“What are you doing?”

“I remembered that I’ve been walking around without realizing.”

“But the door was opened…”

“Does it look like I opened it?” Harold winked. Yuri’s face turned white. At their feet lay the door. The one on which Yuri was stepping was also a door that had remained intact until a while ago.

“I was confident it would be inside, so I ripped it open.”

“This is ille…!”

“There’s no such thing for a mercenary? Just ask.”

Yuri sighed and nodded her head.

Harold was right. What were ethics and morals to them? All they needed to do was carry out their order.

“Are you okay?” Yuri asked with a smile.

“…I’m okay, I think my neck is fine.”

“That’s a relief.” Yuri murmured and added.

“My legs are not feeling well from going back and forth here.”

“Why did you go to this far place…!”

“I need to know what happened with the case from 8 years ago. Now, why don’t you come in and talk to me?”

Yuri passed the middle-aged woman and went inside. The sound of Harold grunting and lifting the knocked-down door was heard, roughly obscuring the rest of the room. Yuri swallowed a sigh as she counted the money in her pocket.

“Where can I sit?”

“How on earth did you know to come all the way here?”

“At least I know you worked for Amerigo.”

“What’s wrong with that!”

“Ah. And you were Abella and Carlo’s nanny.”

The woman’s face turned white.

Yuri murmured, “Sit down.”

All of a sudden, Yuri’s tone had turned into a high-pressure one. The playfulness that had been thinking in her eyes until now had been erased, and Yuri beckoned her with her chin.

“You don’t have to be kind to sinners.”

The temperature gradually decreased as if it had dropped by 10 degrees.

*

There was a post horse galloping towards Amerigo. It was an old method that was not used often after the telegram system was introduced, but post horses were still used in rural areas. And Amerigo’s magic stone mine were just as rural.

The knight of the estate jumped off the horse. The country knight had the honor of setting foot in the Amerigo capital mansion, but now it didn’t matter. The knight croaked and grabbed the butler.

“Cough! I need to see the Master in secret…!”

“Are you talking about the Lady?”

“Yes Yes!”

The butler looked at the knight with distasteful eyes, checked the post horse, and nodded his head. Considering the letter in his hand as a lifeline, it didn’t seem like an easy thing to do. The butler brought the knight inside.

On the way, they ran into Mrs. Amerigo.

“…After that girl arrived, nothing special has come and gone in and out of Amerigo.”

Mrs. Amerigo, who shrieked coldly, turned and headed to her room. The butler, who had expected her reaction, simply smiled bitterly, but the knight who was trying to be polite, stiffened.

“She drank too much so she had a slip of the tongue. Don’t worry. No one here thinks of you that much.”

The knight crouched and nodded his head.

Fortunately, Abella welcomed the knight with a smile on her face.

“You have worked hard so far. What’s going on?”

“…I have something to say to you, so I came to see you.”

The knight passed the letter in his hand to Abella. Abella slit open the envelope with a knife and took out the contents. The letter, written in shaky handwriting, fell onto the palm of her hand.

It was like Abella’s heart falling.

Abella opened the letter as casually as possible.

It was a letter from Viscount Bellops, who managed the estate. Abella read the letter slowly. Abella read it all and she smiled bitterly with a pale face.

Abella turned her head and looked at the butler.

“…it seems that my curse has spread to Amerigo as well.”

“Lady!”

The butler called Abella in a mournful voice.

“It is a contagious disease, butler.” Abella murmured. “It is said that a monster is coming up from the coal mines of Amerigo and eating people… I started this work, so I am the source.”

Abella touched her forehead with a trembling hand.

“I have to go to the royal palace right now. Now, send a priest belonging to the Amerigo family estate to check the facts.”

“Yes, lady.”

“You will have to move stealthily and quickly. Amerigo’s reputation may be at stake.”

“Yes.”

The butler quickly went out to find the priest. Abella spoke kindly to the knight.

“Thank you for the important news. I’ll tell the kitchen so you can go get something to eat and rest. The butler will guide you around the place.”

“Thank you, my Lady.”

Abella nodded her head.

Skellus seemed to have been cursed.

Her misfortune was still terribly clinging to her like fate.