‘Is she being serious..?’ Looking into his master's eyes, Damon tried to glean the faintest sense of emotion that could be hidden behind that playful smile.

  ‘I still can’t tell, but why would she tell me any of this in the first place?’ Damon grumbled inwardly as he gave up trying to free his hands. Then it suddenly clicked, ‘Even if she isn’t, I might get valuable information with the right questions…’

  Instinctively, he felt it sensible to first inquire about methods of breaking the connection between them. However, upon reflection, he soon realized the likelihood of Tomoe answering would be rather slim.

  Furthermore, he was inclined to believe a battle of Wills between them would perhaps be the only key to closing that door.

  ‘No doubt she’d laugh at the idea..’

  After three minutes of contemplation, Damon quietly exhaled, and the corner of his lips curved up. His first question had become obvious.

  “Master, if you were me, what would the answers to your three questions be?” he asked cheekily. Instead of racking his brain for the correct questions, he decided to employ a bit of reverse inference, trusting that it could yield information from a wiser perspective.

  Of course, this was also risky, since the strategy clearly relied on his master’s perception of his character, but he could only cross his fingers and hope for the best.

  "Haha!" With a flicker of surprise in her widening eyes, Tomoe burst out in laughter and clutched her stomach.

  As the sound echoed through the ruined structure, she leaned forward slightly, pointing at Damon with clear amusement as her shoulders rose and fell repeatedly.

  "I’m certain you’re aware, but you would gain absolutely nothing from asking such a thing if I decided to play coy or indifferent to what you desired. Still, my interest has not changed, so I’ll humor you,” she managed between laughs. Despite her teasing tone, the laughter gradually faded from her voice as she straightened her posture and continued,

  “As things currently stand, I do not harbor any malicious intentions toward you or your family, nor would I interfere if you desperately attempted to break the link between us. While I do have plans for you to settle an old grudge on my behalf, that won’t happen till I deem you ready and capable.”

  “Why would I have to do that?”Damon’s expression stiffened slightly in response. He fell silent for a few seconds, then shot her a look of displeasure as his brows knit together.

  ‘No way I’m fighting anybody you couldn’t defeat..!’

  Although the Status panel had been improved, he still doubted whether those changes would be worth much compared to what his master was asking of him.

  “Heh..Not willing to face the challenge boya?” Master Tomoe laughed lightly. “I’m afraid it is far too late to turn away now. The moment people discover that you’re an inheritor of my technique and can speak Nihongo, my past will inevitably catch up with you. Your role in this confrontation was decided from the moment you appeared inside my domain.”

  Damon’s heart sank as the realization struck.

  ‘So even if I tried to break it, I’ve already been implicated...’

  ‘Some great warrior! What kind of person cons a kid into fighting their battles..!?” He pouted, his lips forming a line.

  In the end, the phrasing of his initial inquiry had given him everything he wanted to know, but the conclusion left him thoroughly exhausted rather than relieved. The thought that just meeting Tomoe would have made him a potential target for someone greater had never crossed his mind.

  Intuitively, he knew his master posed a threat, but he never imagined something like this!

  “I’m guessing you were cut off from the outside world for roughly twenty-five years, so what exactly did you do to warrant that?”Damon sighed and asked.

  Begrudgingly, he accepted his predicament and sought to confirm any details he could about the future with his last question.

  However, as his sentence finished, the playful smile on Tomoe’s face faded. For the first time since the conversation began, her facial muscles seemed to relax, shifting to a neutral countenance under the scattered moonlight.

  “It’s because I am a Noroi,” She replied evenly

  Her pitch-black irises remained without a speck of light, but they could not hide the depth of emotion Damon had just sensed within.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The last word she had spoken rang out from a heavy heart, yet he was unable to perceive anything beyond that, as if it were just something unfamiliar, only inches away and unable to be grasped.

  “I don’t understand, Master,” Damon muttered. “Do you mean a literal curse, or is it a term for something else?

  ["You will come to understand one day,"] she said softly. ["And when you do, perhaps you will be the one uttering those words."]

  Before he could ask what that meant, Damon noticed Tomoe raising a hand. Without second thought, he shifted his head to the side and attempted to avoid her fingers.

  ‘Ha! Think I’d fall for the same trick aga—’

  Suddenly, two delicate fingers brushed against his temple, interrupting that thought.

  Before the cold sensation of their tips registered, he felt the world tilt as his body fell back with the metal chair. Immediately after his world went dark, leaving a single shout behind.

  “Dammit!!”

  ******

  Returning to the outside world, his eyes snapped open, and he began rubbing his tingling wrists. There weren't any lacerations to be seen; however, memory of the almost numbing pressure that had been applied to his median nerves still lingered.

