The True Curse Master

Upon hearing Iver's words, the Old Inspector named William remained silent for a brief moment.

"Ah ah..."

He groaned, making meaningless sighs. It sounded like he was about to recite poetry, or like he was groaning from a headache.

The old man stared intently at Iver —but Lily keenly sensed that the Old Inspector was looking at the air in front of him rather than Iver.

He paused for a few seconds, then shook his head.

"... Oh, what were we talking about again..."

The old man murmured softly.

He thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands and realized. "Jacob, right?"

"Indeed, I remember him... that was over a decade ago. Oh... about fourteen years ago. Yes, it was also in winter... about the same time as now. A bit colder than now, it snowed heavily that day."

The more the Old Inspector spoke, the more certain his tone became. Long-sealed memories were gradually unsealed, sculpted into shape by his words.

"Is it a snowy day?" Iver confirmed.

"That's right."

Old William nodded and sighed, "Old people can never withstand the winter snow."

"Snow is the silent rain, the covering water, the evening wind, solidified without form and melted with form. The old, the withered, the silent cannot resist the call of snow. They will all be buried in this pure white lake."

He was muttering something in a cryptic way.

Suddenly remembering something, Iver asked, "Are you the inspector who confirmed the death back then?"

Yes, it's me.

"I heard that when he died, all his manuscripts were lost and disappeared... How did this happen? Did he leave any suicide note?"

Iver pressed on.

This information comes from Bishop Mathers.

Although it is somewhat impolite, given the "young minister" persona that Iver has established in front of old William, it is quite reasonable for him to say such things so bluntly.

The Old Inspector struggled to recall for a while before slowly replying, "I don't quite remember... but I do remember that he didn't leave anything behind."

"To be precise, it wasn't that all his manuscripts disappeared. Rather, all the papers in his house vanished—manuscripts, newspapers, and letters. But the books were still there."

"I initially suspected he might have gone mad from burning, so I put them all in the fireplace to burn, but after looking at the fireplace, I didn't find any remnants of incomplete combustion. So I can only conclude that someone broke in first and stole them—"

"Because the thief was unsure which piece of paper was valuable and was pressed for time to examine it on-site, he simply took them all home for a closer look. I think this is a very reasonable deduction."

The Old Inspector said this.

Hai Na nodded repeatedly.

That's absolutely right—if she were in charge of this, she would probably give the same answer. It's undoubtedly the most reasonable approach.

Upon hearing this, Iver frowned slightly.

As if he had vaguely realized something, he fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, Sherlock, standing nearby, pressed on, asking, "Do you remember how he died?"

"Oh, I remember...yes, I remember. A few days before that, he said he wasn't feeling well and was shivering from the cold. He even borrowed some firewood from the young people to burn in the fireplace. But he was actually fine then."

The Old Inspector frowned, trying hard to recall, "It was sometime later that he suddenly collapsed. Before that, we hadn't seen him for several days."

"Then one day, he suddenly rushed out of the house and collapsed on the ground. Luckily, a young man on the road helped him back. At that time, he was still conscious... He said he felt dizzy, like he had a fever."

"He was burning up with heat, and it was making it hard for him to breathe. He was so upset that he was talking in his sleep... He said he was looking for his son, but who knew who his son was?"

The Old Inspector sighed, "There's no pharmacist in the village. The only priest tried to help him, but it didn't do much good. So he could only give him a dose of Hot Brandy with honey."

"Many people in the village know about this. You might be able to ask the pastor's son; he may know some of the more detailed information."

"Can't we use Illumination Spell to dispel the curse?"

Iver pressed on with that question.

"It's no use. His treatment easily cured Jacob and brought him to his senses for a while, but he relapsed before nightfall... which means it's probably not a curse."

"After that, he didn't last more than a few days before he passed away. That old pastor was a priest; if he couldn't handle it, the bishop would have to come."

Old William simply shook his head and said firmly, "We've exhausted all the means we could... Jacob is one of the few educated people in our village, and the Children all adore him. If possible, we will definitely try to save his life."

Iver narrowed his eyes slightly.

—Finally, we've identified the problem.

He learned important information as early as during Iver's first Promotion Ritual.

