Chapter 101: The Place Where Curses Vanish
Early the next morning, Ren was still fast asleep when Mei Mei dragged him out of bed.
She knocked on his dormitory door and, the moment he opened it in his pajamas with sleep still clouding his eyes, greeted him with unmistakable enthusiasm.
"Well then, no time to waste."
She clasped her hands together and smiled brightly.
"Today, we'll be carrying out our very first mission together."
"What?"
Ren immediately snapped awake.
"Is this the mission for my Grade 1 promotion evaluation?"
"No."
Mei Mei shook her head cheerfully.
"It's your first assignment as a Special Consultant of Blackbird International Security."
She tilted her head.
"Don't tell me you've already forgotten. We do have a contract, after all."
As if prepared for precisely this moment, she produced a copy of the agreement and lightly tapped it against his face.
Ren suddenly felt that something about her demeanor had changed.
During the past two days, she had been all smiles and persuasion, coaxing him into cooperation with honeyed words. But now, there was a subtle sense of authority behind her confidence-the air of someone holding all the cards.
"Get yourself ready."
Mei Mei placed both hands on his shoulders.
"This mission is far from ordinary."
"Two Grade 1 sorcerers have already gone missing while investigating it."
"What?!"
Ren was fully awake now.
"Hey."
Mei Mei's lips curved upward.
"Don't look like a pig that's just been marched into the slaughterhouse."
This time, she patted his cheek not with the contract, but with a soft, fair hand carrying a faint, elegant fragrance.
"Relax."
"I'll be going with you."
"Consider this a rehearsal for our future joint assignments."
Her smile widened confidently.
"With the two of us working together, whatever enemy is waiting for us won't stand a chance."
At ten o'clock that morning, Ren boarded Mei Mei's private helicopter and accompanied her to the mission site.
During the flight, he reviewed the intelligence package she had shared on a tablet and gained a rough understanding of the situation.
The client was one of Japan's wealthiest tycoons, a billionaire whose fortune was worth hundreds of billions of yen.
The incident centered on a private estate belonging to his family.
More than half a month earlier, the tycoon's eldest son had hosted a gathering at the estate.
The party had lasted four or five days.
But strangely, not a single guest ever emerged afterward.
Even more disturbing, everyone who had attended vanished without a trace.
The billionaire immediately contacted the police.
On the very day the report was filed, several officers entered the estate to investigate.
They disappeared as well.
Not one of them ever made contact again.
What made the case truly bizarre was that throughout the entire incident, the officers stationed outside the grounds never heard a single sound from within.
No screams.
No gunshots.
No signs of struggle.
No evidence of combat.
It was as if every person who stepped inside had simply evaporated into thin air.
The case was eventually classified as a supernatural incident, and through her connections within the police force, Mei Mei accepted the commission from the billionaire client.
A week earlier, two Grade 1 sorcerers employed by Blackbird International Security had entered the estate to investigate.
Though they were trained sorcerers, they met the same fate as every ordinary person before them.
To this day, there had been no word from either of them.
Standing before the sprawling estate hidden deep within the mountains, Ren frowned deeply.
Ancient trees surrounded the grounds, their dense canopies casting long shadows over the property. Even beneath the bright morning sunlight, the place radiated an eerie, oppressive gloom.
"You've got to be kidding me, Mei Mei-san."
Ren looked toward the silver-haired woman.
"My very first assignment, and you throw me into something this dangerous?"
"Fine steel should be used where it matters most."
Mei Mei smiled calmly.
"A powerful sorcerer like you should be assigned difficult missions."
"Sending you to exorcise Grade 3 or Grade 4 curses would be a complete waste of your time, wouldn't it?"
She clasped her hands behind her back and continued smoothly:
"Besides, high-risk missions come with higher rewards."
"I'm doing this entirely for your benefit."
For my benefit?
Ren glanced at her smiling face.
More like for the thirty-five percent commission you'll be taking.
"Well then, enough small talk."
Mei Mei stepped forward and pushed open the wrought-iron gates with a creaking groan.
Then she turned back and extended her free hand toward him.
Ren blinked.
"What?"
"To prevent any possibility of separation."
Her smile remained perfectly composed.
"If our opponent possesses some kind of isolation or displacement ability, it would be safer for us to enter while maintaining physical contact."
She tilted her head slightly.
"We're partners, aren't we?"
"Partners should stay closely connected. United as one. No distinctions between us."
The moment Ren's slender, fair hand settled into her palm, Mei Mei's fingers curled around it firmly.
Watching the faint blush spread across the boy's face, she smiled inwardly.
Just like Ui Ui.
Young boys really can't resist the charm of a mature, attractive older woman.
This was an excellent beginning.
She would keep him firmly within her grasp.
And once she did, he would never-ever-slip away.
Holding Ren's hand, Mei Mei strode gracefully into the depths of the estate.
A thin layer of mist drifted through the chilly grounds.
The instant they crossed the threshold, both of them instinctively turned their heads to check on the other.
When they confirmed that neither had vanished, they quietly relaxed.
"Looks like there's no separation effect."
Mei Mei raised their clasped hands slightly.
"Or perhaps it simply can't divide us while we're in this state."
She glanced sideways at Ren.
"Should we let go?"
The playful emphasis in her voice made the phrase sound deliberately ambiguous.
"As a precaution, I think it would be safest if we continued like this."
"What do you think?"
Before Ren could answer, she laughed softly and continued forward, confidently leading him deeper into the estate.
Ren followed behind her.
The slight resistance coming from his hand felt less like genuine protest and more like hesitant embarrassment.
Two hours later, however, Mei Mei was no longer in the mood for playful teasing.
The two of them had searched the estate from top to bottom.
Every room.
Every hallway.
Every outbuilding.
Every inch of the grounds.
And yet they had found absolutely nothing.
No survivors.
No bodies.
No traces of struggle.
No clues whatsoever.
If a curse had devoured the missing people, there should have been a curse present.
Yet the entire estate stood eerily empty.
There wasn't a single curse to be found.
"Isn't the absence of curses itself abnormal?"
As they walked hand in hand through a dim corridor, Ren voiced the thought that had been bothering him for some time.
"It is."
Mei Mei's expression grew serious.
Curses born from human negativity existed in staggering numbers.
Powerful curses were rare, but weak curses were everywhere-so common that most sorcerers simply ignored them.
Trying to exorcise every low-grade curse in existence would be like attempting to eradicate every insect on the planet.
The effort would exhaust humanity long before the job was finished.
Yet inside this enormous estate, there wasn't even a single weak curse.
Not one.
The silence felt unnatural.
Like the sudden disappearance of birds before a storm.
Like insects abandoning an area before an earthquake.
Like animals fleeing before a volcanic eruption.
Such emptiness could only mean one thing:
Something far more terrifying was lurking nearby.
The problem was that if an extraordinarily powerful curse truly existed here, its presence should have been impossible to miss.
The overwhelming miasma of cursed energy alone would have alerted any sorcerer immediately.
There was no way either Mei Mei or Ren could have overlooked such a thing.