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

Chapter 6
First Fortune (4)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

Actually, it wasn’t that difficult to make someone who didn’t believe in fortune-telling believe in it.

You just had to guess everything they asked correctly.

Of course, that was difficult, which is why those scammers called fortune tellers used all sorts of tricks, but at least if you could do that, it was possible to gain recognition from the rationalist instructor in front of you.

“… Namgung Min, you have passed the dedicated exam. Go out through the back door over there… you can go.”

Listening to Teddybear’s hesitant words, I glanced at the air.

[Objective: Enter Romance Academy as the top student! ←  Highly recommended!]

“……….”

Having cleared this crappy game 25 times, I could say with certainty that if I left now, I would be the top student.

The conditions for entering as the top student weren’t difficult. You just had to be the first among all the students, including those taking the dedicated exams, to pass the exam and come out.

In the game, Kim Seong-il passed and came out exactly 10 minutes after the exam started, so if you left before that, you were guaranteed to be the top student.

‘It’s been about 7 minutes, right?’

It took a while because I mixed in other things besides just fortune-telling, but it was still a decent record.

The fastest time was 5 minutes when I played as the special job , so 7 minutes was quite respectable.

“………….”

But instead of getting up from my seat, I stared intently at Teddybear, who was holding his forehead with one hand and hesitating.

Top student. Yes, it was a good position.

If you weren’t a special job, it was an opportunity to get acquainted with the students in the special job class, and if you were a special job, it made it easier to build relationships.

Besides, being the top student came with special bonus money and various benefits, and there was also a special event that only occurred if you were the top student, so if you prioritized performance, it was a must.

Especially since this ‘fortune teller’ job had a disastrous aptitude for physical activity, the rewards from the top student event would be quite useful.

As a ‘game’ job, fortune teller, it was the best choice.

“Instructor.”

“………Hmm?”

“Do you have anything to say to me?”

“…………….”

However, as a ‘real-life’ job, fortune teller, it was different.

This was definitely a game, but it wasn’t just a game. In the game, I couldn’t talk to Liu Yan before going to the dedicated exam hall, nor could I just sit still like this after the dedicated exam was over.

In the first place, how could a choice-based 2D game be the same as this reality?

‘I have to change my thinking.’

This was reality. A reality that was just incredibly close to .

I remembered the conversation I had with Liu Yan, and Teddybear’s surprised reaction. They weren’t just chunks of text or code that my little sister had written.

‘A world based on ? Or was created based on this world?’

Chicken or the egg.

…Actually, it was a meaningless question.

Even if this was really inside a game, and Liu Yan and Teddybear were just saying pre-determined lines, what I had to do remained the same.

‘See the perfect ending.’

I knew the backgrounds of the students here well. And I also knew the pain and suffering they each held.

If it was just about seeing the ending? I could just neglect their pain and do only what was necessary, like I had done countless times before.

‘Why would I?’

After seeing the ending of , a kind of epilogue would play out, showing the future paths of the other characters through scripts.

If the protagonist helped them, the ending showed them living happily ever after, but if they weren’t helped, it was completely different.

Suicide due to stress, disappearance due to assassination, emigration due to parents’ divorce, frustration from failing to achieve dreams, mental illness due to bullying, and so on.

That part was… filled with the dark emotions Jisu must have felt after our parents’ suicide.

That’s why, after the first playthrough, I repeated save and load countless times in the second and third playthroughs, striving for an ending where everyone was happy.

‘Well, in the end, I just skipped it because the game itself was boring.’

But that was a game, and this was different, wasn’t it?

“…Namgung Min.”

I looked at Teddybear. In the game, he was a typical blunt instructor character with a sad backstory.

But in my eyes, I only saw a father who was genuinely worried about his daughter.

“Yes, Instructor.”

Charles Teddybear was agonizing.

He was conflicted between being a father who wanted to grab me right now and have me tell his daughter’s fortune, and being an instructor who shouldn’t delay me and make me miss the top student position because of that.

