“Ahh… It’s done it’s done. Thanks for waiting, Rust.”
I hear the door open, and see Kalin walking in by herself.
It looks like her speech to the citizens that gathered here went well.
“Give me one too.”
Kalin throws herself next to me on the couch, and extends her hand towards the sweets in front of Roa.
“No.”
Roa grabs all the sweets in her arms and takes on a desperate defensive stance by twisting her body.
“Come on. You’ve been keeping that in my office’s shelf. You need to at least pay a storage fee for using it!”
Roa thinks about it for a second. I guess she figures Kalin has a point, because she reluctantly holds out the smallest one she’s holding. I look on as I once again think about how much of a smooth-talker Kalin really is.
“Hahaha. Good girl.”
Kalin says with a full smile.
She eats it in one bite, and turns to me to ask a question.
“So Rust. Should we talk alone?”
“No, it’s fine. I think it will take a while, so do you have time now?”
“Yes. Please bring me some tea too, Roa.”
Roa gets up silently, but not before safeguarding her sweets.
“It’s about the time I was stabbed with Taula’s cursed sword. What did you see then?”
“Hm… By the time I got there, you had already collapsed. You lost consciousness, but it looked like the sword missed your vital organs. Of course, even if it didn’t immediately kill you, your life was still in danger without treating the wound as soon as possible, but Master Halhammer used a potion right away. Still, despite how quickly you were treated, it took a while for you to regain consciousness.”
“Yes, you have a lot of combat experience, so I figured I could count on your assessment. Apparently it wasn’t just one curse on Taula’s sword.”
I stop and take a sip of tea.
“One was to turn the sword into a sort of living sword. But it was surely made to stab whoever approached it in a way that wouldn’t kill them on the spot.”
“And the other?”
“To use the shaman’s blood on the sword as a catalyst for the shaman’s mind to take over the person who was stabbed.”
“…! Then Rust, you…”
Kalin gets up. Roa also reaches back and grabs the handle of her spear with the hand that’s not holding sweets. They look serious.
“No, it’s all right. Apparently my flesh and blood are pretty polluted with the potions I made. The shaman’s mind did flow into me, but as you can see, I’m fine.”
I say while spreading my arms. I figure I don’t have to say anything about the connection to Seilook and Un for now.
“Is that why it took you a while to wake up… But it’s true that the sword didn’t move again after it stabbed you. It could be because your flesh and blood removed the curse.”
Kalin nods.
“In the end, the shaman failed in taking over me, but I just happened to get two things when it happened.”
I say while grabbing the glove on my right hand.
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