A pitch-black room without a single light burning.
With no light, I had to rely solely on the moonlight beyond the window.
Today, too, I was desperately memorizing a name.
"היא מהכתר המקולל…. חכם הכתר המקולל."
I continued listing off names whose meaning even I could not understand.
A routine I had not skipped a single day in the ten years since I possessed this body.
It might be close to a meaningless act, but I had no intention of stopping.
Because it was the only way I could survive.
‘Should I just die? Nothing has changed even after repeating this for ten years.’
I stopped speaking and stared intently at the blue window floating in the air.
[Dante Vergilius]
- Stamina 3 (Fixed)
- Strength 3 (Fixed)
- Agility 3 (Fixed)
- Mana 0 (Fixed)
- Charm -15 (Fixed)
[Possessed Talents]
- Locked due to the Brand of Distortion.
[Current Status]
- Brand of Distortion (EX), Despair, Ugliness.
[Brand of Distortion]
Distorts the target’s appearance, talents, and abilities to the lowest possible level.
A despairing status window that had not changed at all since the first day I possessed this body.
The Empire… no, on the scale of the entire continent, I was close to the worst. A hollow laugh escaped me.
Yes, just as the status window said.
A damned derogatory title of having the worst appearance in the Empire, and a body that could barely even move properly.
On top of that, a cursed talent that could do nothing.
“Fuck. I really want to die.”
Thanks to that, I wasn’t treated like a human being, not by my family, nor even by my fiancée.
Ten years.
My father and the rest of my family treated me as if I didn’t exist.
And I received all of my fiancée’s contempt and disgust.
That time had amounted to a full ten years.
“Please…”
Clenching my teeth, I spilled blood onto the floor once more and parted my lips.
I wanted to escape this cursed life now.
I slowly closed my eyes and recalled the memory from ten years ago.
"ת…חילתן של קללות ואשליות."
What I sought was the name of the demon who had cursed me.
Not some name used by humans, but the essence of that demon itself.
Recalling the name that had appeared in the demon’s settings I had seen ten years ago, I forced myself to pronounce sounds that should have been impossible.
—Paaaah!
The blood that had fallen to the floor evaporated.
‘…Failure. Another failure, huh.’
Just as I was about to taste despair inwardly from sheer emptiness.
—Wooooong!
The blood that had clearly seemed to be evaporating rose into the air and began forming one letter after another.
When the crimson letters formed a circle and completed a single magic circle.
“Was it you who called me?”
From the crimson magic circle, something in the shape of a human began to reveal itself.
Two horns that made their presence known above her head.
Red eyes that gave off an ominous feeling and long, flowing black hair.
And even a black dress that, in itself, exuded elegance.
‘She looks like a succubus… but not quite.’
Her chest was considerable, and her appearance was beautiful as well, enough that I almost lost my mind for a moment.
She was undeniably beautiful to an unreachable degree, yet I could not look at her directly.
An absolute difference in rank.
That was what people commonly called the form of a demon.
“I thought it might work, but I never imagined I’d succeed after ten years.”
Forcing myself to endure the demonic mana pressing down on me, I slowly raised my head.
The demon looked down at me intently and placed her foot on top of my head.
But even at the sight of her like that, I merely smiled.
“Very well. What is your wish, that a mere human would call upon me?”
Her red eyes constricted my throat and controlled my breathing.
She probably intended to take my soul as the price for my wish.
Not a chance.
“Lilishvea.”
I opened my mouth while staring intently into her red eyes.
“…A mere human dares call my name?”
Was it unpleasant to her, a great demon?
Behind her black dress, countless magic circles rose into the air.
Just looking at them made cold sweat run down my body and sent a chill along my spine.
Someone like me, who had not even completed the 1st Circle, could be killed in an instant.
But that magic would never reach me anyway.
“Dispel.”
“What?”
—Craaaack.
The magic circles behind her, Lilishvea, returned to nothing one after another.
At the same time, confusion filled her eyes as she looked at me, and they widened.
Smiling faintly at the sight of her, I lifted myself up from the floor.
“How could a mere human!!!”
“Do not raise your voice. Do not raise your voice like that.”
“How dare you…!!!”
Slowly, while barely enduring the thick killing intent I was feeling for the first time.
I stepped toward her.
Only five steps.
That was all it took for me, who had been on the floor, to reach her as she stood with her back to the window.
"תחילתן של קללות ואשליות."
