Chapter 138
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: Curse
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It was silence.
It was stillness.
It was a storm.
Though not a single sound could be heard.
After a long moment submerged in the quiet of that strange space that naturally stifled one's breath.
Pandora opened her mouth.
“Why… do you believe that I deliberately brought ruin upon my adoptive fathers?”
“For starters, the fact that you aren’t denying my words is the first piece of evidence, wouldn’t you say?”
“……”
“Well, that’s half a joke.”
And half serious.
He stated the hidden meaning with nonchalance.
Dion continued, a faint smile on his face.
“The important thing is that you act as if you’re afraid of harming others with your curse, but in reality, you don’t care whether other people live or die.”
“……That is a baseless misunderstanding.”
“Don’t play innocent. Your actions up to this point are the proof, aren’t they?”
A solitary witch who fashioned a sinister appearance and avoided others, for she harbored the curse of a fiend that brought ruin to those close to her.
A pitiful victim tossed about by fate, yet a pure and good person who had not yet lost her compassion.
That was the truth of Pandora, a reality one would discover upon looking past her evil reputation.
But…
“Because, Pandora, you have never once refused to use the fiend’s curse.”
“That is because my adoptive fathers…”
“Don’t say you had no choice because someone made you do it. If you really didn’t want to use the curse, you could have refused anytime.”
Yes, that was right.
She was the Calamity Princess.
The vessel of the fiend.
If she truly intended not to use the curse, not even Urk could have forced her.
Not just after she had grown, but even when she was still young and inexperienced.
And yet.
When she overused the curse.
Knowing full well what would happen.
She had followed the orders of three adoptive fathers without refusal.
In the end, Dion pointed out her actions—ruining her family along with her adoptive father not twice… but three times—and smiled.
“All of your actions, Pandora, are contradictory, but they can all be understood if you just accept two facts.”
“……What facts might those be?”
“That you’ve hated everyone else until now.”
“……”
“Not just the ones who tried to use you, but everyone who despised you based on your reputation alone.”
It was the very definition of a contradiction.
To avoid others so as not to harm them, yet to hate others for avoiding her.
Utterly irrational.
Self-centered.
And emotional.
But for that very reason, it was all too natural.
Intelligent species were, from the beginning, creatures moved not by reason and logic, but by emotion and impulse.
Moreover…
“Just as you hated your adoptive fathers and the people of your family who used you like a tool so much that you wanted to curse them.”
“……I have never done such a thing.”
“Ah, that was the fiend’s doing, wasn’t it? And it’s just a coincidence that every time the seal was broken, only those you resented were destroyed.”
“That… is……”
The fiend was a calamity.
A being capable of destroying the world at any moment.
In fact, the curse running rampant like this was already driving dozens of territories belonging to the Sword Fiend Alliance and the Peninsular Alliance to ruin.
Was it mere coincidence that despite the fiend’s seal breaking multiple times, only two families were destroyed while she alone remained unharmed?
Or had she simply re-sealed the fiend after achieving her goal?
The boy didn’t bother to ask.
He simply continued with a grin.
“In that sense, Pandora, I think you’re quite the hypocrite.”
“……”
“If the fiend goes berserk like this, you become a victim of good faith, but if you wield the fiend yourself, you become the perpetrator.”
“……”
“In short, you just wanted to vent your grudges while pretending to be good and pitiful, didn’t you?”
A feigned villain and a hypocrite.
Pretending to be bad without malice.
Pretending to be good without benevolence.
Everything could be sincere, yet everything could be a lie; that was her contradiction.
Watching Dion speak with a faint smile, Pandora’s lips trembled.
But no rebuttal came.
Her wavering eyes.
Her parched voice.
Her chilled blood.
As if a blade had pierced her heart, she was rendered speechless.
Others might not know, but she herself knew.
The caravan that had enslaved her after she lost her parents, only to offer her as a sacrifice; her adoptive fathers and families who had used her as a weapon; the people who had feared and despised her; and above all, this irrational world.
—She had resented them all.
She had wished they would be cursed.
Unconsciously thinking it.
To the point of carelessly loosening the fiend’s reins.
“Ah, but don’t misunderstand. I have no intention of condemning your hypocrisy.”
“……Even though I have deliberately brought ruin to countless people and pretended not to know?”
“I’m not exactly a champion of justice. In fact, I’m closer to the opposite.”
Committing a crime brazenly.
Hiding a crime while playing the victim.
Which of the two was worse?
Dion didn’t care. No, to be precise, he was more inclined to like either.
Because…
“I’ve also thought that it would be great if a place like Odobaekryeong just went up in flames and disappeared.”
“……”
“In this wide world, there was nothing that was actually mine.”
Failing to awaken in the end.
Being cast aside by Elise.
Half-expelled from his family.
Betrayed and abandoned by Parsha.
Remembering the future where he had resented everything in pain and solitude until he heard The Voice and awakened, Dion chuckled.
Yes, that was right.
To be obsessed with what is yours means that you don't care about what isn't.
