Chapter 2 - Grasping the Situation
Grasping the Situation
Translator : Elizabeth
Chapter 2. Grasping the Situation
Even though I had returned to the present day, the abilities remained intact. The power that distinguished truth from falsehood with images of Tarot cards flashing through my mind.
Come to think of it, it wasn't a strange thing. My body itself had remained changed, after all.
The moment I recognized that fact, a chill ran down my spine. A question naturally arose.
…What about my identity?
I paced around the room restlessly, then unconsciously opened my wallet. There was no special reason. I just wanted to check, like a lingering attachment, the scrap of plastic that had already become meaningless.
But.
The person in the ID photo on my resident registration card was.
The current me.
That face with unfamiliar features and eyes, the appearance I could see in the mirror, was embedded right in the center of the card as if nothing had happened.
The name was still Yu Ah-jin.
Since it was originally a feminine name, it didn't feel weird. No, rather, it felt like the name and gender had finally found their rightful place.
“…Ha.”
A short breath escaped. A laugh mixed with relief and emptiness flowed out unintentionally.
Several days passed since then.
I was gradually finding clues that were close to certainty. The German I used just in case was the answer.
Bamberg History Museum. If you scrolled down, down the list of artifacts on the official site, you could see that name.
Salzsäule des Sünders.
In Korean, Pillar of Salt of the Sinner.
With my mouse paused, I began to read the description.
———
In the late 1590s, a salt crystal discovered in a village near Bamberg. According to church records at the time, it is said that a man who touched a woman considered a messenger of God with impure intentions immediately turned into salt.
(……)
At the time, some devout believers considered this salt a holy relic and kept it in secret, passing it down through generations.
(……)
As a result of modern scientific analysis, this salt is 99.9% pure sodium chloride, and while trace amounts of human organic matter were detected, its origin remains a mystery.
———
I was reading the description written in German without any blockage. Even without consciously trying, I understood the sentences as they were.
For reference, I had never learned German.
I could guess the reason.
When I was there.
I learned the language of the person I conversed with naturally, as if breathing.
Retracing my steps one by one, I could estimate the background and time period of that place. 16th century, Germany. Among them, it would be the south.
The South German dialect used by the commoners I first encountered. It seems that settled inside me like a default setting. The sentences I recalled without thinking kept rolling out in German forms first.
The languages I learned didn't end there.
The more refined Standard German used by nobles or officials, the French they mixed in to show off, and even the Latin priests used in mass and documents.
Whenever I heard a language I didn't know, I became able to use it as if I already knew it.
That must be why. The reason my way of speaking has subtly changed these days.
To speak Korean while the main language in my head was German, I had to go through a conversion process once. As a result, my speech naturally became polite, and honorifics popped out like a default value.
“…It seems.”
I muttered while looking at the screen.
“My actions… seem to have influenced actual history.”
Or.
It could be a parallel world that is merely similar.
I turned my gaze back to the explanatory text.
———
As a result of modern scientific analysis, this salt is 99.9% pure sodium chloride. This is a purity impossible to manufacture with 16th-century technology, and far exceeds the average purity of natural rock salt (95%).
What is even more surprising is that the crystal structure is very uniform and perfect. It is similar to what is manufactured with modern electrolysis technology, but electrolysis technology was only invented in the 1800s.
Also, trace amounts of human organic matter were detected, but its origin and formation process remain a mystery.
Some scientists propose a hypothesis of 'ultra-high temperature instantaneous crystallization', but no natural phenomenon can explain this.
———
They say suspicions of fabrication are endless because of the salt composition. Claims that it was made with modern technology, rebuttals that it is religious glorification. There were many such controversies.
Nevertheless, I could know. That was real.
A single Tarot card image floated in my mind. [JUSTICE]. A scale that separates fact from falsehood. A card that does not allow distortion. It meant pointing to the truth as it is, not emotion or belief.
