Chapter 66: Don’t sleep

When Aldric woke up, the first thing he felt was not pain, but heaviness. His chest felt as though a massive stone had been placed on top of it, and every deep breath sent a dull ache from his ribs straight through to his back. His right arm had been fixed in place with two magical wooden splints, his shoulder was completely wrapped in bandages, and even turning his head made his neck produce an unpleasant cracking sound.

He lay still for a few seconds before slowly opening his eyes. A white ceiling, the faint smell of medicine, and gentle magical light filled the quiet treatment room. When Aldric turned his head to the right, he immediately saw Kiyome sitting beside the window.

She had changed out of yesterday’s clothes into a simpler black dress, her legs crossed as she held several reports in her hands. If not for the two fox ears drooping slightly from lack of sleep, almost no one would have guessed that she had been tormented by one streak of bad luck after another since morning.

Aldric stared at her for a while. Kiyome noticed his gaze and lowered the papers.

"Awake?"

Aldric did not answer. His final memories quickly returned: the arena, the Dire Beast, two layers of seals suddenly failing, then his arm being stomped until it broke, followed by his chest, once and then again.

His left hand slowly clenched.

"What happened earlier was just an accident."

Kiyome looked at him. "Mm."

"The seals malfunctioned."

"Mm."

"That Dire Beast was stronger than expected."

"Mm."

Aldric began to grow irritated. "If the seals had functioned normally, I would have won."

Kiyome remained silent for a few seconds before putting down the reports. "I’m trying not to laugh."

Aldric: "..."

Inside the ring, Morgana also let out a very quiet laugh, causing Aldric to grit his teeth immediately.

’You shut up too.’

"I didn’t say anything."

’I heard you.’

"Then you’re still lucid. Good."

Aldric did not want to continue arguing. He braced himself with one hand and tried to sit up, but the moment his body moved, a "crack" came from his chest. The intense pain instantly drained the color from his face.

Seeing this, Kiyome said coldly, "The Healer just set your bones. If you want to stay in bed for another half month, keep going."

Aldric stopped. He truly did not want to stay in bed any longer, so after a few seconds, he could only grit his teeth and lean back against the pillow.

A maid immediately stepped forward, poured some water, and placed it on the small table beside the bed. Aldric picked up the glass, but just as the water touched his lips, a very faint voice suddenly sounded.

"Mom..."

His hand immediately stopped.

Aldric turned his head and looked around, but the room remained unchanged. Kiyome continued reading her reports, and the maid showed no reaction either.

He frowned. "Morgana."

"Hm?"

"Did you just speak?"

Morgana was silent for a few seconds before asking, "What did I say?"

Aldric did not answer and raised the glass again.

"Mom... will there be honey cakes tomorrow?"

His fingers immediately tightened around the glass.

It was the voice of a child, very faint, but he clearly remembered hearing it before. Not with his ears, but among the residual thoughts that had constantly appeared after the Ancient Magic backlash.

The little girl from the village.

Aldric immediately set the glass down, making Kiyome raise her head.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You look like you just saw a ghost."

Aldric’s expression turned cold. "I said it’s nothing."

Kiyome shrugged and continued reading.

Aldric closed his eyes and tried to convince himself that it was only an aftereffect. After absorbing the Fate of more than three hundred people, most of the residual thoughts had already disappeared, but a few lingering echoes were nothing strange. He only needed to rest.

He breathed slowly, allowing his consciousness to gradually relax.

"One."

Aldric’s eyes immediately opened.

The room remained silent.

He frowned and closed his eyes again.

"Two?"

Aldric opened his eyes once more.

No one spoke.

The third time, the child’s voice sounded right beside his ear.

"One and a half."

Aldric immediately shot upright.

"SHUT UP!"

CRACK!

A very clear sound came from his chest, causing his entire body to stiffen before slowly curling forward from the pain.

"...Damn it..."

The Healer standing outside immediately rushed in. "Don’t move!"

Aldric clutched his chest, his face deathly pale, while the man quickly placed a hand over the recently set bones and inspected them with mana.

"What did you just do?!"

"Nothing."

"Nothing, and the bone shifted again?!"

Kiyome put down the reports and looked at Aldric gritting his teeth through the pain before reminding him, "I told you not to move."

Aldric turned toward her. "You shut up."

Kiyome opened her fan and replied coldly, "At least this time it wasn’t the Dire Beast stomping on you."

Aldric immediately looked as though he wanted to kill someone, causing the Healer to hurriedly step between them.

