Ch.100Curse

“What…?”

Catherine’s eyes grew hazy. Her pupils dilated, losing focus, and I saw my reflection in her black eyes.

The reflection of myself in her eyes was surprisingly cold.

“I asked, what, is, my, name.”

I repeated each word distinctly and forcefully. Just recalling this made my head feel like it was splitting apart, but I deliberately ignored the pain.

If I got swept up in this too, there would be no turning back. If this entire area gets swept away, everything with a name would be contaminated along with it.

The curse on my name was that severe.

I’ve been calling it a curse for convenience, but it was closer to the concept of “name” itself being corrupted by black magic.

That’s why when asked for my name, I say I don’t have one, or leave the name field blank on adventurer certificates.

This curse isn’t something that can be circumvented by simply avoiding my name.

If a specific title or nickname is used long enough that people begin to recognize it as my name, the curse activates and corrupts the minds and souls of everyone who knows that title or nickname.

This is why I insist that others address me by my adventurer rank or simple pronouns like “you” or “hey.”

That way, they can always think of other adventurers or people, so there’s no chance they’ll use a designation exclusively for me.

The few exceptions are Serena calling me “Lord,” Charlotte calling me “You,” and Christine calling me “God”…

‘Their mental strength is just ridiculous.’

The fact that these three titles clearly refer only to me yet don’t trigger the curse means they’re drawing a clear line in their minds that these are merely forms of address, not names.

It means that while referring to me as “Lord,” “You,” or “God,” they constantly remind themselves that these are just titles, not my name or nickname.

That sounds easy, but avoiding a curse that activates just by becoming subconsciously familiar with an expression requires mental strength far beyond human capability.

“Answer me.”

“……”

But the woman before me was different.

The moment she started thinking about my name in this situation, she was already half-caught in the curse.

I don’t need to recall it now. Once someone starts thinking about my name, it’s already over. To escape, she’d need to cast a memory erasure spell on herself.

It works on a similar principle to mana nullification.

Just as thinking “I shouldn’t use magic on Christine” triggers mana nullification, thinking “I shouldn’t recall his name” becomes the trigger for the curse.

The thought of not recalling something is fundamentally the same as thinking about that very thing.

“Don’t want to answer? Then let’s try a different approach. Look, I’ve never told you my name, right? So what should you call me?”

“Fuck! Get away! Get the hell away!”

Catherine’s eyes briefly regained their light as she cursed and twisted her entire body violently.

With her wrists and ankles bound by restraint magic, she could only struggle in place, but for Catherine—no, for the black mana that realized it was about to be destroyed by an even more terrible curse—it was a desperate struggle.

Her shoulder joint twisted to its limit and dislocated with a cracking sound, and her elbows and knees bent in unnatural directions.

“I don’t want to do this either. This is a curse placed on me. Why would I enjoy it? If I say the wrong thing, I could be consumed too.”

“Release this! You fucking bitch!”

Catherine’s frenzy intensified. The corrupted soul instinctively recognized how vicious and terrible the curse on me was.

“I’m asking for the third time. What is my name?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know! Please! Please let me go! I really don’t know anything!”

Catherine’s manner of addressing me had suddenly become respectful. It meant her fear was growing. Of course, I had no intention of stopping here.

“No. You know. You have to know.”

“Aaaaargh! Aaaagh!”

Catherine screamed in agony as if refusing to listen to me. I ignored her and continued.

“Because you’re corrupted by black mana. All black mana knows my name. And so do you.”

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

“So tell me. My name. Right now.”

When I noticed Catherine’s lips moving differently than before, I raised my index finger.

Then I forcefully jammed my fingers into both my ears.

My fingers tore through my eardrums and inner ears, and as all sound disappeared into silence, Catherine’s lips moved.

Silence fell.

I too kept my mouth shut.

This silence, which felt like eternity, was broken by Catherine’s hollow voice.

“Ah… Ah…”

Catherine’s entire body froze after finally saying my name. Eyes wide open, mouth agape.

I pulled my fingers from my ears, feeling blood flowing down, and stepped back. I accelerated healing to eliminate the pain and focused all my nerves on my thoughts.

I forcibly accelerated my thinking. I thought of Serena, Charlotte, Christine. Anything would do, even something random. No, anything that could help me forget this situation.

I couldn’t let myself be consumed here.

I thought of all kinds of information indiscriminately. What Serena likes, how I met Charlotte, how Christine behaves.

And by the time I had somewhat organized my thoughts after desperate thinking, a small change occurred in Catherine.

From her remaining eye, a stream of black liquid suddenly flowed down.

“Kuh…! Ugh, kak! Uwek!”

As Catherine retched, something black burst from her mouth. It was a completely black lump of flesh, as if she had vomited her internal organs intact.

The black liquid leaking from her eyes now poured out rather than trickled. Her eyeball burst helplessly under the pressure.

Black liquid also seeped from her nose and ears, expelling what was inside her human body. Her other eye, which I had crushed, was no different.

Eventually, Catherine’s entire body began turning black.

“Ugh! Kuaa, weeek! Kuluk! Kuhak!”

Catherine continuously vomited black lumps of flesh from her mouth. No, by now they were just black somethings that could hardly be called lumps of flesh.

