56. Want to Get Your Fortune Told With Me?

“Aren’t you going to choose anything?”

“Actually, I didn’t really like any of them.”

“I could buy you everything if you asked.”

“As if I don’t have money.”

Darius laughed at my retort and replied.

“I’ll buy you something really nice.”

Ah, I can’t hear that. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.

“Foreigners have come to the square.”

Just in time, another conversation caught my attention.

“Fortune-telling foreigners? They say their fortunes are remarkably accurate.”

“I’m curious! But if my father finds out I had my fortune told by foreigners, he’ll scold me terribly.”

“That’s why we need to go quickly and not get caught.”

Everyone was quickening their pace.

“Foreigners?”

“They’re referring to the mountain people. They wander around Inkheart territory but don’t live here.”

Darius answered my question.

“They’re people who can cross the mountains where monsters are said to descend. They come down to the territory when food is scarce, but then suddenly return to the mountains one day, saying that’s where they originally belong.”

‘Are they like gypsies?’

Both their fortune-telling skills and nomadic lifestyle were very similar to the characteristics of gypsies.

“Since they’re specifically called foreigners, I’m guessing they look different from us.”

“That’s one reason, but it’s more because they freely come and go from place to place rather than settling in the territory. They’re always a headache for us.”

Concern as a lord showed on Darius’s face.

“They don’t farm, don’t pay taxes, have no jobs, so they cause trouble by stealing?”

“Exactly.”

Even as we spoke, we approached the foreigners’ tent.

A large, worn tent stood in one corner of the square. Though people were curious about the foreigners’ arrival, they maintained a certain distance with strong caution.

The foreigners, seemingly accustomed to the hostility directed at them, paid little attention to the people treating them like a spectacle.

No, they seemed to dislike the people of Inkheart Castle territory as well.

“Sometimes the foreigners pretend to tell fortunes while secretly stealing the other person’s bracelet.”

Darius quietly warned.

“Kyaa, ptui!”

A rowdy young foreigner ostentatiously gathered and spat on the square. The hostility of the onlookers intensified.

“You idiot, are you trying to drive away all our customers?”

A foreigner woman cursed at the young man who had spat.

Foreigners, foreigners.

Those unlucky foreigners who make things disappear whenever they come and go.

“If it weren’t for the rumor that those who mess with foreigners get cursed, I’d teach them a good lesson!”

Discontented murmurs grew louder among the people. The territory residents bristled at the foreigners who claimed the mountains were their true home and only came to Inkheart when in need.

Seeing this, I tried to approach the tent, but Darius held me back.

“Anette.”

“The fact that you don’t drive them away suggests that as a lord, you’re considering having them settle down anyway.”

Brushing off Darius’s restraint, I approached a woman near the foreigners’ tent.

“Is this where fortunes are told?”

The foreigner woman looked at me and smiled.

“What a brave first customer! May good fortune follow you and may you share some of your remaining luck with us!”

As she led me inside the tent, Darius followed. There were no guards. We both had enough strength to protect ourselves.

“I’ll draw henna for you as a service. Our mountain people’s henna opens the path of the soul. It helps you gain wisdom.”

The foreigner woman busily drew henna on my wrist. Darius declined.

“A precious guest has arrived.”

Looking around belatedly after being distracted by the henna, I saw an old woman with a mysterious aura sitting in front of a crystal ball.

“Come closer, miss.”

As I sat down in front of the old woman to have my fortune told, she suddenly touched my face. I was startled.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t tell just by looking at your face with my eyes. You’ve come from very far away.”

A warm, heavy scent rose from the incense burner placed to one side.

This is a scam.

I cautioned myself.

“Yes, I’m from the South.”

“The South? Don’t lie. You’ve come from much farther than us foreigners. From very far away…… Ah, it’s a place more prosperous than I can imagine.”

The old woman wasn’t looking at me. Her touch on me grew increasingly forceful.

“What are these things you’re showing me?”

“That hurts!”

“Stop it.”

Darius pulled me away from the old woman.

I felt reassured when my dangling feet touched the ground and I felt his warmth against my back.

“Are foreigners always this rude?”

The old woman ignored Darius and stared intently at me. Her gaze seemed to pierce through Anette’s physical body that I inhabited and look into my soul, making my knees tremble.

