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“Well, I know you two are friends. I know, but… no matter how I look at it, your friendship is too strong.”

Yelena recalled what her husband had told her about Sidrion.

‘He told me that he was originally a priest, but now he isn’t. They met again by chance and got along, so they became friends.’

That was the gist of it, but truthfully, it was hard to understand the friendship Sidrion displayed, which was more like devotion, from just that.

“How did the two of you become close?”

Although Yelena was speaking as if this was an investigation, the feeling that dominated her at the moment was curiosity.

Sidrion was currently the only person who considered himself a friend of her husband’s.

Naturally, she couldn’t help but be curious.

“…A long time ago,” Sidrion began, after some deliberation. “I received help from him.”

“Help?”

“Back when I was still a priest.”

Unexpectedly, Sidrion did not particularly seem like he was recalling fond memories.

Yelena shifted her weight to lean forward and set her crossed arms on the table.

“What kind of help did you receive?”

“…He helped me quit priesthood.”

“Seeing that you’re calling it ‘help,’ I presume you found your time as a priest rather unpleasant.”

“Yes, I did.”

Perhaps it was a difficult time that could not simply be described as ‘unpleasant.’ Sidrion’s hidden backstory seemed darker than expected.

Yelena debated prying a little more, but she decided to just stop.

She would be able to hear a more detailed account if she dug deeper, but she didn’t really want to force someone to open up about their past.

‘But maybe not if it was a happy story.’

She was

curious about things relating to her husband, but it wasn’t unbearable.

Yelena released her arms and sat comfortably.

“Well, all right. In any case, my husband is your savior. Then I suppose I understand your devotion.”

“Thanks for the artifacts. I’ll put them to good use. I’ll be sure to use them as much as you lost sleep to make them for me.”

Sidrion laughed wryly, as if he found the ‘lost sleep’ part ridiculous. “It wasn’t to that extent.”

“What are you talking about? You won’t be able to live long if you neglect sleep. Make sure you get some rest when you go back.”

Yelena knew that skipping a mere night’s sleep didn’t make the skin under one’s eyes that dark. She wondered just how many more nights he didn’t get proper sleep.

After thinking such thoughts, Yelena spoke suddenly. “Oh, before you leave.”

“…?”

“Let me ask you something. Do you happen to be well-versed in black magic?”

“Black magic?”

Yelena had heard about how difficult it was to create artifacts. It usually took multiple sorcerers several days to create one artifact. Thus, artifacts that were in the market were expensive, even if they were not very efficient.

Seeing a pile of such artifacts on the table, Yelena realized just how much of a genius sorcerer Sidrion truly was, an unrivaled master of magic.

Yelena thought that if that was the case, perhaps he was also well-versed in black magic.

“I am confident that my knowledge about it is more extensive than the average person’s, but… what are you curious about?”

“If you practice black magic, does your body give off a foul odor?”

Yelena remembered the stench that came from Incan’s body, the gross smell that had pierced her nose, and later turned her stomach over and given her a headache. It was a stench that she had never smelled before in her life.

Once she was certain that Incan had practiced black magic, she naturally came to connect the two things.

“A foul odor, you say… I’m not sure. From what I know, there is no confirmation that black magic causes a foul odor.”

“Is that so?”

“But it is quite possible. In ancient times, some people practiced black magic with a corpse at their side.”

“A corpse?”

“A decomposed corpse, at that.”

Yuck.

Yelena creased her forehead, disgusted.

“It wasn’t for just a day or two. They had to live with it for as long as a fortnight. It’s possible that they were not able to remove the odor from their bodies.”

“The stench of a rotting corp…” Yelena mumbled quietly as she recounted her memories.

‘Was that the smell?’

Truthfully, she didn’t know for sure, since she had never even smelled a rotting corpse.

Yelena nodded.

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