Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Flower
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"Why is 'flower' an insult?"
Jade asked as he flipped through the book.
Ruby was peering at the book with fascination. She still held it close enough to touch her face. For someone who had been bawling her eyes out, she recovered quickly—aside from the tear stains, there was no sign she'd been crying. Her behavior hadn't changed from before.
"Could 'flower' be an angel's insult?"
"No. The worst insult for angels is 'demon.' If you call one 'you demon bastard,' you'd better be ready to die. It's the opposite for demons. 'Live in heaven's shithole!' is one of the biggest insults. At least, as far as I know."
"Demons think shit's an insult too, huh."
"Everyone shits."
Ruby giggled like a child.
Jade scanned the pages for a while before shaking his head.
"This isn't it."
"Hurry up and find it. My neck's killing me."
Ruby scratched at the shackle around her neck.
"You've waited five hundred years. What's a little longer? It's been less than twenty-four hours since I started using passages from this book for something other than demon banishment."
Jade flipped another page and asked,
"Then why do you use 'flower' as an insult? You don't remember that either?"
"No, do you analyze etymology every time you curse? Just find it!"
Jade shrugged and opened to a page.
"I think I found it. But I'm not sure it'll unlock the shackles."
Ruby's eyes scanned the book Jade held out.
Jade asked out of curiosity.
"Does this look like a holy book or a grimoire to you?"
"Obviously a grimoire."
"Thought so. Can you read it?"
"I know how to read it, but I can't pronounce it. And reading it doesn't cast the spell. I heard from the mage who wrote this book once—it's something you're born with, not learned."
Ruby looked away from the book and said,
"Can all angels use this grimoire?"
Jade was starting to get used to calling it a grimoire now too.
"A lot of angels use light magic, but probably not all. Who knows. When angels use light magic, they don't need to read from books like you or other human mages do."
Ruby scratched under the skin beneath her wrist shackle and suggested.
"Anyway, give it a try. If it doesn't work, try another passage. If that fails, keep trying others. Inefficient, but if you're not familiar with it, that's the only way."
"Hold out your hand."
After Jade read the passage, he extended his glowing hand. Without even touching the shackles directly, the light was absorbed into the ones on both wrists, ankles, and neck. The wrists unlocked first, followed by the ankles with a click.
"Huh, it worked. That was easy!"
Jade said happily.
But the neck shackle, unlike the others, turned black after absorbing the light.
It didn't unlock—instead, it began to tighten.
"Wh-what... what did... you..."
Ruby shoved Jade away and staggered back.
Jade hit the back of his head hard on the ground but sprang up before he could feel the pain. Even though the light had faded from Jade's hand, Ruby's neck shackle kept tightening.
"What the—why?"
Jade checked the passage again.
'Did I read it wrong? No. The wrists and ankles unlocked. So the neck tightening must be part of the normal function.'
The black shackle continued to squeeze Ruby's neck.
"St-stop... it..."
Ruby collapsed helplessly to her knees. She couldn't even struggle.
"Hang on. There must be a cancellation passage..."
He said that, but nothing came to mind right away. He prided himself on memorizing every passage and page since getting the book, but application was a whole different story.
Ruby couldn't endure the pain and face-planted onto the ground. Saliva drooled from her open mouth, and her face went pale.
Jade repeated "stay calm" to himself as he kept thinking.
'When closing the temple door, I read the opening passage backward.'
Hoping the same trick worked, Jade read the passage that unlocked the shackles backward. Light gathered in his palm again.
Without touching, the shackles absorbed the light. The neck shackle shifted from black back to silver and returned to its original size.
Ruby, who had been thrashing while clutching the shackle with both hands, finally gasped for air. Then the four shackles on the ground flew back to her wrists and ankles with clicks.
'The five shackles are linked by one passage. When the wrists and ankles unlock, the neck tightens. When the neck resets, the wrists and ankles lock... I can't unlock them like this!'
Jade approached Ruby worriedly and asked,
"You okay...?"
In that instant, Ruby lunged, knocking Jade down and straddling his chest. She raised her fist. The small fist, capable of shattering rocks, slammed down right next to Jade's face.