  “Does she really have to keep doing that?”Damon whispered to himself.

  ‘Hmm?”At the same time, he felt something else had changed and turned his attention inward. He discovered that around forty percent, or more accurately, four gallons worth of his spiritual energy had been restored.

  ‘How did this happen??’He wondered.

  The revelation was indeed shocking, given his situation. Absorbing any energy during meditation without being caught by either of his siblings or the dark-toned priest would be impossible

  ‘Who knows how they’ll react seeing that.. wait, did they sense the change!?’

  Damon frantically scanned the room, taking in the faces of everyone present as he held his breath, a step away from panic.

  At that moment, he saw Kruger, who sat near the doorway, raise his head, and their two gazes met.

  “Good to see you are awake," said Kruger.

  “Is the carriage here yet?”Damon kept a blank look on his face as he tried to mask his inner anxiety. All this time, he had been quite confident he could guard his mind, but after recent interactions, he was starting to think he only had luck with mundane citizens.

  “Yes, I was about to wake your siblings .” Kruger calmly added as he stood up.

  A few minutes later, the group stepped outside after Henry and Vincent woke up.

  The evening air carried a faint chill as Damon moved toward Vincent without hesitation, slipping one arm around his brother’s back to help support his weight.

  "I can walk just fine, alright," Vincent muttered.

  "Shut up, will you, I know you haven’t recovered much," Damon replied evenly. “ The sooner we get to Lady Lorelei, the better.”

  Ahead of them, Henry and Kruger had already approached the waiting carriage.

  The coachman sat hunched beneath a heavy hood, his posture completely still. When Kruger greeted him, the figure merely responded with a low grunt that barely sounded human.

  As Damon drew closer, a brief gust of wind lifted the edge of the hood.

  For the briefest moment, he caught sight of two glowing red eyes staring forward from the shadow beneath the fabric. One pupil appeared slightly larger than the other, giving the figure's gaze a strangely uneven appearance.

  ‘This man’s the same..’Damon quickly drew a comparison to the raven he had seen the priest restore, but he wasn’t the only one.

  Reaching the carriage door, Henry glanced back at the coachman, then hesitantly addressed the priest.“Ah..Mister Kruger, how exactly did you revive that bird earlier? Was it really necromancy?”

  “I’ve heard that terminology being used among the followers of Olympia, but the skill I used was not true resurrection,” Kruger clarified, stopping at the door. “When activated, the user's spiritual energy merges with whatever remains within the body, then condenses into a new, enhanced core node that retains all qualities of the original and allows them to reanimate the flesh. "

  "This does work on humans as well, should the need arise. However, the subject's spirit must consent, and for several days following the procedure, they will be unable to speak until they have adjusted to the changes in their core node.”

  With that said, he opened the carriage door, and they all stepped in.

  Once inside, Damon helped Vincent sit before taking the seat to his right, while Henry chose the opposite side, opting to sit next to Kruger as the carriage slowly began moving along the street.

  Upon seeing they have settled in comfortably, Kruger crossed his legs and spoke after a few seconds, “I don’t believe I’ve asked before, but what is it that you boys truly wish to achieve on this path. If you strive to be a specter of any worth, you must understand why it is that you raise your blades.”

  “Now that I think about it, I hadn’t told you two either.”Vincent had no objections to sharing. He looked at his siblings' faces and added, “The truth is, I really wanted to be an explorer. Travelling to different places beyond sky land and seas, uncovering lost Artifacts and Arcane tools, could you imagine it? “

  “That sounds amazing, brother,” Henry’s face lit up. “Um.. ah..Maybe we could be heroes too? like saving people wherever we go? That’s what mother raised us to do.”

  “Why not? Maybe one day our legend might even eclipse Mother’s if we work hard enough.”Vincent said enthusiastically, raising his voice a decibel. He looked to Damon and said, “What do you say, Damon, are you in?’

  “That sounds really childish, so don’t drag me into it,” Damon casually remarked while leaning on his palm.

  “Really, and what’s your goal?”Henry retorted.

  “For now, I just want to get this all resolved. Maybe later I’ll go on a journey myself, who knows.” Damon planned to seek their mother’s consultation first, but somehow he already knew she would approve. Nonetheless, he had no qualms about protecting the defenseless, and he was certain his siblings understood this well.

  However, that was not the same as being a hero, at least not to him. The Ideal of heroism painted a picture of glory and admiration, yet Damon didn’t think that was what he was meant for.

  “I thought you were supposed to be my little guardian on my left,” Vincent teasingly grinned. “Planning to give up the job so soon?”

  A vein bulged faintly on Damon’s forehead. He immediately turned his head toward the window, refusing to look at Vincent’s smug expression.

  “…Of course I’ll guard you, idiot,” he muttered under his breath.