Chapter 6. Clan of the Night
"We are tracking the one who cast the curse."
"Tracking, you say?"
"Yes. We have already ford a tracking team, and this mission is being called 'The Snake Hunt'."
The unexpected news widened Evie Ariate's eyes.
Just three days ago, when Diez had left, they hadn't had a single clue about the curse, and the situation seed bleak.
The sudden report of tracking it, much earlier than expected, brought a puzzled expression rather than joy to Evie's face.
"Have you already found it? How?"
"We were lucky, and the help of an ally was significant."
"An ally...?"
"There's soone in the Clan of the Night of Vis that I know personally."
With Diez's answer, Evie's eyes widened further.
Diez, noticing Evie's surprise, added more to his explanation.
“I told you three days ago, didn’t I, that I would et with the Clan of the Night?”
Indeed, three days ago, Diez had ntioned:
―First, we'll need to seek out the Clan of the Night to find out when and where the curse casting ceremony took place. That alone will take about three days. What happens next will depend on the situation!
Though Evie rembered, she had sowhat misunderstood the aning behind his words.
"So, it ant you were going to et soone you know?"
"How else did you think I ant it?"
"I thought you were just going to capture any random mber of the Clan of the Night and handle it... I'll change 'handle' to 'interrogate'."
Diez sighed at Evie's bold assumption, causing Evie to question, seemingly baffled.
"Soone you know personally from the Clan of the Night... you have such connections?"
"Not exactly close friends, more like acquaintances, but it seems you're unsettled."
Evie did not deny it.
While temporary contact made sense for various necessities, it was troubling for Evie, a Saintess candidate, that her servant has such mysterious connections.
Besides, for Evie, who hailed from Vis, the Clan of the Night was synonymous with demons.
The Clan of the Night were those who accepted Noche's Curse.
Noche, who despised humans, spread the curse across the world, and the scattered curse would beco a calamity that sought out humans with each new moon.
Evie had witnessed it several tis while in Vis—phantom-like entities wandering the darkness on moonless nights.
Noche's Curse crept around, searching for the living throughout the night, and if it found a human or an animal, it attacked instantly.
Those ensnared by the curse t one of three fates.
They died on the spot, went mad and killed indiscriminately, or accepted the curse as part of themselves, turning into sothing neither human nor curse.
Humans who have accepted the curse, the cursed masquerading as humans.
That is the Night Clan.
"When I was in Vis, the Clan of the Night was scarier than the nights of the new moon. On those nights, you could hide from the curse, but the Clan of the Night was truly malicious in harming people."
Since childhood, Evie had heard countless tales of their atrocities—massacring people, destroying cities, and wielding overwhelming power through the curse.
"So, it's okay for the servant to hit the Clan of the Night, but having close ties with them is distasteful."
"I'd rather not hit them, but..."
Diez sighed again at Evie's understandably factual protest and then explained calmly.
"As I said, we're not close. The ally that I t hasn't hard anyone and is younger than you, Ms. Evie. So, please don’t feel too uncomfortable."
At her servant's clarification, Evie's unyielding eyebrows slightly softened.
But whether she had completely let her guard down was unclear, for she asked again, still with suspicion.
"How did that person help?"
"They inford us of the whereabouts of the one who created your curse, Ms. Evie."
"Do they know them personally?"
"No."
"Uh..."
Identifying soone as the culprit when they're not personally acquainted baffled Evie, but Diez continued to explain thodically.
"The Clan of the Night is interconnected through Noche's curse, allowing them to sense one another."
"They can recognize each other?"
"It's not just recognition; they feel like a part of themselves. Like how a person is aware of their limbs, even if they've never t or seen each other's faces, mbers of the Clan of the Night can sense each other's existence."
"Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"
"That may be one way to look at it, but for us, it’s actually a good thing. Thanks to that, the Clan of the Night were able to quickly find who had been up to suspicious activities recently."
Despite Evie's whimsical remark, Diez continued to provide thorough explanations, and Evie nodded with a deeply impressed expression.
The Clan of the Night, being part-human, part-curse, and part of a deceased dragon, made such peculiar sensory abilities seem plausible.
"So, you used that sensing ability to find the culprit?"
"Yes. Among the existing Clan of the Night, there is only one who conducted the ritual for the curse during the last new moon."
"And this one..."
"Is the snake that cursed you, Ms. Evie."
At the ntion of "snake", Evie unconsciously gripped her shoulders tightly.
The nickna resonated with the Clan of the Night, giving her an eerie chill.
"By discovering the location, a tracking team was ford. The ally agreed to participate in the chase for a while as the snake could move."
"They're really cooperative. There's no chance that person's lying, is there?"
Diez's reasoning for the Snake Hunt was generally sound.
The issue was that everything was reliant on their ally’s word.
Thus, Evie, with a hint of apprehension, queried, and Diez, unusually, responded with a grin.
"...What's that expression about?"
The sight of her servant's generally somber face breaking into a smile instantly made Evie uneasy.
However, instead of offering further explanation, Diez reached into his coat pocket.
There was a rustle, and out ca a bundle of docunts.
"What is this?"
"A contract and an IOU."
"Eek...!"
Evie involuntarily shrieked when she glanced over the docunts she had received.
