Chapter 9: Onshitsu no noroi

The group finally stepped into the city of Livepao, and it was immediately underwhelming. It barely looked like a city at all, more of an overgrown village than anything else. Most of its streets weren’t even paved, just dirt roads that had been worn down by carts and footsteps over the years. There were few markets, even fewer shops, and hardly any people loitering around.

Ishi crossed her arms, surveying the quiet town.

"Seems like everyone here works for the Pao-Pao plantations in one way or another," she muttered.

Without wasting time, they followed the directions on their mission sheet toward the plantation’s administrative center. It wasn’t a grand office or even a proper building, just a makeshift greenhouse at the plantation's entrance. Inside, a few rickety tables and chairs had been set up to handle the minimal paperwork required for seasonal workers.

Sitting by a window, an elderly man sipped his coffee, staring blankly at the sky. His bony fingers trembled slightly as he held his cup, and his hollow eyes seemed lost in some distant thought. He didn’t acknowledge the group’s arrival in the slightest.

The three adventurers stood awkwardly, waiting for him to notice them. A full two minutes passed in silence. The old man didn’t even blink in their direction.

Li-Jua frowned and stepped forward carefully.

"Um… Excuse me, sir—"

Before she could finish, a cheerful voice rang out behind them.

"Oh! More workers!"

They turned to see a young girl, no older than nine or ten, standing confidently with her hands on her hips. Her short brown hair was messy but lively, and she wore a worn-out shirt with tattered pants that barely reached her ankles. A red scarf was tied loosely around her neck, flapping slightly in the breeze.

"You guys are here to work, right?" she asked, grinning.

Li-Jua blinked.

"Uh, yes… we were just waiting for someone to—"

The girl waved a hand dismissively.

"Oh, you mean my decrepit old grandpa?" she said, jerking a thumb toward the elderly man at the table. "That geezer’s completely deaf and senile as a bat."

Before any of them could react, she marched up to him and—

"GRANDPAAAAAA! WAKE UP, YOU OLD FOSSIL!"

Her voice exploded through the room, loud enough to make even Li-Jua wince.

Miller nearly jumped out of his skin, and even Ishi, who was by this time used to dealing with loud idiots, looked horrified.

"Was that… really necessary?" Ishi asked, rubbing her ears.

The girl shrugged.

"Only way to get him to notice," she said casually. "And besides, he’s been extra out of it today, maybe he finally kicked the bucket!"

She giggled at her own morbid joke, then glanced back at the unmoving old man.

"Eh. No such luck."

Shoving the elder aside with zero hesitation, she grabbed a stack of papers from the desk.

"Anyway! I’ll handle your paperwork. Name’s Pilae, but everyone just calls me Pil. So you can call me that too!"

Li-Jua, still processing the sheer chaos of this child, simply nodded.

"Uh… sure."

Pil slammed the forms onto the desk and pulled out a charcoal stick, pointing at the first page.

"Alright, basics first, guild of origin, names, and length of stay. And sign here… and here."

Li-Jua froze for a moment.

Length of stay?

They hadn’t discussed that. She glanced at Ishi, silently asking her the question.

As if reading her mind, Ishi spoke smoothly.

"We’re low-ranking adventurers looking to earn a bit of money before continuing our journey," she said. "Two weeks should be enough."

Pil nodded and gathered the forms.

"Perfect! Finish filling these out and meet me behind the greenhouse, I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping. You start work tomorrow morning."

And just as quickly as she appeared, Pil disappeared out the door.

Li-Jua narrowed her eyes at Ishi.

"Two weeks?" she asked, crossing her arms.

She knew how powerful Ishi was. If she wanted to, she could have obliterated the entire plantation in an instant. Why stay for so long?

Ishi smirked.

"As you said, I could destroy everything right away," she admitted. "But we do need money for the road. So we’ll work for a week to earn our wages."

Li-Jua nodded, following her logic.

