Curse Engraved in Blood
I was always ordinary in the freshman duels. My opponent was Pascal, and I won every time without breaking a sweat. Hidden talent? Sudden awakening? A dramatic comeback against all odds? None of that ever happened. I simply displayed slightly superior skill and claimed an easy victory. Under normal circumstances, people should have been shocked—“No way, Pascal Myers couldn’t even put up a fight against a completely average guy like him?”—but no such attention had ever come my way. The reason was simple: I always existed just outside everyone’s field of vision. Or, to be more precise, slightly removed from it.
My power of recognition and perception stayed active at all times, even during the duel with Pascal. The entire event, from start to finish, would be condensed into the single sentence “Pascal was defeated,” and that was all anyone would remember. But those three women were different. As I’ve said before, my ability doesn’t work properly on them. They would recall every single detail of how I beat Pascal. Even if the Hero and the Saintess had no idea who Pascal even was, and the regressor only cared about the fact that I had won… it didn’t matter. These three were the only ones who truly remembered my duel.
That realization led me to an interesting thought. If that was the case, then no matter what I did during the duel, there would only be three witnesses. So I began to wonder—what could I give them by showing them my fight? The answer came easily. I could grant them enlightenment.
Talented individuals often gain profound insights just from watching something that stimulates them. And when it came to talent, Hestia and the Saintess were exceptional. As for Elisha… it was a bit unclear, but if her regression ability was connected to talent, she might actually surpass even the Hero and the Saintess. If I played my cards right, it wasn’t impossible to give all three of them a moment of enlightenment at once.
This wasn’t just baseless speculation. In Hestia’s case, she had previously gained insight simply by witnessing a fraction of the power held by the Great Pioneer. That was why I had once suggested she go observe Paern. She had declined at the time, so I didn’t know what came of it, but the point remained—I might be able to grant them enlightenment. All three of them. Simultaneously.
Of course, if I showed a completely different side of myself compared to the previous round, Elisha might find it suspicious. That part was… well, I could just say I suddenly remembered something after waking up from fainting during practice. That woman trusted my every word without question, so it should be fine. I did feel a little guilty about using them like this, but everything I did was for her and her companions. I hoped they would gain something meaningful from watching my duel.
A long corridor stretched through the darkness. The path was barely visible, with only the faintest outline of the floor emerging from the shadows. Pascal Myers walked along it without hesitation. The route twisted several times and the darkness constantly obscured his sight, yet he navigated it with the ease of someone who had passed through many times before.
When he finally reached the end, a small door appeared before him.
“Enter.”
The voice came from inside before he could even knock. Pascal turned the handle as if this, too, was perfectly familiar. The room that greeted him was a modestly sized office, designed to suit exactly one person. This was the main house of the Myers family—a space permitted only to direct blood relatives.
And the man reviewing documents at the desk was the current head of the Myers family. The patriarch, Karl Myers. A Transcendent on the verge of breaking through, and Pascal’s father.
Karl glanced briefly at his son standing rigidly before him.
“Did you finish everything I ordered?”
“Yes, Father. The Core installation is complete.”
“Good. No complaints have come in, so it appears the academy head hasn’t noticed.”
Pascal swallowed hard. He knew exactly how insane his actions had been. One wrong move and the entire Myers family could face the full wrath of the Academy. Failure was not an option.
Normally, a student who was merely a little more talented than average could never have escaped the eyes of a Transcendent academy head. But the “special power” granted by the family patriarch had made it possible.
“Pascal.”
“Yes, Father.”
“There is something else you must do for the family.”
The Myers family, long regarded as one of the more reputable assassin clans, had hidden a terrible secret for generations. A horrific curse engraved in the blood of the direct line—a curse that had begun with the first patriarch and continued to this day.
“There isn’t much time left.”
“……”
“This plan must succeed if we are to erase the shame of our bloodline.”
The patriarch removed the black glove from his hand. Beneath it was skin just as black as the glove itself. He stroked the severely afflicted flesh with a bitter expression.
“You must be feeling it too by now. The way this curse is slowly growing stronger inside your body as well…”
“…Yes.”
“Don’t worry. Once I reach the realm of Transcendence… I will be able to completely resolve the curse.”
The first patriarch had been an assassin who reached Transcendence. But unlike the stories told to the outside world, he had not been an ordinary killer. This truth was passed down only to blood relatives. Unlike normal assassins who killed for contracts, the first patriarch never stopped murdering even without a target. He was simply a murderer drunk on the pleasure of slaughter.
He took the lives of the good, the innocent, and the wicked alike. Those he killed cursed him with their dying breaths, their resentment growing colder and sharper as their bodies cooled. That hatred accumulated over a long time, through countless victims… and eventually, a powerful curse was engraved upon the first patriarch’s bloodline.
It was a curse that caused the body to be gradually eroded by malice as time passed. It became the reason direct descendants of the Myers family died young, and that same curse had now reached Pascal.
