Episode 5: Entering a Different Route from the Original Story
“Hmm? My body… there’s a faint presence of a curse?”
One day.
When I woke up at the inn, I felt a subtle discomfort.
It wasn’t like my body was heavy or numb, there were no specific symptoms like that.
However, deep inside, there was a foreign substance that shouldn’t be there. I, who have exorcised countless curses, could tell.
It was a curse.
In the original story, Akito was given a terminal diagnosis at fourteen and died at fifteen.
But I’m only ten years old.
Even if history has changed because of the things I’ve done, it’s way too early for that.
“…I see. Just because a curse has entered my body doesn’t mean symptoms will appear immediately. There must be a kind of incubation period.”
If that’s the case, I should nip the curse in the bud while it’s still weak. It would lead to greater magical power enhancement if I absorbed it after it grew stronger, but I’m not reckless enough to make myself a breeding ground for curses.
As usual, I extracted the curse, broke it down, and absorbed it.
Alright.
Now I won’t die at fifteen.
I’ve achieved my immediate goal. How anticlimactic…
“But still, this town. Aren’t there too many curses?”
When I wait in front of the Ashcroft Family’s residence, at least one person a day comes asking me to exorcise a curse.
Curses are born from negative emotions.
For example, battlefields. Abandoned villages where many people have starved to death. Such places tend to accumulate curses, and people or items that approach them are likely to be corrupted.
But this is the Royal Capital.
Crime isn’t nonexistent, but the security is good enough for children to go out alone. If you work diligently, you’re unlikely to starve.
Isn’t it strange that there are so many curses in such a place?
I decided to go to the Mage’s Guild and ask Count Aimers about it.
If a child suddenly appeared and said, “I want to see the chairman,” they normally wouldn’t pay attention. In fact, the receptionist at the Mage’s Guild looked at me like, “What’s with this guy?”
However, when I showed them the Gloria Sigil, a pendant I received from Count Aimers, their attitude immediately became polite, and they guided me to a reception room.
“Akito, your question is valid. In the past few years, the number of people and items being corrupted by curses has been rapidly increasing around the Royal Capital. The Mage’s Guild is investigating the cause at the request of the country, but… the reason is still unclear.”
“I see. If I notice anything, I’ll report it immediately.”
“That’s helpful. But from your perspective, who makes a living from Curse Purification, wouldn’t a large number of curses be a welcome situation?”
“Well… the food I eat after threatening so many lives would taste bad.”
“I see. You seem to be good at heart. It’s a good thing you don’t take after your parents or your brother.”
H-hey, stop it. You’re making me blush.
I returned to the inn, sat on the bed, and meditated.
I was searching for the source of the curses that were likely to be around the Royal Capital.
It’s impossible for me, even as a genius of Dark Magic, to detect every single cursed knife or person with a curse-induced illness.
However, if there was a massive source of curses that was affecting the entire Royal Capital, I felt like I could sense its general location.
“…Over there, maybe?”
I wasn’t confident.
However, I felt a bad presence coming from that direction.
I immediately headed there.
I left the Royal Capital, walked through a grassland, and eventually entered a forest.
After walking for hours and my legs were tired, I reached a swamp.
“Is this the source…”
The swamp was purple, emitting a suspicious black mist, and it was clearly a scene that would have a negative impact on the human body.
Not only its appearance, but the presence it emitted was extremely dangerous.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call the swamp water a whole mass of curses. The curses were spreading from here.
“It’s going to be a lot of work to purify all the curses here… and if I absorb it, wouldn’t I explode…?”
If I didn’t do it all at once and purified it little by little over several days, it might be manageable.
For now, I worked until the sky turned completely red.
“I’m tired… I might have absorbed too much Dark Magic… I feel like I have indigestion… but the transparency of the swamp has improved considerably. If I do this for a few more days, I should be able to completely purify it. I’ll do my best again tomorrow.”
I returned to the inn and slept soundly.
After sleeping for a night, my fatigue was gone, and I felt like I had properly made the absorbed magical power my own.
I was invigorated and went to the swamp again.
Then.
“Huh!? I worked so hard to weaken the curse yesterday, but it’s thick again!?”
It was completely back to how it was before.
I slumped down in frustration.
Even if many people had died here in the past, and the land was deeply contaminated by curses—I was confident that I could purify it if I took my time.
However, I couldn’t do anything about an abnormal curse that returned to its original state overnight, even though no one had died recently.
Yes. This was abnormal.
“There must be something supplying the curses here… Unless I stop it, purifying the swamp is impossible.”
To find out what that something was, I meditated again.
Then, in the darkness of my closed eyes, I saw a line.
“The line extends from the direction of the Royal Capital…”
I retraced my steps.
While closing my eyes and searching for the line, I walked through the Royal Capital.
And the place I arrived at was.
“Isn’t that my family’s house?”