Chapter 27: Bitter Sweet

Rooks shook his head in response before speaking.

"I'm afraid that even the cardinal would not be able to heal something such as this. The memories of a person are stored within their soul and anything that damages it cannot be dealt with easily.

This is why I was afraid of the curse. The curse of the tribal gods can affect the souls and damage them directly, which is why they are considered so terrifying. Thankfully, they cannot inflict a curse on anyone without a cost.

Anyone that casts a curse such as this will be forced to bear it himself." Rooks explained.

~thud~

"MADAM!"

Lita directly collapsed on her knees from the shock, and her face turned pale. If even a cardinal was helpless, then there was basically no hope left for her.

~drip~

~drop~

Teardrops fell from the eyes of Lita as she broke down. But suddenly she felt something on her shoulder, which prompted her to turn around to take a look. Standing behind her was no one but Asher, and his hand was on her shoulder.

"Do not cry, mother. Even if I have lost my memories, I'll just make more. Deep down inside, I'll still be the same as before." Asher assured.

Upon seeing Lita cry, Lucius had actually become a bit panicked and knew that it was a bad path that this situation was heading towards. The best course scenario for him would be that this passed quickly and no extra deliberation was done on it.

Lucius knew that the priests had actually grasped the problem correctly about the memories of the soul. The only thing they got wrong was the fact that there was no soul in the body to begin with, before Lucius took over.

Thankfully, it seemed like his injuries had disguised it well enough and that combined with the lack of knowledge about soul theory made it so that the priests developed a misunderstanding.

"Young Lord Asher is right, madam Lita. It would not do well for you to dwell on the past and would only cause further pain. Just be thankful that the Goddess has bestowed her grace and allowed him to survive." Josef consoled.

~sob~

~sniffle~

"I thank you for your concern, kind sirs. I'll do as advised and make more of my time with him from now…" Lita replied.

Asher nodded at this, and a slight smile appeared on his face.

"We will get through this madam, do not worry." Kiana said as she helped Lita stand back up.

~sniff~

Lita wiped her face with a handkerchief and looked at the people.

"Ah, I've embarrassed myself in front of guests. This is unbecoming of the Inanis family, please pardon me." Lita apologized to everyone.

"It is fine, madam Lita. We would act the same if it was our child in the same position." John spoke.

"John is right, madam. If it was little Cia, I don't even know what I would do." Alessa added.

Having been consoled by everyone Lita felt a bit better and looked at her son again, only for a smile to appear on her face too.

"Come on, this calls for a celebration. Servants! Make preparations!" Lita Ordered.

"Sirs, I know you are in a hurry but if you would stay for the celebration, I would be honored," Lita asked.

Josef was about to speak something when he was interrupted by Rooks.

"Yes, we will madam. I would also like to ask a few more things to the young lord and get to know more about this curse. I fear that something nefarious may be happening. If something like this can happen with him, then it can happen with anyone. We need to be more careful from now on." Rooks answered.

"As you wish, High priest Rooks," Lita replied with a nod.

And with that, the plan was set and everyone became engrossed in some conversation. Lucius' plan to take a look around the city was stopped for now and he instated requested to be taken to the library instead.

"Hmm… I can see the similarities, but I'll still need someone to teach me the languages again." Lucius muttered to himself after flipping through the n'th book.

He had been trying to see if he could figure out the language on his own. Lucius wanted to get the basic logic behind the syntax so that his pace of learning would be increased. Kiana had already told him that a tutor would be ready for him the first thing in the morning and not to be anxious.

"Are you satisfied now? We should return to the main hall, the celebration will be starting soon." Kiana spoke.

Ever since he had been healed, Kiana was discovering more and more behaviors that she had never seen in Asher before. She could only attribute this to his amnesia, but she still felt as if something was wrong.

'Only time will tell…' Kiana thought to herself.

"Mm… let's head back then," Lucius spoke.

They went straight back to the main hall, where Lucius saw the tables that had been set up. For now, the only guests were Lieutenant John and his wife along with the two priests. Lita had sent out invitations for more people, but they would only be arriving at the given time.

Lita was currently looking at baby Cia with stars in her eyes.

"Goddess Etara has truly blessed us today. Not only did Asher recover, but we even got a precious new addition to the city." Lita said before lifting her head to look at Alessa, the mother of the baby.

"You two should move into the noble district quickly. I'll assign a bungalow for you two right away, and when Lord Gabriel gets here, I'll talk to him about John's position as well." Lita said.

The couple was happy upon hearing this and thanked Lita multiple times. Lucius was looking on with interest as well and glanced at the baby girl.

But he suddenly saw something which surprised him.

"Oh, my… didn't expect this…"