I Can Copy Curses

Chapter 154: 154. Ring and Bottle

"For Princess Ella to get the toy she wanted, she has to play a very easy game but she has already failed three times in a row before. So, Prince Orion, are you up for it?"

The shopkeeper looked at Orion and explained the reason why Ella seemed to be angry at her.

"I didn't lose. It's just that the game of yours is flawed."

Ella refuted it as soon as the shopkeeper told Orion about her.

Orion shook his head and looked at the shopkeeper.

"What is the game about?"

Orion's interest piqued unexpectedly. He felt a curious connection to the game, suspecting that if anything in this world resembled Earth, it might be found in this shop.

"Follow me."

The old man then led them to a different room, which was more like a long hall than a room. At the far end, Orion could see bottles arranged at different distances, side by side.

"You see these bottles; they are placed at the exact same distance as the number placed on the toys."

Orion observed the hall for a moment and confirmed that indeed, there was a bottle placed 89 metres away from where they stood. Alongside it, many other bottles were placed at various distances throughout the hall.

From the look of this, he got the gist of how this would all play out.

The shopkeeper then took out many rings the size of his palm and showed them to Orion.

"To get the toy one wants, one would simply have to put a ring on the bottle marked with the toy number. Also, one cannot use mana or their talent here to place the ring on the bottle. I will be able to sense it if any of you use mana so it's better if you don't try to cheat your way through."

After the shopkeeper explained everything, Orion thought that this was indeed like those games on Earth.

"Big Brother Orion, you have to be careful. This game is just so hard."

Ella reminded Orion to be careful of the game, to which he nodded. If he wanted to cheat, then there were probably not many who could see through him.

However, before he could try and see if it was really as difficult as Ella described, someone took that chance from him.

"Let me try first."

Ryfin stepped forward and put his hand forward towards the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper looked at Orion, to which he only shrugged.

Seeing that Orion didn't mind, the shopkeeper gave Ryfin three rings.

"Take the three. You have only three chances. If you can't do it, then you won't get any more chances."

Ryfin nodded and took the rings before he turned his attention towards the bottles.

Looking at them for a full minute, he shouted and threw one of the rings towards the 89-number bottle.

"Go."

The ring flew through the air towards bottle number 89 but it suddenly slowed down and stopped at the bottle near bottle number 69.

"What? How does that happen?"

Orion also raised his brow, seeing how quickly the ring slowed down after flying at such high momentum.

"Did you see that, Big Brother?" Ella pointed at the ring. "That's what happened to me when I came here a few days ago."

At that moment, Mike looked at the shopkeeper with a smile, to which the old man silently nodded.

Everyone missed the silent gesture between the two of them, their attention solely on the arrays of bottles before them.

"Again."

Ryfin, feeling unsatisfied with his previous throw, arched his body backward slightly and threw the ring with all his strength towards bottle number 89.

The ring hurtled towards bottle number 89, but just when it seemed about to reach its target, it suddenly gained momentum and overshot the bottle, slamming into the wall at the far end.

"Damn, what kind of game is this?"

Ryfin cursed, seeing how the ring sped up in the end.

Orion put a hand on his chin as he pondered hard about this.

'The ring sped up when Ryfin threw them at a fast speed but it slowed down when he threw them at an average speed.'

He realised it was all a matter of speed and control. One would have to perfectly time the ring's speed to match the momentum around the bottle; otherwise, the result would be exactly what happened to Ryfin.

"Your last chance."

The shopkeeper reminded Ryfin.

Ryfin calmed himself down and thought for a moment before he once again threw the ring but unlike the previous times, he threw it casually towards bottle number 89.

The ring slowly flew towards its target, entering the range around the bottle, which caused it to slow down. But it didn't immediately stop and kept floating towards the bottle, but just as it was about to encircle it, the ring stopped and fell to the ground.

"What the hell?? How could it be?"

Ryfin couldn't believe the ring just fell to the ground at the last possible moment.

For a moment, he thought the shopkeeper was cheating but when he recalled they were from the army, he scrapped that thought.

"Well, I give up."

Ultimately, Ryfin moved his hands up in defeat. He felt that one would need an ample amount of training before one would really be able to accomplish something like that.

"Prince Orion?" The shopkeeper turned to look at Orion after Ryfin gave up.

"Alright, give me the rings." Extending his hand, Orion asked for the rings, which the shopkeeper kindly gave him.

Orion then looked at all the bottles, wondering if he should first try normally before using his curse to get what he wanted.

In the end, he ultimately decided otherwise.

Activating the curse of Electrostatic Disruption, Orion threw one of the rings towards bottle number 89.

The ring hurtled through the air and ultimately landed on the bottle, surprising everyone in the hall.

"Big Brother Orion, you won!"

Ella jumped in excitement that she could finally get the toy she had wanted for a long time.

Meanwhile, Ryfin's mouth was as round as a sphere because of the surprise. Only he understood what it would take for someone to do that on their first try.

'I guess it's his day.' He thought.

The shopkeeper also narrowed his eyes at Orion, for he didn't see him use mana and because of this, he felt unbelievable that someone could easily do this trick.

"How did you do it?" He asked.

Orion smiled at him, seeing his surprised expression.

"It must be my lucky day," he replied. Though only he knew how he accomplished that.

He smoothly controlled the ring through his Electrostatic Disruption so much so that one wouldn't be able to see through if the ring was affected by anything outside by wind or not.

As for the momentum around the bottle, it didn't affect the ring's speed at all because of Orion's control over it and ultimately landed on the bottle.

However, like Ryfin, Orion realised that it would take a significant amount of practice to achieve such accuracy consistently without cheating.

But for Orion, it was just a simple use of his curses.

Although he felt a little guilty about cheating the shopkeeper, if his sister was happy, then it was alright.

"Old man, give me my toy."

Ella shouted, looking at the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper helplessly led them outside of the hall and gave Ella her toy before Orion and his sister left his shop.

"Come again, Princess Ella."

He bowed to them, seeing them go away.

Meanwhile, Orion and his group didn't go far when they encountered two kids around his age.

"Look, who do we have here? The trash of the Darkwood family."

"Trash indeed. Though, it does make me wonder how he passed the test."

"Well, we will find out soon enough."