Chapter 77
"Your voice is steeped in misfortune."
That voice was hoarse and incredibly eerie.
A voice that sounded as if the vocal cords had been thoroughly scraped with sandpaper and a metal skewer.
It was a sound that made one wonder how a person could make such a noise.
It was as if something not human was imitating a person speaking, and the sound had come up through the abyss.
Even Lee Serin and Ella, listening from the side, flinched.
But to Jinseong, this voice was more familiar.
Because this was exactly how his voice had been before his regression.
[ Who are you? Who are you? ]
The Grand Witch on the other end of the phone seemed surprised by Jinseong's voice and asked back, sounding a bit flustered.
But instead of answering her question, Jinseong only spoke his own words one-sidedly.
"Keukeukeu. You're thoroughly steeped in misfortune. They say the fate of witches is truly unfortunate, but yours is especially severe."
[ Who are you to suddenly interrupt? ]
"Truly pitiful and wretched. How is it that you not only embrace misfortune but also carry it in your voice? Keukeukeu. Let's see. Let me see. You didn't perform misfortune-warding when you could, and only later did you try a few times, but it was too much to handle."
[ What? ]
"Goodness, you're nothing short of a misfortune-attracting doll. Witch, you witch. Do you think pouring a fortune into misfortune-warding will work? Will dropping a few spoonfuls of bleach into a sea turned pitch black restore its original color?"
As Jinseong kept speaking his piece, the Grand Witch on the other end of the phone exploded with anger.
[ Who are you------------------!!!! ]
The sound was so loud that the smartphone vibrated from the sound waves.
But Jinseong calmly continued speaking.
"Let's see. Oh, how foolish. You recently bought an expensive dreamcatcher made by an Indian shaman? Do you think you can ward off misfortune by catching nightmares? A net is for catching fish, not dirty water. Thanks to your stupid action, an expensive cursed object has become trash."
[ What? ]
"Oh my. And why did you buy an ivory Ganesha statue? It's not even made by a sorcerer but by some stupid forger with no effect, did you buy it as some sort of art piece? It's made by a nameless forger so it has no value as art either, perfect for being criticized for lack of culture if you display it."
[ You– ]
"Goodness. You're doing all sorts of things. A terrarium full of four-leaf clovers. A doorknob made from a 500-year-old lucky bamboo. A horseshoe made by melting weapons used in holy wars. While not entirely ineffective, they're all trash and wasted effort compared to your misfortune. Why are you buying such things?"
[ You! Did you investigate me? Or did you hear from that burden next to you? I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull, but...! ]
The Grand Witch tried to explode with anger once again.
If not for Jinseong's following words, she surely would have exploded.
"Rather than these expensive pieces of trash, the rabbit's foot you received when you were 7 would have been much more effective."
At those words, the erupting anger instantly subsided, and a small sound of swallowing could be heard from the other end of the phone.
"Do you remember? Hans, who lived next door to you, gave it to you."
[ ... ]
"Oh, Hans who wasn't the youngest. Hans who was neither loved nor hated by the magician. Not cute but popular, not brave but caring man. Hans, Hans. Hans who will become a magician, the pride of the village."
Jinseong spoke as if whispering like an evil monster.
"You remember, don't you."
And after those meaningful words, silence followed for a moment.
And at the end of the silence came a voice that seemed subdued.
A voice tinged with dark memories, as if past delusions had reached across time to grip her.
[ ...How do you know that? ]
"Oh ho. How do I know that indeed. Keukeukeu. Who knows, as Hans used to hum. As that kind child who lived in the rich house and liked to take care of young children said. Perhaps a fairy told me."
[ You. I'm not in the mood for jokes right now. If you don't speak quickly... ]
"Oh, I want a person. I want a human. I like something living more than all the treasures in the world (etwas Lebendes ist mir lieber als alle Schätze der Welt)."
Jinseong sang cheerfully as if humming.
"Today I bake, tomorrow I brew (Heute back ich, morgen brau ich,)"
[ ... ]
"The day after tomorrow I'll fetch the Queen's child (Übermorgen hol ich mir der Königin ihr Kind;)."
After singing a short song to the Grand Witch playfully in an eerie voice, he let out a low chuckle and asked.
"Yes. Witch. Do you remember your first love, the wealthy Jewish man who fled terrible oppression, who gave you a rabbit's foot and promised a future meeting? Do you remember that Hans who would quietly appear when you were spending time alone at the edge of the Black Forest, give you food, stroke your soft hair, and play with you?"
[ ...Who are you. ]
"Oh ho, Hans said. As he gave you the rabbit's foot, he said. I have no fairy so I'm running away like this, but you will surely have a guardian fairy with you. I have no wish-granting dwarf so I'm fleeing from monsters, but you will have a kind fairy who makes pumpkin carriages for Cinderella, he said. And he left a riddle."
Jinseong laughed.
