Chapter 137
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Curse
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By becoming the vessel of the Fiend.
Even after the caravan was annihilated.
She had managed to survive and escape the labyrinth.
But what awaited her afterward was a life of unparalleled misery and damnation.
A nobleman, coveting the power of her potent curse, adopted her, forcing her to use that power for the sake of his family.
As a result of overusing the curse, her adoptive father and his entire house met their end in utter ruin, but…
That was only the beginning.
An inheritance she suddenly received in its entirety.
Above all, her life fell into a repeating cycle as another nobleman, who also coveted her power, forcibly adopted her.
Until her second adoptive father was also destroyed by the same folly.
By then, she had come to be called the Calamity Princess, a witch who repeatedly killed her fathers to covet their fortunes, and was met with gazes of terror and revulsion.
Along with assassins sent by the few remaining survivors of the families.
She killed and survived.
She was shunned and avoided.
She cursed and was cursed.
But the days of repeating only that gradually wore down her soul, leaving her exhausted.
That was why she had accepted Urk’s offer to become his adopted daughter when he approached her without hesitation, a feat no one else who feared her dared attempt.
Urk was a cunning hero.
Unlike her previous adoptive fathers, he was a man of extraordinary caliber who treated her with both sufficient respect and caution.
She had hoped that in his family, she might be able to escape the cursed cycle of her life.
But she came to realize.
That nothing would change.
Urk showered her with every luxury, from gourmet delicacies to expensive jewels, but there was no affection in his gifts.
There was only the diligence of managing a precious talent… no, a dangerous weapon to ensure it performed optimally, and a wariness of what might happen.
For better.
Or for worse.
He was a cunning hero.
One who would use even his own flesh and blood as tools for his ambition.
A glamorous but desolate life, using the Fiend’s curse at his command, and receiving gazes of ever-deepening terror and revulsion each time.
When, at the end of it all, the curse finally went berserk and consumed everything.
She resigned herself to it all.
But…
“…Why.”
Rooted to the spot.
Even though she had watched it all through the Fiend’s eyes.
She had believed, and wanted to believe, that it was all an illusion meant to deceive her.
But it was too absurd to be an illusion, making it impossible to doubt any longer.
Looking at the boy who had appeared right before her, his face hidden by a white half-mask, Pandora was dumbfounded.
“Why on earth have you come all this way?”
“I made a promise, didn’t I?”
“A promise… you say?”
“Yes.”
She couldn’t understand.
A dungeon break had occurred.
Everything was shrouded in the fog of the curse.
While everyone else was in a state of pandemonium, busy trying to escape, she couldn't fathom why Dion alone had pushed through the cursed fog to come this far.
Especially since he must have already realized that she was the Fiend’s seal.
And so, at Dion’s next words, Pandora was unwittingly lost for words.
“That I’d come for you, Pandora, when you became a daughter to three fathers.”
“……!”
“Why that look on your face?”
“…For a mere.”
Her mouth hung open in a daze.
The words barely squeezed out.
As if groaning, she asked in a trembling voice.
“For such a trivial reason, you came all this way… is that what you are saying?”
“It’s not trivial. Because you will be my second wife.”
Why?
From the very beginning until now.
Dion had refused to marry her even after winning the suitor competition.
For that reason, she had thought his words were just a pretext to secure the territory while avoiding the cursed witch. Why did they now feel so heavy?
No, the answer was actually simple.
The divine beast’s purifying water had dried up, and he had entered a living hell where one would be instantly eroded by the curse without it.
This boy, who had come for her while accomplishing the wondrous feat of felling even a transcendent Awakened One, would not have uttered mere empty words.
Yes.
That was it.
In the end, she was the only one who hadn’t known.
This boy had always been sincere.
About taking her as his wife.
About not being afraid of her.
…And about his words to run away together.
*Thump.*
That was why her heart pounded.
The fact that he hadn't shunned her as everyone else had, that his unabashed demeanor wasn't an act.
It stirred a faint hope and an unknown emotion in her heart, which had given up and resigned itself to everything.
*Heehee.*
“Heuk!”
But before it could even blossom.
That hope withered once more.
