Chapter 126 - Spirit of the Guardian Tree (5)

Sion was arguing with an old man who sat on a straw mat with his wares spread out.

I leave her alone for two seconds and she starts picking fights with innocent people? I can understand her master's difficulties without even asking.

Can't we just enjoy ourselves on an outing? There's no need to get worked up.

I quickly approached to mediate between them.

"What's going on?"

"..."

Sion just glared at the old man with clenched fists, offering me no explanation.

Recognizing me as her companion, the old man laughed wearily and explained, "Well, seeing her unusual fortune, I offered some light advice, but she got angry. My, my, tsk tsk."

"...What advice was that?"

What could you expect from a street fortune teller? While strange talk is problematic, it's also problematic to pick up and pocket whatever others throw at you.

"I said she'd do better if she distanced herself from her master."

I asked Sion, "Did you pay for a reading?"

"No, I don't believe in such things."

"Then... we'll be going now. Sorry for the trouble, elder."

I tried to brush it off since no money had been spent, but Sion wouldn't let it go.

"No, I need to hear what basis he had for such nonsense."

"..."

"If you don't answer properly, you'll face consequences."

The old man stroked his beard and laughed as if dumbfounded. His hair was sparse like wild prairie grass, and one eye was white, apparently non-functional. His limbs were as thin as a fasting monk's.

His appearance was unmistakably that of a homeless person. This looked like Sion harassing someone vulnerable.

He slapped his palm on the mat and said, "No, that requires payment! How do you expect free readings? Huh? Am I supposed to starve to death?"

Of course, she'd be upset at being told she'd do better away from her Sword Master... 

But isn't she falling for an obvious sales tactic too easily?

"Elder, how long have you been telling fortunes?"

"I've made my living doing this in Rigbed Plaza for thirty years. Unlike that so-called prophet fraud, I tell everything straight, even bad fortunes. I speak honestly. So I haven't made much money, but I have a reputation. Ask any shop owner around here. They'll know me."

It felt like listening to a drunk's life laments.

"I see. Can you tell us what you base your readings on?"

"Stars. Always the stars. I was once a priest at the Star Altar. Human destiny moves by stellar power. Cards, bones, draws, phrenology, dice—all charlatan's tricks."

Sion challenged his credentials, "Nonsense. The Star Altar doesn't exist."

I hadn't heard of such a place either. Though it might exist somewhere, it probably wasn't anything significant.

Still, scrutinizing a street fortune teller's background was just a waste of energy.

"How much for one reading?"

"Usually one silver coin, but today it’ll be for five copper coins."

Not even gold coins—that was about the price of three or four potatoes, not bad.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out some money. Sion looked displeased.

"Why invest money in nonsense?"

"Curiosity. I wonder why he said such things."

"Must be from a wealthy home to not know the value of money."

"You're curious too. Sit down."

"No, I'm not. I just found it suspicious how he knew about my master."

Obviously, he just took a shot because she looked like an Eternia student.

I crouched before the old man. But Sion stood with crossed arms, refusing to lower her pride.

There was no hope of hearing the prophecy of the Stone Prophet or whoever was causing such commotion in Rigbed. Being an impromptu plan, I had no real regrets. Even a famous fortune teller's words weren't necessarily good. What if we heard something bad? Nothing could be more unpleasant.

There were advantages to quack fortune-telling. If one heard something good, one could just feel good about it; if bad, one could simply dismiss it as nonsense.

I placed five coins on the mat and added one more, saying, "Would you tell us what my friend is curious about? Please keep it positive, elder."

"Ho ho, I see she has a smart and patient man as a lover, quite unlike her temperament."

I hurried to correct him, "We're not like that."

Sion clenched her teeth. 

Is this old man deliberately provoking her?

I laughed internally at how confidently he delivered such a wrong answer.

"If not, then tell me your friend's birthday."

I looked up at Sion.

Out of pride, Sion kept her mouth firmly shut.

The fortune teller lamented.

"My, how can someone so stubborn achieve great things?"

"Let's quickly check and go."

She reluctantly spoke, "...July 7th."

"That's it."

"Let me see. Hnngh."

The fortune teller lifted a watermelon-sized glass jar from behind him. It was half-filled with water.

He took about a dozen pebbles inscribed with runes and dropped them into the jar.

"Akra, Maha Subakum."

When he chanted what seemed like an improvised spell, several sunken stones floated to the surface. Two stones stuck together and spun in the middle of the water's surface.

"Look here. Your friend's master is a great star. Great stars have strong gravity. They pull everything around them. You too are a small star drawn by that gravity, orbiting around."

"..."

"But you're destined to become a great star like your master. Small stars can maintain balance with each other due to weak gravity, but great stars have such strong gravity they disrupt celestial order and must collide. What happens then? Everything shatters into dust and smoke. That's the biggest reason you must leave your master's side."

