Red’s hesitation was momentary. He straightened his palm and struck Yrsa on the side of her neck before she could scream.

“Guh!”

The woman fell unconscious with a strange sound. Red didn’t relax, though, and used his crimson sense to inspect his surroundings. To his relief, it didn’t seem like anyone had heard what happened in the room.

He sighed, and his attention turned to the crystal core in his hand with a frown.

“What happened?” he asked.

Silence.

Red’s frown deepened. “You told me you could control the energy.”

Aurelia blew up on him. “Are you implying this is my fault?!”

“If not yours, then whose?”

“Listen, you little brat! There was no way to know she would be that sensitive to Spiritual Energy!”

“You mean she felt the spiritual energy?”

“That’s exactly what happened! Or do you really think I’m that sloppy in controlling my own powers?!”

That would be strange to Red. Aurelia was by far the most experienced cultivator he knew, so it was very unlikely she would commit such a simple mistake. Yet, the alternative was just as strange.

“How would she have felt the Spiritual Energy?” Red asked. “She doesn’t have even a single vein open.”

It would be a hard task for someone with just a few veins open to sense small threads of Spiritual Energy, not to mention a mortal with no open veins at all.

Aurelia, who seemed to have calmed down from her initial indignation, was pondering the same question. “I assume it might be related to her condition… No, it can only be related to her condition.”

Red was surprised. “It increased her sensitivity to Spiritual Energy?”

“That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“… Would an illness really bring about such benefits?”

Aurelia snorted. “Well, it can hardly be called a benefit when it’s killing you, can it? Either way, we will know more once I can examine her.”

“… Is it wise to touch her with the core again?”

“You tell me! You’re the one who knocked her unconscious!”

Red looked over at the sleeping woman. She was grunting with discomfort, but it was unlikely she would wake up again.

With no further hesitation, he touched the crystal core to the back of Yrsa’s hand. She squirmed ever so slightly, but this time, she didn’t wake up.

The green crystal core glowed in a soft light, and Red felt a thread of energy move from it into Yrsa’s body. Her squirming intensified, which made him to worry that this process was causing more than just simple discomfort to her.

To his surprise, though, it took less than ten seconds for Aurelia to retract her energy back into the crystal core.

“I’m done.” She said. “We can go.”

Red frowned in confusion, and the woman seemed to pick up on his hesitation.

“Do you really doubt my skills?! I have seen what I need to see! When we are back at the manor, I will explain it to you.”

He could offer no counter to that, so he stowed the crystal core away.

Red took one last look at Yrsa’s sleeping figure. Now that the Spiritual Energy was retracted, she looked more comfortable. He had to admit, though, that what happened earlier worried him.

‘Will she remember my figure?’

It took most people a good amount of time to be fully conscious after they woke up. Yrsa would probably not even remember what happened, and even if she did, she would probably blame it on a nightmare. Still, Red never liked to leave loose ends, and the fact his mask was seen at all already left a lingering worry on his mind.

“What are you concerned about?” Aurelia asked. “She won’t die so suddenly.”

“She saw my mask.”

“It was dark, and she’s a mortal! Even if she remembered what happened, there’s no way she could have seen your mask clearly. Besides, what are you going to do if she did? Kill her to keep her quiet?”

Her vicious question stung at Red.

‘That’s right… There’s nothing I can do.’

Recently, Red had to learn to accept his own powerlessness a lot. Some things were outside of his control, no matter how much he tried to steer them right.

Of course, just because he knew that, it didn’t mean he felt any more comfortable with the fact.

He turned and exited through the window, making his way back to his manor.

…

It took him a few hours before Red returned. He could have been faster if he wanted to, but he made sure he wasn’t being followed through any leg of the journey.

Only when he was sure there was no one on his trail did he make his way back.

Of course, when he got to his manor, there were still people watching all the entrances. Unfortunately for Red, though, there were no more shift changes until the sun rose again, so he had to wait for a few extra hours on a nearby alley.

When the time arrived at the crack of dawn, he slipped back into his manor like a ghost. He then walked downstairs, where he found the imp waiting for him.

“Master! You’re safe!”

Red nodded. “Anything?”

“N-No, not at all.” Emer shook his head. “I kept my eyes on the controlling plates the entire night, and I don’t think anyone noticed you were gone.”

This was good news to Red, who was now more assured in the effectiveness of his Gale Drift.

“You can go rest, then. I will likely be away from the manor for a few days at least, so you will need to watch the place the entire time I’m gone.”

“You can trust me, master!” The imp said. “I’m up to the task!”

“Right, but it’s best you go rest either way.”

“W-Well, if master commands it…”

Even though he was a demon, Emer still needed to rest to restore his energies now and then. Once the imp was gone to find a place to sleep, Red sat down on the floor of his workshop.

Aurelia’s figure manifested in front of him, also sitting in a cross-legged position as she stared at him. She had a thoughtful expression, as if she was still digesting what she saw.

“What is it?” Red asked.

“It’s a curse.” She said.

“A curse?” He frowned.

This wasn’t the first time he heard the word. His connection to the lunar being could also be called a curse, but the term could be used for many kinds of negative conditions that took root at more than just the physical body.

