“… thank you.”
Jamie turned his head at the thank you.
A very horrible looking beggar boy with dead eyes and a bowed head.
His left cheeks were swollen red from being hit, and the already dirty clothes were now covered in more dirt.
Jamie saw the bullies again. Those who suffered from ‘The Pain’ were now unconscious.
Because there was no mercy in it, it wouldn’t be a pain which normal people could handle.
But two grownups even looked like idiots and tormented one kid. It was right to give them this punishment.
They should be thankful that they weren’t killed.
He didn’t want to see them any longer, so he stretched out his hand and made the two disappear.
“A-A magician?”
As the two bullies disappeared, the boy asked with wide eyes.
“As you can see.”
He answered, looking up and down at the child. Jamie recalled the rumors he heard last night. About a family which gave the town a curse.
He was looking for the necromancer and wanted to meet the family at least once.
‘Is he the right one?’
He heard what curses those bullies yelled.
“Name?”
“Fivion.”
He was a bit surprised at how easily the boy told him his name. He was a wary looking child so he didn’t expect him to give out his name this easily.
Still, Jamie was the one who saved him, so it seemed like the child had some good impressions of him.
“I see, Fivion. Why were they tormenting you?”
“…”
“Is it because of the spirit of the curse?”
Fivion’s eyes trembled as Jamie specifically asked. It seemed right.
Fivion asked while stepping back with cautious eyes.
“B-brother is also trying to harass me and my family…?”
Even just asking him about it was enough to make him tremble.
Jamie shook his head feeling a little bad.
“I have no such hobbies. I just thought I might be able to help.”
“Why would you…?”
“Because I am the one who came to solve the problem in town.”
It was a lie, but Jamie raised his left hand. The symbol of Goddess Pyro was engraved on it.
Jamie slowly brought the left hand to Fivion. Fivion flinched but the warm energy touched his skin and he stopped stepping back.
The holy energy calmed his swollen cheeks and healed all his wounds.
“Phew.”
When the pain disappeared, Fivion looked at Jamie in shock and Jamie raised his hand as he said.
“As you can see, I am a hunter of evil spirits sent by the church. I am here to put out the curse on the village and exorcise the spirits.”
Jamie told the brazen lie without even blinking.
And Fivion who saw the holy power had no choice but to believe it.
“R-really?”
“Yes. From what I hear, there seems to be a misunderstanding about your family in the village. If it is fine, will you help me solve the case?”
“Sure! I can do anything as long as it clears the name of my family!”
Jamie nodded.
He felt bad for lying to a child, but in any case, the pain Fivion and his family were going through will be resolved. The important thing was to find the necromancer.
If anyone could be saved in that situation, it would be one stone for two birds.
“Can you guide me?”
“Yes!”
Fivion nodded in response. He took the lead right away and motioned Jamie to follow him. The store door opened and the owner walked out with an awkward face.
And Fivion stopped walking.
“Hahaha. A-all packed. Fivion take it and have it.”
Fivion looked at the man with dead eyes and the man helped out with an envelope.
When the child didn’t take it, he sneaked up to the child and put it in front of him.
“I put 3 coppers in the bag so buy something delicious with it. Bye.”
With those words the man went back into the store. And Fivion saw the bag flapping In the wind.
Inside the bag seemed to be more food than usual. It seemed like he increased the amount, but the wound on the boy’s heart didn’t heal.
“Take it.”
Jamie patted him on the back.
“Because you have to eat.”
“… yes.”
Fivion held the bag.
He felt the weight and clenched his hand.
“Oh my! Fivion!”
Fivion ran towards the house with an excited face. The boy who looked dark was now running with a bright face with a bag of food spinning around.
If that happened, today’s meals was over, but the immediate joy was important.
“Mom!”
Fortunately the bag didn’t fall.
Jamie shook his head and folded his arms as he looked around.
‘People live here?’
Far from the village, this place was a wasteland.
In the past, it must have been a paddy field, and the scarecrow which hadn’t been maintained was broken.
If he hadn’t known the house belonged to Fivion, he would have thought of it as an abandoned house.
The land was dark. Only a few trees were growing and no grass.
There were traces of wild animals, but they didn’t seem like the kind to attack in the morning.
A place with not much sunlight, which made it look like a cemetery.
It was proof that there was no life here.
“Brother, come!”
“Yes.”
Jamie stopped looking around and went into the house. A small and old place, so the steps inside would make a creaking sound.
Jamie even wondered if it would fall under the wind.
“Brother…”
As Jamie entered the room a cute looking girl looked at him from behind Fivion’s back.
Stroking Fiona’s hiar, Fivion Said,Fivion,
“It is fine. He is here to help me.”
“Help?”
“Um. I got scolded by them again.”
“Really?”
“And he will get rid of the spirits too.”
“Really, really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Wah!”
Jamie smiled at the girl who seemed to be around 6 years jumping up in excitement.
It reminded him of Sarah. A girl of the same age as his sister was living in such a shabby place.
Thinking about this soured his mood. Jamie crouched down and looked at Fiona.
“What is your name?”
“Fiona.”
“How old?”
“Seven.”
“You are still young, but you seem good at speaking.”
Saying so, Jamie stroked her head.
Normally, she was wary of people touching her, but strangely she didn’t move away from Jamie’s touch.
Fivion too was a bit surprised at it.
“Fiona isn’t the kind of child who lets other people care for her…”
Jamie smiled as he stood up.
