On the second day after officially returning to the Tarot Club, Angel got up early. It was already late October, and the early winter morning carried a slight chill, but the smoldering fireplace brought warmth to the entire living room, allowing her to make breakfast in thin clothes.
As she copied the Cooking Master's technique and flipped a fried egg in the pan, a sudden burning sensation at her waist made her arm jerk. The egg landed on the edge of the frying pan and was cut apart by its slightly sharp rim, with one half falling onto the stove.
Without bothering to clean up, Angel touched the burning spot and took out the mystical substitute she always carried with her, made from her own hair and blood. The bundle of hair tied into a human shape appeared unchanged, but Angel, who shared a close connection with it, knew that some kind of curse had been redirected to the substitute, which had in turn warned her.
The only person who could curse her like this was Sevillea Landon, who possessed her blood—the Demoness Sect's Demoness of Pleasure, her "superior."
But this was different from that deadly curse. It could not even make the substitute burn or change color. Angel guessed that without the substitute, if the curse acted directly on her, it would only make her chest hurt for a moment.
"Casting a nonlethal curse so early in the morning—is this a warning? Or some kind of twisted amusement?"
She threw the ash-covered half of the egg into the trash, sandwiched the remaining half with bacon between slices of bread, and added a cup of coffee for a simple breakfast. As she ate, she considered the reason for this.
"Maybe it was a notification delivered through some emergency means? She