Contract of the Cursed Body

"We've checked the Jumul Department's inventory of cursed objects. More than half of the ones used in the duel weren't on the list."

Kwon Sang-hoon's eyes went wide.

"…You're saying Kim Je-o acquired them privately?"

"We traced every last won of Kim Je-o's assets against every cursed object he used. His finances were untouched. The objects, on the other hand, came from auctions, black markets, thefts — a whole range of sources."

Kang Jiyoung fixed Kwon Sang-hoon with a hard stare.

"I swear it. It wasn't me."

"And you think I can take that at face ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠value?"

"I'll stake everything I have on it. It wasn't me. Polygraph, psychometry — whatever you want. I'll cooperate. Please believe me."

"Fine. I'll take you at your word. Then let me rephrase the question… Who do you think supplied Kim Je-o with those cursed objects?"

"……"

Silence settled over the room.

Kang Jiyoung waited a full three minutes, but Kwon Sang-hoon's mouth never opened. She let out a long breath.

"Kim Je-o must be caught. No exceptions."

"Of course. We've already requested full cooperation from the government and the Hero Association."

"Where do you think he's hiding, Vice Principal?"

"…Kim Je-o is arrogant far beyond his actual ability. He thinks he's clever. And for all that, he's surprisingly bold. The darkest place is under the lamp, as they say. He would have thought of that proverb. Which means… Kim Je-o is still somewhere inside the academy."

"I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠think so too. But we couldn't find him. There's not a single trace of Kim Je-o left on campus."

"He took every cursed object with him. Among them, there must be one that conceals a person."

Kang Jiyoung clenched her fist. She turned her head toward the window.

"Vice Principal. The academy's honor is on the line. Kim Je-o will be caught."

"You're absolutely right. I'll devote every resource to bringing him in."

"If Kim Je-o is hiding somewhere on campus… the students could be in danger."

"We can't evacuate the students. Shutting down the entire academy over one man like Kim Je-o would be a disgrace. Maruhan Academy has weathered far worse without closing its doors."

"So you're saying you'll do nothing?"

"I'll take appropriate measures."

Kang Jiyoung swiveled her chair back around. The Vice Principal still hadn't left.

"Something else?"

"We need Seong Yujin and Shin Na-ri's help."

"They're students."

"Seong Yujin has a special pair of eyes, and Shin Na-ri is sensitive to cursed objects."

"……I'll consider it."

The Vice Principal bowed in silence. Before he left, he asked one last question.

"…When do you intend to hold Gi Ha-wuk's funeral?"

"After we catch Kim Je-o. So find him within two weeks at the latest."

"Understood."

The atmosphere at Maruhan Academy was tense.

An academy that had always prized freedom was suddenly under lockdown.

Arrival and dismissal times were rigidly enforced. During breaks, no one was allowed outside the classroom. Once the day's schedule ended, students had to go straight to the dormitories and stay there until morning.

The students were naturally resentful. But no one voiced it. They had all seen it — the miserable death of Gi Ha-wuk, a first-year from the Jumul Department.

His death had been a sensation for a while, then faded. At an ordinary school, something like this would have been grounds for permanent closure. But this was an academy — a gathering place for aspiring heroes. Decades ago, when the country was still unstable, academy students dying was nothing unusual.

Major-department class time arrived. Students gathered and headed for their department buildings together; individual movement was forbidden. Even bathroom trips required groups of three or more.

I walked toward the Spirit Department with Callas, the department's lead instructor. The unusual part was Shin Na-ri walking beside me.

"Yujin. Na-ri transferred into the Spirit Department as her major."

The Jumul Department had been dissolved after the incident. Gi Ha-wuk's cause of death had been a curse from a cursed object, so the remaining Jumul students had been moved into the similar Hex Department — everyone except Shin Na-ri.

"Senior transferring to Spirit… that was her own choice, right?"

"Yeah."

"To get my help?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"…Yeah."

Just yesterday she'd said she didn't need my help. Even Shin Na-ri, it seemed, could feel embarrassment; her answer came slow and quiet.

We arrived at the Spirit Department Building.

"Everyone. Before class starts, I have something to say."

Callas spoke. It wasn't about setting the tone for Shin Na-ri's arrival — Callas wasn't that kind of teacher.

"What is it?"

"It's about Kim Je-o. I'd rather not drag you into this if I can help it… but the Principal and Vice Principal have asked for your assistance."

"Ours?"

"……"

Shin Na-ri stayed quiet. I expected as much. In the original, she was a character of few words.

"Have you heard the rumors going around among the students?"

"That Kim Je-o is hiding somewhere in the academy? People were telling it like a ghost story every break."

"That rumor probably started from something one of the teachers let slip. The Principal and Vice Principal both believe Kim Je-o is still somewhere on campus."

"…And what they want from us is…"

"Na-ri can see curses with her own eyes, and Yujin — you found people hiding in the artificial dungeon last time, didn't you?"

"So that's why they want our help."

"You can refuse. There won't be any penalty."

"And the compensation?"

I had zero intention of doing this for free.

"Your accumulated demerit points will be cleared. Yujin, you've racked up quite a few for lateness. Na-ri, yours are for poor classroom attitude, right?"