"After that," Ishi continued, "I’ll start setting up mana support points. This plantation covers an enormous area, if I want my time acceleration spell to affect every single Pao-Pao fruit, I need to prepare magical anchors in advance."

"How long will that take?"

"Three to four days," Ishi said. "So by day twelve, we’ll be ready to strike."

Li-Jua thought it over, then nodded.

"Fair enough."

With their paperwork finished, the trio followed Pil to their new lodgings.

It was… less than ideal.

Their sleeping quarters were inside the plantation’s stables, just three makeshift beds of hay and cloth tossed together in a corner.

"Don’t complain! It’s warm, dry, and you’re not sleeping outside."

She clapped her hands together.

"Alright! You guys rest up, tomorrow, you start your shift in the fields!"

With that, she skipped away, leaving the three adventurers alone.

Ishi yawned and stretched.

"It’s not that bad," she said, lying down.

Li-Jua shrugged and followed suit, Miller didn’t said a word.

And with that, the group settled in, preparing for their first day of work among the Pao-Pao fields.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

The group spent their entire days harvesting Pao-Pao fruit, following Pil’s strict directions. The young girl might have looked small and carefree, but she ran the plantation’s workforce with an iron will. Nobody slacked off under her watch, not even Miller. By the time night fell, the three of them were so exhausted that they barely exchanged more than a grunt before collapsing onto their hay beds.

When the eighth day arrived, they finally received their wages for a week of grueling labor. The payment wasn’t much, but it was enough to help them on their journey once they left Livepao.

Now, with the money secured, Ishi moved on to the next step of their plan, placing the magical support points throughout the plantation. Everything was progressing as expected…

And yet, Li-Jua couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

At first, she couldn’t put her finger on it. It was just a nagging discomfort, a sense that something about this place didn’t add up. By the time their midday break arrived, she couldn’t keep her thoughts to herself anymore.

She approached Ishi, lowering her voice.

"Hey, Ishi. Tell me I’m not the only one who thinks something weird is going on here."

Ishi raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

Li-Jua exhaled sharply, crossing her arms.

"First of all, Pil’s grandfather. That decrepit old man was supposedly in charge of this whole plantation, but he’s been completely absent for eight days. Sure, Pil is running things well enough, I won’t deny that, but doesn’t it seem strange that the supposed 'boss' hasn’t checked in even once?"

Ishi tilted her head, considering it.

"I suppose that is odd…"

"And then," Li-Jua continued, voice dropping lower, "there’s Miller."

Ishi blinked.

"What about him?"

Li-Jua scoffed.

"Oh, come on. You really haven’t noticed?!" She gestured toward Miller, who was in the distance, silently picking fruit like a mindless drone. "That dumbass hasn’t complained once since we arrived. Not about the work, not about sleeping in a stable, not even about me hitting him."

Now that was alarming.

Miller was loud, obnoxious, and constantly either pissing Li-Jua off or flirting with Ishi in his own moronic way. He was a pain in the ass, but that was normal.

For him to be this quiet? To accept everything without a single sarcastic remark?

It was beyond unnatural.

Ishi frowned.

"You’re… right," she murmured. "I guess I was so busy working, I didn’t notice… But now that I think about it, he’s been acting like a zombie."

"Exactly!" Li-Jua hissed. "And you know what? I’m so used to his constant bullshit that the lack of it is actually pissing me off."

Ishi nodded slowly. She didn’t like this, not one bit.

Li-Jua crossed her arms again.

"Listen. Let’s finish what we came here to do and get the hell out as soon as possible. Tonight, we’re talking to Miller. We need to figure out what’s wrong with him."

That night, after everyone settled in the stables, Li-Jua and Ishi confronted Miller.

Li-Jua didn’t bother with subtlety.

"Hey, you single brain cell, red-haired moron, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Ishi, though more concerned than irritated, softened the approach.

"We’re worried about you, Miller," she said gently. "Are you okay?"

Miller… didn’t answer.

He just sat on his makeshift bed, staring blankly at the stable wall. His eyes were dull, his posture rigid, and there was no emotion on his face whatsoever.

