Even the Curse Gets Aborted
The condition of my master was like that of someone battling leukemia. The difference was that leukemia could kill the carrier, but with my master any death around her could trigger the outbreak.
Locking her away in an isolation room was out of the question. We had no money to spare, and our future hung in the balance. The friend right in front of us could collapse into social death in an instant. Yet keeping her in an isolation room for the rest of her life was impossible.
So the only way out, whether I liked it or not, was one thing.
I’ll cure my master.
The doctor had said.
My master’s illness could not be healed by modern medicine.
Only an S-class healer who stayed put and refused to let go could save her.
And here—
“Yeong-ah. I heard about my master.”
“Master, you mean?”
—There was an S-class healer.
One who could be called on at any moment.
“By the way, could you help?”
“…Am I needed?”
“Huh? Of course. You’re the only one I can turn to. If I call in another healer it’ll be a pain. An S-class isn’t that easy to find.”
“Then I’ll give it my all and treat her.”
“???”
Yeong-ah didn’t refuse either.
As a fellow party member she understood the situation perfectly.
But that didn’t mean I was handing her over completely.
“You don’t mind if I borrow Hecate’s power too?”
“No.”
“Hecate?”
“What a black, disgusting scent. Smells like shit.”
“Excuse me?”
“Like the shit that’s been perfectly aged under a goblin cave.”
“…………”
Grrrr…
Even if she hated it I had no choice.
“You’re just going to sit there and watch me suffer?”
“Shut your mouth. I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my ears.”
Why the hell was I surrounded by so much garbage? Did I have a fetish or something?
Hecate muttered but eventually gave in to my will.
Even if she hated it I wasn’t going to just stand there and let the virus keep spreading.
“Shall I purify it with light?”
“Ugh. No matter how dirty, life is precious!”
“If life is so precious, why enter dungeons?”
“Because only dead monsters are kind?”
“Only purified spots are kind.”
“…………”
A purified spot was just a dead thing.
I had already said it, so I couldn’t argue, but Hecate looked genuinely displeased.
Still, maybe mint-chocolate and pineapple could somehow cover the bad taste…?
“Recently I’ve been feeling like I’m being treated differently. So I wanted to say this.”
“Ugh──?!”
Suddenly the mana core glowed white.
Familiar pain. A sense of numbness spreading through her body.
I didn’t even realize I was letting go until I slumped to the floor. Hecate stepped on my face and said,
“This body. The contract can be broken at any time. That was the nature of that ‘contract.’”
“…Sorry.”
“Being sorry isn’t wise to begin with.”
This idiot, Sunwoo.
Hecate left a deep footprint on my face and vanished.
She really didn’t like me.
‘Still.’
There was nothing else I could do.
My close friend and colleague had collapsed in an instant. How could I just stand by when I could bring her back?
I rubbed the tingling tip of my nose and stood up.
“So the only problem now is…”
Where should I put my master?
The simplest way was to keep her in my room, but that was dangerous in too many ways.
If one of the Nature members caught her illness it would create the worst scandal of all.
Keeping her at Yeong-ah’s house felt like a burden to Yeong-ah…
“We can stay at my house. It’s fine…”
“But even so, a child is worrying.”
“Ah…”
Putting her in my house meant the Nature members would be a problem.
Putting her in Yeong-ah’s house meant the baby would be a problem.
Then what?
“…You let my master have a room, and instead move in with us?”
“Eh?”
“No, wait. That’s way too much even for me.”
“Sunwoo-nim.”
“Hm?”
A faint tug on the sleeve.
Yeong-ah looked up at me with a serious voice.
“While my master is recovering, may I impose on Sunwoo-nim’s house?”
“What? Did you hear me muttering? No. You’re an awakener too. But even so, isn’t that a huge favor…?”
“The Nature members are already staying at Sunwoo-nim’s house, right? Even for the sake of work, or my master, it would be better if I entered the house for a while.”
“I’m sorry. Really, can I accept this favor?”
“Actually… I want to ask you instead…”
“Ask me?”
“Ah.”
I was shocked.
Just as I could hear the muttering I’d made, I could hear the muttering Yeong-ah had made.
We were both awakeners, after all. Of course if I didn’t want to talk about it I could stay silent.
“I, I mean… I’ve been arguing with Heewon lately? So lately I feel a little distant from my usual self… and also a little distant from the Nature members? Like… exclusion? Or belonging…?”
