"Since when has a thief ever declared, 'I am a thief'? Haaa!" Ashok exhaled, as if disappointed. "You, who claim to possess knowledge—this is your first lie. You scums are a breed of idiots, blind to the repulsiveness of the deities you revere. You worship them like exalted beings, ignorant of their true grotesque and ugly nature, merely because they bestow upon you a semblance of power, a power that comes at a cost beyond your comprehension."
Karzan suddenly became furious, his voice increased "Who are you to call me an idiot? What do you even know kid?"
"Stop howling like a pig! If this place were a church, you would have been executed by now. Your furious reaction to my mockery of your god is enough to prove you a cultist," declared Ashok, and Karzan suddenly regained his bearing.
Karzan's eyes flicked to the sword in the swordsman's hand, the blade gleaming ominously, the swordsman was giving him a killing glare. He could feel the weight of the hostile glares from the Duke and the Head Butler, both of them studying him with intense, unrelenting scrutiny.
'Why are they trusting the words of a kid so easily? And how even does this kid know my identity?'
The reason everyone believed Ashok so easily more than Karzan was because of his Charisma.
Karzan's voice trembled with frustration "You seem to believe the words of a kid over mine? I know a way to cure your daughter." he insisted as he looked at Duke.
"Another Lie! You know shit." Said Ashok though inwardly he was laughing and enjoying interrupting Karzan in every way.
"Then what do you know?" demanded Karzan.
Ashok's lips curled into a confident, almost mocking smile. He leaned forward slightly, locking eyes with Karzan, his voice smooth and dripping with authority. "Since you seem so eager to know the depths of my knowledge, I'll give you a chance,"
Ashok said, his tone laced with challenge. "You and I will both tell the reason behind the Duke's daughter's comatose state. And then, the Duke here will judge who is right or wrong."
"Ha! How will the Duke even judge when he himself doesn't knows?" asked Karzan.
The Duke looked at Ashok, to see how will he respond to that.
"You will not even need to listen to my answer to judge," Ashok said, locking eyes with the Duke. His voice carried an undeniable confidence. "I can just prove him wrong in his answer."
Ashok's unwavering confidence baffled everyone in the room. The Duke, eyes filled with a mixture of hope and curiosity, simply nodded in agreement, giving his silent consent to proceed.
The Head Butler, his voice tinged with skepticism asked "Who will go first?"
Ashok turned his gaze to Karzan, a smirk playing on his lips. With a tone laced with mocking politeness, he said, "Ladies first."
Karzan's jaw tightened, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fist in frustration. Anger surged through him, but he quickly quelled the emotion. A slow, deliberate breath passed his lips, grounding him. He knew the stakes—if he was proven wrong, the consequences would be only death.
'There is no way I could be wrong' thought Karzan reassuring himself. His mind raced back to the vision he'd witnessed through the special eye granted to him by the Great One.
Karzan spoke "Your daughter is currently under a very special condition. She is suffering under the weight of a curse—no ordinary curse, it is a very special curse, rivaling a mythical grade curse. She's in a comatose state because she's locked in a battle, fighting the entity behind that curse in her mind."
Karzan's words were brief, he gave his explanation, concise and to the point, making sure there was no room for doubt. His lips curled into a faint, almost smug expression as he turned to Ashok, eyes gleaming with the expectation of a response. But the bruises and cuts on his face distorted his expression, transforming what was meant to be an air of superiority into something grotesque, almost painful to look at.
"Your Turn"
Ashok ignored him and asked the Duke "I am sure you would have hired the finest healers for your daughter?"
"Yes" agreed the Duke.
"Was Saintess of Light among them?" asked Ashok.
"Why are you even bringing the Saintess into this?" Karzan sneered, a bitter edge to his words. "If you can't prove me wrong on your own, then just accept your loss and move on."
"If you interfere once more, I Will Kill You, scum. Just stand there and shut up" said Ashok in an extremely cold voice, looking down, his gaze piercing and dismissive, as if Karzan was nothing more than a bothersome insect.
Karzan felt a shiver run down his spine as Ashok's cold, commanding eyes bore into him. Instinctively, he took a step back, his mind racing with confusion and fear. 'W-What is wrong with this kid? Why does he have eyes like that?'
Ashok turned back to Duke for the Answer. "Yes," the Duke answered, his voice low, tinged with both frustration and resignation. "The Saintess was among those who tried… and failed."
"Did the Saintess of Light tell anything related to curses about your Daughter after her examination?" Asked Ashok.
The Duke remained silent as of recalling the conversation, he then lifted his head, glaring at Karzan now with raw hostility. "The Saintess told me that she could not determine the cause of my daughter's condition, but she was sure of one thing—that it is not a curse of any kind,"
"T-That can't be. I checked her she definitely had a curse." Stammered Karzan as he said that.
"Are you saying," Ashok continued, his eyes narrowing as they fixed on Karzan, "that the Saintess of Light—a Hero who killed the Demon King fifty years ago—is lying? Someone who mastered the Light element, whose very presence can detect curses which belongs to the darkness element from miles away, is now somehow mistaken unable to detect a mythical grade curse?
You mean to say your words hold more credibility than the words of a Saintess."
"I didn't" Before Karzan the next words of Ashok shocked him to his very core.
"The Seeker's Eye."