The God of Jesters

Chapter 26: 2.04.3 A mistake.

At the moment when the talks were going on between Maxim and Maisel.

Remira was busy exploring the city, following the tune of her blood from one street to another.

Experiencing different forms of life living their life ignorantly.

This is what she liked to do often.

The blood of Radiance is not something simple. It has various functions from burning off curses to enhancing the physique of an individual.

But among all the abilities it possessed, its most powerful one was to sense things.

Through it, Remira was able to find the inscribed piece of wood under Farhad's bed and even decided to leave the gates of Lucien for the same reason. Her blood gave her the warning that something bad might happen if she stayed there for longer.

And if she walks the streets of this city, who knows what else she can find.

Curses are being born every day and everywhere.

Even a dying cry of an individual can turn into a curse, following its victim, tormenting them.

And these are the kind of curses that Remira likes the most.

As it gives her a window to the kind of individual a person is.

Just like the lady that sells roasted corn on the side. She looked like the epitome of kindness as she sold some corn to a couple of kids.

But on her back, there was a tumor growing.

Illusory and jumping between real and unreal, the tumor pulsated slowly with a red hue. As if it was draining all the vitality of the old woman.

Remira wondered what this old woman would have done in life to be a carrier of such a parasitic curse.

But she was not the one to get nosy. Each curse has a story and this one might have one as well. It's better to let it be.

And so, she went on. Ignoring the small-time curses that she usually saw in the public through the help of her blood.

There was nothing important. Just curses and the stories that Remira made in her mind depending on the curse.

Like the curse of a phantom that took the shape of a child and followed a man. A child that kept crying but no sounds came out of its mouth.

Then there was a curse that took the form of a floating head of a woman, that attached itself to a man who seemed to be sleep deprived and barely able to function at his job.

But there was nothing that Remira could do, not at the moment at least.

Nor did I wish for Remira to do anything.

Things were going great for these people. For I have followed them before and after they got the curse for a while now.

She might have made the stories in her own head. But I don't wish for her to ruin those stories.

To me, it was all comeuppance for their crimes and mistakes.

A woman that killed her drunk husband as he leeched off her for money like a parasite. His dying curse is what caused the tumor.

The man with the baby on the other hand was even more disgusting. He was one of the very few that kidnapped children.

And for a while now, he had been selling babies that he stole to a particular noble. As for what that noble does, this man doesn't care.

It's why his curse is the worst one, even worse than the tumor from before.

As for the third curse, it's the funniest.

It's just a woman that out of anger over rejection tried a hexing ritual where she was successful in putting a hex on her target of affection.

And the only way this hex can be broken is if this man starts to love her.

Which was impossible considering that this man swung the other way. And hence his curse turned out to be the most tragic one and in some sense funny.

The girl that likes him placed a hex on him but he doesn't like girls. Nothing can be more poetic than this.

It's why I don't plan on letting Remira ruin any of those.

I am just glad that her mind is still focused on the death of Farhad, completely forgetting about Gregory street.

But I shouldn't be happy, for my plan has also backfired.

The man that was meant to spice things up has now started to work along with the core participants. Making things easier on their end. Something which would be detrimental to a hero's journey.

The heroes need to go through struggle and hardships, only then would their win mean anything.

If things become easy to accomplish, there would be no spice left in life and everything would be boring and bland. And I hate bland things more than bad ones.

So I can't let that happen, no matter what happens.

But all was not lost for now. There were many more participants in this plan than just Radiance.

And one of the participants just walked past Remira, attracting her attention.

"What is that?"

It was rare for Remira to be so dumbfounded by something. And it was the first time she ever saw a curse as bad as this on an individual.

"Just a child?"

The child was just plain looking, there were no flashy mutations or phantoms following him. But his whole body glimmered with a dark hue, giving goosebumps to Remira.

This kind of curse has the power to manifest in reality. And one would only see so many curses in individuals that deal with dark magic and the occult.

But how can a child be related to any of those things?

'I need to find more.' There wasn't a delay from her front, but sadly, she was a bit slow. As she turned around, there was one. No child to mention.

But Remira knew it was not an illusion. Her blood was still reeling from the stimulus received from the utter corruption covering that child.

"Different than before. There are others."

The City of Durum didn't look as simple to Remira anymore.

The child that disappeared, he was here for her. She was sure of it.

Otherwise, if it was an accidental meeting, there would be no need for that child to disappear out of nowhere.

She was being followed by multiple parties at that. At least that's what she understood from this situation.

The reason for it is simple as well. The ability to hide between the two parties was like heaven and earth. Her previous stalker was harder to detect and follow up on when compared to this boy that just ran away after she detected him.

'So which one is more involved with the death of Farhad.'

She wondered, completely being thrown off by the third party whose goal was something she cannot even expect.

Such a wonderful coincidence that she would meet that boy here. He was not even on his job or pursuing his goal. He was just here to do some groceries shopping and look what happened due to it.

The boy probably didn't expect to meet one of the dangerous enemies in the market.

Of course, who would in his situation? To his knowledge, there was a meeting going on between the Radiance and his target. So why would one of the Radiance members be so carefree?

There must be something wrong going on here.

Or so the boy thought as he left to inform his handler of this matter.

I wonder what this third party in the play will be able to achieve, but I am looking forward to the time they turn center-stage.

For now, I can't expect this group to achieve much. Not the kind where it would pose any problem to Farhad's father and Radiance dogs.

Which means I would need to do something personally.

It was time to visit that old man again.

*****

Kariut, the descendant of Lucien and an Archmage of insect denomination. He was the current Headmaster of Lucien Adobe and the longest living headmaster of this academy in all of history.

Being someone on such a pedestal for so long, he had turned a little arrogant with time due to his experience. And rarely would one find anyone in the mage community that had anything good to say about this old man.

But even if that was the case, no one would think the old man was pretty active in the occult community as well.

His incest lineage of magic was already considered dark arts, so being in occults was not so far-fetched if one were to think about it.

It was one of the reasons why the old man was so against Radiance from arriving in the City.

That and one another thing.

"This fog?"

With his weak body, he was barely able to hold himself up with the staff. The old man stood straight, straying away from the fog that surrounded him as much as he could.

"No.. Stay away." He cried waving his staff at the fog that was slowly approaching him from all sides.

On his face, there was the expression of pure horror, lacking any spine like he had when facing Remira before.

Just a weak old man with an inhuman amount of fear.

Kariut can see it, the hands of the dead wishing to drag him into the fog. Just like the legends mentioned.

"Stay away... not now..." He cried out loudly, fearing the eventuality of all life.

Death is a part of life and everyone has to face it one day.

But to the old man that has lived for more than a century, even that was not enough.

He wished to live more.

He wished to experience more in life.

He wished to experience things that he had never before.

It was why I came to him.

And for the same reason, I was here today.

With a simple swipe, I held the flailing staff of the old man with my slender arms, while the fog divided into two parts making way for the great me.

The Maestro of plays, who wore a bright red and yellow suit of a Joker My face was painted white with a cheap cap with horns made out of cloth barely holding on to the cap.

It was I, the Jester.