Along with a pain that felt like her heart was being squeezed, the Fiend dwelling within her let out a bloodcurdling laugh.
*Die.*
*Kill, die, kill.*
*Die, kill, die, kill, die.*
*Diekilldiekillkilldiekilllkilllldie.*
An auditory hallucination that sounded like the rustling of tree branches in a graveyard, yet also like the sobbing of a maiden.
It was a curse dozens of times more potent than this thick fog.
No matter how much purifying water one doused oneself in, unless one burst their own eardrums, it was a whisper of despair that would drive even a transcendent Awakened One to madness.
“Quickly, your ears…!”
“Hmm, your repertoire is still too simple. It would be more fun to listen to if you varied the killing methods a bit.”
“……?”
*Hee… hee?*
That was why.
In the middle of her reflexive warning.
Pandora could only freeze in a daze.
She couldn't believe the sight of the boy standing there perfectly fine, not mad or cursed in the slightest amidst this dreadful resonance that even she, who was used to it, found hard to bear.
Instead, he was calmly assessing it as if it were a minstrel’s song.
“…H-how did you do that?”
“How did I do what?”
“I am asking how you remain unharmed by this curse.”
“I didn’t really do anything special.”
“Do not speak such nonsense!”
Perhaps because even the Fiend was agitated by his absurd reply.
As the hallucination faded, Pandora unknowingly screamed as if vomiting blood.
“This is the curse of the Fiend! It is a power that brings ruin to sentient species and monsters alike!”
That’s right.
That was why the Fiend was one of the seven calamities.
A being of destruction that had nearly annihilated Odobaekryeong.
If it were possible to avoid the Fiend’s curse, there would have been no reason for her to become a cursed witch.
But in response to Pandora, Dion answered not with a statement, but a question.
“Hey, what do you think a curse is?”
“What are you suddenly talking about…?”
“Well, curses used by shamans or black mages are the usual kind. Is the Fiend’s curse like that?”
“……”
“Of course not. If it were, it wouldn’t have been called a calamity.”
Sticking pins in a doll.
Drawing a talisman with blood.
Chanting a spell that brings misfortune.
The power to inflict a temporary or permanent illness or disaster upon a target, leading to death in the worst cases.
In other words, curses as a technique were not so rare in Odobaekryeong, and though tricky, methods to block or undo them existed.
But the Fiend’s curse was different.
Unlike ordinary curses, it could annihilate hundreds at once without any preparation.
Moreover, there was no way a mere technique could exist that couldn't be blocked by any means other than purifying water and the power of a divine beast, and could even cover an entire labyrinth.
“The reason that’s possible is simple. The Fiend’s curse isn’t actually a curse.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said. The Fiend's curse is ultimately just a phenomenon that taints and mutates everything.”
“Is that not what a curse is?”
“Well, is it? I know a more fitting word for it.”
And yet.
It was an absurd notion.
An explanation so far beyond common sense that its meaning was incomprehensible, yet it continued in a lighthearted tone.
“A phenomenon that corrupts the mind and body, leading to the ruin of all things.”
“But a source of power that, when purified and gradually accepted, makes one even stronger.”
“A disaster that, when it overflows, causes labyrinths to go berserk and can only be stopped by a divine beast’s blessing and purifying water.”
“We usually call such a phenomenon this.”
In that moment, Pandora held her breath.
That’s right.
She knew it too.
A power that corrupts and breaks the body and soul, eventually transforming them into something completely different.
What they called the most vicious curse in all of Odobaekryeong, one that could reduce not just high-ranking Awakened, but even transcendent Awakened, into mere monsters.
“—Mana Contamination.”
“……!”
“In other words, the Fiend’s curse was actually acute mana poisoning.”
“That’s… impossible. A concentration of contaminated mana that absurd couldn't possibly exist…”
“That’s what makes the Fiend special.”
The contaminated mana flowing through the labyrinth.
Over a long period of time.
It mixed with the grudges of the countless victims and monsters who died in the labyrinth, mutating on its own to become a new existence.
Like the deep sea that crushes even fish, it was a mass of contaminated mana, concentrated for a thousand years, that would melt any monster that couldn't adapt through mutation.