In that sense, Dion couldn't care less if Odobaekryeong was destroyed.
He was only moving like this because he knew he had to reach the finale, beyond the apocalypse, to protect what was his.
Thus, the boy who could laugh off any sin and affirm any evil spoke with a faint smile.
“So, Pandora, if you become mine, I will resolve your contradiction.”
“Resolve… you say?”
“Yes.”
As if a solution.
Could possibly exist.
To a Pandora who had unconsciously thought so.
Dion spoke with a faint smile.
“—I will own you, and I will rule you.”
“……!”
“Without my permission, you won’t be able to use your curse, let alone meet or speak with anyone else.”
“……”
“That way, no matter who you curse and destroy, you can continue to be a kind and pitiful victim.”
A vassal listens to the orders of their lord.
A wife follows her husband.
If she dedicated everything to him, she would merely be using her curse reluctantly, according to Dion’s will, and would no longer need to take responsibility for any sin.
Whispering like a serpent tempting one to sin, Dion reached out his hand.
And with a soft slide.
He removed her blindfold.
He took her wrist.
And slowly brought it to his lips.
“I mean I’ll make you the princess locked in a tower, instead of the cursed witch.”
*Kiss.*
“……!”
He casually held her wrist, which would inflict a curse upon even a Superlative Awakened One who touched it now that the seal was broken.
Like a knight serving his princess.
He gently pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.
And looked directly into her eyes.
Pandora froze as she looked at the boy, who was less dashing and more beautiful, yet devilishly bewitching.
“—Did I not say, Young Master, that I cannot allow that.”
***
*Flinch!*
“……I, for one, am finding it hard to endure this.”
Pandora stiffened.
Unlike her, Dion remained unperturbed.
His face still held a smile, but unlike before, it was filled with disappointment instead of amusement.
He simply called out toward the space below the mist-shrouded cliff.
“Don’t you think interrupting your daughter’s secret meeting not once, but twice, is a crime punishable by death, Old Man Orc?”
“Cut the chatter, Young Master.”
*Thud!*
Suddenly.
A hand shot up from below the cliff, gripping its edge.
Then, a massive figure soared high into the air before landing in front of them.
A body covered in scars.
A blood-stained beard.
Despite it all, within this cursed mist, his eyes still shone with a fierce light—an old orc.
No, to be precise, Dion narrowed his eyes at the necklace faintly glowing around his neck.
“[Heart of a Divine Beast]. To think you had something so precious.”
“It is only natural for a warrior to be prepared for his own weapon to be turned against him.”
“Hmm…”
When a high-ranking divine beast dies.
An item rarely found before its corpse is devoured by monsters, the [Heart of a Divine Beast].
Enduring the curse with the power of a treasure that was traded for a price no less than a small territory, despite being a single-use item that granted the temporary protection of a divine beast.
Dion quietly questioned Urk, who had managed to reach this place.
“So, what you mean is, you can’t allow me to take Pandora, a weapon you must wield, as I please?”
“That is correct.”
“Isn’t it a bit shameless to say that now, after you’ve been pushing for us to get married so quickly?”
“I permitted the Young Master to take my daughter, not to become the new master of the calamity.”
Before being his adoptive daughter.
Pandora was his tool and his weapon.
Even if she were to marry, she was a being who must continue to fight for the Cortel family, and above all, for him.
It was fine for Dion to embrace her, but Urk could not allow him to control and restrict her from using her curse.
But Dion.
And Pandora.
Were not particularly fazed.
They all knew he had tried to use Pandora as a honey trap to turn Dion into his puppet.
The irony was that Pandora had fallen for Dion, and he was now on the verge of losing his greatest tool.
But Urk still needed Pandora to achieve his ambitions.
And so, unable to leave Dion be, Urk continued in a low voice.
“Therefore, Young Master, I shall grant you a special opportunity.”
“What opportunity?”
“I will give you Pandora. In return, you will become my son-in-law and swear fealty to me.”
“……”
“If you do, I will bequeath Nakrang Castle to you in the future.”
It was a truly extraordinary offer.
The White-Masked Young Master, an outstanding talent.
Pandora, the ultimate weapon.
No matter how much he coveted them both, to promise to hand over his territory to an adoptive daughter and a son-in-law with whom he shared not a drop of blood…
It was a choice that only he, a man of ambition not satisfied even after acquiring Giam Castle in this war, and above all, a cunning hero, could make.
But…
“And if I refuse?”
To the boy’s blunt question.
Urk answered immediately.
“You will not leave this place alive, Young Master.”
“Father, that is…!”
“Do you not understand, Pandora? It is because of that attitude of yours that I cannot let the White-Masked Young Master live.”
“……!”
Only he should be able to use Pandora.
Therefore, he could not allow Dion, who could sway her heart… no, who was already swaying it, to live.
As Pandora held her breath at Urk’s cold words, Dion watched her for a moment.
Then, he nodded.
“Alright, then I have no choice.”
