“… what?”
Celes’ incredulous expression was frozen in place by shock and surprise.
“There was once an infamous monster who had propagated a disease named “Bloodflower” that was based off of this curse, hence why I am familiar with it.”
“I have heard that you had eradicated a pestilence before, Cohgray, but this is—”
Though Celes was hesitant, her friend was not; he was desperate for anything that could help his mother.
“Celes! It… might be a good idea just to try it out. No medicine or nothing has ever helped before…”
“But your mother would suffer if this fails. Worst case scenario, it might even lead to her death.”
“I’m—cough—I’m fine. It would be better than not trying at all—cough.”
“Yukihisa…”
Arleaf clasps her hands together as if she’s praying.
Veno is actually kinda amazing when it comes to times like these. I know he won’t let us down.
‘Yes, recognize mine greatness! I shall have you start worshipping me like the little la.s.s does.’
We coulda ended it there nicely, y’know? Plus, it’s not like it’d be weird for me to be praying to the Lord Holy Dragon anyway… I really did respect you for a bit. But no, now you ruined it.
‘Silence! In any case, you and the la.s.s should join in on the ritual too. If all goes well, it should prove to do good. It shall help the la.s.s with her cla.s.s advancement as well.’
“Understood.”
“… fine. But if I sense it to go awry, please cease at once.”
“Okay. It’ll likely react when we try to lift the curse, so just get ready to knock us out of it before things get out of hand.”
One by one, high-leveled mages and priests began to arrive by the request of Celes’ comrade and they soon started the ritual.
Arleaf joined in as well. On the other hand, Celes was nervously supervising the situation.
‘Hmm… including the blacksmith, there seems to be quite a few cases of these queer curses and diseases. I cannot help but feel that there is someone or something behind it all.’
You mean, there’s another monster like Elbatoxin around?
That’d be a real pain in the a.s.s…
‘Nay… judging by the source of the hex…’
The magic circle begins to glow brightly, interrupting Veno’s thoughts.
“Aughhhhhhh…”
Lying in the middle of the magic circle is the hexed lady, groaning. She places her hand on her chest as black smoke rises out. And then, the smoke turns into light and disappears.
“I-I…”
The lady leaps to her feet, checking over her chest and right arm.
Not a single trace was left of the hex.
“I can feel the strength returning to my body!”
As the color and a smile returned to her face, she runs up to her friends and family and embraces them all.
“What on… but… she may be feeling better, but the curse is still…”
“Isn’t it the same as slaying the dragon?”
“Hmpf… if she is better temporarily…”
What Celes is saying is oddly similar to what Wayne had said before.
‘Hmm… perhaps…’
“What is the meaning of this, Cohgray?”
Ah, Celes wants the truth out of me. I guess I gotta explain it to her.
I thought Arleaf was going to tell her, but it’s only natural for her to hesitate telling Celes about Veno.
Alright, time to dole out excuses.
“This curse is a form of Dragonfall’s Charge.”
“Dragonfall’s Charge?”
“Do you recall from the tales regarding a curse that can only be lifted from slaying a dragon? It is the foundation of this one.”
“Yes, there are quite a few legends like that, usually with the hero training hard and then going to battle.”
I don’t know any of the legends from this world, but let’s go with it since it’s working.
‘This curse also has many other derivatives. Other monsters may also be targets, not just dragons. Such is the work of cowardly humans.’
“This is something created by mankind a long time ago and actually has little to do with dragons. Rulers of yore wanted the brave and talented to kill monsters and so they employed this curse. After defeating the target, the hex would then be nullified.”
It’s a dirty trick. Almost on the same level as Forced Possession Summoning.
‘Aye. I am disgusted at how humans keep coming with such despicable methods.’
“The method to undo this hex should already be well-known, but it seems to me like this is a new variation.”
“Ah… how can I ever thank you?”
The mother comes to thank us with a hug. I return the hug before continuing the explanation.
‘Beware of being cursed again. It comes from—’
“Oh, please don’t worry about it. Whoever witnessed your son’s talents is to blame. It’s not exactly an impossibility, so do be extremely cautious so that you do not get cursed again.”
“Of course. Then… what can I do to prevent it?”
“Hmm… the curse can be traced to a statue at a church used when changing jobs.”
“What?!”
“I’m not quite sure who or where, but it seems to affect the family members of whoever prays there.”
It’s works just like a computer virus.
And it’s just evil where they put it.
‘Aye, it is certainly similar to your “computer virus” how it is made publicly accessible.’
“However…”
“I’m not prohibiting you from praying. I’m saying you should be careful is all. The problem is that the perpetrator could even know that we’ve undone the hex on you. In that case, what worked this time may not work a second time…”
‘That should not be a problem in the immediate future. I have broken the curse in this area. Whoever created this Dragonfall’s Charge must have spent quite some effort to make it so tricky to lift.’
Wouldn’t it be a better idea to prevent everybody from being cursed?
“In any case, this is quite the powerful curse, so defeating the perpetrator might take some time. But, if we quickly spread out, we should be able to stop them.”
I omitted the important bit about Veno.
‘Do not be mistaken that I am all-mighty. If thou wishest to go that far, then we must go to whoever is behind this. It would also be difficult for humans to place the preventative spell.’
“Religion is important. If you have to pray, you should use a personal item that you know you can trust. And if you must change jobs, then I recommend using another religion’s church.”
“But…”
Religion is as touchy of a subject as I thought.
I get that it’s an important part of spiritual support.
That means I gotta reword it more carefully.
“Oh, don’t be mistaken. I’m not telling you to switch religions; it’s important what or who you pray to. The fact that we are visiting must mean that your prayers are being answered. Whoever placed the curse onto the religious symbol is to blame.”
“Mom, he’s trying to say that it’s important we catch the bad guy behind this… so let’s just be thankful that you’re better now.”
Her son rea.s.sures his very worried mother.
“You’re right. Then let us wholeheartedly welcome you all.”
“I appreciate your thoughts, but we have other matters at hand… I’d like to excuse ourselves instead.”
Everybody in the room seems to be dumbfounded at what I had just said.
“But… you lifted this curse for us. Are you saying you are going to leave just like that?”
I guess I’m being a little too generous.
Since I’m at the home of someone who’s pretty strong, I’m sure I can ask for a lot of money.
But we have goals of our own too. This just so happens to help Arleaf out with job changing.
I’m sure there’s something else we can get out of them other than money.
The thing is that it’d be pretty distasteful to demand cash from them.
“Yes, I am. Shall we go?”
I suggest to Arleaf, Muu, and Celes we depart.
“Sure, why… not? We were simply dropping by on the way home anyway.”
“Muu!”
“B-But…”
Celes is still pale and shocked.
“Please, accept our grat.i.tude.”
“In that case, I’ll have you all share how to break this curse so that we help out people who are still under this hex. After all, this is just a cowardly ploy meant to send your son to his death by having him kill an innocent dragon.”
This way, they can infer that Dragonfall’s Charge is still an ongoing problem.
With that, I’m sure the victims and heroes can band up to defeat the perpetrator.
“O-Okay, I accept.”
I come and go without even introducing myself.
Well, I’m sure they caught Celes throwing my name around.
But still, that’s kinda cool, isn’t it?
Cool or not, we hop back onto a coach and head home.
‘Definitely the latter. Such thinking is a slow and insidious killer.’
Man, I don’t want to hear that from you, Veno, seeing how you’re always acting so high and mighty.
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