"What do you say?" Festus asked, flashing a gentle smile as he waited for Ace's opinion on the condition he just proposed.
Ace was just about to agree to Cyclops's terms when Delores hesitated for a moment, then swiftly glided closer to him. Without warning, she clamped a hand over his mouth and cut in, "Give us a few minutes to think this through."
Before Cyclops could respond, she shot up into the clouds. The moment they were out of earshot, she activated her innate curse tool's sound isolation effect, ensuring Festus couldn't eavesdrop. Then, she whirled on Ace and hissed, "Have you lost your mind?" Only then did she remove her hand from his mouth.
Ace scowled, "I should be the one asking you that!" He turned fully to face her, irritation flashing in his eyes. But when he caught the genuine concern in hers, his voice softened slightly, asking, "What's wrong?"
Delores crossed her arms trying to seem detached as she questioned, "You were about to agree to the last term he proposed, weren't you?"
Without hesitation, Ace nodded saying, "Yeah. What's wrong with that? It's a win-win condition."
Delores scoffed, shaking her head saying, "It's a win for him and a loss for you." Her tone dripped with disdain as she began breaking it down for him, "With his expertise in curse crafting, he'll have no trouble unraveling the mysteries and secrets of your consumable curse tools—without ever needing to study your innate curse tool. Meanwhile, you, with your absolute lack of curse crafting knowledge, won't be able to make use of the arts and techniques you're exchanging them for. You'll have to find a mentor just to understand them." She leaned in slightly. "You see where I'm going with this, right?"
Delores, in her own way, was reminding Ace that Cyclops hadn't added this condition to make the deal fair—he'd added it to tip the scales in his favor. Once Ace realized he couldn't master the curse-crafting arts and techniques on his own, he'd have no choice but to seek out a mentor. And thanks to the condition that neither of them could share the exchanged knowledge without the other's permission, Ace would be left with no choice but to get Cyclops permission to find a mentor.
And Cyclops wouldn't just give that permission for free—it would come with demands. If Ace's consumable curse tools proved valuable enough, Cyclops might even offer to mentor him directly, ensuring that Ace remained under his influence.
Delores believed Ace wasn't seeing any of this with his focus locked on securing the knowledge behind his consumable curse tools, blind to the long game Cyclops was playing.
Listening to Delores's concerns, Ace rolled his eyes, his expression filled with amused contempt. "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," he scoffed. "You really think I'm that clueless?"
Delores just stared at him her indifference masking the seer disbelief she was feeling right now.
Smirking, Ace threw his hands up. "Look, I don't wanna brag, but I'm way smarter than I am handsome—and I'm pretty damn handsome. I don't think I'll have any trouble picking up curse crafting on my own." He paused, then added with a playful grin, "If Janice can learn it, I know I'll be fine."
Delores studied him for a long moment before shaking her head in exasperation.
She could bring the horse to water, but she couldn't make it drink. She'd done her part as the responsible adult—what happened next was on him.
Some people only learn from their mistakes, not from the experience of their elders. And Ace was definitely one of those people.
"Your funeral," Delores muttered, steering the board back toward Festus. This time she did not wrap her arms around him, so Ace had no choice but to cling to the board for dear life, pressing himself against it as they sped forward.
Festus took one look at them and smirked, throwing Ace a sleazy grin, "What happened, young man? A Couple's spat?"
Delores, already frustrated, threw caution to the wind and snapped, "That's just sick, you disgusting bastard! He's young enough to be my great-grandchild!"
She'd had it with this one-eyed asshole pushing the idea of her and Ace together. Then, as if remembering something even more infuriating, she turned her glare on Ace, silently blaming him for ruining her name and image in the curse community.
Ace, sensing the shift in hostility, laughed nervously, apologizing to Festus in her place, "Hahaha, don't take her too seriously. My great-grandma forgot to take her pills today, so she's a little on edge. I apologize on her behalf."
Before Delores could kick him of her board in retaliation for calling her his great-grandma, he hurriedly hopped off her board, putting some much-needed distance between them.
"I'm rooting for you, little dude," Cyclops chuckled before getting back to business. "So, what's the decision?"
"Let's sign a curse contract to make it official," Ace said, his spirits high. Then, taking a little liberty, he asked, "You don't mind if I draw it up, right?"
"Great idea," Cyclops exclaimed, happy to hear Ace agree with his conditions. Then, nodding vigorously he gave his consent to Ace to draw up the curse contract, "Sure, go ahead."
Ace grinned before shamelessly asking, "You wouldn't happen to have a curse contract on you, would you?" He had only learned about the curse contract through Dame Wasp he had never seen one in person. Apparently, they were very expensive.
Without missing a beat, Cyclops pulled out a parchment scroll and tossed it over explaining, "Here. Human-skin ones work best for curse contracts."
Ace caught it without hesitation though a little disgusted to hold it after all it was dried-up human skin, not letting his disgust show on his face, he gave the one-eyed man an approving nod agreeing with him, "You're the expert."
With that, he sent the scroll into Dame Wasp's toy space in his cursed toy box without actually summoning it, for her to draw it up for him.