Iver's parents were killed by the curse of the Curse Master Aziz Ben Abdul, Aziz carried out the act under orders from old James Moriarty.

At the time, Iver thought that he survived the curse when he was a child because his father dispelled the curse, and then his parents lured away the Iron Hook Demon, allowing Iver to survive...

But Iver overlooked one thing.

Or rather, he assumed that the Curse Master's goal was to wipe out his entire family, and therefore he had also placed a curse on himself. Or perhaps, the curse on him was placed by the Curse Master Aziz.

However, the symptoms my grandfather had before he died were exactly the same as my own experience with a fever when I was a child...

It is impossible for Aziz to curse his grandfather Jacob.

Not only was his skill level significantly lower than Jacob's, but he also lacked Jacob's connections.

Moreover, when Iver played the father, he successfully dispelled the curse on "Little Iver" almost instantly; however, when he tried to dispel the curse on Iver's mother, played by Isabel, he encountered strong resistance.

It was as if the former didn't care at all about being dispersed.

Unlike Iver, who could only use First Level power at the time, Julio was a priest! So he was at least Second Level, and possibly even higher but still gaining experience.

If Iver can do it, why can't Father himself dispel it?

This is the biggest flaw.

The Giant Prince Wolfram swore that he had cursed Iver's grandfather to death.

According to Iver's Ritual Studies teacher, Iver's grandfather had invented the "Typhoid Curse".

This curse follows Jacob's "low-key" style—it doesn't reveal itself as a curse, but disguises itself as a mild case of typhoid fever, making people less wary and more willing to treat and dispel the curse. Once the curse has accumulated enough power within the body, it then causes the person to die suddenly in a short period of time.

This led Iver to believe that Wolfram was using this curse.

But after hearing about his grandfather's symptoms, Iver immediately realized something was wrong.

No. Absolutely no— Jacob didn't actually have a cold; the pastor diagnosed him with one because of his fever and high temperature. His real symptoms were exactly the same as Iver's!

Moreover, if Jacob invented the "Typhoid Curse," then he couldn't possibly not know how to break it— Jacob was of sound mind at the time.

If he was afflicted with Typhoid Curse, then where did Aziz, a foreign Curse Master, learn this technique from? He has absolutely no connection with the Noble Red.

If all the above possibilities are taken into account, and assuming that this information is correct, Iver arrived at a strange answer—

—It is highly likely that his grandfather was not killed by the curse of the Curse Master Aziz, nor by the Giant Prince Wolfram.

However, his death became known to many. This directly led to the deaths of Iver's parents at the hands of the Curse Master Aziz, and the annihilation of the entire Alexander family.

Rather than saying he was purged by the Noble Red as the founder of the Scaleless Hand... it's more accurate to say he was guilty of possessing a treasure.

If this inference is taken as the logical basis, Iver immediately thought of another detail he had overlooked—

During the introduction to Iver's first advancement ceremony, it was mentioned that Lisa, the niece of his father "Julio Alexander" and Iver's cousin, was murdered a month earlier, but the Bureau of Supervision had failed to find the killer.

A month after that incident, Julio received a letter. The letter stated that Julio "did not do as they said" and threatened to kill Iver next.

Iver vaguely remembered that he had a fever before coming to Glass Island Glass Island, not the other way around.

At the time, Iver naturally overlooked this, taking it as an excuse for the Curse Master Aziz to lure them here. After all, the Iron Hook Demon's teleportation distance was limited, so it made sense to trick them into coming here to collect the medium for the curse.

But if he could truly ignore distance and medium and precisely curse Iver... then why didn't he just curse Iver's parents to death? So there's only one possibility.

That means this letter has absolutely nothing to do with the Curse Master Aziz!

In other words, Julio did indeed receive such a letter—and if so, then he was indeed being blackmailed by someone for something!

Then it made sense that he came to see his teacher, Bishop Mathers —he didn't want the bishop to lift the curse; he could have done that with any bishop, or even on his own. He came to the Glass Island to discuss the letter with the bishop! Iver felt a chill run down his spine.

Because if that's the case...

So, when the Giant Prince Wolfram said that to Iver, it was actually to get information out of him!