Klein, deciding that he would not purchase any additional services whatsoever, followed behind the woman, stooping low to enter the tent.
The tent's interior was dark, illuminated only by some sunlight that seeped inside. A table covered with paper cards could be made out faintly in the low illumination.
The woman was not affected by this. She went around to the table, sat on the opposite side, and lit a candle.
The dim yellow light flickered, causing the inside of the tent to appear bright and dark at the same time. Klein sat down quietly, his gaze sweeping over the tarot cards on the table, where he discovered familiar cards like "The Magician," "The Emperor," "The Hanged Man," and "Temperance," etc.
Before he could finish looking at the opened cards on the table, the woman reached out to gather all of the cards together and stacked them into a deck, pushing it in front of him.
"Shuffle the cards first and cut the deck," the circus fortune-teller said in a muted voice.
"Me? Shuffle?" Klein asked.
The yellow and red paint on the fortune-teller's face squirmed together as she revealed a slight smile, saying, "Of course, everyone's destiny can only be unraveled by themselves. I only serve as a reader of it."
Klein immediately questioned her warily, "This reading does not require additional fees, right?"
As a keyboard folklorist, I've already seen too many of such tricks!
The fortuneteller said muffledly, "It's free."
Klein, relieved, calmly reached out to shuffle and cut the deck skillfully.
"It's done." He placed the shuffled tarot cards in the middle of the table.
The fortune-teller looked at cards for a while and said, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask, but what would you like to ask about?"
Back when he was wooing his first love, Klein had done research on tarot cards. He asked unhesitatingly, "Past, present, and future."
This was a type of divination as part of tarot card interpretation—three cards, when opened sequentially, symbolized one's past, present, and future.
The fortuneteller nodded. "Then please reshuffle the deck. You can only truly get the cards you want if you know what you would like to ask about."
Were you fooling me just now? Do you have to be this petty? Klein took a deep breath and took the deck back to reshuffle and cut it.
"There won't be any problems this time, right?" He placed the cut deck back onto the table.
"No problem." The fortune-teller picked a card from the top of the deck and placed it on the side of Klein. "This card symbolizes your past."
The fortune-teller placed the second card. "This card symbolizes your present."
Then she picked the third card. "This card symbolizes the future."
"Alright, which card would you like to see first?" The fortuneteller gazed deeply at Klein with her grayish-blue eyes.
"I'll have a look at the 'present' first," Klein said.
The fortune-teller nodded and flipped over the tarot card.
A colorfully dressed character was depicted on this card, wearing splendid headgear with a stick over his shoulder. There was a bindle hanging on the end of the stick, and a puppy was following behind him. It was numbered "0."
"The Fool," the fortune-teller read out the name of the card.
The Fool? The "0" card of tarot? A start? A fresh beginning with all kinds of possibilities? Klein was only an amateur enthusiast of tarot and could only make a rough interpretation.
Just as the fortune-teller was about to say something, the cloth curtains of the tent were suddenly lifted open.
"Why are you impersonating me again? It's my job to handle the divination for people!" a woman said. "Return to your post quickly! Don't forget that you're just an animal trainer!"
An animal trainer? Klein saw a similar-looking woman wearing a sharp pointy hat in a black dress, and her face was painted in red and yellow as well.
The woman who was seated immediately stood up and said disgruntledly, "Don't mind this; it's just that I like doing this. But I have to say, my divination and interpretation can be really accurate sometimes." She spoke and lifted up her dress before quickly trotting away from the tent.
"Sir, would you like me to interpret your cards for you?" The real fortuneteller looked at Klein and asked with a smile.
Klein's lips twitched. "Is it free?"
"No," the real fortuneteller answered.
"Then forget it." Klein left the tent.
He put this matter behind him and bought some meat and vegetables from the 'Lettuce and Meat' market, spending a total of 25 copper pennies, which was equivalent to two soli and one pence.
"There is really not enough." Klein sighed but did not think further about it as he hurried back home.
With the staple food, he could now carry out the luck enhancement ritual.
Back inside his room, Klein translated "The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings" and related phrases into the ancient Feysac language, as well as the Loen language, intending to try the ritual again the next day in those local languages if the original incantation did not take effect. After all, he had to take into consideration the differences between the two worlds.