It had no intellect.
It had no ego.
But it moved on resentment and hatred alone.
A ghost more malevolent than any vengeful spirit, despite having no soul.
It grew endlessly stronger the more it contaminated, and as long as the labyrinth existed, it was immortal, which was why even the five heroes could only seal it away.
And in the end, in the first timeline.
It was the calamity that caused countless labyrinths to go berserk, tainting and mutating the entirety of Odobaekryeong, ultimately bringing about the world’s destruction.
【Bad Ending No.12 – The Curse That Twists the World】
That was the Fiend.
The most horrifying curse.
The identity of what was inside her.
Pandora couldn't deny what Dion had stated so calmly, but conversely, she couldn't understand it either.
Because his claim contained a fatal contradiction.
“…In that case, why are you unharmed, my lord?”
Even if the Fiend was a mass of mana contamination and its curse was mana poisoning beyond imagination…
No, precisely because of that, he should have mutated or been destroyed long ago.
Why was Dion unharmed?
The answer was simple.
“Because adaptation and mutation are things that only those lacking something have to do, right?”
“……”
“If you wanted to corrupt me, you should have brought at least half of all the contaminated mana in Odobaekryeong.”
Mana poisoning is ultimately a phenomenon where a vessel, unable to accept contaminated mana beyond its limit, either transforms or shatters.
In other words, as long as one had a vessel that could accept all the contaminated mana, it didn't matter.
Looking at the boy smiling cheerfully.
Pandora was at a loss for words.
‘How can such an absurd…’
The Fiend’s curse, which could cause a dungeon break and reduce even a transcendent Awakened One to a monster.
She knew well how immense the contaminated mana, condensed over a thousand years, truly was.
That was why she couldn’t comprehend it.
Just how large a vessel must one possess to be able to laugh off the Fiend’s curse like that?
Could a sentient species even possess such a vessel?
…No.
Could such a being even be called a sentient species?
A shiver ran down her spine.
Looking at the boy she had met several times before.
Yet who now felt so alien and incomprehensible.
As a chill crawled down her spine, a question suddenly occurred to her.
“My lord, is your desire to take me as your wife truly because you want me…?”
“Of course.”
“…And not because you desire the Fiend within me?”
“I want that too, it’s true.”
“……”
“The orc mister only used it for war, but the Fiend’s power has many other uses.”
From her two adoptive fathers to Urk.
She was used to the approach of those who coveted her power after she became the Fiend’s vessel.
And yet, in this moment.
She felt her throat go dry.
The Fiend, which she had considered a curse she could never handle in her lifetime, and which even Urk feared and regarded as an ultimate weapon.
The boy’s attitude of treating it as nothing more than a convenient tool made Pandora feel a sense of profound otherness, even a touch of dread.
And so, after a long silence.
Pandora opened her mouth.
“In that case, I shall not follow you.”
“Why?”
“The Fiend’s curse is a dangerous thing. It must never be used carelessly.”
It wasn’t that she had no hesitation.
The warmth Dion had given her.
The genuine kindness.
And the hope.
They were so warm and longed for that she wanted to follow him as if mesmerized.
But because she knew the dangers of the Fiend better than anyone.
And because, as the Fiend’s vessel, she had a premonition that if its power fell into this boy’s hands, something irreversible might happen.
Pandora spoke with resolve.
“Pfft.”
“……?”
“Pfft pfft, ahahahaha!”
But.
Why?
What came back was a burst of laughter.
As if he had heard a funny joke.
Dion, who was now clutching his stomach as he laughed, smiled cheerfully at the bewildered Pandora.
“You’re still fun, Pandora.”
“…What do you find so amusing?”
“What else? Your actions, of course. Saying that, even though you don’t actually care who uses the Fiend’s power or how.”
“What do you mean by…?”
Watching Pandora, confused by his incomprehensible words, Dion was satisfied.
In the second timeline.
And now.
At her unchanging self.
And above all…
“Because, Pandora, you deliberately used the Fiend’s curse to bring ruin to your adoptive fathers, didn’t you?”
At her nature—that of an absurd hypocrite, even before being the worst kind of villain.