The One Who Sees Through Everything, Madame Inferno Inside the inn. Inside the room which both window and door closed, the air stagnates.
I and Firia are similarly looking downward.
Unlike the usual, a feeling of tension is floating between us.
“This is the end…”
Still looking downward, Firia softly says so.
“Is there… really no way to redo it?”
I know it"s impossible. But I can"t help but ask.
As if understanding my thought, Firia indifferently opens her mouth.
“…I"m sorry. We had decided it at the very beginning, didn"t we? That"s why I have to do this…!”
Firia"s tone, which was indifferent at first, soon hints some anger as if to show her emotion.
“But, isn"t it just is too much to-”
“Yuri-san, I"m sure you"ve long understood that it will eventually come to an end. Despite knowing that, we"ve been in this together up until now. Am I wrong?”
She"s right. What she says is simply too right that I have no word to respond to it.
“….! You"re right… very well. Let"s just end it.”
“….Yes, let"s end it.”
Firia floats a faint smile, and then—
—*clack clack*, she rolls the dice.
After confirming that it"s six that came out, her faint smile turns into a blooming smile.
“Goal! I won!”
Firia raises both of her hands and shouts so.
“Impossible…. This intelligent me has… actually lost… you say?”
“As promised, we won"t take any request today.”
We were playing sugoroku.
Since we had different opinion on whether to take some request or to take a day off, we decided to determine what we would do with this match.
Firia"s triumphant face is br.i.m.m.i.n.g with happiness.
Speaking of me, I haven"t accepted my defeat yet.
“I lost… I lost…”
“…Yuri-san, there"s no reason be depressed that much, right?”
“Of all people, I lost to Firia…”
“Hey, what do you mean with that?!”
“I"m done for….”
“Please explain! What do you mean with mean?!”
After a while I could finally face my defeat, and now we"re preparing to go out.
“Nevertheless, you"re unexpectedly good at sugoroku, aren"t you?.”
I even feel that you even almost always got six whenever you rolled.
“There"s always trick in anything, you see?”
Firia smugly says so.
She says that there"s a trick, but I think in the end everything falls in the hand of luck, though.
I thought that my luck wasn"t that bad, so I never thought I"d lose.
“Then, let"s go around the town today!”
“Yeah, got it.”
No matter what kind of excuses I could come up with, I still undeniably lost so it can"t be helped.
We leave the inn and head to Mossenmorges town.
With sun shining above us, we"re walking around Mossenmorges town.
We"ve been doing this for a few hours.
Whenever we take another route, we discover many new things, and I kinda enjoy that fresh feeling. I even begin to think that it might unexpectedly be a good decision to take a day off.
“Walking for this long, it"s kinda tiring, isn"t it?”
“I"m not tired at all, though.”
“Your stamina is a bottomless swamp, isn"t it, Yuir-san?”
“You don"t need to add the swamp there. Why do you have to compare it with such a seemingly bad word?”
“Suzububu”
Firia raises both of her arms and gradually bends her knees.
What"s that? Is she imitation someone who"s drowning into a swamp?
Even so, we still have quite a lot of free time, is there still any place we can head to, I wonder?
When I"m thinking as such, Firia turns toward me.
“Oh, want to try some fortune-telling? It"s free they say!”
At the end of where Firia is pointing at is a pyramid shaped tent, and its signboard says "Castle of Divination". And next to it, it"s indeed written that it"s free of charge.
I look at that tent.
The tent, which is too simple to be called a castle, is clearly standing out in this street.
Even though it"s daytime, the tent is emitting purple light, in a good way you can call it mysterious, and in a bad way you can call it creepy.
“Fortune telling? Well, I don"t particularly mind, though."
I don"t particularly trust fortune-telling that much, after all.
“Even if just once, I"ve been wanting to have my fortune be divined, you see? Yuri-san, you can just have a look at it, so will you come with me?”
Perhaps understanding my thought, Firia informs me such.
“Okay, I don"t mind.”
I don"t trust fortune teller, but it still doesn"t change the fact that they have credibility to divine someone"s fortune using their ability.
I don"t particularly hate them either, so I have no reason to refuse.
Or rather, I simply don"t trust it and I"m not particularly against divination in itself, so if they want to divine my fortune, somehow I have the feeling that I"d gladly accept it.
But well, I did lose to Firia so I"ll just follow whatever she bids today.
When we enter the tent, there"s a violet-curly-haired plump woman who"s about in her late thirties.
Shrouded by translucent violet light, at first I thought she was someone who"s trained her muscle too, but disappointment hits me right after when I realize that those are merely fat.
“Welcome. I am Madame Inferno. Are you the one who wants to be divined?”
The fortune-telling woman turns her hand towards Firia.
“Yes, I"m Firia, I"ll be in your care.”
