They left the theater together.
Nari was still looping her arm around Azel’s as if she had no plans of letting him go. Her smile hadn’t faded once since they had left.
Lorraine walked on his other side, quieter but visibly more confident than she had been earlier. Though she hadn’t reached out to take his hand, she kept close enough that the brush of her sleeve against his was constant.
Azel thought the theater would be the last stop of the day, but judging from the spark in Nari’s eyes, he realized she had more plans up her sleeve.
"Are we still going sowhere?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
He wasn’t in a rush to return ho anyway.
He still wanted to see places that hadn’t been included in the ga. If he was going to guide dusa around later, he needed to be familiar with every corner of this place.
Better to learn now than later.
"Well," Nari began, her voice filled with mischief, "there’s a fortune-teller nearby. Want to know your future?"
Azel chuckled at that, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Aren’t fortune-tellers usually fakes?"
At least that was how they were portrayed in fantasy novels after all.
Nari shifted her oversized hat, hiding part of her face then she leaned in closer, lowering her voice to a whisper that tickled his ear.
"Normally, yeah. But Mada Estessa isn’t fake. She once helped predict so of the Magical Mathematics questions in our first-year exam."
Azel raised his brows. "Really? And she was right?"
"More than right," Nari said proudly, lifting two fingers in a victory sign. "I aced the test. Didn’t even need to cram formulas that ti."
Her confidence was so unshakable that Azel couldn’t help but laugh softly.
Maybe this Mada Estessa was worth eting. He extended his hand to Nari, and she imdiately squeezed it.
Then he turned his other hand toward Lorraine. She froze for a mont, startled, but slowly placed her palm in his.
Her fingers trembled, but her cheeks glowed with a shy smile she tried to hide with her other hand.
"Alright then," Azel said with a smirk. "Let’s see what this so-called Mada Estessa has to say."
Nari bead and didn’t waste a mont.
She tugged them both forward, practically dragging them through the streets with surprising energy.
...
The streets grew quieter as they left the busier section of the marketplace behind.
Mada Estessa’s place stood out at once.
While most shops were narrow and simple, her building rose taller, painted deep blue with golden stars etched across its surface.
A sign carved with the symbol of an all-seeing eye swung gently above the door.
Two lanterns burned on either side, their flas flickering in unnatural colors — one was violet, and the other was green.
Azel stopped for a mont, studying the shop.
The front steps were crowded.
Quite a few students and localfolk had gathered outside, forming a line that stretched down the street.
So clutched trinkets or charms they must have bought inside, while others whispered about the accuracy of Mada Estessa’s readings.
"She’s popular," Azel muttered.
"See?" Nari said smugly, gesturing to the crowd. "Does that look like a fake to you?"
But before he could reply, the mood shifted. People began stepping away from the door as if repelled.
Several people backed out of line altogether. Within monts, the space in front of the shop cleared unnaturally.
Then, with a creak, the door swung open.
A figure erged, she was short, cloaked from head to toe in a black robe.
The hood covered her face almost completely, though a glimpse of pale skin showed beneath the shadows.
She rushed toward them, nearly stumbling in her haste, and stopped just short of Azel.
"Mr. Thorne. Student Council President. The Witch." Her voice carried a strange tone. "Lady Estessa requests your presence imdiately. Please, co inside."
Azel narrowed his eyes. "She knows who we are already?"
The girl in the hood nodded once. She didn’t explain further, only turned briskly, motioning for them to follow.
"Well, well," Nari whispered gleefully. "Looks like we’re VIPs."
Lorraine wasn’t so quick to celebrate.
Her hand tightened around Azel’s.
The three of them entered together.
The door shut behind them with a heavy thud. Almost imdiately, locks clicked into place, sealing them inside.
The lanterns hanging above sputtered and went out, plunging them into pitch darkness.
Azel stiffened slightly.
The air changed as well.
A strange scent drifted around them, it slt like soone had sprayed sothing in the air.
The silence pressed close, broken only by the sound of their own breathing.
Then, a voice echoed from every corner of the room at once.
"Ah... I have been expecting you."
A faint glow stirred in the center of the chamber.
Slowly, the light grew, revealing a black-draped table. Atop it sat a glass orb glowing softly, its swirling mist shifting colors like trapped smoke.
Behind the table sat the fortune-teller herself.
She wore dark robes, but her hood had been drawn back, allowing her face to be seen.
Blonde hair spilled freely over her shoulders, catching the light. Her brilliant green eyes glowed like beautiful rubies, watching them like predators watching prey.
Azel felt like he recognized that grin.
[Ding!]
[You have t the Illusion Heroine, Charlotte Irida.]
Azel almost groaned.
Of course.
Of all the people he could run into, it had to be her.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, silently cursing his luck. ’The scamr heroine. Just my luck.’
Charlotte Irida.
Known to most here as "Mada Estessa," but in truth, she was sothing far different.
Among the heroines of this world, she held the most dangerous reputation... not because she lacked strength, but because of how she used it.
Her illusion magic was second to none, her charisma nearly impossible to resist.
She was infamous for trickery, for weaving lies so tightly into reality that people willingly paid her for them.
She had scamd Reinhardt many tis in the novel too, well before she eventually died in the war.
How was he supposed to stop her? Get her to stop scamming?
"Have a seat, any seat... Let see into your future."
Reviews
All reviews (0)