The Cursed One (4)
“First, look straight at your own mistakes! A fool who can't even understand what they've done wrong won't break this curse even after thousands of years!”
The fool took the hero's punch—a blow that would have decapitated any normal monster—but since he couldn't die, he slowly reverted to his original form.
“Urk...”
“Ah, ajusshi!”
“You there, stop coddling this fool right now! If you keep trailing after an idiot like him, you'll spend your whole life mired in disaster!”
At the hero's words, the woman bristled and shot back.
“No, hero! Isn't that a bit too harsh?!”
“Harsh?! What's harsh is this fool's stupidity! Why did he get hit with the curse of immortality?! Why can't life sprout anywhere in Acad's lands?! Why did Acad's refugees have to abandon their homeland and scrape by in other countries?! It all stems from this fool's sins!”
The hero's shout left the woman speechless for a moment.
“Curse of immortality...? Acad's lands...? Ajusshi, what does that...?”
The woman didn't know the details of the fool's curse. He hadn't told her what the problem was, after all.
“Ajusshi's curse... wasn't it just natural disasters ravaging the area and agony under the sun...?”
“That's not a curse.”
I looked at the dazed woman and said, “That's just the other gods venting their anger on him after hearing what this idiot did—punishing him while blowing off steam.”
“Those natural disasters... weren't the curse, just them blowing off steam...?”
“Yeah. They're not a curse at all.”
Just kids venting their rage at the fool who disrespected me, nothing more.
“If you won't say it yourself, then I'll spell it out right here. What you did. The curse you got. Everything about you.”
“S-stop...”
“Why? You've kept your mouth shut this whole time. Is it because even you think your reasons are pathetic? Then why'd you do it back then? Why do something you'd regret so much?”
I gazed down at the fool with cold eyes.
“You wanted to look good in front of this girl, didn't you?”
“Urk...”
Hmph. Pathetic.
A pathetic coward who doesn't even have the guts to admit his own wrongs.
I clicked my tongue briefly and said, “The reason this guy got cursed...”
“S-stop...”
The fool reached out a hand. But it wouldn't reach me. As if such a feeble gesture ever could.
“The day the hero drew the hero's sword and became the hero. At the temple of the Life Goddess.”
“Stop!!!!”
He screamed like a banshee, but it had no effect. Foolish, so foolish. A guy who couldn't properly repent.
What if I shoved the truth in the face of the woman who followed this idiot? Would she come to despise him? Or...
“He lusted after me when I appeared before the hero, insulted the Life Goddess, and defiled her temple.”
I said it in a low voice.
“Using his position as a prince of mighty Acad at the time, he coveted the hero's sword and even tried to lay hands on me.”
“......”
The woman's eyes filled with shock. The fool couldn't utter a word. What a moron. An idiot. A brain-dead fool who couldn't even admit his own faults. A fool who'd suffered for decades without changing a bit.
“So the Life Goddess cursed him with immortality, and laid a curse on his precious kingdom of Acad so no life could be born there.”
“H-how could that...?”
“That's the truth. This fool isn't someone worth your admiration. He's just an utter moron who can't accept his own mistakes.”
I'd thought putting a curse on him and making him suffer would make him reflect and repent. If I'd known he wouldn't change even this much...
I should've just sent him straight to the underworld clean and quick. Then everything would've turned out fine. Acad, this fool—everything.
I was the fool. The fool...
Should I turn back time right now and crush him? No, but then everything I've built up till now would vanish? The adventures with the hero, Arcadia's prosperity, the hero's daughter and her family. Everything from the rewound time to now would disappear.
Is it right for me to turn back time? Is paying that price worth crushing this fool? No, it wouldn't be. The cost is too steep for something like that. That's why even having a cheat like time reversal, you can't abuse it carelessly.
So.
“I thought making him suffer with the curse would get him to reflect on his mistakes a little... but I was dead wrong. Guess I'll have to deal with him here and now.”
I raised my hand and gathered mana. Maybe just wiping him out right here is the best outcome.
The mana pooling in my hand took the form of a silver orb pulsing with ominous energy. A terrifying power that would erase anything it touched.
“S-sis!!!”
The hero panicked and shouted at me, but I didn't stop.
That punch to the fool's head just now? Probably the hero trying to stop me from acting in anger, handling it on his own terms. Sad to see that effort go to waste, but...
Can't be helped. This fool's just too stupid.
“You wanted the hero to kill you, right? I'll grant your wish. But don't expect the peace you imagine after death.”
The gods of death have been waiting, knives sharpened, for the moment they can seize your soul. Even in death, no peace for you.
If you'd repented, I might've forgiven you, but no need for that now. Time to erase you and forget.
Forget a foolish idiot like you. I don't want to think about you anymore.
So.
“Step aside.”
I said to the woman blocking my path.
“That fool isn't worth shielding like that. He's a fool who deserves to vanish from this world.”
Even at my words, the woman didn't budge. Lips pressed tight, eyes brimming with tears, she shook her head, blocking me.
“Why? Why protect him like that? Even after hearing his sins, you still shield him?”
“B-but...”
The woman said in a voice thick with tears.
“Even if he committed such wrongs... that doesn't change the fact that ajusshi saved me...”
Terror seeped into her voice too. She instinctively understood how dangerous this silver mana was. And yet, she was staking her life to block me.
“You're a fool too.”
“E-even after such a huge mistake... ajusshi is... my benefactor... someone precious to me...”
I see. A benefactor. Someone precious. Worth risking her life to protect.
Truly, far too good for that fool.
“G-get out of the way! This isn't worth your life! Finally, I can die!”
From behind her, the fool yelled. Death incarnate stood before him now. The fool transformed, like a man who'd found what he'd sought for so long.
“One last time: without forgiveness, even death won't bring you peace. Still want it?”
“Better than now, at least? Than this suffering life!”
Hah, better than now.
“You say that because you don't know how horrific it gets without a body's limits.”
Compared to the torment after death, pain in life is less than a speck of dust. If life's just coffee, afterlife is T.O.P... ahem, bit dated.
“You say that because you don't know how agonizing torture on the soul itself is.”
I smiled thinly.
“Especially in the afterlife... there are experts who specialize in tormenting sinful souls. You'll have a blast. A real blast.”
Those guys have been sharpening their knives, waiting for the fool who insulted me.
“More painful than now...?”
“Yeah. Should be fun, right? Look forward to it.”
“S-sis... that's a bit much...”
“Perfect for this fool. Anything less, and he won't reflect at all.”
So.
“Step aside.”
I said to the woman still blocking me. Body trembling, tears leaking from her eyes, unable to calm before the terror of death.
Yet she wouldn't move.
“N-no. I can't let ajusshi die...”
“Even if it kills you?”
“Even if I die, I can't let ajusshi... Please, forgive him...”
Forgive. Forgiveness.
I clicked my tongue. I wanted to erase that foolish idiot from the world right now... but I didn't want to kill the woman in front of me.
So.
“I'll give you one last chance.”
“A ch-chance...?”
“......”
I looked at the woman and said, “If that fool sincerely repents and atones at the Life Temple, I won't kill him. If not... no matter what you do, I'll wipe him from this world.”
An ultimatum. If the fool truly repents his wrongs, I won't kill him. And though I didn't say it, I'll lift the immortality curse too.
But if not... I'll erase him by any means. Without a trace left in this world.