Chapter 106: Shall We Talk Somewhere Quiet? (6)
She resented, was angry, and even tried to hate him.
She could understand being abandoned, but the indifference of not visiting or even looking for her mother until her death must have been infuriating.
However, her mother left a will asking her to meet her father and listen to his story. To make matters worse, her father was dying when they met.
For various reasons, she had no choice but to put everything aside for a while.
“It’s a laughably cruel twist of fate. 16 years and 24 years. Meeting both parents, 8 years apart, only when they were on the verge of death. I could have burst into laughter.”
She seemed to be mocking herself, or perhaps fate, with a self-deprecating expression.
Her father had decided to take harsh revenge on the one who had ruined him and his family. Then, he accidentally learned a secret he hadn’t known.
The Black New Moon, an assassination group that was previously known to have fallen. The blood of its successor flowed in his veins.
“My real name is Levidian Moonless. ‘Levidian who lost the moon.’ That moon is the Black New Moon, and when the Black New Moon fell in the past, my ancestor changed his surname. Considering that the assassins practiced high-level martial arts, I can’t deny that the blood is in me. Anyway, my father found the lost moon and made it his own, through painstaking effort.”
He was originally a businessman.
It was natural that he couldn’t become the head of an assassination group just because he was the successor.
The effort he had to put in to reach the top in his old age, in such a short time…… I can’t even imagine, and the will that fueled that effort is unimaginable.
Eventually, her father took the position of the leader of the Black New Moon. With that, all the preparations for revenge were complete, and all that remained was to carry it out.
However, his body, which was steadily deteriorating in inverse proportion to his will, was constantly reminding him that he was running out of time.
“My father said he would leave the revenge to me. The members of the Black New Moon agreed. They said that with my nickname, the Sword King, I could become the Queen of Assassins if I just learned a few techniques. I don’t disagree with their opinion. I just ignored my own wishes, in this way.”
She unbuttoned her right sleeve and rolled it up to her shoulder. There, a strange pattern that hadn’t been visible before was drawn.
Several swirls with pointed ends covered her arm from elbow to shoulder. The rest was hidden from view, but it probably extended to her back. Black swirls that looked like they would emit eerie smoke.
It was a tattoo that clearly exuded an ominous feeling. At least, it wasn’t a tattoo that a sane person would get.
“That’s……?”
“It’s a curse. A terribly horrific curse that won’t disappear until the goal is achieved, and there’s no solution. My father took advantage of me while I was unconscious and had a shaman, who helped him, carve this on me. That shaman was……”
“Silvan Harcian. Right?”
“Yes.”
Levidian nodded.
I could now understand the hostility she had shown towards the black Shadow Manipulator. Anyone would do the same if they saw the one who cursed them.
Lucy took out his glasses from his pocket and put them on, staring intently at Levidian’s curse tattoo. Then he frowned.
“Hmm, would it be alright if I took a closer look?”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
Lucy held up his Staff and muttered something, and a white light appeared at the tip of the Staff. He brought the light closer and examined her tattoo, which was now even more clearly visible.
Come to think of it…… Did Lucy have knowledge of shamanism as well?
After examining it for a while, he took off his glasses and shook his head. The way he covered his mouth seemed like he was trying to hold back vomit.
“Ugh. That’s nauseating.”
“Lucy?”
“Ah, um. I only studied the theory of shamanism as a hobby, so I can’t be certain. I’m quite confident in magic, though…… Anyway, that shady Silvan, if he’s a Shadow Manipulator, then this is a very nasty, terrible curse. Ugh, I’m going to be sick.”
“Can you…… be a little more specific?”
“I’ll tell him, Risel.”
Levidian looked like she would rather speak for herself.
I tried to hear it from someone else because I thought it would be difficult for her, but I had no choice but to shut my mouth at her resolute will.
She said.
“My father told me. He called it the ‘Curse of the Shadow Cast Towards the Light.’ If a specific goal is not achieved within a set time, the curse will head towards the heart and take your life with excruciating pain for three days. This tattoo starts from the upper arm of the right arm, goes around the back, and towards the heart.”
I looked at Lucy, and Lucy nodded. He said with a disgusted expression.