“…Though all this might be my delusion. Thinking that makes it a little scary.”
Anyway, besides these records, there was more I found out. Because what I had been clinging to most persistently was not the events of the past, but how far my given abilities reached.
First, one thing was certain. The phenomenon where Tarot card images flash through my mind and tell me something, like before, only happens in matters directly related to me.
I turned my gaze to the TV that was on.
The female idol survival program, The Idola.
On stage, a participant was singing. It wasn't noticeably overwhelming skill. Her high notes, her performance—it was ambiguous to call her an ace.
But strangely. She was always on the winning team. Even if the combination changed, even if the concept differed, the result was always the same. As if the flow revolved around her.
I unconsciously thought about her. What kind of person is she, how far will she go.
…….
But there was no reaction. My head was quiet. Neither the afterimage of a card nor its meaning came to mind.
“…As expected.”
I nodded.
Instead, I opened the desk drawer and took out actual Tarot cards.
The moment I held the cards in my hand. This time, definitely, something reacted.
Thud— Shhh!
After spreading the cards on the desk and catching my breath, I asked quietly.
“What result will that child produce in The Idola?”
One Card Spread. The simplest method, asking for a result with just a single card.
The moment I picked a card and flipped it.
The image of that card seeped into my mind as if falling.
[THE EMPRESS].
Abundance and protection, a being who is loved. Not a throne won by fighting, but a seat one naturally comes to occupy by being chosen.
Not a victory that crushes the opponent with overwhelming skill, but a championship raised by gaining people's hearts. A conclusion where she remains not as a competitor, but as a necessary existence.
I exhaled slowly.
“…I see.”
Now it became certain.
The future of others not directly related to me could only be seen through cards like this. And every time I did, something was definitely consumed.
“For now, one Tarot reading is the limit.”
However, that didn't mean my stamina drained or I felt dizzy. And actually, it didn't feel like my energy had bottomed out either.
If I had to put this feeling into words, it's like this.
Inside me, there is a single mass of energy rotating violently, and what I used just now was a power like the aftermath spreading from it.
The energy at the center held such strong inertia that even I couldn't touch it carelessly. What I could handle was merely the minute shimmering flowing outward.
The phenomenon of turning into salt when a person with impure intentions touches me, or the events where Tarot card images flash in my mind and automatically interpret situations related to me, are also likely phenomena occurring due to that rotating energy.
It's like exercising influence only with the accumulated inertia without consuming the energy itself.
To use a metaphor.
The difference between electrons firmly held by an atomic nucleus that can never be separated, and free electrons that move and are consumed according to external stimuli.
The moment I realized that, there was only one worry that came to mind.
“…Right. If the Tarot card ability remains, the ability to turn things into salt must naturally remain too.”
Sigh—.
I let out a long sigh.
And looked in the mirror.
To speak honestly, no matter how objectively I looked.
It didn't seem likely that a more beautiful woman than this existed in the world.
The problem is exactly that point.
Someone will inevitably approach with impure intentions. It was an appearance where that was all too natural.
And in that moment.
Just by contact, I would end up killing the opponent.
In that sense, the 16th century might have been better.
In that era, if a person turned into salt, it was simply dismissed as a miracle of God or a trick of the devil. The reason was covered by belief, and the question was sealed by faith.
But this was the 21st century. The phenomenon of turning a person into salt clearly belongs to the realm of the absurd.
I felt like I would be dissected in a lab the moment I was caught. Even if that was excessive delusion, it was clear that a peaceful life was over.
“…It means I shouldn't make contact with people.”
It was a gloomy situation.
Sigh—.
The sound of a long sigh once again.
Still, well.
It wasn't that there was absolutely no hope.
I felt the energy consumed after reading the fortune slowly filling up.
As a result of watching for a few days, the energy seemed to grow the more I used it.
What's important here is exactly that growth potential.
“Somehow…! I have to become able to control this ability…!”
I vowed to myself like that.