Chapter 177: The Tin Knight and the Tower of Foresight (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 177: The Tin Knight and the Tower of Foresight (4)
“Alright, that's all for today!”
“Everyone, please head home!”
As the two girls—one blonde, the other with disguised brown hair—announced the end of business for the day, the crowd began to disperse, though not without a hint of disappointment.
The mysterious and spiritually gifted fortune-teller, the black-haired beauty Dorothea, slumped back against her chair.
“Hah, I'm exhausted. This is just too many people. Shouldn't we raise the prices?”
Her tone was one of utter exasperation.
And for good reason. She had been playing the part of a fortune-teller from morning till night for several days straight; it was impossible not to be tired.
As if to soothe her, Sophia began to massage Dorothea's shoulders and said, “We're not doing this for the money, after all. But thanks to this, our recognition has shot up, hasn't it?”
“I never thought something like this would actually work, though.”
When Sophia first suggested they pose as fortune-tellers, Dorothea hadn't rated its chances of success very highly.
Understandably so. While the 'Chalice of Tuberose' inside Sophia was certainly useful, its abilities were quite erratic.
It wasn't as if they could specify a time and date to view a particular scene, and the amount of information they could glean was completely random.
Even the method of observation varied each time—sometimes borrowing someone's vision, sometimes hearing it as a fairytale-like story, or other times just seeing a large, single image.
To Dorothea's question of how they could possibly tell people what they wanted to know with something so utterly unreliable, Sophia had replied that they didn't need to. She said there would be no problem achieving their goal even without it.
And she had been right.
Subtle lighting. An incense that unsettled a person's composure. An alluring outfit that drew the eye.
Dorothea had expressed some dissatisfaction with the third element, but Sophia's argument that it was better than being forced to wear rags due to the curse eventually convinced her to nod in agreement.
Visitors to Dorothea's fortune-telling parlor lost their composure to the unique atmosphere and Dorothea's beauty. Once they were hit with a 'powerful blow' in that state, taking control of the conversation was easy.
And there were three main ways to prepare that powerful blow.
First, they observed the customer with the Chalice of Tuberose. Second, they observed the customer's belongings. And third, they used Dorothea's necromancy to observe any spirits or residual thoughts lingering around the customer.
If none of that yielded anything useful, they would resort to all-purpose, catch-all comments like 'You don't seem to be in good health' or 'You are harboring some trouble.' This way, they could make plausible-sounding pronouncements for nine out of ten—no, more like twenty-nine out of thirty—customers.
Of course, pulling this off required a lot of preparation.
The first was Sophia's mana problem.
To use the power of the Chalice of Tuberose, Sophia's mana had to be channeled into Dorothea's eyes. Doing this once or twice was fine, but doing it continuously while playing the fortune-teller would have completely drained Sophia's mana.
By transferring her own mana to Sophia and letting it attune, they could prepare more mana than Sophia could generate on her own, but even that wasn't enough to meet the demand. In the end, Dorothea had to cast a mana-recovering barrier, something she thought she'd never have to use in her life.
The second factor was that the primary targets of this fortune-telling gig were none other than mages.
In truth, unless someone had made a habit of slaughter or had a particularly special history, it was rare for them to have a trail of spirits following them.
Usually, only traces remained, not the souls themselves. To observe these traces with the Chalice of Tuberose, the traces first had to be activated with necromancy.
But while that might work on ordinary people, using necromancy openly on mages would surely be detected. They needed something to hide it, and the solution was the Tin Knight, who was pretending to be a decoration behind Dorothea.
According to him, he could envelop the target's body with killing intent or fighting spirit to block only their energy sense without causing any harm, but Dorothea couldn't even begin to guess the principle behind it.
Seeing as even the two martial-arts-oriented girls listening beside them had heads full of question marks, it didn't seem to be a typical technique for knights or warriors either.
Then again, this wasn't the first or second time the Tin Knight had done something absurd, so in a way, this was just another day.
Dorothea spoke, her eyes imbued with red mana.
“You know, the more I use this, the more its precision seems to increase. It's not perfect, but I feel like I can somewhat see what I'm trying to see.”
“Isn't that a characteristic of the eight sacred treasures? The Belt of Amaryllis and the Gloves of Haider also have properties that change their performance based on the user's skill.”
“What about the Key of Opium? All that does is open locks. Is there any room for growth in that?”
“Who knows? Maybe it could eventually open things other than locks?”
[The 'Tin Knight' speculates about the power to open something like the door to one's heart!]
“Try to make some sense.”
After casually dismissing the Tin Knight's opinion, Dorothea changed the subject.
“So, how much longer do we have to keep this up?”
“But you were happy about all the useful information you were getting on magic tool restoration, weren't you, Miss Dorothea? You even said you could apply some of it.”