“And it’s incredibly difficult to dispel. Hmm, you know the basics about the correlation of different powers, right? It’s part of a noble family’s education.”
“Of course I know. Magic, Holy Spells, and Shamanism can interfere with each other. Simply put, the power of magic, holy spells, and shamanism can be dispelled by magic, holy spells, or shamanism. Isn’t that right?”
This is literally common knowledge. The higher the nobility, the more diverse knowledge they need to acquire. Besides, I have military experience, so I have a general understanding of the use of different powers.
Lucy nodded, looking like that was enough.
“That’s the case in general, but this is a high-level curse performed by an incredibly skilled shaman. To dispel this, you need to analyze it to understand its structure, but the moment you try to analyze it, it harms the analyzer. I briefly analyzed what kind of effect it has, and it almost made me throw up. To understand the structure, you’d really have to risk your life. And even if you understood the structure, you wouldn’t be at a level to dispel it.”
“Then what? Are you saying Levidian has a limited lifespan until she completes the revenge her father left behind?”
“Unfortunately, yes. But it’s not like there’s no way. If there’s a shaman, mage, or priest who surpasses that shady guy’s skills, it might be possible. However…… that shady guy seemed incredibly skilled. Seeing how freely he manipulates shadows, he’s no ordinary person.”
Levidian had a gloomy expression. She seemed to know this well too. And then Aila spoke from the side, and thanks to that, the possibility of dispelling the curse became infinitely close to zero.
“If the stories I’ve heard are correct, Harcian is from the most prestigious shaman lineage in the ‘Desert that Lost its Shadow’ in the southern part of the continent. He’s not known to the public, but in the underworld of the southern continent, he has a reputation on par with Magnolia Beming.”
In short, he’s the strongest shaman alive.
There would be only a handful of people on the continent who could dispel a curse cast by such a person.
With the condition of ‘barely’.
What the hell is this? This is more than enough reason for Levidian to willingly follow someone else’s will. Damn it!
I gritted my teeth and asked Levidian.
“So, how much time is left on the curse?”
“Three months.”
“What’s the target of the curse?”
“About 100 people, I think. The deeper the grudge, the stronger the curse. It’s the number of people who directly or indirectly caused my father’s downfall, including their families.”
“What’s the progress so far?”
“I haven’t killed anyone yet because I had to deal with the Mangya first. To be honest, I don’t want to kill them. There are about eight of them I want to make pay for the sin of ruining my family, but what did their families do wrong? Even if I’ve become the head of an assassination group, I don’t want to walk that path.”
She spoke proudly with her chest puffed out.
I could also see the side she didn’t talk about.
The will to not walk a path she didn’t want to, even if it meant death……
She was someone who strictly adhered to that, and she would even face death for it.
That’s why she didn’t try to meet me.
Because…… her will would weaken.
Damn it! Is there really no way?
Everyone was silent. They noticed that she was prepared to face death with a dignified attitude that seemed almost haughty.
Then, suddenly, a question came to mind. If she wasn’t going to take revenge, the Mangya and the Black New Moon wouldn’t have meant much to her either.
What was the reason she actively tried to resolve them?
“But Levidian, why did you get involved with the Mangya and the Black New Moon? You said you weren’t going to take revenge.”
“Th-That’s……”
She bit her lip slightly and turned her head. Was there something she found difficult to say?
Then, finally, my good friend Aila, as if she had realized something, slapped her palm with her fist.
Clap!
“Ah! That’s it! So that’s why. Right, unni?”
“What is it, Aila?”
“I received a letter from you before we left this morning. What I felt at the time was exactly this.”
“Ah, Aila……”
Aila completely ignored Levidian’s embarrassment and said curtly.
“Kill me.”
“What?”
“It was a pretty long letter, the content was messy, and as expected of you, the sentences lacked a bit of sense. But strangely, it looked like a will. That’s how I knew you were planning to die by my hand. I didn’t know the reason though. The meaning was roughly this. ‘I want you to kill me, and take good care of Risel.’ Thanks to that, all the plans I made became useless. I naturally assumed you were confident in your victory.”
“Levidian……”
I slowly turned my head to look at her. She was completely avoiding my gaze and fidgeting. Aila continued speaking in an amused tone.
