After finishing her task, Diana grew restless. She sneakily pulled a flower card depicting a black rose in ink-wash style from her Card Case and slid it across the desk toward Dark.
"Hey, Dark, want to try this Divination card? I heard it's really accurate!"
Dark looked up and glanced at it. "Love Divination?"
"So you know about it..." Diana slowly slid the Love Divination Card back, like a kitten caught sneaking a fish snack.
"It's not like I completely shut myself off from the world," Dark said, amused.
Then he asked, "Where did you get these Flower Cards?"
"Huh?" Diana thought for a moment. "One came as a bonus when I bought candy, and this one was wedged in the door this morning when I left."
Dark furrowed his brow. "Someone's spreading these Flower Cards around? Could I borrow this one?"
Diana immediately brightened. "Of course!"
Ah! My finger's been cut! Blood! Blood!
Dark Demon Didn't Know What a Lover Was
With the Flower Card in hand, Dark examined it closely.
There was no way something popular enough to catch on like this was shoddily made.
The card itself was made of material similar to a Magitech Card. The flower depicted on it looked so lifelike that it seemed ready to bloom at any moment.
Diana's Flower Card bore a Cherry Blossom design, while the one in Dark's hand showed a Black Rose.
Professor Lily's Flower Card, meanwhile, was a Blue Enchantress.
Dark had also caught a glimpse of Emma's Flower Card. It depicted a lily.
Cherry blossoms symbolized love and hope, representing an elegant, simple, and pure love.
Black roses symbolized desperate love, filled with hatred and curses, and the desire to make one's beloved their own!
Blue Enchantresses represented pure love, a sincere and kind prayer for miracles to come and the impossible to happen.
As for lilies, they carried the meaning of a harmonious marriage lasting a hundred years, holding deep blessings for family and love.
By using different kinds of flowers, these Flower Cards not only gave each one a different meaning but also added an extra collectible element.
Besides their exquisite appearance, the Flower Cards' abilities were also quite impressive.
By channeling magic into one, you could bring the flower to "life," and even make it release a delicate fragrance.
Most appealing of all was the divination that supposedly let you see "the person you love," and even "the person your beloved loves"!
For Saint Marian students in the throes of adolescence, this was simply irresistible!
After a moment's thought, Dark channeled a trace of magic into the card and flicked it lightly. The Black Rose on its face suddenly flew out, its petals scattering on the breeze.
He reached out and caught one of the black roses, but felt only a faint chill. Then it dissolved like water.
He pondered this for a moment, then suddenly looked up!
At some point, Diana had leaned over, and now their eyes and noses were nearly touching.
A faint milky scent wafted into his nose.
Hmm, this girl was secretly eating milk candy in the library!
After exposing Diana's crime, Dark immediately pressed a hand to her forehead and pushed her away.
Diana reluctantly moved back, but she kept staring at the Love Divination Card in Dark's hand.
Dark didn't mind. He wanted to see who the person he loved deep down was, too.
But the card showed an Eevee!
"Huh?"
Diana's eyes widened in surprise.
Dark shook his head with a smile. Looks like this Love Divination Card isn't all that reliable after all.
But he'd noticed something strange when he'd channeled magic into it earlier!
"Can I have this?"
Dark looked up and asked.
Diana nodded at once. "You really do love your Magic Phantom Beast, Dark!"
Dark nodded. "It was my first Magic Spirit Card, after all. But judging by this, the Flower Card's so-called divination doesn't actually show your lover. I suspect it uses some sort of trick."
"Is that so?"
Diana tilted her head, then cheered up again.
On the other side of the reading room.
Victor chewed on his pen as he worked on his assignment, his brow furrowed.
Robert was in even worse shape.
The consequences of not paying attention in class were catching up with them. As the assignments grew harder, they'd finally encountered a problem they couldn't solve no matter how hard they thought.
What a headache!
Victor put down his pen and pulled a Flower Card from between the pages of his textbook.
