Whatever the ‘price’ was, it seemed to follow swiftly. Smoke rose from the tip of the gypsy woman’s left hand. The smoke greedily ate up her arm, crawling up her left arm.

“Aaaaah! O ‘Awakened Ones’! Isn’t this person already a knower!? Isn’t it too much to tell a knower this much!?”

The gypsy woman’s left arm, wrapped in smoke, started to shrivel like a mummy as all vitality was sucked out of it.

“No!”

The gypsy woman crouched down and began to recite a spell desperately.

‘Om shubhapalga, ahi a tumin. Om shubhapalga, ahi a tumin.’

Ariadne asked the gypsy woman again, who was repeating the spell.

“Who exactly are the ‘Awakened Ones’?”

“I can’t say anymore!”

The gypsy woman looked at her shriveled left arm with tearful eyes. As she recited the spell, her arm stopped shriveling further. However, it didn’t seem that the gypsy woman’s spell was efficient enough to restore her arm to its original state.

“Even if you kill me, I can’t say anymore! Look at this! Look at the person you brought!”

At the gypsy woman’s words, Ariadne finally turned her head to look in Jiada’s direction.

“……!”

Jiada was lying dead on the floor with her tongue sticking out. Smoke was rising from Jiada’s ears. Then suddenly, all the blood and flesh of Jiada turned into dust and scattered like ash. Only the bones were left.

In front of Jiada’s skeleton, a crystal ball was broken into two, lying side by side.

“What’s that?!”

“Blind human, I’ll tell you, so let me go.”

The gypsy woman halfthreatened, halfpleaded with a face smeared with tears.

“I should’ve noticed by the single spot under your eyes… You’re only half.”

The gypsy woman gasped for breath.

“You seem to know nothing, so let me tell you the one thing you need to know. If you don’t hear this story, you will continue to hurt the ones you love.”

Ariadne had no intention of letting the woman go, no matter what she was babbling about.

The strange event touched by the mystery took Ariadne’s life, but if the gypsy woman misspoke, the neck of the de Mare archbishop’s family would fly in the real world.

“If I let you go here, won’t you stick to Lady Rubina and use your special magic again?”

The gypsy woman laughed loudly.

“You naive creature! Look at my crystal ball. I’m going to return to the land of Amhara. I have to retrieve the ball again, and it would take ten years to fix my arm.”

The gypsy woman said, stroking her left arm.

“If you don’t believe me, accompany me until I board the ship. I’m leaving this damned western land. If you kill me here and don’t listen to my story, it’s entirely your loss.”

If the gypsy woman was going to leave the Etruscan land immediately, there was room for negotiation. As Ariadne nodded, the gypsy woman sat straight.

She took out golden powder from her pocket, sprinkled it around to cast a spell, and then finally spoke in a heavy voice.

“If you casually leak about the spiritual world, the listener will end up like that. To the one who leaks it, and to the one who found out without qualification, ‘the awakened ones’ will inflict punishment!”

The gypsy woman pointed at Giada with her holy finger.

“The moment you tell the secret that happened to you to someone who isn’t qualified to know… that person will suffer or die proportionately to the size of the secret they’ve learned!”

Ariadne let out a short breath. She was truly relieved that she had not said a word about the regression to San Cha, Arabella, or Alfonso.

The gypsy woman was about to close her mouth, then added one more sentence, lowering her head.

“Live a good life.”

“What?”

The gypsy woman stuck out her tongue towards a confused Ariadne.

“Even if it’s unfair, even if you’re angry, live five times better than others. Forgive all.”

For Ariadne, it was an unacceptable story. She glared fiercely at the gypsy woman.

“I have a revenge to duly receive.”

“It’s what the divine providence wants.”

“Doesn’t that great ‘providence’ know about an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! The victim’s revenge is a part of the rightful retribution!”

Ariadne ground her teeth. Cesare who abandoned me, Isabella who took my place, numerous people who used me! Do they just let them go?

“I’ve been wronged! I’ve shed blood and tears! Do you want me to live like a wellfed dog who’s content with what’s newly given and not seek revenge?”

The gypsy woman gently stared at the enraged Ariadne.

“Forgiveness is for you. Not for others.”

The gypsy woman now seemed like a sage.

“I’m telling you this because you seem to know nothing and I feel sorry for you. Have you heard of the story of the Porto merchant? The story of a pound of flesh.”

The Porto merchant wrote a contract that if he couldn’t pay back the borrowed gold, he would pay it off with a pound of his flesh.

When the merchant failed to pay the money on the due date, the money lender demanded the fulfillment of the contract. However, the judge of Porto allowed the taking of flesh but set a condition that not a single drop of blood should be shed.

Moreover, he declared that if a single libra more than a pound was taken, it would be a separate crime. The story goes that the money lender eventually couldn’t take the promised human flesh.

“That cheesy story? It’s an unfair contract that discriminates against foreigners. If you make a contract, you should keep your promise.”

“That’s right, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep. I think so too. But the providence of the universe thinks like that Porto judge.”

The gypsy woman rose, wobbling.

“Do you think you can precisely attack only your enemies while taking revenge and only take the debt you should receive? The measurements are all different. You might think you’ve suffered a million times, but the other party may think they’ve only done wrong fifty thousand times. If you subtract what you’ve done wrong to the other party, in fact, there might only be a difference of twentyfive thousand.”

She pointed to the sky, raising her arm high.

“The workings of the universe are mechanical. It won’t excuse your mistakes. If you accidentally harm an innocent person by 1, and revenge against the one who should have only paid back 25 by 50, the universe will consider it all as your karma.”

The barrier touched with gold powder flickered, then its light faded and turned off. Under the watchful eye of causality, further explanation was impossible. It was time to leave now.