As An Antique Shop Owner, It's Only Reasonable That I Know A Bit Of Magic - Chapter 96

The blonde girl was stunned.

She hadn’t even taken the item out of the box yet, and the shop owner was suddenly kicking them out.

What was going on?
The situation was so abrupt, and given her relatively mild temperament, she was momentarily at a loss for words.

The white young man behind her was the first to get agitated. He rolled up his sleeves and strode forward.

“What did you say? Say that again if you dare!”

Seeing that their companion seemed ready to fight, the chubby young man on the side hurried forward to stop him, but nearly tripped over his own feet due to his poor coordination.

Luckily, another African-American youth quickly stepped in front of him.

“Lucas, calm down. Don’t forget we still have the rest of the party to get to.”

“If we end up in jail because of this, all our plans will be ruined.”

The African-American youth’s words managed to talk Lucas down, at least a little.

“Grant’s right, let’s just go,” the curly-haired, brown-skinned Indian-American girl urged.

The group filed out the door one after another.

Only the blonde girl remained standing where she was.

“Haley?”

From behind her, another blonde woman looked back, confused upon seeing she had no intention of leaving.

“Elise, I just want to know why the shop owner said that. I’ll be right out,” the girl holding the box, named Haley, turned to explain.

Elise?
Hearing this name, Su Fan glanced at the woman speaking at the door, then lost interest.

This Elise had no connection whatsoever to the spiritual medium from before; it was just a coincidence they shared the same name. She had a pretty face, but her eyes held a transparent foolishness, giving off a not-very-bright vibe.

“Don’t bother trying to persuade her. It’s not the first time Haley has gotten obsessed with the occult, is it?” Outside, the Latina student shrugged.

“Such inexplicable people and things always pique her curiosity.”

“Almost forgot about that… Madeline, when did you find out?”
“A secret.”

As they talked and walked, they reached outside the shop to wait.

After persuading her friends to leave, Haley finally turned back.

“Why did you give that advice earlier?”
“Haven’t you looked at what’s inside?”
“I have. It’s a deck of Tarot cards, but the patterns are a bit strange.”
“Just a bit strange?”

Su Fan’s repeated questions made Haley recall the scene again.

To celebrate their friend’s birthday, they had rented a villa for a birthday party.
But they had overestimated their alcohol tolerance, and the beer they brought was soon finished.
So, everyone started rummaging through the villa, trying to find the owner’s hidden liquor.
They didn’t find any alcohol, but instead found a basement with a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign.
Lucas forced the wooden door open, and everyone went inside, discovering a room filled with collections of various occult and astrological items.
This box was sitting on a bookshelf in that room.
Before they could do anything, the homeowner happened to return.
Discovering they had broken into the room, he flew into a rage and kicked them out…
The box was taken in the rush during that moment.

“Is it acceptable to use Tarot cards of unknown origin for readings?”
The young shop owner’s question from across made Haley blush slightly.

“There’s an evil aura on those cards. Using them recklessly will invite fatal disaster,” Su Fan stated bluntly, wasting no more words.

“Is… is there?”
“Ordinary people can’t see it.”

Hearing this, the look in Haley’s eyes shifted slightly.
Ordinary people can’t see it, but you can?
This sounds an awful lot like a con artist.
The worst consequence of breaking professional taboos is just a streak of bad luck.
The more she thought about the shop owner’s words, the more it felt like alarmist nonsense.
Was he trying to trick her because he thought she didn’t know better?

“Believers live, non-believers die. You’d better take care of yourselves.”
“Haley!!”

Her friends’ calls came from outside. Haley didn’t have time to think further. She grabbed the box from the table and turned to leave.

Su Fan had already withdrawn his gaze, returning to his scriptures.
No matter how clearly you spell it out, there will always be people who risk danger.
While he hadn’t seen the related plot, he roughly knew this was the beginning of yet another horror movie.
It was unmistakable; the signs were just too obvious.

Look at this standard melting-pot group: White, Black, Latina, Indian… all present and accounted for, with three guys and four girls.
Add Su Fan himself, and you’d have an Asian person, making it four guys and four girls.
So diverse. So correct.
He just didn’t know when they would come running back, or how many of them would be left when they did…

——-

“Haley, what were you dawdling about in there talking to that guy for?” The Indian-American girl, Paige, sounded somewhat annoyed.

“I was just asking him why he said what he said,” Haley explained helplessly.
“He didn’t seem like a lunatic to me. Normal people don’t just curse others to die for no reason.”
“What did he say?” Madeline asked curiously.

“He said… he said…” Facing her friends’ curious stares, Haley suddenly found it hard to say the words, but finally gritted her teeth and relayed Su Fan’s message.
“He said these Tarot cards in the box harbor an evil power, and using them will get people killed.”

Everyone was stunned. They looked at each other, wide-eyed, before bursting into laughter so loud it echoed down the street!
Elise and Lucas laughed the hardest.

“Paxton, your father really wasn’t wrong. The owner of that antique shop truly is an amazing psychic~~” Lucas doubled over with laughter, addressing the chubby young man in their group.

“Evil power~~ Sounds like those old-fashioned ghost stories like Bloody Mary~~” Elise wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, her voice trembling.

The others, while not laughing as wildly as those two, also showed expressions ranging from speechlessness to amused exasperation.
In their view, that Asian shop owner was clearly just an alarmist fraud.

“Paxton, you should really talk to your dad. If he absolutely must believe in this stuff, he should go to proper religious places like a church… home gatherings don’t seem very reliable,” Paige advised the chubby young man quietly.

“…Uh…” The chubby young man, Paxton, didn’t know what to say.
His father was a patrol officer who originally didn’t believe in any of this either, but had inexplicably started talking about related topics some time ago.
Now it seemed he had probably been scammed.

“I think I’ve seen that young guy before on a treasure appraisal show that was pretty popular a while ago,” Madeline suddenly had a flash of insight.

“Ah, the sharp-tongued appraiser, right?” Grant, the African-American youth, remembered too.
He and Paxton were both interested in pottery and ceramics, so they watched related TV channels and had happened to catch that program.

“Even frauds can get on TV now. How interesting,” Lucas shook his head.

“…What he said was definitely exaggerated, but actually, I also think we should put this box back,” Haley finally spoke up after a long silence.
When they first opened the box back in the basement, a strange wind had inexplicably gusted through the room.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”