“Alright, that’s it for today’s business!”

“Everyone, please go home!”

As the two girls with blonde and—disguised—brown hair announced the end of business, and people turned to leave with a sense of regret.

The mysterious and majestic black-haired beauty fortune-teller, Dorothea, slumped back against her chair.

“Haa, I’m tired. There’s too much of a crowd. Shouldn’t we raise the fees a bit more?”

Her tone suggested she was thoroughly fed up.

Well, having played the role of a fortune-teller from morning to evening for several days now, it was impossible not to be tired.

As if to soothe such a Dorothea, Sophia massaged her shoulders and said, “We’re not doing this to make money in the first place. But thanks to this, our recognition has skyrocketed, hasn’t it?”

“I never thought this would actually work.”

When Sophia first suggested playing the role of a fortune-teller, Dorothea didn’t see its feasibility as very high.

This was because while the “Chalice of Tuberose” inside Sophia’s body was certainly useful, its abilities were quite inconsistent.

It wasn’t possible to specify a desired time like “some scene from a certain day and time” to access information, and the amount of information that could be known was also arbitrary.

Even the observation method varied each time, such as borrowing someone’s perspective, hearing it as a story like a fairy tale, or just seeing large images.

When Dorothea said it wouldn’t be possible to tell fortunes as desired with something that had no stability whatsoever, Sophia replied that there was no need to tell the fortunes they wanted. She said it wouldn’t be a problem at all to achieve their goal.

And it turned out just as she said.

Soft lighting. A fragrance that disturbed people’s composure. Alluring attire that drew the gaze.

Although Dorothea expressed some dissatisfaction with the third element, she eventually nodded at Sophia’s persuasion that it was better than wearing rags due to a curse.

Visitors to Dorothea’s fortune-telling house lost their composure due to its unique atmosphere and Dorothea’s beauty, and in that situation, after delivering a “powerful punch”, it was easy to take control of the subsequent conversation.

There were mainly three ways to prepare that powerful punch.

First, observe the customer with the Chalice of Tuberose, second, observe objects the customer possessed, and third, use Dorothea’s necromancy to observe spirits or residual thoughts around the customer.

If nothing useful was seen even then, they would use all-purpose comments like “Your physical condition doesn’t seem good,” or “You seem to be carrying some worry,” which could be interpreted in various ways, making it possible to say something plausible about nine out of ten, or rather about twenty-nine out of thirty cases.

Of course, to realize this, there was a lot to prepare in advance.

The first was Sophia’s mana problem.

To use the power of the Chalice of Tuberose, Sophia’s mana had to be contained in Dorothea’s eyes, but while once or twice might be fine, if they did this throughout their fortune-telling act, Sophia’s mana would surely run out.

They could prepare more mana than Sophia could generate on her own by transferring Dorothea’s mana to Sophia and then tinting it, but even that couldn’t keep up with the demand, so Dorothea had to deploy a mana recovery barrier that she thought she’d never use in her lifetime.

The second element was that the main targets of this fortune-telling act were none other than mages.

In fact, unless they were people who routinely engaged in slaughter or had special circumstances, it was rare for people to have strings of souls trailing behind them.

Usually, there were many cases where only traces remained rather than the souls themselves, and to observe these traces with the Chalice of Tuberose, it was necessary to first activate those traces with necromancy.

However, while it might be fine with ordinary people, if she openly used necromancy on mages, they would surely notice, so something was needed to conceal this, and that countermeasure was the Tin Knight pretending to be a decoration behind Dorothea.

According to him, if one surrounds the other person’s body with something like killing intent or fighting spirit, one could block only their sense of energy without hurting them, but Dorothea couldn’t even guess what principle that was based on.

Judging by the fact that even the two martial arts girls listening beside them had question marks floating over their heads, it didn’t seem to be a technique unique to knights or warriors either.

Well, it wasn’t the first or second time the Tin Knight had done something outrageous, so in a way, this too could be considered everyday life.

Dorothea, with red mana in her eyes, said, “But you know, the more I use this, the more it seems like the precision is increasing? It’s like I can see what I want to see to some extent, even if not perfectly.”

“Could it be a characteristic of the Eight Sacred Treasures? The Belt of Amaryllis and the Gloves of Haider also have properties that change performance according to the user’s own skill.”

“What about the Key of Opium? That just opens locked things. Is there anything to grow or improve?”

“Well, maybe it could unexpectedly open things other than locks?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ speculates about the power to open things like the door to the heart!]

“Say something that makes sense.”

After lightly dismissing the Tin Knight’s opinion, Dorothea changed the subject.

“But how long do we have to keep doing this?”

“Didn’t you like that a lot of useful information came in about magic tool restoration? You said you could apply some of them.”

