Silence filled the room as the nameless official stared coldly at Klad, without a hint of amusement in it.
'Maybe I should have waited until he heard some intel before asking.'
After a couple of moments, the officer rested his elbows on the table as he intercrossed his fingers.
"What are you planning to do with that information?"
Silence filled the room as Klad quickly deliberated what to tell the now even less amusing officer.
"Why is that important? How bad can it be that no matter how deep I dig there's not even a small trace of an explanation!"
"Silence." The officer said in a low but commanding tone. "You don't have an idea of what you are treading with. Even the smallest of this information can lead to catastrophic consequences."
'Damn it! I Don't get it! What's so ominous about being Cursed? Granted, you sick people near you, but that's it. A couple of archers and there's nothing a Cursed can do! There's a lot of information I'm missing.'
"And yet you still need what I know, don't you?" Klad said with a nonchalant tone, portraying a confident image to the officer, who was oblivious to the fear growing inside him.
"Fine." He said after a while "I will tell you what I know about Curses and Blessings, but you will have to get me first the information I want."
"That seems fine to me. Can we start trading now then? I will tell you a bit of what I know."
And so Klad proceeded to explain what actually happened on that night, gracefully avoiding the parts where he stole money from the casino.
"That's it? I thought you would give me more information."
"What do you mean that's it? This is a lot of good intel! They have a Follower in their ranks! There shouldn't be many of them in a city like this in the first place, doesn't that narrow your search?"
The officer tiled his chair backwards and crossed his arms as he begun to talk.
"That's the issue, there's not a single registered Follower on the Alz. So there's not much we can do about it. We will take the description you provided and search for her, even though the odds don't seem favorable."
"Great. Can we proceed to my answers then?"
"Fine. Though I promised to give you a bit only. What exactly do you wish to know? I advise you to be more specific than before."
Klad thought for a couple of moments.
'There's a lot of things I want to ask! Yet he makes me seem like I'm asking for all his family savings!'
Klad sighed and asked what he had been wanting to know the answer for the most.
"How does one heal a Cursed One?"
The officed raised an eyebrow and then shook his head.
"You don't."
Cold sweat filled Klad.
"What d—do you mean you don't? There has to be a way!"
He yelled while slamming his hands on top of the table.
"Kid. Stop pushing your luck. I won't pry into your situation, but we have only been taught that once Cursed, there's no going back. There are some workarounds, but not a cure."
"Wait? A workaround? Tell me!"
A small smirk came from the officer's lips.
"Okay, where is your payment?"
"Really? You need more than what I gave you?"
"Of course. So what else do you know?"
Klad had some more information he hadn't given to the officer, but he knew that they would do more against him than in his favor, so he decided to keep silent.
"What do you wish to know? I will get the information you want as we agreed, so you better have answers."
"I am a man of my word after all. I don't know about you, though. I need to know who they are, maybe a name or descriptions. Also if they intend to do another underground operation such as that one I want to be informed in advance."
"That's it? You don't want to know the other underground gambling locations?"
"No." He shook his head. "We have certain… reasons for which we can't burst into them and arrest everyone."
"Do they have you guys… bribed?"
"What?! I would never accept money from those guys! No, they have very powerful wizards among their ranks, and worse yet, the Lord had some issues with our budget, so we are severely lacking manpower."
"That is why you want to wait for another raid? So you can kick them while they are already on the ground?"
"Exactly."
"Fine." Klad stood up and headed for the door. "How should we trade the information next time? I assume this is not a very discrete location."
"I will handle that. For now, just go, we have attracted enough attention."
"As you wish boss." Klad said and opened the door passing through the populated barracks and left the building, heading to the next step of his operation.