TMBIPYMEN Chapter 36

"Oh no, Laila!"

Yustar hurriedly supported Laila, but she pushed him away. She felt like she might vomit everything in her stomach onto his clothes. The fact that she hadn't eaten anything and thus didn't have much to vomit was something she realized only later.

"Here, Laila."

Laila saw the orange hexahedron resting on Yustar's palm and grimaced, shaking her head. Her vision was dizzy and it felt like all the organs in her stomach had twisted, but she didn't want to eat that.

"I'm fine, I think I'll be fine in just a moment..."

Laila, practically prostrate on the floor, mumbled. Yustar crouched beside her with a flustered and worried expression.

"Your motion sickness is lasting unusually long, Laila. You must have an extremely sensitive constitution when it comes to magical power."

Laila pressed her cheek against the cold floor and only rolled her eyes to glance at him. She thought her current state must be quite a sight, but staying like this at least made the dizziness and nausea gradually fade.

"That's funny. A witch sensitive to magical power."

"The magical power used as Tentinella's energy source has been refined. The magical power that mages originally use is natural and raw. Perhaps Laila was exposed only to natural magical power for so long that it takes some time to accept refined magical power."

Laila, who had been blinking, let out a long breath.

"I don't understand a word you're saying."

Yustar laughed shortly. Then they heard urgent footsteps approaching with large strides. Laila heard a man's voice groan "Eok!" and slowly raised herself up.

"What is the meaning of this, Lord Yustar?"

Laila lifted her gaze to see the face of the man startled by her appearance, and her expression hardened strangely.

The man was tall. Nearly as tall as Yustar, it seemed. Black, angular priestly robes suited his precisely squared shoulders remarkably well. His wavy, deep blond hair and drooping eye corners brought to mind a gentle, large dog.

"Can you stand?"

The man extended his hand, but Laila stared at it as if blood were smeared on it and stood up on her own. Then she pressed her fingertips against her still-churning stomach and took a couple of steps back.

"You're a priest, I see."

Laila said. Yustar had known in advance she would react this way, but without adding any particular explanation, he watched their first meeting with interest.

The man smiled. Remarkably, he looked even gentler when he smiled. He seemed like someone who would believe all things in the world were beautiful and all humans were born with good natures... In other words, the type who wouldn't get along well with Laila.

He said.

"I am Marnak Deiyamor. I serve as branch chief of Adiak."

After saying this, Marnak overlapped his fingers and briefly assumed the posture of priests in prayer. No, he didn't just assume the posture. He actually prayed for a moment.

Yustar whispered.

"You can call him Marnak. The surname 'Deiyamor' is commonly given to all priests."

Laila glanced at him.

"Commonly given?"

Then Marnak, having finished his prayer, spoke in a gentle voice.

"That's right. When Sierrow's priests perform the laying on of hands, they vow to abandon all their secular life. Only by giving up the surname received from the parents who bore them, as well as all rights they possessed in the mundane world, can they finally earn the qualification to approach Lord Cersita and the other gods of Sierrow."

Laila listened to his words with a sour expression. The motion sickness had subsided and she felt comfortable now, but being face to face with a priest who looked at her like a lost lamb wasn't comfortable at all.

Marnak said.

"What is your name, sister?"

Laila looked at him with somewhat gloomy eyes.

"I'm not your sister, priest. I couldn't even be such a thing. As you can see."

Then Marnak gazed intently at Laila with a soft smile. Yustar smiled readily too, but Marnak's smile was... How to put it—different from Yustar's.

No, Laila thought, no one could smile like that.

It was a smile that gave the relief of a lantern suddenly being lit when one was wandering and weeping in a pitch-dark place where nothing could be seen. Though for Laila, who was a witch, it gave discomfort along with relief...

"All people are my brothers and sisters. Parents and teachers, and also disciples who must be led. So you too are my sister. The question of what you are has no bearing whatsoever. The god Cersita and the five gods who assist him do not divide humans by type to care for or abandon."

Laila flinched as if stung by nettles when she heard Marnak's words full of recognition, but after taking a deep breath, she soon extended her right hand. In any case, she couldn't dawdle here just because the branch chief was a priest.

"I'm Laila Chrysrad."

"Miss Chrysrad."

Marnak's hand was large and warm, and though he gripped firmly, she felt no unease.

Yustar and Laila followed Marnak into Adiak branch. Like the other places Laila had seen, here too were machines whose purpose was unclear and low noise.

