Chapter 5: Revenge(2)
Chapter 5: Revenge(2)
It was right after I asked her how to use the orb. Lina answered as if it were no big deal.
“I certainly know how to use the orb. It’s not very difficult.”
She says it like it’s nothing, so why does she look so grim? Is there something about this orb?
“Do you know how to handle mana? You just need to infuse the orb with mana and visualize the magic engraved within it.”
“...”
“If you can’t handle mana... it might be better to get rid of a useless thing like this. It could get you caught up in unnecessary trouble.”
So there’s definitely something about this orb. But I can’t just throw away something this good. I shouldn’t give up yet. I’ll ask the Regressor how to handle mana.
I was ignorant about magic, but I knew very well how valuable knowledge about it was.
This was especially true in this world, a closed society centered around the privileged. Even a Regressor might not be willing to teach me so easily.
“Lina-nim. Would it be possible for you to teach me how to handle mana?”
“It’s not something you can learn in a short amount of time.”
“...I suppose not.”
So even a sucker of a Regressor wouldn’t teach magic so readily.
It seemed better to find another way or wait until we became closer.
But seeing my dejected expression, the Regressor adopted a distinctly apologetic attitude.
“However, since you seem very interested in magic, I can at least give you a demonstration.”
“!”
Lina took the magic orb from my hand. Then, just as the bandit had done, she held it out in front of her.
The motion was the same, but her grace and aura were on a completely different level.
Lina’s silken blonde hair swayed slightly, and a clear light, incomparable to the one from the bandit’s attempt, began to fill the orb.
Kerry felt a strange, blue current. What followed was a melodious voice.
“Wind Blade.”
Fzzt-!
At the end of the small incantation from Lina’s lips, a blade of wind shot out, scraping across the ground. It was the same spell, but Lina’s was, of course, far more powerful.
“...Wow.”
“The trick is to visualize the mana inside your body flowing into the orb. In truth, this orb was developed to make casting magic easy, so even a beginner should be able to use it without much trouble.”
“...”
“However, it usually takes at least a year just to get a feel for mana... so it will be difficult for you to use it right now, Kerry-nim. It would be better for you to train in swordsmanship rather than magic...”
Lina’s words, though she stood right next to me, felt distant. That blue current I had just seen. The subtle movement of something I felt inside Lina’s body.
Could that have been mana?
I couldn’t be sure of anything, but I had a gut feeling that it was.
Focus. The mana inside me... hmm. Do I even have mana? I probably don’t. No. Let’s not give up. I’ll at least try to find it.
An opportunity like this was rare. It was like taking a pop quiz right after seeing the answer key. The only problem was that the question was brutally difficult.
I focused, sweeping through my inner self, and found something that felt as small as a grain of millet.
It was so tiny I wondered if I was just imagining it.
She definitely said the trick was... to visualize putting the mana into the orb.
The moment I pushed that millet-sized speck of mana into the orb.
“!”
The orb flickered for a moment, like a lightbulb turning on, and then went silent.
Forget a wind blade, not even a gentle breeze stirred.
“...I just thought it might work, so I tried to copy you, but it didn’t.”
It was a little embarrassing. I’d put so much effort into it, acting like something was going to happen, but all I got was a brief flicker of light.
But surprisingly, Lina was staring at me with a look of astonishment.
“...Don’t tell me you just copied what I did?”
“I couldn’t even do that. It just flickered and died...”
“It’s not that simple... Kerry-nim. Have you really never learned magic before?”
“Never.”
“If that’s true... I’m amazed.”
“Pardon?”
“The fact that the light flickered on means you successfully moved your mana. From what I saw, it went out afterward only because you didn’t have enough mana. If you’d had enough, the spell might have cast properly.”
“...”
Wait, am I some kind of magic prodigy?
*
This world is beautiful.
The Regressor, who must have been around countless talented people, just told me I have a great talent for magic.
I was so moved I couldn't help but shout.
“Ah, this world is so beautiful! Beautiful!!”
“Ah... yes... yes. The weather really is nice today.”
The innkeeper, who had been cleaning, flinched and replied.
I wanted to have a deeper conversation with him about the beauty of this world, but he shot me a look like I was a madman and fled.
