"Wh—What? Have you been Cursed? How? And your eyes? How does that even work?!"
For the first time in quite a while, Klad was actually flustered. He expected the stump and the patch to be battle scars, like from the man he had met on the army before.
But this? Klad was definitely not expecting a flesh-eating Curse when he met her.
"Ha! No need to be so surprised kid, when you are in my business, you see all sort of Curses."
"All sorts? What do you mean?"
"I mean what I said. A Curse can manifest itself in many different ways, or more like, it will be different for each person. Especially after the Execution, before that it's a bit… strange."
"What do you mean by Execution? And what's the difference between a Cursed One and a Curse? Also how do you stop your Curse from progressing? Is there other fate than you getting devoured by the Curse?"
"He—Hey, too many questions Klad! I will answer only once, after all this information is not cheap and you haven't even joined us yet. But I'll give you a small piece of it, just to show you my goodwill. I'll answer any question that I know of, but just one. After that you can choose whether to join us or not, what do you think?"
'Why is everyone so stingy about their knowledge? I get that it is rare to come by and that the inquisitors do a pretty good job at hiding it but come on. In any case, there's only one question I need to know the answer.'
"How can you heal — no, how can you remove a Curse from someone?"
"A hard question. I don't know, most will say that after a Curse is cast, your fate is set in stone, and the Execution is the only fate that awaits. But I disagree, I… have some intel that leads me to believe that the nobles have a way of removing a Curse."
"That sound too good to be true. But it would make sense that they kept it hidden from the rest of the population."
"Exactly. Besides we don't get to know of many nobles or high-ranking merchants that get Cursed you know? Even with our intel there doesn't seem to be any Cursed among them. Suspicious isn't it?"
"I suppose? I never thought much of Curses among the high-ranking society. Was busy with my own plate."
"Yes. So what now Klad? I answered your question, I don't know if I can get you a healing method or artifact, but I give you the possibility that if we find one, I will let you know and if it's an artifact I will lend it to you. I won't ask why you want to know, even though I'm curious and you don't seem Cursed at all. But that beside the point Klad, what do you say?"
'Okay so I'm currently on a dilemma, which one should I go with? If they know I'm working with the city guards they will definitely kill me. But if I tell them and the Officer knows I double-crossed him I will also get killed.'
Klad stayed in silence for a few moments, contemplating which of his current allies was his best option and after not so much time deliberating he finally reached a conclusion.
'The redheaded it is. She gave me more information and even a possible solution. The Officer does not seem trustworthy at all and didn't even give me information at all. Okay, so like the roulette if I am going with cherry, I should definitely go all-in.'
Klad raised his arms in surrender and spoke slowly.
"You got me then. I'm joining you guys, but first I think there's something you should know."
"Great Klad. What is that I should know?"
Klad clenched his teeth and prayed for the best.
"I'm actually working with an Officer of the city guards. They asked me to join you in exchange of information about Curses. You are not angry at me right?"
She simply tied back the missing section of her arm and spoke nonchalantly.
"Angry? I already knew that though. That was why I let you inside to talk with me."
"You knew?" Klad said surprised. "And you spoke with me? Why don't kick me right after entering?"
"Oh poor Klad, you know nothing about business do you? Why would I kick someone who has connections with Officer Bert?"
'Bert? So that was his name?'
"But don't you already have people inside of the city guards? Is this Bert that important?"
"You don't know do you? He's the highest-ranking officer in the city. You know what that means? One misleading tip you give him, and we can steal whatever we want."
"I don't think is that easy, besides how do you even know I'm working with him? I thought he didn't tell anybody about our deal."
"He didn't, but it was pretty obvious that something was up. My contact at the guard station told me that he saw you two enter a room and after a few minutes of talking he came out and you went straight to my place. I just had to connect the dots."
"I guess when you put it that way it makes sense. But I can't give him a misleading tip though, or at least not in the near future. He will arrest me and my family."
"So what? You can hide with us, and I don't think you care about your drunkard father and nonexistent mother."
"I don't. But I reeeeally like my freedom so I would like to leave that as last resource."
"Fine by me. Well welcome to the Gang Klad. How about we go and meet the rest of the guys?"