The Curse Targeting the Sword
The knight department training ground was already sealed off. When we arrived, professors and students had gathered around the training ground. Imperial knights blocked the passages, and some knight department students were supporting each other with bloodied hands. The air smelled of iron. And in the center of the training ground lay scattered broken swords. Their blades were stained black. It wasn’t the color of rusted steel. It was as if living darkness had thinly clung to the metal. Black mist spread low around the broken sword fragments, and the training ground floor where the mist touched was cracking minutely.
Siella’s expression hardened. “Sword-style Contamination,” she said quietly.
“Do you know what it is?” When I asked, Siella walked into the training ground instead of answering. Rhea explained. “It’s a curse that reverses the user’s mana flow through the sword as a medium. It’s fatal for knights.”
Noel added, “Originally, it only appeared in cases of failed demon sword crafting, but now someone has deliberately spread it. And quite skillfully at that.”
I looked at the training ground floor. A red circular magic circle remained, almost erased. A single black feather was stuck in the center. The feather stood without burning. Its tip trembled slightly even without wind.
This time, the target was Siella. No, more precisely, Siella’s sword.
A knight proves themselves through their sword. For members of the Bayern family, the sword is not merely a weapon but their very way of existence. Contaminating the sword is an attack more humiliating than harming the body.
Siella stopped at the center of the training ground. Her sword was still in its scabbard.
“Who was hit?” A knight department student answered. “Twelve training swords turned black simultaneously. Three students holding them suffered mana reversal, and one had their wrist nerves temporarily paralyzed.”
“Any fatalities?”
“None.”
Siella closed and opened her eyes. Relief and anger passed through them simultaneously.
Then a student looked at her and said, “Lady Bayern. This was aimed at you.”
Everyone knew. The message of the black feather. The next target is the sword. It was a provocation toward Siella.
The gazes of the knight department students gathered in the training ground also focused on Siella. Those gazes held both concern and expectation. The expectation that Lady Bayern would somehow resolve it. The belief that the renowned sword family would break through the curse aimed at the sword.
That belief settled on Siella’s shoulders. I saw that weight.
Siella Bayern was someone who always had to be strong. Even in the original work, she rarely showed weakness. That’s why readers called her the ‘Flame Knight’ and liked her as a heroine who remained dignified even in defeat.
But what I was seeing now wasn’t a character. It was someone who couldn’t let go of their sword. Someone who believed that if they showed weakness, everyone’s expectations would crumble.
I tried to enter the training ground. Siella raised her hand to stop me.
“You stay out.”
“Why?”
“The curse moves through swords. With your physical condition, it’ll be hard to endure.”
“Isn’t it the same for you, Lady Siella?”
“I am a swordsman.”
Her answer was simple. But because of that simplicity, it was all the more firm.
“If it’s a curse aimed at the sword, then I will face it.”
Aria said worriedly, “You shouldn’t go in alone.”
Siella looked at Aria. “Saintess candidate. This isn’t the time for you to force your way in either.”
Aria pressed her lips together.
Rhea spoke coldly, “Lady Bayern, don’t act on pride.”
“That doesn’t seem like something Your Highness the Princess should say.”
“I distinguish between pride and orders.”
“I also distinguish between the sword and recklessness.”
The words of the two clashed sharply.
I quickly intervened. “This isn’t the time to fight.”
Rhea and Siella looked at me simultaneously. Their gazes were frightening.
Noel laughed behind me. “Kyle, you’re getting used to the mediator role.”
“Senior, please find a way instead.”
“I’m looking.”
Noel analyzed the magic circle on the training ground floor. “The curse isn’t directly cast on the sword. More precisely, it enters through the wielder’s ‘attachment to the sword.’ The more precious they consider the sword, the stronger the reaction.”
Siella gave a short laugh. “They targeted me properly.”
“Yeah. Too properly.”
Looking at the magic circle on the floor, I recalled the original work. The Sword-style Contamination curse appears in the second part of the original, during the knight department arc. Back then, it was an event where the protagonist purifies Siella’s sword, and she shows weakness for the first time.
But now the timing is too early. And the protagonist isn’t here. I have to take on that role.
‘No, do I really have to?’
I questioned inwardly. But I already knew the answer.
Siella walked toward the center of the training ground holding her sword. At that moment, the magic circle on the floor glowed black.