"He said if you guess the owner of the song I sang for you, the name of the fairy who sang this song with a torch lit, you could meet him. But that was a lie, so even if you read and re-read fairy tales to find the answer, your first love never returned. Even when you later gained money and youth, you couldn't find his whereabouts, and in the end, the poor witch lived her whole life alone without a partner, didn't she? Ah, truly tragic. Truly tragic."
[ You-! Who are you---------!!! ]
Once again, the smartphone rang loudly.
"Who am I, you wonder. If I were someone related to Hans, your first love, I wouldn't know your recent circumstances, and if I were someone related to you, I couldn't possibly know about Hans. So who am I, knowing both these things that can't coexist, to be able to know everything?"
He spoke as if teasing her and then ended the call.
Then he handed the smartphone back to Ella.
As soon as he handed the smartphone to her, it rang as if on fire, but he slightly held her hand and shook his head with a smiling face as if telling her not to answer.
Ella couldn't understand what Jinseong had just done, what he had said. And why the Grand Witch with her pessimistic and hysterical personality was reacting like that. And why Jinseong was stopping her from answering the phone.
Because of this, she didn't answer the phone as Jinseong wished, unable to organize her thoughts that were as chaotic as a witch's cauldron.
And after several missed call sounds rang out, and the missed call indicator reached 5, she was finally able to answer the phone.
[ Eeellaaa! Blue Zoisite! Wiiiinterrr!!! ]
As soon as she answered the phone, it was the cry of the Grand Witch who had almost lost her reason.
[ Why didn't you answer the phone! No, you've answered now so it's fine! Who is next to you! Who is it that grabbed the phone and said those things to me! ]
"Th-that..."
Jinseong, hearing the Grand Witch's words demanding to know his identity, put his index finger to her lips. And then he softly said 'Shh'.
"Th-that..."
Jinseong smiled brightly and mouthed words silently.
Sor.
Cer.
Er.
"A, a sorcerer..."
[ A sorcerer? Ha, what kind of sorcerer... No. No. A fortune-teller? Or a contractor? I don't know, I don't know. But... Ha! ]
The Grand Witch, hearing the word sorcerer, mumbled something incoherently to herself.
[ Ella! Put that sorcerer on the phone! ]
Jinseong nodded and took the smartphone from her hand.
Then he spoke again in an eerie voice.
"Keukeukeu. Yes, I am a person who uses insignificant sorcery, a sorcerer who has a connection with the inferior witch student you disapprove of."
[ How did you know that fact? Did you investigate me? ]
"Oh my, witch. If you think a little, you'd know. Is this something that can be investigated? All records of Hans's existence were erased by the Nazis' hand, and all who knew that child were burned to death, so how could this be investigated? All means of spirit vision through rune magic were destroyed, and only remained in your memory, witch, so how could I have known this through investigation?"
[ That... ]
"Wi-tch. Poor child. Yes, I know your past. I know of Hans's existence, I know the answer to the riddle Hans gave, I know what you're doing now, I know what you will do in the near future, and I know how you will die. What should such a person like me be called? How should someone like me be called by you?"
Knew the past.
Knew the present.
Knew the future.
Those who possessed even a part of omniscient vision.
[ You are... No. Are you, a prophet? ]
Jinseong smirked at her words.
"I'm just an insignificant sorcerer."
* * *
There was something called mind reading.
A technique to read people's minds.
A technique to read people's thoughts.
Before the power of science prevailed, it was an ability that could only be used by practitioners or ascetics who had reached the state of other-mind-knowing or the ajna chakra, or contractors who had contracted with transcendent beings that could exert the power to read minds.
But as science developed and the human mind and brain were explored, techniques to read people also developed.
Now, mind reading was divided into mind reading as a supernatural ability, mind reading as cutting-edge science, and mind reading as a psychological method.
What Jinseong used was mind reading as a psychological method.
It was mind reading.
This mind reading is largely divided into two types:
Cold reading, based on the Barnum effect and confirmation bias.
Hot reading, which uses background investigation to accumulate and use information.
In the case of cold reading, information was obtained through non-verbal signals such as gestures, expressions, clothing, hair, pupil dilation, and paralinguistic signals such as tone, intonation, and stress.
But hot reading was a criminal method that obtained information through background investigation rather than technique.
Of these two, what Jinseong was using was hot reading.
It was hot reading performed with information obtained from the Carnival he had conducted against the Grand Witch before his regression.
An infinitely prophetic-like mind reading.
A hot reading that can be done without background investigation, greater than background investigation.
Jinseong knew the Grand Witch's past.
He roughly knew what she was doing around this time before the regression.
He knew how the Grand Witch would die before the regression.
Then was this hot reading just mind reading, or was it prophecy?
"Yes, witch. Grand Witch. Are you now ready to listen carefully to the words of this insignificant sorcerer?"
However, if there was one thing for certain.
It didn’t matter whether what he was using was hot reading or prophecy.
Because in the Grand Witch's mind, Jinseong had already become a prophet.