Chapter 57: Tarot

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Tarot

He moved more cautiously this time. He didn’t want to run into the Empress, let alone another deranged participant. Along the way, he killed a Golden Bone Penitent, but it was so difficult to defeat that Victor began to wonder whether fighting these enemies was worth wasting so much time and energy.

But when the coin rewards kept rolling in and his Luck Value continued to increase, he couldn’t really complain about the difficulty when the rewards were this good.

On the other hand, he had obtained a stamina potion after killing the Penitent, so he now had something to replenish his energy in case of an emergency.

’I’ve wandered so far from the darkest area that it’s going to be difficult to find my way back.’

Which direction was that place in? Victor took out his compass just in case, but just like in the first scenario, the needle wasn’t pointing anywhere in particular.

’What’s the point of having a compass if it’s completely useless?’

He put it away with a sigh and kept moving. He didn’t have many options besides relying on his memory and the streets he’d traveled before. Fortunately, he still remembered a few buildings and corners he’d passed while fleeing from the Empress.

As he walked, he took the opportunity to check his status and the System notifications. There was nothing particularly new, but he paused for a moment when he saw the quest still occupying a slot in his window.

[The Hero’s Will]

’Yeah, yeah. I get it. I have to rescue Brika.’

It wasn’t as if he could forget. In fact, whenever he thought about her, he also remembered the Wendigo and how easily it had killed that young man. He didn’t even want to imagine what it might be doing to the goblin, but he couldn’t just throw himself headfirst at an enemy he still didn’t know how to defeat.

’First, I need to get there. I’ll figure out how to get her out afterward.’

He continued walking, paying attention to any noise that might signal the presence of another participant. However, his mind drifted back to the woman he’d found inside the bubble. That scene had been far too strange to simply dismiss.

A young woman wearing a dress that looked like it had come straight out of a magical girl anime, a wand decorated with crystals and a heart, and a bubble of light keeping her suspended in the middle of a plaza. She didn’t look like an ordinary prisoner, nor did she seem like someone who was simply waiting to be rescued by chance.

’And the Empress knew I was the Wheel of Fortune...’

Victor frowned. He’d heard that name before, but not in this scenario. It was one of those terms he’d come across in cards, games, and other things from his world. In fact, now that he thought about it, the Empress was also a rather peculiar name for something that was supposedly just a role.

’Wait a minute.’

He stopped in the middle of the street.

The Empress. The Wheel of Fortune. They weren’t ability names or titles someone would randomly choose to intimidate their enemies. They were names that belonged to something much more specific.

’Aren’t those... Tarot cards?’

Victor wasn’t exactly an expert on the subject. He knew enough to recognize a few cards and their names, but that was about it. Even so, the coincidence was far too obvious to ignore.

The Major Arcana of the Tarot.

He remembered there were twenty-two cards, each with its own symbol and meaning. The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor... The list continued all the way to The World. He couldn’t remember the exact order of every card, but he did know that the Wheel of Fortune was one of them.

’So, are the roles in this scenario related to those cards?’

The idea fit almost too well. If the Empress had been assigned to one participant and he’d received the Wheel of Fortune, it was possible that the others had also been given roles based on the Major Arcana.

And the young woman inside the bubble...

’The Magician?’

He wasn’t sure, but the image of that girl with a magical wand seemed to fit the name rather well. Maybe it was a coincidence, or perhaps the System had deliberately chosen someone whose appearance reflected her role.

Although that raised another question.

’Are there only twenty-two roles?’

Did that mean there were only twenty-two important participants in this scenario? Or were there twenty-two people with those titles among all the survivors? It was also possible that there were more participants, but only those twenty-two had been assigned special roles.

He had no way of knowing.

However, he remembered the name of the scenario and the way the System had announced that his role had been chosen. He also remembered that phrase about the twenty-two souls he’d heard at some point.

’Twenty-two souls... Twenty-two Major Arcana.’

The coincidence was beginning to look less and less like a coincidence.

If there really were twenty-two people with those roles, then the scenario might be building some kind of story around them. Each participant would have a card, a part to play, and possibly a destiny to fulfill.

There was also something he couldn’t overlook: his own System was related to luck. He had a Luck Value that increased whenever he defeated enemies and influenced his summons in one way or another. The Wheel of Fortune was a card associated with change, twists of fate, and cycles that could take someone from the top to the bottom, or vice versa.

’Did they give me that role because of my System?’

It was a fairly reasonable possibility. It might even explain why his card didn’t seem to correspond to any specific ability, but rather to something as unpredictable as a gacha. If luck was at the center of his power, then the Wheel of Fortune made a lot of sense.

But he didn’t like the idea of his fate being predetermined by a card. He preferred to think he could bend it to his advantage, even if that meant doing so with a sword in his hand and an absurd amount of bad luck.

If the Empress was any indication of what someone with one of these roles could do, he hoped his didn’t come with a curse.

’And what the hell is the Wheel of Fortune supposed to represent?’

Victor looked at his hands as if he expected to find the answer written on his palms. He had no idea what his role meant in practical terms. The Empress seemed to possess some pretty powerful abilities, like that beam of light she’d fired down the street. But he didn’t know whether that was because of her card, her Path, or some item she’d obtained.

He couldn’t rule out the possibility that the roles were just titles without any abilities of their own, either. Although, if that were the case, why had the System announced that the difficulty had increased immediately after assigning him one?

’It’s definitely not just for decoration.’

The worst part was that he couldn’t ask anyone without exposing himself to another problem. The Empress had demonstrated that some participants could be dangerous even without an army backing them up. And apparently, she was more interested in taking other people’s items than cooperating with them.

Victor let out a small laugh.

’An Empress who wants to take everything for herself. How original.’

He didn’t know whether to laugh at the irony or worry about what it might mean. If the roles influenced their bearers’ personalities or decisions, perhaps the woman hadn’t been all that different from what her card represented. But that was getting a little too speculative.

He kept walking until he recognized a street he’d traveled before. From there, the route to the dark area started to feel familiar. Black buildings and pointed structures gradually appeared between the streets, as if that part of the scenario were devouring everything around it.

As he approached, the atmosphere grew heavier. The silence was different from that of the other areas. There were no distant footsteps, voices, or even the sounds of a battle. Only the wind slipping between the buildings and the occasional creaking of something he couldn’t identify.

Victor tightened his grip on his sword.

’Well, at least I’m getting close.’

He didn’t rush. He checked the corners before crossing them and kept his senses on high alert. The last time he’d been there, he’d found corpses and traces of blood everywhere. It wasn’t exactly a place where he could afford to walk around carelessly.

Then he sensed something.

A familiar smell, accompanied by an unpleasant sensation that made the hair on his skin stand on end. It wasn’t the scent of flowers he’d followed while fleeing from the Empress, but something wilder and heavier. Victor stopped.

’It can’t be...’

He looked toward the end of the street. The shadows seemed darker there, gathering between the buildings like a stain that didn’t belong to the night. He didn’t need to see its silhouette to know someone was waiting for him.

The Wendigo.

Victor clenched his teeth. He’d made it back to the dark area, but that didn’t mean he’d reached a safe place. In fact, he might have just walked straight into the lion’s den.

A massive figure moved among the shadows.

And there, waiting for him in the darkness, was the monster holding Brika captive.