The card had been a bonus gift when the two of them bought Magic Chess.
Red lilacs adorned the card, evoking the feelings of first love.
He quietly channeled magic into it, and a beautiful, fair-skinned face appeared on its surface.
A boy's feelings were still innocent and uncertain.
At first, he'd been drawn to her because her profile resembled his mother's.
But, little by little, his feelings had developed into longing.
He'd moved beyond that initial resemblance and come to care about her as her own person.
Simply because she was herself.
Seeing her again today had made his restless feelings grow even stronger.
Robert leaned over for a look and muttered, "If you like her so much, just go for it!"
Victor blushed. He was about to say that just getting to see her a few more times was enough for him.
But the beautiful face on the card suddenly stuck out a rosy tongue and licked the corner of her mouth.
"Ah!"
Victor let out a startled cry.
In the library, where everyone was supposed to keep quiet, his scream immediately drew a lot of attention.
Robert whispered, "What's wrong?"
"N-no, nothing."
Victor sat back down, his face bright red, and tightened his grip on the Flower Card.
"Let's stop here for now. We should go practice dueling. Tomorrow's our last chance!"
Robert had been waiting for this moment, so he quickly closed his books and assignments and stuffed them into his bag.
The two hurried out of the library.
As Victor signed them out at the front desk, his heart nearly leapt out of his chest.
That evening.
Dark cut his library time short.
He couldn't stop thinking about the strange sensation he'd felt when channeling magic into the Flower Card.
But he couldn't conduct experiments in the library.
He could only head back to the dorm for now.
By the time he left the library, the sky had already grown dark.
He looked up at the night sky and saw that the moon was still full.
Once he reached his dorm, he locked the door, set down his bag, and took out the Black Rose Flower Card again.
"Something's off."
Dark placed the card on the table and furrowed his brow, thinking for a long while. Then he took a Magic Pen from the drawer.
Using the Magic Pen as a conduit for magic could help him avoid certain dangers and make it easier to observe what happened.
Dark took a small step back, stretched out his arm, and touched the Magic Pen to the Flower Card. Then he channeled magic into it.
Not just the tiny amount he'd used in the library. He poured magic into it continuously!
Soon, under the influence of his magic, the Black Rose on the card's surface retreated toward the edges, and "the person you love deep down" appeared in its place.
This time, it still showed Eevee.
But Dark only had to shift his thoughts, and the Eevee disappeared.
Appearing on the card in its place was Valkyrie Alvitr, far away in the ducal territory.
Alvitr was unexpectedly a gentle-looking blonde beauty.
Without the statues of her scattered throughout the kingdom, the public might have thought she was the cherished daughter of some noble family.
Dark shifted his thoughts again, and Alvitr's image gradually faded.
This time, Diana appeared on the card.
Then Rose, Pandora, Professor Lily...
One face after another flashed across the card as Dark channeled more and more magic into it.
Suddenly, the Black Rose on the card began to unravel. Starting with the flower's center, it broke apart into long, thin black threads.
Those threads turned into thorny vines, twisting and writhing together like little snakes.
Dark jerked the Magic Pen away. The thorny black vines suddenly burst through the card's surface, growing snake heads at their tips as they swarmed out and lunged at him!
"Petit Dart!"
Three Shark Head syringes shot forward. In an instant, they blasted through the snake heads and pinned the twitching Flower Card to the table!
[Bliss -1]
(σ｀д′)σ
Take this!
Dark and Victor Went Their Separate Ways
Seeing the [Bliss -1] float across his field of vision, Dark realized his suspicions had been right.
This Flower Card really could draw out a person's thoughts through the flow of magic.
The so-called "divination" merely extracted "the person you're thinking of right now" from the surface of your thoughts.
By giving the Flower Card the concept of "Love Divination," it guided people to naturally think of whoever was on their minds when they used it. Then that person appeared on the card.
Even the follow-up reading for "the person your beloved loves" was only what the user believed it to be.
Before you continue