Chapter 239 Curse
"Mom!" Lina ran home breathlessly, holding the new uniform. She ran all the way, as happy as a little bird: "Can you believe it? I met again——"
Behind the wall, her mother, Mrs. Bowen, was talking to some neighbors, and from time to time bursts of exclamations could be heard.
"God of Light, is this true?" Lina heard someone exclaim, "He actually survived those Judges?!"
"That's right!" The neighbor's wife waved a newspaper. Everyone came forward and carefully counted the zeros on the wanted poster. "Let me see—a reward of 500,000 gold coins!"
"Five hundred thousand! In gold coins!" Someone else couldn't help but exclaim, "How much money is that? I guess the whole family won't have to worry about anything for the rest of their lives!"
"Bah! Anyone who dares to take this money is a heartless person!" The neighbor's wife spat viciously. "I have a nephew in Baita Town. He said he almost died in the prison of the Arbitration Institute for unknown reasons. If you don't pay, those judges will arrest people at will! If it weren't for Mr. Nova leading those students--"
Mrs. Bowen quickly covered the other person's mouth and said, "Oh, be quiet! The priests nearby might hear you!"
As she covered her mouth, she couldn't help but cough violently. The neighbor's wife quickly helped her to the house to rest, and kept complaining: "Really, if you cough like this, don't go out in the wind. You can't take care of yourself at this age!"
"No problem, I'm probably just tired these past few days." Mrs. Bowen shook her head palely. "Maybe a good night's sleep will be enough."
After a few words, she covered her mouth and started coughing violently again. But this time, the neighbor lady suddenly lowered her voice and screamed: "Oh, blood! What are you doing -"
"Mom!" Lina rushed in like a gust of wind, and saw a few drops of glaring scarlet liquid leaking from her mother's fingers. The girl's expression suddenly changed drastically: "Wasn't it just a little cough this morning? How could it be--?!"
Mrs. Bowen shook her head and forced a reassuring smile at her daughter: "It's okay, don't panic..."
How could he be alright after vomiting blood? Lina was so anxious she wanted to cry. You know, the medicine on the market is very expensive. For a family like theirs that can't even afford to eat, hiring a therapist to see a doctor is an unthinkable luxury.
She and her father, who had returned home, searched the house thoroughly and shamelessly borrowed some money from a kind neighbor. They finally managed to scrape together enough money to buy a bottle of cough medicine. However, after drinking the bottle of medicine, Mrs. Bowen's condition did not improve, but seemed to worsen. In the evening, she vomited blood again and gradually fell into a coma.
Her father had gone to the town's Bright Church to ask for holy water. Lina sat blankly beside her mother's bed, holding her cold hand and silently shedding tears. She had intended to tell her parents today that Ms. Watson had invited her to take the train to the South District in three days to work in the textile mill there, and had offered her a very handsome salary - but now that her mother was like this, she couldn't leave her no matter what.
In a trance, Lina's eyes gradually fell on a newspaper on the table. It must have been accidentally left by the neighbor's wife. She picked up the newspaper for some unknown reason, but when she saw a very familiar face, she froze in place.
The girl suddenly raised the newspaper and carefully moved closer to the candle flame, examining it carefully in the dim light. Yes! She was not mistaken! The facial features of the person on the wanted poster were exactly the same as those of the black-haired young man with glasses she had met twice before!
Five hundred thousand gold coins. Lina's eyes couldn't help but fall on that astonishing number, one she had never seen before. Gradually, everything around her faded away, leaving only that alluring number whispering a devilish whisper to her—five hundred thousand gold coins! It was definitely enough to hire the best healer to treat her mother.
"Anyone who dares to take this money is a heartless person!" The neighbor's wife's voice echoed in her ears. Lina had certainly heard of Mr. Noir. Her father, Mr. Bourne, was fond of him and often mentioned him at the dinner table. The rumors about Mr. Noir were that he was a good man who dared to speak up for the poor, fought for them, and sacrificed his life for them. In reality, the man she had met was also a handsome young man who, though a little aloof and eccentric, still held a secret affection in her heart.
The girl suddenly wiped away her tears fiercely, pulled out a most inconspicuous black cloak, and carefully wrapped herself in it. She touched her mother's increasingly cold forehead, felt her increasingly weak breathing, and her teeth were chattering slightly - then she grabbed the newspaper, turned around resolutely and rushed out the door.
