Mr. Fool was absent from the Tarot Club gathering he himself had organized and convened? Miss Empress was presiding over this meeting?
Every member attending the gathering froze. Instinctively, they looked toward the high-backed chair that had belonged to the Empress. Only after seeing that it was indeed empty did they confirm that the woman at the head of the long table was not a role Mr. Fool had assumed as a joke.
Had something really happened to the Fool, leaving him unable to preside over the regular Tarot Club gathering? Then why had he not simply announced its cancellation, as he occasionally did?
Was there something important he wanted everyone to know even in his absence?
At that thought, several Tarot Club members who were either well-informed or had something unusual about themselves recalled the strange phenomena from a few days earlier.
Ever since Mr. Fool had warned them that something major might happen soon and told them to "go out less and watch for unusual changes around you," everyone had quietly become more vigilant. Three days earlier, cultists had launched suicide attacks of varying severity in major cities, leaving the local official Beyonders scrambling to respond. Tarot Club members with official positions, such as Leonard the Star, Emlyn the Moon, and Xio Judgment, had also taken part in the operations against the cultists.
When the chaos across the world reached its peak, the sun in the sky had suddenly gone out, plunging the entire world into darkness illuminated only by blood-red moonlight.
Of course, the darkness and the blood moon, which had seemed to grow larger and rounder as though about to fall to the ground, had lasted only a few seconds. Warm sunlight had once again enveloped the earth, and the moonlight had returned to its previous