Chapter 118: Curse

At this moment, Sophia was alone in another room.

She knelt on the bed, holding the teal pendant, using the elves’ unique Divine Echo Magic, which allowed her to transmit her voice through the coordination of the Nature God to another elf on the other end.

That other elf was the Elven Saintess Eliv.

After listening to Sophia’s report on the schedule, Eliv said calmly, “Hmm, I have understood.”

Hearing Eliv’s words, Sophia finally let out a sigh of relief.

But then she suddenly remembered something.

Before ending the communication, she called out to Eliv and asked the Elven Saintess aloud, “Saintess, you told me to be cautious of that lady from the Dragon Tribe… what kind of person is she?”

Eliv seemed quite concerned about this, her voice carrying a slight urgency, as if she had been waiting specifically for Sophia to ask that question.

This surprised Sophia. She hadn’t expected the usually composed and dignified Saintess to show such anxiety. Could it be that Lady Ain really had some old history with the Saintess?

What was their relationship?

Sophia had already mentioned the name “Ain” to Eliv, but Eliv showed no emotional reaction upon hearing it, indicating that this wasn’t a name capable of stirring her feelings.

Perhaps it was an alias!

Sophia pondered for a moment and then recounted everything about Enya’s previous behavior to Eliv in full detail, even including the seemingly offhand remarks Enya made when giving her flowers.

After hearing all of this, Eliv fell into a long silence.

Sophia’s mood grew heavy.

The Saintess was her teacher—she had been taught by Eliv since childhood—and she deeply understood how strict the Elven Saintess could be.

After a long while, Eliv finally snorted coldly, breaking the prolonged quiet.

She spoke in a low voice to Sophia, “Sophia, you must not get too close to her. Do you understand?”

“Huh?”

“I asked, do you understand?”

“Oh, I understand…”

Sophia suddenly felt a wave of grievance well up inside her. She began to understand Nina a little better now.

What was wrong with her teacher?

Did she really have a special relationship with Lady Ain? Was their relationship good or bad? It seemed it was both, or neither, since she was being told to keep her distance.

Sophia thought of Enya, thought of that armored figure, growing more curious about what this Dragon Tribe woman’s face truly looked like beneath the helmet.

Meanwhile, the mirror in Enya’s hand trembled slightly.

She looked down at it. On the surface of the mirror, countless tiny white characters, no bigger than grains of rice, were densely written, almost filling the entire mirror.

Enya carefully began to read the content.

Nina, standing beside her, frowned adorably at the sight of Enya holding the mirror up to her face. She hurriedly stepped forward, attempting to sneak a peek at what was written.

But Enya raised her hand slightly.

The mirror was held very close to Enya’s face, perfectly facing it. For Nina to see the words, she’d have to move behind Enya and lean on her shoulder.

But Enya obviously wasn’t going to give her that chance. She straightened her back and leaned away from the chair’s backrest in a defensive manner.

“Tch, what’s so interesting about it?”

Seeing this, Nina immediately pouted with an unhappy expression.

Enya ignored her.

Nina, frustrated by Enya’s disregard, huffed and said, “Hey, Mother Dragon, who looks in the mirror wearing a helmet? What exactly are you looking at? Nina wants to see too.”

Enya still didn’t respond.

Through the mirror, Enya asked Princess Vivienne about the circulation of “tobacco” and received a reply that regardless of the type, tobacco usage was generally low.

In this era, smokers were an extreme minority, and only those living near the production areas had a somewhat widespread smoking population.

In more remote places, many people didn’t even know what tobacco was.

Vivienne also listed several distribution channels and the quantities of goods. At the end, she asked Enya why she suddenly inquired about this—what was she planning to do?

Enya didn’t answer the last question.

This Water Well Town was considerably larger than an average small town, even showing signs of urbanization.

Before entering, they had seen a vast field converted from rice paddies to mulberry trees.

Enya roughly estimated the yield, and the total production from that field alone seemed to exceed the total volume Vivienne mentioned for all the channels combined.

Enya’s question to Vivienne was to confirm whether all the tobacco grown in White Stone City was for internal consumption.

In White Stone City, the biggest consumer of tobacco was undoubtedly the Mist Lord Church.

Enya now understood why when she initially asked Tulios for one hundred gold bars, he was just momentarily stunned before agreeing and then paying in installments of one hundred thousand gold.

This small town might be one of the funding and material sources for the Mist Lord Church.

Small towns throughout the White Stone City territory might operate under the same model as this one: first, the commoners are made sick, then controlled through tobacco with extraordinary effects, forcing them to work for the church.

The money they earned from working would flow back to the nobles through tobacco dealers, effectively creating a disguised slave system.

These commoners, worn down by endless labor, would have their souls gradually hollowed out, ultimately becoming nourishment for the Mist Lord Church.

They were being milked to the bone, drained dry!

Enya could only say this was truly a cult.

If this kind of thing weren’t happening in Redpine City, she wondered if Redpine City could have prevented it.

She believed it could, but not without casualties.

Since Princess Vivienne intended to manage Redpine City, she likely had some plans in place.

At night, the three of them gathered in one room.

Sophia looked at Enya.

The pair of eyes beneath the veil carefully studied her, yet the true expression behind that mask remained unreadable.

“What’s wrong?”

Enya asked curiously.

Sophia shook her head and whispered softly, “Nothing.”

Then she added, “It’s already dark. Let’s go out now. We won’t split up to investigate separately—it’s too easy for us to be picked off one by one. The three of us together.”

Enya nodded. She had more or less figured out what was wrong with the strange illness.

A curse was spreading through the town.

This world possessed many inexplicable miraculous powers. Demons were one of them, and demons emitted strange curses.

The way these curses spread was bizarre—they could transmit through eye contact or by stepping on shadows.

In any case, it was always some odd method.

But curses usually had an origin. Once the source was found, the problem could be completely resolved.

Their goal was to find the hidden Mist Lord Church—the source of this curse—and perhaps gain a little advantage from it.