Don’t Trust the Goddess - Chapter 1
Part 1. A New World
Seol-yeon, who is 20 years old this year, was a famous fortune teller in Cheongdam-dong.
After graduating from middle school, instead of going to high school, she set up a sign and began to do fortune-telling, tarot, astrology, coronation, and palm reading.
As news spread of her miraculous spiritual ability, more and more customers flocked to her, and at the end of last year, she was able to open a store in Cheongdam-dong.
Seol-yeon had long red eyelashes, which also kinda serves as her uniform. There were times when she could only open her eyes half way because she had decorated her eyelashes with beads, but she accepted it as a kind of occupational habit.
When the gloomy bell on the store door rang, the door opened and a middle-aged woman entered.
As soon as the customer sat opposite the round table, Seol-yeon put her elbow on the table and said.
“You’re here for your son, aren’t you?”
“Oh my!”
Seol-yeon spoke naturally to the middle-aged woman over 30 years older than her and stroked a glass bead the size of her face. She could feel the spiritual energy coming from her red nails hovering over a orbuculum.
“Tell me your son’s birth year.”
Amidst the mysterious vibe of the room and the fortune teller who guessed why she came as soon as she sat down, a half-bewitched customer sang her son’s birthday poem.
Seol-yeon, who wrote the birth year on paper with a brush, saw a vision.
“I see that he has no yeombok.”
“Yeo, Yeombok?”
“You don’t know what yeombok is? It’s luck with the women.”
When Seol-yeon declared her vision with ease, the customer was surprised and said.
“C-come to think of it, it hasn’t been long since my son broke up with his girlfriend…He’s never been in a relationship in his life so he’s been quite upset these days.”
“His jaebok is also very low.” TL note: jaebok means luck with money and finance
“Oh my. You’re also right about that! He was preparing to get a job and suddenly went on spending all his money on dating! After breaking up, he cried because it was his second breakup…”
“See? Your son can’t move on with his life because he’s meeting girls who’s not good for him.”
The customer forgot that she said she didn’t like her son’s ex-girlfriend. She was bewitched by the fortune teller’s words, scratching her itchy stomach.
“Right! You know how many fox-like girls he has met?”
“Your son isn’t doing well right now because he doesn’t have yeombok. You too are influenced by your son’s luck and it’s all been blocked. Tsk tsk.”
“T-then what should I do?”
“Wait a minute. I’ll write you a talisman.”
After seeing the tarot, the incantations and even her writing the talisman, the customer, who had already fallen for Seolyeon’s words, did not find it strange at all.
Seol-yeon got grumpy when the customer offered a credit card.
“Have you seen the card swiper?”
“Wait! I’ll be right back after withdrawing cash.”
“Once you exit, go 15 meters to the right. There should be an ATM.”
Eventually, the customer paid 150,000 won to buy the talisman. Seol-yeon laughed as she checked the cash.
“I’m done for today!”
Seol-yeon hardly knew how to be a fortune teller. She didn’t know much about tarot cards, and she only started memorizing and drawing talismans after seeing an example picture posted on the Internet.
Middle-aged customers often had questions about their children. After doing this for a long time, Seol-yeon was able to guess whether they had a son or a daughter with a high success rate.
Of course, she doesn’t say things recklessly like today if she wasn’t certain about it.
If she had guessed right that they wanted to talk for their children, she would first ask about their lover. If they don’t have a lover, she would suggest they get a lover, and if they do have a lover, then the lover is probably not enough compared to the customer’s children. Anyway, the important thing was to scratch the customer’s itch.
Just say what they want to hear. Customer-tailored Yoo Seol-yeon’s store was fully booked every day.
She was going to work hard to save money and go to Europe after retiring.
Germany specifically.
Seol-yeon’s only dream was to buy a nice castle, grow old,a ndn ive happy there.
‘In my spare time, I … won’t play hwatu with the neighboring grandmas so I’ll play poker and accumulate money for my retirement.’
Seol-yeon put the money in a safe and picked up the orbuculum she used earlier, dreaming of a happy castle life, and looked satisfied.
She had bought the orbuculum from Germany for quite a high price. The orbuculum, found in a castle’s warehouse, was said to be an indescribably old object.
She doesn’t know whether that was true or not, but it felt like this bead was begging her to buy it for some reason, so Seol-yeon was very excited and bought it.
Seol-yeon, who was looking at the orbuculum, stumbled, feeling dizzy, perhaps because she worked too much these days.
At that moment, the orbuculum in her hand fell on the floor and broke with a loud noise.
“No! My orbuculum!”
Seol-yeon sat down screaming and stared blankly at the broken piece of glass.
“Ii worked hard to buy this…… I’ve been waiting for this for a month…”
When she, devastated, sat down without even thinking about cleaning it up, the broken pieces of glass turned into a white animal-like shape.
“Ahhh!”
Shocked, Seol-yeon screamed and stepped back.
– Yoo Seol-yeon.
She then began to hear words from pieces of glass. Seol-yeon was shaking with fear, and the figure said.
– I am the god of astrology.
“Eh?”
– I cannot forgive you for using me to deceive people.
Seol-yeon, who was staring blankly at the piece of glass, stood up. Then, she stepped on a piece of glass and smashed it.
“What was that voice? Is this some kind of voice recording? Why did they add this useless function?”
She grumbled and went to find a broom to clean up the pieces of glass. Initially, Seol-yeon did not believe in astrology at all. She didn’t believe in astrology, superpowers, and parallel worlds.
Seol-yeon was looking around for a dustpan when…
Red smoke from the pieces of glass quickly wrapped around Seol-yeon. And she disappeared.