At that moment, from within, the powerless voice of a woman could be heard.
“Finn, are you here?”
“Mom!”
Finn was Fivion’s nickname. As he entered the inner room, he could hear the words.
Jamie waited for a moment. And looked at Fiona, who was looking at him from the side and when their eyes met, she turned her head away.
Sarah too had such a timid personality in the start, so there were too many similarities between them.
“Brother. Come in.”
“Yes.”
Jamie entered the room being careful not to crack anything. Upon entering, there was a woman sitting with her back against the wall.
She seemed thin, exhausted as if she was sick, but she was quite a beauty.
Next to her, clinging onto her arm was Fivion.
He heard footsteps behind and looked at Fiona enter to go cling to the other arm of her mother. Seeing that, he thought this had to be a cicada family.
Jamie stopped thinking and greeted her.
“I am a spirit hunter from the Pyro Church.”
“P-Pyro. I am Irina, mother of Finn and Fion.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Irina.”
“Yes… but why did you come to this shabby place?’’
“Mom! This brother healed all my wounds!”
Fivion said excitedly, showing her his arm.
Looking at this, he seemed like a kid who didn’t understand the situation correctly.
Irina looked closely at her son’s face.
“Oh my, the wounds really did disappear.”
She rubbed her son’s face to make sure that wounds were gone and then bowed her head to thank Jamie.
“Thank you. Thank you for treating my son. I heard that it costs a lot of money to receive treatment from the church, I don’t have enough power to…”
“It was nothing. Just…”
“Brother.”
When he looked at Fivion who shook his head, he knew he didn’t want him to speak of it.
Jamie didn’t even want to speak of it.
“We are only acting on the orders of the Goddess to show mercy.”
Pyro was being used a lot today. Fortunately, since she was his ally it wouldn’t hurt him.
If he had used any other Gods, they would have taken their life for it.
‘I am confident of spreading bad deeds about them though.’
But for now it wasn’t needed and Jamie looked at Irina and said,
“Well. I heard rumors from the people about this family.”
“Brother. We really don’t know.”
“I don’t mean to question. I am trying to confirm the facts.”
“Confirm facts…”
Irina asked, hugging her children.
Jamie bluntly asked.
“Can I check the truth behind it?”
When he asked with the holy power in hand, Irina had a troubled face and Jamie sensed something about it.
And after a while she made a decision.
“Finn, Fion, stay out for a while, the adults need to talk.”
Jamie flinched at the word ‘adults’.
He was just 13 now.
“Mom.”
“Mommy…”
Fiona clung to her, not liking the idea of leaving her.
Irina smiled saying it was fine to her daughter and then, looking at her son, she nodded her head. Despite not wanting to leave, Fivion took his sister out.
Confirming the children had moved away, Irina got up and opened the small box at the corner of the room.
A pure white rosary. And Jamie who saw it frowned.
‘That is…’
Holy power.
He didn’t know from which God it was, but it was certain that this rosary was giving out holy power.
As if the Undead couldn’t approach them.
Irina, who had come with the rosary, knelt down and said.
“This is a rosary we got from a priest before we came to this town.”
“I feel holy power.”
“… it was told that this would protect my family from evil spirits,”
“You mea…”
“Right. The rumors floating around the town…. Actually, it is because of my family.”
As it was roughly expected, it wasn’t shocking. It would have been weird if she said no.
The owner of the spirit is simply tormenting the village people for no reason, and at least he knew no magician would come to waste their time here.
‘They couldn’t be approached because of the rosary.’
But the question wasn’t resolved and Jamie asked her.
“But why are the spirits chasing you?”
“That…”
Irina’s face darkened.
“I have a guess.”
“Guessing means you don’t know the truth.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about that. I saw it for a while yesterday, but it was unusual so any information would help.”
“That…”
Making up her mind, she looked at Jamie and said.
“It seems to have something to do with the kid’s father.”
“Now that you mention it, your husband is nowhere to be seen.”
“… he is dead. For betrayal.”
Jamie was bewildered.
“Uh?”
“He was the commander of knights of the Silteo Kingdom. However, there was a coup d’etat inside, where my husband was murdered. And he sent us a letter telling us to flee before we were touched, so we were able to get away before the assassins came.”
Silteo Kingdom.
A nation whose past rulers disappeared three years ago.
Unlike Harmonia, it was not a corrupt kingdom, but the lowest ranking prince launched the rebellion to take the throne left vacant by the death of the King. It wasn’t known how it was initiated, but the coup was successful.
And the prince created his own palace and the start of a new dynasty.
“I wonder if they did something like that to get us killed…”
But it was strange.
Silteo was a nation in the far west of <Arisha>.
And where they were now was quite a distance to the north. Despite the fact that they were the family of a commander, was there a reason to go after a powerless woman and her children?
‘And hire a necromancer?’
In a land ruled by 12 Gods, could a King go this far for one person?
If caught doing this, the nation would be targeted.
But whatever it was, this family was being targeted. And there were quite a few twists in the story.
Right now, he was a deeper man with a deeper story than anyone else.
‘Reap what I sowed and leave.’
Jamie said to irina.
“I heard it all. This is a sad case. Well done. As a spirit hunter I will set you all free.”
“What should we do?”
“Can I ask for an unreasonable request?”
“Whatever the request…”
“I wish you could be the bait.”
At the word bait, Irina tilted her head and Jamie smiled.
“A bait to catch the ghosts.”
He definitely needed bait to catch something.