In other words, free labor.

I could refuse and it wouldn't matter — but Kim Je-o acting outside the original story was starting to bother me.

"All right. I'll help."

"…Me too."

"Thank you, both of you. Just move with me after school. For now, let's start class. Although… I don't know much about evil spirits… what should I do."

Midway through class, Callas left for the archive, saying she needed to find materials on evil spirits.

Spirits and evil spirits might sound similar, but they were fundamentally different beings. She wasn't going to find anything useful.

That left Shin Na-ri and me alone in the classroom. Leaving because it was awkward wasn't an option — Callas had told us several times on her way out to stay put.

"Shin Na-ri, Senior."

"Yeah?"

"You don't look well."

"…The bandages. I don't have them."

Jema's Bandage.

The bandages Kim Je-o had given her sealed the power of her curse and made her comfortable. Her body itself was a cursed object, so the curse would never kill her — but it still took its toll. Dulled senses. Nightmares. Sudden headaches.

"Senior. How do I look to you right now?"

"…Your skin is blue. Like the ocean. Your eyes look like a sunset."

Another side effect. She saw people strangely.

I checked her favorability and nodded. Thirty-one. That meant she was interested in me.

"I can help you, Senior. I can even tell you the true identity of the evil spirit clinging to you."

"…I know nothing in this world is free. How much do you want?"

"Do you even have money?"

"……"

Shin Na-ri slowly shook her head.

"I take things other than money. Got anything else?"

"……"

Another slow shake of the head. Shin Na-ri was from an orphanage run by the Association. All she had was one thing — that cursed body of hers.

I pulled a black straw rope from my pocket.

"This item can replace Jema's Bandage. In some ways, it's even better. It doesn't just seal curses. You'll probably need the accumulated curse drawn out about once a week. You know how to handle curses, right?"

"…I can tell this is an incredible item. I want it too. But… I don't have any money."

Her eyes never left the rope.

"This is worth at least eighty billion won. Absorbing curses is basically the same as curse immunity."

For a full-fledged hero, eighty billion wasn't an impossible sum. But Shin Na-ri was a student, not a hero.

"The downside is when the curses pile up… but there's a way around that too. You pass it to someone else and clear the stored curses. Or, for a senior who can handle curses, you just pull them out of this and use them in combat."

In short, the rope was a battery made just for her.

"Eighty billion… too expensive."

"Add the identity of the evil spirit clinging to you and how to control it, and the total goes over three hundred billion."

Three hundred billion was a deliberate exaggeration. Naive Shin Na-ri didn't question it — she just hung her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head.

"Could I… put it on credit?"

"Are you insane?"

"……"

"You don't need to look so devastated, Senior. There's a saying for this. If you don't have money, pay with your body."

She lifted her head.

"I'll do whatever you tell me. Help me."

No hesitation.

"You sound used to this."

"Teacher Kim Je-o…"

"Senior. Kim Je-o isn't a teacher. He's a criminal."

"…When Kim Je-o gave me the bandages, he said I only had to listen to him."

"Did Kim Je-o touch your body too?"

"No. My body is… cursed. No one wants to touch it."

I nodded calmly. I was only confirming the original setting. In the original, Kim Je-o had gotten his hands on Shin Na-ri and still feared her. As a child it might have been different, but her grown body was a concentrated mass of curse itself.

"Senior. I'm not a bastard like Kim Je-o. Once you've paid back the full three hundred billion, I'll let you go. Until then, that body of yours gets used for me. Look — you've got talent. You'll make A-Class hero. An A-Class hero's earnings are enormous. Three hundred billion will be pocket change."

"Okay."

"I'll ask again, Senior. Do you need my help?"

"I need it. Help me."

Her voice was flat. But I knew the despair underneath those words.

Academy's Savior was a game title, and most of the game was about saving people.

In the original, Shin Na-ri was a kind of side quest. You could save her or not. Save her and you got experience, achievements, money. Skip her and there was no penalty — just a brief mention later. Shin Na-ri's future had two endings.

Disappearance, or suicide.

In her third year at the academy, she vanished without a trace. What happened after was never shown.

The suicide ending also came in her third year — she hanged herself in her own dorm room. No suicide note. Instead, a description of the bandages wrapped around her body turning black told you everything you needed to know. Even Jema's Bandage had its limits.

"Then it's a contract, Senior. No paperwork, though."

"Okay."

I stepped toward her. Without warning, I took her cheek in my hand and kissed her. I pushed my tongue into her mouth. It was a small mouth. I thoroughly ravaged the tongue sitting quietly inside it.

I hadn't activated Spirit Eye, so the evil spirit clinging to Shin Na-ri was invisible. It was probably glaring at me like it wanted me dead.

The kiss was short but fierce. When I pulled away, my whole body tingled. The curse's influence, no doubt.

She stared at me with a dazed expression.

"Senior. How was that?"

"…It was warm."

A forced kiss had jacked her favorability way up. Proof of just how unusual a character she was.

"Senior. First command."

"Okay."

"Show me your pussy."

Shin Na-ri tilted her head.

"What's a pussy?"