Echoes of the Curse
Then, Lumia, see you at the guild tomorrow morning.
“Yeah. Take care.”
After finishing breakfast, I decided to return to the original inn for today since I had extended my stay by one more night. It was a little run-down, but the owner was kind, and above all, it was the inn that had accepted Lumia. Moving our luggage here tomorrow seemed like the right choice.
“Yeriel. How about we switch to this inn tomorrow?”
I slowly listed all the reasons it would be better. “We’d have to take a carriage to the guild or the library, sure. But it’s cheaper, and having to decide where to meet Lumia the next day every time we part ways is getting pretty tedious.”
Yeriel nodded right away, without even needing to think about it.
“Yeah. Lumia can’t move, so it makes sense for us to go to her. If we’re all at the same inn, it’ll be easier to talk and plan our schedule. Let’s pack our bags tomorrow!”
That’s right. When we first formed this makeshift party of five or six, having separate inns might have been fine. But now the three of us are a fixed party. Leaving one person far away just felt wrong.
We took a carriage from the station and headed back. When we reached the inn, I told the owner in advance that we would be checking out tomorrow. After saying our goodbyes, we each went to our own rooms.
Sigh. Today had been another exhausting day. I washed up quickly and collapsed into bed. I was out cold before I could even form a single thought.
They’re gone.
“Ugh.”
I’m alone again. The hateful yet all-too-familiar darkness of the curse wrapped around me once more.
“I’m so sick of this…”
Standing beside Aren without the darkness surrounding me felt like stepping back into my earliest childhood, when I ran around with friends without a single worry. Back to the time when my ears and hair weren’t pitch black.
“I miss it.”
They say it’s worse to have something and then lose it than to never have it at all. After tasting a world without darkness again, holding on became almost impossible.
… …
I wasn’t born with the cursed Arar appearance. I belonged to an extremely rare group among the few Arar—those who suddenly develop black hair and changed eye color one day. Most people don’t even know such cases exist. I was an acquired Arar.
It happened while I was playing with the other children like any other day. A headache suddenly struck, as if my skull were splitting open. I clutched my head and collapsed.
When the pain finally eased, I stood up and looked around. It was strange that no one had come to check on me even though I had been hurting.
“Y-your head turned black.”
My friends’ faces were twisted in the exact expression people make when they see a monster.
“I know what that is. That’s an Arar! Lumia suddenly turned into an Arar!”
“Everyone run!”
My head turned black? With trembling hands I pulled out a few strands of hair. Just as the children who had fled said, the color wasn’t the usual light brown—it was black.
“Waaaah!”
Terrified, I cried loudly and ran all the way home.
“Huuu… my daughter has turned into a cursed Arar… How could this happen? What did this child ever do wrong!”
“Damn it. You know it’s no one’s fault. What are we supposed to do? The rumor must have already spread through the entire village. If the great elder finds out…”
“Absolutely not! The great elder lost his family because of an Arar. If he learns another one has appeared in the village, he’ll try to take this child’s life immediately.”
“Then there’s only one option. We prepare right now and leave the village. We have no choice but to go to the witches’ village and leave her there.”
The looks of fear on my friends’ faces when they saw my changed appearance. The warmth they had shown only yesterday was gone. My parents’ voices trembled with gravity. Everything had changed in an instant, and my tears would not stop.
We packed our bags in a rush and the three of us fled the village. We traveled as fast as we could for several days without rest. When we thought we had gone far enough, everyone finally breathed easier.
The attack came that very night.
“You bastard great elder! If we left the village of our own free will, you should have let us go in peace! What sin did my daughter commit to deserve this?!”
“Hmph. Turning into an Arar is a sin by itself. If I hadn’t known, maybe I could have ignored it. But now that I know, the cursed Arar before my eyes cannot be allowed to live. Kill them!”
In the end, the great elder and his assassins, who had tracked us for days, charged.
“No, Rozelin! Aaaah—!”
Mother collapsed first, blood pouring from her. Father, burning with rage, fought desperately, but he could not overcome their superior numbers and equal skill. He was stabbed and left the world.
All that remained was me, sitting blankly on the ground, staring at the scattered blood.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
A black portal opened in front of me, and someone stepped out. A witch wearing robes and a pointed hat mixed with black and purple. She was an Arar, just like me.
“My goodness. The wave suddenly spread, so I hurried over. You’re not a baby? Did your hair color really change today?”
I nodded in a daze at her question.
“So you truly are an acquired Arar… Good. Right now you have two choices. First. Die here and follow your parents who have already gone ahead.”
What was the second?
“Second. Take my hand and come to Magium. In that case, at least food, clothing, and shelter are guaranteed. Since we’re all in the same situation, you won’t face rejection or feel alienated.”
“…”
“What will it be? Your future from now on is yours to choose. If you want to close your eyes and find peace, I won’t stop you.”
…I said, “I want to live.”
“Good. You chose well. Let’s go. Hold my hand tightly.”
