We left the border inn town and entered the neighboring country, turning north on the road.
On the way, we stopped at a small village.
Several of Liza’s friends lived there, and it was a communication relay point. When they found Sylphy and told her that the heroes were with her, they all jumped in joy, and one of them ran to report to the Kingdom of Filianis.
As expected, they were disappointed when they found out that Sylphy had amnesia and could not use her powers as a “Priestess of Light,” but they were a little relieved when I told them that we were working to solve that problem.
In order to lift the “Curse of Oblivion”, which is the cause of Sylphy’s memory loss, our current objective is to visit a renowned “sorcerer”.
With some detours, we arrived at our destination town around noon on the fourth day after we left the inn town.
It’s not a very big town.
But more than the size, we’re stunned at the entrance to the town.
The streets were bare of dirt, and the whirlwind was blowing sand in the air.
It’s rough. That was my first impression, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“There’ s no one here?”
Yes, there are people. However, everyone is hiding inside their houses and there is not a single person to be seen outside.
The only inn in town was also being reserved. I knocked on the door, but no one came out.
We had no choice but to park the carriage and go for a walk around the town.
And finally, we found the first townsman.
A tall woman, wearing loose-fitting clothes, but one could tell she was glamorous. Her brown hair was in loose waves, and she looked quite beautiful.
She wandered this way and that, knocking on the door of a private house, only to be turned away.
Boom, boom, boom!
“Oh, please, open the door. Listen to me.”
“Shut up! You plague god!”
“We’re not plague gods.”
“It’s your old lady’s fault the town has become like this.”
“No, it’s not. No, Grandma didn’t do anything wrong. It’s the Lord who’s at fault.”
“Are you trying to blame the Lord at this point? You guys should be arrested too!”
There was a thump, and the sound of someone punching the door from the inside.
The sister was frightened and cried out with tears in her eyes.
“I’ll Curse You! ”
There was a hint of surprise from within the room. However, a sarcastic remark came back immediately.
“I’m not sure what you’re capable of. If you can do it, go ahead and do it.”
The sister looked like she was about to cry and shivered, but eventually she backed away from the door as if she had given up.
“No….. It’s not that I can’t. It’s that I won’t do it. If you curse someone, it’s going come back to you…..”
She walked slowly across the street, still trying to “just visit one more place”.
“Uh, excuse me. Do you have a minute?”
I called out to her.
She looked at us, then looked left and right, before turning around to see that no one was there, and then she looked at us again, giving us a warning look.
“Wh.. Who…?”
“Oh, I’m a traveller. I’d like to talk to you about–”
I tried to be gentlemanly, but she didn’t want to hear me out.
“I’ll curse you!”
I shrugged my shoulders, thinking that I had gotten involved in another troublesome situation.
A beautiful woman who was wandering alone in town.
Nanalee Zetta, 19 years old. She’s the oldest woman I’ve met recently, but she’s like a frightened child.
Honestly speaking, I don’t want to get involved with her if at all possible, but there were circumstances where I couldn’t say that.
She was the granddaughter of the “sorceress” we were looking for.
Thanks to our persistent negotiations, we were able to arrange a meeting at her home.
A dilapidated wooden house at the edge of town.
Although she was in business as a sorceress, she didn’t have a sign. It was almost closed, and Nanalee supported herself by helping out at the farm.
Nanalee was still wary of us, cowering in the corner, watching us.
Nevertheless, she led us to a table for four at the dining table and quickly prepared tea for us.
Currently, we were occupying the table and sipping tea while she was staring at us and putting us on the short leash.
But even here we persisted in making small talk and finally got down to business.
“We’re here to ask your grandmother to lift a spell.”
“Grandma’s not here. She was caught by the officials this morning. She’s probably imprisoned in the lord’s castle. She didn’t do anything wrong……”
What a terrible timing.
“What was the reason for the arrest? Are there any official charges against her?”
Nanalee’s lips pursed tightly before she spat bitterly.
“My grandmother put a curse of decay on this town. She said that the town used to be prosperous, but it’s because of her curse that it’s become as desolate as it is now. But Grandma didn’t do that. It’s because of the lord’s crooked politics that we ended up like this, and they blamed it all on Grandma.”
Finally, she screamed out in grief.
When I remained silent, Liza let out her thoughts.
“It’s a common story. There are many rulers who blame demons and other evil spirits for the failure of their administration, and I’m sure the sorcerer is often the scapegoat.”
“But you can tell right away if you’re cursed or not with an ‘Appraisal,’ right?”
“A high level curse can also be concealed. If that happens, you need an appraiser of rank A or higher to be able to detect it. It’s not possible for a local lord to have that many appraisers, and I don’t think there were any in this country. Even so, he probably brought in a low-ranked appraiser and said something like that.”