Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam

Before dawn arrived, cheers erupted in a room in Fireplace Bay Town. A bald man jumped up from his chair in excitement, almost neurotically shouting, "It worked! It worked!"

In front of him lay an open ledger, with a pile of dazzling exorcism tools next to it.

Additionally, there were three jars of inhibitors, which were already consumed, leaving a sticky black line at the corner of this disheveled man’s mouth.

He gestured wildly, "The curse has been lifted!"

A woman who entered the room upon hearing the commotion looked at the man’s state with a flash of disgust in her eyes, but she quickly buried her emotions. She sat across from him, crossed her legs, and asked, "You’ve worked hard. The higher-ups are very interested in this ledger. You’re an expert in this area, and they want to hear your opinion."

"Ha! This is a trade secret. Right now, you can’t find even three people on the entire continent who can separate a curse from its cursed item!"

The man held his head high, intoxicated by his own success. By extracting the curse from the ledger, he felt he had reached the pinnacle of life with a technique even the Reception Bureau didn’t possess. It had originally been his research direction in the department, and yet a genius like him was kicked out by the former director over some trivial violation.

Now, look who’s the one laughing in the end?

The director who fired him had long been dead, while he had finally turned all those theories into reality.

Those fools didn’t understand the greatness of this technology. If they could extract curses, it would mean they truly controlled the power of the Evil God!

The man could already envision his name being written in history books, worshipped by countless future generations. freewebnσvel.cѳm

"The Father of Cursed Objects, how does that title sound to you?"

The woman frowned and glanced at the overly excited man, explaining, "We have no intention of probing your trade secrets. We just want to know the cause of the cursed objects and whether such incidents will occur again."

The consortium seeks stability and cannot allow a few cursed objects to ruin the entire industry.

"Ah, you mean this? It’s an extremely low-probability event."

The man waved dismissively. He wasn’t interested in the origins of the ledger and said, "The essence of cursed objects comes from human obsessions. If a similar situation arises next time, just kill those commoners before they learn the truth. However, if your superiors are interested in artificially creating cursed objects, we can start a long-term collaboration. I’ve done some experiments in this area while working at the Reception Bureau’s research department."

"I’ll relay your message to the higher-ups."

"Tick-tock, tick-tock."

The woman wanted to say more, but her words were interrupted by a sudden faint sound.

Was that... water?

Why would there be water sounds?

She looked up and saw droplets falling onto the bald man’s head. Then, outside the window, the sky was enveloped in a blood-red hue. Although Fireplace Bay is perpetually shrouded in darkness, such a scene was unprecedented.

What terrified her more was that she hadn’t noticed when this anomaly had appeared.

The water sounds and the blood-stained sky appeared suddenly, as if time had abruptly jumped while she conversed with the man.

Chilled to the bone, she was yanked back to reality and looked again at the bald man. He was still in his previous posture, as if explaining the numerous benefits of cursed object research to her, but he could no longer utter a sound.

The man’s entire body had turned into an ice sculpture, and she hadn’t detected when it had happened.

Another frightening thought crept in.

Only a few seconds had passed, yet she felt the man had been silent for a long time.

Then, an icy sensation touched the back of her hand, something falling onto it, sending shivers down her spine and instinctively making her reach for her gun. As she turned to her waist, her ice-sculpted right hand stopped just before reaching her weapon.

What... kind of magic is this?

Her mind lingered on that last thought.

Then, even her thoughts froze.

...

"Hiss—! Why is it suddenly so cold!?"

The guards at the doorway shivered abruptly.

His colleague standing with him reflexively hugged his shoulders. This cold was unusual, more biting than the winters they’d experienced during the Empire’s northern front war. He wanted to say something, but the extraordinary sight halted him.

The two guards exchanged bewildered glances, uncertainly asking, "Was the floor wet before?"

A second ago, they could hear the expert on cursed objects speaking animatedly, but now, the entire corridor was plunged into silence, broken only by their breathing.

Both guards confirmed their mutual foreboding. Drawing their swords, they summoned the courage to push open the door.

The room was empty.

The expert on cursed objects and the envoy sent by the consortium’s higher-ups were gone, but the water indeed was seeping from the room, wetting the floor, with ice chipping away at a pace visible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, Riverside Town was deadly silent.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock."

Hearing a sudden sound nearby, the woman standing in front of the mailbox with a smiling mask turned to look.

The space before the teleportation magic node twisted to a point, and from the distorted space, a woman wearing a swirling mask emerged, "It’s over so quickly, huh."

The smiling mask woman seemed slightly disappointed, quietly muttering, "Tch, it went so smoothly."

The woman in the swirling mask lightly flicked her left hand, tossing over a ledger and a glass jar containing an unknown mass of flesh.

Holding the jar in her hand, the woman with the smiling mask suddenly noticed something interesting, her tone turning excited, "Oh? What’s this style? Where did that bouquet come from? Did you handle the target holding this bouquet just now? Bought from Fireplace Bay’s magic goods store? It looks quite decent. Come on, how much did you spend?"

"Boyfriend’s gift, do you have one?"

The answer and the subsequent question landed firmly and resoundingly.

That hit directly stunned the woman with the smiling mask, locking her expression and making her unable to smile anymore. She angrily let out a battle cry, "Where did you get a boyfriend? Even if you have one, so what? I’ve lost count of how many men I’ve dated. We’re not even in the same league!"

"Did any of them give you flowers?"

The smiling mask woman couldn’t believe it, her eyes widening. She stammered for a long time before blurting out, "You! Are you insane!?"

This witch’s mind must be burnt today; why has she suddenly become so aggressive?

Studying the witch closely once again, she realized the witch’s aggression not only appeared in her words but also seemed ready to shoot fire from her eyes.

Her momentum weakened instantly, she shrank back, "Wait, have I offended you recently?"

"The advice you gave me before, was that a lie?"

"Huh? What advice?"

"To tie someone up, lock them in a basement nobody can find, and let them open their eyes to see only me every day, why wasn’t he excited at all when he heard that, but instead looked very disgusted?"

The witch questioned and... threatened her, "If this damages my image, you deserve a cold arrow."

(Next week is the third round + intelligent push together, probably the most crucial week of the new book. I sincerely ask everyone not to hoard books, please support with a read-through. Thank you so much!)