“That would be fine under normal circumstances, but we have a time limit. That woman will absolutely do what she says she'll do. She's not the type to show mercy, no matter how much we beg.”
Seeing Dorothea hug her arms and shudder, the Tin Knight and Sophia exchanged peculiar glances.
Normally, Dorothea would have charged head-on, saying something like, ‘Oh, you want to go? Let's go!’ But when it came to the Witch of the East, she seemed completely unable to stand her ground.
At this point, they were actually becoming curious about what kind of person she was.
Sophia said, “Well, you don't need to worry so much. It should be happening soon, probably.”
*
While Dorothea and the 'indoor team' were busy talking, the cleanup work outside, handled by the two girls, was in full swing.
“Phew, we're finally done. Good work, Miss Rapunzel.”
“Ah, yes. You too, Lady Adelaide.”
Adelaide spoke with a slightly apologetic look.
“To be honest, I could have handled this myself, so you really didn't have to help. After all, you're more of a guest here, aren't you, Miss Rapunzel?”
—Just check out the atmosphere here until we move to the next tower. If you think it's okay to stay, then stay. If not, follow us. Otherwise, do as you please.
Those were the words Dorothea had given Rapunzel when the operation began.
She hadn't forced Rapunzel to help them; on the contrary, she had even given her a small amount for living expenses and encouraged her to live freely.
But instead of taking her up on the offer and enjoying some sightseeing, Rapunzel had volunteered to help the group.
“No, it's not that much help, really. Besides, I'd feel uncomfortable if I just kept freeloading….”
It wasn't just politeness; she meant it.
Dorothea seemed to think that since she had received the hair, Rapunzel had paid her dues in full. But from Rapunzel's perspective, her hair was just something that grew back on its own even if she neglected it.
When she lived alone, it had been a nuisance she couldn't be bothered to dispose of, simply piling it up around her house. Having that white elephant taken as ‘payment’ didn't feel real to her.
“Besides, working here like this seems like a good opportunity to learn more about the people of the tower.”
Rapunzel and Adelaide's main job was managing the crowd outside, so they couldn't overhear the conversations happening in the innermost room of the shop.
However, just by watching people line up and chat, they could learn quite a few things.
For example, that the mages of the tower had five ranks, which could be distinguished by the emblems on their clothing.
That mages were treated like a kind of nobility by commoners, regarded with a mixture of fear and respect.
That the mages of the Tower of Foresight were generally quite arrogant, but at the same time possessed a certain gentility and, most importantly, valued rules.
Specifically, after separate queues were made for mages and commoners, they took customers from each side alternately. The commoners would furtively glance at the mages, but the mages, while showing a bit of annoyance, didn't voice any complaints.
This meant that while they wouldn't refuse if the commoners 'voluntarily' yielded their turn, they didn't prioritize their own convenience to the point of ignoring the rules set by the shop.
“When I heard about the origins of the Tower of Foresight, I thought it would be a very rigid and stuffy place, so I'm surprised it's not quite like that. Well, I suppose it would be different if the rules were unreasonable or nonsensical, but valuing rules and traditions doesn't necessarily seem like a bad thing.”
“Does that mean you're planning to enter the Tower of Foresight?”
“I'm going to think about that a little more. Lady Dorothea told me to just take the test for all of them and then join whichever one seems best, but I'm worried it might get awkward if one tower says 'you can join' and I ignore them to go to another.”
“Hmm, a thoughtful young lady. It's true that the younger ones might react a bit sensitively to something like that.”
“Right?”
“But that Dorothea person's advice isn't entirely wrong, you know. If a talent who received an offer of acceptance from all four towers were to choose a specific one, imagine how doted upon they would be by the seniors of the chosen tower. Trading the animosity of those you'll have relatively little to do with for the great favor and high reputation of those you'll be directly involved with… that's hardly a losing bargain.”
“Hm. I suppose you could look at it that way. In that case, huh?”
Having said that much, Rapunzel belatedly noticed something was off.
Who am I talking to right now?
Rapunzel rolled her eyes toward Adelaide, but she wasn't looking at Rapunzel.
Her eyes, glowing green instead of their original violet due to the potion, were fixed on the newcomer with a mixture of slight bewilderment and caution.
“Interesting. I came out to see this fortune-telling business that's been causing such a stir in the tower, and I end up discovering a talent with a most intriguing constitution.”
It was a man with black hair.
His long bangs obscured his right eye, while his visible left eye was a vivid red.
Just moments ago, he had been speaking right next to her, yet his presence had been so faint she hadn't noticed. But once she perceived him, his presence became overwhelmingly powerful.
The man spoke. “I am the head of the Tower of Foresight. I'd like to meet the master of this place. Will you guide me?”