out an involuntary sigh.
First off, the fortune-tellers' defeat(?) was clear.
'...Conversation's impossible.'
Yeah, the talks just wouldn't flow.
Starting with tarot cards.
"Please pick three cards you like first. Think of the first as your past, the second as your present, and the third as your future."
Damian's response?
"Time flows, they said."
"...?"
"The moment you think, that 'now' of thinking becomes the past. So picking while thinking of the 'present' doesn't make sense."
Of course, a seasoned fortune-teller wouldn't be stumped by that.
He'd honed his patter over years dealing with tourists, after all.
But the problem was that the three didn't give the fortune-teller a chance to speak.
"What if the future is the past? Like, the future coming up is already my past. The present is kinda my past too, right?"
This time, Aster even had a soul.
He was genuinely curious...
The unexpected reinforcement came from Chenby.
"Um... That other place earlier used the same cards. If the results differ, which one do I believe? Hold on. I wrote down the shop names and results from the tarot readings. That one was..."
Flipping through a notebook? The rustle of pages, para-rak, para-rak.
No troublemaker like this.
Especially since there was no malice—it made it worse.
Why?
With malice, they'd at least subconsciously know they were bad and have room to improve someday. No malice meant it was just their nature.
You could correct the behavior, but not the person.
But was Amera—serious about its seasonal tourist trade—really dealing with this?
The fortune-teller didn't yield to the ordeal.
"Fine... Let's skip tarot and divine your future with the crystal ball? Just place your hand on it..."
But Chenby stepped up again.
"Ah! We did this at another shop earlier. Hold on. The result there was..."
Mysern called Fury back right there.
"Come back, Fury."
Fury!
Fury appeared in an instant.
Mysern closed his eyes for a moment and pressed his temples.
Just a brief eavesdrop of a few exchanges, and his head spun like the morning after a bender.
Like the fortune-teller's agony had transferred over.
Of course.
'...They wouldn't close shop over this, though?'
Curiosity flared.
What on earth happened next that made the shops he passed lock their doors?
How bad did it have to get for Amera's hardworking seasonal fortune-tellers to shutter during peak hours?
But.
Mysern suppressed his curiosity.
Age had taught him.
'Excessive curiosity shortens your life.'
For reference, at his age, "frustrated to the point of bursting" could become literal. Not clothes actually bursting, but blood rushing to the head and ascending to heaven.
For reference, though Mysern didn't hear it, the common line from the locked shops was Damian's "It's astrology—why not read the actual stars?"
Demanding a star reading in broad daylight...
Of course, it wasn't just that line; the real killer was how long the conversations dragged on until it came up.
Anyway, Mysern pressed his throbbing temples and let out a deep sigh.
The question he'd been holding back welled up.
'What in the world... does this boy Aster have?'
The reason the "Children" wanted Aster was probably because he could save them.
In other words, a savior.
Damian might make sense.
With the Blandoga Family's power, he could do something. And didn't he already have an outstanding wizard like Tohoman at his side?
"Urgh..."
Mysern groaned softly, gathering his thoughts.
"There... must be a reason."
He'd just missed it.
There had to be something.
That aside.
Watching them up to this point naturally brought up a concern.
Aster wasn't alone; he was traveling with Damian, who seemed tied to the Blandoga people.
Approaching would be tricky.
Well, he could manage the approach itself.
He'd abandoned his name and wandered as a wilder, but it still held weight.
A prestigious house like Blandoga might not bow to it, but they wouldn't ignore it outright.
The real issue was this.
'...I have no confidence.'
What confidence?
'Can I even talk to that kid?'
Yeah, his head had throbbed listening to the fortune-teller because it didn't feel like someone else's problem.
Even if it was just Aster as the convo partner, that half-soulless demeanor was suffocating all the same.
As he pondered,
Flutter.
For some reason, Aster emerged alone from the astrology shop.
He headed straight for a nearby alley corner, and Mysern instinctively held his breath, scanning the surroundings.
Hoping no one from the shop would follow.
How long did he wait?
Confirming no one emerged, Mysern inwardly cheered and hurried toward the alley where Aster had vanished.
'I don't know why he came out alone... but perfect timing.'
Now was the chance to speak with Aster.
Into the alley he went.
'Hmm, where'd he go?'
Mysern was puzzled at losing track of the boy's presence but enlisted Fury's help to search.
That's when a thuggish voice echoed from down the alley.
"Hey, kid. Come here."
Classic back-alley bait.
Kid?
Was that Aster?
Mysern trailed the thug's presence, and the conversation continued.
"Where you from? Got any money? Wanna let big bro show you some fun spots? Nah, not a shakedown. Just guiding you."
...Back-alley punks' lines never changed.
Mysern shook his head as he approached the alley, right when Aster's voice rang out.
"Ah, bro. So it is a shakedown?"
A voice brimming with soul, unlike before.
The thugs chuckled 'puhuhu' in agreement.
"Yeah, obviously. Guiding you ain't a shakedown. It's fair pay for honest work. Right?"
Up to here, it was cliché.
But.
Mysern froze at Aster's next words.
"But it is for me."
What? Shakedown what?
"I'm about to snap from frustration, so before you shake me down, I'll give you punks a punch each first. Let's start light with gut shots."
"Puh, puhaha. What the kid sa— Gahk!"
Soon, impact sounds and thugs' groans echoed.
Aster vented his rage, pulling punches so they wouldn't drop too quick. Couldn't let them off easy.
"What... the theater... huh? Astrology district! Link-up! With! Plays! Huh?!"
Amid the spirited thrashing,
Mysern halted, eyes twitching.
'That guy's... the savior?'