Frankly, that was probably only hopeful thinking.

Deklan wasn't entirely sure about that.

None of the abilities in his arsenal is considered a spell, as most of them were devoured skill—from the Ghosts he captured. If he wanted to really count one as a spell, then there's the Breeze Affinity, which was similar to utilizing a spell.

It also extended the mana from his body to manipulate the breeze in a fixed range around him.

But that's still not considered a spell since it still drew the mana inside his flesh, not Mana Veins.

"Don't even think about learning more than three spells," Kaelyn intervened.

"Huh?" Deklan looked at her with his mouth agape, "I didn't even say anything."

"I can see it clearly on your face. You can't even use a spell properly, and you're already thinking about going overboard."

"Oh," Deklan nudged her outstretched foot teasingly, playing with it. "Are you worried about me?"

"No, that's entirely not the case," Kaelyn folded her arms and closed her eyes shut tightly, clearly more than annoyed by his behavior—and tease. "I am worried that I wouldn't be able to stop you if you turned into a Zombie."

"Is it a habit of yours to never speak what you truly feel?" He continued with his teasing.

"Stop it!" Kaelyn kicked his foot away with a rough huff. "You'd better worry about how you can perform a spell as normally as possible. Did you forget already? You had to turn a basic Binding Thread spell into a cursed spell. How did you even do that?"

"Something about my Mana Veins," Deklan leaned back.

Just thinking about the awakening ritual made him curse inwardly.

He had to bother with the aesthetics and accidentally triggered a cursed method.

"I used candles for my awakening ritual, and that somehow turned my Mana Veins into a cursed one. It was an accident," Deklan sighed, shaking his head at his own stupidity. "Had I not done that, it would've been all good."

"Wait a minute," Kaelyn stopped him, confused. "Awakening ritual?"

"Yep. What's wrong?"

"What do you mean awakening ritual?"

"It's self-explanatory. It's a ritual to awaken my Mana Veins. I did it before we entered the inner area."

"You didn't have Mana Veins before that?"

"No…? If that was the case, then how did I end up getting exiled by my family?"

Kaelyn sucked in a cold breath, looking at him as if he were someone who didn't come from this world.

It was an established rule that anyone who don't awakened Mana Veins naturally would mean they were not destined to be Exorcists. But Deklan, who was supposedly one of those people, could undergo a ritual to forcefully awaken his Mana Veins.

That should be impossible.

Something like this should be impossible, but Deklan said it like it was no big deal.

"C-Can you tell me how to make the ritual?"

"For what? You're already an Exorcist."

Deklan was perplexed, but then, he remembered that Kaelyn wanted to rebuild her clan to power.

Having this ritual would exponentially hasten that process.

"Let's not rush it, shall we?" Deklan smirked a little—knowing that this was a big deal for Kaelyn, and there was no chance he would hand it to her that easily. "If you're asking for things like this—aren't you worried that you're giving me a bad impression?"

"R-Right…" Kaelyn quickly recovered. "I apologize."

She was too stunned by what she heard that she lost herself for a moment there.

It was simply a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and her mind was blinded by that sheer fact.

"No need to fret about it," Deklan waved his hand. "I'll eventually give it to you. As long as you keep teaching me how to become a proper Exorcist, then I will have no choice but to give it to you. Now, let's focus on the moment. Do the thing."

Kaelyn knew what Deklan was talking about.

He wanted her to teach him the sequence for using the Purify and Aegis spells.

For the next hour or so, Deklan learned those two fundamental spells and memorized the sequences.

Just like Kaelyn said, memorizing the sequences barely has an impact on his mind.

Even a low-talent Exorcist would be able to memorize the spells, so they're nothing for Deklan.

"But still, how are you going to mask your cursed Mana Veins?" Kaelyn sat back down again, confused as to how Deklan would find a way around this. "The Exorcist Association doesn't view kindly anything related to curses. You're going to be put down if they knew."

"What's up with that?" Deklan frowned.

He wasn't expecting his blunder to bring him more trouble than he expected.

"Cursed things often use a catalyst to perform, and most of the time, the catalysts are lives or blood."

"Huh, that made sense. I can't use my arm after using the Binding Thread spell."

Deklan also didn't know how to go around these Cursed Mana Veins of his.

But he remembered something.

I think I have the S-grade Spellcraft item, maybe that can help.

Regardless of how he'd cover up that flaw of his, that's not the most important thing for him to do right now. He needed to take out this hunter—that was sent by his little brother, but the problem was that he didn't know how this hunter looked, how strong this hunter was, or even where the hunter was.

Finding the answers to those things are the utmost importance right now.

"Say," Deklan turned towards her, staring at her seriously. "The Jinketsu Clan produced assassins, right?"

