Chapter 77: Curse

There were many different curses in this world.

Mild curses that caused you to stumble at least twice a day and some so severe that they posed a direct threat to your life.

Out of all these curses, which one should it be..I wonder if I can feel the negative energy in his heart?

‘How could it be lurking in his body without him even realizing it?’

How could a curse be so stealthy?

Normally, these curses were supposed to be of the black magic variety, but no matter how much I looked through the books, I couldn’t find anything that seemed plausible.

‘If it’s not a simple curse..’

I mused as I closed the book that contained the information on black magic and curses.

‘Krektar sudden death.’

I had to add one more case to the list, now that I thought it very likely that Zetto had something to do with it.

I quietly stood up from my chair, returned the book to its place, and slowly made my way deeper into the library.

Each step I take feels like I’m walking on a thorny floor.

Now, the titles of the books around me all had the word “demon” in their titles.

That’s right...Demons could also cast curses.

If the curse on Zetto was a demonic curse, it was far more serious than a warlock’s since most of their curses were life-threatening.

To be honest, a demonic curse was the first thing that came to mind, but I looked up black magic first, hoping it was something milder.

After laboriously sifting through the books, I picked up the one labeled Demonic Curses and Magicka.

The book was quite thick but luckily, it didn’t seem to have a security spell on it. There were plenty of books in this large library that could have been enchanted.

I remembered coming to this library to find information about the Ludwig family.

I was able to find the relevant books, but I remember fighting tooth and nail against the high level security enchantments.

‘Though I have since found information on the family through other means.’

I returned to my seat with the book and slammed it down on the desk.

I quickly flipped through it and as I expected the curses of the demons, they were all severe.

It was painful to even turn a page.

Could it be this curse..?

What if this is the curse..?

The thoughts kept racing through my head.

I wonder if Zetto knows that he had a curse like that in his body?

No, Zetto must know.

Zetto was a master at sensing things, and there was no way he wouldn’t recognize the energy in his body.

And yet..He was smiling at me, hugged me gently and supported me.

I wonder if it’s because of me that this happened to Zetto after all.

Aaah..

I was struggling to read the book when a familiar voice spoke to me.

“Aizel, here you are.”

“Mmm..”

I replied, a little weakly, as I was in a state that I would never call a good mood.

Yuri was disturbing in more ways than one. She was a much different girl before Zetto showed up and after.

Even now, we still consider each other friends..Although she didn’t seem to think so, it was a strange relationship to say the least.

Neither she nor I were really friends, so maybe we just didn’t know how to treat each other.

Moreover, she was showing interest in Zetto. This was quite disturbing before and now.

Yuri glanced at the book I was reading and opened her mouth.

“A curse..?”

“Oh, this..”

“Is there a specific curse you’re looking for?”

“..No, I’m just bored. What about you?”

I asked Yuri, who was holding a book. In her arms was a slightly thick book with an unfamiliar title.

“Saint and.. Princesses..”

Without thinking, I read the title of the book she was holding.

Yuri blushed slightly and hugged the book even tighter but soon she opened her mouth.

“This, this is something I read when I was younger, and I’ve been thinking about it lately.. so..”

“When you were younger?”

“..Haven’t you read this book, Aizel? It’s a very famous fairy tale, I’m sure you’ve read it at least once as a child.”

“Fairy tales? I don’t know, I don’t think I was much into fairy tales.”

“Ah..”

She nodded, shaking her head at my answer.

It’s not that I wasn’t interested, but where I grew up, there was no such thing as a ‘fairy tale book’.

The only things to read in the place where I was being experimented on by demons were the words of despair written on the walls.

Many of them were written in blood.

One day, I remember biting my finger to write a word in blood so I could copy it.

‘What does ‘escape’ mean anyway?’

I asked the demon who had written the word and was watching me from beside me.

‘Something you should never do.’ he replied, glancing at the words.

