The Princess's Curse
When I opened my eyes, my wrists would not move.
Click.
Bands of blue light bound both my arms to either side of the bed.
“……What the hell.”
Three days since I fell into another world.
On the first day I had done every ridiculous thing I could think of in some alley until my throat went raw.
“Status!”
“Status window!”
“System!”
Nothing opened.
What I got instead was a single janitor’s post at the Royal Magic Academy.
And even that, it seemed, was already over.
“You’ve awakened.”
I turned my head.
At first I thought she was a doll. Her skin was far too white. Silver hair spilled softly past her shoulders, and her large eyes were clear as glass.
She was beautiful.
The most beautiful person I had ever actually seen.
Finally.
Finally an event like this is happening to me too.
Open your eyes and there’s a delicate, fragile-looking beauty. A pretty girl speaking to me was a first. My heart felt ready to burst.
I forced my dry throat to work.
“Did you…… nurse me, by any chance?”
The girl looked down at my wrists.
“No.”
“…….”
“I was checking whether the restraints were functioning properly.”
Ah.
So this was a kidnapping?
I thought it was the classic event where a beautiful girl talks to you the moment you open your eyes…
“Can’t you undo these?”
“No.”
The answer came far too quickly.
“Do I look that dangerous?”
“By the Royal Society’s standards, yes.”
“From where I’m sitting I’m just a decent janitor who got beaten half to death and passed out a minute ago.”
The girl blinked. A moment later the corner of her lips lifted, just barely.
Did she smile?
In that instant faint characters rose above her head.
ROYAL SOCIETY PROTECTION TARGET
PRINCESS
I shut my mouth.
Princess?
She wore nothing but thin nightclothes and a pale face. Even so, the moment she lifted her head it became strangely hard to look away. Not because she looked frail—her posture was straight, the bearing of someone who had drawn people’s eyes from the day she was born. She was only sitting quietly beside the bed, yet the air around her felt different.
And deep inside her chest, purple characters writhed.
CURSE
DEBILITATION
MANA CIRCULATION DECLINE
REGULAR INJECTION IN PROGRESS
Regular injection?
Of a curse?
“Is something the matter?”
the princess asked.
I hurriedly looked away.
“Nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Very.”
The door opened then. Three men in black robes entered. The same characters floated over their chests.
The princess rose from her seat.
“He has only just woken.”
The man in front bowed only to her.
“Orders from above.”
“What orders?”
“To transfer the subject to the sealing vault.”
Subject.
That was clearly me. The man’s eyes looked less at a person than at a dangerous object.
“I have a perfectly good name. Calling me ‘subject’ is a little much, don’t you think?”
“Speech is not authorized.”
The princess took one step forward.
“He is an injured man.”
“It is recorded.”
“And you’re still sending him to the sealing vault?”
“It is an order.”
The man’s hand moved beneath the bed. Blue lines stirred.
Twenty-eight years old. I had finished university and still never landed a real job. The first position I managed to get in another world was nothing more than a janitor’s post, and even that was about to end after three days. Now it was time to be dragged off to a sealing vault.
I opened my mouth at once.
“Wait!”
The man’s hand stopped.
“What.”
“I’ll take treatment first.”
“You are not a treatment subject.”
“I almost died just now!”
“There is no threat to your life.”
“How would you know? My shoulder’s killing me and my head feels like it’s about to split open!”
The man’s eyebrow twitched.
I need to check what that ‘regular injection’ actually is.
Before they haul me off to the vault.
“And I’m hungry.”
“Hunger is not a treatment subject.”
“To me it’s a critical injury.”
The princess covered her lips. This time she definitely smiled. When she did, her large eyes curved just a little, and for a moment color seemed to return to that pale face. It was a small smile, yet somehow it stayed with you.
The man let out a long breath.
“After Princess Ipda’s treatment is complete, emergency care will be permitted.”
Ipda.
That was the princess’s name.
“Then I will begin the treatment first.”
Ipda nodded.
“Please take care of it today as well.”
Today as well.
Those words and Regular Injection in Progress overlapped in my mind.
The black-robed man spread his hand. White light bloomed—clear, soft, even warm. On the surface it looked like a healing formula to anyone. Ipda closed her eyes without the slightest doubt, the way someone does when they are used to this.
