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"Ah, well that’s due to an agreement with the merchant guild and the lord of Orchomenus." The bartender explained. "The lord can only buy a certain amount of the available stock, a large portion is put aside for civilian use. The issue is that Sir Redmond apparently goes around the Orchomenus merchant guild’s back and purchases most of the supplier’s stock before they ever get into the town."

"If it’s that big of an issue, why hasn’t the lord or merchant guild done anything about it?" Merlin asked.

"Well, there is apparently a great deal of corruption within the merchant guild, and they’d rather avoid paying tax wherever possible, so the lord has only received news of the stock shortage recently." The bartender continued, "I’ve heard that there has been a meeting scheduled with the lord of Orchomenus, the leader of the merchant guild in Macedonia, and the leader of the Orchomenus branch of the merchant guild. So there may be changes to the situation, but I wouldn’t count on it."

Merlin thanked the bartender for the information, but as he began making his way out of the building, the bartender spoke up once more.

"One more thing, don’t ever utter the word vampire in his presence." The bartender warned, "The last person who joked about him becoming one because of his sudden change in behaviour was executed."

Merlin nodded to show he understood before making his way out of the mercenary guild. He started walking towards the market area, following the information the bartender provided him.

He continued piecing together the rumours while staying on the lookout for a noble’s mansion. While playing back the bartender’s words in his mind, the rumour of the servant who was thrown out caused bad memories to surface. He was confident he knew who the servant was, and it was also why he was currently feeling guilty again.

Shaking away the thought, he started thinking about Sir Redmond’s personality. From what he could gather, Sir Redmond was a typical tyrannical noble who abused his power for personal gain, but seemed to also be extremely paranoid. Taking extreme measures such as locking himself away in his mansion, becoming nocturnal because he feared being defenceless in the dark and even throwing away, or potentially executing, those who even remotely disobeyed his orders.

Although the priestess had said Sir Redmond suffered a similar ailment, he didn’t know for sure that it was the same, but his symptoms alongside his behaviour almost confirmed it to be the case. It could also be why the ghost was exclusively around Orchomenus, but that could also be just because the gravestone was there. This raised another question in Merlin’s mind, why didn’t Sir Redmond just move to another town or city if this was the case?

Too many questions began forming, but he wasn’t receiving any answers, it was at this moment when his eyes locked onto a large building next to the market area. What stood out especially about this building wasn’t that it was the only one with a wrought iron fence or large garden, but that every single room was illuminated.

Unlike most buildings in the area, where they’d have at most one or two lanterns active indoors, or most residential houses where they’d have one lantern or candles for providing light at night, this building had at least eight rooms facing the street, all of which were illuminated.

Merlin walked through the main gate, there was nobody standing guard and the gate was open, so he just made his way towards the door. He glanced towards the garden that was barely illuminated by the light coming from the windows and the streetlights.

There was a large section in the middle of the garden that looked as if it had been vandalised. The garden soil was displaced, it appeared that several plants had been forcibly ripped out without any care some time ago. The rest of the vandalised patch just had snapped flower stems that were covered in thorns, as if the person ripping the plants out gave up mid-way and resorted to hacking the flowering parts off instead.

As Merlin approached the door, he could hear movement from within the building. And within a few seconds of knocking, someone had approached the door on the opposite side. The door swung open, revealing a woman wearing what looked to be some kind of maid uniform.

"Excuse me, do you have an appointment with Sir Redmond?" The maid asked as she inspected Merlin’s attire.

"Hello, sorry to bother you at this time of night." Merlin spoke while trying to come off as friendly as possible, "I had the pleasure of speaking with the priestess not too long ago and she had suggested that I meet Sir Redmond."

"I believe he’d understand if you told him about this." Merlin pulled up his sleeve, revealing his blight-ridden arm to the maid, who looked upon it with a shocked expression.

"Please excuse me for a moment." The maid uttered before closing the door and scurrying off.

A few minutes later, Merlin heard footsteps behind the door, they progressively got louder until they stopped at the door. The door began opening once more, and the maid who he spoke to previously poked her head out from behind the door and spoke a single phrase. "Please, come in."

Merlin pulled his cloak off, throwing it into his inventory as he stepped into the building, his long white hair was now flowing freely instead of being shoved behind a hood. The same maid who spoke with him at the door began leading him towards Sir Redmond’s position. He climbed a flight of stairs, and made his way down a fairly long hallway, most of his attention was currently spend counting how many lit lanterns he had walked past.

"Here we are." The maid spoke one last time as she opened the door into what looked to be an office, and just from Merlin’s perspective in the hallway, he could already see two lit lanterns within the room.

As Merlin walked into the room, his eyes locked on an old man with dark circles under his eyes, and an arm that was wrapped in bandages like a mummy. The room itself was simple in design, there wasn’t much furniture that wasn’t strictly functional, and the room smelt strongly of coffee and tobacco.

"Well, what can I do for you?" Sir Redmond spoke up first, it didn’t seem like he was pleased with Merlin’s presence, but if that were the case, then why did he allow Merlin to enter his mansion at all?

"Good... evening?" Merlin was a little confused as to what to say at first, seeing as it was practically midnight at this point. "I was informed that you suffer a similar affliction to me, and was wondering if you had any further information about it, or a potential cure."

"I was also generally curious if your contraction of the curse, or disease, was similar to mine." Merlin continued, "Would you spare me a few minutes of your time and tell me anything you know about the curse, and of the monster who caused it?"

Sir Redmond stared at Merlin’s arm for several moments, before he began unwrapping the bandages on his own arm. As the bandages fell away, what they revealed was an almost black mummified arm.

"I never found a cure, I’m sorry to say." Sir Redmond’s voice had deepened slightly, "I haven’t found anything that fights against it, no manner of curse removal, not a single herbal remedy, nothing."

Merlin was a little shocked to hear this, as he had positive effects with medicine baths, although this could have possibly been because of his regeneration abilities due to his status as an otherworlder.

As Merlin began asking more questions about the ghost herself, he unintentionally wandered closer to him. After a couple steps, his cursed arm began stinging with a slight burning sensation, this feeling was followed by a notification window that appeared before him.

「"The Redmond’s Curse" quest has been updated.」

"What?" Merlin blurted out uncontrollably, this was usually the message one received when something drastic changed or a hidden aspect of the quest was revealed. He quickly checked his quest to see what had changed, and upon reading it again, his eyes locked onto the warning section.

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[Uncommon Quest]

The Redmond’s Curse.

It seems a prominent noble has been afflicted with a similar sounding curse, although his mental state has declined quite a bit, he is still a man to be reckoned with.

Perhaps he has found a possible cure to the affliction, or maybe he knows the curse’s origin story, either way, a conversation with the man would benefit you greatly.

Speak with Sir Redmond about the undead monster.

• Warning: When two or more individuals who have been infected by the monster enter close proximity with each other, the monster becomes restless.

• Reward: ???

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