Halor Kingdom 2

"Some cities require identity verification upon entry. The Adventurer's Guild is a neutral force, and the identity badges it issues are valid across the entire continent. Using an Adventurer's Guild badge means you represent no faction. Of course, once you commit a crime, you will be wanted across the continent as well."

Elufiel gave an "Oh," then suddenly leaned closer to the mage. "Is this fake?"

The elf was very close to him. Odovish froze for a moment, then shook his head. "No, it really is a genuine identity badge."

Having gotten her answer, Elufiel did not ask where the mage had obtained the badge. After all, the one who had produced it was an archmage. There was nothing they could not solve.

The city was lively. There were many stalls along the street they were walking down, and the mage kept watching the little stands displaying all kinds of herbs. From time to time, he would squat down and carefully rummage through them. The stall owners were usually very eager to welcome this adventurer. They were not true alchemists, and their knowledge of herbs was unsystematic. They only knew that certain plants from the forest could be exchanged for coins. When they sold herbs to herb shops, the owners would usually try to push the price down as low as possible. Only by selling to adventurers could they make a small profit.

Elufiel was not interested in herbs. While waiting for the mage, she browsed the other nearby stalls. The mage had given her a small pouch of silver coins and explained the general prices to her. Bitter City was neither rural nor a major city, but this pouch of silver was enough for the elf to play from the eastern side of the city to the western side.

Elufiel spotted a small cart, its compartments filled with candies of many different colors. Quite a few human children had gathered around it. Elufiel walked over, and a sweet, fragrant scent wafted into her nose.

The candy seller was an elderly woman with graying hair. Wrapped in ragged robes, she formed a stark contrast to the pretty colors of the candy.

"Pretty girl, would you like some candy?" the old woman asked with a smile. Her hoarse voice carried a trace of excitement.

Elufiel looked at the old woman and felt that something was off, but the sweet scent of the candy distracted her. The colorful candies were small, so Elufiel took some of every color. The old woman wrapped them in a paper bag for her. "Eat them quickly. They won't taste good once they melt."

The entire bag of candy cost only a dozen or so copper coins. If Elufiel had not dug those copper coins out of her pouch of silver, there might have been the awkward situation of the customer paying too much while the stall owner had no change to give.

The mage had already moved on to another stall. When Elufiel saw him squatting beside another little stand, she picked up a candy, popped it into her mouth, and walked toward him. Just as she reached his side, the candy in her mouth melted.

Elufiel suddenly frowned.

A trace of bitterness spread over her tongue.

A curse's power, imperceptible to ordinary people, spread through her body.

Halor Kingdom 2

The curse's effects were not strong. If elves were not so sensitive to every condition of their bodies, she probably would not have noticed it at all. She paused where she stood and carefully sensed it. This was a chronic curse. At first, it would not show any obvious symptoms, but the cursed person would gradually weaken over time until death.

Elufiel's unusual behavior caught the mage's attention. He turned to look at the elf. "What's wrong?"

Elufiel moved closer and whispered in Elvish against his ear, "I found a curse."

The mage's blue eyes darkened for a moment. He rose to his feet and quickly led the elf into a secluded alley. "Where did you find the curse?" Without setting up a barrier, the two chose to communicate in Elvish.

"This." Elufiel raised the candy in her hand. "On that street just now, there was an old woman selling candy. I found a curse in it."

"You ate the candy?" Odovish grasped the elf's wrist and performed a simple scan with his magic. Sure enough, a faint trace of black energy was spreading through her body. He frowned slightly, not realizing that upon learning of the curse, his first concern had been the elf rather than the curse itself.

Elufiel sucked in a breath. The circulation of magic stirred the desire within her, and it affected her more directly than the curse did. She pulled her hand away, composed herself, and said, "Yes. The curse is contained in the center of the candy. I can't determine whether the one who cast it was the old woman selling candy or—"

"You need to dispel it." Odovish interrupted before Elufiel could finish. "Dispel the curse on you first. Then we'll find where it came from."

Seeing the mage reach for his ring, Elufiel stopped him in alarm. "Are you crazy? We're on the street. Even if this alley is secluded, you shouldn't expose yourself so casually. You told me what mages are facing, yet now you're putting yourself in danger."

"Your life is being devoured by it." Odovish looked at the elf. "That is a dangerous curse. It can steal your vitality, leave you weak and powerless, plunge you into slumber, and then cast you into eternal darkness. Perhaps your life is long enough that the curse lacks the power to take all of it, but I cannot stand by and watch my student be afflicted by an evil curse."

When the mage's blue eyes gazed deeply at you, it seemed as though nothing in the world could compare to you.

Elufiel felt herself nearly becoming intoxicated by those eyes, vast as the sky. It was strange. Though he was a young human, the mage carried a unique air shaped by the passage of years, brewed from experience and aged by time.

"Don't worry, my guide." Elufiel patted the mage's shoulder as though an elder comforting a junior—she was much shorter than him, so she had to stand on tiptoe to do it—making the scene look somewhat comical. "This is a curse that causes illness. Once it develops into a disease, I can use Purify to dispel it. Before then, it won't pose any threat to me."