Chapter 22
I saw Ms. Fortune-Teller sitting in the shabby fortune-teller's shop.
With a black veil pulled down from head to toe and jangling ornaments draped all over her, she looked exactly like a Western witch or gypsy fortune-teller straight out of a movie.
But what caught my eye more than anything was her large breasts and cleavage visible between the folds of her dress, along with her prominent hips.
She had a voluptuous figure that even her dress couldn't hide.
‘So that's because she's a demon.’
There was one thing I had noticed while passing through this city.
Compared to other races, demon-type otherworlders had remarkably sensual figures.
If you let your guard down even a little, your eyes followed them of their own accord.
The fortune-teller in front of me looked like one of those demons, too.
A race with bat wings would have to be either a demon or a bat beastkin.
‘But she doesn't look like a bat beastkin.’
From watching otherworlders at the convenience store for the past few days, I had noticed that most animal beastkin retained traces of their nature in their faces.
Wolf beastkin had fur on their faces or pointed animal ears.
The lizard beastkin's distinctive scales stood out.
In extreme cases, there were even people whose faces had become completely animal-like.
If Ms. Fortune-Teller were a bat beastkin, she would probably have at least a few of those traits.
‘Seeing as she doesn't, she definitely isn't a bat beastkin.’
If anything, the fact that she was a demon made it more believable.
Demons were skilled at magic, after all.
What race could possibly be better than demons at seeing the future or reading fortunes?
Once I thought of it that way, it made sense.
“Why are you staring at me so intently, Traveler?”
“Ah, I'm sorry. You're just so beautiful.”
“Hee hee, you know how to make a woman feel good.”
Even setting aside the fact that she was a demon, Ms. Fortune-Teller in front of me gave off an intensely mysterious aura.
Her clothes, her manner of speaking, and her voice.
And above all, the faint sacred feeling emanating from her body.
It felt like something indescribable, as if I had come to a church, cathedral, or Buddhist temple.
Was this that mysterious spiritual energy or whatever it was?
“Then please sit.”
When I sat down, Ms. Fortune-Teller looked me over through her veil and whispered in a soft voice.
“Before reading your fortune, allow me to guess your race first.”
“Pardon? Ah, well…….”
It was a pattern one often saw when visiting a fortune-teller.
The type who made small talk about your personal life to earn your trust in what they said.
For a real fortune-teller, it must have been an easy question.
Honestly, even a passing high school student had known I was human.
“Such feeble mana, with no horns or tail, and such a plain, ordinary appearance. Hee hee, there's no use hiding it. You are a doppelganger who has transformed into a human, Traveler.”
“…No, I'm not.”
At my immediate answer, Ms. Fortune-Teller's shoulders stiffened with a start.
“…Th-then, a half-elf with its ears cut short?”
“No.”
“Then perhaps a high-ranking lich pretending to be human?”
“……”
I never expected her to get it wrong in quite this way.
I thought it would be a genuinely easy question.
This lady really is a fortune-teller, right?
I haven't come to some strange place, have I?
After missing the mark so spectacularly three times in a row, Ms. Fortune-Teller flapped her wings rapidly in apparent confusion.
She didn't seem to realize she was doing it.
Her startled eyes darted about behind the veil.
“I am human.”
“Human? You mean, really?”
Startled, she stared intently at me.
“This is my first time seeing a human man in person. I mistook you because I saw a flow of fate unlike anything I'd ever seen before.”
“……”
“Still, I got half of it right, didn't I? Hee hee. Oh, the energy of the stars is murky today, so my spiritual sight was temporarily clouded! But I can tell exactly why you've come here, Traveler.”
Maybe she'd manage to get this one roughly right.
“Hee hee. It's obvious. The reason a young man visits a fortune-teller's shop. It's a romantic problem, isn't it?”
Ms. Fortune-Teller straightened her back as if she had regained her confidence.
“You had a major fight with your girlfriend, didn't you? From what I can see, she's absolutely furious.”
“I don't have a girlfriend.”
“……Pardon?”
“I said I don't have one. A girlfriend.”
Silence.
A suffocating silence descended over the cramped fortune-teller's shop, where the only thing rising was the acrid smell of incense.
Seemingly flustered, Ms. Fortune-Teller fidgeted with both hands beneath the table before asking cautiously.
“B-but you had one until recently, didn't you? Maybe you broke up a few days ago…….”
“No. I mean I don't have one at all. Not even once.”
“R-really?”
“Yes.”