Her fingers and toes rotted and crumbled. The corrupted flesh climbed up her calves and wrists like it was crawling, consuming her human blood and flesh.

The restraint magic binding her wrists and ankles collapsed, unable to withstand the curse. Catherine, regaining her physical freedom, fell face down on the floor.

Onto what she had vomited.

Catherine tried to express her pain, but with her arms and legs almost completely rotted away, leaving only her upper body, she couldn’t even properly express her agony.

Her eyes couldn’t see properly, her ears couldn’t hear properly, her nose could only smell blood, and her mouth continuously expelled something while tasting rotting flesh.

The black mana that had corrupted her mind and soul tried to struggle, but it didn’t last long. Even that momentary struggle was swept away by the curse on my name.

Even her upper body, which had remained until the end, couldn’t hold out much longer. Her final large convulsion was Catherine’s death throes.

Now all that remained was black liquid on the floor.

“It’s over.”

Looking at it, I dropped a single remark.

Yes, it was completely over. Even the black mana, which could never be killed by conventional methods, was destroyed by the curse, let alone Catherine.

If she hadn’t messed with the black blood demon in the first place, she wouldn’t have died like this.

It was a futile end.

Truly.

The area where Serena had single-handedly sliced through dozens of black blood demons was designated as a restricted zone as usual, and not even a rat approached the vicinity.

The gas from decomposing corpses contaminated the air, the rotting flesh contaminated the soil, and the flowing blood contaminated the water. Nothing but demons could survive here.

Unless King Charlotte completely annihilated this region and rebuilt it from scratch, this area was destined to remain a land of death where no one could live for over a hundred years.

“Aah…”

On this land where everything around had rotted, a girl sat.

The girl’s short bob hair, barely reaching her shoulders, was as black as the demon corpses strewn nearby.

Her eyes, black like her hair, were narrowed in pleasure and ecstasy, with tears pooling at the corners, precariously maintaining themselves.

The buttoned cloth garment the girl wore was also black, both top and bottom.

Her skirt was so short it barely covered her buttocks, making one wonder if her underwear would show if she bent over.

Her slender legs and feet below were wrapped in black stockings. No shoes were visible, but there wasn’t a single scratch on her delicate feet.

Her chest, wrapped in a thin layer of cloth, asserted its presence so prominently that it seemed the buttons might burst.

However, what truly caught the eye wasn’t her large chest.

It was the great sword piercing her heart. A rusty, chipped great sword nearly matching the girl’s height was diagonally embedded in her right chest.

Dark red blood stained where it penetrated the girl’s flesh, and the cloth near her chest had absorbed blood, giving it a somewhat dingy color.

Normally, she should have died instantly when the sword pierced her heart, yet the girl was alive, exhaling sighs filled with ecstasy into the air.

If her current state could truly be considered “alive.”

What the girl sat on was the corpse of a black blood demon, the last one slaughtered by Serena.

She had created it experimentally, but it hadn’t been as efficient as expected, perhaps because her power hadn’t fully recovered yet.

Half-rotted flesh continuously emitted decomposition gases, and blood overflowed from the cross-section, but the girl didn’t mind at all.

She felt it.

That her curse had activated. That another foolish life that dared to covet her master’s name had been crushed.

The woman had been useful, allowing her to briefly confirm her master’s presence after being corrupted while researching black blood demons, but that was separate from this matter.

The tangled, failed black magic circle—that was the girl’s creation. Since all black mana was subordinate to her, inscribing it from a distance wasn’t difficult at all.

Despite the magic circle’s clear failure, it still glowed because the girl was forcibly maintaining it.

The light of the magic circle gradually faded because the girl no longer needed to maintain it after confirming her master’s appearance.

Catherine’s claim of not knowing about the magic circle was because the girl had thoroughly stirred up Catherine’s mind and soul.

It was a small gift from the girl, given with gratitude. Catherine probably couldn’t think properly from the moment her mental corruption fully manifested.

Anyway, touching the black blood demon essentially meant offering one’s body and soul to burn for the girl.

Perhaps the girl should be the one receiving thanks. After all, she personally used a body that would otherwise have died meaninglessly and been buried.

The girl’s delicate fingers traced the blade of the great sword embedded in her heart. The cold, hard metal sensation brushed past her fingertips.

She brought the bandage wrapped around the handle to her nose and smelled it. It had been too long for her master’s scent to remain, but it didn’t matter to the girl.

This was her master’s one-of-a-kind gift in history. Something no one else in the world had received.

An object given solely for her.

“Aah, Master. My one and only Master.”

Each time the girl twisted the great sword in her heart, black blood welled up and soaked the blade.

She wanted to meet him. Not just confirm his appearance through a magic circle, but see him directly with her own eyes, touch him directly with her own hands, explore his body directly with her own mouth.

But she had to be patient. It wasn’t time yet. The world needed to be destroyed more. It needed to be dyed more with black blood.

She had already waited for several hundred years.

So waiting a few more months or years wouldn’t make a difference.

The reunion of the boy and girl had to be perfect.

For that perfection, she could wait a few more years.

“I, Olivia, will come to see you soon.”

So please, Master, wait for me too.

This time, for certain.

I will give you an eternity for just the two of us.