When she said that Oslo was flabbergasted. Since when had the curse been so easy to use that even food was cursed. But hearing he was going to die, he couldn't help but stop.
The girl gestured him to sit beside her. Oslo sat and asked,
"What do you mean by the 'rice was cursed'?"
"That is...the food you ate was given to me by the Magician. He had asked me to provide you with the rice so that you too will be cursed." She said.
"But wasn't I the one you people were relying on. Why would you go and curse me as well?"
"Yes, you are indeed the one we're relying on but there was also the possibility of you just walking away. So we had to curse you as well, so if you want your curse to lift up, you need to defeat the Magician as well.
"Tsk. Okay, I'll help you. But tell me more about the Magician." Oslo said as he felt something was wrong with the situation but unable to point out just what it was.
The girl was happy because of the decision he made. Although she had to blackmail him, she was happy that he would help them nonetheless.
Because there were also magicians who could lift the curse cast upon them by asking the magicians excelling on the knowledge related to curse by just charging them some money, she was worried that he wouldn't help them. But what she didn't know was he was poor as hell and if he wanted to lift the curse, he had to defeat the Magician himself.
According to her, the village had no magicians to protect them. Their village was surrounded by hills in all directions and with horrible beasts lurking at every corner of the hill, what separated their village and the hill was the wall which was a meter thick and fifteen meters tall.
Unless it was the middle of the day, their village wouldn't receive any sunlight because of the wall.
Although it was the world where weak were dominated by the strong, the had done very well surviving till date though being a small village.
They were surviving by selling arms and armors to the bigger clans for which they got their foods.
It was one day when an injured man knocked on the door of their village. He was a bloody mess and blood covering him from head to toe, he couldn't even walk and was barely standing with the support of the gate when they looked at him.
He was William, an outsider. Out of Goodwill, the villagers took in the man and healed him. But little did they know that the frail puppy they were helping would turn out to be a mad wolf.
After he was healed, he left the village and came again another day. But he that day brought a cart full of foods. He said that the food was to thank them for all they did for him for he was about to die.
That night every villager filled their belly to the brim with the food William provided as per his wish to watch them finish the thank you gift. But the next day when he gathered the villagers he showed his true colors. He bared his fangs which he was hiding in the dark for a long time.
Then the next day announced that the food they ate was cursed by him. He had waited to announce it because it was night time and he couldn't watch them feel hopeless as he could in broad daylight.
He then that day announced his control over the village and villagers had to comply with what he said just looking at their cursed faces. Even if they killed themselves, their children wouldn't be as strong-minded to kill themselves and they cannot find peace knowing that their children were suffering.
For he could kill them on a whim they had to fear what mood he was in, they had to fear if their words triggered his anger, they had to fear his existence.
They had to live in a fear of dying at any moment, even while they were sound asleep.
They knew the walls surrounding the village now couldn't protect from the beast that was already inside. His greed only grew fiercer and the villagers had to pay taxes to him every month for breathing.
"Then why didn't you retaliate? Even if the Magician was strong he couldn't have been strong enough to deal with all the villagers at the same time." Oslo said.
"That is because of the monster dog he has by his side." She replied looking at her pet,
"In fact, Jack is the child of the same monster dog William raised. We stole it just after it was born. But what can match our unluckiness as it grew very slow to match its mother's strength."
Oslo wasn't too shocked hearing about the Magician named William. In his life as a sellsword, he had come across many people with the same state of mind as that man's and some were even worse. As compared to them this man named William was but a cute little pup in terms of cruelty.
He also had his suspicion about the curse that William had put on the whole village but after hearing the story, he knew whatever William used wasn't curse.
As per his knowledge, a curse couldn't be put on food and hearing her description, the food wasn't poisoned as well. But what was the power that William used was eating him? A thought suddenly crossed his mind,
'Can it be Illusion magic?'
If it was indeed illusion magic then it would make a lot of sense. Maybe they were inside an illusion that they had rotten faces and Oslo who wasn't affected by the magic right now could see their original faces.
'If what I think is true then this man named William isn't scary at all. If I somehow manage to defeat the mommy dog she talked about then I could have chances of defeating him.' Oslo grinned at the thought.
"I guess I'll fight him but..."
"But what?" Marie asked anxiously.
"I need the payment you talked about beforehand!" Oslo said.
"Only that?" She smiled and said, "Ok then. wait for him for a moment. I'll bring the pendant."
She left and after a while, she arrived with a wooden box in her hand.
It was only her that Oslo had met as the representative of villagers and no villagers had followed her to talk with Oslo. Oslo was an outsider and with the backstabbing performance, William had shown them Oslo didn't mind much.
She carefully opened the box revealing the treasure she talked about. It was a pendant that had a small green crystal when Oslo looked at it and it seemed nothing special.
The green pearl was beautiful, yes, but if it was only that then Oslo didn't want it. But when Marie described it, he was foaming with his mouth just to get it.
It was a magic amplifier!
If a magician wore it then spell they cast and magic they would be twice as strong. It basically followed one principle i.e,
Spend low, Get high!
It was a treasure that many adventurers desired. If it was shown to them then there would be many lining their briefcases stacked with money just to get it.
Although there were treasures that could amplify the magic power by five times, heck! even ten times but they were seldom seen. And some weren't even as portable as the pendant he was shown.
And to get something like that just to help the village, he felt himself as a lucky person. If other A-rank adventurers were given such offers then they wouldn't only help the village, they would utterly destroy the magician.
"Can I take it?" Oslo asked with the eyes brimming with excitement.
Old habits die hard and because of that, he asked for her permission.
"Haha, of course, you can take it." She said as he handed over the pendant.
Merrily, he wore it. Now that he had the pendant he thought he stood a better chance against William.
"Ah, cool. Do you perhaps belong to a clan that uses the dragon as its emblem?" Marie asked.
"No. What are you even saying? I don't belong to any clan such as that." Oslo said, denying her words.
For him who had spent most of the time as sellsword had not even considered joining any Guild.
"Then..." She gazed at his right hand and said, " Then, why do you have a tattoo of a dragon in your hand?"