I Can Copy Curses

Barion looked at his son deeply for a moment before he sighed.

"Alright, you are dismissed too."

This time, his voice sounded tired, in contrast to what Orion first heard when he came here.

Orion turned around and headed back without bowing. He had the thought of bowing down to his father but at the last second, he hesitated and ultimately didn't bow.

Walking out of the king's chamber, Orion relaxed a bit.

'It was much more intense than fighting an apocalypse-level monster.'

He thought and walked back towards his own residence.

The Darkwood Palace was surrounded by a square boundary. The central area housed the residence quarters, with the king's chamber situated above it. On the left and right sides were the dwellings of the servants and the guards of the family, respectively. The entrance was located in the bottom area.

Arriving in front of the room where he stayed, he looked at the door, which was as clean as ever.

Opening the door, he was met with a bed, a table, and a wardrobe neatly placed in a spacious room.

'Exactly the same as before.'

He thought his mother must have ordered the servants to make the room look exactly as it did before the day he left the family.

'It's like I never left.'

He thought for a moment, then climbed onto the familiar bed and soon drifted off to sleep.

***

The next day, Orion stood at the entrance of the palace with his friends, Lisa and her sister. They planned to go and explore the city situated ahead of the palace.

But they were waiting for their last member to come.

"Young Master, I am sorry for coming late. I was ordered by the master a minute ago about this so I came running."

Mike apologised as soon as he appeared.

Orion nodded, thinking his father was taking seriously about the matter of the assassination attempt on him.

Although he didn't think anyone would dare attack him on this planet, he felt that having Mike by his side would guarantee the survival of his sister and the others by his side.

As for him, he had countless ways to escape if something like that were to happen.

"Let's go."

Orion walked forward with Ella, holding her left hand, followed by others.

The city wasn't far from them; in fact, it was only 15–16 minutes away from the Darkwood Palace.

After a few minutes of walking along the path, they reached the city entrance. Orion's friends were surprised to see a large signboard at the top of the entrance that read 'District 1'.

"District? Isn't it supposed to be a city?"

Ryfin asked in confusion.

Orion was about to explain this to him when Mike interrupted him.

"Young Master, let me."

Orion nodded. He felt that Mike would be best at explaining the city system here.

Seeing that his young master agreed, Mike briefly explained them.

"The inhabitants of this planet, Morse, aren't just ordinary people. They are soldiers, generals, and commanders serving the Magi King of Blitz Haven. Each city is organised like a squadron but is referred to as a district for clarity. The women and children here are the families of these soldiers, living ordinary lives when they aren't on duty."

Famir, Ryfin, and Ron understood and felt it was a wonderful way for an army to live. Famir and Ryfin, in particular, were more surprised because this system was completely different from the one on Earth.

"Let's go, big brother."

Ella hastily moved forward, pulling Orion with him.

Orion smiled and walked with her.

As they entered the city, or district 1, they were instantly met with people living there.

"Look, that's Princess Ella!"

"But whose hand is she pulling?"

"I don't know. Princess Ella only came with servants or with the queen herself."

"It looks like I have seen it before somewhere."

"Fool, that's the Ninth Prince Orion. He has just returned yesterday from his journey."

"You mean that prince who doesn't—"

"Shut up, will you? He is here, which means he has passed the test and you know the requirement for the test, right?"

The people in the streets began to murmur when they saw Ella and the boy she was pulling.

Strangely enough, they called Orion and Ella "Prince" and "Princess," unlike Mike and the other servants.

Ella didn't stop anywhere and took Orion straight to where she wanted to go.

A moment later, they appeared at the market area of the city, where the streets were bustling with people.

People of all ages, from children to the elderly, could be seen roaming around, buying goods, or simply moving about.

Ella still didn't stop and at the end, they found themselves standing at the front of a toy store.

The toy store appeared quite big, with hundreds of toys scattered around—yes, scattered around on the ground. Not a single toy was put on a wreck; in fact, the shop didn't even have a wreck to begin with.

At the top of the shop was a board that read, 'Have Skill, Take Toys.'

Orion was surprised to see a new store here. Five years ago, he didn't remember seeing a store as strange as this one.

"Big Brother Orion, I want that toy."

Ella pointed straight at the far end of the shop, where a huge teddy bear the size of Ella was sitting, leaning against the wall.

Seeing that, Orion smiled and thought that she still liked teddy bears even now.

"Princess Ella, are you here to taste defeat again?"

An old man, probably the shopkeeper, walked over to them. He appeared to be in his fifties, with a white beard contrasting with his bright red hair, which showed no signs of grey.

"Old man, this time I have come with my big brother, so you better be ready to give that toy to me, humph."

Ella said, her hands on her waist as she fiercely looked at the old man.

Orion still didn't understand why her sister appeared so angry and looking at the toy she pointed at, it was clear that she wanted the toy.

Also, by how quickly she brought them here along with her talk with the old man, he speculated that she had come to this shop many times.

'But she still doesn't have the toy.'

With how rich their family was, it was impossible that they couldn't buy the toy, so money wasn't the question here.

"Tell me, how do I buy this toy?"

Orion posed the question this time. He felt that the problem lay with the shop itself.

"You are Prince?" The shopkeeper asked, looking at him.

"I am Orion."

"Ah, Prince Orion, it's my pleasure to meet you," the shopkeeper bowed down to him in greeting.

He then explained what troubled Ella about buying that toy.

"Prince Orion, you see, all those toys have a batch number on them."

Orion saw all the toys carefully and he indeed noticed that all the toys here were marked with a specific number.

"The number on each toy determines the difficulty of getting that toy and in Princess Ella's case, the number is 89, which means the difficulty of getting that toy is hard considering the highest difficulty is 100."

The shopkeeper explained some things about the toys and the numbers placed on them, from which Orion finally understood what type of shop this was.