Chapter 64 - Volume 4 (2/2)

“Now that I think about it, not one of them came to this building.”

The so-called 1st rank knights never entered this building to tell the news. Isaac placed a curse of eternal solitude to those cowards and began to ponder. Even if the warlock was just an apprentice, the residents would be ostracized purely because they lived under the same roof as a warlock. This may have been the reason why their eyes quivered with worry.

Isaac needed to calm them somehow… but he wasn’t interested in rea.s.suring them himself. Plus, it seemed much more probable that they’d trust the words of the likable Reisha and Kunette over him, who emitted an aura of deception and hostility.

But that would mean he would have to search the room himself. Isaac was placed in a bit of a predicament. The people’s worry worsened the longer Isaac remained silent as he was still deciding on what to do. In the end, Isaac called out to Reisha.

“Reisha.”

“What!”

Reisha replied, not even turning her head toward Isaac. She still seemed mad from before, and Isaac smirked.

“You can stop and tell the residents of this building that there’s nothing wrong.”

Reisha finally straightened her back after hearing that and turned to see the people of the slums peeking into the room with just their heads. Reisha tilted her head, then quickly nodded as if she had understood what was happening.

“I guess not many people would believe you no matter how much you prattle on, sunbaenim.”

“… Although I do agree with what you say, it still hurts to hear it.”

“My mum told me ‘the truth is always cruel.’”

“…”

Reisha pa.s.sed Isaac, who smiled bitterly and approached the residents. She rea.s.sured them nothing was wrong and that they could return to their lives from tomorrow onwards. The people of the slums seemed to be relieved hearing those words from an elf, a being they’d never imagined seeing in their entire lives. And the beauty of Reisha and cuteness of Kunette aided their efforts. Soon, a crowd gathered around Reisha and Kunette, keenly listening to their words. The children looked to Kunette with bright eyes while Reisha gathered gazes of admiration from the young men. The middle-aged men looked to her, seemingly charmed by her beauty, while their wives pinched at their husbands’ sides, their eyes burning with fury. All the while thanking Reisha and Kunette.

Isaac briefly chuckled while watching the scene and entered the room. It was in complete chaos, having already been rummaged through by Reisha in search for clues. All kinds of artefacts were arranged on the floor. Isaac searched the cabinets for paper, opened boxes, and acted as if he was doing his job until he noticed something. He stopped; his eyes were fixed on the two items that were placed on top of the bedside cabinet. Shock and bewilderment overtook Isaac when he realised what it was. They were items that were impossible to create, much less exist in this world’s civilization with their current technology. It was a plastic container the size of a finger shaped like a figure 8 and a Monami ballpoint pen that was familiar to all of South Korea for its cheapness.

“Contact lens and a Monami?”

PR Note: Monami is a company that produces stationery supplies in Korea, including pens, highlighters, and more. They have a website and export a wide range of pens, from cheap ballpoint pens to premium writing instruments. They can go from a couple of USD for a pack of twenty pens to about $20 USD per pen.

Isaac quickly pulled out a cigarette to calm his beating heart and looked around him. The people were still focused on Reisha and Kunette, Isaac being outside their attention. Kunette was growling at the people around her, guarded, while Reisha was constantly speaking to them as she was if preaching to them.

Isaac quickly used the opportunity to pocket the pen and opened the plastic container. As expected, there was a contact lens slightly submerged in a container, but there was only one.

“How did Central miss this?”

Isaac couldn’t fathom it. With the presence of black magic confirmed, all suspicious objects should have been confiscated by Central, even if the victim was just an apprentice. How could they simply leave behind an object in the open that even Isaac could find? It shouldn’t have happened.

Isaac pondered for a moment, glimpsing behind him at Reisha. He then quickly placed the contact lens into his left eye.

“Kuuk!”

Flas.h.!.+ It felt as if someone had hit him with a hammer at the back of his head the moment he placed the lens in his eye. The searing pain was accompanied with his vision turning white. Isaac curled into a ball on the floor shaking as he grasped at his burning eyes. Reisha quickly noticed the abnormality and ran to Isaac.

“Sunbaenim! What’s going on?”

“… Isaac is in pain?”

“Kuuk. I, it’s nothing. Uhik!”

Isaac just barely managed to keep himself from screaming. The pain began to subside, and when vision returned, he tried to act composed but instead ended up making a bizarre scream.

“Sunbaenim?”