I'd never held a woman's hand even once in my life, so what was she talking about?
The picture I'd taken with those otherworldly high school girls earlier today had been the first photo I'd ever taken with a woman.
Thinking about it made me feel pathetic.
Ah, I almost cried.
“…Huh? Th-that's strange.”
Why did she keep killing and resurrecting an existence that had never once existed in my life?
Ms. Fortune-Teller's breathing grew noticeably rougher.
“Th-this can't be right. It clearly says in your fate chart…….”
Flustered, she tapped the crystal ball.
At first, I thought she was just a bit of a klutz.
But wasn't this Ms. Fortune-Teller just a complete quack?
“Ahem!! I-I must have read it wrong. There are people like this sometimes. Perhaps I should say your thread of fate is somewhat tangled? Hahaha!”
It felt as though cold water had been thrown over the mysterious atmosphere.
She repeatedly cleared her throat and hurriedly reached toward the crystal ball.
“Now, place your hand on the crystal ball! I shall show you the true fate that awaits you, Traveler!”
Her face said she intended to make up for her mistakes somehow.
“I-I won't charge you! This is a matter of pride.”
“Understood.”
I was a little suspicious, but since I'd come in, I decided to see it through to the end.
By now, I was curious how far she could continue to get things wrong.
When I placed my hand on the crystal ball, light burst from inside it.
But there was something strange about the light.
Naturally, I had expected a gloomy, ominous light to flow out.
Ms. Fortune-Teller practically radiated a demonic atmosphere, after all.
But then.
A warm energy traveled through my fingertips from the crystal ball.
The white light softly illuminating the shop even gave it a sacred feeling.
If I had seen only the light, I might have mistaken it for some kind of religious gathering.
Could a demon really use light like this?
That was when.
“Hng……!”
A faint moan escaped Ms. Fortune-Teller's lips.
“Ms. Fortune-Teller?”
“S-sorry. The weight of your fate is, ngh, a little heavy. Haa, haa.”
What?
This reaction.
Her labored breathing leaked out from behind the veil.
Her bat wings trembled.
“I'll just look a little longer, just a little…….”
“……”
“I-I can see it……! I can see your fate, Traveler.”
Beneath the veil, I could see the lower half of her face as she bit her lower lip.
How long had I waited?
“Haa, haa, I-I saw your fate.”
Her eyes slowly opened, their corners trembling.
“You're fated to be tormented by people.”
“People?”
When I questioned her, she swallowed hard and nodded.
“Yes. People. You are fated to be plagued by problems involving people. People will constantly gather around you. The direction of your life will depend on how you manage those people who gather around you.”
An awfully vague fortune.
I had expected as much.
After all, Ms. Fortune-Teller was a quack who hadn't been able to guess my race or even correctly determine whether I had a girlfriend.
‘This isn't something I need to take seriously, anyway.’
Still, a problem involving people.
Come to think of it, it was probably the most fitting fortune for me, a convenience store part-timer.
Every day was a battle against troublesome customers.
‘Isn't my life just dealing with troublesome customers constantly swarming in?’
Had I told her my occupation?
No.
I hadn't.
This lady might actually be a more gifted fortune-teller than I'd thought.
“And……”
“And?”
“Be careful with boxes.”
After struggling to get the words out, she looked at me.
Silver eyes were visible beyond the veil.
I saw a shining radiance in them.
The quack-like appearance she had shown just moments ago had vanished without a trace.
She spoke to me in a serious voice.
“I can't see the rest clearly. But I see a box—a box causing you trouble, Traveler.”
“What kind of box?”
“I can't see that far, but a box will definitely appear before you soon. Be careful when it does.”
Be careful with boxes.
I was always dealing with boxes at the convenience store.
If I had to be careful with every single one, I wouldn't be able to do my job.
But I didn't bother arguing.
Partly because I had thought from the start that this was just something to enjoy for fun.
But more than anything, there was an unknowable power I could feel in Ms. Fortune-Teller's eyes and mouth as she looked at me.
I had a strong feeling that I should heed her words.
“Then, as for the fortune fee…….”
“N-no, it's fine. You don't have to pay. As I said earlier, I won't take a fee for this reading. I didn't really see anything properly, either. It would be embarrassing to accept money after showing you a fortune like this.”
While rummaging through my wallet, I put it away at Ms. Fortune-Teller's reply.
If she wouldn't accept it, there was nothing I could do.
“This was my first time seeing the future of a human man, so the reading was very clumsy. If you come back another time, I'll read it properly for you.”
