In the early morning, warm sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the bed in the inn's room where Ranch had slept soundly through the night.
Feeling the warmth of the sun, he slowly opened his eyes and withdrew his hand from beneath the beautiful elf lying beside him.
Of course, as he did so, he couldn't resist caressing the softness of the elf girl's chest, eliciting one or two murmurs from her in her sleep.
"Wait, what's this!" Ranch's expression turned sour.
He summoned the system interface, noticing something amiss with his personal status, which displayed a new curse notification...
[Current Status]
[The Power of Purification lv1: Slightly increases resistance to curses and marked skills. (Consuming ten more 2-tier Sacred Purification Potions will upgrade this ability.)]
[Curse of Chaos: You have been cursed by a powerful entity. When you wield magic, there's a high chance you will fall into a state of chaos, causing a permanent 10% reduction in your spirit attribute, and your spirit will continue to wane until death. This curse is special and can only be lifted under specific conditions or upon the death of the one who cast it.]
Seeing the description of the Curse of Chaos, Ranch couldn't help but curse loudly,
"Damn it! Daisy, I know this was your doing!" Of course, Ranch's anger was met with no response from Daisy.
Instead, Sophia woke up and, seeing the troubled look on Ranch's face, couldn't help but feel worried.
She grasped Ranch's hand and asked, "Ranch, what's happened?"
Ranch reassured her, "It's nothing serious, don't worry, Sophia."
To him, the Curse of Chaos indeed wasn't a major issue.
The curse only limited the use of magic, and Ranch was still a knight who mastered the Knight Aura.
Even without using magic, he still possessed enough power to protect himself...
However, employing Holy Light Judgement was now out of the question, as this type of knightly skill was, at its core, a form of magic.
In fact, seeing the curse, Ranch felt somewhat relieved.
After discovering Daisy's true identity as a rare spellbeast in disguise, he had realized that it was only a matter of time before Daisy's true form would come after him, an unpredictable ticking bomb, unsure of when it would explode.
The arrival of the curse indicated that Daisy's true form had made a move, but evidently, Daisy's true form was unaware that Ranch could detect the presence of the curse.
Thinking this, a smile crossed Ranch's face.
He threw off the covers, got dressed, and said to Sophia, "Sophia, wait for me here at the inn. I'm going to the Knight Hall to find that old priest."
Sophia nodded obediently, sensing some concern in Ranch.
Now that her strength was far less than Ranch's, she couldn't help him with any trouble he might encounter. Sophia could only cheer herself on internally, "I must persevere!"
So, after Ranch left, Sophia began practicing the knight skill she had acquired—Holy Light Blessing.
Meanwhile, Ranch crossed the bustling streets of Mapleleaf to find the old priest blessing several new knights.
After waiting for a moment, the priest, finishing his duties, looked at Ranch and without much ado, took him to a quiet corner of the Knight Hall and asked, "Did you visit Madame Butterfly last night?"
Ranch admitted frankly, "Yes, but there was a slight mishap."
The priest chuckled, "That's no slight mishap. With Madame Butterfly leaving Mapleleaf, she must have abandoned whatever she had buried here. And without Daisy's presence, certain forces might grow... though that has nothing to do with us."
The priest seemed to have misunderstood.
Ranch forced a smile and explained, "Priest, is there a possibility that Daisy didn't leave Mapleleaf, but that she's dead?"
"Dead?"
The priest's aged face broke into a skeptical smile, finding it hard to believe Ranch's words.
Shaking his head, he said, "You're not aware of Madame Butterfly's true identity, which is why you think she might be dead. But I can tell you that Daisy is..."
"A 5-tier spellbeast disguised as a human, right, priest?" Ranch completed the priest's sentence for him.
"Yes," the old priest nodded subconsciously, then realizing something was amiss, he hurriedly asked, "Ranch, how do you know this secret? Could it be that Madame Butterfly is indeed dead?"
It was at this moment that the priest grasped the gravity of the situation.
Muttering 'impossible' under his breath, his face turned solemn, and without paying much attention to Ranch, he walked towards the core area of the Knight Hall, where the giant statue used for knightly blessings stood.
The old priest then recited an incredibly complex prayer, and the holy light element around him began to stir, culminating in the statue's eyes casting two beams of light onto the ground, sketching out a pattern.
The pattern was simple: three figures surrounding a circular altar.
One figure, with butterfly patterns faintly visible behind her, was a graceful woman, presumably Madame Butterfly Daisy; the next held a black disk, likely Dis; and the last, an elder with a staff, surrounded by powerful water elemental symbols, which Ranch guessed must be Butler Haren.
"What does this pattern mean?" Ranch was quite curious.
Besides this, Ranch was curious about another matter: Given that Biso·Lexman of the Maple Navigators was also not weak, why didn't he appear in this pattern?
Soon, the old priest addressed Ranch's confusion, stating, "This is an oracle."
Ranch pressed on, "From which deity?"
The priest gave Ranch a glance before answering, "Naturally, it's from the first paladin lord who became a god. His consciousness has long been immortal. I am his most devout follower, having waited in Mapleleaf's Knight Hall for decades, and it was only recently that the lord bestowed upon us this oracle!"
"And when did this oracle appear?" Ranch asked again.
The priest's gaze turned strange, as if puzzled, and after several minutes of reflection, he finally remembered and said, "It was half a month ago."
Half a month ago!
Hearing this timeline, Ranch instantly became alert.
Backtracking half a month, that seemed to coincide with the time Vera and Butler Haren entered the Wolf Fang Mountains... Could there be a connection?
After all, Haren's figure also appeared in the oracle received by the old priest.
"Perhaps, it's time to seek Vera for some clarification," Ranch thought to himself.
As the light casting down from the statue slowly faded, the peculiar pattern on the ground vanished as well.
The old priest's gaze turned vacant and confused, as if recalling something.
Upon seeing Ranch, he smiled and said, "A calamity is upon us; this is the beginning and the end."
The priest's cryptic words baffled Ranch, who sensed the old man had fallen into some strange trance.
When Ranch was about to administer a purifying potion to the priest, he snapped back to reality, assuring, "Ranch, I'm fine, I was merely receiving divine guidance."
With that, the priest left on his own.
A puzzled Ranch also decided to leave and headed to the Viscount's castle in Mapleleaf.
After announcing his identity to the guards, he entered the castle under their respectful gazes.
Soon, the castle's butler came out and respectfully said, "Mr. Ranch, are you here for Miss Vera? Please, follow me."
At the banquet hosted by Dis, nearly all the wealthy merchants in Mapleleaf had come to know Ranch, understanding that this seemingly young man was actually a figure with profound backing.
Viscount Layne, more than anyone as the ostensible lord of Mapleleaf, was well aware of this — Ranch was Miss Vera's beloved!
Of course, this included some of Viscount Layne's own speculations.
As the butler led Ranch to find Vera, he explained, "Mr. Ranch, Lord Layne has gone out with Mr. Haren on urgent business."
Ranch nodded; his visit to the castle was solely to see Vera.
In the castle's study, Ranch found Vera engrossed in a book.
The focused young lady was wearing a light blue dress, her bright eyes twinkling like stars.
Her slender fingers gently flipped through the pages until she looked up to see Ranch.
However, upon seeing Ranch, Vera's face didn't light up with joy; instead, it was marked by anger.