“Even the sunlight shining on the fleeing man is so beautiful.”
It felt like my life had changed from a brutal thriller to a rosy, healing story.
My two years of suffering in this world had been nothing more than the rising action for the true healing to begin.
Just as I was soaking in the emotion, a second-floor window of the inn opened, and the old hag’s wrinkled face appeared.
“Hey, adventurer! Everyone’s waiting, what are you doing out there?”
“Sorry. And I told you to call me Kerry now.”
“Hmph. Right.”
I had already given the hobgoblin’s heart to the old hag. She had told me all other preparations were complete and to come to the room in an hour.
Knock, knock.
“I’m coming in.”
A knock was essential, as it was a room full of women. As I entered, Natasha smiled and threw herself into my arms.
“Husband! Thank you so much for your help!”
“Natasha. Is the curse taken care of? Hnggh... Wait, can you hug me a little more gently? I... I can’t... breathe...”
“Oh! I’m sorry. I was just so happy to see you.”
Her strength has returned, so it seems the curse is dealt with.
“Natasha’s curse is about halfway resolved.”
“Halfway? It’s not completely gone?”
“That’s right. Adventurer... no. Kerry. Even with my power, it was impossible to completely lift the curse. They’re vile bastards to cast something like this.”
“You call yourself a great shaman... Grandmother, are you sure you’re not a quack?”
“Of course not!”
“It’s true that my grandmother is the best shaman in our tribe. Besides, if it were a curse that could be easily broken... my father and the other warriors would never have fallen to it.”
So it was a powerful curse. It made sense. Seeing how the Regressor Lina was looking for a skeletal man and a pig-nosed brute as soon as she returned, they were probably big shots in the future.
“To completely lift Natasha’s curse... the only way is to kill that skinny bastard and use his bones as a sacrifice. That’s how vicious this curse is.”
Shit... Fighting guys that strong sounds terrifying.
Then again, the Regressor would be the one doing the fighting, so maybe it wasn’t a huge problem. Hearing that the curse wasn’t fully lifted, I used the Goddess’s Eye on Natasha.
[Status – Curse of Weakness (Effects Mitigated)]
Checking her status, I could see the curse, not fully lifted, just as the old hag had said.
Natasha seemed to be in high spirits now that the curse was weakened.
She clung to my arm, gazing at me with eyes full of love.
Natasha’s breasts pressed firmly against my bicep. Though we’d had sex, we hadn’t engaged in any other kind of skinship, so this was a new sensation. This was... kind of nice.
“Husband. Thank you so much. Hehe.”
Watching Natasha fawning over me, I felt the urge to pat her head, but one thing worried me.
Why... isn’t she giving Lina a single glance?
In truth, Lina was the one who had caught the hobgoblin. If I had been alone, I honestly wouldn’t have even dared to go after it.
I was worried Lina might feel left out, so I snuck a glance at her.
Lina was looking our way with a warm smile, simply nodding her head.
What a total pushover. Nice...
*
Lina smiled warmly as she watched Natasha fawn over Kerry.
The Natasha she saw now was completely different from her past life.
In her past life, enemies who feared the sight of her red hair flying as she was drenched in blood had given Natasha a nickname: the ‘Red Madwoman.’
[You’re killed because you’re weak.]
She showed no mercy, tearing enemies apart with her bare hands, a vision of pure terror to her foes.
She was especially hysterical around men, so aside from Lina, no one dared to get close to her, calling her a madwoman.
Back then, just looking at Natasha had pained my heart...
It was all the more painful because she knew Natasha’s obsession with blood stemmed from her past trauma.
But what about now?
“Husband. When should we have our wedding? I’m fine with a small one...”
“Why would we have a wedding when I’m not your husband...”
Next to the man named Kerry, Natasha looked utterly happy. It was impossible to even imagine her as the Red Madwoman.
To be honest, it was true she felt a little hurt by Natasha.
After all the trouble of regressing, the first thing she did was find Natasha and help her with her trauma, only for her to fall for a man and look at Lina like a rival.
But Lina was a woman with enough understanding to embrace it.
My original plan was to rescue Natasha and become as close to her as we were in my past life, but...
