"What's the matter?"

"It's nothing."

Tijiling, the priestess, bowed her head slightly with an apologetic heart.

In that moment, she felt ashamed of herself for having such thoughts.

Thinking about it, the boy from the Wardanaz family had made so many sacrifices for her friends.

Just considering the meals the students of the Immortal Phoenix Tower had eaten, the priests couldn't even lift their heads in front of Yi-Han.

"I'm sorry."

"??"

Yi-Han was puzzled by Tijiling's sudden apology.

What was that about?

'Is it because they invited me to the religious order's event?'

For Yi-Han, who was already going with dark intentions, such an apology made him feel rather sorry.

"No. There's no need to apologize."

"She must be sorry for interrupting your work."

Professor Beavle Verduus said as if he understood.

How much must Wardanaz want to finish the magic stone work right now?

Having to postpone it because of a trivial promise made before, it must feel like his insides were burning.

"Ah... Then there's really no need to apologize."

Yi-Han spoke firmly with sincerity.

The temple of the Presinga Order was usually visited by many cursed people.

Some were cursed after unknowingly visiting a cursed area, or accidentally wearing a cursed artifact, and so on.

The priests of the Presinga Order kindly treated all these guests without exception, purifying artifacts and sometimes even wearing them themselves.

The last part was a bit strange, but anyway, for ordinary people who were cursed, few were as reliable as the Presinga Order.

"Priest, please help me! After wearing this bracelet, my arm turned into an undead's arm!"

"Priest! My race...! I don't want to live as a smelly dwarf! Boo hoo!"

"I went on a trip last week, and I must have touched something wrong because my skin turned into bronze..."

The carriage of the Wardanaz family, carrying the three of them, arrived in front of the temple's main gate. Professor Verduus looked at the people standing in line and said, "Interesting. It would be great for research."

"Professor, I think it might be better for you to keep your mouth shut until we enter the temple."

If he said something like 'You are a great research subject' in front of people who were already on edge due to being cursed, a knife might come flying.

"Mr. Yi-Han of the Wardanaz family!"

Priest Mehrid came running out in delight. He was wearing a strange helmet dangling above his head, perhaps having worn another cursed artifact since they last met.

"I've heard a lot about you. Thank you so much."

"No, I just did what I had to do."

Yi-Han answered humbly, but in fact, his heart wasn't as humble.

Considering the dishes he had made for the students of the Immortal Phoenix Tower, Yi-Han had the right to be proud.

"...But why is the professor here?"

Mehrid whispered in a startled voice.

Yi-Han knew that in this situation, he had to be confident.

"He came to help."

"Pardon? That professor, you mean? Ah, no... It's not that I don't want him to."

Yi-Han fully understood Mehrid's reaction.

Even Yi-Han would be quite surprised if Professor Verduus said he came to help.

"As an artifact expert, he will be helpful for this event."

"That may be true, but it doesn't seem like he would be of much help... Ah, no. It's not that I don't want him to."

'He's quite cold-hearted.'

Mehrid was a priest, but he was never the type to turn a blind eye to reality.

He was a realistic priest, after all.

"Don't worry. This time, the professor will work hard to help."

"Is that so? What happened?"

"He needs to take me and make me work quickly so he wants the event to end soon."

"..."

Mehrid looked at Yi-Han with a complex expression.

Indeed, having one outstanding mage made it easier to help with the religious order's work.

Professor Verduus sat with his arms crossed, and whenever someone came to him, he abruptly said, "You're cursed by fire!"

"Pardon?!"

"I said you're cursed by fire!"

Yi-Han kindly explained on his behalf.

"He's saying that the accessory inside the box you're holding is cursed with fire. If you wear it carelessly, you may get burned."

"Is, is that so..."

The guest who brought the accessory blinked in fear.

"Then what should I do?"

"Professor, can you handle it?"

"Let me see it!"

"Ah, oh my. Thank you, priest."

"I'm not a priest. I'm a mage."

Professor Verduus took the accessory and began to remove the curse. The person who brought it bowed repeatedly, expressing gratitude.

Yi-Han got an inspiration from this.

'Hmm. This could be a business opportunity too.'

Hanging a sign saying 'We remove curses'...

The problem was the monopolistic system of the Presinga Order. Moreover, the most threatening aspect of this religious order was that it was free.

Was there any place without a Presinga Order?

"Look at this. This is the curse of burns. Can you see the pattern engraved here?"

"Even if you say that, I don't know such magic."

"Memorize it. Memorize it so that you can do it next time when the same magic appears."

"Oh..."

Yi-Han was surprised by Professor Verduus's shameless words.

It wasn't 'Memorize it so that it will help you later,' but 'Memorize it so that you can do it next time.'

Did he seriously intend to entrust the task of removing cursed artifacts to a first-year student?

'He's really crazy.'

"Try infusing some mana here."

Professor Verduus handed Yi-Han the magic tool he was holding for work. The light flickered as if the mana infused inside had been depleted.

Yi-Han grabbed the equipment without much thought and infused mana into it. Professor Verduus was very satisfied with the surging mana.

