Merlin:
The smile on Merlin’s face froze for a brief moment.
What? Why did this guy look at him like he was some creature wagging a big tail behind him! Was he being animalized?
Sure enough, liars were all perverts, only into perverted things!
Even though he was cursing the other man as a pervert in his mind, Merlin kept a bright, puppy-like smile on his face. He even took a step closer to Ange, looking at him with eager anticipation. “Then can we meet tomorrow? In the evening, I know you must be busy during the day here, but you should have time at night, right?”
When Ange heard Merlin’s words, his heart skipped a beat.
“Why does he want to meet at night? He’s not still thinking about rolling in the sheets, is he? Even if I’m the one getting the better deal with a face like that, this handsome guy’s technique isn’t all that great!”
Merlin felt the smile on his face starting to crack. Being called handsome was something he’d long grown used to, but being told his technique was bad, what was that supposed to mean?
There were always all kinds of problems the first time! He was sure he’d learn from the experience next time!
Wait, no even if there was a next time, he wouldn’t be rolling in the sheets with this guy!
This liar was nothing but a toad lusting after swan meat. Why else would he suggest meeting at night, if not because Bai Shang had to go into the forest to hunt magical beasts every day?
“How about we have dinner at the restaurant tomorrow evening? I should be able to get back around seven,” Ange said hesitantly.
The smile on Merlin’s face instantly widened. “Great, let’s meet at the Emoris Restaurant across from this inn. I’ll be waiting for you there at seven tomorrow night.”
“It almost feels like I’ve tricked some innocent little puppy.”
Merlin cursed the pervert again in his mind, but at the same time felt a bit smug he’d managed to fool this liar so easily. It seemed his acting skills were even better than this con man’s.
Ange finally left the inn. The handsome man who shared his surname and smiled like a puppy walked him all the way to the entrance, and only after Ange urged him repeatedly did he reluctantly stop in place, watching him leave.
It was only then that Ange noticed the inn’s decor and its name Herris.
Wait, this wasn’t some small inn at all it was a full chain hotel!
And a well-known chain at that. While it wasn’t the most expensive, it had quite a reputation. Its prices sat in the mid-range for hotels, and combined with its distinctive decor and excellent service, that was how it had earned its fame.
At the very least, this young handsome guy wasn’t poor.
But whether the other man was rich or not had nothing to do with him. After finally parting ways with his one-night stand, Ange let out a huge sigh of relief. He couldn’t help but cast a tracking-prevention spell on himself, just to be safe.
After checking that nothing seemed off on his person, Ange headed straight to the most renowned curse doctor’s clinic in town he’d learned about it from listening to various adventurers’ gossip during his time in the town, and it had a solid reputation among the locals.
But when faced with the curse doctor, after awkwardly explaining what had happened to him, Ange felt like he wanted to crawl into a crack in the floor. Yet if he didn’t lay out the whole story clearly, it could easily lead to a misdiagnosis.
Since what’s done is done, could Ange still use time magic to erase it all? Even a holy archmage couldn’t rewind twenty-four hours.
The female curse master, whose age was impossible to pin down, showed no hint of surprise at all as if she’d seen every kind of situation under the sun. Watching the awkward Ange, she waved her staff far more ornate than Ange’s to conjure a glow of magic, examining his condition.
A few minutes later, Ange stared at the curse master’s composed expression, his unease growing with every passing second. He felt like he was being diagnosed with some incurable disease. Could he really have been hit with that kind of vicious curse?
And the one who cast it couldn’t be anyone else, most likely that person who’d fallen for him at first sight, the one who shared his surname!
Merlin, who had barely managed not to be shaken off by Ange and had struggled to track him using the other’s inner thoughts: …
This liar wasn’t this the thief crying “stop thief”? He was the fraud himself. Even if he ran into a bad guy, it was just evil meeting its match. And how was Merlin a bad guy anyway? That curse had nothing to do with him at all it was entirely Ange’s own doing!
Merlin sneered inwardly with satisfaction. Still, this less-than-smooth tracking had let him test the range at which he could hear Ange’s thoughts: roughly within ten meters. Beyond that distance, Merlin couldn’t hear a thing.
As long as he stayed within ten meters, no matter how far apart they were, Merlin could clearly hear every thought Ange had.
Back in the room, Ange clearly heard the curse master’s words: “I don’t sense any curse on you. You know, as a licensed curse master, my perception of curses is very sharp, but on you, I feel nothing at all.”
Ange’s heart relaxed: “I’m not cursed that’s wonderful!”
“Then why did I have that realization? The information that suddenly appeared in my mind it can’t be that I’m having hallucinations, right?”
