“So catching the snake is an intermediate step in finding the person who cursed you or the intermediary.”

“Intermediate step…”

Isn’t it too long? I’ve been cursed for 3 weeks already, and there’s only a month and a half left for the selection of the saint…!

Evie barely restrained herself from lamenting. Then Yubia seemed to read even that sentiment.

“If you’re really in a hurry, you can find the person who cursed you right away. Have you tried looking?”

“No, not yet…”

“You said it’s urgent.”

“Ugh…”

Yubia calmly touched Evie’s sore spot. The boy seemed to have a high probability of becoming Evie’s nemesis.

Of course, Evie wanted to find that person who had given her this kind of curse.

But thanks to the dear Count, there was no opportunity, so the curse had been on the back burner.

When Evie swallowed her pathetic excuse, Yubia rolled her black eyes as if thinking something. Then she looked at Evie again and spoke,

“You don’t particularly suspect anyone.”

Again, she was right on target, and Evie admitted that Yubia was seeing her too well.

As the saying goes, Evie had no one in particular to suspect.

It’s not because Evie had a kind nature not to doubt others easily.

Rather, it was the opposite; Evie had already examined Tienda nobles’ list with the thought that all of them were suspects.

But the result was futile. Everyone seemed suspicious enough, but there was no person giving certainty.

The person capable of cursing Evie Ariate after meeting the Night Tribe is Rohika Sedro, but the Tower Master had no need to do so, and the person who would like to do it was Rio Tuha, but he had no capability.

And since no one has shown suspicious behavior after Evie was cursed, she felt like she was walking in fog.

When Evie confirmed with silence, Yubia shook her head in succession. Then she said in a somewhat serious voice,

“A curse can’t be cast on just anyone. If a curse can be executed simply by request, one or two out of every ten people walking on the street would already be cursed. To cast a curse, there must be a connection first.”

A connection?

Evie was quite intelligent, but sometimes Yubia’s words were difficult.

That was normal, too.

As a bat sees differently in the dark, the Night Tribe had a special sense different from ordinary people.

So it was natural for Evie not to understand Yubia’s expressions derived from that sense at first glance.

So when Evie wore a perplexed expression, Yubia also became a more serious rabbit and unleashed her fortune.

“Do you know what the carcass is?”

“A rebel dragon. The origin of the curse.”

“……not that. The original form of the carcass.”

At Yubia’s question, Evie shook her head.

Whether it was due to the evil spread in the world, there was very little known about the original form of the carcass even in Tienda and Bise.

It was merely one of the four dragons blessed by the gods, and it must have originally had a good role, and could only guess.

But despite such speculation, Yubia’s continued words were truly unexpected.

“The carcass was a dragon that cared for life.”

“Life?”

Evie asked without realizing it.

The expression that the carcass cared for life appeared against common sense.

In Evie’s mind, the events that happened in this village last night were still vivid.

The curse that came in the form of a knuckle, the dead body of a dragon that ate the livestock and rose, and the cold fog that covered the village.

The curse of the carcass only came to put out life every night.

But if the carcass had taken care of life in the past, what a terrible betrayal this was.

Evie couldn’t readily believe Yubia’s words. But Yubia went on without caring.

“Life is connection. There is nothing that exists alone among living things. It must repeat the process of receiving, connecting, and flowing. So the curse must also be connected to be established. Because connecting everything is the essence of the carcass.”

“Is this connection talking about things like faces or relationships?”

“No, connection needs permission. The sign of permission is the medium of the curse. And the only thing that can be a medium is something you handed over yourself.”

At Yubia’s words, Evie opened her eyes in surprise at his last words.

“So you can curse with the gifted item?”

“No, it’s different. The gift belongs to the recipient, not the giver.”

Evie thought of the trivial gifts she had exchanged and asked, and she brushed her chest at Yubia’s answer.

After all, if a curse was established with that, the act of giving and receiving gifts would have been banned long ago.

Then what’s the point of handing over your stuff if it’s not a gift?

It’s a very rare situation. So Evie understood why Yubia suddenly talked about connection.

Evie desperately rummaged through her mind to find a person or situation that met this condition. But nothing came to mind right away.

“You won’t think of it right away. Maybe it was taken without noticing.”

Then Yubia calmly eased Evie’s impatience with a calm voice.

“The curse is connected. So I can feel the snake if I look at your curse. And the person who cursed you.”

Yubia returned to the original story and asked Evie again.

“Will you let me see?”

“I will permit.”

Evie did not hesitate any longer.

She also gained confidence in Yubia’s calm explanation, and she seemed to know a little about what she was going to look at.

When Evie’s permission came down, Yubia put down her teacup and spread both hands on the table.

The boy’s hands were cute too.

“Grab it, I’ll show you too.”

So Evie didn’t hesitate and put her two hands on top of them.