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The Golden Fairy – Part 04

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Translator: Kell

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“By the way, Victorique,” Kazuya said, trying to keep his spirits up. “You read tons of books every day.”

Victorique didn’t reply, and instead gave a small nod.

“Are you planning to read all the books in this library?” he asked in a joking tone.

Victorique raised her head and pointed down from the railing. “I’m almost done reading the books on this side. Hmm? It looks like your eyeballs are about to pop out of your head, Kujou. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I was just… shocked. What are you reading right now?”

“A lot of things.” Victorique yawned as she stretched like a cat. “Ah, I’m bored. There is not enough chaos to be reconstructed. I read and read, but it’s not enough.”

“I think my brain would break down if I read one of these.” Kazuya pointed to a Latin book spread open in front of him.

Victorique’s face lit up. “I know. I’ll explain it to you.”

“Explain what?”

“What this book is about. You see, this book is about ancient divination.”

“Divination? Not interested.”

“I don’t care.”

“Why tell me about it, then?” Kazuya looked like he wanted out of there.

“Because I’m bored.” Victorique nodded, as if her answer made perfect sense.

She forced him to stay and listen. “According to this book, divination is a practice that has existed side by side with human desire since ancient times. For example, in the ancient Roman Empire, they burned animal intestines and scapula and used the cracks produced to tell their fortunes. This practice lasted until the 11th century, when it was banned by a Christian ecumenical council. Bibliomancy, which involves opening a book and reading what is written on its pages, has also been practiced since ancient times. People back then used the books of Homer, but the Christians began using the Bible. This was also banned by a council… Hey, Kujou, wake up. I will die of boredom.”

“…Sorry.”

“So divination is a heretical practice. But people continue to do it even when it is banned by the government and by the Church. In some cases, clergymen continued practicing it secretly for centuries. Do you know why?”

“No idea…”

Victorique removed the pipe from her mouth and exhaled a puff of smoke. “Because they come true.”

“…No way.”

“Valens, an emperor of the ancient Roman Empire, felt insecure about his position. So he summoned a soothsayer to tell him the name of the person who would threaten him. The soothsayer drew letters of their alphabet on a flat piece of land, placed some food, and released a chicken. The chicken ate the food around the letters “T”, “H”, “E”, “O” and “D”. The emperor interpreted this as the name Theodoreus and executed all those who bore that name in the empire. But the name of the next emperor was Theodosius. He had the wrong name.”

“…Well, that’s a disturbing story.”

“Listen seriously. I might fall asleep from boredom.”

“Sorry.”

“From what I’ve been able to gather from various sources, the most credible method is called the Magic Mirror. This mirror, depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s work ‘Witch Using a Magic Mirror’, is the forerunner of crystal divination. A silver jar filled with wine, a copper jar filled with oil, and a glass jar filled with water are prepared. The divination is done over three days and three nights. The copper jar shows the past, the glass the present, and the silver jar the future. All are displayed on said magic mirror.”

On one of the pages of the book Victorique held out to him, there was an illustration of a woman with a red cloth over her head, holding up a golden hand mirror in front of three jars. A group of men garbed in white were prostrating themselves, rubbing their foreheads on the ground.

Flipping through the pages, Victorique rambled on. Kazuya listened quietly as he didn’t want her to get mad at him.

When he thought about it, back in his country, women always followed quietly three steps behind. He had not trained himself to deal with this type of girl who walked three steps ahead and then turned around and said, “Hurry up!”

Gotta think of it as training, Kazuya thought. Training is always hard work. Man, I’m sleepy.

“Now, it is also interesting to note the account of rhabdomancy, divination using sticks, by the prophet Moses in the Book of Numbers. In order to know from which tribe the future leader of the Israelites would be born, he prepared twelve sticks with the name of each tribe on them.”

“…I see. I gotta say, I didn’t expect this,” Kazuya said.

“Expect what?”

“That you believe in divinations.”

“Of course I don’t believe in them.”

“What?”

Victorique pulled out another book from the pile around her. She opened it up and showed it to Kazuya, but the book, which was written in difficult German, made him wince and shrink back. Victorique’s small hand reached out and pinned Kazuya down, forcing him to give in.

“…What’s that book about?” he asked.

“Psychology. Let me explain it to you, you thickheaded, mediocre egghead. Why do people believe in divination?”

“Go on…”

“Because they come true. Not as an objective fact, of course. It’s only subjective. In other words, they think it comes true. That is the inherit power that divination has had since before the era of Christ. You see, divination is supported by the group psychology of ‘wanting something to come true’. It’s the same as the supernatural story boom that is rampant in this school. Everyone is unconsciously an accomplice.”

“Ahuh…”

“Let us list three possible causes. First: only divinations that come true are recorded in history. Behind one correct prediction are countless incorrect ones. Second is the soothsayer’s skill of guessing what the person wants by reading their facial expression. And third is when they give answers that can be interpreted in more ways than one.”

“Hmm…”

“For example, Kujou, let’s say that before you came to this country to study, you had your fortune told. If it was a good fortune and you got good grades, you’d think that it came true. If you got a bad fortune and you had a tough time, you would also think that the fortune was right.”

“Hmm…”

“Emperor Valens’ case is the same. The five letters that the chicken chose should have had countless combinations. But he already suspected a young man named Theodoreus. So he linked the result of the divination to the name. In other words, divination is superstition that is backed by the psychology of ‘asking for a push’ for something that you have already decided to do. In other words, it is a means to avoid responsibility… Argh!” Suddenly, she clutched her head with both hands and groaned.

“Wh-Wh-What?!” Kazuya jumped to his feet. He thought she had finally gone mad.

Victorique shot him a glare. “Explaining it to an average person made me even more bored.”

“Now that’s just rude.”

“My chest hurts… The boredom is killing me. I blame you. How will you make it up to me?”

“Why me?!” Suddenly, Kazuya remembered something. “I know. Speaking of divinations…”

He recalled the case that Ms. Cecile told him about.

An old lady was killed under strange circumstances in a nearby village. She was shot dead in a locked room and no murder weapon was found. The victim was a person named Roxane and she was a…

“A fortune teller was killed in a nearby village yesterday,” he said.

Victorique’s small shoulders twitched. She lifted her head, and for the first time today, she stared straight at Kazuya.

Blonde hair that glittered like golden threads cascading down the floor in soft waves. Skin so white that you could almost make out the veins beneath. A pair of emerald eyes, melancholic, like a man that had lived too long, shooting him a distant gaze.

Kazuya shrank back.

Victorique opened her mouth softly. “…Chaos,” she murmured, blowing a puff of smoke in his face.

Coughing, he wiped the tears from his eyes. “I don’t know the exact details, though.” He sat down next to Victorique. “Ms. Cecile told me about it earlier. She only knows what the cops told her and some gossips from the neighborhood. So anyway, the old lady bought a small and cozy house and started living there around the start of the world war.”

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