The mobile hawkers who sold vegetables, fruits, and hot food shouted along the streets inviting customers. Zhou Mingrui… he was walking while slouching a little as he passed through the streets, trying to avoid thieves stealing his money.
He reached his destination at Smyrin's Bakery, asked for his eight pounds of bread. They made a small talk about Benson's return and Klein's job situations… Both Klein's inside and outside the screen felt awkward.
After buying the bread, he saw posters of circus shows. Looking interested, he read the contents on the fliers in the hands of others. Thinking that Melissa would like it, he went closer to ask the entrance fee to the nearby clown.
"Would you like to try a divination?" A woman's voice was sounded from beside him.
Leonard immediately turned his head to look at Klein sitting beside him with a calm face. "Is it...fate?" he asked in low volume. Audrey heard it and also turned to look at the guy with the most encounters with fate among them. Klein just shrugged and said, "I didn't even do much, it found me first."
Roselle choked on air listening to this. 'Little bro, you do remember that if you didn't perform that ritual then you wouldn't be here.' He blinked as his coughing fit slowed down, 'Performing that ritual itself could've been fate in the first place.'
Derrick offered a cup of water to him, Roselle looked at him with complicated eyes. The teenager's eyes held a subtle emotion… as if caring for an elderly relative. He accepted it in thanks.
'Only this teenager cares about me in this entire room, reminds me of Bernie. She was cute like this too' He sighed and continue watching.
"No." Klein shook his head in response as he didn't have spare cash.
"My tarot divination is very accurate."
"Tarot…" Zhou MIngrui was dumbfounded.
This pronunciation was almost the same to the tarot cards on Earth!
He suddenly recalled the origins of tarot divination in this world.
"Wait wait wait! Is this what I think it is? Am I being exposed from the start!?" Roselle suddenly stood up and pointed at the screen. Klein smirked slyly, "Senior's good deeds spread far and wide, it's only natural that even a commoner like me can find something influenced by you in everyday life."
Roselle stood with his shocked Pikachu face as he saw his own introduction in the movie. "Will this cameo of mine earn me some wages?" he asked as he just decided to let it be.
"What do you think? Even the main character isn't getting paid, you think you'll have any special treatment?" Klein popped a popcorn into his mouth.
Leonard has long wanted to ask about this guy behind them, he spoke into Klein's ear, "Who is he exactly? Why is he reacting so much from the start of this whole thing?"
Others wanted to know that too. Asking someone at their face 'Just who are you even?' seemed rude, so nobody questioned anyone's identities unless they revealed it themselves.
Klein: "Just watch ahead, maybe what you're thinking is right. Afterall there's only one Roselle Gustav in this world."
It sounded like a bombshell in everyone's ears.
R-Roselle Gustav… Him???
Their mental image of him seemed to be crumbling as they remembered his crying face while hugging? The screen, and lounging in clothes that might even pass off as pajamas.
A few courageous guests among the audience, like Cattleya, Alger and Pallez turned to look at him. The tarot members out of curiosity while the latter grandpa purely out of amusement.
Roselle had gloom written all over his face. 'Do I look so old that they can't even recognize me now? Weren't my photos publicized everywhere? Aren't I basically a celebrity? They thought I was an imposter!?'
As senior Huang was drowning himself in self-deprecation, the ones who snuck a peek at him felt that he was in a bad mood and quickly averted their eyes.
On the screen everyone saw a short documentary about the Intis Republic's Consul inventions and invasions.
The scene switched to the map of the continents, and they all saw the impact of Roselle's actions as the Republic became an empire and he became the self-proclaimed 'Emperor Caesar.'
Everything about the churches related to him, colonization, and marine fleets… his assassination in the White Maple Palace…
The real Roselle covered his face with his hands.
This… To recall such general knowledge suddenly made Zhou Mingrui facepalm.
Could this be a transmigration senior?
So, this weird guy and The Emperor Roselle are the same! Turns out they (Klein and Roselle) are from the same hometown.
Zhou Mingrui was intrigued to see what tarot cards looked like. Therefore, he nodded at the pointy hat woman with the painted face and said, "If the… well… price is reasonable, I'll give it a try."
The woman immediately said with a laugh, "Sir, you are the first one here today, so it's on the house."
Free? Free things cost the most!
He decided that he would not purchase any additional services and firmly refuse them all. If you're really that capable, try divining that I transmigrated here!
"Confident much?" Amon raised his brows to which he only received the same as no response from Klein.
In the tent, Zhou Mingrui sat in front of the table, his gaze sweeping over the tarot cards on it. He saw many familiar cards like "The Magician," "The Emperor," "The Hanged Man," "Temperance." Etc.
Could Roselle have been a 'senior'… I wonder if he was also a fellow countryman of mine… Zhou Mingrui mumbled to himself subconsciously.
The woman reached out her hands to gather the cards, stacked them into a deck, and pushed it in front of him.
"Shuffle the cards first and cut the deck," the circus fortune-teller said in a muted voice.
"Me? Shuffle?" Zhou Mingrui asked reflexively.
The woman revealed a slight smile, saying, "Of course, everyone's destiny can only be unraveled by themselves. I only serve as a reader of it."
"This reading does not require additional fees, right?" He confirmed again. As a keyboard folklorist, He's already seen too many of such tricks!