“That might be fine normally, but we have a time limit now. That person, when they say they’ll do something, they do it absolutely, regardless of whether we beg or not.”

Seeing Dorothea shudder while grabbing both her arms, the Tin Knight and Sophia’s gazes became strange.

Usually, Dorothea would charge in fearlessly saying, “Oh, you want to try?” but she seemed unable to muster courage against the Witch of the East.

At this point, it made them curious about what kind of person the Witch of the East was.

Sophia said, “Well, you don’t need to worry that much. It probably won’t be much longer now.”

***

While the indoor team including Dorothea was busy talking.

Outside, the two girls were busy with cleanup work.

“Phew, somehow we finished. Good work. Miss Rapunzel.”

“Ah, yes. You too, Lady Adelaide.”

Adelaide spoke with a somewhat apologetic air, “Actually, I’d be fine on my own, so you don’t have to help if you don’t want to. After all, Miss Rapunzel is in a position like a customer, right?”

— Until we move to the next magic tower, just observe the atmosphere roughly. If it seems okay to stay here, stay, if not, follow us. Otherwise, do as you please.

These were Dorothea’s words to Rapunzel when they started the operation.

She didn’t force Rapunzel to help them, and far from it, she even provided a small amount of living expenses and encouraged her to live freely.

But instead of dedicating herself to sightseeing comfortably as suggested, Rapunzel volunteered to help the party.

“No, it’s not that great a help. Besides, I feel uncomfortable in various ways if I just keep receiving favors…”

It was sincere, not just lip service.

Dorothea seemed to think that since she had already received the hair, Rapunzel had paid her dues with that, but from Rapunzel’s perspective, her hair was just something that grew vigorously on its own even if left unattended.

When she lived alone, she couldn’t feel that it was a “price” to take away what had been a nuisance that she had just piled up around her house because it was bothersome to dispose of.

“Also, working here like this seems like a better opportunity to learn more about the people of the magic tower.”

Since Rapunzel and Adelaide’s main job was to manage traffic outside, they couldn’t overhear the conversations taking place in the deepest room of the shop.

But just by watching people line up or engage in small talk, they could learn quite a few facts.

For example, the fact that the mages of the magic tower had five ranks, and these ranks could be distinguished by the marks engraved on their clothing.

The fact that mages were treated like a kind of nobility, receiving both fear and respect from ordinary people.

The fact that mages belonging to the Tower of Foresight were basically quite arrogant, but at the same time had a somewhat polite nature, and especially valued discipline.

Especially after the mage-exclusive waiting line and the general public waiting line were completely separated, they were receiving customers alternately from both sides, and while the general public side kept glancing nervously at the mages, the mages, although showing some annoyance, didn’t voice complaints about this.

It meant that while they wouldn’t refuse if ordinary people “voluntarily” gave way, they wouldn’t prioritize their own convenience to the point of ignoring rules set by the shop.

“When I heard about the origins of the Tower of Foresight, I thought it was just an extremely closed-minded and old-fashioned place, but I was surprised to find that it’s not necessarily so. Well, unless the rules are unreasonable or nonsensical, valuing rules and traditions doesn’t seem all bad.”

“Then, are you planning to enter the Tower of Foresight?”

“I’m thinking of considering that a bit more. Dorothea said to just take the test at each tower once, and then enter the one that seems best among them, but if the magic tower side says, ‘You can enter,’ and I ignore that and go to another tower, it might be uncomfortable in various ways.”

“Hmm, you’re a thoughtful young lady. Indeed, young people might react a bit sensitively if such a thing happens.”

“Right?”

“But that Dorothea person’s advice isn’t entirely wrong either. If a talented individual who received acceptance declarations from all four magic towers chooses a specific magic tower, how much would the seniors of the chosen place love that talent? It’s not necessarily a losing deal if you can gain great favor and high reputation from those you’ll directly interact and clash with, at the cost of hostility from those who are relatively less directly involved.”

“Hmm. I guess you could think of it that way, too. Then, huh?”

After saying that far, Rapunzel belatedly noticed a sense of discomfort.

Who am I talking to right now?

Rapunzel rolled her eyes to look in Adelaide’s direction, but she wasn’t looking at Rapunzel.

Her eyes, shining green instead of their original violet due to the drug’s effect, were directed towards a new figure with a bit of bewilderment and caution.

“Interesting. I came out to see that fortune-telling or whatever that’s been causing such a commotion in the tower, and I’ve even discovered a talent with quite an interesting constitution.”

It was a man with black hair.

His long bangs hid his right eye, and his visible left eye was a clear red.

Until just now, his presence was so faint that it was undetectable, even though he was speaking right beside them, but once his appearance was recognized, his presence became overwhelmingly intense.

The man said, “I’m the head of the Tower of Foresight. I’d like to meet the owner of this place, could you guide me?”

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken