IARMDH - Chapter 97



Erne's room.

A doll resembling Judith was lying on the bed, and in front of the fireplace, a charcoal fire was pouring down, and someone was dozing off, unable to overcome their drowsiness.

The godmother sent Tan into the room to watch over the doll. But he was so sleepy from doing nothing in a warm place and just staring at the doll.

At that moment, Tan's forehead touched the floor.

“...!”

Tan opened his eyes wide at the sharp, tingling sensation of a strange aura spreading across his body. A faint, charcoal-like scent mingled with the air flowing by.

He got up in a hurry and headed to the bed. The doll that had been lying quietly had a split in the side, and black soot was flowing out like blood.

Tan, who was examining the doll in its miserable state, quietly muttered.

“It worked.”

***

Fortunately, the transfer of the evil spell was successful, but it was unsettling not to know the identity of the one who had cast the curse.

“Who on earth put a spell on me?”

I had asked Brother Luhmann to catch the pickpocket boy, and I had just met him and was on my way back.

“There was a man who offered me ten silver coins if I stole anything. What did he look like? Well, he was a moderately plump man, wore a hat, and was short, maybe that’s all?”

As expected, I didn't get any useful information. All I could find was that the person who ordered the boy to do the work was a middle-aged man.

Besides, the boy didn't remember the man's face very well. The man had been urging him to look at the floor.

“There must be someone who holds a grudge against you.”

Erne urged him to think carefully.

“Hmm.”

Fortunately, after bursting the doll's side, the curse does not appear again.

“I don’t know who you are, but we did give you a warning. I hope you understood.”

In fact, while I was transferring the spell, my godmother suggested one more thing. She suggested that I try slightly modifying the spell while transferring it.

Magical transformations have side effects. I had experienced them before when I bought the dream of the Marchioness of Ferney.

When I bought Caroline's dream, the dream and the spell attached to it were forcibly transferred to me, and in the process, the spell was transformed. As a result, I suffered from the damp steam even after the wooden doll, which was the medium of the curse, disappeared.

Well, the pain wasn't long thanks to Erne pushing it out with his yang energy, but that's just the way it is expressed.

Anyway, this time I decided to take advantage of that side effect.

“The side effects of the spell transformation can go to either the target who touched the curse or the medium who cast the spell. It can go to both, or just one. However, there is an 80% chance that it will go to the medium.”

Even if there were any side effects for me, the doll would be able to handle them, so it was a completely risk-free operation for me.

So the godmother put a spell on my doll to absorb misfortune. A spell to bring minor misfortune and a spell to absorb misfortune.

Two similar yet strangely different spells intertwined and transformed each other's spells.

“It seems that the warning has served as no other curse has been placed on Miss Harrington yet.”

“I guess so? Gosh, whoever it is, if they catch it, they won’t let it go.”

***

The moment Judith and Erne went to meet the pickpocket boy.

A shabby two-story house in a remote forest. A room with a large table that takes up one wall, filled with beakers, small pots, and other chemicals of unknown use.

Inside, Tia was shivering and hunching her shoulders.

“Why are you shaking so much, Tia?”

A boy with bright yellow eyes that resembled a snake glared at Tia while putting on white gloves. The boy wearing gloves turned around, holding a small vial from the table.

Tia flinched and took a step back.

“I really don’t understand why you’re so scared. I don’t think I’ve ever hit you.”

There was a hint of regret in the boy's voice. But Tia knew. Even that look of regret was all an act.

“But why do you tremble every time you see me?”

And the boy knows too. That Tia sees through his acting.

“Would I ever do something bad to you? To the woman who will be my bride and bear my children?”

“Sir.”

“So don’t be afraid. And don’t back down.”

The boy gently shook the bottle in his hand. Tia shivered as she felt an ominous feeling about the unknown drug.

“Is this why? Are you afraid I’ll test some kind of poison on you? This isn’t poison. It’s really good.”