I rambled.
It wasn’t exactly spilling my real feelings, but I understood where she was coming from.
Even if I was staying with all the Nature members, adding Yeong-ah made it feel like an intensified training camp. Not a bad thing.
“Then I’ll be a burden to my master while she recovers.”
“Mm. Please…!”
Later, after Yeong-ah left, I thought that if we just rented one room and put her there it would be enough.
We weren’t exactly poor; the money wasn’t lacking. But Yeong-ah had said it was important to save when you could, so I gave up.
“Even when I want to save later there’ll be nothing left…?”
A strangely sincere personal story.
It felt like the house of Yeong-ah, who had given away all her money to villains and was left with only basic appliances.
***
With that understanding.
“While the illness is being cured I’ll stay here… but what are you two doing?”
“Uh… nothing…”
“‘Nothing’ doesn’t explain the sweat. Is that sweat?”
“T-t-sweat! Yes!”
The strangely lewd scent spreading through the room.
It felt like the opposite of a single mother’s scent. Something sharp and biting that should have been unpleasant but somehow wasn’t.
‘Doesn’t really matter.’
It wasn’t even the most important thing right then.
I handed my master the clothes she had worn before.
“I burned all the old clothes. Washing them to wear again was impossible after Hecate gave the recovery verdict.”
“Ah… I didn’t know…”
“By the way, she had her armpits and groin shaved too. I don’t know, but…”
“Eh?”
It said they were already completely hairless and nothing could be done.
Tiny worms wriggling inside, living in the bushes and unable to beat her steel core.
During the honest explanation I gave up trying to understand.
‘How can bugs live in human hair?’
What kind of nonsense was that.
Probably said while looking at the virus.
I left the things she could drink and eat.
“…! Wait. Not even the head hair…?”
“I wanted to shave it all but held back. I heard that if I were a man I would have shaved my head completely and thank you for it?”
“That… really, I should be deeply grateful.”
My master trembled, running her fingers through her hair.
A slight curl that hadn’t been there before, yet she held it protectively with both hands as if the shock of losing her natural hair was too much.
*Click.*
‘Ehehe.’
In truth Hecate had never held back.
If she had been truly honest there would have been no curl at all.
I had barely stopped her from burning everything away.
“So now about the treatment… Yeong-ah, may I ask for your favor?”
“Please wait a moment?”
“Ugh──aaaah!”
I placed my hand on my master’s body.
Yeong-ah closed her eyes and circulated her mana to analyze the condition.
A translucent aura of light flickered over her body.
The mana slowly spread across my master’s form and eventually wrapped her entire body.
“This… what is the condition…?”
Her eyes grew deeper and deeper.
Her lips trembled.
Her tightly closed mouth grew stronger, and even after I removed my hand she never let go of the mana wrapped around her.
Like wearing surgical gloves, any moment of carelessness could mean infection.
“Was it a virus?”
“The doctor said so. What do you think?”
“…It looked more like a curse than a virus.”
“A curse? Suddenly?”
“I don’t know how to say it.”
It was just… that. That is…
“A ghost? A demon? Whatever is inside isn’t clear.”
“…………”
Her finger pointed at my master’s womb.
“I can hear screaming. It seems like tears are falling. There are many things inside, but all of them are vague, unclear, murky…”
“Stop.”
“…Master?”
“Enough. It’s… like that.”
My master’s face was deathly pale.
She trembled quietly and wrapped her arms around her body.
‘Why is she doing that?’
*[Because it’s dirty, it makes me want to hide.]*
‘If you say it like that I’ll understand.’
*[This body isn’t a dictionary…]*
A grumbling voice.
Then Hecate spoke.
*[The purest soul died without even seeing light. And that too, horribly sullied.]*
“…More detail.”
*[There are more than two. The life born above a grave is usually called undead.]*
“..........”
Undead.
Life. Yet closer to death.
*[The formless of life. And there is only one word for it.]*
“If it’s a curse… then it’s a curse.”
The curse aimed at the mother.
It spread into a curse aimed at the world.
*[There is only one way to treat it.]*
“Happy to say it’s hopeless, I guess.”
Erase the curse itself and fill the space with the healer’s power.
Simple. Yet terrifying.
Now the situation of the curse being aborted was almost amusing.
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*This is the end of Chapter 49. The story continues in the next chapter.*