“Understood.”
Ms. Fortune-Teller bowed politely.
“You may leave by the way you came.”
“Is it over?”
“Yes. This is as far as the fortune I can give you goes.”
I was a little disappointed.
Maybe I should have asked at least a little about my romantic prospects while I had the chance.
But I couldn't say anything more under the firmness in her gaze, so I left the shop as I was.
After leaving the shop, I looked back at it.
“It's gone.”
The shop was nowhere to be seen.
As if it had never existed in the first place.
“Was I bewitched by a ghost?”
It had vanished without a trace.
***
Succubus Lily.
She was an irregular, one of the few mutants among demons capable of using holy power.
To demons, holy power felt like a force that burned their bodies, so it was something no demon should ever come into contact with.
But she had possessed holy power since birth.
A demon who possessed holy power.
There was no way the church could leave her alone.
They enshrined her as a saint, calling her a living miracle.
Taken into the church from infancy, she learned how to control holy power and perform miracles without burning her own body.
And when she became capable of wielding it completely, it was no coincidence that she became the Saintess, one of the Seven Heroes.
Because she was a demon who could use holy power more nobly than anyone.
She became the Eighth Saintess and the current Saintess.
It was a first for demons.
It was also a first for succubi.
The resurrection of the First Saintess.
The descent of a miracle.
All sorts of fuss was made over her.
And understandably so, since she was a being who climbed the Hunter Tower while using holy power in a demon's body.
Because of that, she became one of the Seven Heroes and was worshiped by everyone.
But even that Saintess had a secret she could never tell anyone.
The holy power she controlled was a tingling, strangely pleasurable stimulation that made every hair on her body stand on end.
Every time her succubus instincts drew up that holy power, they relished the electrifying pain-pleasure that ran down her spine.
Who could she tell?
That the Saintess revered by everyone felt sexual stimulation every time she blessed someone else.
She adjusted the degree of her release every day so no one could tell.
During Mass and prayer, whenever she bestowed blessings, she exerted her patience to hold back the moans trying to burst out.
While conquering the Tower, she clenched her fists so hard they left nail marks to endure the pleasure brought by the holy power she released.
Having become the Saintess, she couldn't expose this vulgar constitution(?).
So she came up with the fortune-teller's shop.
Wearing a veil pulled low over her face, she could freely draw on holy power under the pretext of reading fortunes.
That way, even if her cheeks flushed and she squirmed a little, no one would notice.
After pouring out holy power while solving people's trivial concerns, she felt refreshed.
Once her succubus instincts had been sated, she wouldn't be swept away by excitement even when using holy power for a while.
She always ran the fortune-teller's shop on days before tackling the Tower.
Today as well, she had opened the shop to read fortunes and sate her instincts before tackling the Tower, when a man entered.
It was the first time since the Hero.
An existence whose flow of fate she couldn't see.
She couldn't see his race, age, or name.
The Saintess's eyes could see what others could not, allowing her to pierce through who was before her and what troubles they carried.
But she couldn't discern even the man's basic race and age, much less his concerns.
If anything.
‘What a sweet scent.’
She couldn't concentrate because of the strange, sweet scent coming from his body.
When she heard that he was human, like the Hero Yusera, it made sense.
So he was human.
That was why he smelled so sweet.
After confirming he was human, she looked deeper into his fate.
‘He has luck with women…….’
He had the appearance of someone who would draw many women to his side.
Naturally, she thought he had a girlfriend, since he looked fated never to be without a lover—but he said he didn't.
Once she failed to get a single thing right, she grew curious.
What kind of flow of fate did this man possess?
She ended up using more holy power than usual to see the flow of his fate.
“Hng!”
She couldn't hold back a moan.
Only then could she dimly see the shape of his destiny.
He was fated to have people swarm around him.
‘Other than that…….’
The one box she could see most clearly, closest to him.
It posed a threat to this man.
Not a threat severe enough to call it a calamity.
But it was definitely a threat that would trouble him.
She finished the reading with the advice to be careful with boxes.
“The Traveler will make it through, I'm sure.”
It was the first time she had ever felt so powerless.
“Haa…… I'm still far too lacking.”
Leaning back in her chair, she let out a sigh.
That sigh carried the sweet, sugary fragrance unique to an aroused succubus.
“For now, let's devote myself to training.”
Having made up her mind, Lily closed the fortune-teller's shop.
Taepyeong City's gifted fortune-teller's shop would remain closed for some time.