Just like in the ’s character event, Teddybear was someone who chose reason over emotion.

He could have his fortune told even after the exam was over. He just had to wait until the entrance ceremony, which was a week after the exam ended.

Knowing that, he must have tried to just let me go. He just had to endure for a week. Stopping me here would be a selfish choice as a father.

Then, should I just take the top student position as he intended?

“You said you had worries about your family, right?”

“………….”

“You haven’t had your fortune told about that worry yet, so doesn’t that mean the exam isn’t over yet?”

I, Namgung Min, say absolutely not.

A foolish choice driven by simple sympathy? Absolutely not.

Leaving aside whether I sympathized with Teddybear or not, even for my personal gain, it was far more beneficial to tell his fortune than to take the top student position.

But ultimately, this would be the greatest benefit for him.

“…Student Namgung Min. You may not know this, but if you leave now, you’ll be the top student. So—”

“To me, a client who wants their fortune told comes before the top student position at the great and glorious Romance Academy.”

“───”

“Isn’t that what a fortune teller is?”

Leaving Teddybear speechless, I shuffled the tarot cards and spread them out in the center of the table.

He still hadn’t given any answer, but I couldn’t persuade the ‘rationalist’ Charles Teddybear without doing this.

I smiled at him, who was still hesitant.

As innocently and sincerely as possible. So that Teddybear’s heart would be moved.

“Please think of the person in your family who has worries.”

“………….”

“Then, you can draw three cards.”

I was done talking. Now, all that remained was his choice.

After agonizing and withdrawing his hand from the table countless times, he—

“…………Here it is.”

—finally chose three cards.

With this, in this place, he became not a rational and logical academy instructor, but a father.

“Good.”

Perfect.

Now, all that remained was… a story to captivate him.

I gathered the rest of the tarot cards and arranged the three cards Teddybear had drawn.

The first card I flipped over was the leftmost one from Teddybear’s perspective.

It was Major Arcana number 16, the card.

“Tower?”

“As you said, it’s the card symbolizing the . The tower is struck by lightning and collapses, engulfed in flames, and people are jumping out of the tower to escape.”

“……….”

“That family member… has been going through difficult times since the past.”

“Since the past…?”

“Yes. These three cards represent the past, present, and future, respectively.”

“…Yes, that child has been sick since she was young…”

Did Teddybear realize he was muttering to himself?

Probably not. But that was a green light, indicating that he was starting to believe in my fortune-telling enough for his thoughts to spill out.

I reached for the second card.

“Then, what about the present? Oh… Major Arcana number 15, .”

“….”

“The Devil tempts Adam and Eve to corrupt them and make them slaves. The Devil isn’t something external. It exists within the human heart.”

The more I explained, the more his face turned ashen. He probably thought the description of was similar to his daughter’s condition.

Because his daughter’s illness wasn’t visible on the outside. She looked fine outwardly, but she was constantly suffering.

“Then…”

“She’s in a very dangerous state right now.”

“…………!!!”

Hearing my words, Teddybear… was sweating profusely and looked as if he would run off somewhere at any moment.

No matter how blunt and rational an instructor he was, he couldn’t help but worry about his daughter after hearing this. Especially now that he believed my fortune-telling was almost entirely true.

But he only flinched and glanced around, not jumping up from his seat.

Well, there was still one card left.

The card symbolizing the ‘future’, which was the most important of all.

“The card…!”

“Let’s turn it over.”

With his breathing becoming rough, I flipped over the last card.

“………This is.”

“…………Major Arcana number 13, .”

“Ah, aah–”

“That’s fortunate.”

“───A-ah?”

For a moment, Teddybear, hearing my words, went through despair, sadness, frustration, and then questioning.

Finally, his expression changed to anger, and he glared at me.

Bang!

He jumped up from his seat, clenching his fists so tightly that they bled.

“Namgung Min………!!”

“Tarot cards have upright and reversed meanings. You know that, right?”

