Chapter 12
Then, she turned her head to look at Leoni.
At the old woman’s words, Leoni froze, as if she had stopped breathing.
“Yes. I feel like something is happening to me, but I don’t know what it is.”
Tears seemed ready to spill from her large eyes at any moment.
Feeling sorry and guilty, I held her hand tightly.
“No, actually, something has been happening for a long time now. It feels like someone is controlling my life, like they’re just waiting for me to die.”
Startled, I squeezed her hand.
“Leoni, what do you mean by that?”
“I heard you can see both the past and the future clearly. And that you give clear answers.”
But Leoni didn’t take her eyes off the old woman.
Despite her trembling, she pressed out each word firmly as she asked,
“Can you tell me what situation I’m in right now?”
As Leoni asked in a trembling voice, the old woman gave a small smile.
It seemed like she was trying to ease the mood, but to me, it just looked eerie.
“Of course. I’ll help untangle your troubles.”
Then the old woman pointed to the cards on the table.
“Pick two of these cards.”
A good number of cards were neatly stacked on the table.
I held onto Leoni’s hand as I studied the cards carefully.
‘They’re too new for something an old lady would use.’
Paper corners should get worn out after repeated use, but these cards were spotless, like new.
“The first card will show the problem you’re facing. The second will show the solution.”
At her words, Leoni, looking extremely tense, picked out two cards.
The old woman slowly laid the two cards Leoni had chosen on the table.
A brief silence fell.
“Oh, dear.”
It was the old woman’s quiet sigh that broke the heavy silence.
“Is it bad?”
Leoni, tense as well, clasped her hands tightly, waiting for the woman to speak.
But the old woman didn’t open her mouth easily.
Sigh, do astrologers all get the same training or something?
Their pattern is always the same, exactly the same.
‘But this voice… I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before.’
As I tilted my head, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, the old woman finally spoke.
“Your fate is changing.”
“My fate?”
“Oh dear, but it’s not good.”
That first line was almost exactly what she had said to me.
Only the person was different; everything else was the same.
Now she’d make Leoni anxious like this and then demand money, as usual.
The first card Leoni had drawn was completely black, with no image on it.
Even without knowing its exact meaning, it was clear it meant something bad.
‘What is this, are all the cards bad if you flip them over? Are they just using people’s anxieties to make money?’
—That’s what I was grumbling in my head.
At least, until the old woman spoke again.
“Someone has stolen your fate. Until it is returned, you will never have peace.”
“W-What did you say?”
I was more shocked than Leoni and shot up from my seat.
My heart pounded uncomfortably, horribly fast.
Someone had stolen Leoni’s fate.
That was probably—no, it was definitely about me.
At that moment, the old woman lifted her head and looked straight at me.
From the moment I first saw her, I had felt an odd sense of familiarity, but the moment I met those blood-red eyes hidden beneath her hair, everything became clear.
‘It’s that old woman.’
The one I saw at the front gate the morning I returned from the Duke of Cygnus’s estate.
As I stared at her in shock, Leoni gently grabbed my hand.
“Ribe, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
After checking my face, Leoni turned back to the old woman with a calm expression.
“Can you tell me who stole my fate?”
Oh, my God.
The heart that had been pounding painfully fast felt like it stopped altogether.
So this is how I die in this life.
Goodbye, everyone.
“No, miss. Sadly, I can’t see that far.”
As my stopped heart cautiously began beating again,
“…But it’s someone very close to you.”
Wow, she’s really toying with us!
“I see.”
Leoni now had a thoughtful look on her face.
“So you’re saying bad things keep happening to me because someone stole my fate?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what should I do now?”
I felt like I was about to faint at any moment.
What if she brought up my story now?
No, wait a minute.
I hate this situation too, you know. I don’t know what to do either!
I’m terrified of Zerach, and that’s why I’m planning to package everything neatly and return it to Leoni!
“Your father is in danger too. I see a very dangerous shadow.”
At those words, Leoni began to breathe heavily.
“That’s true. How could you know that…”
“It will not be easily resolved. You’ve been caught up in something everyone fears, so the consequences will linger for a long time.”
I slowly held Leoni’s hand.
Her cold, dry hand was trembling violently.
“There is a way, but it’s not an easy one.”
“Please, tell me. I’ll do anything.”
“Then there’s something I need.”
As the old woman trailed off, quick-witted Leoni unclasped the necklace around her neck and held it out to her.
“If you check, you’ll see this is quite valuable. I don’t care about fate or whatever, but if you can stop these bad things from happening, I will pay whatever it takes.”
The old woman glanced at the jeweled necklace on the table, slowly took it in her hand, and brought it below the table.
But it was strange.
Her hands were too smooth and white for someone who looked like an old woman.
But before I could focus on that—
“Well then, let’s flip over the next card.”
When she flipped over the second card, a blue-colored bird appeared.
“Oh…”
“What does this one mean?”
“Well…”
The old woman tilted her head repeatedly, as if it was hard to understand.
“It says there’s nothing you can do. But you will be freer than you are now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I will give you a bracelet to ward off misfortune. Keep this with you. Then the things that were twisted because your fate was taken will slowly, one by one, return to normal.”
Then, from a jar on the table, she pulled out a knotted bracelet.
Leoni received it with both hands, as if it were a piece of gold.
Meanwhile, the old woman shifted her gaze toward me, who was sitting there anxiously.
“Do you have something you wish to ask as well?”
For a very brief moment, I debated whether to ask about my fate.
But now wasn’t the right time.
Not while I was with Leoni.
“Ah, no.”
“Why not?”
“Sorry?”
The old woman chuckled a couple of times, as if amused by my reaction, then spoke.
“How curious. A new fate is approaching you.”
“For me?”
Her finger was pointing directly at me.
All my determination to never listen to anything fortune tellers say crumbled instantly.
“But the fate that is coming to you is so enormous that it will be too much for you to bear.”
“…”
Without realizing it, I thought of him.
That man with hair as dark as night and reddish-brown eyes.
“Oh dear, you’re afraid of him, aren’t you?”
“…”
“You pretend to be calm, but deep down, you think he might kill you someday.”
I wanted to tell her not to spout nonsense and confuse me, but I couldn’t say a word.
Because deep inside, that fear had always been there whenever I faced him.
How does she know that?
Instead, as if possessed by something, I found myself asking her a question.
“How can I put the pieces of this ruined puzzle back together?”
When I asked, the old woman’s lips curved into a long smile.
I remember everything you said before.
I tried, but it’s just not working out.
When I asked the question, the old woman only opened her lips in that eerie smile without saying a word.
“Please tell me.”
When I asked again in a slightly more desperate voice, the old woman lazily curved her lips.
“Well, that depends entirely on your choices.”
“My choices?”