*Shing.*
“……What do you mean, Young Master?”
“It’s just as you see, Old Man Orc.”
Drawing another [Blade of Rashanta], besides the one that had been cracked while fighting Lahr Arga.
Dion faced the last barrier he had to overcome to obtain Pandora, his utterly vicious father-in-law, and spoke with a faint smile.
“Isn’t it common sense for men fighting over a woman to settle it with a duel?”
“Do you think that’s even possible, Young Master?”
“We won’t know until we try, will we?”
Dion didn't bother trying to persuade Urk, who was looking at him with an expression of disbelief.
He simply took a light step forward.
*Swish!*
“……!!!”
In that instant.
Urk’s face hardened.
Pandora, who had been at a loss, also widened her eyes.
It wasn't just because Dion had suddenly vanished and reappeared beside Urk.
Even though Urk had reflexively raised his halberd to block, his forearm was already slashed by the blade, and the blood that spurted out…
…was more shocking to the two Superlative Awakened Ones than anything they had seen or experienced in this war.
“Young Master, could it be…?”
“First, my thanks. Thanks to the help from both of you in many ways, my experience points gathered faster than I thought.”
No matter how much of a multiple-awakened one he was.
No matter how much of a genius he was.
His power was only effective within the realm of 3-star, high-ranking Awakened Ones.
It should have been nigh impossible for Dion to injure Urk.
So what was that movement just now?
There was only one answer.
“……You’ve crossed the wall of the Superlative Rank.”
Some class fusions and advancements have become available.
[Black Mage] + [Specter]
→ [Void Plunderer] ☆☆☆☆
[Void Plunderer] ☆☆☆☆
1. Stealth Bonus ↑ (Large)
2. Evil Deeds Bonus ↑ (Large)
3. Plunder Bonus ↑ (Medium)
4. Durability Penalty ↓ (Large)
5. Good Deeds Penalty ↓ (Large)
6. Power Penalty ↓ (Medium)
7. Class Trait [Chakra-Magic Plunder]
—The one who destroys and plunders all. What remains is a void forgotten even by oneself, yet they alone shall be satisfied.
***
The wall of the Superlative Rank.
The wall that stood between 3-star and 4-star classes was the very symbol of despair for high-ranking Awakened Ones.
From lords of territories to renowned prodigies.
The number of those who had spent their entire fortunes and hundreds of years of effort, only to die without ever crossing that wall, was countless.
That was why.
The Baekdaesega were special.
Grand Ogres, the highest-ranking vampire species, Battle Fiends, and more.
They possessed bloodlines of the highest species, beyond even the high-ranking ones—lineages that were innately born with 4-star classes that everyone else scrambled to obtain.
But blood gets diluted.
The highest species were not only rare.
With exceptions like the Unlights, even those of the Baekdaesega bloodline were not guaranteed to be born as a highest species.
If one was a 4-star highest species, they could become an heir even as a collateral family member, but if born as a 3-star high-ranking species, they would be pushed aside even if from the direct line—a common occurrence in the Baekdaesega.
That was why Urk had thought.
That the White-Masked Young Master was one such case.
His exceptional talent.
His indiscernible identity.
The reasons for hiding his true self.
The best explanation for everything was that he was a direct descendant who had been pushed aside in the Baekdaesega for being born with a 3-star class but was now aiming for a comeback.
That was why he had been greedy.
No matter his talent, it was uncertain if he could ever ‘advance,’ and even if possible, it would take at least several decades.
He thought he could use the White-Masked Young Master until then.
The wall of the Superlative Rank was that high and distant.
But…
“……Were you hiding your rank?”
“You know that’s not possible, Old Man Orc.”
“Then you truly crossed the wall of the Superlative Rank at your age, Young Master.”
Absurd.
Or perhaps, preposterous.
Urk’s current feelings could be summarized in those two words.
How much immense effort and time it took for a being who was not of the highest species to become a Superlative Awakened One.
Having crossed the wall of the Superlative Rank himself after over 100 years of training, he knew better than anyone, and a groan escaped his lips.
“So? Still think a duel is out of the question?”
“……Fine.”
*Vwoom!*
Thus, after a moment of staring at the brightly smiling boy with sunken eyes.
Urk finally nodded.
He then caused a bluish aura to rise from the massive, heavy halberd that suited his frame and spoke in a low voice.
“If you wish to take my daughter, then you must defeat me.”
Dion did not answer.
As if he had expected as much.
Or as if no more words were needed.
He simply smiled faintly and raised his sword to eye level, holding it at a slant.
Dion, whose presence faded as he calmly accelerated the colorless, transparent chakra, like the moon reflected on a lake.
Urk, who dominated the surrounding space as he compressed his blue aura, exuding a heavy pressure like a tornado in the desert.
As Pandora watched in a daze.
The moment they, having drawn out their respective energies and faced each other, moved.
*KABOOM!!!*
With no tricks involved.
The duel between two Superlative Awakened Ones.
Between two men.
Began.