How to Spend a Holiday (4)
Rewinding time — back to thirty minutes earlier.
"This time I'll take you somewhere that actually heals."
"Where exactly are we going? I need to hear it first this time."
"Fine. It's a fortune-telling shop that's famous around here."
"Fortune-telling?"
I'd heard of it. Shops run by shamans who claimed to glimpse the future through the act of divination. A different school of mana arts entirely, running on a current separate from magic itself.
There were said to be gifted fortune-tellers out there — ones who peered into the outline of what was to come and guided people toward a more stable future. Fine practitioners, those.
But most fortune-tellers were closer to frauds. More precisely, they had a habit of taking things that could happen to anyone and wrapping them in clever packaging before handing them over.
Think about it. Suppose a fortune-teller told you, "You will marry someone who suits you and live out your days drinking water every day. You will quarrel often, but those fights will become fertilizer for a deeper love."
People generally marry someone who suits them. Water is something you drink every day anyway. And when two people live stuck together, fighting is inevitable. If they're married, they'll work it out and grow fonder of each other for it.
Sure, some people fight and never reconcile — but far more people in the world do make up.
That was the usual pattern: dressing up an obviously inevitable future and selling it as revelation.
"I'm not particularly fond of fortune-telling."
"Come on. Looking at it once in a while just to lift your mood isn't so bad, is it?"
"If I could actually see the future, I wouldn't be getting my fortune told in some shabby tent. I'd start a business, become filthy rich, and buy myself a title."
"C-could you not say things that kill the mood?"
Aiden dragged me along by sheer force of will, ignoring every protest. Fortune-telling was nothing but superstition!
The shop we eventually arrived at was, as expected, shabby. A purple tent ringed with gold thread, two torches planted at the entrance and burning merrily away.
"Are you sure this person is any good? No matter how I look at it, this screams cult—"
"Come on, come on. Let's just go inside first, okay?"
I was shoved through the entrance.
The interior of the tent was wider than I'd expected. But the only things occupying the space were a table and chairs at the center.
An old woman who looked like she might cackle at any moment greeted us.
"Ho-ho. Welcome."
She actually said ho-ho.
"Welcome to the House of the Morning Glory That Peeks into the Future."
"Right. I heard this place was famous, so we came."
"But of course. Here, you can see whatever your heart desires."
"Good. That's what I wanted. Do we just sit here?"
"Please, make yourselves comfortable."
Following the fortune-teller's words, the two of us sat down. She addressed Aiden.
"So then, honored guest — what curiosity has brought you here?"
"I want to know about this person's romantic fortune and mine."
"Aha! Romantic fortune! The thing boys and girls of your age are most curious about."
"I'm not particularly—"
I tried to say I wasn't curious, but Aiden clamped a hand over my mouth.
"Now then, what exactly would you like to know?"
"Tell me whether Frey and I end up together in the future."
"Very well. I shall tell you at once. Hmmm! Mm!"
The fortune-teller, who had been gathering herself as if to channel something, suddenly thrust out a hand.
"Payment first. One gold coin."
"Here."
Aiden produced a gold coin without the slightest hesitation and handed it over. The fortune-teller cackled, tucked the coin into her robes, and set her hands upon a crystal ball.
"Hmmm!"
Her fingers writhed over the crystal as though playing a keyboard. A faint light began to pour from the sphere.
The light drifted in the air for a moment — then, astonishingly, was sucked straight into the fortune-teller's eyes. Having taken the light into her gaze, she jerked her head upward with a snap, froze, and began to tremble.
It felt like the opening of a horror novel.
"Um, are you all right?"
I asked out of genuine concern, but there was no answer. She stayed like that for about a minute.
"Ha!"
The fortune-teller burst out a breath and fixed us with a stare. Then she shouted.
"You two are family — you must not be joined!"
"What?"
"Excuse me?"
Silence fell. The fortune-teller kept staring us down, breathing hard, while Aiden and I struggled to process the words that had just come out of her mouth.
I spoke first.
"By family, do you mean a blood relation?"
"Yes!"
"I—I'm sorry, but do you have a mental illness?"
"No!"
The fortune-teller's eyes glittered with madness.
"You and you! Are blood-related! A thick bloodline is visible to my eyes!"
"This person and I are complete strangers."
"That's what you think! But the great Eye of the Stars cannot be deceived! You two are without a doubt connected by a dense bloodline!"
"Our parents are different, for one thing."
"That's a delusion! You! You're the strange one!"
The fortune-teller pointed at me.
"The blood of someone who does not exist in the present is flowing through you! An intensely powerful bloodline of a great figure — so brilliant I can barely look at it!"
"Definitely a mental patient."
I was normally respectful toward my elders. But right now, harsh words were the only option.
I was of common birth. Aiden was the Empire's Third Princess. And we were blood-related? And I supposedly carried the bloodline of some tremendous great figure? Then my mother wouldn't have suffered the way she did!
There was no reason to keep listening to this insane quack spouting nonsense.
She wasn't even worth engaging with. What good would arguing with a lunatic do? This was exactly why I hadn't wanted to come to a fortune-telling shop in the first place.
I moved to take Aiden and leave. But then she opened her mouth.
"Fortune-teller granny. Watch your mouth."
"Family! Related, I said!"