As for translating it into an ancient ritual prayer that used the dedicated Hermes language, he had a hard time completing it due to his lack of vocabulary.
After readying everything, he finally took out the four loaves of rye bread and placed one in the corner where the coal stove was originally, one at the bottom inner side of the dress mirror, one at the top of the cupboard where two walls met, and one at the right side of the study table where miscellaneous items were kept.
With a deep breath, he took a solemn step forward and went in a counter-clockwise direction in the shape of a square.
When he took the first step, he chanted in a low whisper, "The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
At the second step, he chanted, "The Sky Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
At the third step, he breathed out a whisper. "The Exalted Thearch of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
At the fourth step, he spat out. "The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
When he returned to the original spot, he closed his eyes and waited in his place for an outcome. He had some anticipation in him, some unease, some hope, and some fear.
The darkness in front of him was tainted with the light of hope.
It was at this time that he suddenly felt the surrounding air seem to stop, and a low whisper could be heard beside his ears that sounded at times real, at times sharp, at times imaginary, at times alluring, at times maniacal, and at times crazy.
He did not understand the murmuring, but he couldn't help himself from wanting to listen and distinguish what it was saying.
Hoevert, Klein felt like his head was going to explode, and his thoughts were filled with psychedelic colors. He knew that something was wrong and tried to open his eyes.
Just as his mind was breaking, the murmuring of voices faded away, and his surroundings became very quiet.
He tried once more to open his eyes and found it easy this time.
A gray fog appeared over his eyes—haziness, vague, and endless.
"What's with this situation?" Klein looked around and then lowered his head to discover that he was floating at the edge of an endless fog.
The fog was flowing like water and was dotted with a lot of crimson'stars.' Some of them were enormous, while others were tiny—there was a sense of them being hidden in deep depths, while others floated over the surface of this water-like fog.
Looking at the holographic imagery, Klein reached out his right hand in a half-confused, half-exploring manner to try to touch the crimson'star' that was seemingly floating on the surface.
When his hand touched the surface of that star, a water mark suddenly appeared from within his body and agitated the stars into a "crimson" burst, looking like a dreamlike burning of flames.
Klein retracted his right hand in panic but accidentally touched yet another crimson star. As a result, this star burst with splendid light as well.
In turn, Klein felt his mind empty, and his spirit dissipated.
---
In the Kingdom of Loen's capital, Backlund. Inside a luxurious villa in Empress Borough.
Audrey Hall sat in front of her dressing table, rubbing a bronze mirror. The patterns on it looked ancient, and there was a crack on the mirror's surface.
"Mirror, mirror, awaken."
"In the name of the Hall family, I command you to awaken!"
She switched between many different sayings, but there was no reaction from the mirror at all.
After more than 10 minutes, she finally chose to give up and pouted in grievance, saying in a soft murmur, "Father was indeed lying to me. He always tells me that this mirror was the treasure of the Solomon Empire's Black Emperor and that it is an extraordinary item."
Her voice trailed off, and the bronze mirror that rested on the dresser suddenly glowed with a crimson light that shrouded her completely.
---
In the Sonia Sea, a three-masted sailboat that looked like an obvious relic was navigating through a storm.
Alger Wilson stood on deck, his body undulating with the currents at sea, maintaining his balance easily.
He wore a robe embroidered with lightning patterns, and in his hand was a quirky-shaped glass bottle. Inside the bottle, the phenomenon of the bubbles billowing, frost turning into snow, and signs of gusting wind visibly alternated.
"Still short on the Ghost Shark's blood..." Alger murmured.
Then at that moment, a crimson burst appeared in the space between the glass bottle and the surface of his palm.
---
In the fog of gray mist, Audrey Hall regained her sight and started reckoning the situation in a state of horror and confusion when she noticed the blurry image of a man on the opposite side of her doing the same as well.
Immediately after, the both of them discovered another person standing not far from them who was shrouded in a gray mist.
The 'mysterious person' was Klein, similarly dumbfounded.
"Where is this?" Audrey and Alger were stunned at first, falling silent in the process.