The red-sand-covered ground shattered, burying Jade's face. It was like a landslide beside his cheek.
"You."
She growled.
"What... did you do?"
"It wasn't on purpose!"
Jade brushed the sand from his face and said hurriedly.
Ruby aimed her fist at his face.
"I almost died just now!"
"I didn't know that would happen."
Ruby breathed heavily, fist still raised.
Jade looked up into her eyes and said,
"Sorry."
"Shut up, you flower bud."
Ruby rubbed her neck as she stood.
Jade got up too and brushed the remaining dirt from his face.
"Those five shackles must be linked by one passage. The wrists and ankles..."
"I can figure that much out without your explanation. Enough. Don't do it."
"Why? If we try a few times, we might figure out how to unlock just the wrists and ankles. And if not, I can immediately read the reverse passage..."
"No. It scares me. Admit it—you weren't even sure you could cancel the magic midway just now."
"Well, that's true, but..."
"Who the hell taught you magic? A mentor is more important than anything!"
"Father Danel."
"What a flowery name—like he does surgery! Who is he? I'll chew him out if I meet him!"
"That man... I can't meet him."
He didn't want to say he was dead. Didn't want to believe it.
Jade didn't want to dwell on it, so he picked up the book and said,
"There's another passage here with a similar meaning. This one unlocks something too..."
"I said no! I don't want to feel that pain for even one more second. Wait—what?"
Ruby suddenly stepped back a few paces as if something occurred to her. She glared at Jade with eyes full of wariness—no, murderous intent.
"Thinking about it, that means you could kill me anytime with that magic, right?"
"That won't happen. By that logic, you could kill me anytime too."
"That's obvious."
"And the reverse isn't?"
"Does that make sense? You killing me?"
Jade smirked and asked,
"Are you scared of me right now?"
"I'm not scared, you sprouting seed!"
"Then shall we try again? Reading the passage backward undid the tightening, so maybe doing it once more will loosen the neck shackle?"
Ruby didn't drop her suspicious glare.
"No way. No guarantee it'll work, and who knows what side effects? Like maybe the wrist and ankle shackles tighten this time!"
"That could happen. We won't know until we try. But you were the one who said trying inefficiently is the only way."
"Fine, you flower rice! I'll just stay like this. It's not uncomfortable. Better to ask a dwarf to unlock it later than rely on you."
Jade eyed Ruby's neck and said,
"You said the shackle you're wearing weakens you. That was the handicap in your bet, remember?"
"Didn't you see me fight earlier? This is nothing."
"You passed out once in front of the temple. That might've been a side effect."
"That was dizziness from everything suddenly happening after five hundred years."
"Wearing the shackles is humiliating, right?"
Ruby made the shackles and chains fully transparent, as if to show off.
"Just make 'em invisible!"
Jade wondered if that was a kind of magic too.
"Come on, just try this one passage..."
"I said stop! If I say no, it's no!"
"You stubborn brat."
"Now you get it, you flower rice!"
Ruby was about to hurl more insults when she turned around.
"Huh? Looks like one survived."
About a hundred paces from where they stood, a frog-like monster half-buried in the sand was rising.
Unlike a frog, it had a tail—the severed tail was regenerating, and its half-smashed head was healing.
It opened its mouth wide and let out a trumpet-like bellow. The roar echoed loud enough to be heard miles away.
"Calling its buddies. So those weren't all of them? Since when did the red desert get infested with demons like this?"
"I only realized how bad it was after coming here."
"Seems connected to that Yoll guy. You really don't know who he is?"
"I've never heard the name before this all started."
Like before, sand exploded, and six monsters burst from the ground surrounding Jade and Ruby. They were similar in size and grotesque shape—demons. The six shook off the dirt and rocks from their heads and scanned the area.
"Where? Where?"
"Hey, sand toad. What happened to you?"
"Stupid sand toad looks stupid."
The demons mocked the frog-like monster Ruby had beaten, calling it "sand toad." The sand toad snapped angrily.
"Don't let your guard down. Don't let your guard down. Watch the red fluffball. Watch out. It took out over ten of us alone. Alone. It did this to me, so it could do the same to you."
