I Became a Fortune Teller in the Game My Little Sister Made

Chapter 5
First Fortune (3)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

‘They deliberately arranged it this way.’

As I sat in the chair across from Teddybear, I shuddered at the unpleasantness of the dedicated exam.

A needlessly spacious room, bright lights, an ordinary plastic table and chairs.

All of these were things that were rejected in a ‘fortune teller’s room’.

Fortune-telling had to be mystical. Supernatural, fateful, and subtly inspiring trust.

‘That’s why fortune teller’s rooms are small, dark, and dimly lit.’

A small and dark space made it feel like only the fortune teller and the visitor were isolated, and the dim light, by illuminating only the fortune teller, made the visitor focus solely on them.

As I’ve said many times, fortune tellers were ultimately just con artists. They created such an environment to increase trust.

“Namgung Min, 18 years old. From the Unified Korean Empire. Correct?”

“That is correct.”

“Good. Let’s start the exam right away. Use your job skill.”

“Yes, what should I tell your fortune about?”

I wasn’t going to use that strange job skill anyway.

“Me.”

“Pardon?”

“Tell my fortune. If your accuracy rate is above the standard, you pass.”

…I’ve been thinking about it since I entered the exam room, but it’s strange.

I knew Charles Teddybear well. Although was a student-centered game, so the teachers weren’t described in detail, Teddybear often appeared in various events, so I remembered him to some extent.

However, the Teddybear I knew wouldn’t be here as the proctor for ‘Namgung Min’s’ dedicated exam.

He almost always oversaw Abel Legion’s dedicated exam.

Teddybear had a sense of debt towards the US president he failed to protect, and believed that Abel had closed his heart because of his grandfather’s death.

Therefore, Teddybear tried to be considerate and care for Abel Legion, but Abel took this as a provocation, leading to the ’s character event, but ignoring that for now…

Simply put, the admissions officer owed the examinee a debt and tried to give him preferential treatment.

‘Saying it like this, it’s just cheating, isn’t it?’

In the game, it was a heartbreaking story of two people at odds, but in reality, it was just entrance exam fraud. Didn’t I unintentionally prevent his wrongdoing?

Anyway, the Hero boasted top-tier specs even in the entire , so he would surely pass the exam without any problems.

Putting aside thoughts about him for a moment, let’s return to the fundamental question.

‘Why ‘me’?’

The reason why he wasn’t in charge of Abel Legion, but instead was in charge of me.

Actually, this was… something you could easily figure out with a little thought.

“Alright. Then, would it be okay to start with something simple?”

“Do as you please.”

This gentleman came to me ‘to have his fortune told’.

Charles Teddybear himself wasn’t the type to believe in fortune-telling at all, but he was here to grasp at even the faintest glimmer of hope.

“.”

As I used the job skill, just like the first time, a tarot card appeared out of thin air with a pop.

Actually, wasn’t this skill just for creating tarot cards?

‘…Think.’

First of all, naturally, I wasn’t actually going to tell his fortune. That was just relying on luck.

With someone I was meeting for the first time like this, the basics were to gradually build trust with statements that applied to almost anyone, like “You have something you’re worried about, right?”, or “You’ve been tired lately, haven’t you?”.

‘But then, who would come to have their fortune told without any worries? And if they have such worries, they wouldn’t be able to sleep well, so of course, they’d be tired.’

Of course, this method wouldn’t work now. Starting with such a tactic in this bright and spacious room, with someone who fundamentally distrusted fortune-telling, would shatter any initial expectations.

Therefore—I had to use the same cheat as I did with Liu.

As I shuffled the tarot cards and placed them on the table, I opened my mouth.

“You have worries about your family, don’t you?”

“………!!”

Good. The initial impact was strong.

…You might be seeing me for the first time, but I’ve seen you all more than twenty times.

I had the cheat called ‘information’.

‘Charles Teddybear. War hero dispatched to New York, USA. Originally had a cheerful personality, but became expressionless and blunt due to PTSD from the war. He had a wife, but she passed away due to illness, and he lives alone with his young daughter.’

I recalled his lines and personality from the story and character events.

‘Perhaps because of his war experiences, he prefers efficiency and practicality, so originally, he wouldn’t believe in something like ‘fortune-telling’. But with his daughter’s illness worsening, he’s trying anything.’

I also remembered his quite touching backstory.

‘Talking about his daughter carelessly is out of the question. But because of his narrow social circle, almost no one knows about his family, so it’s easy to gain his trust. Starting with ‘family’ instead of ‘daughter’ wouldn’t cause much aversion.’

I devised a plan according to his personality.

Unfortunately, Teddybear wasn’t a main character in , so I didn’t know much about him… but it was better than nothing.

‘In that sense, Liu was the easiest.’

I could learn about the golden toad story during Liu’s character event, and it was easy to answer even if she asked about the box or pouch. After resolving her character event, the gifts she gave as a sign of friendship were almost all end-game items, so it was easy to remember their settings and appearances.

It’s difficult to remember a common item, but isn’t it simple to remember top-tier equipment? In the first place, she didn’t ask me about many things, and even if she showed me a box, I could just guess based on its size and shape.