What did it matter? Natasha looked happy now. For Lina, that was enough.
“Well then, Natasha’s body has recovered to some extent... Isn’t it time we made our move?”
The old hag, who had been puffing on a cigarette in the corner, spoke up. Everyone agreed with her words.
Seeing the fire in the old hag’s eyes, it seemed she hated the ones who had annihilated her tribe just as much as Natasha did.
“If it were up to me, I’d say we leave to find them right now, but we don’t have a single damn clue. Miss Lina, do you know anything?”
Lina seemed to be thinking deeply about something. To Kerry, it looked as if Lina was searching through her old memories.
“I’m not certain, but... I have an idea of where those bastards might be.”
“Hoo. Then it’s decided. Let’s go there.”
“Yes. However... it would be best to stay here one more night.”
“No!”
It was Natasha who shouted.
“We have to go after those bastards, even one day sooner... It’s a waste for them to even breathe the same air... Grind!”
Since Natasha was still holding my arm, I could feel her whole body tense up. I could even feel a chilling, bloodthirsty aura from her.
Shit. She’s terrifying.
“We have no choice right now. The road to the nearest village from their hideout is rough. It will take the rest of today just to hire a guide to take us there.”
“...”
“I want to catch them as much as you do, so please, just wait a little longer.”
“...”
Natasha seemed to realize she had gotten overly excited. She snapped back to her senses, looking embarrassed.
Kerry answered for the flustered Natasha.
“Yes, Lina-nim. We’ll wait until tomorrow.”
The old hag nodded in agreement, and with that, the day’s agenda was concluded.
*
“Did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“The adventurer and Lina-nim are leaving the village tomorrow!”
“What? Really?”
The women who had been hostages were whispering in the inn’s common hall. They had received so much.
Letting them go just like this didn’t sit right with them, but they had nothing to give.
“We’ve only taken from them.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do to help...”
They were all women who had become widows after their husbands were murdered by the bandits. If not for Lina, their futures would have been bleak.
But not all of them were thinking purely of gratitude.
Keimi couldn’t forget the lewd scene she had witnessed between the adventurer and Natasha.
Once hailed as the greatest beauty in the village, Keimi had been married off, practically sold, to a rich but old husband.
But the young Keimi at the time had continuously refused to have sex, and her relationship with her furious husband had hit rock bottom.
In the end, for Keimi, who had practically been raped during her first time with her husband, sex had been branded into her mind as something horrific.
But the scene she had witnessed in the prison that day was different.
It was completely different from the sex I had with my husband...
On top of that, Kerry’s cock, which far surpassed her husband’s, had truly astounded her.
Of course, it wasn’t just his cock.
The sight of Natasha and Kerry shyly making love was like a new world to Keimi, whose first experience had been rape.
Natasha’s tender moans were enough to make even Keimi, a woman, feel a flutter of excitement.
Just how good must it have been? For her to make such lewd sounds...
Though Keimi was now approaching thirty, her figure and beauty had not faded in the slightest.
Her full breasts and the slender waist beneath them. Her lips, red and moist even without lipstick.
The village’s greatest beauty had preserved her looks perfectly.
Next to Keimi, women in the same situation chattered away.
“I guess this is goodbye to Kerry-nim... What a shame.”
“Should we all go and say our farewells later?”
“Don’t be silly. Why would Kerry-nim welcome married women like us? He’s such a handsome young master.”
Keimi shook her head.
I’m different from those women...
Keimi knew she was beautiful. Her confidence had waned a little with age, but when she looked in the mirror, she could still see her old self.
If only I could have just one night of reckless fun with Kerry-nim...
Kerry was different from the men of this world, who were grimy from hardship and a lack of care.
Kerry’s face, like that of a nobleman’s son, was more than enough to make Keimi’s heart race.
Alright. I’ve made up my mind!
That evening.
A knock sounded on the door of Kerry’s inn room.
“Who is it?”
“Adventurer-nim. I’m... here. Hiccup.”
What’s with that slurred voice? A drunk?
When he opened the door, he saw a beautiful woman whose face was flushed red, as if she were completely drunk.
It was Keimi.