Chapter Content
Chapter 2
Claude looked at the young man clutching his arm and shedding tears.
The youth looked to be about seventeen or eighteen, and it was a face he had never seen before.
Moreover, had he not just called him “young master”?
Was the body he had just possessed that of a noble?
Claude narrowed his brows and shifted his gaze.
People dressed in extravagant gowns and immaculate tuxedos whispered among themselves.
The pungent scent of heavy perfume.
Dangling jewels and glittering ornaments dazzled his vision.
He did not know where this place was, but one thing was clear: a party was being held.
Overwhelmed by the sudden riot of colors and feeling on the verge of nausea, Claude lowered his head deeply.
“What on earth….”
Before he could even voice his confusion, the pain that had briefly subsided began to tighten around his heart once more.
An agony that felt as though fire had spread inside him, raging fiercely.
As the pain he thought had ended continued, he turned his eyes back to the status window.
New text appeared where the black flickering letters had vanished.
[Status abnormality: Curse of Deadly Poison]
‘Right from the start, what is this….’
He twisted his face and glared at the status window.
The Curse of Deadly Poison was a highest-tier curse that inflicted intense pain on its target as time passed.
Once afflicted, one experienced agony as if thrown into blazing fire until death, and at some point, the vocal cords melted away, leaving one unable to even scream properly.
Eventually, the body withered and shriveled beyond recognition.
It was the most vicious and malicious curse that one human could place upon another, a crystallization of pure malice.
That was the Curse of Deadly Poison.
He did not know what the owner of this new body had done to deserve such a curse, but the start was bad.
No, not just bad. It was the worst possible.
The activated ‘Blessing of the Sun God’ flickered faintly.
The surging pain crept in, gnawing at his heart.
It seemed to block a certain degree of pain, but this was malice potent enough to overcome even a god’s blessing.
Worthy of being called highest-tier, indeed, but now was not the time to admire it.
[The effects of the Curse of Deadly Poison are beginning to activate!]
[15 seconds remain until the curse spreads throughout the body!]
[Entering the first critical phase!]
[If it is not stopped within 15 seconds, the next stage will begin immediately!]
There was not even time to panic.
If he failed to deal with this, he would begin this new body only to endure days of horrific pain before dying.
After everything he had been through, he could not let a curse like this end a run so meaninglessly.
[12!]
For someone who had once made a name as a great mage, briefly amplifying mana through affinity was not difficult.
Checking the decreasing number, Claude circulated his mana as quickly as possible.
A slight shock brushed through his body.
Seeing that there was no mana accumulated inside, he judged that this was a body that had never even properly formed mana resonance.
‘…No, something is different.’
Like pouring water into a cracked plate, the mana did not accumulate at all, instead leaking steadily through minute fractures.
It seemed to be a body with a problem in its mana vessel.
Claude clicked his tongue with an irritated expression.
He needed to properly inspect his condition and operate mana accordingly, but there was no time for that now.
If he did not act immediately, death awaited.
In any case, it was a problem that could be solved by pouring in more mana before it leaked away.
[9!]
Clenching his teeth, Claude hastily drew external mana toward his heart.
At least one fortunate thing was that he had experienced the Curse of Deadly Poison in a previous run and knew how to drive it out.
“Ghk…!”
The system window began flickering madly, as if warning of danger.
Noticing that something was wrong, the youth in front of him screamed again.
“Young master!”
[7!]
Cough!
Claude did not hold back what surged up from within and spat it out.
It was blood close to black, the result of forcibly expelling the curse that had pooled around his heart.
Only after vomiting all of it would the pain that burned his entire body temporarily subside.
“Priest! Is the priest not here yet?!”
A shrill voice urged those around.
Screams and the sound of frantic movement filled the air.
[5!]
The minute cracks in the vessel widened further, increasing the leakage.
It was no different from a bottomless jar, the result of trying to accept a large amount of mana with an untrained body.
Claude struck his constricted chest with difficulty.
Why was a curse like this causing so much trouble!
“They are here!”
Urgent footsteps approached.
At the same time, a warm energy flowed in, inferior to the ‘Blessing of the Sun God’ but similar in nature.
A priest who served the Sun God had arrived just in time.
Divine power poured over the fragile vessel that looked ready to shatter.
The cracks healed slightly.
Claude did not miss that moment.
[1!]
“What on earth is this…!”
“Khk!”
The instant the priest’s hand touched him, Claude squeezed out his last bit of strength and forcibly expelled the cursed energy.
Among the blood he spat out, it was the thickest and most ominous in color.
His mouth, clothes, and the floor were stained with dark red blood.
The startled priest poured her divine power into Claude without restraint.
And as a result.
Ding!
[…]
[Temporary suspension!]
[Entering state stabilization!]
[Inspecting body condition!]
Fortunately, it was not too late.
Through the gap left by the most intense pain receding, warm energy seeped in.
The blessing of the Sun God, mingled with divine power, shone down like sunlight and began to thaw his body.
The status window that had been flickering madly gradually calmed, then reappeared with a notification sound.
Ding!
[Inspection complete!]
[Status abnormality: Curse of Deadly Poison (Restricted)]
[Time remaining until next death: 7 days]
As expected.
The Curse of Deadly Poison could not be lifted immediately.
What Claude had done was merely extend the grace period until the next death.
He slowly exhaled.
The priest’s divine power and the blessing of the Sun God were reducing the pain.
But unless the curse itself was removed, the agony that burned his heart would return after a certain period.
‘Still, that is one burden off my mind….’
Perhaps because the urgent countdown had passed, he felt more at ease than before.