"Don’t get angry. Breathe lightly."

"I know!"

"You just did the exact opposite."

Aldric: "..."

It took nearly ten minutes before the Healer managed to stabilize the displaced bone again. At first, Kiyome still found the situation somewhat amusing, but not long afterward, the smile on her lips slowly disappeared.

When the maid carried the medicine tray outside, a small black handprint suddenly appeared on the wall beside the bed.

No one had touched it.

Kiyome was the first to notice. She immediately stood up.

"Wait."

The maid stopped, while Kiyome walked over to the wall and examined the handprint. It looked as though it had been made from charcoal ash, with five very small fingers, only about the size of a child’s hand. She lightly rubbed it with one finger, and a layer of black ash immediately stuck to her fingertip.

"What is this?"

The moment Aldric saw it, his expression changed slightly.

Kiyome immediately turned toward him. "You know?"

"No."

"You answered too quickly."

"I don’t know."

Before Kiyome could ask anything else, another black mark appeared beside the first. It did not emerge instantly. Ash slowly gathered across the wall, one finger at a time becoming visible, as though an invisible hand had just pressed itself against the surface.

The maid behind them immediately stepped back. "My Lady..."

Kiyome stopped relying on simple observation and immediately ordered, "Have someone inspect it."

Within a few minutes, a Mage specializing in curses had been summoned. He examined the wall, the air, and then Aldric’s soul, but in the end, he could only frown.

"There are no magical fluctuations."

Kiyome asked, "A curse?"

"It doesn’t seem like one."

"A resentful spirit?"

"No spiritual entity detected."

Aldric lay on the bed, his expression growing uglier by the second.

The Mage moved closer to the handprint and examined it for a while longer. "Perhaps it’s only dust..."

At that exact moment, another handprint slowly appeared on the wall, so close that it was almost right beside his head.

The man immediately froze.

Kiyome: "..."

Aldric: "..."

The Mage remained silent for several seconds before seriously correcting himself, "I need to investigate further."

Kiyome nodded. "I think so too."

The man quickly took out a series of Magic Items, but before he could use them, a faint smell of smoke suddenly appeared in the room, exactly like the scent of wood that had just finished burning.

Aldric immediately turned his head. Kiyome smelled it as well and signaled the maid to investigate. The woman quickly ran outside, but returned shortly afterward.

"There’s no fire."

The smell of smoke continued to grow stronger. Not long afterward, a thin layer of ash began falling from the ceiling, each black speck slowly settling across the white bandages on Aldric’s arm.

One speck.

Two.

Three.

Just as he stared at the ash on his arm, a hoarse male voice suddenly sounded from the corner of the room.

"...They died well."

Kiyome immediately turned around.

There was no one there.

Aldric, however, had gone completely rigid.

That voice was his own, or more precisely, the exact words he had once spoken while watching the village burn to ashes.

Kiyome slowly turned toward him.

"You just said this had nothing to do with you?"

Aldric remained silent.

"You recognize that sentence?"

"This is complicated."

Kiyome narrowed her eyes. "I’m starting to hate those two words."

At that moment, a mechanical sound rang out.

[Ding!]

Kiyome immediately froze as lines of text appeared before her eyes.

[A large amount of Resentful Energy has been detected within the surrounding karmic connections.]

Her pupils contracted slightly.

[Dark Curse has detected a potential unfavorable condition.]

[The probability of deviations appearing in the protective layer is increasing.]

Kiyome looked at Aldric and, for the first time, truly understood what was happening.

This Resentful Energy had not been created by the curse. It had already existed and had been clinging to Aldric all along. Normally, something seemed to be keeping it blocked, while the Dark Curse was causing gaps to appear in that protective layer.

’It doesn’t create disasters.’

Kiyome’s hand slowly tightened around her fan.

’It only allows things that should have been blocked... to find a way through.’

She immediately ordered, "Call someone to purify it."

Aldric frowned. "No need."

Kiyome asked coldly, "Do you want to keep hearing children talking all night?"

Aldric immediately looked at her.

That reaction alone was enough for Kiyome to understand.

"...You can really hear them?"

He remained silent.

That was enough.

A short while later, three people specializing in resentful spirits and curses were brought in. The first carried a bottle of Holy Water, and the moment he stepped forward, he signaled for everyone to move back.

"Please stand aside."

Kiyome immediately moved away, while Aldric remained lying on the bed.

