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Jinseong smiled gently at William, who was requesting divination in exchange for the luxury watch he was offering as payment.

It seemed that he was willing to accept it for such a purpose, as he took the watch and pulled out a bundle of cards from his pocket instead.

Then, he grabbed a suitable piece of cloth that had been lying around and laid it on the table, placing the bundle of cards on top.

“Oh, this is getting serious!”

William looked intrigued, finding the scene quite convincing.

Jinseong smiled at his childish demeanor and posed a question.

“You’ve given a rather expensive payment, so it must be worth it. What kind of aspect would you like to look into?”

He moved his hand over the overturned bundle of cards as if stroking it.

“Money luck? Love luck? Business luck?”

Jinseong’s touch was very subtle. His hand hovered just close enough to convey warmth to the bundle of cards.

“Hey, isn’t that Tarot? That’s something for pretentious diviners to use. Will that even work?”

“It’s alright. This isn’t your typical Tarot, so it can provide more detail and see further than the standard kind.”

“Really? Then… hmm.”

William raised the corners of his mouth as if he thought of something.

“Then, how about checking love luck?”

“Love luck, huh? That’s not a bad choice.”

As William mentioned love luck, he shot a creepy glance towards Agnes.

Naturally, Agnes turned her head away in annoyance at that disturbing stare.

However, Jinseong didn’t mind and spoke as if putting the customer first.

“Love encompasses a broad range of meanings. Keeping someone in your heart, meeting someone, getting entangled with someone, forming a bond that culminates in marriage, walking together while raising a child. All of that is encapsulated in this.”

Shuffle.

Shuffle.

Jinseong slowly began to shuffle the deck.

He mixed the cards flamboyantly, as a dealer would with playing cards, reducing half the Tarot and rotating it in various ways, then spread the cards on the table with a loud swoosh, continuing to mix and scatter them chaotically.

“Thus, love luck is something open to interpretation. Some diviners might say that it’s love because someone has started to yearn for another, while others might hold the belief that love is only realized through physical intimacy and connection, and some might think that it only bears fruit when there’s a marital contract involved.”

Shuffle.

Shuffle.

“Hence, even if one asks the same question, different diviners may offer different answers. This is due to the subjective nature of interpretation. Moreover, love is not something done alone; it’s shared between people, which adds to its complexity and deepens the room for interpretation.”

Jinseong smiled playfully at William.

“Thus, what’s certain is prophecy. There’s nothing more definite than the ability of a prophet who experiences the future directly and returns with it. In comparison, love luck feels like just interpreting ambiguous phrases, so please understand if it doesn’t match.”

“Tsk, those shamans.”

William clicked his tongue upon hearing Jinseong’s words.

“It’s like those shamans always create a loophole to escape. I know that divination is just a lower tier of prophecy. So don’t go spouting nonsense predictions like a fraud. Got it?”

“Ha ha, understood.”

Jinseong replied with a carefree laugh as he placed the shuffled deck back on the table.

Then, like a child destroying a sandcastle, he wildly waved his hands, scattering the deck all over the place, and even appeared unsatisfied as he created a chaotic mess.

Thus, the table became cluttered with what seemed like chaos.

Numerous overturned cards lay irregularly scattered.

Jinseong asked amidst the chaos.

“Alright. Then, let’s check the first card. This card will provide an answer to whether you will have future love luck.”

“Really?”

“Of course, there are clear limitations to the future paths Tarot can reveal, so you can infer what love luck might be like during that timeframe.”

“Ah, got it. Pick quickly.”

“Could you select one card for me, please?”

“Then this one.”

William, eager to comply with Jinseong’s request, picked a card from a corner of the table. He moved his finger as if about to flip it over but paused as if recalling something, then placed it back on the table and asked Jinseong.

“By the way, I heard Tarot can be upright or reversed.”

“Yes, I consider the position based on the questioner’s perspective. If the questioner perceives it as reversed, it’s interpreted as reversed; if upright, then it’s taken as upright. So feel free to flip it over.”

William listened to Jinseong’s words and nonchalantly flipped the card.

With a hint of anticipation.

However, once he flipped the card, a question replaced his expression.

“Hey, did you bring the wrong card?”

The card he flipped revealed only an empty space.

Nothing drawn, no symbols, just an entirely blank card.

Jinseong tilted his head in curiosity at it.

“What’s this…?”

A blank card.

Also referred to as a white Tarot card.

It wasn’t a particularly significant card.