It would have been a bit troublesome if I was wrong, but I still had ways to handle it.

Anyway, I should fix this habit of my thoughts constantly digressing.

“…Did you find out through fortune-telling?”

“Of course, Instructor Teddybear.”

I brought my thoughts back and focused on the instructor in front of me.

To clear the tutorial, and to be recognized as a ‘fortune teller’.

“Shall we continue?”

The first customer, the first catch, was very important.

Namgung Min spread out the tarot cards with a smile.

Now, it was time to run my mouth.

***

‘This is… unbelievable.’

“…The rightmost one.”

“Hmm, Major Arcana number 4, reversed. It symbolizes doubt and confusion. It seems you’re quite flustered right now.”

“……….”

Charles Teddybear wasn’t someone who believed in supernatural things like fate or gods. Rather, you could say he loathed such things.

He had liked rational and logical things since childhood, and this intensified after experiencing war. It was almost to the point of obsession.

But what about the sight in front of him?

“…The fifth from the left.”

“Minor Arcana, 4 of Swords. It symbolizes rest and withdrawal. Instructor Teddybear, you’re about to retire, aren’t you?”

“………That’s impossible.”

His common sense was being shattered from the roots.

I was just picking random cards from the reversed ones, but this fortune teller was seeing right through his thoughts just by looking at those cards.

‘I had expected it. But still…’

If someone had entered with the job of ‘fortune teller’, wouldn’t that mean their fortune-telling skills were guaranteed?

Teddybear was desperate enough to give up being in charge of the ’s exam, whom he felt sorry for.

He had tried every means to cure his daughter, who had been suffering from an unknown illness for years, but failed, and eventually resorted to things he despised, like fortune-telling and religion…

‘Even the couldn’t cure her.’

…Yes, even if this fortune teller in front of him had figured out his inner thoughts through fortune-telling, it didn’t mean he could cure his daughter’s illness.

But seeing this fortune-telling that seemed to see through all his thoughts… it wasn’t unreasonable for a faint hope to bloom.

‘No, wait. Could he have already heard about me…?’

It was a plausible guess at first glance, but Teddybear soon denied it himself.

He was a war hero, but he also had many enemies. If the news of his daughter’s illness had spread, there would have been insidious attempts to take her hostage.

That’s why he knew he had only asked those who were tight-lipped while searching for a cure.

Moreover, how could someone from the Unified Korean Empire, where he had the most enemies, know about his family?

Above all, it had only been a week since he decided to retire, and he hadn’t told anyone.

‘Is this real…?’

Then, really. Was this fortune teller figuring everything out through actual fortune-telling?

All the fortune tellers he had seen so far were frauds, but now a ‘real’ fortune teller had appeared.

“………The middle card.”

“Minor Arcana, 2 of Pentacles reversed. Instructor, excuse me, but your expenses have increased a lot in recent years, haven’t they?”

…Yes, because he was spending all the money he had saved throughout his life to find healers from the church and skilled doctors.

“The third from the right, no, the second card.”

“Minor Arcana, 9 of Pentacles. And it’s reversed, so you must have been scammed recently.”

Yes. He had personally chased down and imprisoned a quack doctor who ran away without even providing treatment despite receiving a down payment.

“The leftmost one. No, the rightmost one… ah, no. The sixth from the right.”

“Major Arcana, number 20, reversed. It means hesitation and indecision.”

Teddybear, who had been picking the cards laid out by Namgung Min as if possessed, suddenly looked into Namgung Min’s eyes.

Reflected in those eyes, he was… trembling slightly and sweating cold sweat.

A vast, empty space. Bright and colorful lighting. A plastic table and chairs. The worst environment for fortune-telling, too poor to create a sense of mystery.

But before he knew it, Teddybear was focused on every word Namgung Min uttered.

See, how did he know I was hesitating? Was this fortune-telling really accurate? None of the fortune tellers he had seen so far had even come close to being this accurate. Was this young student reading all his thoughts?

“Instructor.”

“………Uh, y-yes.”

“Look at your left hand.”

“……What?”

But even as Teddybear was gradually falling into the fortune-telling, Namgung Min only wore a faint smile.

He skillfully shuffled and laid out the tarot cards with his white-gloved hands. The combination of the rarely seen red dress shirt, white tie, and black suit suited Namgung Min the fortune teller well, and seemed to speak of his definite skill.

Above all, his confident movements and smile, and even his pleasant voice.

Teddybear looked at Namgung Min with eyes mixed with expectation and distrust, then turned his gaze to his left hand, where he felt something.

“…A card.”

He didn’t know when it had gotten there.

He didn’t know how it had ended up under his hand.

A reversed tarot card.

“Would you like to turn it over?”

“………….”

After a brief hesitation, he flipped the card over.

The card under his hand was—a judge holding a sword in his right hand and scales in his left.

Major Arcana number 11, .

“It means… a fair judgment. What do you think, Instructor?”

“………….”

“Have I passed?”

Teddybear couldn’t say anything.

The fact that he, known for being the strictest about failure in , remained silent was already a sufficient answer.

The judge who didn’t believe in fortune-telling had given a fair judgment.

Namgung Min gave a sly smile.