A breeze of morning mist still lingered in the sky as the morning sun bathed the road.

“Dammit, how are we gonna fix the cursed.” He whispered to Helina.
“How should I know? This is all your fault. I knew I should never have trusted you.” Helina replied.

“Hey, you already make a lot of money from the charms.” Elric kept on bickering but only in whispers since both of them are trying to hide the secret of the fake charm from Eugene, who is currently packing the stuff in the carriage.

“The charm is real, you're the one who bluffs its effect.” Helina upholds her creation.

“Bluff… did you say bluff…that it!” Elric, with a sudden pause, replies to Helina with a bulb on top of his head.

“Don’t worry, I've got an idea.” Elric looks very confident as he has an idea.

“If thing goes south, I will bluff our way to the north,” he tried to cheer on his friend.

“Hey, guy, I already packed all things. How long do you guys want to make me wait?” Eugene annoys as he is the only one who knows how to handle a carriage.

“Wait a sec..” Elric replies and rushes into the small mansion, back or it should be called a rundown villa, and comes out carrying his satchel of tricks. It's a mentalist’s and psychologist’s tool.

“Sorry, I almost forgot my 'medical tools'.” Showing it to Eugene and the trio start their journey.

The carriage creaked to a halt before the blackened iron gates of Rosavile’s Manor. The mansion loomed over the mists of the forest like a forgotten cathedral, stained by years of rot and whispered rumors.

Helina stepped down first, lifting her coat away from the damp earth. Eugene followed, his nose twitching as he scanned the courtyard’s eerie grandeur.

“Why do I think your haunted villa is better than this one?” Eugene whispered to Elric.

“Rosavile is a family of well-known fire mages…” Helina replied, then paused before continuing. “…Well, that was a long few centuries ago. Now they were just a poor Noble house.” Helina told a little bit of its history.

“Who would have thought that your backwater estate is better than this place?” Eugene is impressed by the estate development of this poor Noble fief.

“It just developed only recently. Because of my big brain,” Helina puffed her pride.

A maid, dressed in all black, opened the gate with a creak that somehow sounded judgmental. “Welcome to Rosavile Manor. The baron is waiting.”

The trio takes a deep breath and takes a step in…

As the trio walks in, two figures are waiting for them.

“Welcome to our humble mansion,” said Lord Timberg, a broad-shouldered man in his late forties, his once red hair now streaked with silver, a quiet testament to the years he’d endured.

“Please have a seat, ”Lady Seraphine greeted them to a seat.

“Hey, will we be okay?” Helina whispered to Elric as they took a seat.

“Trust me, let's see what the problem is first.” With a grin on his face, he replied with confidence.

Eugene, on the other side, “Hey, don’t you think Lady Seraphine is quite a beauty?” asked both of them.

“Just shut up, Eugene…” Both Helina and Elric annoy him already.

“Hey, what did I do wrong?” Eugene is making a sad face.

“Ehem.” Elric cleared his throat first, “May I know what happened, Lord Timberg?” Elric, the one who started the conversation first.

“Huh…” Lord Timberg let a long sigh before continuing, “It was a very long time ago. It's a story that I want to forget…Cecile..” He paused while taking a look at her wife, who was holding his hand as a sign to be strong. “Cecile was kidnapped when she was seven, along with her best friend Silvy, a young maid for her exclusively.”
Lady Seraphine poured the tea before Lord Timberg continued.

“It was too late when we arrived… It was all too late.” Palming his face to his hand.

“Cecile, her friend died right in front of her. Brutal murder. All her limbs were cut. I still remember it even if I don’t want to. Cecile froze while her friends died in her arms.” Tear started to flow down.

“It was too cruel! Neither of them, ten yet. It was too cruel …for a child to lose her best friend…., got murdered with her eye.” Lord Timberg, crying, felt the hardship her daughter faced at that time.

Lady Seraphine, who was trying to hold her best… not to cry, continued, “We thought that everyone forgot about the incident already. But we think that Silvy's parent are still holding a grudge against Cecile… Cecile keeps having a nightmare about it. About that girl, keep on asking to give her hand… her leg… crying with blood. Pleading for the limbs back.”

“What happened to the girl's parent?” Eugene was curious while holding the bowl of snacks, like watching a movie.

“What? I'm just curious.” Pause a little, and hungry.” While he kept on munching on the snacks.

“It's okay,” Lady Seraphine, with a little bitter smile on her face, asked the maid to give Eugene another bowl.

“We think that her parent were the ones who cast the curse… But when we arrive at their house. Both of them were hanged in their home…ending their sadness.” Lord Timberg continued after he wiped his tears.

“Wait a minute, this is not a curse,” Elric recalls his memories when he was able to start reading and researching about this world.

“This world doesn’t have a curse. The theory of curse magic is more like a fake rumor. A magic circle is needed to cast complex magic. But to cast a circle on someone is too unrealistic.” Elric's gear starts to move.

“Did her parent give her a gift anytime or have a gift after the incident?” Eugene, a magic engineer familiar with this kind of case.

“Yes, Silvy's parent once left a bottle of perfume for Cecile as a parting gift. Cecile appreciates it and often uses it a lot. We already threw the bottle away since we thought that it was a cursed item.” Lady Seraphine keeps supplying the info Eugene is looking for.

“Wait, does it have like a sweet smell on it?” Helina suddenly asked as she got a clue.

“Yes, it does.” Lord Timberg paused then continued, “Come to think of it, that night when we decided to throw it away, I accidentally spilled it on my hand a little, the smell was too sweet that I started to feel dizzy when sniffing it too much,” he explained to Helina.

“Weird, usually a magic item that people tend to say 'curse' often binds with some fake illusion magic rune, more like a poison rune. But it never affects nightmares. As if you don’t hold it, the rune can't be active.” Eugene shares his knowledge as a magic engineer with Helina and Elric.

“No, the nightmare probably came from the perfume. I think it was made with Detura flower solution. It smells sweet and it's not dangerous. Unless you often use it, especially direct contact with the skin. But if it was thrown away. It shall never have a nightmare again,” as Helina whispered her finding with Eugene. On the side, Elric, his finger tapping as vigorously as his adrenaline rush, then he suddenly stopped as he listened to both of them.

“Don’t worry, my lord. I think I know what kind of curse it was.” Elric suddenly stood while having a devilish-looking grin on his face, shocking both the Rosavile couple.
“Don’t worry, that is the face whenever he finds an answer,” Helina explained while smiling at her genius friend.

The excitement ended when suddenly…

“Sorry, can I have another bowl…of this…” Everyone turned to him, “…please?” Eugene adds a politeness to it, making the whole room bright once again, ending those afternoons with a small laughter they make. 



END~