The great elder shouted.
“Do you think you can escape? I’ll kill you both!”
Thud— The great elder’s attack was helplessly blocked by a barrier.
“Can you beat me in that exhausted state? Your subordinates are all dead. Why don’t you stop wasting your strength?”
“Damn it… of all people, a high-ranking witch.”
Whirr—
“Let’s go. That’s right—what’s your name?”
“Lumia. It’s Lumia.”
As I spoke my name, I stared at the great elder. The thought that I would definitely return someday and kill him burned in my mind. I glared at him until I was urged to step through the portal.
Oooong.
After that, I grew up in the witches’ village called Magium, provided with food, clothing, and shelter. But the witches there were more rational and cold than warm, so it was difficult to feel human emotions. No matter how much time passed, the image of my mother and father dying never left my head, and the boiling desire for revenge made me writhe in agony every night.
Then, around the time I became an adult, I began learning the knowledge a witch needed to know. After being scolded by the strict witches while completely mastering the basics of black magic, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Isn’t there a faster way to become stronger?
If I kept clinging to black magic in this village, could I ever defeat the great elder? What if he died before I was ready?
Hesitantly, I told these thoughts to Levia, the one who had brought me here. At first she told me not to even dream of other paths and to simply study hard in the village. But when I kept repeating the same thing every day, pestering her, she finally spoke with reluctance.
“In the center of the continent lies the Labyrinth City, where the entrance to the Great Labyrinth opens periodically.”
Labyrinth… City?
“By entering the Great Labyrinth and surviving, killing monsters, achieving feats, experiencing unusual events, or overcoming your own limits—for various reasons like these—traits are born.”
“Traits?”
“Yes. If you’re lucky enough to obtain a positive or powerful trait, you’ll be able to grow stronger at a speed that cannot even be compared to now.”
Levia added a “but.”
“If you leave this village, the people around you will gradually fall into misfortune because of your curse. You’ll receive such contempt that you yourself will want to die. Can you endure that? You, who have only just become an adult?”
She looked at my face and sighed.
“…Your eyes tell me you’ve already made up your mind no matter what I say. Fine. I’ll speak with the witches in charge of education. You should pack your things.”
The other witches who had opposed it at first seemed to realize it wasn’t their problem. They soon stopped paying attention.
A few days later Levia packed my bags and opened a large portal. It was bigger than the one she had used when she came to get me.
“Once you leave Magium, even if you want to return later, you’ll have to find the way yourself. Understand?”
I nodded once, moved my lips to speak, but in the end no words came out. I stepped toward the portal.
“Then take care. I hope your spirit never breaks.”
…Levia had been right. After taking the direct portal to Labyrinth City, the suffering began again from that moment on. Simply standing still and hearing harsh curses and abuse from a distance became everyday life. While walking, people would shout at me to disappear, claiming that someone like me staying in the city might cause monsters to burst out of the labyrinth. If I stood in line or entered a shop, people scattered as if avoiding insects in a trash bin. Even opening an inn door was enough to get me turned away on the spot, and sometimes beer mugs would fly at me the moment they saw my hair color and ears.
I tried to hide my ears, but no matter what I did it was obvious and useless.
Clink.
Fortunately, Levia had packed quite a bit of money in my luggage. Thanks to that, I paid three or four times the normal inn rate, endured the wary looks, stayed one night, and was chased out—repeating the cycle. By chance I crossed from the 7th District all the way to the 4th District and found Rotten’s inn.
He told me he was a retired high-level adventurer who had reached the edge of the deep floors, so he wouldn’t starve even without guests. No curse or misfortune could kill him, he said, so I could stay comfortably. That was the first time I cried my eyes out since becoming an adult.
With a place to rest secured, I went to the guild to register. After several days of training, I tried to find a party… but even the low-floor parties refused to take me.
In the end, I could only appeal the usefulness of black magic to novices like myself who had just finished training on the first floor and barely manage to tag along.
“I shouldn’t have let someone like you into the party. Damn it…”
While killing monsters and reaching the escape portal, everyone except me died. An arrow that flew astray during an ally’s shot pierced a neck—instant death. I blocked a monster’s attack, but the weapon shattered and the blow struck a vital point—instant death. Someone suddenly sprained an ankle, stepped on a trap—instant death. They said it was all because of me…?
I wanted to die. Barely escaping the labyrinth alone, I fled from the receptionist’s cold stare and the murmurs around me.
For nearly several weeks I stayed shut inside the inn. Then, seeing how little money remained, I realized that if I stayed hidden like this I would starve to death in less than half a year. I headed to the guild again.
This time finding a party was even harder. The one person who said they would take the last spot turned out to be trash whose goal was my body. I kicked the chair over and left immediately—that alone says everything.
Barely enduring the curses, condemnation, and contempt from those around me, I lowered my share of the rewards as much as possible and joined a party attempting to clear the first floor and challenge the second.
Yes. I had joined.