"Wow. You're good at it."

'Oops.'

When Professor Verduus made an expression of 'finding another use for him,' Yi-Han felt a sense of 'oops.'

It wasn't helpful for Yi-Han's life if Professor Verduus discovered more of his usefulness.

Crack, crack, crack!

"It's done. Take it. The curse has been removed."

"That's amazing!"

The priest next to them expressed admiration for Professor Verduus's skills.

Even the experienced priests of the Presinga Order couldn't solve it that quickly. It was truly remarkable.

"It's not amazing at all. Even a caterpillar could do it."

"In, indeed..."

As the priest was perplexed, Yi-Han thought he should just speak on behalf of the professor.

"Professor, I'll just speak for you, so why don't you focus on your work?"

"Huh? Thanks."

"This one seems impossible to remove."

Even Professor Verduus couldn't solve all curses.

The bracelet with ominous patterns engraved on it was likely to shatter if the curse was lifted.

"So it was indeed a cursed item? Damn, I had a bad feeling about it... Thank you, mage. I'll leave it here."

The person who picked up the bracelet put it down with regret.

They had come to appraise it, hoping there might be something good, but it turned out to be cursed.

Items like this, which were impossible to handle, were usually taken care of by the religious order.

Cursed artifacts were inherently difficult to deal with.

"But what kind of curse is on this item?"

As another guest left, Yi-Han stretched and asked.

"Mana emission suppression."

"Mana emission suppression? Is it like absorption?"

"It's different from absorption. Are you stupid?"

Yi-Han nodded at Professor Verduus's gentle correction of his student's mistake.

"The mechanism must be different."

The curse of mana absorption would suck out the mana of the person wearing it the moment they put it on, while the curse of mana emission suppression would limit the amount of mana that person could release.

Both were curses used to restrict those who could use mana, but the methods were different.

"May I try wearing it once?"

"Go ahead."

Yi-Han put on the bracelet.

'It's better to experience it beforehand than to suffer at Einroguard.'

If others had heard it, they would have been shocked, but Yi-Han was cold-hearted.

It was better to suffer first than to suffer at Einroguard. He could prepare a solution in advance.

"It doesn't seem to make much difference."

"Try using magic."

At those words, Yi-Han summoned a water orb.

The water orb that appeared in the air was well-controlled without any problems.

"It works fine, though?"

"Try something more complex."

"Something more complex..."

Yi-Han had already mastered the basic applications of water elements.

To go further into more difficult areas, he had to move on to evaporation or spin.

'Let's go with spin.'

The spin attribute was something Yi-Han couldn't perfectly control yet. His limit was either spending a lot of time or adding it at an imperfect level.

Swish!

"!"

Yi-Han was startled.

The water orb was rotating with a sharp sound.

He hadn't poured in an enormous amount of time, yet it was at this level?

'What the...? Could it be!'

Yi-Han grasped the situation.

For example, the curse of mana absorption would continuously absorb 1 at a time.

A person with 10 mana wouldn't last long, but a person with 10,000 mana could endure much longer.

In contrast, the curse of mana emission suppression would limit the usable mana to 10, regardless of whether one had 100 mana or 10,000 mana.

Normally, it would be a very troublesome curse, but the story was different for Yi-Han.

Usually, he struggled to control his enormous mana, but when he was forced to use only a small amount of mana, the control became much easier.

It felt like changing from heavy armor to light armor.

Swish! Swish!

Yi-Han felt a thrilling sensation as the mana flowed as he intended.

Mages experienced a near-omnipotent thrill at times like this.

Controlling the power to change the rules of the world.

What could be more ecstatic than this?

'Is this how other mages usually feel?'

In fact, it wasn't.

The reason Yi-Han could use magic relatively easily despite having so much mana was because he had the talent for it.

Now that he unnecessarily removed a large amount of mana, he felt this level of control, but other mages usually didn't experience such a thing.

"Professor, this is excellent! I didn't know there was an artifact like this... Why did Professor Garcia Kim give me a mana absorption artifact instead of this?"

"Well, that's..."

Before Professor Verduus could explain, Yi-Han's bracelet shattered.

Crash!

"..."

Yi-Han looked down at the remains of the bracelet with a bitter gaze. Professor Verduus nodded and said, "That's what happens."

"...You could have told me earlier."

Unlike mana absorption artifacts, which rarely broke, mana emission suppression artifacts broke very easily depending on the mage's capabilities.

Especially in the case of Yi-Han, who had endless mana, it was even more so.

If he used magic incorrectly even once, it would simply shatter.

To find something that could withstand any magic Yi-Han used, it would be faster to search for ancient relics.

"Still, there will be at least one more artifact with mana emission suppression function today... right?"

"Who knows? And it's not a function, it's a curse."

'Oops. That's right.'

At Professor Verduus's words, Yi-Han came to his senses.

He was too greedy...

Fortunately, three more artifacts with the curse of mana emission suppression appeared afterward.

Crash!

No, make that two more.