“What do you mean by ‘YES’?” Cain asked, It wasn’t normal for her to just believe him from the get-go, especially since she has spent years where renowned healers weren’t able to find a cure for her!
“I was told, or rather, given a prophecy!” Alice started and Cain was thinking, ‘Not another one?! Two prophecies, are you serious?’
I was even covering my face, how did she even recognize me anyway? Did she manage to see my face somehow?
With how rare prophecies can be, him hearing that two people had them was weird. He could swear that one of them must be a lie!
“Amaterasu-sama has foretold of your appearance, and that I must listen to you! Whatever your treatment might be, I will accept it!” Alice revealed to him.
‘Oh shit, here we go again!’ Is this Amaterasu giving prophecies like candy? ‘I will make sure she’s on my list, doing that is just suspicious for a god!’
“You better listen before accepting, as the treatment might fully cut your ties with Amaterasu!” Cain then proceeded to explain what is her condition and how he intended to treat her.
“Is that so?” Even if she wasn’t able to display emotion due to her damaged face, Cain could still feel the deep sadness coming from her.
“I don’t mind, It was her advice after all! And you’re the only one who managed to make progress!”
“How about the binding? You will lose your free will!” Cain then explained to her that even if she became a devil, she will be bound to him! That was a measure forced by the world to prevent devils from ravaging it!
For a devil to stay in the world, it must be under the full control of a mortal! That meant the devil won’t be free.
Even after hearing that she still kept agreeing, “It’s better than how I’m now!”
Eventually, Cain just gave up on trying to make her understand, she seemed too focused on her ideas to get what he is saying!
“Than I will have to examine you first, finding traces of magic is important!” Cain intended to grasp what remained from the original spell on Alice’s body, track it to the source, then lastly complete the spell!
All he needed to do was put his hand on her forehead and try feeling the Mana, It was faint but led directly into the hallway!
“Did you find it?” Alice asked as Cain lifted his hand from her forehead.
“Yes, It seems to be that of a magical item, a cursed object to be exact! The traces are also old, I would say more than 10 years!” Cain told her what he found.
“My symptoms started when I was four years old and my father said that I had a weak body since birth though!” She replied, trying to stand up, she wasn’t able to on her own so Cain helped her.
“What do you intend to do?” Cain asked, worried about her as some of her wounds have started bleeding again.
“The two maids are standing at the door, I will distract them so you can go!” She was going to help directly? Cain was surprised as she was in pain, yet she moved!
“You can just call them from here!” Cain told her, she shook her head.
The walls were quite thick and she couldn’t scream as her throat can’t handle that, for the maids to even hear her she needed to get a bit closer to the door!
With that, Cain helped her walk a bit. As soon as she was close enough she called them. The maids rushed in hurriedly giving Cain who was invisible enough time to get out!
As soon as he moved a bit away from the room he met Daraku who was hiding in the shadows, “Yo, learned something?” Daraku said playfully, his tone said he was having fun!
“Yeah, we need to trace the spell now!” Just like how Selena tracked Sofia’s smell from the cave to the city, Cain now has to track the magic back to its source.
“Woha? Did she agree to your weird plan?” Daraku was surprised, he expected it takes days of persuasion just to make her agree! To his surprise, Alice was crazier than he thought!
Following the spell’s trails have led them directly down, they had to go back to the bath door and take the stairs down to the maids’ quarter. As Daraku pointed out before, a lot of the maids were still awake roaming around! some cleaning and some sewing!
They had to exert maximum caution to not get caught, utilizing [Short Invisibility] and [soundless] to the best of their effects!
On their way, they passed by a lot of interesting things. From maids playing cards to a cat just menacingly chilling in the kitchen. At one time they even heard one of the maids quietly moaning as she Called Leon’s name, Cain wanted to ignore her and move on, yet Daraku took a look for safety purposes! She was indeed alone!
Finally, they reached the basement door. It was locked with multiple locks and chains as if they wanted no one to get in! The curse was getting stronger and stronger, Cain could feel that the cursed object was inside!