“What does that have to do with anything!! You’re saying it’s fortunate that my daughter is going to die—!!!”

“And usually, the reversed meaning is the opposite of the upright meaning.”

At my words that seemed to welcome his daughter’s death, the enraged father’s hand reached out towards me. I had neither the strength nor the will to dodge his fist.

I didn’t stop speaking, even as he momentarily lost his reason.

“How do you think those cards look to me?”

“───What?”

“The of the past, the of the present, and of the future. To you, Instructor, they are upright, but to me, they appear reversed.”

“…………What does that mean?”

Seeing Teddybear gradually calming down, my eyes gleamed.

This was it. This was the turning point to sway his heart.

Now, was the reason Teddybear chose , , and really because of fortune-telling?

‘Absolutely not.’

When I first laid out the tarot cards, I intentionally placed those three cards in front of Teddybear. Because the more worries and anxieties you have, the narrower your field of vision becomes.

It wouldn’t have mattered even if he had chosen different cards. Actually, one of the cards Teddybear chose was .

‘Fortune-telling is never left to chance. It’s about manipulating with psychology, technique, and information.’

I switched it.

When I was gathering the tarot cards, I switched with , and Teddybear, still in a confused state, didn’t notice. On top of that, I also shuffled the order of the cards to be , , .

As a result, the current tarot reading was created.

“The reversed meaning of is similar, but the reversed meaning of is different.”

“Different…?”

“The reversed I saw has the meaning of breathing freely and recovering.”

“Breathing freely…? Recovering…?”

“Your daughter is desperately trying her best even in the midst of the Devil’s torment.”

“Ah, Eileen…”

Thud.

Teddybear slumped back into his chair, his strength gone. His eyes were shaking, cold sweat was dripping from his entire body, and he was breathing roughly.

All of this was the result of my blatant deception.

“Then, what about the reversed ?”

“………Ah.”

“The reversed means escaping death.”

“That’s, right… that’s why you… said it was fortunate…”

That was a lie.

The reversed meaning of was ‘fear of change’, ‘clinging to the past’.

Rather, the reversed Death meant not being bound by that death, letting go cleanly, and moving forward anew.

In a way, both the upright and reversed meanings told him to accept that death.

But so what?

‘I don’t believe in fortune-telling.’

This was nothing more than a scam, a farce in the name of fortune-telling. So what did it matter what the tarot card, used in that scam, meant?

Whether that card was , , or , I decided its meaning.

That’s how tarot cards originally were. The meaning of the picture changed from moment to moment depending on the person doing the reading.

I used the same method as those fake fortune tellers.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know…”

“There’s no need to apologize. It’s my fault for not explaining it properly.”

Charles Teddybear cried and laughed at my scam.

Honestly, it hurt.

Seeing him even shed tears of relief, my conscience wasn’t just pricked, it felt like it was being gouged out.

This is why I hated fortune-telling. Just one card could sway a person.

‘…Like it did to my parents.’

But I was different from that damn scammer.

That bastard, who I would chew up and spit out, and me. That bastard ruined a family solely for his own wealth and fame, but I wasn’t like that.

More than for myself, it was for others.

‘So, it’s okay.’

It would be okay.

“Instructor, after the entrance ceremony, would it be alright if I visited your daughter?”

“Huh… um? How did you know my daughter was sick…?”

“You told me earlier, Instructor.”

“…Right, I did. I did.”

I looked at my first client.

I had intentionally deceived him with a fortune-telling scam.

So, to be different from that scammer, Teddybear had to be rewarded much more.

I would make sure of it.

“There’s a clear difference between telling a fortune indirectly and visiting someone in person to tell their fortune. Right now, I was just seeing a vague future… but maybe I can find out something about your daughter’s illness.”

“…Student Namgung Min, first, I have to say this.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you… Thank you so much.”

…Haha.

In those 25 playthroughs, I had… never seen Teddybear smile.

“…No, thank you, Instructor.”

Because Teddybear’s smile seemed to tell me that this world was real.

I just smiled along with him.