The Strongest Curse Master

"There you go, all done now. I will be sure to see you at the funeral. But you must not forget to send me the timings and the location," Agent Marcus merrily said to the boy.

He appeared to be in a much better mood while exiting the building with the boy than he was while he was entering it with him. He couldn't help but truly reflect that the words 'talking to someone will indeed make you feel better' were possibly the wisest words in the world. He also felt that Matthew's rather brief dossier was entirely wrong about the boy.

That dossier had made him out to be an entirely arrogant and deeply rebellious young man, but after having just spent some time with him, Marcus could very easily tell that the boy was an incredibly humble and exceptionally polite young man who still respected and truly valued his elders. Agent Marcus therefore decided that he would add his own personal observations to the dossier even if it were the very first thing he did after he was back from his current suspension.

"Got it. Have a good day, sir," I bid my final goodbye to Agent Marcus. Honestly, I was quite relieved that I had finally managed to get rid of the very talkative Agent Marcus.

I had found out that once I stopped actively talking to him, having learned what I truly was after, he seemed to have grown even more eager to open up and deeply share with me about exactly what had happened after he managed to escape from the curse terrorists and return to the local C.I.B. branch headquarters. He definitely does not look or act like it, but he could certainly be one heck of a chatty Cathy.

There was actually nothing at all eventful about what he revealed. Everything was precisely as I had assumed it would be, except for the very serious fact that Agent Marcus's curse caster's innate curse tool was also tainted by taboo toll. As a direct result, the Cyclops immediately lost all his interest in that cursed tool.

To make matters even worse, he didn't even bother to make a single offer to purchase the curse tool and instead went so far as to publicly declare it was completely worthless to absolutely everyone, except for capable curse casters and those who were prepared to commit a terrifying act of genocide just to launch a single sky-tier curse spell. He even advised the C.I.B. to officially declare the curse tool as a forbidden curse tool and lock it away forever in their deepest vault.

Agent Marcus, who had painstakingly gotten this curse tool after having lost a dear friend and almost dying in the process, simply could not accept the Cyclops' brutal appraisal of his curse tool. He totally lost his calm and yelled, pointing furiously at the Cyclops. He claimed that the one-eyed man was openly lying and secretly conspiring to destroy the market competition so that he could buy the curse tool for next to nothing when everyone else in the world had already lost all interest.

According to Agent Marcus himself, he was completely out of line and his subsequent suspension was entirely deserved. He was immensely grateful that the Cyclops did not actually hold his actions against him and instead even went on to demonstrate that his initial appraisal of Marcus's curse caster's innate curse tool was completely accurate all along.

Agent Marcus then sincerely apologized, but the damage was already done, and he had obviously ruffled far too many feathers. This was enough to make him genuinely fear that after he returns from the suspension, he might be transferred to the infamous Frozen North branch of the C.I.B., which is known for being the most exceptionally beautiful but dangerously volatile place in the entire mortal world.

Fortunately for him, the C.I.B. decided against officially declaring the curse tool as a forbidden artifact. After all, declaring a curse tool as forbidden was not nearly as easy as simply saying so. It took ‌significant amount of resources and capital to properly store and legally dispose of any curse tools that were declared forbidden. And that was not a one time deal, they had to secure it and make sure it didn't fall in wrong hands.

Therefore, there were extremely specific criteria that a curse tool had to meet to be actually declared as forbidden. Agent Marcus's curse caster's innate curse tool did not even meet the very first criteria for a curse tool to be declared forbidden—that the curse tool was capable of influencing its user's mind into gravely harming the overall interests of our society. In fact, the definition was a lot more detailed than this. What constituted 'the interest of our society' alone had an entire 100-page appendix.

The C.I.B. was always very thorough in its process of declaring a curse tool as forbidden. The organization believed that Agent Marcus's curse caster's innate curse tool was not truly worth that title because the curse tool was not actually forcing anyone to commit genocide, and it was highly unlikely that a sane person would be willing to commit a genocide just to cast a sky-tier curse spell. If they did, then they were already true psychopaths and would have committed genocide regardless of whatever reason they gave for their horrible actions.

C.I.B.'s conclusion about his curse tool came as a huge relief to Agent Marcus. He had been led to believe by the C.I.B. that he owned a powerful curse tool that could have fetched him and his descendants trillions in royalties for many generations. But he was ultimately told that his cursed tool was not only completely worthless, it might also be declared forbidden and officially disposed of.

It had been one hell of a day for Agent Marcus. First, he was taken hostage. Then, he watched his partner get sacrificed. After that, he barely escaped the curse terrorists by killing the curse caster, was told he hit the jackpot, got embroiled in a whole fiasco with the Cyclops, and ultimately, got suspended.

Despite all he'd been through, he was relieved to get to keep his curse caster's innate curse tool. Even though its taboo toll made it worthless for practical use, he figured collectors would still be willing to pay a premium just to add such a rare piece to their collection.

Agent Marcus realized this as he talked about it with the young curse master, as such, he was in a better mood exiting the building for the second time today.