Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Won't You Talk About Curses With Me?
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Curse Healer Dorma Rackroad.
Now seventeen years old, she hunched her shoulders and darted her eyes around nervously.
Despite her inherently timid nature, she had entered Raheln Academy with outstanding grades. Even so, she spent the first six months there without making a single friend, living in solitude.
It was simply because she had a personality that made it hard to mingle with people.
But even someone like her ended up joining a group half a year later.
That group was none other than Third Princess Sigrin Epania of the Epania Empire.
As a result, she no longer had to live as an outcast at the academy.
Deep down, this made her happy. But being sensitive to others' emotions, she knew something.
Sigrin's group didn't exactly welcome her with open arms.
Sigrin was always kind to her, but she couldn't quite mesh with the others, who all had strong personalities of their own.
Still, she didn't let it bother her.
After all, she was someone from the shadowy underworld to begin with.
'Oppa, I miss living with my big brothers and sisters.'
She was the youngest disciple among the twelve under Beltua Rackroad, the world's greatest curse healer.
Her days spent with her senior brothers and sisters, who were passionate about curse research, had been joyful.
Beltua had found her wandering as an orphan beyond the city walls and brought her home.
He raised her and even bestowed upon her the Rackroad name.
But when Dorma turned ten, Beltua suddenly left her in the care of his disciples and vanished.
She cried for days because of it, but Beltua never returned.
The other disciples didn't know the exact reason for their master's departure either.
They just vaguely assumed it had something to do with curses, as he was their master.
Though Beltua was gone, fortunately, it didn't hinder Dorma's growth much.
Her senior brothers and sisters doted on their little youngest sibling immensely.
The problem was that this made it even harder for her to fit in with kids her own age.
She got along fine with adults but had no idea what to talk about with peers.
So, she missed her seniors terribly.
If her eldest senior brother hadn't insisted she broaden her horizons by enrolling at Raheln Academy, she would still be happily researching curses to this day.
But for someone like her, whose social life was in shambles and who had lost all interest in people...
Recently, one person had caught her attention.
'Krash Valheim.'
The direct heir of the famous Valheim family and currently the most talked-about figure at the academy.
The rumors swirling around him even reached her ears, though she barely spoke to anyone.
To be clear, it wasn't romantic interest.
Lately, whenever she lay her head on her desk, she overheard girls chattering endlessly about Krash. But she had no such girlish sentiments.
She was a gloomy type, far removed from any fairytale princess in a carriage.
So why was someone like her paying attention to Krash?
'Curses.'
To her eyes, Krash was a walking mass of curses.
He was so enveloped in them that she wondered if he was the origin point itself.
That alone was enough to draw the gaze of a curse healer like her.
After all, even to her trained eyes, she couldn't identify the types of curses on him.
But the real reason was something else.
'Th-that curse manipulation style... it's Master's.'
On the day of the second-year entrance exam at Raheln Academy.
She had no choice but to attend and observe because Sigrin's group was going together.
While watching the exam indifferently from a corner seat,
she was startled.
Krash was definitely manipulating curses.
And the method was identical to Beltua's.
Beltua was called the world's greatest curse healer, but in truth, he was more of a curse master.
He knew thousands of curses and used them to unleash bizarre combat styles.
To acquire curses, one had to enter World Erosion, so he chose curses as his way to confront erosion beasts.
Krash was using Beltua's exact curse manipulation method.
When she realized it, she barely stopped herself from jumping up.
'He must be connected to Master somehow.'
She wanted to ask where Master was now and how he had learned that curse style.
But her timid personality held her back once again.
While she hemmed and hawed, time kept slipping away.
Then today,
she ended up in the same curse class as him.
He had chosen curse studies as his special elective, which was why he was there.
Her heart stirred.
She had so many questions about Beltua she wanted to ask right away, but her innate shyness kept holding her back.
'This might be my only chance.'
He was manipulating curses, but maybe he was actually suffering from them.
If so, couldn't she lift his curses and ask about Master in return?
With that thought, she clenched her small fist tightly.
'I have to do it. Dorma.'
Today, she would speak to Krash.
She made a firm resolution.
"That concludes today's lesson."
The professor finished class and left the room.
Naturally, Krash paid little attention to the lecture itself.
After all, his knowledge of curses surpassed even the professor's.
In the meantime, the other students packed up and stood.
Krash rose from his seat alongside Aslan.
"U-um, excuse me!"
It was at that moment.
Krash turned his head, thinking the bait had finally been taken.
There stood a girl with unkempt light-colored hair, completely disheveled.
Her small frame trembled as she anxiously glanced around.
After a long pause, she finally opened her mouth.
"W-won't you talk about curses with me?!"
Her voice cracked midway, and she bowed her head in embarrassment.
Her legs shook like aspen leaves.
To think her hard-earned words were about curses.
But it was the only thing she truly knew well.
"Krash, you're popular."
Aslan whistled lightly.
"N-no, it's n-not like that!"
She waved her hands frantically, insisting it wasn't what he thought.
Then, with her face beet red, she hung her head.
Krash, knowing full well why she'd approached, cut straight to the point.
"You want to ask about Beltua Rackroad, right?"
Her head snapped up at his words.
Her eyes sparkled as she nodded vigorously up and down.
It looked just like an excited puppy with unkempt fur pouring its heart out.
If she had a tail, it'd probably be spinning like a motor right now.
"There's a good spot for talking. Want to go there?"
"Y-yes, let's go!"
She answered brightly.
By physical age alone, Krash was actually younger than Dorma.
But that didn't matter to Crimson Garden, apparently.
"Aslan, you?"
