Chapter 6: The Ward
Gifts gain experience and level up through use. However, just using them normally only grants a minuscule amount of experience.
If you want to level up a Gift, you need to defeat the Evil God’s minions.
Calling them “Evil God’s minions” makes them sound unnecessarily strong, but they’re basically just monsters. Defeating monsters allows you to accumulate a larger amount of Gift experience.
However, this only applies to the one who took the monster’s life—the one who landed the last attack.
The wielder of a Healing Gift, a Healer, has trash-tier attack power. There’s no way they could ever land the last attack on a monster.
That’s why, in the game, a loophole existed for training Healers.
That was dispelling curses from cursed items.
Dispelling curses from cursed items allows you to gain more experience than usual.
Some monsters can curse items, so there’s no shortage of cursed items.
Besides, it seems the inhabitants of this world are deceived by the name “Healing Gift” and don’t know that its level can be raised by dispelling curses from cursed items.
Thanks to that, cursed items can be obtained cheaply and in abundance.
I plan to dispel these curses and raise the level of my Healing Gift.
MP—or Holy Power, as it seems to be called in this world—as soon as I accumulated even a little Holy Power, I used it to dispel curses from items.
Thanks to this, the level of my Healing Gift has been rising, but I still can’t break Cornelia’s Curse of the Evil God. I don’t even know if it can truly be broken.
But this is all I have. No medicine I could obtain with my own power worked. All I can do now is cling to the miracle of Healing.
I hate the gods, but I pray to them every night.
I don’t care what happens to me. So please, please, I want you to save Cornelia.
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“Young Master, a letter has arrived from the Margrave Huebner’s household.”
“Old Man, stop with the ‘Young Master.’ I’m the lord of this Baumgarten Territory, you know.”
After our usual exchange, I received the letter from the Old Man. This wax seal is unmistakably from the Margrave Huebner’s household. In the game, I was one of his son’s lackeys.
What does he want at this hour?
I broke the wax seal and checked the letter inside.
“……He’s looking down on me.”
“Young Master?”
“I told you, stop with the ‘Young Master.'”
I tossed the letter to the Old Man.
The letter from Margrave Huebner, to put it plainly, said he wanted me, a user of the Healing Gift, to be his son’s friend.
Even if he says “friend,” I’m a Baron and he’s the next Margrave. It’s not a simple friendship; it’s closer to being a subordinate. That in itself is fine. But the problem is the latter half.
Margrave Huebner knew Cornelia was ill. It seems he doesn’t know it’s the Curse of the Evil God, but he appears to know that her medicine is expensive.
If I become friends with the Margrave’s son, he’ll apparently bless me with money.
What a way to take advantage of someone’s weakness. I don’t like it.
“Young Master, this is…”
“In short, he’s saying he’ll buy me with money. ‘Obey if you value Cornelia’s life,’ is what it means.”
“Young Master! You mustn’t! Such conditions that take advantage of someone’s weakness!”
“I know. Don’t shout like that. Your blood pressure will rise, you know?”
Margrave Huebner. This guy is no good. He’s an idiot who screws up big time on the anti-Evil God front. It’s no exaggeration to say that the kingdom’s prestigious First Anti-Evil God Encirclement and Annihilation Operation failed because of him. And his son is an even bigger fool. He’s the root cause of all the events leading to the Evil God’s seal being broken.
Getting close to these guys is a no-go. There are a hundred harms and not a single benefit.
But, of all people, Margrave Huebner is Baron Baumgarten’s Guardian, damn it… Since it’s just a normal letter now, ignoring it might be permissible, but if I’m ordered, I won’t be able to refuse.
The game’s Dietfried, who probably had no money, must have jumped at this letter.
And he stooped to becoming one of the Margrave’s son’s lackeys.
However, I have enough money to buy Cornelia’s medicine for another two years. The human trafficking has been more successful than I initially predicted.
There’s no merit in accepting Margrave Huebner’s proposal right now. I can’t leave this place, as I need to dispel curses from items, raise my Gift’s level, and break Cornelia’s Curse of the Evil God.
But if I’m ordered, I’ll have no choice but to obey. For a ward, the Guardian’s command is absolute. Only a royal decree can overturn it.
“Then, what will you do?”
“I’ll ignore such a thing! But if I’m ordered… damn it!”
“Young Master…”
“Just when I thought I might finally be able to save Ria’s life from the Evil God’s curse!”
Should I tell them I can’t leave because I need to cure Cornelia’s illness?
Idiot! If I do that, they’ll just dispatch some random Healing Gift user, and that’ll be the end of it!
Besides, just imagine if they find out Cornelia’s illness is the Curse of the Evil God. One afflicted by the Curse of the Evil God is considered a pariah, unable to even receive a Gift. If things go badly, she could be killed!
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”
I can’t think of any good plan at all.
What’s the point of my memories from a past life! What’s the point of my game knowledge! If Cornelia isn’t saved, all of it is worthless!
Why was I reincarnated in the first place!