Had Sion mentioned her master was a Sword Master? Listening to it, it seemed a rather plausible reading.

Sion denied the fortune.

"I don't believe it."

"If not now, someday you'll have to."

She still looked displeased. Yes, I understand that feeling. I too would feel terrible hearing a fortune saying I should leave Silveryn's side.

Since Sion was Eternia's famous overall first-ranked, this could be a reading pieced together from rumors. So we couldn't blindly believe it. We just had to take it as entertainment.

The old man didn't stop there but started trying to sell to me.

"Ah, shouldn't you get a reading too? When lovers come together and only one gets a reading, the luck transfers to one side."

"We're not lovers. And I'm fine."

I stood up, brushing myself off.

"Now now, just get one reading."

He held up three fingers before me.

"I'll do yours for just three. Practically free."

"I'm satisfied with my current life."

Suddenly, he raised his voice and tried to grab me.

"Hey! No, two! No, I'll do it free. Sit down, quickly!"

"...That's not necessary."

"I'm curious. I'll do it free so sit down."

Why is he suddenly acting like this? It's too suspicious when he offers to do it for free.

Though he might have targeted Sion because she was somewhat famous, that shouldn't apply to me.

I briefly touched my face to check if my mask was on straight. Wearing the mask meant I had no connection to Silveryn.

Maybe it was another sales tactic. I sat down again, willing to play along.

"Tell me your birthday."

"Is that really necessary?"

"It's better to know."

I hesitated before speaking.

"...December 1st."

"Let's see..."

He fished all the pebbles out of the jar, emptied it, and when the water settled, dropped them back in.

They sank lifelessly to the bottom like ordinary pebbles.

"...Strange. Something's wrong. Is that really your birthday? You're deceiving me."

"You didn't chant the spell."

"The spell doesn't matter, you fool! How dare you try to test me, you crafty one."

"Actually, it's August 4th."

"Right, ahem, let's see..."

He threw the stones again, but they sank lifelessly as before.

"Hmm..."

He didn't scold me for lying. Unlike a street fortune teller, he sharply cut to the essence.

"This isn't it either. You're... an orphan?"

Suddenly my heart sank like a weight had been attached to it.

I was momentarily speechless.

"..."

When I maintained silence without denial, Sion standing beside me looked at me with round eyes, as if asking if it was true.

Why wouldn't I have a birthday? Everyone born in this land had one. But orphans who never knew their parents' faces had no way of knowing their birthdays.

Even if they knew, how could orphans celebrate the day their life began?

So birthdays didn't exist for children raised in the Akates Temple. I was the same. I erased it from my mind and never celebrated it.

We just gathered on our baptism day to pray to Goddess Akates. That was our birthday.

I hadn't expected the fortune teller to get this right. I thought if I made up a birthday, he'd just give an appropriate answer.

His tone suddenly changed from that of a drunk to something as solemn as a high priest.

"It's fine not knowing your birthday. Instead, you should throw them."

He fished the stones from the jar and handed them to me. They felt heavy as iron when I took them.

"...I just throw them in the jar?"

"Try it."

I threw the stones over the jar.

Unlike before, the stones didn't sink but stopped at different points, floating in the water. Like forming a constellation.

The old man's brow furrowed deeply.

Sion, who had been standing stiffly, crouched beside me, apparently curious.

He stared at the jar silently before speaking, "I cannot see your fortune."

"Do you really need to know the birthday?"

"It doesn't matter. I simply cannot see it. Humans cannot know all of god's will."

"Then what is this?"

What could these floating stones mean?

The old man looked down at the jar with unfocused eyes. His eyes seemed to be watching something invisible rather than the stones.

"This is your past. A living person's constellation shows the future, and a dead person's shows the past. You're just like a dead person."

"..."

The wrinkles deepened on the old man's forehead. After a long silence, he spoke, "You have a painful past. You lost something as precious as life itself. So..."

"I don't need to hear more."

I reached into the jar and scattered the stones. But the old man continued regardless, "So, you live in the past. Your heart is filled with anger at yourself for being unable to protect anything."

"Stop. I don't want to hear this."

"No, you need to hear these words."

I put my hand on my wooden sword. I was prepared to draw blood to silence this old man.

Before I could draw it, Sion grabbed my arm to stop me. She had sensed my dangerous mood. I looked into Sion's eyes. Her pupils were as wide as full moons, apparently shocked by my reaction.

Sion was calming me down instead. Though I'd come to calm her, the situation had reversed.

The old man continued, "You will keep fighting. To grasp even mirages, to protect the ghosts of the past. That is both your curse and your lantern. The only guide burning intensely in your empty fate."

"..."

"Remember this and move forward."

Everything became too quiet. No, the plaza was noisy, but I couldn't register these sounds.

My mind was in a vacuum.