"Talk freely, you two. I'll head back to my room."
Aslan stepped aside.
"And be careful not to let Lilina catch you."
For some reason, mentioning Lilina made Krash rub the back of his neck briefly.
"Let's go."
"Y-yes!"
With that, he started walking with Dorma right away.
As Krash and Dorma passed by, gazes turned their way here and there.
Krash was tall for his age, while Dorma was quite short, so they stood out together.
As Dorma shrank into herself bashfully, Krash entered the special studies building.
He walked a bit further and arrived at Darling's alchemy lab.
Darling happened to be out.
He'd mentioned coming today, but with lunchtime approaching, she must have gone to grab something to eat.
"Sit wherever. It's the lab of someone I know."
"O-okay."
Dorma sat down gingerly on a chair.
Already tiny, her huddled posture made her look even smaller.
As she glanced around the lab, her eyes widened.
There were several vials infused with curses, out of place in an alchemy lab.
"Oh, I'm researching curses lately. Specifically, curse offset theory."
At those words, Dorma's eyes grew huge.
"C-curse offset theory?"
"Yeah. The one Beltua Rackroad developed."
The traditional curse healing method used a healer's aura to excise and remove curses.
But curse offset was different.
It offset higher curses using lower ones.
That was curse offset theory.
Before his regression, two people had established this theory.
One was the alchemist Darling Danphelion.
The other was Beltua Rackroad, the world's top curse healer who was ridiculed by others as spouting nonsense.
Higher curses usually killed you before a healer could even arrive.
No one had ever tested it, so it remained just Beltua's theory.
And that theory would be realized through Krash.
Right now, Darling was still just writing her paper.
So currently, Beltua was the only proponent.
"So you are connected to Master!"
"Something like that."
If a connection from his pre-regression life counted, then sure.
"B-but curses don't fully take effect unless they're applied to a target. That's why curse offset theory couldn't be proven..."
The biggest flaw in curse offset theory was that you couldn't apply it to a person.
Higher curses killed instantly upon contact.
So Beltua had only proposed that curses could offset each other, without specifying which ones.
"I've got you covered."
But Krash was different.
He stole curses without becoming their direct target.
This let him survive the diluted effects and actively test curse offset theory.
As a result, Krash became living proof of the theory.
Dorma froze mid-motion.
Then she slowly turned to Krash with wide eyes.
"D-directly on you, Krash?"
"You know it already, don't you, Dorma? What I'm carrying in me."
Dorma flinched.
Up close, it was even clearer.
A stench of curses so thick it could clog her nose emanated from Krash.
"And you came here to ask about this specifically, right?"
Krash crossed his legs as he sat, a smile on his lips.
Seeing him, Dorma bit her lip, squeezed her eyes shut, and shouted.
"Yes! The way you handle curses is so similar to Master's!"
"Of course. I learned it directly from your master."
The secret art Krash wielded, Extreme Blood Poison Infusion.
The Hellfire Erosion he drew out through Ignis was fundamentally based on Beltua's curse arts.
The reason Krash could use Hellfire Erosion so readily was all thanks to that prior experience.
"I knew it!"
Her eyes blazed as she looked ready to pounce on him.
"I-I've been looking for Master ever since! He vanished when I was ten, and there's been no word since. I've been so worried!"
Dorma's words tumbled out rapidly.
She paused for a breath, panting.
"Then when I saw you using Master's style, I suspected... D-do you know where he is?"
After spilling it all, she looked parched.
Krash pulled out a cup, filled it with water, and handed it to her.
"Th-thank you."
She gripped it with both hands and gulped it down with her tiny mouth.
Finally, her expression calmed.
"Feeling better?"
"Y-yes."
Krash smiled at the now-settled Dorma.
"First off, Beltua Rackroad is wandering the Forbidden Domain."
That old coot was utterly obsessed with curses.
So as soon as he deemed Dorma grown enough, he bolted straight for the Forbidden Domain.
He probably didn't tell Dorma or the disciples where he was going for her own sake.
To keep her from foolishly following him there.
"...The Forbidden Domain."
Dorma murmured with a stiff face.
She knew full well how dangerous it was.
Dorma was an exceptional curse healer.
True to Beltua's personal tutelage, her curse knowledge was top-tier, and her healing skills were the best among the twelve disciples.
'I've benefited greatly from her too. I owe her quite a bit.'
However, apart from that, her combat prowess was negligible.
Her naturally small frame and frail body weren't suited for wielding curses in battle.
So hearing "Forbidden Domain," her breath must have caught in her throat.
It was a place she could never reach.
"Want me to help find Beltua Rackroad?"
At Krash's offer, Dorma's head shot up.
She thought Krash knew Beltua.
He was a Valheim, after all.
He'd surely enter the Forbidden Domain again in the future.
He could definitely find him.
"A-are you sure?"
"I'm heading there anyway. Might as well."
"Ah, th-thank you so much! You're nothing like the rumors, Krash—so kind!"
She jumped up, grabbed his hand, and shook it vigorously.
To her, who desperately wanted to see her master again, this was incredibly grateful.
"Rumors?"
At Krash's question about the rumors, she let out an "Ah" and looked down.
"W-well."
"It's fine. It's just how I normally act anyway."
He'd intended it to some extent.
He had no plans to be underestimated at Raheln Academy.
So he'd acted a bit more aggressively than usual at times.
[Isn't that just how you always are?]
He ignored Crimson Garden's remark.
"N-no, it's not! You're even kind to someone like me! The rumors are misunderstandings! People spreading lies about you having tons of women or whatever—they're the bad ones!"
But her next words made even Krash's expression freeze solid.
"...Me, having women?"