Reisha tilted her head as she asked Isaac with worry, but Isaac wasn’t in a state to reply.

“s.h.i.+t! I shouldn’t have touched it so carelessly! How is this happening? What are those lines!”

When Isaac opened his eyes, all kinds of strings could be seen floating in the air, the likes of which he had never witnessed until he put the lens on. He tried closing one eye at a time, and the fact that those strings could only be seen with the left eye confirmed that this was due to the lens.

‘Did my retina get detached?’

Isaac’s wide yet shallow pool of knowledge told him that when floaters suddenly appeared in your vision, it was due to the retina being detached. Remembering the searing pain he felt when he put the lens on, Isaac worried if he was going to become a cyclops.

“Sunbaenim, are you alright?”

“I don’t like it when Isaac’s in pain!”

“No, there’s no need to worry. Some dust got in my eye…”

Isaac tried to form a smile with his lips at Reisha and Kunette to rea.s.sure them, who were worried and sobbing, respectively. But his smile froze in place.

‘What, is that!’

Isaac screamed in his mind. Reisha’s blood vessels were in plain sight, almost as if her skin had turned transparent. The blood that flowed in her vessels wasn’t red but bright gold. Strangely, Kunette looked like a giant ball of white ma.s.s.

‘Hm hm, now that I look at it like this, Reisha has a very nice…’

The golden stream gathered at her heart before disseminating into all parts of her body with each beat. Isaac could also see Reisha’s body in its fullest, as if she was in front of him naked.

“W, what?”

Reisha flinched at the sudden chill of disgust she felt.

“Ahem, it’s nothing.”

“… Isaac looked really evil just now. He lied while he was in pain!”

Isaac instinctively acted innocent and coughed dryly as Kunette’s scolding attracted the crowd’s attention. Reisha’s concerns also deepened, and she kept her guard up as she distanced herself from Isaac. Her elven instinct seemed to warn her that he was dangerous. Isaac couldn’t even complain against such treatment since he had no excuses, and he even turned his back on her and began to ponder what this lens was doing.

‘It doesn’t seem like my eye is damaged… so why can I see Reisha’s body? Huh, it’s a lot more voluptuous than I… No! now isn’t the time to be distracted! Wake up! I know you’ve been starved for some time, but one wrong move and your life will be ruined forever! What is it that I’m seeing? Is it mana? That seems most likely right now… but why can I see mana by wearing a contact lens?’

Reisha and Kunette found Isaac to be odd, suddenly turning his back on them and beginning a cycle of tilting his head then shaking it repeatedly. They began to sob.

“What are you two doing?”

“Hiinh. Sunbaenim became weird! He must be cursed!”

“… Isaac is dying? I don’t like that!”

“What! Is it true that sunbaenim is cursed!”

“Huh? Did you just arrive?”

Isaac turned to see when he suddenly heard Krent’s voice, only for his face to crumple up in disgust. It may have been pleasing on the eye to see beautiful women, but he suddenly got the urge to gouge it out when he saw a man standing in front of him. Reisha watched Isaac’s face color with disgust when he looked at Krent, but then he would turn to look at her and see his face melt with pleasure. Her spine began to tingle, as if insects were crawling all over her. Meanwhile, Krent made a commotion.

“Uwaah! Sunbaenim’s cursed! Get away everyone! Or you’ll get the curse too!”

Isaac frowned when Krent suddenly made that comment and stared him down.

“What bulls.h.i.+t are you saying?”

“D, don’t come to me! Get away, everyone!”

Because of Krent’s commotion, the people that Reisha just convinced put their heads out to listen and began to scream when they heard the word curse. They screamed as they ran toward the stairs, desperately trying to escape the building.

“M, move it!”

“p.i.s.s off! I’m first!”

“Huh? Oi…”

Isaac took one step forward at the sudden turn of events, and even Krent jumped out of the building, breaking through a wall as he screamed.

“…”

“Uwaah! It’s the warlock’s curse! Get away, everyone!”

The outside seemed like it was in a complete panic, and despite the knights’ attempt to maintain order, the people scattered in all directions.

“Uwaaah! Sunbaenim, what do we do?”

“Don’t die, Isaac! You can’t die!”

“…”

Only Reisha and Kunette were left behind, crying like children. Isaac looked at the sight in silence, then shouted out into the air at what had happened, fuelled by his boiling anger.

“Krent, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

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