What Diez handed over were the contract prepared with the tracking team and an IOU of unknown origin.
"Wait, leaving aside the contract, this IOU..."
"The amount requested by the ally."
"With this amount, it's not a ally but rather a robber!"
Evie, in shock, examined the IOU closely.
The docunt stated that upon successful completion of the Snake Hunt, Diez would have to pay an amount equivalent to Evie's annual inco to a person nad 'Uvia'.
Evie's annual inco was a staggering amount that could purchase several houses in a decent city in Vis.
As Evie struggled to find words amidst her shock, Diez calmly added the final nail.
"Think of it as a form of trust, and it might be easier to accept."
"Ugh, that's..."
Evie struggled to hold back her tears as she bit her lips.
Then, after a long pause, she added succinctly.
"Indeed, with that amount, it seems unlikely they'd lie..."
This so-called form of trust—her servant was effectively depleting the household finances, and still, he managed to sound so smug.
However, he was not wrong.
As a newfound sense of trust began to grow within her, Evie lovingly folded the painful docunt and tucked it away.
She then let out a deep sigh of relief.
When the curse was first upon her, everything felt insurmountable, but as she sohow endured, she began to see glimrs of hope.
Though there was still a long way to go, Evie felt satisfied with the progress and cald her heart down.
"I finally feel like I can catch my breath."
"I assu the atmosphere in Thienda isn't too bad either?"
Diez asked, nodding towards the ashes on the silver tray.
Evie nodded readily.
"Yes, Grand Duke Laurel is keeping quiet. Hence, the other nobles seem to be observing the situation."
In truth, the one most likely to be enraged by Evie's actions at the previous banquet would be not Count Zion but his brother, the Grand Duke Laurel.
Evie had disrupted a banquet hosted by the Grand Duke by insulting the Grand Duke’s brother in the its own domain.
Hence, if anyone should be furious with Evie Ariate, it should be the Grand Duke.
Yet, she hadn't heard a word from him for the past four days.
Thus, the other nobles seed to be whispering among themselves but keeping quiet publicly.
"I don't know the reason, but it's fortunate. I plan to keep a low profile until interest wanes and have already canceled all social obligations."
"It's good you canceled the social etings, but tomorrow is the purification ritual."
"Yes, tomorrow..."
At the ntion of the purification ritual, Evie's expression dimd.
In the sacred Manyanya Tower, where Evie resided, purification rituals were held every forty days.
As the purifier and saintess candidate, Evie had to attend the ritual.
"Tomorrow you'll et the other saintess candidates."
Forcibly pointed out by Diez, Evie sighed deeply at the unavoidable reality.
In the Manyanya Tower, there were seven purifiers, including Evie.
All were young ladies of a similar age to Evie, and they were also candidates for sainthood.
Thus, attending the purification ritual ant eting those who envied Evie for standing shoulder to shoulder with them as a commoner, resented her for dominating the purification ceremonies and despised Evie Ariate, who was ntioned as the strong next saintess.
rely contemplating the idea burdened Evie, causing her to press her forehead in hand and murmur, as if in lantation.
"I have to et Count Zion Laurel as well..."
Count Zion Laurel was scheduled to hear her answer the next day as well.
With Diez joining her concern at the ntion of Count Zion Laurel, Evie sighed heavily in reminiscence of him.
"It looks like it'll be an eventful day. Do you have any plans?"
"Don't worry about that."
Surprisingly, Evie’s answer was quick.
Considering the circumstance was like entering a burning pit with a bundle of straw, telling him not to worry seed odd to Diez.
With doubt apparent in his gaze, Evie instead responded nonchalantly.
"I already have a plan in place."
Her life, both brief and long, had been filled with hardships.
Early on, she realized no one focused on her life.
Evie's life was sothing she had to save herself.
So once again, she decided to find her own way through this ordeal.
***
The next day, as noon neared and the purification ritual was set to begin, many nobles gathered at the Manyanya Tower.
The purifiers, who had arrived hours earlier, awaited the occasion dressed in pure white ceremonial garnts at the sanctuary of the tower.
Each purifier, clad in their pure garnts, was a young and beautiful lady, looking no different from the prominent ladies of any high society gathering.
In truth, they all ca from noble backgrounds and carried a great sense of pride in their role of purifying the waters of the continent, blessed by Manyanya.
For these reasons, they harbored exceptional dislike for Evie Ariate of Vis, rumored to beco the next saintess, despite not even being present yet.
"Among us, she's the last to arrive. How arrogant can she get?"
"She must know her disgrace. After what she did, how can she show her face?"
Two purifiers mocked Evie with light-hearted voices and then turned toward another girl, seeking agreent.
"Isn't that right, Miss Sedro?"
The girl called Miss Sedro, who looked younger than the other purifiers, wore her long daylily-colored hair in twin ponytails.
Despite her charming appearance, there was an unmistakable coolness to her countenance.
This strangely intimidating girl, Miel Sedro, smiled faintly at her peers' inquiries.
Just then, the door to the sanctuary opened, and a young girl appeared.
Clad in a dazzlingly white ceremonial dress, with long hair braided and tied with a blue ribbon, stood Evie Ariate.
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