“H-how does a human know my true name…”
Fear dyed Lilishvea’s eyes, which until moments ago had been filled with contempt.
A demon’s true name was the root of its existence.
Merely knowing it allowed one to seize control of the demon and determine whether its very existence would remain.
In other words, I held her right of life and death firmly in my grasp.
And that was enough to drain the strength from the legs of Lilishvea, who had been so triumphant.
“…U-um, could you maybe… spare me…?”
Her body trembled as she sank down and clung to my leg.
At the sense of conquest I felt for the first time since possessing this body, the corners of my mouth curved upward.
“Weren’t you trying to kill me just now?”
“I-I’m sorry… hic! I-I’ll do anything you want… hic!”
Lilishvea shed tears in a way that made it impossible to think of her as a demon.
Well, no matter how high-ranking a demon was, it could not deny its own essence.
There must be fear in annihilation, beyond the simple concept of dying.
“I won’t kill you.”
“…R-really?”
“Yeah.”
I was no priest.
Much less a hero.
If anything, I was on the side that hated this damned world.
But that did not mean I had any intention of helping destroy the world.
The only thing important to me was myself.
There was no reason to deliberately get rid of a valuable person I could make into my ally.
In a sense, she was also the first ally I had gained since possessing this body.
“Lilishvea. No, your name is too long, so let’s just call you Lilia. That’s fine, right?”
“Y-yes…”
“The curse on me. This is your curse, isn’t it?”
The mythic-grade curse said to have no existing method of removal, the Brand of Distortion.
This damned thing that distorted everything about me to the lowest level.
Since I was relying on what I remembered seeing in the game’s collection of settings, I was not certain this curse was hers.
If it wasn’t, would I have to repeat this nonsense for another ten years… no, maybe even until the day I died?
Please.
“Y-yes… But I’ve never cast it, so how on earth did you get that curse…”
In a sense, Lilia was a victim too.
She had no memory of casting it, but it had been placed, and now even her true name had been caught.
“Remove it.”
At her confirmation that it was Lilia’s curse, I let out a sigh of relief and slowly gave the order.
“…Ah, yes.”
Far more dispirited than at first, Lilia created a magic circle in the air.
What appeared at the tip of her finger was magic in the shape of a key.
“I’ll undo it for you.”
The moment she made a gesture of turning the tip of the key toward me.
[The mythic-grade curse ‘Brand of Distortion’ is being released.]
For the first time in ten years, words I had never seen before appeared on that cursed blue window.
“Finally…”
Before I knew it, warm drops of water fell from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.
Could I finally escape this cursed life?
[All distortions applied to you are disappearing.]
[Talent: Thousand Faces has activated.]
[Charm stat has reached its maximum value.]
[Talent: Heavenly Martial Body has been applied.]
[Talent: Mana Affinity has been applied.]
[A new stat has been unlocked.]
[Stats are increasing.]
.
.
.
Blue status windows continued appearing like a relay.
At first, they were readable, but as more and more of them kept appearing, I gave up on reading them.
But only one thing mattered right now.
This cursed body, these cursed talents.
They would finally stop tormenting me.
“M-master.”
“Hm?”
“Is that… perhaps your original appearance?”
“Ah. This?”
The Brand of Distortion had made even my appearance ugly.
Now that the curse had been released, this was probably my original appearance.
“You could say that. Why?”
“W-wow… You look more like a demon than I do. Kind of… like an homme fatale…”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Strength overflowed in the body that had once found even moving difficult.
Along with that came an alien sensation I was feeling for the first time in my life.
This was probably what they called mana.
Even though it was my first time feeling it, it was incredibly natural.
“B-but… then, may I go now?”
Lilia looked at me intently, her eyes brimming with tears.
She probably thought she could return now that she had removed the curse, but unfortunately, I had no intention of letting her go.
“No?”
“Ah… Then, as expected, annihilation… hic!”
“That’s not it either.”
Smiling, I slowly pressed my lips to her forehead.
“…Yes?”
“The master of your true name grants you paradise, תחילתן של קללות ואשליות.”
[The demon ‘Lilishvea’ loses her rank and becomes subordinate to you.]
[The Altar of Original Sin is engraved upon you.]
“Huh?”
Something I had never seen before had appeared, but what did it matter?
“Lilia. I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
Ten years after possessing this body.
I had finally broken the curse.
And recovered the appearance and talents that had run away from home.