19. The Ancient Curse

Blaze and Robin returned to the Princess. Robin went ahead to plead, while Blaze just kept staring at her with squinted eyes behind the mask.

Suddenly, Blaze walked up to Robin and pulled him.

"Let's leave," Blaze said calmly.

"Hell! We need to beg—"

"Are you coming or not? I might as well bring your dead body with me," Blaze said coldly.

"Okay. I'm following," Robin quickly replied, remembering that Blaze just slayed a solid core Awakened mage without using his mana or element.

Blaze nodded and walked into the forest after packing the mana stones and bloodstones.

Princess Evelyn's eyebrow scrunched up in confusion, but she refrained from speaking. In no time, the two masked men disappeared into the forest.

"Hey! You remember she said there are soldiers in the surroundings?" Robin asked solemnly, trying to make Blaze remember Princess Evelyn's threat.

"Don't worry. Nobody is coming," Blaze said with confidence.

"Phew! She just scared us. How did you know?" Robin asked enthusiastically, switching his mood quickly.

"Oh! I just took a guess," Blaze said offhandedly. His reply made Robin abruptly stop.

"Hell! I'm going back to beg her," Robin yelled after he woke up from his daze.

"I will kill you if you think of going back because if you go back and get caught, my identity will be exposed," Blaze said casually, but it gave Robin chills.

Robin had no choice but to follow Blaze silently. He noticed something after walking for a while.

"Aren't we walking in the wrong direction to the cave? We took too many turns. I don't even know whether we are walking east-west or north-south," Robin voiced his thoughts.

"Give me the bag," Blaze said without answering his question.

Robin passed him the bag which contained all they bought from Isle Town.

"Change your clothes," Blaze said calmly.

Blaze went away from Robin and took off his armor before he started wrapping his upper body with a white, long white band. When Blaze was done, he changed into his casual robe. He returned when he finished.

After both of them were done with changing their clothes and masks, Blaze gathered dried leaves and piled them on the equipment used during the mission.

"Use your lightning to incinerate it," Blaze said calmly.

"Metal doesn't burn. Even if you don't know about bloodlines, that should be common, right?" Robin asked with a weak sigh, at the same time releasing the air of a wise elder.

"Are you doing it or not?" Blaze asked coldly.

"Right away!" Robin quickly replied before bringing his hands close to the pile of leaves.

After four seconds, a purple spark of lightning bolt flashed on his hands before the leaves went in flame.

Blaze was not sure if DNA stuff existed in this world. But it's better to be safe than sorry. He bled on his armor and clothes.

Blaze swung the bag on his shoulder after he was sure his stuff had burnt a little before he began climbing a tree.

"Follow me!" Blaze ordered.

Robin quickly followed.

After they got to the top of the tree, Blaze jumped to the branch of the tree next to them. Robin quickly followed.

"Why are we behaving like animals?" Robin whispered.

"We will leave our footprint if we walk on the ground. Follow my pattern, or you might fall to the ground," Blaze said and jumped to another tree.

Like monkeys, they weaved through different trees until they got to the cave.

"Give me your amulet," Blaze said calmly.

After Robin gave Blaze his amulet, Blaze proceeded to call Caroline. Blaze spent his time at the brothel, learning how to use an amulet. After learning the audio and video functions of the amulet, he took Caroline's amulet code.

"Hello, who's this?" Caroline's voice came from the other side of the amulet.

"Did you wear a mask when you bought it?" Blaze asked directly.

There was a long silence from the other side before a reply came, "Yes"

"Good. Talk to you later. Deny any allegations that come," Blaze said, and hung up without giving her a chance to talk. Since he wasn't aware of the working principle of the amulet, talking for so long was risky. Secondly, he didn't mention any names when talking in case his call was being tapped.

"Let's go," Blaze said and walked into the cave.

It took them an hour of walking to reach the academy. They used a strong vine to climb out of the hole. Blaze followed the previous path and walked back to his room.

"Go to your room. Meet me during the day by tomorrow for your share of the loot," Blaze said and left.

Robin quickly left Blaze. Although he appeared calm and collected when he saw a dead body, he hadn't taken a life before.

After Blaze unlocked and entered his room, he climbed in his bed to sleep.

"When did you notice?" Aphrodite suddenly asked.

"Notice what?" Blaze replied with a question with his eyes closed.

"Princess Evelyn acting," Aphrodite replied.

"I noticed something strange about her body language," Blaze said calmly, his voice measured. "She was trying to appear confident, but I could see that she was subtly shaking. And her right hand was fidgeting nervously behind her back, as if she were hiding something. It didn't feel like a genuine threat to me. On top of that, she's not a mage and seems physically weak: considering every royal is a mage, and from Robin's reaction about her bloodline. Maybe the Ice Reaper did something to her that weakened her. What if her power suddenly comes back? Perhaps that's what she was stalling for. I left because I wasn't comfortable staying in a place where many things were beyond my understanding. Possibly her threat was real, and we got lucky," he added, before drifting off to sleep as the tiredness hit him.