The fortune-teller was visibly taken aback before saying, "It's free."
"Wow, I'm taken aback too…" Leonard mused.
The left side of the second row maintained a 'no comment' attitude. They didn't really know this Klein or Zhou Mingrui guy and didn't think it right to judge; plus, they were busy thinking what connection this guy had with Mr. Fool. Obviously, the way he was behaving on the screen didn't seem fake. So, what changed?
The right side of the same row wore an understanding expression. Living in poverty where every expense has to be considered seriously wasn't easy. Just because they can now afford to spend more on mildly luxurious items, doesn't mean they forgot everything they had to endure and make concessions upon.
The last row however didn't have such reservations, Danitz and Reinette nodded their heads to Leonard's expression.
Zhou Mingrui, relieved, stuffed the revolver further back into his pocket. Thereafter, he calmly reached out his two hands to shuffle and cut the deck skillfully.
"Were you really planning to take out the revolver if it wasn't free?" Danitz subconsciously asked out loud. It can't be blamed on him; dude really has bad flashbacks when he sees the gun in Klein's hands. Even he doesn't know why.
"Not really, at most, I'd just threaten her so that she won't scam me." Klein replied plainly. He was here to answer their questions in the first place anyway so he was serious about this job.
After he placed the shuffled cards back on the table, the fortune-teller clasped her hands and carefully looked at the cards for a while. Then she opened her mouth and said, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask, but what would you like to ask about?"
"Pfft" soft chuckles sounded in the screening room. Even Klein had a funny expression. Everyone was waiting for the divination and this felt like hitting their funny bone, relieving their nervousness.
Back when he was wooing his first love, Zhou Mingrui had also done research on tarot cards. He asked unhesitatingly, "Past, present, and future."
"Wooing?" "First love?" Leonard and Audrey asked the questions respectively. Klein cleared his throat lightly, "It didn't work out anyway," he seemed to want to say more but gave up in the end.
"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? Didn't I only ask a few times if this would be a free service? Zhou Mingrui's cheeks twitched a little. He took a deep breath and took the tarot deck back to reshuffle and cut it.
"There won't be any problems this time, right?" He placed the already cut deck back onto the table.
"No problem." The fortune-teller reached out her fingers and picked a card from the top of the deck. Then she placed it on the left side of Zhou Mingrui. Her voice was going lower and lower as she spoke, "This card symbolizes your past."
"This card symbolizes your present." The fortune-teller placed the second card right in front of Zhou Mingrui.
Then, she picked the third card and put it on the right side of Zhou Mingrui.
"This card symbolizes the future."
"Alright, which card would you like to see first?"
"Present," Zhou Mingrui replied after giving it some thought.
The fortune-teller nodded and turned the card that was directly in front of him. A colorfully dressed character was depicted on this card, wearing splendid headgear with a stick over is 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 lightly read the name of the card.
Almost everyone in the screening room drew a sharp intake of air. Even if they somewhat expected the result to be something related to 'Him' the atmosphere made them hold their breaths. The tarot club, being closest to The Fool, some were excited, some nervous, some a mixture of both.
Alger especially, was calmer than he thought. He was already subtly warned by this Klein host at the start when he said they were the same yet not the same. He wasn't stupid when Klein mentioned he never lied; it was their own thinking that led to all this. He was more rational and thought he wouldn't be much surprised even if the Mr. Fool they knew wasn't a true deity or wasn't as strong as he imagined. He would accept it, because nothing can change the past that has already happened.
Unbeknownst to himself, he was under the placation of Miss Justice. She had realized his uneasiness early on and has been regulating his emotions so that he doesn't overreact. Not only Alger, she's been using her abilities on few more tarot members and other audience members with low-psychological acceptance.
"Somehow, The Fool card suits you. Being inexperienced, improvisation, beginner's luck, starting from scratch..." Will sighed lightly muttering to himself as he summoned ice-cream from the snack counter and aggressively ate it, not worrying about brain freeze at all.
The Fool? The "0" card of tarot? A start? A fresh beginning with all kinds of possibilities? Zhou Mingrui was not even considered an amateur enthusiast of tarot, so he could only make a rough interpretation based on his own impressions of tarot.
Just as the fortune-teller was about to say something, the cloth curtains of the tent were suddenly lifted open. The ray of sunlight that shone in was so blinding that it caused the back-facing Zhou Mingrui to instinctively narrow his eyes.
"Why are you impersonating me again! It's my job to handle the divination for people!" a woman's voice growled angrily. "Return to your post quickly! You must remember that you're just an animal trainer!"
An animal trainer? Zhou Mingrui's eyes had already adapted to the light by now. He saw a similar-looking woman who was also wearing a sharp pointy hat in a black dress, similar to that of the woman who told his fortune just now.
The woman who was seated in front of him 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. I'm serious…" She walked out of the tent after muttering this.
"Sir, would you like me to interpret your cards for you?" the real fortune-teller looked at Zhou Mingrui and asked with a smile.
Zhou Mingrui's lips twitched and asked her sincerely, "Is it free?"
"…No," the real fortune-teller answered.
"Then forget it." He put his hands in his pockets, clutched his money and revolver before exiting the tent.
Damn! He actually got an animal trainer to be his fortune-teller?
Everyone: That's your point of focus?
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