Before dawn, a room in Fireplace Bay erupted with raucous cheers. A bald man leaped straight out of his chair, shouting almost hysterically, "It worked! It worked!"
An open ledger lay before him, surrounded by a dazzling array of exorcism tools.
There were also three jars of suppressants. They'd all been drained, leaving a sticky black trail at the corner of the unkempt man's mouth.
He waved his arms wildly. "The curse is gone!"
A woman who'd hurried in at the commotion watched him. A flicker of disgust passed through her eyes, then she carefully buried her feelings. Sitting across from him and crossing her legs, she said, "Thanks for the effort. The higher-ups are very interested in that ledger. You're an expert in this field, and they'd like to hear your opinion."
"Ha! This is a trade secret. There aren't even three people on the entire continent who can separate a curse from a Cursed Object!"
The man held his head high, practically floating with bliss. The moment he successfully extracted the curse from the ledger, he'd felt he'd reached the pinnacle of his life. Even the Containment Bureau had never mastered this technique. It had once been the focus of his research at the Research Department, yet a genius like him had been thrown out by the former director over a few minor infractions.
Now, who was having the last laugh?
The director who'd fired him was long dead, while he'd finally turned all his theories into reality.
Those fools had no idea how great this technique was. If they could extract curses, that meant they could control the Evil God's power in the truest sense!
The man could already picture his name in the history books, where countless generations to come would revere him.
"What do you think of 'Father of Cursed Objects' as a title?"
The woman frowned and glanced at the man, who was so excited he'd lost all sense of himself. "We have no intention of probing into your trade secrets. We only want to know what caused the Cursed Object to appear, and whether this kind of incident could happen again."
The conglomerate wanted stability. They couldn't let a few Cursed Objects ruin the entire industry.
"Oh, that? It's an extremely rare occurrence."
The man waved a hand. He wasn't interested in the ledger's origins. "Cursed Objects are fundamentally born from human obsession. If something like this happens again, just kill those commoners before they learn the truth. But if your superiors are interested in manufacturing Cursed Objects, we can work together long-term. I conducted a few experiments in that area when I worked at the Research Department of the Containment Bureau."
"I'll pass that along to my superiors."
"Drip, drip."
The woman was about to say something else when a sudden, faint sound interrupted her.
Was that... water?
Why could she hear water?
She looked up and saw droplets falling onto the bald man's head. Beyond him, the sky outside the window was shrouded in blood-red. Fireplace Bay was perpetually cloaked in darkness, but it had never looked like this.
What terrified her even more was that she hadn't noticed when the strange phenomenon had begun.
The sound of water and the blood-red sky had appeared all at once, as if time had suddenly skipped while she was speaking with the man.
A chill that reached her soul dragged her back to reality. She looked at the bald man again. He was still frozen in the same pose, as if about to explain the many benefits of Cursed Object research, but he could no longer make a sound.
The man's entire body had turned to ice, and she had no idea when it had happened.
Another terrifying thought surfaced.
Only a few seconds had passed, yet it felt to her as if the man had been silent for a very long time.
Then she felt a cold touch on the back of her hand. Something had landed there. The sensation sent a shiver through her, and she instinctively reached for her gun. She turned toward her waist, but her right hand had frozen solid before it could touch the weapon.
What kind of magic was this...?
That was the last thought left in her mind.
Then even her thoughts froze.
"Brr—! It's freezing! Why did it suddenly get so cold?!"
The guard outside the room shuddered violently.
His fellow guard, on duty beside him, reflexively wrapped his arms around his shoulders. This cold was unnatural, far more bone-chilling than what they'd endured in the Empire's Northern Border War. He was about to say something when the strange sight at their feet stopped him.
The two guards looked at each other and asked uncertainly, "Was the floor wet before?"
A moment ago, they could still hear the Cursed Object expert droning on and on. Now, the entire corridor was utterly silent, save for their breathing.
The two men confirmed the ominous feeling they shared, drew their swords, and mustered the courage to push open the door.
The room was empty.
The Cursed Object expert and the envoy sent by the conglomerate's higher-ups were both gone. But water had indeed spread out from the room, soaking the floor. They could even see ice chips melting at a visible speed.
Meanwhile, Riverside Town was utterly silent.
"Drip, drip."
Hearing a sudden sound beside her, the woman in the Smiling Face Mask standing guard by the mailbox turned toward it.
The space before the Teleportation Magic Node twisted inward to a single point, and a woman wearing a Swirl Mask stepped out of the distortion. "That was quick."
The Smiling Face Mask woman seemed a little disappointed. She muttered under her breath, "Tsk, that went way too smoothly."
The woman in the Swirl Mask lightly raised her left hand and tossed over the ledger and a glass jar containing an unidentified fleshy growth.
As the woman in the Smiling Face Mask took the jar, she noticed something interesting. Her voice suddenly grew excited. "Huh? What's with the look? Where'd that bouquet come from? Don't tell me you went to deal with the target carrying flowers like that. Did you buy them at a magic item shop in Fireplace Bay? They actually look pretty decent. So, how much did you spend?"
"My boyfriend gave them to me. Do you have one?"
The answer and counter-question came in one breath, sharp and emphatic.
The retort hit the Smiling Face Mask woman like a critical strike. Her expression froze, and she couldn't smile anymore. She let out an angry battle cry. "Where'd you get a boyfriend? So what if you have one? I've lost count of how many men I've dated. You and I aren't even in the same league!"
"Did any of them give you flowers?"
The Smiling Face Mask woman's eyes widened in disbelief. She stammered for a long while before finally managing, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
The Witch had definitely fried her brain today. Why was she suddenly so aggressive?
She took another close look at the Witch and realized the aggression wasn't just in her words. Even her exposed eyes seemed ready to spit fire.
Her confidence immediately faltered. She shrank back and said, "Wait, girl, have I done something to offend you lately?"
"That advice you gave me before—were you lying?"
"Huh? What advice?"
"About tying someone up and locking him in a cellar no one could find, so I'd be the only person he saw every time he opened his eyes. Why wasn't he excited when he heard that? He looked completely put off!"
The Witch confronted her—and threatened her, too. "If this ruins my image, you're getting an Ice Arrow."
(Next week is the third round, and the smart recommendations start at the same time. It should be the most crucial week of the new-book period. I humbly ask you not to let the book sit on your shelf and to help with follows. Thank you so much!)
Thanks to Vow's Decay for the 400 Qidian coins!
Thanks, everyone, for the monthly votes and follows!
Before you continue