But when she opened the door, she did not see the vast dark night, but almost bumped into a figure.
“——!”
Lina was startled and looked up suddenly, only to see a tall, thin figure appear silently at her door like a ghost.
"Good evening, Miss Bowen." The face she had just seen from the wanted poster was lowering its head slightly, showing no emotion at all. The depths of the smoky gray pupils behind the lenses reflected her pale face, and there was an expression of fear mixed with guilt.
Lina subconsciously crumpled the newspaper into a ball and hurriedly stuffed it behind her. She forced herself to calm down, feigning surprise and trying to deal with the other person: "Y-It's you? Why are you here—wait, how did you know this is my house?"
"A little trick." Nova said calmly. He glanced at the other person's clothes and the corner of the newspaper hidden behind him without saying anything. He just turned and looked at the person behind him: "Have you found the scent of the curse?"
Lina's pupils shrank sharply. She hadn't noticed the fourth person present. The man behind the black-haired young man covered his features with a cloak, but his voice was surprisingly clear and pleasant, and the moment he spoke, he could not help but be distracted: "Well, it's mainly concentrated in this room."
"Curse?" Lina's attention was diverted. She murmured blankly: "Now my mother is the only one in the room..."
The girl suddenly understood something, and she gradually became desperate: "You mean, my mother is not sick, but cursed?!"
If it was an illness, there were healers anyway, at least there was hope. But a curse? This nearly lost thing, almost only heard of in the stories of bards, where could a little village girl like her find someone to break the curse?
The professor observed the other person's expression change expressionlessly: "Have you come into contact with any strange people recently?"
...The strangest one should be this wanted criminal, Lina couldn't help but complain in her heart. She shook her head and whispered, "I don't remember any strange people..."
"Can you please let us in first?" Azuka suddenly reminded gently, "The curse your mother has suffered is far more severe than yours. I believe she was the first person to be cursed, and her life force is already very weak. If the curse is not lifted, her life will be in danger."
The girl's expression changed wildly, finally settling on one of disbelief and surprise: "You can break the curse?"
She even forgot to ask herself why she was also cursed.
The professor looked at her in confusion and asked, "What do you think we are doing here?"
Lina bit her lip, silently watching the mysterious sorcerer stand at her mother's bedside, gracefully spreading his fingers. As he chanted softly, a gentle, hazy light enveloped Mrs. Bourne's body, and her complexion visibly improved.
A huge wave of shame and self-blame gripped Lina's heart at that moment. That man had saved her and her mother, but her first reaction was that he was probably planning to kill her to silence her, or even secretly report her...
Mrs. Bowen gradually woke up with a faint moan, and Lina threw herself on her mother and burst into tears. Azuka walked around the simple room and finally stopped at the needle box next to the sewing table.
"Excuse me, may I see this?" He looked at the owner of the house and asked politely. After getting permission, he opened the lid of the sewing box, rummaged through the several spools of thread inside, and then picked out a ball of dark blue thread mixed with beautiful fine shimmer.
"Found it." He calmly tightened his fingers, and suddenly a puff of black smoke emerged from the ball of thread. "Who gave this to you?"
"I bought it from a wandering merchant not long ago," Mrs. Bowen said carefully after listening to Lina's fragmented account of the current situation. She hugged her daughter tightly, holding her in her arms. "It was very cheap and very beautiful. I thought Lina would like it, so I bought a bunch and kept it in the box..."
Unexpectedly, her daughter went out early and came back late for work, so Mrs. Bowen had more contact with the silk thread. It was also that Lina had the idea of embroidering some patterns on a purse as a gift, and that was how she came into contact with the cursed silk thread.
Mrs. Bowen thought more than her daughter and was obviously more nervous: "Your Excellency, we really don't know anything. We haven't seen him in this area before-"
"Don't be nervous, we just want to inquire about the situation." Azuka comforted her gently. As long as the savior was willing, even if he didn't show his face, his voice still made Mrs. Bowen gradually relax: "Do you remember what he looks like?"
"I, I can't remember, I really can't remember..." Mrs. Bowen's face suddenly showed a trance: "But I remember that his face seemed to be covered with colorful paint..."
“…”
The Savior and the Professor looked at each other.
The overly targeted features reminded both of the same person - the future "Great Prophet", the current bard who called himself "Captain Magnus".
...But why?
That person went to so much trouble just to expose them to... the curse?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com