As An Antique Shop Owner, It's Only Reasonable That I Know A Bit Of Magic - Chapter 58

Seeing this, how could Karsten not understand what had happened?

In a crash that severe, the driver should have had no chance of survival.

The only reason he was sitting here now was because the protective talisman Su Fan had given him had saved his life!
The talisman worked. It was real!!

The moment this realization struck, Karsten shuddered as if hit by lightning. He then carefully, reverently, tucked the remaining talisman into his pocket.

After such a drastic swing between life and death, his mind was now crystal clear.

The absolute top priority was to get this talisman to Scarlett!
At this thought, a flicker of regret surfaced in his heart.

If he had driven more carefully, could he have avoided wasting one of those precious talismans?

But there was no time to dwell on that now.

Karsten got to his feet, pulled out his wallet, and extracted four or five hundred-dollar bills, handing them to the bearded truck driver.

“My carelessness caused you this trouble, and I’m truly sorry. But I have an extremely urgent matter right now… could I possibly borrow your vehicle?”

Even in this state, Karsten’s polite tone took the truck driver by surprise.

In the brief moment of the driver’s hesitation, Karsten pressed the money into his hand, got into the truck, and sped away.

…

Inside the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

In a sterile white room, a golden-haired beauty sat huddled in a corner, knees drawn to her chest.

Spread out on the floor before her were newspaper clippings, each reporting a fatal accident.

The woman possessed a classic Hollywood beauty, with an excellent figure and poise, but now she radiated an aura of deep depression and melancholy.

Since being confined here, the frequency of her premonition had decreased, and she no longer saw deathly visions in mirrors or other reflective surfaces.

But she knew, deep down, that the Death God was closing in.

Her father had told her that others were ahead of her in the sequence, that there was still time, but the growing gravity and anxiety on his face were impossible to miss.

She knew her time was almost up.

Before this, she had tried to warn the other passengers from the flight that doom was approaching.

Without exception, they had all thought she was insane.

No matter how many times she tried.

The ability to have these premonitions felt like a cruel gift from the Death God, designed solely to torment her.

It wanted her to know that fate was immutable. Whether she faced it calmly or struggled pathetically, the outcome would be the same.

As a last resort, she had asked her father to help her create this safe room, a place with virtually zero risk factors.

Today was her third day living inside it.

The woman lifted her head, staring blankly at the sliver of sky visible through the window.

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed, growing closer.

“Scarlett!”

The moment the visitor entered, he called her name with intense excitement.

Hearing the voice, Scarlett got up from the floor.

Of everyone, her father, Karsten, had been the first to believe her. He was her most crucial anchor now.

“Father, why are you so… what… what happened to you?”

Scarlett started to ask, but her words trailed off as her eyes fixed on the blood staining the collar of his shirt.

The white shirt under his suit jacket was prominently soaked with a deep crimson around the neckline.

But Karsten didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he eagerly pulled a strange-looking yellow paper from his pocket, something she had never seen before.

“Never mind that for now. Quick, take this!”

“No, Father, you must explain to me what happened?!”

Scarlett shook her head, her voice edged with anxiety.

The man before her was disheveled: his clothes were messy, his shirt was bloody, his cheek was swollen. He looked utterly embarrassed.

Clearly, something terrible had happened to him on the way here.

A dreadful thought formed in Scarlett’s mind: Had her father, because of his close contact with her, also become a target of the Death God?
The mere idea made her breath catch.

Seeing the shifting emotions on his daughter’s face, the excited Karsten forced himself to calm down. “Scarlett, please, calm down a little. Let me explain slowly.”

He began recounting everything: his search for help, the recommendation from Ms. Kate, his visit to Su Fan, and how he obtained the talismans.

Hearing this, Scarlett couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

When she first claimed to be haunted by Death, her Jewish mother had refused to believe it. The core tenet of Judaism is that there is only one God, the supreme Yahweh; all else are merely manifestations of demons. Her mother had wanted to bring in someone to perform an exorcism, but her father had vehemently opposed the idea.

She never imagined that her father would eventually seek out such help himself…

Seeing the disappointment on Scarlett’s face, Karsten understood her thoughts and hurriedly continued his explanation.

He told her about the car accident, his miraculous survival, and how one of the talismans had crumbled to dust.

As he spoke, Scarlett’s expression began to change.

“To be honest, I didn’t really believe it either,” Karsten admitted. “I couldn’t accept that a piece of yellow paper could protect someone from misfortune.”

“But what I saw with my own eyes left me no choice but to believe.”

“Can you imagine it? The car was riddled with steel bars, yet not a single one harmed me. The one that went straight through the driver’s seat only grazed the back of my neck.”

As he said this, Karsten turned to show her the mark on his nape.

“Listen to me, Scarlett. This is no fraud. It’s a genuine treasure that can protect you!”

Karsten urgently pressed the remaining talisman into his daughter’s hand.

“Keep it on you! Now!”

Feeling the intensity of her father’s gaze, Scarlett, though still skeptical, accepted the talisman.

The moment she took it, a strange sense of security seemed to wash over her, creating a buffer between her and the anxiety and fear that had plagued her.

[Maybe it’s just a placebo effect.]

Scarlett didn’t dwell on it.

Only after seeing the talisman in his daughter’s hand did Karsten finally relax slightly.

“Rest easy, Scarlett. With this, you should be safe.”

“Oh, that’s right…” He slapped his forehead. “Master Su Fan said that if the talisman worked, we should contact him. I wonder if…”

“Father, it’s so late now,” Scarlett interrupted his motion to pull out his phone. “Call him tomorrow.”

“But… he hasn’t actually agreed to help us yet…” Karsten didn’t put the phone away, instead growing more urgent. “Scarlett, we’ve encountered a true master this time. We can’t let this opportunity slip away! What if someone else books his time? What would you do then?”

Seeing her father acting as if possessed, Scarlett sighed.

Simultaneously, her curiosity about this “Master Su Fan,” whom she had never met, grew.

Who exactly was he, to have transformed her staunchly materialist father into this… this fervent believer?

“Alright,” she conceded. “But I want to speak with him myself. Is that acceptable, Father?”