Then, without a single word, he lay down and closed his eyes, as if they weren’t even there.

The two women stared in horror.

Li-Jua felt a cold chill crawl down her spine.

"…Ishi?" she whispered.

Ishi swallowed hard.

Then, in a trembling voice, she said what they were both thinking:

"Li-Jua… Miller is an idioooooot, but I don’t want him to dieeeeee."

Her nose was running now, her voice shaking as she wiped at her eyes.

"He’s our companion!" she whimpered.

Li-Jua sighed, rubbing her temples.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." She placed a firm hand on Ishi’s head, patting it in an awkward attempt at comfort. "We’re not letting him die. But first, I need to figure out what’s wrong with him."

Ishi sniffled.

"So… what do we do?"

Li-Jua’s eyes narrowed.

"I’ll keep watch over him tonight," she decided. "You get some rest. I’ll see if there’s anything… off about him while he sleeps."

Ishi hesitated but eventually nodded.

"Alright… Just wake me up if something happens, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Now go to sleep before you start bawling again," Li-Jua grumbled.

Still sniffling, Ishi curled up in her bed and fell asleep almost immediately, her exhaustion finally winning over her worry.

Meanwhile, Li-Jua stayed awake, her eyes fixed on Miller.

Something was seriously wrong.

And by morning, she intended to find out exactly what.

The morning sun cast its golden light over the stables, creeping through the cracks in the wooden beams. The scent of fresh hay and ripe fruit mixed with the crisp air of dawn.

As the warmth of the sun gently stirred her awake, Ishi stretched with a quiet groan. Her body ached from the previous day’s work, but her mind was laser-focused, today, she needed to continue setting up the magical support points.

Still half-asleep, she stumbled toward Li-Jua, who had been awake all night, sitting beside the silent and unresponsive Miller.

"…So?" Ishi muttered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Did you find out anything?"

Li-Jua exhaled sharply, shaking her head.

"Nothing."

She sounded frustrated.

"I tried healing spells, even restoration magic, everything I could think of, even though I already knew this dumbass has inhuman regeneration. But I had to try."

Ishi frowned.

"And?"

"Nothing worked," Li-Jua repeated, her expression dark.

She looked at Miller, whose blank stare remained unchanged.

"But I did discover something."

Ishi straightened.

Li-Jua’s eyes narrowed.

"His Megalopassive is deactivated."

Ishi’s breath caught.

"Wait—what?!"

Li-Jua nodded grimly.

"And that shouldn’t be possible," she continued. "Megalopassive abilities don’t just turn off. Not unless they’re suppressed by another Unique Skill, something on the same level as my Dispel. And even then, it would only be temporary."

Ishi’s mind raced.

Megalopassive was innate, like a constant buff that couldn't be turned off under normal circumstances.

"Something’s blocking it," Li-Jua murmured. "And it’s got nothing to do with magic. It’s… something inside him. His brain waves, maybe. But whatever it is, I don’t understand it."

Ishi gritted her teeth.

They were in way over their heads.

Li-Jua sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"As I said yesterday," she muttered, "let’s finish our job and get the hell out of here." She glanced at Miller, her expression conflicted. "Maybe once we’re far away from this place, I can figure out what’s wrong with him."

Ishi took a deep breath, then nodded.

"Alright. I’ll speed up the installation of the support points. If I push myself, I can finish by tomorrow."

"Good," Li-Jua said. "The sooner we’re out of here, the better."

With that, the two women left the stables and returned to their work in the vast fields of Pao-Pao fruit.

Just outside the stables, hidden in the morning shadows, a pair of sharp eyes gleamed with curiosity.

A young girl pressed herself against the wooden wall, listening intently.

She had been there for a while. Eavesdropping.

Her lips curled into a mischievous smirk.

"magic support points…?" she whispered to herself.

Her small hands clenched into fists, excitement dancing in her brown eyes.

"Interesting, girls."

Pil’s grin widened as she crouched lower.

"Now what exactly are you up to…?"