***
She didn’t think that a god of astrology existed.
And the voice recording sounded awkward like a novice scammer. So Seol-yeon couldn’t believe what she saw when she opened her eyes.
First off, she saw a ceiling she was not familiar with. Seol-yeon, who always laid down on her bed curled up like a shrimp, opened her eyes and was first surprised to see the ceiling.
“I-I’m lying down on my back!!”
Seol-yeon got up in a panic and screamed.
“Aaaack! What’s this?”
She had no clothes on, not even underwear. Fortunately, her body was covered with a large sheet of silk, but she still freaked out.
Moreover, where in the world is this place?
Looking around, she is met with a dazzling marble interior. The platform where Seol-yeon lay was about 1 meter above the floor of the building. She hurriedly wrapped her body with the silk sheet.
‘What did this crazy god of astrology do?’
The broom she was holding came to this dimension with her. It was obvious what the god intended, transmigrating her with a broom but no clothes.
Swearing at the god of astrology for being a perv, Seol-yeon thought about what to do and turned pale at the sounds coming from the open door.
“That light just now!”
“I’m sure about it! Goddess Amilla is here!”
“Hurry up, we have to see!”
Someone was coming.
Seol-yeon closed her eyes as she cursed ‘damn it, damn it,’ tears falling down on her red eyelashes.
“I’m sorry, God of Astrology. I won’t call you a pervert anymore, so please help me… ”
She talked to herself and prayed, but the murmur got closer and stopped after a while.
Seol-yeon slowly opened her eyes. In front of her, about a dozen men of various ages… no, they keep coming in… Anyway, several people were standing with their mouths open, mesmerized.
Now, there stood a woman in silk on an altar, and men surrounded her in the temple which made the situation very awkward. Seolyeon’s ears heard them whispering.
“Ah, it’s not Goddess Amilla. She has black hair and red eyes.”
‘Who is Amilla? Black hair and red eyes? She’s probably not human.’
“Ah, I know that Goddess.”
One of the priests unfolded a book that was hanging on his side and fluttered through the pages, then stopped at one of the chapters and said.
“Here, blonde hair and light green eyes. Goddess Diana Istrella.”
“Ohh, I see! As expected of a model student!”
‘Blonde and light green eyes? Oh my. There’s people with light green eyes here?’
She wanted to say that, but Seol-yeon was too frozen to say anything. The oldest-looking gray-haired man came forward and bowed.
“You’ve come to save us, Goddess Diana. Thank you very much.”
The man’s voice was shaking. The rest of the men followed him and bowed down to her. Seol-yeon’s eyes shook nervously.
“Who? Me?”
“As you know… His Highness is trying to execute all of us and get rid of the temple.”
“Ah, I get it, but my clothes…”
“I can’t believe that God Roxand has blessed us and sent his divine daughter this time…… Ah, I am the high priest, Bernadok. It seems that all the years of my devotion have been fruitful.”
“But more than that, my clothes…”
“The God Roxand has given us his word! Goddess Diana!”
The old man kneeled on his knees and shouted, pretending not to hear Seol-yeon.
“To which way should our troops advance?!”
“Uh what?”
“Should it be south or north?! Our lives depend on this choice! Please guide us!”
He seemed to have decided not to give her clothes until she answered.
Seol-yeon carefully looked around at the priests, knelt down, and closed her eyes.
As she pretended to be in deep thought, she peeked through her eyes to gauge the room for a long time. Among the priests, murmurs of “when will this end?”, “my legs are numb” were heard.
Seol-yeon eventually decided to confess, “I think you’re mistaken about me,” but she heard a voice in her ear.
– Tch tch, you can’t even do this. I’ll help you this one time. It’s south.
It was the voice of the perv god of astrology earlier. Seol-yeon became excited and asked the priests.
“D-did you hear that?”
“Hear……what?”
“Didn’t you hear that? I just heard it. It’s south.”
“D-did God Roxand say south?”
A priest with freckles resembling strawberry seeds on his very young face asked as if it was surprising. He is the priest, Ritard Olson, who will be Diana Istrella’s right-hand man in the future.
Ritard was so moved that he even teared up and said.
“W-we lowly priests can’t hear the voice of God! Thank you, Goddess!”
Following Ritard’s burst of gratitude, other priests also said, trembling with emotion.
“Ohh! Thank you! Goddess! We shall pass it onto His Highness right away!”
“Truly, thank you for appearing before us at such hard times, Goddess!”
Seol-yeon was even more scared as the priest cried. She was trying to maintain her confidence, but she couldn’t stop shaking because she didn’t understand what was happening.
Fortunately, the priests who finally got an answer rushed out. Seolyeon felt relieved to see their backs, but then her eyes met with High Priest Bernadok, who had asked her for directions. The old man’s eyes flashed coolly.
Seol-yeon began to feel nervous again, wondering if she had said something wrong. From the old man’s eyes, she felt his urge to break her neck right at that moment.
“I will take my leave, Goddess Diana.”
Bernadok greeted her and left.
Seol-yeon, who was left alone in the temple, trembled again and began to pull at her hair.
‘What do I do? How do I run away from here?’
Seol-yeon can usually lie to people as if she were eating, but there was never a time when she had to lie with people’s lives at stake.
‘What if they misheard it? What if there are actually victims? Why did grandpa glare at me like that?’
That moment, she felt a huge amount of pressure. After a while, a bunch of maids came in one after another.
Unlike the priests, the maids looked wary of Seol-yeon.
Their leader was a brown haired woman with sharp eyes decorated with jewels.
“Goddess, please come this way. I will guide you to where you shall stay from now on.”
Seol-yeon quickly got up and followed them at the leader’s command.