Even when borrowing the power of priests only slowed the erosion, the family refused to give up. Pascal’s ancestors abandoned even their duties as assassins and desperately searched for a way to break the curse. Their efforts and records piled up in thick documents. And at the end of that long line stood the current patriarch—Karl Myers, Pascal’s father, known as the greatest genius in the family’s history and a man on the cusp of Transcendence.
After combining countless pieces of information, he had finally found a clue. And that clue pointed directly at the Academy.
A place where an abnormally unique form of mana had begun gathering recently. Several studies had been conducted, but no one had identified its true nature. Since it wasn’t fundamentally different from regular mana, most concluded it was simply “a slightly different attribute of mana.” But Karl Myers had realized that this special mana was exactly what he had been searching for.
It was a unique type of mana capable of affecting the curse engraved in the Myers blood. After seeing that the symptoms of the curse appeared more slowly in his son Pascal, who had enrolled in the Academy, he became certain. This mysterious mana neutralized the curse through some method different from holy power.
However, the amount Pascal could gather on his own only slowed the symptoms slightly. To see real results, they needed a different approach.
Karl Myers had pondered the problem and arrived at a solution. It was a horrific method that would turn the Academy into an enemy, but the results would be certain. He immediately bestowed upon Pascal the dagger that had been passed down through the family for generations—one of the byproducts created by their ancestors’ research into neutralizing the curse. It had become a cursed heirloom of the Myers family. A special artifact that displayed its true power when resonating with the curse flowing in their blood.
Using the dagger’s unique stealth ability, Pascal had erased his presence, evaded the academy head’s detection, and successfully planted the Core within the Academy. And now, having briefly returned to the main house during the holiday, he received a new order from the patriarch.
“To safely activate the Core, an enormous amount of blood is required. We are not vampires, so obtaining it through legal means is virtually impossible. And even if we could gather blood separately, it must be fresh—drawn at the moment of use—to have any effect.”
“Then perhaps we could ask the academy head to release animals into the grounds…”
“The academy head would never permit it. Besides, you’ve read the research materials. For a clear effect, human blood is necessary.”
“But…”
“Yes. The most effective method is to offer the Academy’s students as sacrifices to activate the Core. However, if it becomes known that our family did such a thing, we would make the entire world our enemy.”
“……”
“There’s no need to worry too much. I have no intention of proceeding without a plan.”
The patriarch’s following explanation was shocking. First, they would feed Pascal’s cursed blood to the inherited dagger, maximizing its power. The malice from the dagger that resonated with the blood would then be infused into the Core as a sacrifice. The Core, corrupted by abnormal malice and blood, would malfunction and spew that malice out in the form of monsters. The Academy would fall into chaos from the sudden appearance of these creatures. The injured and the dead would spill plenty of blood, and magical formations would be set up to direct all of it toward the Core.
Once the Core had absorbed enough blood and activated, Karl Myers would use its power to break through to Transcendence. Everything would be resolved. Having reached that realm through the Academy’s special mana, he would evolve into a body capable of freely handling the mana that neutralized the curse. The cursed fate of the Myers family could finally be severed.
After hearing the entire plan, Pascal’s eyes shook violently. No matter that it was his father’s command, this was madness.
“That is… im-impossible.”
“Because of the academy head?”
“The academy head is one problem, but the Great Pioneer Paern arrived at the Academy not long ago. Rumors say he may stay for quite some time. How can we proceed with such an insane plan? The entire family could be wiped out…!”
“It will be fine. I have already made preparations.”
Paern would soon leave the Academy. To completely repair the barrier that had not yet fully recovered, no Transcendent could remain inside. Beings at that level influenced their surroundings simply by existing. Unless the academy head herself handled the repairs, any Transcendent’s presence would inevitably affect the barrier.
Karl Myers was aiming for that exact moment—when the Great Pioneer was absent and the academy head was distracted by the barrier repairs. He planned to launch a surprise attack and render her temporarily unable to fight.
The gap between a Transcendent and a non-Transcendent was normally overwhelming, but he knew the academy head’s current condition was not perfect either. Even then, a proper fight would be impossible, but with the family’s treasures, incapacitating her for a short time was entirely feasible.
“I don’t know how well I will be afterward. That is why you must handle the rest.”
“……”
“I will claim I simply made a reckless challenge against a Transcendent. As for the monsters, I will feign ignorance. Since the Academy’s barrier is not fully functional right now, it is not an entirely implausible story.”
“……”
“If the plan succeeds… I too will reach Transcendence. Even the academy head will not be able to question me recklessly. Therefore…”
I trust you.
Pascal bit his lip hard and slowly nodded. The father reflected in his eyes already looked exactly like those who had fallen too deep into something and gone mad. Yet Pascal accepted the patriarch’s command. For the Myers family. And for his father.