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To forge a future I wish to achieve; or to concede and accept fate as it is.

Even if the former isn\'t possible.

Even if fate is unchanging.

Of course, my answer is simple.

If what Emir said is true.

In that case, everything I have done up until now would have been for nought.

Is resisting fate a fruitless endeavour?

It may be so.

However.

Even if it\'s futile.

Even if it\'s a hopeless dream to render my work until now vain.

Fate.

You didn\'t seriously think I\'d sit here and do nothing while you ridiculed me relentlessly, did you?

Mocking me and saying nothing I do will change anything.

That no actions I take will matter.

It\'s a load of bullshit.

Even if it turns out to be true, it\'d piss me off even more to sit still and do nothing about it.

I won\'t have any of it.

I already know.

I\'ve already known since the very beginning.

That the future is malleable.

It\'s a flexible thing that can be shaped into whatever it\'s carved to be.

So, I\'ll do just that.

Stretching out my arm, I flipped the second card over.

It was another reversed card.

Card number XVI.

"Ah..."

Emir let out a noise as he stared blankly at the card I held.

I read the name at the bottom of the card.

The Tower.

"Is it bad?"

"...Uh. W-well, not always...?"

Seeing Emir\'s clearly unnerved self, I nodded.

"It\'s alright. I expect it to be bad. What\'s the meaning behind it?"

Unexpectedly, Emir wasn\'t the one to answer my question, but rather, it was Sophie.

"Oh! I\'ve heard of this one! Doesn\'t it usually mean that, like, a great disaster is gonna happen, or something?"

"..."

I turned to Emir, who was even quieter after her crude description.

"Is that right?"

I could see the cold sweat that ran down his neck.

"Uhm... To explain it more accurately, it usually means a great change. It\'s not always, uh... A disaster, so to speak..."

"Okay. What\'s the deal with this one though? It means something different if it\'s reversed, right?"

"Not different, just... Well, in most cases, if you get a reversed \'The Tower\', it indicates an incoming crisis. This time... Seems to be the same, from what I can see."

Right.

"An unwavering, inexorable fate; and a great crisis looming on the horizon, huh..."

I muttered.

It certainly wasn\'t something desirable, but it\'s not like I could do something about it.

I can\'t change what obstacles will come my way before I even know what they are.

All I can do is face them when they come.

"Sophie, do you know anything more about this card?"

I thought I would ask the thoughts of a layman, so I turned to her.

After all, sometimes it\'s important to get the opinion of an ordinary person with no specialised knowledge in order to gain deeper insight into a subject.

"Me? Hmm..."

She put a finger on her lips and hummed.

Doing so, I inevitably noticed the long, violet-painted nail with a strange pattern on it.

Wasn\'t it blue last time?

Or was it red?

I didn\'t remember, but the fact that it was absurdly long remained the same.

I wonder if Selina\'s power would heal a cut nail?

If that\'s the case, wouldn\'t it be possible to do a lot more than simply healing wounds and restoring limbs?

I made a note to check it out later on.

"Ah. I remember; once, a long time ago, my dad said something strange."

She opened her mouth and told a story.

Sophie\'s father, Professor Asanami.

A Professor of the Wardens.

Though in a lesser position than Marcus Lynton held back in the day, he was still a senior Professor as a researcher of Concept Measurements.

He worked in the same Playground branch in which Saburou lived; the Conston branch.

"Back when we were still a functioning family, he talked about his work sometimes."

A story that took place when her mother was still alive.

"He said he heard something from a coworker about a \'strange kid\' in another Playground location. He said it was about a kid who got into a lot of mischief, but never went into any more detail than that, so I think he probably wasn\'t allowed to talk about it too much."

"Anyway, he said he heard from a coworker about that kid."

"That coworker was another Professor who worked in a different Playground location, but he and my dad were friends so they kept in touch, and sometimes they had to do projects together for work. I used to sneak into his office and take a look at the classified documents \'cause I was curious, which is how I found out."

"That coworker; I don\'t know what power he had or what his position was, but he must\'ve been pretty high up since he had access to information even my dad didn\'t have."

"And, apparently, the research he was doing at the time was related to the strange kid."

"He told my dad something weird."

"I don\'t really understand it, but considering that even my dad, who was and still is a complete workaholic, thought that what he said was strange, it must be something really bizarre."

"Anyway, my dad told us his friend said something weird."

"He mentioned the research he was doing with that kid."

"Something about experimenting with fate?"

"I don\'t know what the details are, but it was something like that. And then, my dad\'s expression went all dark and gloomy when he explained it to the two of us, who didn\'t understand what he was talking about."

"He said this about the results of what his friend was researching."

"He said, \'It\'s like a tremendous tower built to reach the heavens\'."

"\'A tower built by the avaricious; he who coveted something his mortal hands should never be allowed to graze\'."

"\'However, due to the builder\'s excessive greed, the tower is faulty from birth\'."

"\'With a single shake of the foundations, the tower will fall.\'"

"\'He is building the foundations for a tower fated to collapse\'."

"After that, my memory\'s a bit foggy, but I\'m pretty sure the two of them never worked on a project together again."

Sophie then took a sip from her carton of strawberry milk, having finished her story.

There was only one recurring thought in my mind.

A possibility impossible to erase now that it had popped up.

That Professor.

Professor Asanami\'s friend.

Could it be...?

Just how much of a coincidence...?

...No, either way, it doesn\'t matter.

I cast a glance at Sophie and lowered my head.

Even if Professor Kazuki Asanami and Professor Marcus Lynton were friends, it was only a coincidence.

Fate or coincidence, it didn\'t matter.

What did he mean about the tower?

Something built by the greedy, something for which collapse was inevitable...

If it was that Professor, there\'s only one thing it could be related to.

It would correlate with everything else Asanami said, too.

The research with the strange kid.

The rough time period matches up, too.

All this talk about fate.

It has to be related to me.

But, what did he mean, fated to collapse?

Was he talking about me, or about something else?

Could it be not me specifically, but rather something around me?

Or could it even be the events of what happened that day I escaped?

There was no doubt in my mind that it was somehow related to my \'fate\'.

After all, this was far too much to be called a coincidence.

"Sorry, was that helpful? I don\'t know much about these tarot card thingies, so I probably said a bunch of nonsense."

I shook my head.

"No. Unexpectedly, it wasn\'t worthless."

"Tsk! There\'s a million better ways of phrasing it, you know? Not even a thanks?"

"Thanks."

"Tsk."

Ignoring her tongue clicking, I reached for the third and final card of the top row.

Flipping it over, the face was revealed.

Another reversed card.

Card number XV.

"Ahh! I told you! I told you! I knew this would happen! Hah! So easily predictable, ain\'tcha!?"

Immediately, Sophie jumped up and let out an uproar while pointing at me.

I didn\'t respond, only staring blankly at the upside-down card in my hand.

"Hahaha! Who was it that said I was wrong? Emir, you brat?! Look at it! I was right! See!?"

Emir, too, flashed an awkward expression, giving a fake laugh.

"A-aha, yeah, I see it... I see it..."

Was it a joke?

Once again, I was subjected to the power of fate.

Somehow, I couldn\'t help but suspect that Emir might have deliberately shuffled the cards in such a manner, but I knew it wasn\'t possible.

After all, I was the one who had picked the cards.

Was it a coincidence?

There\'s no way it could be.

Well, it\'s technically possible, but the chances have to be so minimal that it\'s not realistically plausible.

What was the name of the card I chose?

"Bahaha! I knew you would get \'The Devil\'!"

Of course, it couldn\'t be anything but that.