It was one added as Tarot gained popularity, created for advertising.

And now, it was treated as a cover to protect the cards with pictures and symbols, representing the first and the last cards of the Tarot deck.

However, that didn’t mean it held no meaning.

This empty card indicated uncertainty, prohibition, and secrecy.

If it appeared as the shadow card of a diviner, it would serve as a warning of the uncertain predictions and ambiguous future. If it came up for the questioner, it would also mean a changeable future and uncertain observations or even a warning that divination is prohibited.

“Oops. I’ll shuffle again.”

But it could also mean another interpretation.

Right now, it might suggest trying once more due to the uncertainty.

So, Jinseong collected the cards and, with an extravagant flourish, shuffled them again, this time laying them out in a fan shape rather than chaotically like a witch’s cauldron.

And he spoke to William once more.

“Please, pick one card.”

William promptly picked a card, as if waiting for Jinseong’s words, and eagerly flipped it over once again.

And….

“What the hell is this?”

Once more, a blank card appeared.

William’s face contorted in annoyance as the empty card frustrated him.

“Is that even real Tarot? Is it some cheap Chinese knockoff that’s filled with empty cards?”

He shouted roughly, reaching out to pick a card himself, flipping it over immediately after pulling it out.

Once again, the flipped card revealed a completely empty space.

No symbols, no images.

Just a small card that was utterly devoid of anything.

“Ugh, damn it. Can you believe this? Are the others all blank too?”

William was left dumbfounded after drawing three blanks in a row.

He began flipping through several cards, convinced they would also be empty.

But….

“Huh? No way.”

The flipped cards showed clear images and symbols.

There were ornate swords, an old staff, a hooded sage, an upside-down continent, and a woman of faith adorned with strange symbols.

Additionally, every illustration was intricately beautiful yet eerily strange, suggesting that these Tarot cards had been made through some special process.

As a result, William couldn’t help but look at Jinseong with a puzzled expression.

“Hey. What’s this?”

“Hmm.”

It was a natural question.

Eighty cards.

Out of those, only two were blank.

He had drawn those three times in succession.

“Wow, hey. What does it mean when a blank card keeps emerging?”

At that point, even William, who had dismissed divination as mere nonsense for children and women, couldn’t help but show interest.

Experiencing the same card three times in a row was not something easily encountered.

However, his interest remained mere curiosity.

To put it plainly, it was nothing more than a brief fascination.

“Hm. It’s not that rare for the same card to come up three times in a row. A skilled diviner might pull the same card even ten or twenty times. But a blank card….”

Jinseong also showed interest in William.

But his curiosity was different, appearing stickier and deeper.

“It’s truly rare for blank cards to come up sequentially.”

Jinseong smiled, hiding his sparkling eyes behind his eyelids.

“What’s more, if blank cards appear with those flipped over like this, it’s even more unusual.”

Jinseong looked at the flipped cards with a chilly smile.

Major Arcana 2, The High Priestess.

A card representing hidden knowledge, secrecy, and mystical wisdom, reinforcing the ‘secrecy’ symbol of the blank card.

Major Arcana 9, The Hermit.

A guiding figure representing seekers and practitioners. This card also contained the meaning of ‘secrecy.’

Major Arcana 21, The World.

This card, which should represent completion, appeared inverted and seemed precariously about to spill, amplifying the meanings of incompleteness and lack of insight that enhanced the prior blank card’s meanings.

Moreover, the Major Arcana was just the beginning.

The flipped Minor Arcana also amplified the meanings of the blank cards.

The knight of swords, upside-down, was stating, “You will lose strength in the face of overwhelming power.” While five swords appeared reversed, warning of uncertainty in the future.

The knight with a staff was flipped as well, intensifying the uncertainty, and the reversed staff’s number one card loudly proclaimed that all was wrong and predicting a challenging future to perceive.

Jinseong realized the futility of divination.

He instinctively knew that no matter how many more cards that half-baked prophet flipped over, similar cards with the same meanings would emerge.

The predictions announced would surely obscure the future, create fog, render the future uncertain, and shout that nothing would be revealed.

“Quite fascinating.”

Jinseong found it intriguing.

These predictions were undoubtedly not conventional.

Unless someone had played a hand in it.

“Truly fascinating.”

Jinseong smiled as he looked at the predictions that seemed to obscure William’s future.

It felt as if the flipped cards were faithfully reflecting someone’s threat.

Someone unknown was telling Jinseong through the cards.

This one is my prey, so don’t touch it.

 

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