The Emperor's Tarot Was Also a Prominent Field of Study

Facing the four round moons gradually rising into the sky, Tita stretched her weary body.

The Eye of the Crimson Father had closed. The light of all four moons had returned to its pure brilliance, dyeing Macragge City's horizon silver.

This city had been built from gray-white stone quarried from the mountains. Rough stone flowed through the streets beneath Tita's feet like blood through veins, converging from narrow alleys that served as capillaries onto Proyana Avenue. It passed through Tills Gate, crossed the crowded apartment districts, passed the council hall of Governor Conor and the Temple District where priests shepherded the masses, and finally flowed into the beautiful countryside dotted with the villas of countless senators.

Macragge was a living city.

Tita still remembered what her uncle had once told her.

"Those with knowledge and ability will keep climbing upward in this city, while the ignorant, incompetent, and fallen are like worthless cells, metabolized into debt slaves to serve those who truly have value."

"Just wait, Tita. I'll use my knowledge to keep rising. One day, your uncle might even become a senator."

Back then, Zhou Yun had spoken those words to Tita with high spirits and great confidence.

At the time, Tita had truly believed that her uncle could keep climbing upward through his own knowledge.

Who would have thought that Zhou Yun himself would now be killed by the system of debt slavery...

He clearly knew the dangers of gambling. He knew he might become a debt slave. Why did he still gamble? Why did he still borrow money?

Perhaps knowledge did not equal wisdom...

Tita sighed as she climbed to the second floor of the apartment building, calculating next month's expenses as she went.

Zhou Yun and Tita each rented a room on the second floor of this apartment building.

In Macragge, the lower the floor of an apartment building, the cheaper the rent. With Zhou Yun's previous income, paying for these two rooms had not been difficult.

But next month...

Zhou Yun had skipped work too many days this month. No one knew how much of his salary would be left.

In addition, Tita's father's pension would only barely cover the first installment of the debt. They would probably have to make up the rest with some of Zhou Yun's wages.

Perhaps they would have to ask Professor Lucretius for a loan... Professor Lucretius had been Zhou Yun's teacher when he was studying, and was now the head instructor of the Grammar Academy as well as a renowned historical scholar throughout Macragge.

If Uncle Zhou Yun was willing to speak with the old professor, they should still be able to borrow some money.

Tita gently raised her hand and knocked on Zhou Yun's door.

She was a little nervous. She still worried that Zhou Yun had deceived her and gone to the casino...

"The door isn't locked. Come in."

Tita relaxed inwardly. She pushed open the door and saw Zhou Yun writing furiously at his desk.

"The food is in the corner," Zhou Yun said without looking up from the desk.

Tita saw the bread, fish sauce, fruits, and vegetables Zhou Yun had bought piled in the corner.

"Fish sauce from Talassar..." Tita muttered.

Talassar was an ocean world with an abundance of seafood. Local fishermen often piled all sorts of miscellaneous fish into enormous fermentation vats, turning them into the seasoning known as fish sauce.

But because of its crude processing, the flavor was fairly mediocre and often carried an overly strong fishy stench. It could not compare to Macragge's local fish sauce.

Still, this fish sauce had one advantage: it was cheap... Ever since Lord Conor had strengthened interstellar trade, all kinds of daily necessities had become much cheaper.

Tita did not take the food downstairs to the communal kitchen. Instead, she stood up and quietly approached Zhou Yun from behind.

She had noticed earlier that Zhou Yun was not writing something. He was drawing something.

Tita knew that Zhou Yun could do some simple sketching, but only to the extent required for historical research. It was purely for work, not something he was interested in.

This was the first time Tita had seen Zhou Yun drawing at home.

Curiously, she leaned closer and discovered that Zhou Yun had just finished one drawing and casually tossed it beside the desk.

Tita looked at it.

Zhou Yun had cut parchment into card-sized pieces and drawn simple patterns on them with a black fountain pen.

The one he had just finished showed... a black giant in armor, with claws in one hand and a longsword in the other, along with a somewhat ridiculous topknot.

What bizarre taste... Tita could not help saying inwardly.

But Tita did not say it aloud. Even if his taste was a little strange, drawing was still a better hobby than gambling.

Tita glanced over the dozens of other cards Zhou Yun had drawn.

A crimson eye, a planet breaking apart, a tall tower beneath lightning, an angel spreading its wings, a blond demigod clad in blue armor...

For some reason, Tita shuddered as she looked at the images made of pitch-black lines. Those twisting ink strokes seemed to foretell a dark, cold, decaying future filled with war.

Tita withdrew her gaze from the completed images and looked at the card Zhou Yun was currently drawing...

It depicted a magnificent throne made of cables, machinery, and gold. Weeping angels knelt beside it, but only one of them had wings. The rest wore heavy armor in various colors. Custodes in golden armor stood beside the angels, while the corpses of infants flew through the air.

And upon that Golden Throne, upon that colossal throne as vast as a mountain range, was chained a... a Yellow Skin wearing a laurel crown...

Uh... Tita understood Zhou Yun's taste even less now.

But she did not disturb him. She picked up the ingredients and quietly left the room.

Zhou Yun finished the final stroke, raised his fountain pen, and looked with satisfaction at the last card.

A Yellow Skin sitting on the Golden Throne. How wonderful.

What Zhou Yun had just drawn was a divination tool known as the Emperor's Tarot.

In this galaxy, this form of divination was also considered a prominent field of study, second only to Numerology.

It was said that this tarot deck of seventy-eight cards had been created by the Emperor himself. It was connected to the Emperor's mind upon the Golden Throne, and through divination, one could seek answers from the Emperor's own thoughts. It was also one of the few legal divination methods permitted by the Imperium.

From street fortune-tellers to the Administratum, from the Inquisition to the Grey Knights, every stratum of the Imperium enjoyed using it to predict the future and reveal omens.

Of course, the Imperial Tarot used by the Imperium's authorities was mostly made from liquid crystal with psychic conductive properties. Greyfax had once given Zhou Yun a set as well.

Now that Zhou Yun was on Macragge, he did not have such conditions and could only make do with parchment.

This would work just as well. After all, even diviners in the Imperium's Underhive could perform readings with plastic cards blessed by the Ecclesiarchy...

Blessed by the Ecclesiarchy... According to the Ecclesiarchy's propaganda, this seemed to be a necessary step. Only after receiving a blessing could the cards connect with the Emperor's will...

But the Ecclesiarchy had not been born yet... Zhou Yun thought about it. Should he try blessing the tarot cards himself?

After all, he was the Emperor. His blessing had to be more effective than those of the Ecclesiarchy's priests, no matter what.

Zhou Yun arranged the Emperor's Tarot and brought his hand close to the cards. "Eighteen Primarchs have come here, twenty legions should take heed. Lion, Roboute Guilliman, Russ, Dorn, Vulkan, Sanguinius, Corax, Jaghatai, and headless Ferrus. Be consecrated, be consecrated, may all things prosper. By decree of Lord Emperor, obey with all haste..."

Zhou Yun muttered at the tarot cards a few times.

The tarot cards on the table did not seem to undergo any changes.

But as Zhou Yun looked at the deck, he inexplicably felt confident that it truly could reveal the future.

It seemed that it had worked.

Zhou Yun rubbed his chin, shuffled the tarot cards in front of him a few times, then drew four and placed them before himself.

He reached out and turned over the first one...