“I would take a moment to check it out.”
Isidore looked at Aila with a very serious expression and said.
As if her uncle's serious expression had shifted, she nodded with a stiff face. She felt as if she could do anything to lift the curse on her body.
“Hmm...”
While Roderick and Ophelia watched with worried faces, Isidore stroked his chin and examined Aila from various angles.
Aila felt a strange sense of awkwardness and rubbed the back of her neck. She couldn't see anything, but could Isidore really see something?
It was when she was having such silly thoughts.
“Ugh!”
Isidore looked at Aila with a very serious expression and said.
As if her uncle's serious expression had shifted, she nodded with a stiff face. She felt as if she could do anything to lift the curse on her body.
“Hmm...”
While Roderick and Ophelia watched with worried faces, Isidore stroked his chin and examined Aila from various angles.
Aila felt a strange sense of awkwardness and rubbed the back of her neck. She couldn't see anything, but could Isidore really see something?
It was when she was having such silly thoughts.
“Ugh!”
Isidore screamed and tossed her hair wildly.
Aila flinched in surprise at her uncle's sudden, unexpected action.
“Why are you doing that?”
Roderick, who had been watching silently, asked in an urgent voice, perhaps taken aback by his actions.
"It definitely feels like there's something there. It's well hidden. It's frustrating because it's so vaguely visible..."
Isidore, who had been losing his temper because he was frustrated, took a deep breath after a while and returned to his usual cool demeanor.
"Can I go to my room for a moment? I brought something from home just in case something like this happened, but I left it in my room."
“Oh, I’ll guide you, brother.”
"No. I think Roderick would be better than you. It's a bit heavy, you know. Would you like to go with me?"
When Ophelia, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, suddenly got up and said she would go with him, Isidore shook his head.
Because of that, Roderick, who was suddenly left alone with his uncomfortable older brother, disappeared into the passageway he had entered with Isidore, sweating profusely.
“Is it okay if Laura suddenly barges in...?”
"You don't have to worry. Most of the employees are currently washing dishes in the kitchen."
Ophelia gently stroked Aila's back, her expression filled with worry, and reassured her with a gentle voice. She explained that she had deliberately chosen dishes that required a lot of dishes for today's menu.
“Do you remember what I told you? I said I would somehow break your curse.”
"...Thank you."
Aila felt a surprising sense of peace as her mother's warm hands stroked her hair.
Even if her uncle's power could not lift the curse, she felt confident that her mother would somehow protect her.
After some time, the archway to the secret passage opened again. Roderick entered through the open door, carrying a large bag.
“Hey, be careful. You have to put it down gently so it doesn’t break.”
Isidore, who followed him, spoke fidgeting.
Roderick was holding it so lightly that he thought it wouldn't be that heavy for its size, but when he opened the bag, a rather heavy-looking metal device came out.
“If you do it like this... It’s done.”
As Isidore moved the device around and finally injected magic into it, it began to operate with a small whirring noise.
Then he lifted the long rod-shaped part connected to the device and approached Aila.
"Don't be afraid. It's just a brief flash of light. It won't harm you."
“Yes, uncle.”
As Aila nodded with a slightly nervous expression, Isidore shone a soft glow on the part of her body.
And as if trying to thoroughly examine her entire body, he started moving up, starting from his right fingertips.
Still unable to see anything, Aila watched her uncle's actions with a slightly awkward feeling.
But that was only for a moment.
“Gasp.”
Isidore, who was looking at the back of her neck with the light, gasped as if he had discovered something, and Ophelia and Roderick also looked surprised.
“...It’s here.”
“What, what is there? I want to see it too.”
Seeing her parents and uncle staring at her with worried expressions, Aila wanted to see what they were seeing. But because they were right behind her neck, she couldn't see, and it was frustrating.
“Wouldn’t it be better not to look?”
Ophelia spoke with a worried voice, seemingly worried that her daughter might be startled or frightened.
“...It’s my body. Please let me see it.”
“Are you sure it’s okay?”
"Yes."
As Aila nodded with a cool face, her mother, who had exchanged glances with her father for a moment, lifted her up and sat her down in front of the vanity mirror.
Then, she picked up the small hand mirror on the dressing table and looked at the back of her neck.
