Chapter 56
Ardis who returned to the capital dyed in sunset exchanged words with the familiar gatekeepers, before entering the town together with Kyrill .
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Their destination are the beds in the inn―― is what Ardis wants to say but, they had another more prioritized matter . After all, it’s not wrong in assuming the red humanoids creature will appear again in the night .
Although they aren’t a big deal for Ardis who had fought them for three days consecutively already, he would prefer to get rid of the roots of the problem as soon as possible .
That’s why, they have headed towards a curse specialist first .
「Old man, are you here? I have something to show you . 」
It was a corner building on one of the streets that has lesser pedestrian traffic . While opening the tattered door which was thinly covered in mold, Ardis raised his voice .
Opening the door, it is a small room that they entered to . The walls were lined with shelves, on top of them were filled books, potteries and miscellaneous items .
Although it seems like a gathering of random items at first sight, considering the owner of this place, it’s probably the norm .
「What . It’s Ardis who’s here huh . 」
The old man sitting at the counter looked at Ardis and said . A shaman, many people think that they have an image of an old witch but, it’s actually more of a proper occupation that appraise items and concoct medicine .
The person who called out to Ardis too, he looks to be an upstanding old man . If there’s a half decent feathered robe on him, he would be exuding an aura of a sage .
It had been four months since Ardis started working in the capital . With much time around, it’s normal for him to have some acquaintance and some familiar shops .
Although the sign board doesn’t show, this shop also deals with magical items, it’s one of the shops that Ardis frequent .
And shamans like him, they often sell medicine concoctions or charms . Or, different than normal items that mercenaries normally bring to an arms shop or merchants, mana imbued items are usually brought to a shaman place since it would fetch better price .
However, Ardis didn’t come to sell the sword that was found in the ruins .
There’re many shamans who are knowledgeable about magic and mana in objects . And such knowledge is useful for appraising and identifying unknown objects .
It’s an essential shop for treasure hunters to bring magical items to be appraised or cursed items to be dispelled . These two are considered the main source of income for any shamans .
There’re quite a number of shaman stores in the capital as well . Among them, the most capable shaman that Ardis knows is the old man in front of his eyes now . It was fitting for Ardis to bring the swords retrieved from the ruins to him .
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「Come to think of it, Jean was looking for you? It seems that he has something to ask from you, have you met him already? 」
「No, I haven’t met him yet recently but…… . I will look for him tomorrow . 」
Jean is a person who distributes work to mercenaries . For Ardis who had subjugated the Three Great Demons, Jean had already assigned various tasks for him before . He’s also one of the human relationship network that Ardis attained in the past four months .
「Umu . Jean seems to be worrying about something . Help’em if you can . ……Leaving that aside, who’s that kid over there? Your disciple? 」
The shaman asked Ardis about Kyrill who is behind him .
「No, it’s a coincidence and now he’s temporarily my companion . He’s not a mercenary after all . 」
「Is that so . His mana reserve seems high for his age, I totally thought he was a magician or something . 」
「High mana reserve……, you mean me? 」
At the shaman’s unexpected words, Kyrill unintentionally interrupted .
「That’s right, kid . You seem to have aptitude for becoming a magician . Considering your age, you still have room to grow your mana reserve . 」
「Me……, a magician……」
Kyrill probably never thought he had the possibility to become a magician . At the sudden revelation, Kyrill’s eyes were round .
The shaman was smiling slightly while looking at Kyrill for a while, then he shifted his gaze onto Ardis .
「I don’t think you would came here for no reason……, you picked up something interesting? 」
「A sword that will make strange humanoids appear that will attack you in the night, how about that? 」
At Ardis’s playful tone, the old man shook his head as if saying good graces .
「……Bringing in things that are bothersome again」
Ignoring such a reaction from the store owner, Ardis took the sword from Kyrill’s hands and put it onto the counter .
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「It’s a sword we found in a ruin in the Corsas Forest . As you see, there’s no problem holding it or drawing it but, when night comes, some strange red humanoids will appear . 」
「Fumu……, let me see that . 」
Hearing Ardis’s words, the shaman took the sword into his own hands and verified . Using a magnifying glass as he checked the hilt to the scabbard, then drawing it slightly . The shaman’s sharp gaze stared at the blade that was a dyed in red .
