“Tell me, who are you?” Duncan asked. “My name is Clara,” the woman answered, identifying herself. “Well then, Miss Clara, care to explain why you wanted to see me?” Duncan looked at Clara as he questioned her, his back resting calmly against the backrest of his couch while he crossed his legs, looking very relaxed and leisurely. Currently, the two of them were in Duncan’s sitting room. In the end, Duncan had finally decided to invite Clara into his home and now he was getting to know her. Regarding Duncan’s earlier question, Clara answered, “I came to you because I wanted to hire you.” Unsurprisingly, the reason Clara was here was because she wanted to hire Duncan, which he had already guessed since that was the only thing that he could possibly offer. Unperturbed, Duncan simply said, “I see…” Then he fell silent, allowing Clara to continue speaking. “The job I want to hire you for is to investigate a certain house and the person who owns it. There is something I’m looki

For Duncan in particular, the manor was an even more taboo location to ever be in. Although the saying that the manor was cursed was only an urban legend, Duncan couldn’t be sure about it, so just to be safe—since his curse developed, he had set a rule for himself to never step anywhere close to that manor in this life, which is all the more reason why he couldn't take this job. Remembering something, Duncan thought to himself, “When I was still in the force, I think I remember news circulating within the precinct that the previous owner had abandoned the manor and put it up for sale, but it hadn’t been bought for a while, even till after I left.” “It seems that somebody eventually ended up buying the property and is now using it to host auctions for his wealthy clients.” Thinking about the new owner of the manor, Duncan wondered what kind of items he dealt with—could they be famous paintings or ancient lost artifacts of previous kingdoms and dynasties that had been uncovered rece

For a moment, Duncan hesitated. Like he thought before, all of this was very interesting and Duncan wanted to know more, so he was definitely tempted to accept on impulse. But in the end, reason overcame Duncan’s impulse and he resolutely declined the job once again. “Sorry lady, but I’m not interested. If that’s all, you can see yourself out.” Duncan’s rejection was final and that was supposed to be the end of the discussion, but despite his signal for Clara to leave his home, she continued remaining seated where she was, showing no indication of wanting to leave. Seeing this, Duncan frowned and asked, “Is there something else?” Clara nodded her head, answering, “There is, yes.” “What is it? Spit it out quickly if you have anything else to say—I’ve got things to do.” Duncan was already getting impatient. It took a lot of effort for him not to forcefully see Clara out, but he still urged her to say what she wanted to say so he could go on with his day. But despite Duncan’s

“What is the meaning of this?” Clara repeated. “It’s obvious, isn’t it… I’m giving you the exact things you’ve been seeking for a very long time. You didn’t really think I would come to you without making a few investigations of my own, did you?” “I had to make sure you would agree to take this job, so I pulled all the necessary stops to do so.” Duncan sat there motionless as Clara explained herself; meanwhile, his impression of her refreshed itself. Professional, collected, wealthy… these were Duncan’s earlier impressions of Clara based on the brief interaction they’d just had. But now, Duncan had added two more words that could be used to describe her: mysterious and scheming. Duncan had to admit that apart from using these words to describe Clara based on their short interaction just now, he didn’t know anything else about her. But it seemed that Clara knew a whole lot about Duncan and what goes on in his life, which is why she appeared very mysterious and full of schemes t

The box was simple and unadorned, and at first glance, it didn’t draw any attention to itself at all. It was hard to imagine that something like this actually contained a blessed object within it and that Clara would actually be carrying it around so casually. Wasn’t she afraid that something would happen or that it would be stolen by someone? Although that thought crossed Duncan’s mind, he didn’t really care about it at all. All he cared about was that it was finally in his hands and now he could potentially get rid of the curse that had been plaguing him for such a long time. Immediately, Duncan opened the box, and his eyes instantly focused on the content within. It was a round pearl the size of a ping-pong ball. It was blue and glowed with a shimmering, hazy luster like it was surrounded by a faint mist. Taking a very close look at the pearl, Duncan tried to make heads of what he was seeing, but he could not do so. Despite his knowledge, Duncan came up blank when he tried