"How have you managed to stay alive this long, spouting absurdities like that?"
"Family…! Huh?"
The fortune-teller's eyes went round. Starting from the chair Aiden sat in, everything inside the tent began to freeze over.
"H-hiiik!"
"Family this, quack that — fine, whatever. But you dare read a future where I can't be with Frey? There's a limit to how completely you can lose your sense of fear!"
Grab! Aiden seized the fortune-teller by the collar. Reason flooded back into the eyes of the woman who had been raving about family relations.
"Th-that is—"
"I'll give you time for last words."
"I-I only spoke what I saw—"
"Ah. So those are your last words?"
Aiden raised her right hand, dense with cold. And she prepared to drive it straight into the fortune-teller!
"You can't!"
She genuinely looked ready to kill, so I lunged and clung to Aiden's right arm. She shouted.
"Let go! Frey!"
"Murder is still not allowed, no matter what!"
"All quack fortune-tellers deserve to die!"
My body swung this way and that with every thrash of her arm. Come to think of it, this princess had once subdued Irina — the top of the knight class — with one hand!
And on the first day, she'd pressed ice spikes to the throats of four noble sons and daughters! I'd completely forgotten, because her temper had rarely come out since then!
"You damn old hag! Why are you still standing there — run!"
"Uh, uh-uh. Uwaaah!"
The fortune-teller fled on the spot. Even after she was gone, I had to keep holding Aiden for a long while.
It took about fifteen minutes for Aiden to finally calm down.
"Hah, hah."
"Huuu… Frey. Why did you stop me."
"Of course I had to stop you. Trying to kill someone in a place like this?"
"Isn't it better than letting that scammer keep victimizing people? She even took a gold coin and then collapsed like that."
"Then you should send her to prison. Not kill her."
"Killing is more convenient, though?"
"Still not allowed."
"Why?"
"Having a friend become a murderer leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"……"
Aiden stared at me blankly, then looked away.
"Bringing that up right now is cheap."
"So what? If I can stop a friend from doing something wrong, I don't care whether it's cheap or not."
"Be honest. You actually like me, don't you?"
"As a friend, yes."
"Hmm. I really do need to make you my retainer soon."
"I already said no."
Huu. Good that Aiden's mood seemed to have recovered. Still, maybe one more thing.
"I think I've figured out a little of Aiden's tastes today."
"Oh? Coming from dense Frey, I find that hard to believe."
"No, really. If you want, I can make you scream with joy right this second."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"This is what I mean."
Clap! I clapped my hands. At the same time, I chanted the spell.
Realistic Fantasy
The filthy interior of the quack fortune-teller's tent began to transform. The cramped space opened wide, and the wind that had been trapped inside brushed coolly against our cheeks.
"Where is this?"
Aiden looked around. It was the glass-floored bridge spanning the cliff gorge we'd visited earlier. The bottomless canyon visible through the floor was enough to make anyone's knees go weak.
But Aiden just looked at me, unimpressed.
"We already did this earlier. It's not fun."
"Then how about this?"
Crrrack. An ominous sound rang in our ears.
"Huh?"
"If you add fun on top of fun, it gets even more fun, right?"
Crash! The glass floor shattered, and we plummeted downward.
Contrary to expectations, Aiden didn't particularly scream.
"Heh, heh-heh. Frey's ideas really are something. But I know this is an illusion, so—"
Three seconds later.
"—so this kind of thing doesn't work on me."
Ten seconds later.
"…I-it's cold because of the wind? Wait, the sensations feel more realistic than before?"
Fifteen seconds later.
"H-how long are we going to keep falling!"
Twenty seconds later.
I could see mana crackling to life around Aiden's body — the kind of mana flow commonly observed when a person feels fear.
Even so, she somehow managed to keep her expression feigning composure.
"H-hmph. Still, I can see the ground now, can't I? Just ten more meters and we'll hit the deceleration point. You applied the same landing principle as that jump ride earlier, right?"
We fell another ten meters.
No deceleration came. Aiden's eyes went as wide as saucers.
"W-what?"
"We'll impact the ground in five seconds."
"No, no! Stop! Frey! Your illusion magic lets you feel the pain just as it is when you hit something!"
"Isn't that part of the thrill too?"
By the time I finished speaking, two seconds remained. Right before collision with the ground.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Aiden finally screamed. Our bodies slammed into the ground—
Whoosh.
—except they didn't. We passed straight through and kept falling. An endless cliff appeared once more. Aiden blinked.
"Huh?"
"Ta-da. It was a double-layered illusion magic that only looked like the ground."
The moment I revealed the truth, we landed lightly on the real ground. No — only I landed.
Aiden was sprawled on the floor in the exact thrashing posture she'd had in midair. Face-down, she trembled all over.
"Aiden, what's wrong? Don't tell me you were scared?"
Payback for that jump ride earlier.
I grinned as I spoke.
"Oh my? Weren't you the one who enjoys this kind of thing?"
"Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!"
Aiden shot to her feet, gathered mana thick with cold into her hands, and charged at me. I manipulated the illusion magic and hid myself. She fired spells in every direction, and I blocked them just enough to keep anything from escaping outside.
Watching Aiden get this flustered and angry was thoroughly refreshing. I'd taken more than enough from her on a regular basis.
Ahaha. This.
It really did turn out to be a fun day.