“Miss, the number of souls that exist in the world is fixed.”

“This isn’t making any sense.”

Darius protectively wrapped around me and directed me outside.

As we left the dim tent and saw light, my mind began to calm. That’s when it happened.

“If you came here, it means someone went there.”

I stopped abruptly at the old woman’s words as she followed us out.

Unconsciously, I turned around.

“What do you mean?”

The old woman smiled unpleasantly and turned back to enter the tent again.

“Wait a moment.”

“Anette.”

Darius firmly held my face and met my eyes. His blue-gray eyes stared at me.

“Foreigners can bewitch people, Anette.”

Bewitch people?

But that old woman was something…!

“Calm down.”

He covered my ears and pressed his forehead against mine. As if trying to stop me from thinking about what had just happened.

“You shouldn’t believe too deeply in suggestions.”

People were passing by, looking with interest at us who had just emerged from the foreigners’ tent.

Darius ignored those gazes and focused only on me.

“Look at me.”

Black hair, straight nose bridge. Blue eyes that showed different colors depending on the light.

My pounding heart slowly settled.

“It was nothing. They just always pretend to know about fate and drop hints.”

Darius’s low, explanatory voice was comforting. I quietly nodded.

“Good girl.”

He patted my back. A touch I would normally have rejected felt good, and I buried my face in his shoulder, acting spoiled.

* * *

Today’s business was a complete failure. The foreigner woman lamented while counting money.

When a seemingly wealthy young couple came to have their fortune told, she thought it would generate word of mouth.

But whatever the fortune teller mother said made both the man and woman terrified and they left the tent. And that was the end of customers.

After seeing the first customers leave pale-faced, no one else dared to enter the tent.

“If only they had spread good word of mouth, we could have done some business. Mom, what exactly did you see?”

The elderly fortune teller wasn’t the foreigner woman’s biological mother. Still, the foreigners called each other mother and child.

“Business isn’t that important.”

“We mountain people don’t actually eat dirt for a living, mom.”

“Our family who left is returning.”

The foreigner woman paused.

“The prince is coming.”

The old woman smiled faintly.

* * *

Our romance fantasy textbook date didn’t include fireworks lighting up the sky, unfortunately.

Though we did have skewers and a suspicious fortune teller.

Darius thoughtfully escorted me back to the castle.

“Did you enjoy your date?”

I was a bit curious how the castle maids knew that Darius and I had gone on a date when I never mentioned it, but I just smiled.

The unsettled feeling after meeting the foreigners continued until I entered my room after completing my preparations.

“Anette, are you going to sleep?”

I quietly watched the Grand Duke, who at the age of twenty had finally learned to sleep alone, about to leave my room with the bed he was attached to.

After I admitted I had no romantic feelings, Darius didn’t force himself to sleep in my room.

That was what I encouraged.

Nevertheless, seeing him about to leave made my fingertips feel cold.

“Ah, this won’t do.”

Thud.

Darius sat back down on the bed with awkward acting.

“What are you doing?”

“Just because.”

“I thought you said we’d sleep separately now.”

“Today I just want to sleep here with you, Anette.”

The familiar warmth that heavily filled the side of the bed was already in place.

That one small thing reassured me.

Unable to say thank you, I lowered my head and grabbed his sleeve.

“What is it?”

“Just……”

Just, just.

I’m grateful for Darius who didn’t leave me alone in this moment when my heart felt numb with inexplicable loneliness.

So I held onto Darius’s sleeve tightly, afraid to let go, and crawled into bed.

“You can hold my hand too.”

〈……We sleep holding hands. We are husband and wife after all.〉

That was a line from our wedding night. I suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ah, husband and wife after all?”

“I was being generous. It seems like I’m at a disadvantage, but still, you’re my wife.”

“I got quite a good deal. With our territory’s Grand Duke.”

I was strange today. But Darius knew that and was indulging me.

I appreciated that he didn’t ask anything and left me alone.

Finally, my eyes closed.

“Don’t go anywhere without me.”

“I’m holding your hand.”

“Don’t let go and leave.”

“Okay.”

He gently tapped my cheek.

“I won’t let go, so sleep. We walked a lot today.”

Will you stay until morning?

If I wake up alone in this big bed, I might be confused, wondering whose body I’ve possessed this time.