Krektar entered the room next, saw the blood on my fingers, and scolded the demon next to me, saying it wasn’t natural to do this.

“....Interesting, isn’t it?”

“..Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a childhood memory, so I didn’t hear Yuri’s words.

Immediately, Yuri lets out a long sigh.

“Huh.. You really had to make it so obvious that you weren’t interested, even after I tried so hard to explain..”

As it turns out, Yuri Clementine is still surprisingly fond of fairy tales. However, fairy tales don’t require a lot of explaining.

I was a little curious, so I asked Yuri.

“..Can you tell me again?”

“..When you said curse, I realized that this fairy tale book also had a curse, so I just..”

Yuri trailed off, perhaps embarrassed. But I was really curious.

“What curse?”

I’d never read a fairy tale before, but I wondered if curses were allowed in children’s books.This chapter's initial release occurred on the N0v3l-B1n site.

“Was it a lifespan curse..? It’s supposed to be on the princess.. A saint gets cursed instead.”

Yuri’s eyes flicked upward, searching her memory, and she replied.

“A saint takes the curse instead..?”

“Yeah, it’s a sad story..”

Yuri trailed off at my question, then quickly opened the book she was holding.

“Here, this scene.”

Yuri said, flipping to a specific page and showing me.

I read it slowly and as I was reading, I had a question for Yuri.

“This curse.. Is it a ‘real’ curse?”

“..I don’t know, why?”

“No.. It’s kind of similar..”

“Similar?”

Yuri asked, but I barely hid my expression as I turned serious, my eyes taking in the sentence in the book.

A curse was imprinted on the saint’s heart. From now on, this curse will begin to eat away at his heart. Still, the saint smiled quietly, a smile of relief that the curse had been placed on him and not the princess.

Unless I’m being overly delusional, they sounded pretty similar, especially the one about the curse being carved into the heart.

I wondered if it was a curse, or if fairy tale curses were even real.

My head was spinning because I didn’t have any accurate information.

“..Speaking of this book, do you think I could read it first?”

I asked Yuri as I closed the storybook. After all, it was her book.

In response to my question, Yuri stroked her braided hair and she looked troubled.

How much did she want to read this book?

“It looks interesting. I’ve never read it before.”

“Hmm.. Well, I can’t blame you for never having read it, so why don’t you read it first and I’ll read it later.”

“Mmm, thanks. But didn’t you say it was a fairy tale book? It’s thick and doesn’t look like something a child would read..”

“Oh, that’s.. It’s like an expanded edition..? I thought it was hard to find, but I happened to be at the library..”

“I’ll read it and give it to you. It’ll only take a day.”

With that, I ended the conversation with Yuri and left the library with two books.

One was a children’s book, and the other was a book with information on demonic curses.

The sun had already set and it was dark outside.

A curse imprinted on the heart.

A curse that eats away one’s lifespan.

The saint laughed, for he had taken the curse on behalf of the princess.

I had no experience of being cursed by demons. Rather, the ‘regression’ that resulted from their experiments was a curse to me. Still, a bitter taste lingered in my mouth.

..Zetto. How did you manage to smile?

***

“Haha..”

I smirked and scratched my head.

Then I saw Yuri in front of me. It would be fine if I could only see Yuri, but next to it was a man with red hair, the same color as hers.

He even had a well-groomed beard and looked a bit older..

“I heard my daughter was introducing me to a friend for some reason.. but I didn’t realize it was a man.”

..Yuri’s father, the current patriarch of House Clementine of the Flame, Jeras Clementine.

“..What’s wrong with being a man..?”

Yuri, who had clasped her hands together respectfully, stuttered and snapped at Jeras.

“Now, do you think you could tell me what you liked about my daughter? As her father, I want to hear it.”

Jeras listened to Yuri’s words with one ear, letting them sink in, then turned his head away from her to stare at me.

His arms were crossed and he was clearly smiling, but his voice radiated authority.

How the hell did this happen on the first day of an open class period.