The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 98: Trigger

Lumière quickly ended the ritual and extinguished the candle flames in the correct order.

The whispers that had filled his ears vanished, and the intense pain, just on the verge of surging forth, stopped abruptly.

After roughly tidying up the altar, Lumière turned his gaze to the 5-féline gold coin.

It now appeared ordinary, gleaming with a charming golden hue under the carbide lamp's light, indistinguishable from any other coin.

Lumière's eyes deepened as he examined the coin as if it were a real person, attempting to observe its fortune.

Normally, he couldn't see the fate of an object, but this time, it was different. Concentrating, he noticed black mist swirling around the coin, mixed with faint streaks of crimson light.

The former symbolized bad luck, while the latter indicated a certain degree of bloodshed.

Lumière let out a sigh of relief. This meant the "Fortune Transfer Ritual" had succeeded. The homeless man's terrible fate for the next few days had been transferred to the coin!

However, if another person didn't assume this fate within three days, it would return to the homeless man and could never be transferred again.

Lumière stared at the homeless man for a few more seconds, confirming that his fortune had temporarily returned to normal—neither good nor bad.

Once satisfied, Lumière, who was standing by the altar, reached out and picked up the 5-féline gold coin, the medium for the fortune transfer.

He wasn't worried that the bad luck attached to the coin would transfer to him, as triggering the ritual required specific conditions. First, someone had to voluntarily take the coin with the intention of possessing it. Second, during the process, the target must gain an unfair advantage.

In other words, if Lumière used the coin to buy something, the shopkeeper wouldn't inherit the bad luck unless they sold him counterfeit goods or deceived him in some way to earn illegitimate profit.

Similarly, if Lumière placed the coin into Charlie's pocket without him noticing, and he used it, Charlie wouldn't become unlucky either.

As the original owner, Lumière was naturally immune to the effects of the "Fortune Transfer Ritual" when handling the coin.

The simplest way to trigger the ritual would be to let someone steal the coin or pretend to lose it, allowing the target to pick it up with the intent to claim it.

Lumière believed that unless Mr. Evra underwent a significant change, his ingrained love for money, like that of other misers, would likely lead him to fall into such a trap.

After cleaning up all traces of the altar, Lumière carried the homeless man back to the surface, returned him to the alley where he had found him, and removed the ropes, blindfold, and earplugs.

After checking the man's condition, Lumière kicked him lightly and turned to leave.

The homeless man slowly regained consciousness, instinctively shouting in fear, "Let me go, please!"

He opened his eyes and looked around, realizing that no one was there, and he was still lying in his usual spot.

The homeless man fell silent.

Once he fully woke up, his first reaction was to reach into his pocket.

The cold, hard sensation of a coin immediately registered in his mind, and he joyfully pulled out a silver coin worth 1 féline.

It was still there! It really was still there!

It wasn't just a dream!

Under the faint crimson moonlight from the sky and the dim streetlight filtering through, the homeless man flipped the coin over repeatedly, finally confirming that it wasn't fake.