The broken sword fragments rose up. They became sharp shards one by one, surrounding Siella.
“Siella!”
I shouted. She didn’t look back.
“Don’t call my name like that.”
“Is that important right now?”
“It is.”
Siella placed her hand on the scabbard. “When you call me that, it strangely bothers me.”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words. Was that really what she should be saying now?
The sword fragments flew toward Siella.
Siella drew her sword. A red sword light cleaved through the training ground. The sword fragments shattered into pieces.
But the broken fragments gathered into black smoke again, forming a different shape.
A black knight.
A knight made of shadow appeared in the center of the training ground. In its hand was a greatsword formed from gathered broken swords.
Noel said quietly, “The curse has materialized.”
Rhea raised her staff. “I’ll freeze it.”
“Wait.”
I stopped Rhea.
“Why?”
“That thing moves by feeding on Lady Siella’s attachment to her sword. If we forcefully suppress it from outside, the curse might dig deeper.”
Noel looked at me. “Accurate again.”
“What’s the method?”
“The swordsman must directly deny it.”
“Deny?”
“Her attachment to the sword.”
I looked at Siella. That was easier said than done. Asking Siella Bayern to deny the sword was the same as asking her to deny her own life.
The black knight swung its greatsword down at Siella.
Siella blocked it head-on.
Boom! The training ground floor cracked. Siella’s arm trembled.
“Lady Siella!”
“Don’t come!”
She gritted her teeth. “This is my problem.”
The black knight attacked again.
Siella blocked, dodged, and slashed. But the more she attacked, the darker the shadow became. The more she relied on her sword, the stronger the curse grew.
The black knight was imitating Siella’s swordsmanship. More precisely, in the way she hated most.
Pressing forward head-on, not retreating even an inch, enduring until it breaks.
That was the form of swordsmanship Siella had learned her entire life.
But when the shadow imitated it, that swordsmanship looked not like honor, but like shackles.
At this rate, she would lose.
I ran into the training ground.
Rhea shouted, “Kyle!”
Aria’s holy magic enveloped my body. “Please, don’t overdo it!”
Siella looked at me with wide eyes. “I told you not to come in!”
“I wanted to hear it too!”
The black knight’s greatsword turned toward me.
Siella immediately moved. She stood in front of me as if to shield me.
At that moment, the curse’s energy grew stronger.
‘As expected.’
The Black Moon wasn’t just targeting Siella’s sword. They were targeting her protective instinct.
The more danger I was in, the tighter Siella gripped her sword. And the tighter she gripped, the more the curse eroded her.
I grabbed Siella’s wrist. “Let go of the sword.”
“Are you crazy?”
“You have to let go now.”
“I am a swordsman.”
“I know.”
“Where’s a swordsman who lets go of their sword?”
I looked straight at her. “Even if you let go of the sword, Siella Bayern is still Siella Bayern.”
Her pupils trembled.
The black knight approached.
I continued. “It’s not the sword that proves you. You are the one who proves the sword.”
Siella’s hand trembled.
She had lived holding the sword for a long time. Everyone had told her to prove herself with the sword. The name of Bayern, her qualification as a knight, her own worth.
But now that attachment had become a curse.
“Let go.”
I said quietly. “This time, I’ll hold on.”
Siella’s eyes turned to me.
A brief moment.
She let go of the sword.
The sword fell to the floor.
Clang.
With that sound, the black knight’s movements stopped.
Rhea’s cold instantly covered the training ground.
Noel’s magic circle sealed the center of the curse.
Aria’s holy magic enveloped Siella’s body.
The black knight collapsed.
Silence descended upon the training ground.
Siella looked down at her sword fallen on the floor.
She said nothing.
I tried to let go of her wrist.
But Siella grabbed my hand first. Strongly.
“The words you said just now.”
“Yes?”
“Take responsibility.”
“What words?”
“The part where you said you’d hold on this time.”
I lost my words.
Siella’s face wasn’t red. But the tips of her ears were slightly red.
Rhea’s gaze grew cold, and Aria quietly took my other hand.
From afar, Noel said with satisfaction, “The second relationship severance failed too.”
As soon as those words ended, the black feather in the center of the training ground burned away.
— The next target is the crown.
Rhea Silverrian’s eyes froze like ice.