Lucrezia returned to the residence of Cardinal de Mare, full of hope and passion.

But once she got home, the persuasive words she heard from the astrologer began to feel dubious. The plan seemed too dangerous to actually carry out.

“She knew who I was, that gypsy.”

Lucrezia first heard about the gypsy fortune teller from a peddler.

More precisely, a peddler visiting with goods from the Moor Empire told Lucrezia that Rubina, Countess’s close astrologer, was not following the southern constellation this year but remained in San Carlo.

This was classified information. Whenever Countess Rubina was in the capital, she never allowed this astrologer to be seen outside.

But all the peddler could tell her was where she could meet the astrologer. He did not formally arrange a meeting.

Therefore, the astrologer couldn’t have received an introduction about Lucrezia from the peddler. At least, Lucrezia believed so.

“Did she really know with her supernatural powers that I’m a person inside the Cardinal’s?”

And the crystal ball! The figures moving vividly inside the crystal ball were definitely Isabella, Arabella, and Ariadne.

“It has to be real.”

Recalling the crystal ball where silhouettes danced full of smoke, Lucrezia shook her head to discard the idea that the astrologer might be a fraud.

Moreover, the astrologer didn’t demand any money. She couldn’t be a fraud.

“Taking ‘The Heart of the Blue Deep Sea’ can solve all my worries.”

And she wasn’t asking to keep it forever. She just needed to take it for a purification ceremony and then return it to its place.

The risk was almost nonexistent compared to what she could gain, wasn’t it? After thinking this far, Lucrezia decided she must do what the gypsy astrologer asked.

The sun shone in a blue sky without a single cloud. It was early winter seasonally, but judging by the intense sun and the warm wind blowing on the deck, it felt like the autumn of Etruscan.

“Discharge!”

“Oh my!”

The old woman who was looking into the bowl filled with holy water on the deck of the ship jumped up in surprise. Her right hand that had been shocked was tingling, so she shook off the bad energy by shaking her hand with a metallic bell.

“Who put ‘The Curse of the Golden Rule’ again!”

The old woman was as irritated as could be.

“Looking at the spell structure, it’s the Amhara’s work again! Do they have brains or not.”

She was wearing a red skirt, had bronze skin, small, slanted eyes, and black hair like ebony. She was from the ‘Balasa Ordo’, a nomadic tribe from the eastern continent.

“Grandma, are you hurt?”

The old woman’s grandson leaned forward and stroked his grandmother’s hand. He was a boy who looked about eight or nine.

“I’m not hurt. It didn’t splash much because I got rid of it as soon as I touched it. I don’t know why these Amhara guys release ‘The Curse of the Golden Rule’ into the atmosphere. And it’s not even their land, they released it in the central continent! I wonder where they found such an interesting case.”

In the Central Continent, everything coming from the East Continent was easily called ‘Moor Empire’ products.

But what the people of the Central Continent thought of as ‘Moor Empire’ was mostly the powerful empire established in the old Yesac area by the Ethelkoz tribe and the Amhara tribe living in deep black land. In fact, there were three more countries that the people of the Central Continent could not distinguish well.

The Moor Empire was a loose coalition where the kings of the five countries alternately took the highest position.

The old woman was a Shaman of ‘Balasa Ordo’, which established an empire in the far east. After suffering from a divine disease in her youth, she received the power of the Fire God. She had ruled as the top female Shaman of Balasa Ordo, but the Khan was always the problem.

The newly enthroned young Khan of Balasa Ordo began to tyrannize, which troubled her.

As a top shaman, the old woman was dutybound to advise the Khan.

But as soon as she saw the celestial signs with the sacred water when Khan Sanua stained his hands with the blood of his kin, she did not look back and left the monastery holding the wrist of her only blood, her grandson.

So the old woman was now leaving the Balas Ordo behind, moving west along the Silk Road, and was on a ship heading for Etruscan.

The ship crossing the ‘Black Salt Sea’ was speeding along in the hot air typical of the southern lands, relying on a gust of wind.

The road to escape was not comfortable for the mind and body. The grandson asked the old woman, who was grumbling more than usual.

“Grandma, but why is the ‘Judgment Stand of the Golden Rule’ a curse? If you succeed, you can achieve anything!”

The old woman, startled, swirled the metal bell and quickly set up a barrier in the four directions.

She pulled her grandson into the barrier, looked around cautiously, and only after she did not feel the gaze of the ‘high ones’, did she click her tongue at the boy’s perception of reality.