"Are you a fool?!" I yelled at priestess.
She shrink back in surprise. Everyone else was also shocked that I yelled at her.
"Wh-What the hell do you think you've done?!"
Priestess, gaining her composure back, irritated shouted as she saw how I destroyed her precious holy water.
Everyone stared at me, unable to understand the cause of my action.
Priestess drew closer to me, tried to grab my collar but I slapped her hand away.
"Knowledge is a key, but if you're inadequate, it will lead to doom..."
"What...?"
"If you don't know the cure you shouldn't poke in between. You think you are help to her? No! All you're doing is to treat her like an experiment subject. Can't you see, none of your methods are working but you are still going on!"
"Wh-What do you mean?! We are trying our best to treat Reena and you are saying that we are making it even worse-!"
"Yes, I am. I admit that you are trying to save her but can't you see that it getting even worse... You are treating a patient with no knowledge. If you treat cancer with the treatment of asthma, it won't work or maybe be situation will be even more dangerous. You don't even know which of your medicines or herbs are going to work or the holy water she is in taking since years but you are still..." I didn't said anymore just sighed.
Priestess was lost of words as she could only get frustrated in the given situation.
"Allan, does that mean Reena's condition is..." Lucia asked as she was so concerned about Reena.
I nodded in response as I watched Reena laying on her bed.
"...What should we do?"
Everyone was worried about Reena.
Reena's parents were crying for her, it was far hard for them to watch their child suffer.
King and others were comforting them but they were also very sad.
Lucia looked up at me. She was also on the verge of tears. Somehow maintaining her composure.
๐๐ญ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐จ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ...
I move near Reena as I examined her I my own way(just watching her from the place).
"Alright, I understand everything..."
"Wh-What is it?! What happened to my daughter?! Please tell! Can she be saved?!"
"Hmm, the reason why holy water didn't worked, why medicines and other treatments didn't work either, why no one was able to figure out anything... It's all clear."
"Huh?"
"She is perfectly fine, just is weak because she in bed ridden and wasn't able to do anything."
"What does it mean?!"
"Can't you see her suffering, how can she be alright?!"
"Yes Allan, what does that suppose to mean?! She is alright?!"
"I didn't said she is alright, I said she is fine."
"Wh-What's the difference?! Stop it and explain!"
Duke said as he started to lose himself.
"Alright, alright. I'm telling ya, just don't yell at me like that, it's annoying... Look, her body is fine, she is just pretty weak and don't have any strength to to move cuz she is not eating well. Her body is physically fine, there is no illness, neither outside body nor internal organs. Honestly speaking, she is not sick."
"So-so, what's going on with her? What happened to her?!"
I took a deep breath and exhaled.
"... It's a curse."
!
Everyone present in the room were shock by my statement. They all froze in disbelief as they looked at Reena simultaneously.
"A curse you say?! How is that even possible?! What in the worldโ! Whoโ H-How can this be?" The words of Duke were crumbling as his expression were full of fear.
"Y-Yeah, if it's a curse then why does church or physicians weren't able to identify it?!" Priestess asked.
I closed my eyes and tried to analysis the curse.
"Hmm, just as I expected..."
"Wh-What is it, Allan?"
"I have my doubt but it's clear now... The curse is a high level curse. It can only be casted by certain rituals or either the caster must be strong or high level... But, this curse, even if the caster were capable of doing it, it still require large amount of magic."
I turned to priestess, "That must be the reason why church unable to identify the curse,"
"Hmm, and the matter of fact is, that the treatment you were providing up until now was doing nothing but making it worse."
"W-What do you mean?!"
"The holy water, it was like the fuel in fire. This curse doesn't affects one's body but their soul. It directly attack their spiritual energy, and once it completely destroys it, the life of the one ends there." As I said those words, everyone become even more terrified.
"That's not all, since it's a powerful curse, it will affect the victim slowly and steadily. Leaving them to suffer or the rest of the few years of their life rather then instant death. It will work slowly and damage the spiritual life force of the victim, leading them to many diseases and illnesses, making their body weak. One may appear that they are fine but is just pretty weak due to not eating properly but in reality, the suffering comes from inside... The victims will started to feel depress and their dreadful memories will come across their mind which they wanted to forget. Or, will see disastrous and disturbing dreams... In the end, the will of living will broke apart, the only thing victim will search for is to get the rid off those sufferings and to free themselve from the curse and they'll unable to find their escape... Hopes will end, will to live end and so does the feelings... And in the end, victim will gave up and it will all end for them at that very moment..."
"H-How cruel! Who can do such thing?!"
"Yeah, it's... it's inhuman!"
"Why would someone do such thing to Reena?"
"Well that's the question but I think we should leave it for later. As for now curing Reena is our first priority. The holy water you were using up until now was not curing her but was making the curse even stronger."
"What?!"
"She doesn't have much time left... This curse, as I said, is very strong. And is created in this way by the caster that if tried to treated it will make the curse even stronger. This curse, if you can cure it in one go, the victim is safe but if you tried to save the victim by treatment, it'll become even worse, No matter what the method is. If you use magic to lift the curse and it was not strong enough, the curse will become stronger. If you used a high level or strong magic to lift the curse, it can be lifted, but if it didn't, it would be even worse. Since the holy water is most efficient way of curing one it is also strong, it can't cure her in one go so up until now, since last few years whenever you started treating her with holy water, you were only making the curse even more strong."
It was a tough situation. Since they were using different-different ways to cure Reena, upon that the holy water, I don't think there is anyone capable of lifting this curse... And even if there is, they are not present here.
"So-Soo, is there any way to save my daughter?! I beg you please save my daughter! PLEASE! please..." Duke fall on knees on ground as he hold my shirt.
๐๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ, ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ค๐ณ๐บ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ! ๐-๐๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐๐ฆ๐บ! ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด!!!
I sighed and said as I put my hand on his shoulder, promoting him to raise.
"Don't worry, I'll do my best."
"D-Does that mean, you can save my Reena?!"
๐๐ฆ๐ฉ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต?!
I smiled and replied, "Heh, there is nothing I can't do. Leave to me, just remember that you're gonna owe me one."
As I said that, I turned to Reena, who was lying on the bed.
๐๐ญ๐ข๐ด! ๐๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐จ๐ช๐ณ๐ญ... ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ต... ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ด๐ข๐ช๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ธ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด, ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ... ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ 80 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด. ๐๐ง ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด, ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ซ๐ฐ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง... ๐๐ญ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐๐ฆ๐ต'๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด!
. . . . .