「Umu…… . This is…… . Aah, it’s like this……」
As the shaman continued to mutter to himself, he slowly compiled the results .
「Two silvers for this . If you want me to look more in details, then it’s six . 」
Eventually, he returned the sword onto the counter, and asked for payment .
「So it’s something you can’t tell just by looking? 」
While saying so, Ardis put up six silver coins on the counter .
「Just the gist of it . 」
While replying, the shaman old man took the payment into his pocket .
「It’ll take about ten minutes, you can wait? 」
「Yeah, if you can dispel the curse, then do that too . 」
「There’s no need for that . Rather than that, this is probably not a curse . 」
「Not a curse? 」
Ardis asked at the unexpected reply .
「Well, I will leave the explanation for later . Just sit around for a while . 」
After saying so, the shaman took out various small tools and put it on the counter . Using each of them, the old man meticulously investigated the sword .
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Sometimes spraying reagents, sometimes sticking on amulets, sometimes casting magic, the shaman continued tens of ways as he tried to determine the true nature of the sword .
That process was similar to a doctor trying to find out all the symptoms to know what kind of disease the patient has .
Eventually, the ten minutes that the shaman had said to Ardis had passed, and finally the analysis had completed . The old shaman sighed loudly .
「Fuu……, it’s finally done, Ardis . 」
「So? What’s is this thing actually? 」
Immediately, Ardis pointed towards the sword on the counter and asked .
「Well, first, just like what I said just now, it’s not a curse . 」
「Then, what’s those stuff that comes out and attack during the night? 」
「Well, just calm down a little . 」
The shaman slowed down Ardis’s pace .
「First, looking at the style of the craftsmanship of the sword, it’s made a long time ago . Probably one of the relics of the era of Corsas Kingdom about two hundred years ago . Look here . 」
The old shaman pointed to one part of the scabbard .
「This pattern here, it was usually used for ritual jewelry in the Corsas Kingdom . It’s probably forged by a famed blacksmith and given to a royalty or the church . 」
「The background isn’t important at all . 」
Ardis was frowning as he said so . After all, the reason that Ardis brought the sword here was not to hear such background stories .
「Good grace, this is exactly why young’uns are so difficult . 」
As if lamenting, the shaman shook his head
「About the curse right? Just like what I said before, it isn’t a curse . But, it’s certain that intense thoughts are enveloping the sword . 」
「Intense thoughts? Meaning? 」
「Suffering, sadness, anger, and the hope to be saved . Those kinds of intense thoughts had been finding somewhere to go, and they’ve gathered around the sword . It’s not just a single person’s portion, but more than tens of them . 」
Ardis continued his questions since he still didn’t understand the difference of the thoughts and a curse .
「That’s……, different than a curse? 」
「It’s similar but different . It’s true that curses are also one form of intense thoughts . But curses are made with the intentions of harming people . If those harming intentions are mixed in the intense thoughts, only then it’s a curse . 」
But, as the shaman continued his explanation .
「The thoughts that lingers around this sword, they don’t have any intentions of hurting someone else . They’re probably souls that couldn’t be saved and had nowhere to go . 」
「I get the point that it’s different than a curse now . But how about what is needed to be done to prevent the『Things』 appearing every night? 」
「Well……」
The shaman store owner massaged his eyebrows as he thinks .
「Since there is no curse, the usual way to dispel a curse won’t have any meaning . It’s certainly a good sword originally but, you can just not use it right? Why not just let me buy it from you . How about it? 」
Refusing the offer from the shaman store owner, Ardis and Kyrill moved out of the store . Although they now knew what’s the reason behind the red humanoids appearing in the night, in the end, they weren’t able to solve it .
「Well, how should we proceed…… . I guess a dinner first huh . 」
The night had started to encroach on the capital skies . How should they proceed, there’s a ton of stuff that they still have to discuss .
「In any case, hunger and lack of sleep are the worst enemies for any mercenaries . Let’s go, Kyrill . 」
「Y-Yes 」
Kyrill chased after Ardis who had already started walking towards his frequented inn, 『Seseragi Inn』 .