But the spotless white walls and soft feather-shaped sconces, the arched ceiling and light filtering between column decorations, created an atmosphere rather like a temple.

"Uncomfortable, Laila?"

Yustar whispered in a playful voice. Laila glanced at him with a slightly sulky expression.

"Fortunately not, Yustar. Just because I'm a witch doesn't mean I vomit the moment I enter a temple. This isn't the Dark Ages."

Yustar burst into laughter.

"Even witches in the Dark Ages probably didn't do that."

"So to speak. Anyway... I'm fine. Thanks for worrying."

Marnak led them along the branch's corridor for quite a while. He exchanged a few words with Yustar and spoke to Laila as well, but the deeper they went into the corridor, the heavier the shadow that fell across his face.

Yustar said.

"I think it's about time you told us what the problem is, Marnak."

Marnak glanced back briefly, then sighed shortly.

"Yes, Lord Yustar. As I mentioned... a small-scale sink was detected and we dispatched members. But..."

Marnak's steps slowed slightly. From his broad back, indescribable anguish could be felt.

"When the members approached, the sink disappeared."

Yustar narrowed his brow.

"The sink disappeared?"

"To be precise, it didn't disappear but hid itself for a moment. When members approach within a certain range, it appears again, and when they exceed the range, it disappears—repeating this pattern."

"Like hide-and-seek."

Laila said abruptly.

Marnak nodded.

"Similar. No matter what method we use, we cannot approach the sink directly."

"What came out of the sink?"

"We haven't discovered that yet. Unlike monsters or ghosts emerging from sinks that mainly stay around the sink, this one... has never shown itself even once."

"Tracking?"

"In progress, but there's no advancement."

Marnak stopped walking only when he reached the end of the corridor. There was a room there, but unlike other places, the wall was transparent so one could look inside.

"That person..."

Laila's hand touched the transparent wall. There was a man inside the room. The clothes on his emaciated body were full of torn marks, and he endlessly scratched at his knee exposed where his shabby trousers had ripped, using his fingernails.

Marnak said.

"A villager. He was a man who ran a small shop, but yesterday he came to headquarters in a state of panic."

According to him, the man had already been covered in wounds all over his body, completely out of his mind. And he repeated only a single phrase endlessly. Even now.

"He said the seeker was chasing him."

Yustar laughed emptily. Blood could be seen flowing from the man's knee.

"Did he really play hide-and-seek?"

Marnak sighed.

"Unknown. But even now, even still, he only repeats the same words. And he's terrified. So we're protecting him temporarily."

Laila asked.

"Isn't a place this plainly visible rather dangerous?"

Marnak shook his head with a faint smile.

"Not so. Monsters or other evil things cannot enter here. But we needed to watch over him. In case..."

"It would be troublesome if he died."

Yustar's voice was colder than any Laila had ever heard from him. Moreover, the gaze looking at the man was different from his usual self too.

Something's wrong. Laila stared quietly at the man scratching his knee, lost in thought. His skin had almost all peeled away—just a little more and bone would be exposed.

Something...

"That man is under some kind of curse."

Both Yustar and Marnak looked at Laila simultaneously.

"A curse, Laila?"

Instead of answering, Laila leaned closer to the wall. Something seemed about to be visible, but not quite. It wasn't precise, but...

"How did you know, Miss Chrysrad?"

Marnak asked. Laila stepped back a couple of paces, then gazed intently at the man flinching at nothing.

"I heard about it from my mother. When Mother was alive... But I don't know how to see curses precisely. I never learned."

"If you become able to see a curse, can you also break it?"

Laila nodded with an ambiguous attitude.

"As far as I know, yes, Yustar."

She turned toward the two men.

"A curse is like tangled thread, or a scattered puzzle. Or rather... that's what I was told. So if you can see it, you can break it. But I can only sense that this man is cursed—I can't see it. If I could see it precisely, I might find some way, but right now it's difficult."

Couldn't she try forcing it? For a moment, Laila thought—couldn't she use her ability on a living person? Opening his core. Then perhaps she could find a clue somewhere...

—No, Laila. That's not a good idea. Absolutely not.

Laila whirled around toward Yustar.

"What did you just say, Yustar?"

Yustar looked down at Laila with a puzzled expression and asked back.

"Laila?"

"You just spoke to me. You said it wasn't a good idea."