“With your magic, we Cain silently blow it up right?” Daraku asked, backing away to give Cain some space.
Cain shook his head as he touched the chains, they were firm. The door was made of metal as well, Blowing them is a problem for two reasons!
One. Even if he could silence the blast with [Soundless], the shockwave will still shake the whole mansion alerting everyone!
Two. He might end up damaging the cursed object on the other side!
After hearing Cain’s reasoning, Daraku asked an obvious question.
“Can’t you just cut it with magic?”
Concentrating fire magic in one direction and using it as a cutting tool was common among high-level mages like Yamauba! Fire slasher was a third-tier spell.
Cain couldn’t use that for one reason, he doesn’t have access to third-level magic with backlash yet. He also can’t just mimic it with [Enchanting] as it will consume what remained of his MP.
“Then what will we do? It’s right behind the door right?”
Cain thought for a moment before reaching the only solution available, getting Alice involved! With how her body is, Cain would prefer to not force her to work if possible!
They quickly made their way back to Alice’s room, As before Daraku stayed outside to guard while Cain went to meet Alice.
As Cain looked through the window, the two maids that were outside are now oiling Alice’s body. She seems to have used that as an excuse to draw their attention.
He doesn’t have much time to wait for them to finish as the ritual of turning Alice into a devil might take some time and they still haven’t fought with Jack yet!
[Message]
~It’s me, Cain. I’m using a spell to talk to you!~
Alice’s eyes scanned the room as she heard his voice, he was nowhere to be seen.
~The cursed object is in the locked basement, I need to get in. Can you get us the keys if possible?~
Of course, since Alice can’t use [Message] she can’t reply to him. Cain has to trust her decision and wait until the maids are gone.
Alice thought about it for a moment, how could she get the keys? Where are they anyway, she had never seen where her father hide the house’s keys! She could only count on one person, the only person that is always by her father’s side!
“Can you call brother Leon for me?” Alice told one of the maids, It was strange for her to want to meet her brother this late at night. Even with that, the maid complied.
The other maid who remained there quickly finished oiling Alice’s body and covered her with the bedsheet before Leon’s arrival.
Cain who was listening from outside the window was shocked, getting Leon involved in this might be dangerous! He is not a person that Cain knew, he had only heard his name in his past life.
~If you know the place of the keys just say it! It will be better to not get anyone else involved!~ Cain told her using the spell yet she stayed silent, she didn’t know where the keys are!
“ALLLLLLLLLLLICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Leon came screaming, for some reason he looked as if he was about to cry.
“Did the maids hurt you by any chance? I will punish them right away!” He was about to drag the maids outside, for some reason they didn’t seem to be bothered by him violently grabbing them.
One of the maids even seemed to be smiling as if she was about to laugh, ‘What are they doing?’ Cain didn’t seem to understand what Leon’s intentions are.
When the maid called Leon she told him that Alice seemed to feel down. So they were just trying to cheer her up! If they managed to finish the act, it would end up with the maids ganging up on Leon and beating him!
All of those efforts were because Alice usually had breakdowns at night, they thought she was about to go through another one!
“Stop it brother, I just wanted to talk!” Even though Alice has lifted her voice slightly, she seemed to be used to dealing with him.
Clap! Leon clapped his hands signally for the maids to leave the room, It was a private talk and they had no business listening. They seemed to have misunderstood what was happening!
They hurriedly left the room after a short bow. The air seemed to be different the moment it was just Leon and Alice as if it was vibrating.
Leon has taken a more serious face, a vein can be seen popping on his forehead.
Cain was the only one who could tell the difference because he was a mage, The Mana around Leon was pulsing at a scary rate.
“So what does my little sister want? By any chance was he the one who hurt you!” Taking a small wand from his sleeves and pointing it toward the window, he was looking directly at Cain’s location!
Leon’s hair stood up as sparks of lightning zapped from his eyes, He was a mage!