Chapter 71 – Rumors (Letty’s POV)

We decided to stay in the capital for a little longer, with Aria’s birthday coming up soon. We’ve planned to announce our engagement on that day. The thought alone is causing my heart to flutter, I can’t wait to be officially recognized as Aria’s fiancée.

In the following days, we have been spending a lot of time with Teacher. We adjusted her diet, prepared special herbal medicine, kept her away from any stress, and got her to do some exercise. Things have been going pretty peacefully after that day’s dramatic unfolding.

Just as I thought things couldn’t get any better, we received another piece of good news, “Miss Letica, we found something about the Eclipsium Vein”, the apprentice said over the mana-comm, his voice filled with excitement and caution.

“We’ve found its origin element, the curse is said to be based on a forgotten curse called the Sun Goddess’s Scorn, a deadly curse that would cause the target’s mana to corrupt. It is forgotten knowledge, lost in time. But we’ve found a mention of a solution that might help”, he said.

“If the target receives the Moon Goddess's blessing, it might help disrupt the curse, and it might even break it. While we can’t guarantee success, this is the best answer we’ve got for now. At the very least, it’s sure to cause some disturbances in the curse’s structure, making it easier to study. We should find a curse specialist to observe it”, he said.

Great, we’ve got a curse specialist right here in the capital.

“Good work, I’ll contact a specialist and update you on anything we uncover”, I said.

I quickly sought out Aria and told her about the new findings. “Alright, so let’s call that old guy and ask him directly”, she said. And so, we called him using mana-comm. We didn’t tell Teacher about any of this yet because we didn’t want her to worry unnecessarily.

Thankfully, she believed us when Aria told her that she read it in a book and jumped to conclusions.

The ring buzzed twice before he picked up, “Good Morning, my Lady. I hope Lady Martha’s health is better now”, he calmly spoke.

“Yes, thanks to your and the Grand Meister’s efforts, she is doing much better”, I said, before continuing, “I called you today in order to discuss the curse. We’ve found that Eclipsium Vein is based on another curse called the Sun Goddess’s Scorn, a forgotten curse that corrupts the target’s mana. And we were told that the Moon Goddess’s blessings would make studying it easier, if not break it entirely”, I said.

There was a pause before he spoke again, his tone measured. “Are you certain about this, my Lady? Curses are very delicate, one wrong move and we could end up triggering the curse instead. Please connect me with your team to discuss their reasoning first, we should only take such decisions after we are absolutely sure”, he said.

“Of course, I was going to suggest the same. Please discuss it with them and let us know what the best course of action would be”, I said.

“He’s not wrong,” Aria muttered beside me. “But still… we can’t just sit around forever.”

After connecting him with the team, Aria and I waited anxiously for the rest of the day. They began discussing their findings with each other and called us back later that evening.

“My Lady, we went through the text together and decided that it’d be best to not take any premature action. Since we know that the curse was inflicted in a dungeon, and it didn’t break after the boss died, it means that the curse must have been inflicted from some other source. If we decide to rashly receive the Moon Goddess’s blessing, it could potentially ruin the curse’s complex structure, making it difficult to break the curse even if we do end up finding a solution later”, he explained, his voice calm but firm.

“What? Then what should we do? I thought we were finally on to something”, I said, trying to mask the disappointment in my tone.

Aria placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“We are, my Lady. Until yesterday, we didn’t even know where to start, but now we know for certain that it’s linked to the Moon Goddess somehow. This knowledge would make the dungeon explorers’ jobs much easier now. Let’s pray that they’ll uncover something soon”, he said.

“Sigh, I understand. Thank you for your efforts. We’ll wait for the explorer team and then decide our next course of action”, I said.

Aria must be worried, but she’s doing her best to hide it. I should try to distract her mind away from the curse, it’s the least I could do.

But before I could suggest anything, she beat me to it, “Worrying won’t get us anywhere”, she said, her voice light, almost too light, as if she’s putting up a front. “Why don’t we head back to Mom’s room and keep her company? I’m sure she probably started working as soon as we left her”, she said.

I nodded, “Alright, let’s go”.

***

We knocked on the door before entering Teacher’s room, fully expecting her to be drowned in some kind of work. But to our surprise she wasn’t. She was sitting near the window, an embroidery hoop resting on her lap. She was carefully guiding the needle through the piece of fabric with her utmost concentration.

We both looked at each other to make sure we were seeing right.

“Did we walk into the wrong room? There’s a beautiful lady doing embroidery here. This gentlewoman cannot possibly be my mother”, Aria jokingly said.

Teacher paused, breaking her concentration, and glared at us sharply, “this is all your fault! First you two were keeping me away from the work, and as soon as you left, Richard came in and shifted all the documents in his office. With nothing interesting left to do, this is what my life has come to, I’m sewing a damn dress, of all things”, she said, almost pitifully.

Her dramatic tone made me chuckle, if I hadn’t known any better, I might have given her some of the documents back.

Though, for all her drama, the work on the little dress is very intricate. I can tell from a glance that she’s good at this. “It’s a really cute design, Teacher. I can tell that you are very skilled”.

“This is great, show me some of those princess skills”, Aria teased her, plopping on a chair beside her.

Teacher’s expression softened, “Oh shush. If you want to stay, keep quiet. I’m sewing this cute little dress for the baby. It’ll look perfect, just wait and see”.

“How do you know it’d be a girl?” I asked, leaning forward.

“I don’t,” Teacher replied matter-of-factly, her tone carrying a hint of playfulness. “But even if it’s a boy, what’s he going to do about it?”

Aria burst into laughter. “Hehe, I like it. I can already imagine how adorable he’ll look in that outfit. And when he grows up, I’ll get to tease him about it. Hah, now I really want the baby to be a boy”, she said.

The three of us dissolved into giggles. Forgetting all our worries for a moment and enjoying the warmth of the family.

***

In the coming days, I got busy preparing for the upcoming party, ensuring everything would be perfect for the big day. As I was going around to collect some documents from Sir Richard’s office, one of my informants uneasily approached me.

“My Lady, there have been some unsightly rumours making their rounds around the city. Rumors about the Ernius family”, he said solemnly.

“I expected as much, we can ignore them if they don’t pose a threat”, I said.

But he shook his head and said, “They were baseless at first, just some whispers. But after one of the princes ambiguously hinted at something during a gathering, the rumors have been spreading wildly. We must intervene to uphold our honor”, he said.

“What are they about?” I asked, my voice sharpening.

He hesitated and began, “They are saying that Lady Martha was deliberately holding back during the attack. And that house Ernius’s troops weren’t as involved in the battle as the others. They even hinted at some corruptions between the house Ernius and some officials”, he said.

The paper in my hands felt heavier. It wasn’t hard to guess who the said ‘Prince’ was and who started these rumors. But we can’t let this get in the way of the upcoming celebration. We’ll have to make sure that the house Ernius’s name is upheld with dignity. We’d have to silence these rumors.

“Was it Prince Jumair?” I asked.

“Yes, my Lady”, he replied.

I drew a deep breath, forcing my composure to return. “Thank you for bringing this to me. I’ll address the matter personally. For now, continue gathering information discreetly”.

“As you wish, my Lady”, he said, bowing once before leaving.

If they think that House Ernius could be challenged with such petty tricks, they are sorely mistaken. The game of whispers, at its core, is simply a game of coffers after all—and we have the heaviest purse.

I turned on my heels, heading back towards Sir Richard’s office. He’d know exactly how to handle such situations.