"Y-Yes…? A lot of things the kingdom said weren't true, but that part is correct," Kaelyn nodded.

But it was obvious that she was confused as to why Deklan suddenly asked that.

It came out of nowhere.

"You must have contacts with other assassin factions, old allies who still owe you a favor," Deklan said, his gaze fixed on Kaelyn, reading every flicker in her expression. "And you trust me enough to know I am not your enemy. So… do you know a few assassins that I can hire?"

"I… do, actually," Kaelyn stammered with an evident frown, not knowing why he needed to know this. "But for what exactly? Do you want to kill someone from your family?"

"No, nothing like that. I need to overpower my family, make them listen—killing them would achieve the opposite," Deklan turned away, his gaze settling on the night-bathed scenery behind them. He has no intention of doing that to his family.

He couldn't be exact.

Even the face of his little brother gave him a heartache.

Despite being in a new body, the previous Deklan's emotions were still present.

"This is to deal with a rat who might be following us," Deklan added.

"A rat?" Kaelyn's voice tightened. "How could you know that? I haven't sensed anyone."

Knowing that she was walking around with the eldest daughter of a noble, Kaelyn had been extremely alert to her surroundings. Deklan might be relaxed and fervently believed that nobody would recognize him, but she didn't.

She kept her eyes and ears open, and even then, she found nothing suspicious.

"Just a hunch," Deklan replied, his tone leaving no room for doubt. "And my hunches are rarely wrong."

Since the system already issued a quest, this hunter must already be on our trail.

Moments later.

Deklan opened his eyes.

It has been hours since they last spoke, but the night was still prevalent.

Across from him, Kaelyn was already sleeping—she was leaning onto the wall, but her hand was firmly placed on her katana. In case there was a sudden attack, she would instantly be ready. Besides, Deklan could also tell that she was only half-asleep.

Must be a habit.

Being a fugitive meant that death could come at any moment for her.

And being only half-asleep became a habit.

Deklan silently leaned his head out of the carriage, looking around sharply to see any movement.

Right now, the carriage was following along a paved road that was big enough for two carriages at the same time. Flanking them was rough flatland with uneven ground. The right side in particular is more uneven than the left.

Someone could be hiding behind the mound at this moment, and Deklan wouldn't know.

"Pumple…"

Upon calling that name, the mark on his arm hummed with a private, resonant energy.

It exploded with a surge of energy like a released beam, shot out of the carriage, and plunged into the paved road below. Where it struck, the stone fractured and soil erupted, forming a fresh, earthen grave right in the middle of the path.

From that unnatural mound, Pumple emerged, already waddling with purpose toward the mount.

I can still summon Pumple and even Sasaki easily. Is there no downside to having the Ward in me?

[There is, host. It won't generate Spooky Dollars.]

Fuck… I should've known. This is outstanding!

[I'm glad you think that way, host.]

You know it's sarcasm, right? It's not outstanding!

Deklan massaged his forehead and waited for a little bit as Pumple investigated the mound, making sure that nobody was on the other side. It was really convenient to have Ghosts to summon, as he didn't need to do everything by himself.

About fifteen minutes later, Deklan almost fell asleep.

He's a Ghost on top of a Human, but this fleshy body still needed to sleep.

It was hard enough to stay awake and wait for Kaelyn to sleep, so this was rather torturous.

Not that Kaelyn couldn't help, but she's a fugitive, and it's best for her not to make too much noise.

Boink!

Deklan flinched when Pumple suddenly leaped onto the carriage, scaring him with its Eerie Smile skill.

"Fucking hell, can you not do that?! I almost had a heart attack!"

Instead of feeling guilty, Pumple only leaped up and down as if it was happy to startle Deklan.

Glancing to the side, Deklan sighed as Kaelyn woke up because of this.

"What's that?"

"My first ever Ghost. His name is Pumple."

"So, that's why you named yourself Sir Pumple?"

"Hey, we're still on that? Just drop it already."

Deklan nudged his chin towards her, signaling for Pumple to introduce himself to her.

Like a cute pet, Pumple turned towards Kaelyn and boinked his way towards her.

"He's rather cute…" Kaelyn hesitated for a second.

She wanted to touch Pumple, and Pumple even encouraged her to do it, but she eventually restrained herself from doing that. No matter how cute—Pumple looked, it was still a Ghost, and she knew better than anyone that no Ghost is good.

As Kaelyn was still inspecting Pumple carefully, Deklan stood up.

"Where are you going?" She suddenly asked, seeing that Deklan was stretching his muscles.

"As I said, we're being followed," Deklan glanced at her and smirked. "I'll check first. I'll give you a signal if I need help."

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