“...!”
Aila looked at the back of her neck in the hand mirror several times, her eyes wide with surprise.
This was because black smoke was rising in the shape of a scorpion along her cervical spine.
A black scorpion seemed to be tethered to the back of her neck, and Aila unconsciously reached out to the nape of her neck. But, of course, there was nothing to grab.
“...It seems like the curse is designed to break your cervical vertebrae when activated. It can even be activated remotely.”
As Isidore turned off the light that had been illuminating the back of her neck with a gloomy face, the pitch-black smoke rising from Aila's neck disappeared as if it were a lie.
And Aila quietly repeated her uncle's words.
Breaking my neck... I knew I would lose my life in an instant if the curse was activated, but wasn’t the method too cruel?
'Well... no matter what method, losing one's life to a curse can't be anything but cruel.'
Aila burst out laughing.
“Can you solve it?”
When Roderick asked in a serious voice, his brow furrowed, Isidore grimaced awkwardly.
"It seems like it'll be difficult right away, and it'll take some time. I guess I'll have to rely on you for a while."
“What do you mean, indebted? What are you talking about, brother? We're family.”
"She's right. And even if we're not family, there's nothing I can't do for you, since you're doing so much for our daughter."
When Isidore said he would be in their care for a while, the couple waved their hands in response.
“If you put it that way... I’m not helping anyone else. I’m just trying to save my niece.”
Isidore shrugged awkwardly.
“Well, hasn't it been quite some time? I think it's time to go back now...”
“Even if I washed all the dishes in the mansion, I would have finished by now,” he said, scratching the back of his head.
“Oh, I see. Let’s go now.”
Roderick nodded and, together with Isidore, began to assemble the metal devices back into their bags.
And before everyone leaves.
Ophelia tucked Aila into bed and covered her with the blanket, as if she were helping a very young daughter get to sleep.
Long ago, before Aila left this mansion.
“My daughter, don’t worry about anything and sleep well.”
The mother, who left a loving greeting with eyes dripping with affection, gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead.
“...Yes, Mother.”
A mother's affectionate kiss.
It felt like she had been missing this moment for so long that she had even forgotten that she was missing it.
“Then sleep well.”
Although he didn't kiss her like Ophelia did, Roderick also gave her a pleasant smile that only those close to him could recognize, and said goodbye before disappearing into the entrance of the secret passage with the others.
Aila smiled and closed her eyes.
Tonight, she felt like she could have very sweet dreams.
***
“Hmm...”
Returning to the guest room, Isidore didn't go straight to bed, but sat down at his desk, arms folded and leaning back in his chair.
“It’s a black scorpion.”
A black scorpion symbol. He clearly remembered seeing it somewhere. But there was a problem...
“...I don’t remember where I saw it.”
He continued to toss and turn, lost in thought, as if his posture was uncomfortable.
Black scorpion, curse...
As Isadore rummaged through his memories for a while, a memory from long ago flashed through his mind. It had been nearly thirty years since he was about the same age as his son, Egbert.
'Ah, that senior.'
When Isidore, a freshman at the Academy and two years his senior, came to mind, he clapped his hands slightly, as if his curiosity had finally been satisfied.
He couldn't remember his name, but he was a rare foreign student at the National Academy, where most of the students were from the Republic of Tamora.
A female student with a black scorpion tattoo on her left cheek and who always enjoyed wearing dark, black clothes.
'If I remember correctly... I think she was from the Peles Empire.'
She vaguely remembered being a gloomy person, always out of touch with others, and always a loner. She was also known as a strange student, with a keen interest in curses and black magic.
"Did you get expelled? No, did you quit on your own?"
Although he didn't remember the details, he was certain that she had returned to the Peles Empire without completing her training.
The academy kept quiet, but there was a lot of talk among the students that she had been kicked out because of an accident.
‘If it really is a curse she has placed...’
Isidore rubbed his chin nervously, lost in thought.
He will try to the best of his ability, but if he is unable to lift his nephew's curse.
Shouldn't we at least try to track her down from 30 years ago?
He resolved to discuss it with his sister as soon as daylight came and contact Candice Eposher, and then he went to bed late and tried to sleep.
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