“We are tracking the one who cast the curse.”

“You’re tracking them?”

“Yes. We’ve already formed a tracking team, and we’ve decided to call this operation ‘Snake Hunt’.”

Ibi’s eyes widened at this unexpected news.

Three days ago, when Dies left, they had no clues about this curse and were in a hopeless situation.

But now, suddenly they were tracking?

Surprised by this report that was far ahead of expectations, Ibi asked with a face more bewildered than happy.

“You’ve already found them? How?”

“We were lucky. We also had significant help from an associate.”

“Associate…?”

“Dies has a personal acquaintance among the Night Clan in Bis.”

Ibi’s eyes grew even rounder at Dies’s answer.

Seeing Ibi’s surprised face, Dies added:

“I told you three days ago that I would meet with the Night Clan.”

Indeed, Dies had said this three days ago:

—First, I’ll find the Night Clan and confirm when and where the curse ritual was performed. It will take about three days to find this out, and after that, it will depend on the situation.

Of course, Ibi remembered. However, she had somewhat misunderstood the meaning of those words.

“So that meant meeting someone you know?”

“What did you think it meant?”

“I thought it meant you’d grab any Night Clan member and rough them up. …Let me change ‘rough them up’ to ‘interrogate’.”

“How could you think that……”

Dies groaned at Ibi’s violent interpretation. Ibi, in turn, asked back as if she couldn’t understand:

“A personal acquaintance in the Night Clan, you had such connections?”

“Not really a connection, more like an acquaintance, but you seem uncomfortable with it.”

Ibi didn’t deny it.

While brief contact for various needs was one thing, having such suspicious connections was a bit problematic for the butler of a Holy Maiden candidate like Ibi.

Moreover, for Ibi, who came from Bis, the Night Clan was synonymous with demons.

The Night Clan. They were those who accepted Noche’s curse.

Noche, who hated humans, spread curses throughout the world, and these scattered curses became calamities that visited humans every dark moon night.

Ibi had seen it several times while in Bis. On moonless nights of the new moon, something ghost-like wandering in the darkness.

Noche’s curse would creep all night looking for living things, and when it found humans or animals, it would pounce on them in an instant.

The fate of those caught by the curse was one of three:

Die on the spot, go mad and kill indiscriminately, or accept the curse as part of oneself and become something neither human nor curse.

Humans who accepted the curse, curses wearing human disguises. That’s what the Night Clan was.

“When I was in Bis, the Night Clan was scarier than the dark moon nights. Because while you could hide from the curses that come out on dark moon nights, the Night Clan would harm people in truly vicious ways.”

As a child, Ibi had heard countless times.

About their atrocities of massacring people and destroying cities, and their tyranny wielded with the overwhelming power of curses.

“So it’s okay for the butler to beat up the Night Clan, but I don’t like you being friends with them.”

“I don’t like beating them up either……”

Dies groaned again at Ibi’s well-founded complaint. Then he explained calmly:

“As I said before, we’re not close. And the associate I met has never harmed people and is even younger than you, Lady Ibi. So you don’t need to be so uncomfortable.”

Ibi’s stern eyebrows softened a bit at the butler’s explanation.

But she hadn’t completely let her guard down, and asked again with a suspicious face:

“How did that person help?”

“They told us. Where the one who created Lady Ibi’s curse is.”

“Don’t tell me they were acquainted?”

“That’s not the case.”

“Huh……”

Pointing out someone as the culprit but not being acquainted with that someone.

Ibi thought it didn’t make sense, and Dies patiently explained again:

“The Night Clan are connected by Noche’s curse, so they can sense each other.”

“You mean they can recognize each other?”

“Not just recognize, but feel each other as if they were parts of themselves. Like how people are aware of their own limbs. So even if they’ve never met or don’t know each other’s faces, they say Night Clan members know of each other’s existence.”

“……Isn’t that an invasion of privacy?”

“You could see it that way, but it’s fortunate for us. Thanks to that, we quickly found a Night Clan member who’s been acting suspiciously lately.”

Dies continued his explanation diligently even at Ibi’s frivolous remark, and Ibi nodded with an impressed face.

The Night Clan are human, curse, and part of a dead dragon at the same time. So it’s not strange for them to have such bizarre sensing abilities.

“So you found the culprit with that sensing ability?”

“Yes, apparently there’s only one among the existing Night Clan who performed a curse ritual during the last new moon.”

“And that one person……”

“Is the snake who placed the curse on you, Lady Ibi.”

At the mention of ‘snake’, Ibi unconsciously clutched her shoulder tightly.

She felt chills as that nickname matched the Night Clan too well.

“That’s how we found the location and formed a tracking team. And that associate also agreed to participate in the tracking for a while. Since the snake might move.”

“They’re quite cooperative. Is there any possibility that person might be lying?”

Dies’s explanation about the snake hunt was generally reasonable. The only problem was that everything relied solely on that associate’s words.

So when Ibi asked out of concern, Dies smiled uncharacteristically.

“……What’s with that expression?”

Ibi became uneasy in an instant as a smile appeared on her butler’s usually gloomy face.

But instead of explaining further, Dies put his hand into his coat pocket. Something rustled, and a bundle of documents came out.

Dies unfolded them neatly and handed them to Ibi.

“What’s this?”

“A contract and a promissory note.”