“A hex, to be more precise.” Aurelia nodded. “It’s taken root in her soul.”

“A hex? You mean it’s a demonic curse?”

“Hexes aren’t necessarily always demonic in nature… But in this case, yes, it is demonic without a doubt.”

Red’s frown deepened. His knowledge about hexes was limited, but from what he read, this was a rather common demonic technique. They were spiritual curses of varying intensity that could cause all kinds of adverse effects on their target’s body, and they were extremely hard to cleanse or block for most common cultivators.

Most of these hexes would disappear with time as the energy used in creating them was spent. This was the first time that Red heard of a hex affecting someone’s soul, though, and he could guess the solution wouldn’t be as simple.

“Can you cure it?”

Aurelia snorted. “Maybe if my cultivation was recovered. Right now, though, it’s impossible.”

This response did not surprise Red.

“If this is affecting her soul, does it mean a Spiritual Awakening cultivator cast this curse on her?” he asked.

“While that is possible, I can’t imagine a cultivator of that level wasting time on a mortal like that. What probably happened is that this curse was inherited by her blood.”

“You can inherit curses like that?”

This came as a surprise to Red.

“If the cultivator is strong enough, then it is definitely possible to cast a curse on someone that can be inherited by their descendents. In fact, there are some demonic cultivators that can curse entire bloodlines, causing even those who have already been born to contract the curse as long as they share a connection to the target.” Aurelia said.

“So you mean to say that she likely inherited this curse by her blood connection to someone?”

She nodded. “That is the most reasonable explanation.”

Red held his chin in thought. “If we go by what you said earlier, though, then that means…”

“Yes, she is probably related to a cultivator. Someone strong enough that it merited a Spiritual Awakening demonic cultivator to cast such a powerful curse on their bloodline.”

Her affirmation was enough to solidify the idea in his mind.

‘Rimold did not have such a curse, which probably means they did not share the same two parents.’

This, alongside Guard Pierre’s report from earlier, made Red realize this curse probably came from Yrsa’s unknown father. Of course, he might have been wrong and perhaps Rimold and she shared the same father instead of the same mother, but he felt that if that woman had the same illness as her daughter, Pierre would have mentioned it.

Aurelia was quick to interrupt his line of thought, though. “If you’re thinking of trying to figure out where this curse might have come from, I would advise you to give up the idea.”

Red frowned. “Why do you say that?”

“If a bloodline curse is powerful enough, it could last a dozen generations. It might not even manifest in full-force in some generations, just to ensure their carriers can survive long enough to reproduce. Unless you have a full map of her ancestry, it would be almost impossible to trace this curse back to its original owner.”

Red wanted to rebuke her, but he found out she was right. If the cultivator who was targeted by this curse was a more immediate family member of Yrsa, like her father or grandfather, would she have been left to live in such squalor? Like Aurelia said, that cultivator was probably already dead, or if they were still alive, they might be hundreds of years old, with hundreds of descendents.

It would be hard to trace this back to the original source, at least in a more conventional manner.

“Couldn’t we search for people with similar symptoms?” Red asked. “It might be a good way to find who the original source was.”

“Wouldn’t work.” Aurelia shook her head. “Although these curses aren’t common, there are still quite a few of them spread over different bloodlines in the world. Besides, what is even the point of searching for the source? The mere fact that the girl still has the curse means no one has cleansed it from her bloodline, so it would be useless to seek it out.”

He was silent for a good while. “… Then how do we cure it?”

“The best way would be to seek the help of a full-fledged Spiritual Awakening cultivator, although even then there’s no guarantee they could do anything about it. Your best chance would be to seek an even stronger cultivator or help me recover my cultivation first so I can cure her.”

“If a Spiritual Awakening cultivator might not be able to do it, why do you think you can do it?”

Aurelia seemed angry at the question. “That’s because I am a genius! I can do things that other Spiritual Awakening cultivator can’t! If I had my cultivation back, I could definitely study this hex and devise a counter-curse to dispel it.”

Red reflected on her words. Aurelia had a big ego, but he had learned she didn’t speak out of place on her skills most of the time. If she said she could do it, then it was probably true, and yet helping her recover her cultivation was a monumental task.

“From your estimations, how long does she have to live?” Red asked.

Aurelia frowned at this question, as if she was able to guess his thoughts. “It’s hard to say. The curse is meant to inflict suffering, not to kill its host, so her case will only worsen.”

“How long?”

“… By my estimation, she has less than half a year before the curse turns irreversibly her into an invalid. A very slow death will arrive in around two years.”

This was all Red needed to know to make his decision.

“We need to find another way to cure her, then.” He said.

Aurelia gnashed her teeth. “What, do you think finding another cultivator capable of curing her will be easier than restoring my cultivation?”

“Not at all.” Red shook his head. “It might be even harder to find someone I can trust, but we might have another way.”

She frowned. “What way?”

“You said the curse was demonic in nature. If that is the case, I assume demonic cultivators would have an easier time identifying and curing someone of it. They might even know of some methods we are unaware of, methods that might not even require a powerful cultivator to enact.”

“Wait, do you mean…?”

Red nodded.

It just so happened he was currently living in a nest full of such demonic cultivators.