Claude relaxed his body and looked at the priest.
She wore a pure white robe embroidered with the symbol of the Sun God, but the lack of gold thread suggested she was not of high rank.
With no time to worry about the few strands of brown hair that had slipped loose from being hastily tied up, her face as she poured in divine power looked extremely grave.
She must have grasped the nature of the curse.
And she must have also noticed the unstable mana fissures inside his body, on the verge of shattering.
That was precisely what she was focusing all her attention on repairing.
The rest would be up to him.
The backlash from forcibly expending his strength caused his consciousness to flicker repeatedly.
Sleep washed over him like rough waves.
The urgent matter had been roughly dealt with, so he could think about the rest after waking.
Thinking so nonchalantly, he relaxed and lay limp.
In the first place, he did not have the strength to get up.
As his eyes began to close, the priest noticed and shouted at once.
“We must move Lord Aquila to a comfortable place! Explanations can wait!”
Aquila?
Ding!
Just as his body was about to go completely limp, a new notification sounded.
He forced his dimming eyes open.
The most annoying part of this system was that one had to identify keywords to obtain information.
Though on the verge of losing consciousness, Claude hastily skimmed the basic information window to gather even a little more.
[30th run possession target: Aquila Reschenhardt]
But an entirely unexpected name appeared.
Reschenhardt.
‘Why is the name of one of the Four Great Houses here….’
Unable to resist the encroaching darkness, he lost consciousness once more.
***
Hngh.
His awareness returned slowly, as if being dragged onto land.
The faint surrounding noises grew clearer, and at some point, an unfamiliar voice pierced his ears.
“This is undoubtedly the Curse of Deadly Poison.”
A voice clicking its tongue.
Whoever it belonged to, it was a voice steeped in spite.
The Curse of Deadly Poison.
Hearing those words brought back the situation he had experienced before losing consciousness.
‘So I did not die after all.’
He quietly released the breath he had been holding and relaxed his stiff body.
His back felt soft.
Instead of immediately sitting up, Claude adjusted his breathing and listened carefully to his surroundings.
Two presences in the room.
And three more outside.
“He seems to have miraculously avoided instant death, but in any case, this body is beyond saving.”
The footsteps that had been pacing around the room came to an abrupt stop.
“There is no way to lift the Curse of Deadly Poison, and yet every time I see people come begging despite knowing that, I cannot help but laugh.”
Laughter seeped into the man’s voice.
Claude slightly opened his eyes and glanced around.
Two priests in pure white robes.
The one with a protruding belly appeared to be of high rank, judging by the splendid robe embroidered with gold thread, while the other seemed to be the female priest who had treated him earlier.
“Reschenhardt as well… oh my. I may find it amusing, but those people have sharp ears, so I should be careful here.”
The potbellied priest rubbed his mouth, chuckled, then mimed slapping his own lips.
Mockery seemed second nature to him.
He looked down at Claude with an unpleasant gaze.
“Well, whatever. There is no need to waste my precious divine power on someone who will be dead soon anyway. Instead, Yujelia, you just pretend to treat him appropriately. You have to earn your pay.”
With that, he moved his heavy steps and left the room.
The female priest called Yujelia had not responded with a single word until then.
Quiet conversation drifted in from outside the door before eventually falling silent.
The presences were moving farther away.
Staring at the door, Yujelia finally let out a long sigh and muttered.
“Careless and stupid bastard.”
Well, well.
Claude narrowed his eyes again and glanced at her.
From her lowered face, undisguised anger and contempt seeped through.
Yujelia muttered a few more curses, then before he knew it, approached the bed and looked down at Claude with a complicated expression.
Her hand touched his right hand.
“There may be no way to lift the Curse of Deadly Poison, but until you draw your last breath, I pray that you may at least be spared from pain and find peace….”
Yujelia murmured in a strained voice.
Holding Claude’s hand, she trembled.
As a priest, she would know what kind of state those afflicted with the Curse of Deadly Poison died in, and judging by her reaction, it seemed she had seen it with her own eyes.
As if she had never intended to heed what the potbellied priest said, Yujelia was pouring in her divine power without restraint.
‘Diligent.’
People who could do nothing despite suffering being right before their eyes often wore expressions like that.
Ark was that kind of person as well.
‘Ark Batchel….’
Claude recalled the last image of Ark he had seen.
When did Ark begin to change?
Now that a new run had begun, he would have to proceed through the main scenario once again and go meet Ark Batchel.
He felt something boiling in the depths of his chest.
‘When I meet him, I am going to punch him.’
Of course, before that, he needed to deal with the curse afflicting this body.
If he died before meeting Arc, nothing would even begin.
Claude made an effort not to twist his expression as he mulled over the conversation he had just heard.
Judging by the claim that the Curse of Deadly Poison could not be lifted, it seemed the method for removing it had not yet been announced.
‘I came back further into the past than I expected.’
In one of his past lives, a genius alchemist had publicly revealed a method to lift the Curse of Deadly Poison, shocking those who had lost loved ones to it.
The controversy spread rapidly because the method itself was not difficult.
If one was willing to endure a bit of inconvenience, the materials needed were also easy to obtain nearby.
Claude searched his memories.
Many parts were vaguely mixed together, but fortunately, he had not forgotten the method.
It was probably the result of how much he had struggled back then.
Then the biggest problem was how to convey the method….
Yujelia still had her head lowered and had not released Claude’s hand.
Thanks to the steady flow of divine power, his body felt comfortable, but it was difficult to find the right moment to move.
Just as he cautiously gauged the situation and began to put strength into his body.
Knock knock.
Suddenly, a knocking sound rang out.