Chapter 372
(372) Spreading curse
Translator: Tseirp
After that, I was contacted by the guards and used Dispel to treat the newly discovered people with the frenzy curse and told Carol to return to Suzuki’s home with Kin Messenger before returning home .
“Welcome back, Kusunoki-kun . ”
“I’m home … What’s with that getup?”
Suzuki greeted me wearing a student uniform with a blazer on .
I occasionally saw people in that uniform locally and it was the uniform for an elite high school .
“Well, a fight broke out between a merchant selling flour on the streets and their customer . I wanted to arbitrate but the bags of flour broke and covered my clothes . My other clothes were worn so I had to change to this … working as an adventurer really causes dirty clothes to pile up . I guess I should gather them and request Lana-san to help me wash them . ”
“Suzuki is surprisingly sloppy . In that case – -”
I was about to offer to apply Clean on them but then I recalled the conversation that happened in the bakery and I stopped myself .
“What’s wrong?”
“ … Why not send them to the dry cleaner? Lana-san should be busy too?”
I suggested .
“That’s true . I should do that once in a while … but would the dry cleaner be open at these times?”
“A person came to collect laundry when I was at the bakery so I guess they are open?”
Just as I was speaking .
Haru looked at the direction of the entrance .
“What’s wrong?”
“ … Somebody is approaching . ”
The same time Haru said that .
“Suzuki-dono! Is Suzuki-dono home?”
Coincidentally we were at the entranceway and hadn’t taken off our shoes so we opened the door directly .
We opened the door and the town guard was there .
“What’s going on?”
“Suzuki-dono! The frenzy curse in town seems to have been activated as a citizen who has turned into berserker is going wild . ”
“”Where!?””
Suzuki and I asked at the same time .
Suzuki, Haru, and I rushed to the location that the guard told us .
It was a distressing scene .
Numerous people were on the ground . Including the guards, most of the people were still breathing except for one . I didn’t sense any presence nor could I use Job Appraisal . He was probably dead .
And he was, in different clothes from before, the man who was selling flour .
The incident was caused by a man who was surrounded by five guards .
【Berserker: Lv9】
It seemed that he leveled up by killing the reseller man .
Although he was surrounded by five guards, the Berserker seemed to have the advantage . He brandished a sword that was probably stolen from the other guards – – was he about to do a Rotational Slash?
That meant that he was originally an Apprentice Swordsman .
I guess it was possible to use skills even during the confused state .
The unexpected counterattack injured a couple of the guards .
That was a given as the guards were all Apprentice Swordsmen and their average level was 15 . The strongest person was 【Swordsman Lv18】 . But a Berserker at Lv1 was as strong as an Lv20 Swordsman and it was even more impossible for them to win after he leveled up even further .
“Squad Captain, leave this to us!”
“Suzuki-dono! You came!”
“Leave that for later, please move back . ”
Suzuki asked the guards to retreat but they didn’t want to abandon their fallen companions .
“Haru! Gather the fallen and injured and protect them!”
I instructed her as I thought about drawing my sword but I realized that using a sword would seriously injure my opponent . In that case – I took out my practice wooden sword and rushed at the man .
“He’s holding an iron sword! Don’t be reckless!”
Somebody from the surviving guards shouted .
My sword clashed with the Berserker at the same time the guard said that .
In the end, my wooden sword broke my opponent’s iron sword .
“This skill is harder to use than expected . ”
I had activated the skill 【Fake Attack – Break . 】
I copied Flute’s skill but as it was an inferior version, it seemed to have damaged my weapon as well .
Otherwise, my wooden sword wouldn’t have shattered .
All that was left was to make the opponent unconscious .
I should go with Pico Pico Hammer then –
“ … That’s right! Kusunoki-kun! Dispel!”
Suzuki shouted unexpectedly .
“Dispel? But there is no meaning in using it after the curse has been activated – oh!”
It completely slipped my mind .
I acknowledged Suzuki’s advice, avoided the man’s beast-like attack by a paper-thin margin, and aimed for his neck .
“Dispel!”
I cast my spell .
“I … what have I been doing?”
“Looks like you’re back . ”
I forgot .
I was only conscious of using it to remove curses but Dispel could also be used to remove abnormal statuses like Petrification .
In other words, it could help a person recover from a confused status .
“Do you recall what happened?”
“ … Um, I got into an argument with the guy who was selling flour at an exorbitant price – right, the knight-sama there came to arbitrate but the flour hemp bag broke and covered him in flour … my memory after that is vague …”
“Yeah, I remember that too . ”
Suzuki nodded when I looked in his direction .
“Did you hear anybody say a phrase before you lost consciousness?”
“Now that you mention, I heard something … world … right! World Salvation, I heard that phrase . ”
“Who! Who said that!”
The criminal would be the person who said the phrase to activate the curse .
“I heard it quite nearby so – but I was only with that other man – the man selling the flour, so it must be that man …”
“Was it that man?”
Suzuki pointed at the reseller man’s corpse .
“Hii!?”
It seemed that he does not remember what he did .
And then his line of sight turned toward the man’s neck .
The neck that was squeezed so strongly that a hand imprint was still visible .
He looked at that hand imprint and compared it to his own hand –
“I … What have I done …”
“You were not at fault . Please don’t blame yourself . ”
It was probably hard to not blame himself .
I had killed people before and I still can’t forget it until today .
Even if he could not recall because he was in the confused state, the fact that he killed a person would probably leave a deep trauma in him .
The man stared at his hand and trembled .
