The assassination attempt had begun with a black cat. Someone had exploited Lord El-Melloi II's kindness, using the cat to carry out a cursed assassination. To most Magicians in the Moon World, living creatures—including humans—could be used as sacrifices. Only a handful possessed the values of ordinary people, and Lord El-Melloi II was undoubtedly one of them.
Yet among magicians, having ordinary values made one abnormal. After all, when everyone around you was abnormal and only you were normal, then naturally, you were the abnormal one. If it had been another magician, the curse could never have succeeded. But Lord El-Melloi II was different.
Lord El-Melloi II had been furious about the curse, because someone had actually tried to assassinate him with one. That was a complete insult to him. For magicians, warding against curses was a compulsory lesson. Using a curse against a magician was extremely difficult, especially when the target was a Lord. It plainly meant the enemy thought he was so weak that he could not even reflect a curse.
That was the drawback of curses—they could easily be reflected back upon their caster. For example, Lord El-Melloi II had merely insulted a few other Clock Tower Lords before, saying they were not Magicians at all and spent all day fighting for power and profit. To ordinary people, that was just a casual insult, but to Magicians, it could be treated as a curse.
The curse had then reflected onto Lord El-Melloi II. The backlash had not been particularly harmful; it had merely made him unlucky for a few days. The black cat incident had occurred while he was having that streak of bad luck, so he had not noticed it at first. It was only after Gray heard an unusual sound that he discovered his shadow