The white space fell silent.
Across the table, Zero's hand hovered calmly. Mine trembled slightly—not from fear, but from understanding what this moment carried.
This wasn't just a game.
It was a decision—
one that decided everything after this.
Zero looked relaxed, like the outcome didn't matter.
That bothered me more than pressure would have.
I exhaled slowly.
Trust your instinct.
"Rock. Paper. Scissors."
Our hands struck the table.
[ Zekai : Scissors ]
[ Zero : Paper ]
Paper.
Light flashed briefly between us.
[ ZEKAI — 2 ]
[ ZERO — 1 ]
I won.
For a moment, I leaned back and let out a breath.
"…I actually won."
The word felt unfamiliar in my mouth.
I looked at Zero and smirked slightly.
"Looks like you're the real fool."
But something felt wrong.
Zero was smiling.
Not irritated.
Not surprised.
Amused.
Like this result had already been expected.
"A deal is a deal," he said calmly. "Speak your wish."
I didn't answer immediately.
Something felt wrong.
There was no way Zero would lose this easily. I was just human—nothing more. But him…
he was something beyond that. Something else entirely.
He wasn't something I could measure.
Did I make a mistake?
If I asked wrong—
I wouldn't get a second chance.
I leaned forward slightly.
"Wait."
"I changed my mind."
Zero raised an eyebrow.
"About what?"
"My wish."
My thoughts moved fast.
Escaping from the world with Aron would be the simplest choice.
But that would only solve the surface.
If something like Arcana existed—
then asking for safety was meaningless.
If I chose wrong… there wouldn't be anything left to fix.
Not even close.
I didn't need an answer.
I needed the ability to keep asking questions.
I studied Zero carefully.
Not his smile.
His certainty.
The kind of presence that didn't need permission to exist.
I looked straight at him.
Then I spoke.
I didn't hesitate.
"I want... you."
For a second—
I almost chose survival.
Zero frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?"
A pause.
"You. And everything connected to you."
The space reacted.
I hadn't realized what I was asking.
Zero gestured behind him.
The white world shifted.
The statues around us—
changed.
Their incomplete forms became whole. Faces formed. Limbs completed. Gold lines spread across their bodies like veins of light.
Twenty-one figures stood around us.
Each one felt different.
Heavy.
Silent.
Watching.
They had always been there.
Now—
they were acknowledging me.
"I want all of you... every Arcana."
For the first time—
Zero didn't answer immediately.
Zero laughed.
Not mocking.
Genuinely amused.
"Interesting. No one asks for that."
He looked at me again.
"Are you sure?"
My eyes met his gaze.
"Any problem?" I asked. "You said anything."
He paused.
Then nodded.
"No problem at all," he said—
too quickly.
The answer came too easily.
I felt a quiet warning rise in my mind. Deals accepted immediately were rarely simple.
But I didn't take it back.
Zero stepped closer.
"I grant you myself," he said calmly. "And the Arcana."
Then he leaned closer.
"But the outcome…"
"…is yours."
The words felt like a mechanism locking into place.
I felt it in my chest—like something had turned a key inside me.
The space responded immediately.
Pressure spread outward as if an invisible rule had just been finalized.
Zero placed two fingers against my temple.
"From now on…"
"…You are the Fool."
The word didn't echo.
It settled.
Like a card placed into existence.
The statues moved.
One by one—
they lowered their heads.
The statues didn't just bow—
the space bent with them.
A silent acknowledgment.
Something else had already begun.
The moment the title settled into the space, something inside me collapsed inward.
Then—
everything broke.
My vision blurred—
Every muscle in my body tensed a fraction too late.
My nerves braced for pain that hadn't arrived yet.
Pain tore through my body.
The world seized.
My eyes rolled back, whites flooding my vision. A violent pressure surged through my skull, tearing downward into my spine.
Something flooded my heart.
Too much.
My body lifted off the ground, twisting mid-air as if something invisible was tearing me apart and rebuilding me at the same time.
"Without this," Zero's voice echoed inside me, "you cannot exist outside."
It wasn't a warning.
It was a rule.
Weight settled inside me.
It felt like responsibility without explanation, something ancient settling onto me whether I understood it or not.
The Arcana statues remained silent.
Watching.
As if confirming a decision had finally been made.
My body convulsed violently as my heart slammed back into motion.
I collapsed to the floor.
The impact knocked the air out of me. My breathing came uneven, delayed, like my body had forgotten how to function properly.
My nails dug into the floor hard enough to crack it.
"What the hell… did you do to me?"
"Nothing," Zero replied calmly. "Just a correction."
He clapped once.
Words burned into the air.
[ ONE YEAR OF YOUR LIFESPAN HAS BEEN REDUCED ]
My breath stopped.
My chest tightened—like something had been quietly removed.
I froze.
Completely.
"…What?"
My body reacted before my mind did.
Something inside me… counted.
One year.
I didn't know what that meant.
But my body did.
My pulse skipped—not a beat, but a count. Something inside me recalculated—quiet and automatic.
Like my body had been keeping numbers I was never meant to know.
"Just a token advance," he said.
"For what?"
"Being me… costs your life."
My mind went quiet.
Not fear.
Calculation.
"What happens now?"
"There is no escape anymore," he said calmly.
Zero raised his hand.
The white space began collapsing.
Reality rushed back towards me like water returning after a dam breaks.
Before everything disappeared, he leaned closer.
"Sleep well."
"Soon… you'll break."
"Wait—!"
Darkness swallowed everything.
The white space shattered—completely.
And as everything faded—
I understood one thing.
Something had awakened inside me.
And something had already begun taking everything in return.
There was no going back anymore.
And somewhere else—
something had already taken hold.
✦ End of Chapter 12 — The Wish ✦