I Can Copy Curses

All they saw were ruins—everything was destroyed and turned into rubble.

"I don\'t know. Maybe it was an attack by the demons or maybe someone from one of the seven other magi families had attacked us. It\'s difficult to guess considering it isn\'t everyday we get to see or hear someone have caused something against one of the seven Magi families." Lucy said.

She wasn\'t sure about herself so she could speculate on what could have happened.

Orion frowned upon hearing her and was about to ask something when he heard someone walking towards them.

"Shh! Someone is coming; quickly hide."

He whispered to them and they quickly hid behind the wreckage.

At that moment, they saw a middle-aged man come from the side. He was alone and was wearing a dress with the symbol of the Darkwood family.

Seeing that it was someone from their family, they sighed in relief and revealed themselves to the man.

The man suddenly became alert after seeing some people appear in front of him but when he saw that they were kids, he relaxed a bit but was still on guard.

"Who are you, kids?" He asked suspiciously.

"I am Orion Darkwood, the ninth young master of the Darkwood family." Orion introduced himself while he took out a badge and showed it to him.

"Prince Orion! I see you kids are here on that mission."

Hearing who the kids were, the man finally understood that they were the ones supposed to be here on a mission today. Because of what had happened, he had completely forgotten about the mission they were responsible for.

Seeing that the man recognised them, Orion asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time.

"What happened here?"

The man didn\'t reply to him; instead, he looked around first before he turned to Orion.

"Prince Orion, this place isn\'t safe here. Come with me to the headquarters first and then we will explain everything to you."

"Isn\'t safe?" Orion frowned, hearing him. "Alright, lead the way."

The man nodded and took Orion and his three teammates towards the headquarters.

***

After navigating many twists and turns and passing through numerous wreckages, they finally arrived in front of a bunker embedded in the ground, with only its door revealing itself on the surface.

The man went in front of the door and whispered something before the door opened itself.

"Prince Orion, this way."

He then led Orion\'s team into the door.

Orion was surprised to notice that, from the outside, only darkness could be seen when he looked at the opened door but when he came inside, it was as bright as a day.

They then walked through a staircase before they arrived in front of another gate but this one was huge compared to the one from last time.

The man also said something to the door before it opened and they walked inside.

As soon as they walked inside, a middle-aged man who appeared quite sick and thin but was emitting quite a deadly aura arrived in front of them.

"Stuart, are they the princes who were about to come for the mission?" He asked the man who guides Orion\'s team here.

"Yes, general. They are the princes who have come for the mission." The man named Stuart nodded affirmatively.

The general bowed to them first before he turned to Stuart.

"You can leave now."

Stuart nodded and left the scene.

The general then once again bowed to Orion\'s team.

"Princes, we are sorry that you had to witness the tragic fate of the Roele."

Orion didn\'t waste any time on this and asked the main question.

"How did all this happen?"

The general\'s face turned dark before he finally sighed, sat on a chair beside them and indicated that they sit as well.

Orion and his teammates sat down, as the general wanted.

"The Valen family is behind all of this."

"Valen Family?" Orion\'s face turned dark as he heard him. He had speculated on many things but he didn\'t think that the Valen family would be responsible for all of this.

"In the middle of last night, they sent someone to us wanting to take away the mana pool that we recently discovered. But we refused to give it away. It was something on our planet so this was, by all rights, ours. Also, Prince Orion\'s mission depended on this too so giving the mana essence pool was out of the question."

"However, when we refused, they sent more men and a full-blown fight broke out between us. Ultimately, they sent their troops, decimated the entire planet and took away the mana essence pool."

"We fought till the end but we eventually lost."

Orion\'s frown deepened as he heard the general. He thought that wanting to fight on just a small amount of mana essence was too far-fetched. After all, they were also one of the seven magi families; they had tonnes of mana essence pools like this just in their backyard.

"Why are they so obsessed with this mana essence pool that they even started a war with us?"

The general shook his head and said, "We don\'t know. But all of them looked quite anxious, as if they were really in need of the mana essence."

Orion felt even more suspicious as he heard him. The entire situation over the mana pool seemed suspicious to him.

"Tell me, are the people here safe?" He asked.

"Prince, you don\'t have to worry about that. The people living here are also like those in Morse." The general said:.

Orion nodded and asked, "Have you informed the main family about this?"

"We have informed them but we didn\'t receive any reply." The general said it pitifully. That was what worried him the most. He had informed the family immediately when the fight started but they didn\'t receive any response.

But seeing Orion and the other here, he probably understood why he didn\'t receive any reply.

"Prince, knowing that you are here for the mission probably means the message we sent was a failure. This could only mean one thing: the Valen Family is interfering with the mana signals we are sending through our badge."

Orion frowned as he heard him say, "Is that even possible?"

"It is. We can also do this but we would probably need a lot of preparations for that." The general said: "But we couldn\'t reverse the situation. Only the Valen family could undo what they did to our mana signals."

Orion put a hand on his chin and thought that they were really in a very perilous situation. First, they attacked and took away the mana essence pool and then they also destroyed their only way of contacting the main family. This made him wonder if they wanted something from them or... this planet?

"Tell me something: are there any things on this planet that would draw the attention of one of the seven magi families here?" He asked the general. He could only think of the reason behind their attack and everything they did after that.

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*Some gifts would be appreciated as well, but up to you.... *