Saying so, Firia immediately heads and sits across the divination table.
“Well then, what do you want to be divined today?”
“Then, can I ask you to divine my future fortune?”
Firia cheerfully says so with her shoulder shaking.
However, hearing her request, the fortune-teller shakes her head and rejects it.
“Future? That"s impossible. I can only divine about the past.”
“I see….”
Being only able to divine about the past… can that even be called a fortune teller? That"s very dubious.
“Umm, for example, what kind of thing is possible for you to divine?”
Being suddenly told that she can only divine about the past, seems even Firia is bewildered about what to ask.
However, seeming already accustomed to such reaction, the fortune-teller calmly says "Hmm, let"s see".
“The most requested one is about personality, I suppose. As there are many things that can only be seen from other"s point of view, after all.”
I see. It"s something like a personality check, isn"t it?
That may certainly count as divination, perhaps.
“That one please then.”
Hearing Firia"s reply, the woman takes out a crystal ball that"s a little larger than a fist from under the table and starts looking at it.
I sense that the air around the woman in front of us has changed.
Seems like she"s a legit fortune-teller and not a fraud.
After silently looking at the crystal ball for a while, she turns her gaze away from it and lightly exhales.
After that, she strokes her plump chin with the back of her plump hand and begins talking in plump voice with her plump mouth.
“Let"s see…. You seem to possess a hard to be honest personality. You seem to have an ability to maintain your outward appearance, but as expected in the end inside you"re still just a child. And now that you have someone you can freely show that side of yours to, you don"t have to hide it anymore.”
“I see, I see.”
Firia nods with serious expression toward the woman"s words.
And there, the woman takes a glance at me.
“You seem to have a good compatibility with him, but… did you two meet just recently? And you seem to have more or less trusted him, but there"s still you hide from him, correct?”
“I see…. as smart as I"m, does that mean in a sense I"m on the same wavelength as you, Yuri-san?”
Firia turns toward me and makes a triumphant expression.
“Just so you know, I"m an intelligent person myself.”
When I reply so, Firia shrugs her shoulders as if in astonishment and let out a short scornful laugh at me. How annoying.
About the divination result … Well, it"s normal for people to have one or two secrets, after all. And I"m not particularly concerned about it either.
“This secret of yours is concerning your origin, so I won"t probe it any further…. Oh my, you made another small secrets today too, didn"t you?”
The woman raises her eyebrows lightly and looks at Firia across the crystal ball.
However the person in question, Firia, makes a face as if she doesn"t understand what she"s talking about.
“Today, was it? I can"t recall anything, though…”
“Oh my, really? It looks like a very small thing, so would it be alright to tell him about it too.”
“I don"t particularly mind, I don"t think I did anything I need to hide anyway.”
Firia is free to hide whatever she wants to, and I also have no intention to ask her about it, but it"d be a lie if I say I"m not curious about it.
And since she doesn"t mind me knowing about it so I"ll thankfully listen to it.
I focus my attention and ears on the woman to not miss even a single word.
“I can see a dice. And then, magic … this seems to be wind magic. I don"t know what this means, but does that remind you of something? Well then, the fortune telling is concluded with this.”
…Hmm? Dice? Wind magic?
Could it be, Firia was cheating during the sugoroku match?
“Y, yes, it"s totally does. Thank you very much. Well then, let"s go home.”
After bowing her head to the woman, Firia immediately pulls my hand and heads out of the tent.
After leaving the tent, Firia briskly walks through the town.
“J, just what was that person saying I wonder? I didn"t understand it at all, right, Yuri-san?!”
“Hey Firia.”
“She was right halfway, but after that everything was wrong! Well, I guess even fortune-telling isn"t perfect either, so it can"t be helped, right?!”
“Hey Firia.”
“… w, what might it be?”
I call out to be briskly walking Firia.
She turns back with a seemingly timid expression. Waterfall like sweat is dripping from her forehead.
This reaction … no doubt about it. She"s totally guilty.
This girl, to think she"d cheat during the match to decide today"s plan.
This can"t be forgiven, right?
Cracking my fists, I stand in front of Firia.
“Spit everything out.”
“*Gurororo*”
“Not that one.”
I"m sure she understands that what I mean isn"t to show such a dirty action.
“You were cheating during the sugoroku match, weren"t you?”
“E, ehehe…”
With sweats dripping like a waterfall, Firia turns her face away from me.
“Don"t dream about brushing it off with just a laugh.”
“Rather that cheating, you could say it was just a sudden impulse…. T, tehe!"
Hitting her head with her fist, Firia playfully sticks out her tongue.
“…FIRIA!!!”
“I, I"m really sorry!”
Noticing my urge to catch her, Firia swiftly runs away.
Really, you can"t let your guard down around this girl.