Chapter 309: Preparing for the Request
Chapter 309: Preparing for the Request
I continued, choosing my words carefully so they wouldn't realize I was unaffected by the curse.
“That curse of Matilda’s… does it only work on women?”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that…?”
“Well, when the host starts to like someone, that person becomes sexually dysfunctional, right? So if a man were afflicted with that curse, and he started to like someone, wouldn't he be immune to becoming dysfunctional himself?”
After all, I couldn't imagine what it would even mean for a woman to become sexually dysfunctional.
That’s what I meant by my question.
Though, I did seem to recall hearing that the curse only takes women as hosts when I first heard the explanation. Still, you never know.
“Yes. It’s known as a curse that fundamentally only takes women as hosts.”
Leia nodded with a sad expression.
Damn it. So that’s how it is.
But something in Leia’s words bothered me.
“What do you mean, ‘fundamentally’? Are you saying there’s some other way for it to take a man as a host?”
“No, it’s not that. To be more precise, it would be more accurate to say that we have only ever seen cases where a woman was the host. This ancient curse is a type the church has never seen before, so everything we know about it in detail has been learned through Cardinal Matilda.”
“But the curse was originally on someone else, and Matilda transferred it to her own body, right? Doesn’t that mean it’s possible to transfer it to someone else again? There must be male priests, so did no one think to experiment?”
“Of course, that’s not the case. There were many who thought, just as you did, Mr. Guwon, that the curse might lose its power if transferred to a man’s body. Cardinal Matilda strongly refused to transfer it to anyone else, as she intended to sacrifice herself, but she was eventually persuaded and agreed to transfer the curse to another man.”
“And the result?”
“The result was… well… as you can see…”
“They couldn’t transfer the curse to a man’s body?”
“To be precise, we don’t know if it was because he was a man, or if it failed for some other reason. The method of transferring the curse is… well…”
Seeing Leia hesitate, I had a pretty good idea of what the method was.
“It’s sex.”
…Huh? Wait a minute. Didn’t they say the person who originally had the curse was also a woman?
Then how did Matilda transfer the curse to her own body?
“Something similar. By pressing your genitals together and channeling holy power…”
Of course! So it’s not sex, you just have to press your genitals together!
Then that means Matilda and the original person with the curse… scissored…! My imagination was running wild.
“Huh? Wait. If you have to channel holy power, does that mean you can’t transfer the curse to anyone who isn’t a priest?”
“Yes, that’s the basic principle. Though it might be possible if another priest assisted.”
“I-I see. Sorry for interrupting. So what ended up happening?”
“Yes. When their genitals touched, Cardinal Matilda inevitably began to feel affection for her partner. The male priest was afflicted with the curse that causes sexual dysfunction before the curse itself could even be transferred. So, opinions are still divided on whether the transfer failed because he was a man, or because he was affected by the curse before the main body of the curse could be moved.”
“Huh? Hold on. Then couldn't you find out for sure by transferring Matilda’s curse to another female priest first, and then having her try to transfer it to a man? The problem is that Matilda falls for people too easily, right?”
“No, we tried that as well. But the curse doesn’t just make the person the host loves sexually dysfunctional. It also has the effect of making the host fall in love with the opposite sex more easily.”
“What?! Then Matilda is…!”
“No. I heard that the others don’t fall in love as easily as Cardinal Matilda, so perhaps the Cardinal was originally… ah, anyway.”
Ah, she tried to gloss over it.
Matilda… what in the world are you…? To think you’re so much that even our angel has a hard time defending you…
“So, the curse makes you more susceptible to love, and on top of that, you have to press your genitals against someone of the opposite sex. Unless it’s being done by force, it’s impossible not to feel some affection. Especially since, according to the Goddess’s teachings, we believe intercourse is…”
Ah, I see. Now that I think about it, the religious folks around here do tend to treat sexual acts as sacred.
You could say this curse is a perfect counter.
Come to think of it, this must be an incredibly offensive curse from the Goddess’s perspective.
It’s a curse that so thoroughly goes against her teachings that it feels like it was designed specifically to target her.
A curse that forbids love, forbids sexual acts, and consequently makes it impossible to bear children.
“Anyway, so you’re saying you tried transferring it to another woman and then to a man, but it always ended with the man becoming impotent?”
“Yes… In the end, Cardinal Matilda decided to bear the entire burden herself and took the curse back…”
The situation was far more complicated than I’d thought.
If it were at least certain that the curse could be transferred to a man—that the only issue was that the afflicted person couldn’t transfer it themselves—I would have given it a try.
To bet on a fifty-fifty chance… no. But it’s just a matter of pressing our genitals together.
Since I just said that even sex was fine in an unavoidable situation, wouldn’t it be okay to take a fifty-fifty chance and at least try that much?
I have no intention of using the “unavoidable situation” excuse as a shield to have sex with any random woman.
But they would probably be more at ease if I could solve the curse by just touching genitals with her once and sending her on her way, rather than having Matilda holed up in our mansion indefinitely.
Then maybe I should give it a… no. Wait a minute. Even if the curse can be transferred to a man, is that really the end of it?
Unless the curse makes the host impotent, even I would have to remain the host of the curse after transferring it to my body.
But no one knows how the curse would affect a male host.
I can’t imagine what it means for a woman to become sexually dysfunctional, but something beyond my imagination might be triggered.
And if that happened, the first victims would be the girls I love more than anything.
…Was thinking of transferring the curse to myself too naive?