“But now I understand. You didn’t care about revenge, and since you were destined to die anyway, you were thinking of having the biggest fight of your life and then dying. Wow, unni, you’re unexpectedly sentimental? And even paradoxical. As expected. This is why people are so interesting. Do you even know how complicated my feelings were when I saw Risel lying unconscious with broken limbs? You wrote in the letter that everything would be over when he woke up, but it turned out to be a lie. That wasn’t the original plan. Tsk.”
“Then, the ‘now’ and ‘next’ you mentioned meaningfully yesterday were because of your original plan? It was a strangely emphasized phrase, so it bothered me.”
“Well…… I guess so? Since it’s a plan I couldn’t even attempt, I won’t bother explaining it. Hmm. Not keeping a promise after making it is a rare mistake even in my life. I was even prepared to disappear for a few years. Because for someone who has reached your level, unni, it would be easy to commit suicide ‘accidentally’ during a fight, right? I couldn’t just carelessly intervene against a master like you. In that case, an ‘unexpected situation’ would definitely arise. Even I wasn’t confident in preventing such a ‘near-natural disaster accident’. If I killed you with my own hands, not only would you never want to see my face again, but you wouldn’t forgive me either, right? Of course, I thought you would write a will or something before facing such a situation and send it to you. But even so, how could I face you before that? After I had killed you.”
It’s just like Aila to talk so casually about killing or not killing someone right in front of her. No wonder she seemed so solemn when we were fighting today……
This is all because of Levidian, no, that curse.
No, what the hell was that father thinking, cursing his own daughter instead of just dying peacefully?
Ha! It’s so absurd that I’m speechless!
So what? Does that mean I almost lost a precious person and a good friend at the same time?
With my eyes wide open, foolishly unaware of anything!
Ugh! I’m so pissed off. This is a problem I can’t just ignore!
At that moment, Al’s eyes flashed and he spoke.
“Shadow Stone……”
“Huh?”
“The Sword King said it before they fought. ‘Unless you bring the Shadow Stone from the Gray Forest.’ Doesn’t that mean it can dispel the curse?”
Ah, that’s right.
I had forgotten about it because it was mentioned in passing and a lot of strange things happened right after.
But what is the Shadow Stone?
Even ordinary stones lying on the road have shadows.
“Al, what’s the Shadow Stone?”
“I heard about it when I was working as a mercenary in Orknesia. It’s a stone that the ‘Gray Tribe’ living in the Gray Forest keeps. I don’t know its use, but they seem to treasure it very much.”
Al finished speaking and looked at Levidian. Levidian, who had turned her head when the Shadow Stone was mentioned, met Al’s gaze.
“Ah, well…… that’s……”
“What is it?”
Levidian seems reluctant to speak. When she tried to turn her head again, I stared at her with intensity in my eyes.
She froze like a deer in headlights when our eyes met.
Now, tell me.
“Th-That’s…… Alright. I’ll tell you. One of my subordinates told me about it. Deep in the Gray Forest, there’s a Shadow Stone, and they said it blocks and dispels all different powers. It’s said to be very rare because of the powerful force dormant within it. B-But there’s no way we can easily get our hands on something like that, right? More than anything, it’s the Gray Forest. It’s in the Gray Forest, where the entire 500,000 troops of the Empire’s Eastern Army are stationed. I’d rather search for Magnolia Beming’s legacy. Even I can’t be sure.”
Levidian said with a despairing expression.
Even if she were the Sword King’s grandfather, he would feel the same.
If you’re looking for something in the Gray Forest, it’s better to politely give up. There’s a saying that if your lover is kidnapped and taken to the Gray Forest, you won’t be blamed for giving up, right?
The despair seems to be doubling, tripling.
However, in the current situation, the only thing we can rely on is that Shadow Stone. It’s the only way to free Levidian.
Do you think…… I’ll easily give up on something like that?
Besides, it’s perfect timing.
There was something that was bothering me about the Gray Forest anyway.
Let’s take care of it while we’re there.
“Aila, are you feeling better?”
“Yeah. I’m perfectly fine now. Thanks to the medicine you gave me. Why?”
“Then let’s get up. Levidian?”
“Yes?”
“Shall we talk somewhere quiet for a moment? Aila too.”
Levidian blinked her wide eyes.
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