The boy roughly brushed back the hair that was flowing forward.

“I stayed up all night making it for three days and I was only able to get one bottle of this.”

That meant it was a precious drug. The boy planned to test it on Tia. It wasn't poison as he said, but it could have other side effects.

“Okay, Tia, don’t move...”

As he grabbed Tia's shoulder, the strength in his hand suddenly disappeared. The vial he was holding between his thumb and index finger fell to the floor.

Clang-

The sound of thin glass shattering echoed throughout the room. The boy and Tia were stunned and couldn't move for a moment.

Within seconds, Tia let out a sigh of relief and the boy burst into laughter.

“Haha, what the hell is this?”

Even while he was bursting into laughter, his eyes, which had never smiled at all, were sparkling with anger.

Tia, who felt as if the anger would soon overwhelm her, avoided the boy's gaze and shrank her neck, then discovered something.

“Sir, please, please look over there.”

"What?"

The boy, who had been answering in a very hoarse voice, frowned at the center of the display case against one wall and walked over with brisk strides.

There, a short piece of charcoal, already split in half, was waiting for the boy. Inside the charcoal, a tiny beetle-like thing was lying face down, struggling for the last time before it stopped moving as if it was dead.

“Look at this, isn’t it easy?”

He tried to get Erne to pay attention, but it wasn't working.

The moment the mumbling boy picked up a piece of charcoal, someone knocked on the door and shouted.

“Sir, the guest from last time wants to see you. He is waiting at the meeting point.”

“Tell him to wait a moment.”

“This time, it is said that the guest himself came, not a servant.”

“From the south to here?”

The boy clicked his tongue and roughly threw the pieces of charcoal on the floor. The guest was too important to miss out on just a little bit of charcoal.

***

“The spell of contagion is to bring about minor misfortunes. Do you know what that means?”

Last night, the godmother said to me.

“That curse doesn’t create misfortune. It brings about the misfortunes that were around Miss Harrington. The misfortunes that Miss Harrington could have suffered if she had been unlucky someday.”

This 'contagion' curse meant that the misfortunes floating around me were gathered and used.

What that means is,

“Where misfortune has disappeared, good luck may appear.”

It was said that good luck might come.

“How much luck will I get?”

“Usually people ask, ‘What’s the luck?’ and don’t ask, ‘How much is it?’”

Even though Erne was shouting at my side, my steps were still joyful. That was until I met Ouz in front of the glass workshop.

'What, the curse still remains?'

I, who was about to enter the glass workshop with which I had an exclusive contract, frowned when I saw a merchant getting out of a carriage.

“Oh, Miss Harrington.”

Looking at the face that greeted me shamelessly, I suddenly had such a thought.

'Could it be that the person who put a curse on me is the head of the Ouz guild? He has a sufficient motive.'

He even made a candle made of marigolds in an attempt to sell the secret recipe for incense but was stopped by me.

Of course, I didn't say that I did it myself. But the boss and I both knew one thing: no one else would have made and distributed fake marigold candles.

'So the medicine must have gone up. It must have cost some money to make the pitcher plant incense.'

It costs money but doesn't produce results. I must have hated it so much.

“What brings you here?”

The answer was obvious. They probably had come to steal the workshop owner I was with.

There are a few glass workshops in the capital, but none are as skilled as the owner here.

“I came to the glass workshop to buy glass bottles. Is there any other reason?”

A bright smile appeared on his well-tanned, bronzed face.

“This is a place I have an exclusive contract with, so he doesn’t sell the products to anyone else. Don’t waste your time and go somewhere else.”

“Was it really a waste of time?”

When the owner deliberately tapped the pocket on his waist, the sound of money jingling echoed through the room.

“I’m sure Miss Harrington knows very well that there is no business before money.”

The owner smiled bitterly and then pounded his fist on his chest.

“This Ouz, ever since I was born, I have never once not had what I wanted. And now what I want is.”

Needless to say, it's a secret recipe for incense.


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