“So. What was the reason for all those questions? As for me, I can only assume you were asking with the intent of transferring the curse to your own body.”
Just then, Diana crossed her arms and stared at me intently.
…Crap! My mind was so preoccupied that I completely forgot I was supposed to be asking questions carefully so I wouldn't get caught.
“No, that’s…”
“Spit it out. What happened with Matilda in the dungeon?”
“Wait! You’re already certain something happened?! Sara, you’re being too…”
“So nothing happened?”
“W-Well, you could say something happened…”
“Speak clearly. Were you lying before when you said nothing happened?”
Damn it. Do I have no choice but to tell them?
If I don’t, it’s just going to create an even worse misunderstanding.
“It’s not that. When we were in the dungeon, Matilda happened to tell me she liked me. I brushed it off immediately like I always do, so it seems no one noticed, but unlike usual, I heard her full, clear confession. But even after that, my genitals were still functioning. So I looked into it and…”
“Are you saying the curse on Lady Matilda has no effect on you?”
“That’s about right.”
“Mr. Guwon, you really are…! But if that’s the case, why did you hide it from us?”
“W-Well, I didn’t want to make you all worry again, like with Silvia…”
“Mr. Guwon…”
“Jeez. You idiot. Why would you worry about that?”
“You’re usually so thoughtless, but at times like these, you overthink things.”
Leia had a touched expression, while Sara lightly tapped my chest as if patting it. And Diana began to stroke my head.
“A-Anyway! From what I’ve heard, transferring the curse to my body doesn’t seem like a good idea. To be precise, it’s not that the curse doesn’t work on me, but that I can’t be made sexually dysfunctional by any curse. Since the curse doesn’t have the effect of making the host dysfunctional, the curse itself won’t disappear even if it’s transferred to me; it’ll just remain. And there could be secondary effects on the people I love even if a man hosts the curse. I feel bad for Matilda, but if there’s no way to save her, it can’t be helped! So, this conversation is over!”
I tried to forcibly end the discussion.
Right, who am I to try and save someone for no good reason!
I’m just a Saint sent to this world by the Goddess… wait. Am I supposed to be saving people?
No. Anyway, I’m not doing it!
No matter how much this curse seems to directly defy the Goddess’s teachings, as long as there’s a chance my girls could be harmed, I will absolutely not do it!
“I see. It’s a pity for Lady Matilda, but I, too, am against you transferring the curse to your body.”
“Putting aside the fact that we could be cursed, if Guwon started falling for other women easily… yeah. I’m absolutely against it too.”
“See, you guys don’t want it either, right? So let’s just end this conversation here.”
Just as I was trying to wrap up the talk about Matilda, Leia, who had been silent with her head down, looked up at me with a resolute expression.
I’m getting a strange sense of déjà vu.
“But Mr. Guwon. I think it’s worth you having sex with Cardinal Matilda once.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Curses always have their own specific methods of being broken. Dispelling a curse with our holy magic is a way of forcibly removing it by borrowing the Goddess’s power, but originally, methods to break curses exist outside of holy magic. And the most likely method to break Cardinal Matilda’s curse is…”
“To have sex with the person who is cursed.”
“…Yes.”
Leia herself didn’t seem happy about this situation, where she was essentially recommending I have sex with another woman. She wore a pained expression, but she still nodded firmly.
Honestly, Leia is so angelic it’s a problem.
If Leia hadn’t brought it up, the matter would have just fizzled out and ended there.
But she always prioritizes helping others like this. Our angel.
“So, you think it would be a good idea for me to have sex with Matilda?”
“…Yes.”
Crap. Was that question too inconsiderate of Leia’s feelings?
Even with a pained look on her face, Leia nodded with certainty.
“What do you two think?”
“…Didn’t we just say you could do it in an unavoidable situation? Are you asking because you already know the answer?”
“Honestly. It’s almost enough to make me think you brought this up on purpose.”
Both Diana and Sara, though not pleased, consented with a nuance of it being unavoidable.
So it comes to this after all.
It’s a little different from what I expected, but in the end, my girls couldn’t overcome their sympathy and ended up permitting me to have sex with another woman.
Well, unlike with Silvia, it’s not like I have to live with her forever, so I guess that’s why the decision was made so quickly.
No. But breaking the curse through sex is still just a high probability, not a certainty.
If we have sex and the curse isn’t broken, it’ll just be me confessing to Matilda that I’m the only man she’s allowed to like.
Then I’ll be in a situation where I have to consider letting her stick around all the time, just like Silvia.
Did they permit this even after thinking that far ahead?
I looked straight into each of their eyes one more time.
And I realized. They knew, and they still gave their permission.
Of course. They’re all much smarter than someone like me. There’s no way they wouldn’t have thought of something that even I could come up with.
“You guys know… you’re all so damn nice it’s a problem, right?”
“Well, you’re so ill-natured, Guwon, so doesn’t it create a good balance?”
Damn it. Don’t say things I can’t deny! I know I’m a piece of trash!
“Angel! Sara’s bullying me!”
“Oh my. Hehe.”
“Hey, don’t use that as an excuse to sneakily press up against her chest!”
“I really can’t let my guard down for a second!”
And so, it was decided that I would end up having sex with Matilda.
I hadn’t actually heard Matilda’s opinion on the matter, but I’m sure she’d agree immediately if I told her it was to cure her curse.
No, even if that wasn’t the reason, if I just spoke to her in a slightly gentle voice…
Anyway, a curse… It would be a relief if it really can be broken with sex.