It didn’t seem like we would be able to get anything more out of him .
“Somebody come and bring him to a safe location . There’s a chance that the frenzy can reactivate so don’t forget to put on st.u.r.dy shackles . Contact the judiciary and quickly change his job . ”
It was impossible to return from a criminal job to an ordinary job .
Only by changing job to Atonement Seeker after proceedings at court will he be able to return to being a Commoner after leveling up the Atonement Seeker job .
Because all other non-criminal jobs will be sealed once you fall into a criminal job, my Job Change skill would not be able to change him to Atonement Seeker either .
I don’t know how hard it would be for him to level up Atonement Seeker but it should be some time before he can return to a normal life .
That was the extent of effect jobs had in this world .
“ … Haa … Did I do it wrong?”
Suzuki sighed and placed his hand on his forehead .
“Wrong?”
“I showed him the corpse directly . ”
“You couldn’t have helped that . Circ.u.mstances were that way . ”
I headed toward Haru .
There were about 10 injured people including those with severe injuries .
“Master, that was excellent execution . ”
“Haru did a great job too . ”
I patted Haru’s head . Haru seemed to enjoy it as her tail wagged .
Now then, there was still one more task .
“Suzuki-dono! We will transport the injured –”
“No, there’s not enough time . ”
I told the guard who wanted to transport the injured and looked at the person with the most severe injuries .
He had already lost consciousness but,
It seemed that his stomach was sliced open with a sword .
I was about to heal him directly but it would be dangerous if I closed the wound with healing magic when bacteria had already entered the wound .
“Clean . ”
I used Lifestyle Magic to clean the wound .
“Mega Heal . ”
After that, the wound sealed .
The man’s complexion returned slightly but he won’t recover his lost blood .
I similarly treated the other people with sword injuries with the same Clean and Mega Heal combo .
Then, the remaining people were – those who had no bruised or broken bones but had suffered physical damages . I had them gather in one location and treated them with Healing Magic while taking my cooldown time into consideration .
“As expected of Pract.i.tioner-sama who can use Dispel . ”
“Eh? He isn’t a Swordsman? His swordsmanship was splendid just now?”
“He used Clean so I thought he was from the dry cleaner . ”
The guards started guessing my job .
The correct answer was Jobless but there probably won’t be anybody getting it correct .
The ones who had not regained consciousness or those who had difficulty standing due to blood loss were transported to the nearby clinic while the other citizens followed the guard to the guardhouse .
They would probably ask them for details on the incident .
There were insufficient people to transport the injured so Suzuki and I offered to help but they refused to allow n.o.bles to transport the injured so in the end Haru and the others helped with the transporting .
And a guard rushed over to carry the corpse of the flour seller .
“Hey, Kusunoki-kun . Do you think that man was the Shaman?”
“I don’t think so . That man was an Apprentice Swordsman . A job that is the exact opposite of a Shaman . ”
“Eh? When did you find out his job?”
“Ah, well –”
I couldn’t tell him that I saw with Job Appraisal .
I ended up showing him My World but G.o.ddess-sama instructed me to conceal as much about Jobless skills as possible .
“He used Apprentice Swordsman skills like Rotation Slash but not any Swordsman skills, right? So I judged that he was an Apprentice Swordsman . ”
“Yeah, that’s true . And it would be too stupid to activate the curse and be killed by the person you activated the curse on . The guy mentioned that it was a m.u.f.fled voice . I don’t think he would find the voice of a person arguing in front of him as m.u.f.fled . In that case, how did the curse activate? Is it possible to activate the curse without approaching the person?”
“That’s the thing … did an invisible person approach him? In this otherworld, it might be possible to use Light Magic to refract light and create active camouflage . ”
“Or it may be recognition inhibition . Like … the person being there but others can’t perceive his presence?”
An invisible person or an unperceivable person?
Either one was not realistic … but then I thought of something .
Flute told me that the devil race used magic to hide their horns and wings .
Couldn’t they hide their entire body with that magic, not just their horns and wings?
Was there a chance that the criminal was of the devil race?
I wanted to tell Suzuki but I stopped myself .
What would happen if that information spread?
It might lead to even more devil hunting .
There was no evidence that the criminal was using magic to conceal their body .
And if the criminal was of the devil race, it would be unthinkable for them to curse their fellow race members .
I was probably wrong .
After that, we returned home and had an ordinary meal .
Carol came home too but it seemed that information gathering was difficult . As expected, the current siege by the national army was a hot topic and other information was not spreading .
But Kikkori’s information was plausible so she will attempt another round tomorrow .
And then, that night – Suzuki came into the room without knocking .
“Hey you . At least knock even though it is your own home . ”
I was glad that I was only cleaning Carol’s ear .
It only looked like skinship between parent and daughter .
I use Clean for oral care of the three of us and my nasal cleaning but the consensus for the three of us was that I would clean Carol and Haru’s ears while Haru and Carol would take turns to clean mine .
“Sorry – but it was an emergency . ”
“What happened?”
Carol got up and asked .
“Look at this . ”
Suzuki showed us something that has been shattered .
The item was shattered into pieces so I couldn’t identify it but that color and material . Furthermore, Suzuki brought it over so I could imagine .
“That … no way, did you –”
“The Subst.i.tution Doll activated . It looked like the Shaman tried to place a curse on me as well … although I still don’t know how they managed to do so . ”
Suzuki mentioned that he didn’t notice anything abnormal apart from the Subst.i.tution Doll breaking .
Where and how did the criminal place the curse on him?