His body felt like lead. Every step he took was an unwanted reminder of how exhausted he was. His parents had taught him to be a model for the citizens. At the knights’ academy, he had learned the importance of keeping his appearance in mind. The past Hugh would certainly be astonished by his current self.
How long had it been since the Thousand Tricks had asked him to find something cursed? Probably no more than ten days, but those days felt long after spending them using every means and method he could.
He had asked around, searched illicit shops, and eventually brought himself to the taboo decaying district. Using force and persuasion alike, he had done what he could to extract information. All the cohorts who had accompanied him at the start had since become unable to endure it and left him. He had kept himself going by telling himself he was on a secret mission, but he felt he was reaching his limits. He had put too much into this request, not even letting himself sleep properly.
Still, he hadn’t produced a single result. He had even removed his armor and played the part of a mercenary, but he hadn’t found anything that might catch the eye of the Thousand Tricks. In fact, after working his legs to exhaustion, he hadn’t even found any leads.
There was next to no chance that any cursed items were lying around on the surface world. The Third Order was already leveraging its respect to investigate the upper side of the imperial capital. With the matter of the prophecy, quite a few of them were looking into the matter.
Hugh wasn’t so conceited as to think he could compete with them. That’s why he started with the decaying district, a place the Third Order wouldn’t want to step foot in. But perhaps that was a shallow assumption? The Third Order was most likely considering the possibility of there being cursed items in the decaying district. There was a good chance they had employed the services of people familiar with the district. While asking around on foot, Hugh had caught sight of other people looking for curses.
Hugh had lost his sense of self-assurance he had. His confidence had also taken a big hit. There was nothing more taxing on the soul than searching for something that may or may not be out there.
His body and spirit were reaching their limits. He felt like he was being watched from somewhere, probably by the hyenas of the decaying district. This was a world that played by different rules than the rest of the city. Strength ruled everything, and the weak were forced to scavenge the corpses. In the past, there were rumors that if a corpse fell here, not even the bones would go unscavenged.
Upon arriving, Hugh had tried his best to make himself look inconspicuous, but he still proved eye-catching to the locals. They all watched him, wondering when he might collapse. He shook his head, clearing his vision, then put on a smile. He even managed to entertain pointless ideas, such as the possibility that this was one of those Thousand Trials he had heard spoken of.
He wasn’t going to collapse here. That would be absurd. This was the chance of a lifetime. True glory awaited him over the horizon. He fired himself up, planted his feet, and cast a sweeping glare over his surroundings. He sensed gasps from the lurking hyenas.
Then a child appeared before Hugh.
It was a girl. She had a white eastern robe and a fox mask. For the first time, Hugh felt not fatigue, but a fear-induced cold sweat. She looked about ten or so years old, with her low height and slender body, but she had a presence that felt anything but normal. Hugh didn’t sense any hostility, but it was overbearing, whatever it was.
Hugh froze like a deer in the headlights.
These features, Captain Franz saw something similar in Peregrine Lodge.
“I’ll give you what that man is searching for,” she said to him.
“What?”
Hugh hadn’t even noticed the box appear in her hands, but she held it out to him. It was a fine box, small and made of wood. It didn’t have a bad aura or anything like that, but Hugh still had a bad feeling about this. His hunches were generally correct, especially the bad ones.
Yet his hand moved almost of its own accord and took the box. It was light. Yet his hands were shaking. His thoughts were scattered, his brain screaming that this was a terrible idea. Its aura didn’t matter; this was trouble.
“This will be the last battle,” the girl said with a small smile that didn’t extend past her lips. “It’s sleeping now, but it will wake up soon. You should hand this to Mr. Caution, that man with no sense of caution. And there’s something I’d like you to tell him.”