"I thought you would say 'lock her in the chest'. Thank goodness you didn't do that. The chest was destroyed after opening it," Aphrodite said but noticed Blaze was deeply asleep.

Aphrodite watched in awe as Blaze fell asleep almost instantly, his breathing steady and calm. She marveled at his ability to remain composed even in the face of danger. As she thought back to the events of earlier, she couldn't help but be impressed by the way he had analyzed Princess Evelyn's behavior and made deductions based on his observations.

"This boy is no kid, or he used that technique…" Aphrodite's voice trailed off.

———

Blaze was jolted awake by a vigorous pounding on the door. He made his way towards it, his steps groggy with sleep, and swung it open. The daylight spilled in, revealing that it was already bright outside.

"What do you want?" Blaze asked coldly when he saw Robin at his door.

"Double bad news!" Robin exclaimed while panting heavily.

"What is the bad news?" Blaze asked.

"The Emperor has shifted the test date to tomorrow." Robin dropped the first.

"What about the second?" Blaze asked calmly.

"Princess Evel—"

Blaze pulled Robin into his room swiftly and closed his door. That was a forbidden topic.

"What were you saying?"

"Princess Evelyn is in school, and they are locking down the academy! She's coming for us," Robin exclaimed with a pale face.

Blaze's eyes narrowed dangerously. He started thinking about where he had done something wrong.

"We will escape through the hole," Blaze said after a while. After being chased around the world by a powerful country, a few things scare him.

"Jeez! If they lock the academy, we can't leave through the hole. We are trapped."

Blaze gave Robin a mana stone and said, after thinking for a moment, "Leave first. I will think of a solution." Robin nodded and quickly left.

Blaze sat down and thought for a while, but nothing was coming to head. He then threw the matter aside as he couldn't think of any solution, presently. His stomach suddenly grumbled.

Just as he was thinking of the location of the dining hall, Zara appeared with food, and he ate as usual, treating Zara as a regular cook.

———

The day passed uneventfully, with Blaze playing with his element, trying to get familiar with it.

It was already night, and he sat inside the tree without his robe as usual. However, he had one translucent stone in his hand: mana stone.

Blaze started the absorption process, however, the wild feeling of the surrounding mana coursing through his vein never occurred. The mana from the mana stone flowed through his veins in a cool and tamed manner. It made the process less strenuous.

Slowly, Blaze started feeling his core changing after it filled up in thirty minutes. His scattered manner compressed before changing into a drop of tiny at one point. The process continued, spreading slowly from the point of liquefaction, like ripples in a pond.

Blaze felt like his body was thrown into a cool spring.

The passing of time brought forth an unsettling sensation for Blaze. A subtle yet distinct coldness seemed to be permeating his entire being, growing more pronounced and pervasive with each passing moment.

At first, he thought it was just a temporary side effect of the mana absorption process, but the feeling persisted, growing more intense by the second.

Sitting beside Blaze, Aphrodite observed the usual scene unfolding before her eyes. The blue tattoos adorning his body came alive, emanating a soft glow that resembled the gentle flicker of a candle. However, the radiance intensified rapidly, akin to the brilliance of the sun. While her initial assumption was that it was a result of his mana absorption, the misty exhalation from Blaze's mouth hinted that something was awry.

"Oh no! The ancient moon curse is activated," Aphrodite muttered.

As Blaze abruptly opened his eyes, he was met with a chilling realization—the intense cold was already consuming him. Misting air escaped from his mouth and nose, a visible sign of the unnatural phenomenon unfolding within him. Desperately, he attempted to halt the relentless absorption of mana, but his efforts proved futile. The mana continued to surge into his body unabated.

In a decisive move, Blaze threw away the mana stone, hoping to sever the connection. Yet, to his dismay, the surrounding mana compensated for the loss, behaving as if it were a multitude of mana stones. The once wild and scattered mana in the vicinity now coalesced, taking on a cohesive form.

A frosty glaze began to creep from Blaze's eyebrow down to his hair, while the misty air from his breath thickened, enveloping him in an icy haze. Panic surged through his veins as he struggled to move, only to find that he had lost control of his body. Frantically scanning his surroundings, he realized that Aphrodite was nowhere to be found.

With each passing moment, his body stiffened, becoming as rigid as a statue. Finally, succumbing to the mysterious cold, Blaze toppled from the tree, descending to the ground in a lifeless descent, a chilling fate befalling him.