“Eek…!”

Ibi inadvertently took the documents and screamed.

What Dies had handed over was a contract drawn up with the tracking team and a promissory note of unknown origin.

“Wait a minute, the contract aside, this promissory note is……”

“It’s the amount the associate demanded.”

“With this amount, they’re not an associate but a robber!”

Ibi exclaimed in shock as she carefully examined the promissory note.

The document stated that if Dies succeeded in the snake hunt, he would pay an amount equivalent to Ibi’s annual income to a person named ‘Yubia’.

Ibi’s annual income—that money could buy several decent houses in a good city in Bis.

As Ibi was speechless with shock, Dies calmly added the final nail:

“If you think of it as a form of trust, it might be easier to accept.”

“Ugh, that’s……”

Ibi bit her lip, trying not to sob. After a while, she added:

“I guess you’re right, with this amount, they won’t lie……”

A form of trust, indeed. The butler has a way with words after squandering the household finances.

But it wasn’t wrong.

Ibi felt trust growing rapidly as she carefully folded this painful document.

Then she let out a long sigh of relief.

When she first got cursed, everything seemed hopeless, but as she endured somehow, it seemed like light was gradually appearing.

There was still a long way to go, but Ibi was satisfied with the progress and stroked her chest.

“I feel like I can finally catch my breath.”

“I guess the atmosphere on Tienda’s side isn’t bad either?”

Dies asked, nodding towards the ashes on the silver tray. So Ibi nodded readily.

“Yes, Grand Duke Laurel is quiet. So it seems other nobles are watching and waiting.”

In fact, the person who should be most indignant about what Ibi did at the last banquet is not Count Laurel, but his older brother, Grand Duke Laurel.

Ibi ruined the banquet hosted by Grand Duke Laurel by insulting Grand Duke Laurel’s brother in Grand Duke Laurel’s castle.

So the Grand Duke should be the one furious at Ibi Ariate, but he has been silent for the past four days.

As a result, other nobles seem to be keeping their mouths shut on their own, only whispering among themselves.

“I don’t know why, but it’s fortunate. I’m planning to stay as quiet as possible until the interest dies down. I’ve already cancelled all social gatherings.”

“It’s good that you cancelled the social gatherings, but tomorrow is the purification ceremony.”

“Right, it’s tomorrow……”

Ibi’s expression darkened at the mention of the purification ceremony.

The Holy Manyanya Tower, to which Ibi belongs, holds a purification ceremony every 40 days.

And Ibi, as a purifier and Holy Maiden candidate, must attend that ceremony.

“You’ll meet the other Holy Maiden candidates tomorrow.”

Ibi let out a helpless sigh at the point Dies deliberately pointed out.

There are seven purifiers in the Manyanya Tower, including Ibi.

All are ladies of similar age to Ibi, and they are also Holy Maiden candidates.

So Ibi’s participation in the purification ceremony meant meeting a group who envied Ibi for standing shoulder to shoulder with them despite being a commoner, hated Ibi for doing everything alone during the purification ceremony, and despised Ibi Ariate, who was mentioned as a strong candidate for the next Holy Maiden more than anyone else.

Just thinking about it was burdensome, and Ibi touched her forehead. Then she added, as if groaning:

“I have to meet Count Laurel too……”

Coincidentally, tomorrow is also the day the Count said he would hear her answer.

As Ibi sighed deeply, remembering the Count, Dies also worried together:

“It seems like it will be an eventful day, do you have any plans……”

“Don’t worry about that.”

But Ibi’s answer was unexpectedly quick.

Telling him not to worry when she had to enter a fire pit carrying a bundle of straw.

As Dies looked at her quizzically, Ibi said rather calmly:

“I’ve already made preparations.”

Ibi’s short yet long life had always been full of adversities.

So she had realized early on. That a life no one cares about must be saved by oneself.

So this time too, Ibi was determined to get through it somehow.

***

The next day, as noon approached for the start of the purification ceremony, many nobles gathered at the Manyanya Tower.

And the purifiers who had arrived several hours earlier were waiting in the sanctuary of the Manyanya Tower, dressed in pure white ceremonial robes.

The purifiers in their immaculate robes were all young and beautiful ladies.

So the sight of them chatting looked no different from noble ladies at any social gathering.

In fact, they were all high-ranking nobles, and at the same time, they took great pride in being entrusted with the important task of purifying the continent’s water with Manyanya’s blessing.

That’s why they hated her even more.

Ibi Ariate, who came from Bis and was mentioned as the Holy Maiden over them, and who hadn’t even shown up yet.

“She’s the latest among us, how arrogant can she get?”

“She must know shame. How could she show her face after doing such a thing?”

Two purifiers spoke ill of Ibi in light voices. Then they turned to look at one girl, seeking agreement.

“Don’t you think so, Miss Sedro?”

The girl called Miss Sedro, who looked particularly young compared to the other purifiers, had her long daylily-colored hair tied in two braids.

But despite her cute appearance, her chilling impression couldn’t be completely hidden.

That strangely fierce girl, Miel Sedro, smiled faintly at her colleagues’ question.

Just then.

The doors of the sanctuary opened, and a girl appeared.

It was Ibi Ariate, wearing a dazzlingly white ceremonial robe, her long hair braided and tied with a blue ribbon.