“Oh my, my clothes aren’t all the way off, right?”

“No one saw.”

He didn’t deny the part about the clothes being off. So they were off. Phew…

But ‘no one’? Does that ‘no one’ include Idrish?

I was curious but didn’t ask further. Some truths are better left unknown.

“How embarrassing. Did you buy the clothes? The festival is just around the corner.”

“You think I’d buy the dress that made you pass out?”

“Fair point. That wasn’t a dress, it was more like a torture device.”

“I’ll choose something suitable, so you just focus on recovering.”

“Sure. Make sure it’s pretty.”

“You’re thinking of that even now?”

“Of course.”

Idrish’s lips curled in dissatisfaction. He looked like he was about to scold me, but it seemed he refrained because he remembered I was still sick.

“Don’t do that and bring me something to drink. I’m thirsty.”

As soon as the words dropped, Idrish got up.

Seeing him go to get something for me to drink, my chest tingled like I was about to sneeze.

Idrish came back with water, tea, and various kinds of juice. After some deliberation, I picked up the orange juice. I felt better as the cool and slightly sweet liquid went down.

“It’s delicious. I already feel better.”

“Don’t say nonsense. You should lie down and not move until the day before the festival.”

“What? There’s still a lot of time left. I think I’ll recover by tomorrow.”

Idrish pressed my shoulder to lie me down again. Then he placed a cool towel on my forehead.

“Absolutely not.”

His answer was firm.

Am I that worrying? I secretly felt good.

I reached out my hand toward Idrish.

“What’s this hand for?”

“The curse… We haven’t done it yesterday and today.”

“Forget it.”

“Why? Hasn’t it gotten worse? It goes bad quickly if we skip even one day.”

“It’s not right to make a sick person do such things. Besides, we still don’t know what kind of effect it has on you. We’ll do it when you recover.”

I rolled my eyes.

Actually, I know.

It would be really effective if we touched now.

“I’m fine… Let me know if you need it later.”

Though much time had passed into the night, the lights in every window remained bright. It was because of the full moon festival tomorrow.

The full moon festival was the biggest event in the Robeiro territory. So, everyone was naturally filled with anticipation, preparing their most beautiful dresses and decorating their masks beautifully.
The night was as quiet as the one before the storm. The colorful decorations that had been laid out in advance glowed beautifully in the moonlight, but the absence of people gave off an unreal atmosphere.

I was the only one on the street.

I walked cautiously, muffling my footsteps. I had told Edrish that I was tired and would go to bed early, sneaking out alone.

Due to the tension, my back was already sweaty. But I couldn’t slow down.

A terrible event was going to happen at tomorrow’s full moon festival. I was the only one who knew of the tragedy, the only one who could stop it.

I recalled the contents of the novel. I couldn’t afford to miss even a tiny detail.

“The Wolf Shifters of Robeiro enjoyed the festival all night. Eating, drinking, and dancing, after a night of indulgence, they gathered around the sacred spring just before dawn. They each took a sip from the spring that had gathered the energy of the full moon throughout the night. Despite many people drinking, the spring never dried up or decreased. They believed that carrying the moon’s energy in their bodies would keep them healthy for a year.

But no one knew that this would be the start of a tragedy.

Perkop poisoned the spring with snake venom. Snake Shifter venom was not easily produced. It took years to gather, but it was fatal.

The Lord of Robeiro, the first to drink the spring water, collapsed as his limbs stiffened. The Wolf Shifters, who couldn’t find the reason for their Lord’s collapse, all fell into panic. But that was just the beginning. Among those who drank the spring water, the elderly and the children began to collapse. A week after the Festival of Death, the death toll began to rise, house by house.”

So, after tomorrow’s festival, many of Robeiro’s Shifters would die.

“No, I won’t let that happen. But … how do I stop it?”

I didn’t have a clever solution either.

I couldn’t tell anyone this fact, nor did I have the power to change or eliminate the festival’s procedures.

That’s why I was struggling like this in the middle of the night.

If you have nothing, your body suffers.

So I disregarded my anxious heart and various threats and came out alone.

I went to the place where the sacred spring was, which I had found out in advance.