Ruby asked in a delighted tone, as if thrilled to fight again.
"Why does that big-mouth repeat everything twice? Insecure about its pronunciation?"
Meanwhile, Jade was too frantic to think, fumbling to open the book.
The sand toad yelled,
"Yoll's orders. Orders. The blond one's Jade. Jade! Kill him but leave the head. Head! Yoll needs proof. Needs proof."
Like kids rushing to the cafeteria, the monsters charged all at once.
Ruby chuckled and swung the chains dangling from her wrists fiercely once.
"Hey, Jade—same as before. Got it?"
Jade flattened himself to the ground. A whooshing wind passed over his head. The chains wrapped around one monster each from left and right. She swung them, slamming the monsters into their comrades, toppling them in a heap.
"Oh, right!"
Ruby said out of nowhere.
"Right what?"
Jade asked, fearing something dangerous had happened.
"I remembered why I started cursing with 'flower.'"
Ruby yanked one in with her chain and smashed her fist into its face. A cannon-like boom rang out as the monster's face exploded.
Flesh sprayed around Jade with wet splats.
"What does that matter right now?"
Jade yelled.
"You asked!"
Ruby whipped her chain like a lash, slicing a charging monster's waist clean off. The upper half hit the ground, but the legs kept coming. She swung again, bisecting the legs too.
"I met this girl. Super frail and weak, a noble kid with a terminal illness. Bad luck—she got caught by a demon. So I grabbed the demon to save her, and it cursed at me: 'You shithead, stinking up the place—I'll smear my shit on your head!'"
The chains moved like living things, decapitating two more monsters. One severed head landed with a thud in front of Jade.
He looked up to see black blood splattered everywhere, chunks of flesh strewn about.
'Second time, and it doesn't shock me any less.'
Jade felt like vomiting.
Ruby kept talking.
"So I fired back: 'Then I'll snap off your dickhead, shove it down your throat, choke you so it doesn't reach your stomach, and ram it in and out your neck!' Then I did exactly what it cursed. "
The remaining two monsters froze, seeing their comrades die so easily. Ruby yanked both in with her chains at once.
They resisted, but couldn't match her strength. Even then, Ruby kept chatting.
"But this ungrateful brat got mad at me: 'How could you curse like that?' Makes sense? I saved her life—curses matter more? After that, she followed me relentlessly, saying she'd reform me so I wouldn't curse. How persistent? She had one year left to live, but grew taller than me, became the village beauty, all to stop my cursing. Incredible grit. Probably wasn't sick to begin with."
Ruby slammed her fists into the two monsters' heads twice. They twitched, resisting. She pounded their chests twice more.
One still twitched, so she hit it again. Finally, both stopped moving.
"Then one day, bam—she croaked. Not from the illness, from a cold. Idiot! I gave her like a hundred cartloads of animal hides and firewood to avoid colds, but she couldn't use 'em. 'Cause she's an idiot!"
Ruby sniffled suddenly and continued.
"Before dying, she sent her family away, called only me, and left a will. Guess what? 'Don't curse.' That's it. So persistent, right?"
All the new monsters were dead, leaving only the sand toad that called them.
"Even a dying wish—I refused to stop cursing. So she said use 'flower' instead. Then died. Cowardly! What could I do? Had to honor the will. That's when I became a full-on flower curser."
Ruby hurled a chain at the sand toad. It flew like an arrow, piercing its forehead, through its gut, and out the other side.
"Honestly, it felt weird at first, but I got used to it. And grateful to her. Made my curses more creative."
Ruby pulled the chain back—it snapped right to her wrist, soaked in black demon blood.
Black blood squirted from the sand toad's pierced head. It slowly collapsed face-first and didn't move again.
"See? Boring story, huh?"
Ruby wiped her nose and said.
Jade stood, nodding.
"Yeah. Boring."
"Such a persistent girl."
"Totally persistent."
"Right? When she died, I felt so relieved—whew! Should've never gotten her that medicine."
Ruby said regretfully.
Jade pretended not to notice the tears welling in Ruby's eyes.