The man opened the bottle. "This Holy Water can weaken Resentful Energy. As long as..."

His foot suddenly slipped on the ash covering the floor.

"Ah!"

The entire bottle of Holy Water flew out of his hand.

Aldric had only just turned his head when all of it poured straight onto his face.

SPLASH!

The room instantly fell silent.

Water ran from his hair down his neck, while Aldric simply lay there without blinking.

Kiyome slowly raised her fan to cover her mouth. "At least..."

Aldric turned toward her.

"...you’ve been purified."

"SHUT UP!"

"Don’t shout."

Kiyome immediately pointed at his chest.

Aldric fell silent at once.

The second person stepped forward and quickly lit soul-calming incense. White smoke began spreading through the room. Kiyome had just started to relax when a gust of wind blew in from nowhere, causing all the smoke to change direction and fly straight toward her.

Kiyome was engulfed in an instant.

"Cough... cough!"

Her fox ears flattened while her eyes reddened from the smoke.

Aldric looked at the scene, and the corner of his mouth unconsciously curved upward.

Kiyome immediately turned her head. "Go ahead and laugh."

The smile on Aldric’s lips vanished, and he immediately looked away.

The third person took out a small bronze bell and reassured them, "This is used to disperse Resentful Energy. Please rest assured."

Ring!

The moment the sound echoed, the falling ash immediately slowed.

Ring!

The handprints on the wall also began to fade.

Aldric finally relaxed.

Ring...

Snap.

The handle of the bell suddenly broke, sending the entire bell flying out of the man’s hand and straight into Aldric’s recently broken right arm.

Thud!

"ARGH!!!"

Kiyome immediately covered her eyes.

She truly did not want to watch anymore.

The man holding the bell turned deathly pale. "I... I’m sorry!"

Aldric gritted his teeth. "GET OUT!"

The three purification specialists did not dare remain any longer. They quickly gathered their things and left the room.

By this point, Kiyome was also beginning to feel exhausted.

It was not the kind of exhaustion that came from fighting, but the kind that left a person no longer wanting to react to anything absurd.

By afternoon, Aldric was no longer hearing the child’s voice constantly like before, but every time he started to doze off, crying immediately sounded beside his ear.

Kiyome was not doing much better. Every time she left the room, something would happen. Sometimes the lights went out, sometimes the door opened on its own, Magic Crystals suddenly cracked, or ash appeared from nowhere again.

In the end, she decided to stay.

Kiyome truly did not want to know whether her treatment room would still exist by morning if Aldric were left alone.

Night fell.

Neither of them slept.

Aldric leaned against the bed with dark circles beneath his eyes, while Kiyome sat on the sofa, her two fox ears drooping visibly.

After being tormented all day, they no longer even had the energy to mock each other.

Exactly at midnight, every light in the room suddenly went out.

Kiyome immediately sat upright.

Aldric also opened his eyes.

In the darkness, a very faint voice sounded.

"...Mom..."

Then came a second voice.

"Save me..."

A third.

"It’s too hot..."

Then dozens.

Hundreds.

"Where is my child..."

"Don’t close the door..."

"Help..."

"It hurts..."

"I don’t want to die..."

The voices continuously overlapped.

They were not loud.

But precisely because they were only faint whispers, the room felt even colder.

Aldric tightened his grip on the blanket.

At that moment, a child’s voice suddenly sounded right beside his ear.

"Mister..."

Aldric’s breathing instantly stopped.

He slowly turned his head, but there was no one beside him.

"Why did we have to die?"

For the first time all day, Aldric did not curse, did not shout, and did not call them NPCs.

He simply sat motionless, staring into the darkness.

Kiyome looked at his expression and immediately understood.

He knew these people.

[Ding!]

Another notification appeared before her eyes.

[Resentful Energy has identified its karmic target.]

[Dark Curse is continuing to amplify the probability of backlash.]

[Warning: The current limit of influence cannot be determined.]

Kiyome silently finished reading before turning toward Aldric.

"How many people have you killed?"

He did not answer.

On the wall behind him, handprints began appearing one after another.

One.

Ten.

Then dozens.

Some were very large.

Others were so small that they were only the size of a child’s hand.

Kiyome stared at the scene for a long time before lowering her voice.

"...I’ll ask again."

Aldric continued staring straight ahead.

Only after a very long time did he finally answer.

"I didn’t count."

Kiyome: "..."

She slowly closed her eyes.

For the first time in her life, Kiyome truly did not know what to say.