The curse master shook her head: “Since it’s not a curse, then other areas really aren’t my specialty. You’ll need to see another healer for that. But I think your body is perfectly healthy, you don’t need to rely on contact with others to survive. Perhaps it’s just someone’s prank, like that person who spent a night of passion with you.”
Ange thought of that handsome face, and the puppy-dog look of sincerity in those eyes, and felt that the other party probably wouldn’t do something like that, would they?
“But you can’t be too careful. At tomorrow night’s date, I’ll observe that William Amber closely. If he really did pull this prank, I’ll beat him to a pulp!”
Merlin tightened his grip on his staff. If that guy dared to throw a punch, Merlin would definitely fight back and then beat him black and blue!
Still, it seemed the curse master thought Ange’s body was fine, and instead believed the sudden influx of information in his head was just a prank.
But Merlin didn’t know whether it was a prank either. He’d also done a thorough examination of himself and found no trace of any curse or contract.
“As for the chocolate theory, I actually went to taste that chocolate myself at the time, and many of the nearby shop owners also sampled it. None of us had any problems whatsoever. Moreover, this new chocolate had tasting events in various cities. I think the cause lies elsewhere.”
Since the curse-breaker had said as much, Angel had no choice but to leave the clinic with his doubts unresolved.
“It’s not a curse, and it’s not the chocolate either then what exactly is it? Could it really just be a simple prank?”
Merlin continued to follow Angel as he left.
Back at the university, Merlin had already completed his practical training courses, so he possessed considerable experience in tailing someone and concealing his own tracks. Angel, on the other hand, was clearly inexperienced when it came to detecting a stalker, and thus remained completely unaware of the presence behind him.
Meanwhile, back in the clinic, the curse-breaker stared at the closed door and pondered for a long while before finally slapping the table: “Aside from those possibilities, there’s also the matter of bloodline! That fellow’s hair and eyes are highly unusual he might very well carry the blood of some magical creature! And perhaps that magical creature simply cannot eat chocolate.”
But seeing that Angel had long since left the premises, the curse-breaker could only mutter regretfully: “But that would touch on personal privacy, and it’s quite likely he himself doesn’t know about his own bloodline issue. If he found a doctor, perhaps a bloodline test could clarify what’s really going on.”
Unaware of what he had missed, Angel arrived at the square where the chocolate had been distributed and went around asking people who had eaten it about their condition.
As an orphan though he had received support from the Mages’ Association since childhood thanks to his fairly outstanding magical talent Angel had, in order to study better and earn more living expenses, honed the ability to say the right thing to the right person. Extracting information from them was therefore hardly a challenge for him.
None of those who had eaten the chocolate felt any physical discomfort whatsoever. When Angel probed indirectly, asking whether they had engaged in any… indoor activities with someone the night before, those who had done so reported no issues the following day either and certainly none of those strange words that had inexplicably surfaced in Angel’s own mind!
In the end, Angel decided not to waste any more time, because he simply didn’t have the money to see a doctor. The funds he had were barely enough to cover the curse-breaker’s examination fee, and the remainder had to be saved for his university tuition!
Moreover, there wasn’t much time left before the semester began. Once he enrolled, the cheaper campus clinic might be his best option after all!
So after hastily grabbing a simple lunch, Angel didn’t linger in town any longer. Instead, he headed straight into the Rice Forest.
He still needed to gather magical herbs to earn money and build up his living expenses!
And behind Angel, Merlin having activated the invisibility function of his magical accessory silently followed him into the Rice Forest as well.
Doubt had begun to stir in his heart. If the other party were truly a swindler, would he really go to such flawless lengths?
This looked exactly like a diligent prospective university student working his way through school!
No if the other party truly wanted to extract more from him, wouldn’t disguising himself as a hardworking prospective student be just as natural a ruse?
Especially when he thought about the other party knowing information about his sister, Merlin instantly cast aside all his doubts.
His sister was the only remaining family he had left in this world, and he would not allow anything to happen to her, not in the slightest!
Merlin assessed the other party’s combat power and roughly gauged his magical level it was at the level of a Mage, which was also the standard for most mages who managed to enter university.
Like knights, mages were divided into six ranks: Mage Apprentice, Novice Mage, Mage, Archmage, Archmagister, and Saint Mage.
Angor’s level was that of a third-rank Mage. In fact, Merlin himself was also at this level, though he felt he was on the verge of breaking through to the Archmage level.
So he decided to disguise himself a bit, then give the other party a thorough beating and force him to reveal how he knew about his sister’s information! He could wait no longer!