His staff moved. The white light settled onto Ipda’s chest. Beneath it the purple characters writhed deeper still.
CURSE
DEBILITATION
MANA CIRCULATION DECLINE
CULT FORMULA
Did I misread that?
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No. The more the white light touched her, the clearer Debilitation became.
This was not treatment.
They were layering the curse thicker.
“Stop!!!”
My voice tore through the room. The man’s hand froze. Ipda’s eyes opened.
“What……”
“That’s not treatment!”
All expression vanished from the black-robed man’s face.
“Blocking the subject’s speech.”
Black characters rose from his fingertips.
I yanked against the restraint bands.
Click!
Blue light bit into my wrists. It hurt. I still could not look away.
“There’s a curse inside the princess’s body!”
Ipda’s pupils trembled.
“A curse……?”
“They’re putting it in right now!”
“Do not listen to nonsense.”
The character for Seal at the man’s fingertips was about to complete. In that instant new characters floated before my eyes.
Yes.
Just release it.
I forced my bound hands upward. My fingertips shook. The first stroke snagged on the restraint band and smeared. I drew it again anyway—toward the Curse floating over Ipda’s chest.
The character touched. The purple curse twisted violently.
CURSE CHARACTER CONTACT
CONDITIONS INSUFFICIENT
Damn it.
Conditions again.
The black Seal drifted toward my mouth. I did not have much time left to speak.
What do I release?
The entire curse?
No. That’s too big.
The layer they’re adding right now.
The outer shell that makes a person weak.
“Subject!”
“Curse!”
The black-robed man lunged for my arm. The restraint formula tightened harder.
“Debilitation!”
The purple characters shook violently.
“Alter!”
My throat felt ready to tear.
“Release!!!”
The character drove into the curse. Instantly the white light in the room snuffed out.
Crack!
The outer layer of the Curse floating over Ipda’s chest split open.
SURFACE DEBILITATION — RELEASED
CULT-STYLE CURSE — PARTIALLY DAMAGED
Ipda drew in a sharp breath.
“Ha……!”
It sounded like the first proper breath she had taken in a long time. A faint flush of color returned to her pale cheeks. She laid a hand over her own chest.
“My body……”
Her voice trembled.
“My body feels light.”
Then a crystal orb in the corner of the room turned black.
CURSE FORMULA DAMAGE CONFIRMED
TRANSMISSION SOURCE: CULT
The black-robed men’s faces hardened.
Crack!
The restraint bands around my wrists burst.
NEURAL LOAD EXCESSIVE
RIGHT ARM SENSATION — DECLINE
Sensation drained out of my right arm. My body tipped sideways onto the bed. Breathing was hard. Even so, a laugh slipped out.
I had not fully undone it. But at least that damned “treatment” had stopped.
Ipda came toward me.
“Han Seok-beom.”
I blinked. She had said my name correctly.
Han.
Seok.
Beom.
“That…… was not treatment.”
The black-robed man shouted.
“Subdue the subject!”
Characters rose at the three men’s fingertips.
RESTRAINT
SUPPRESSION
Ipda threw herself in front of me.
“You must not!”
Her small body blocked the way.
“Princess Ipda, step aside.”
“I order you.”
Her voice was not loud. It did not tremble either.
“Do not lay a hand on Han Seok-beom!”
The black-robed men hesitated—only for a moment. The Restraint and Suppression at their fingertips did not fade. For the first time those clear eyes sank into something cold. Then she looked back at me.
“Can you move?”
My right arm had no feeling. Strength would not come properly into my legs either.
“Probably.”
“Then take my hand.”
Ipda’s fingertips drew through the air. Blue lines layered over one another in rapid succession.
The black-robed men’s faces changed.
“Princess!”
“With that body, spatial formulas are impossible!”
Her lips went white again. Her shoulders trembled faintly with each breath. Still she did not cancel the formula. She held her hand out to me—cold, slender fingers.
I took that hand with my good left one. Her small fingers closed tightly around mine.
“Hold your breath.”
“Huh?”
The room folded. White marble ceiling, gold lines, black robes—everything crumpled like paper. Ipda gripped my hand harder.
“Now!”
In an instant, the Royal Society was gone.