I had a talent for curse techniques.
Unlike my previous, ordinary life where I had died young, it was the sole merit of which I could be confident.
I wondered if this was what it meant to be a genius.
Not only was my starting line different from others simply because this was my second life, but even the most prized talent in this world—whose very name I did not know—was overwhelmingly superior.
At the mere age of five, I was praised as a prodigy who might appear once in a thousand years.
Soon enough, a new family appeared at the orphanage where I lived.
A middle-aged man whose entire body was wrapped in bandages, his complexion haggard as if he had suffered grave injuries.
He flashed a grotesque smile, not even paying mind to his bandages staining bright red.
“From today, I am your father.”
An atmosphere that was horrifying beyond measure.
I still remember that inorganic gaze to this day—it made it impossible to see him as a good man who had come to adopt an orphan.
***
Whatever accident had occurred, the clan's direct bloodline consisted only of my adoptive father, who had taken me in, and a daughter around my age.
Dragging me by the arm until we reached the clan, he shoved his daughter in front of me and delivered a single line.
“When the time comes, you will marry this child.”
He had a reason for going out of his way to find an adopted son.
At this rate, the bloodline would end; he must have intended to bring in a house son-in-law and raise him from scratch.
I learned this later, but a sorcerer's partner is only one for life.
Such a restriction was necessary to preserve the bloodline of curse techniques purely.
With his wife gone, he could no longer produce an heir.
Still, the clan's conditions were fairly decent.
It was a small yet ancient clan that possessed not common, generic curse techniques, but its own unique secret arts.
My fiancée and older foster sister was cute even when young, and as she neared adulthood, she had grown into a beauty whom the word “lovely” suited all too well.
In this modern fantasy setting, they would systematically initiate me into curse techniques, and my promised partner was a beauty?
From an orphan's standpoint, it was a rise in status beyond compare.
But I had no intention of repaying my adoptive father's expectations.
The period where I had revealed my talent without reserve lasted only a few short years after I began learning curse techniques.
I never progressed beyond the realm of a prodigy.
Before I was completely branded a genius by my father, I began gradually moderating the talent I displayed outwardly.
“…So it wasn't talent, merely precociousness.”
My father was greatly disappointed, but he reluctantly let it pass with that single remark.
A pure child would have done their utmost to meet their new father's expectations, but inside, I was a young man in his twenties.
That gaze which had looked at me as though I were a tool remained etched in my mind.
This insubstantial clan with only two direct descendants left was also a factor in my judgment.
Whether in ability or in emotion, I lacked the trust needed to believe in him completely.
Thus, the conclusion I reached was to hide my strength and independently secure my own safety net.
To live inconspicuously and prepare in secret until I reached a certain realm.
That was the conclusion I, an avid web novel reader, had reached.
***
Fifteen years passed like that.
January 1st. The anniversary of my birth, the day I came of age.
A fierce inferno was devouring a building.
My personal curse technique workshop was crumbling beneath ominous black flames.
The sanctuary I had shared for over ten years was perishing, steeped in black curses along with its densely packed memories.
Late at night, as the new year drew to a close.
This special day welcoming both the new year and my adulthood was becoming an unforgettable day—for all the wrong reasons.
“Gong Si-u. I shall sever you from the Gongmyeong Clan family register.”
Gong Jin-cheol, Clan Head of the curse technique clan, Gongmyeong Clan.
The man who was my adoptive father spoke those words with his back to the workshop burning pitch-black.
He had thoroughly bound me and forced me to my knees, looking down at me with cold eyes as though I were a criminal.
As if our bond until now had meant nothing at all.
“Hahaha! You look pathetic. Who would've known the brat they took in as a prodigy was a dud?”
Fwoosh—!
The man who had mocked me while personally burning the workshop turned around, his face glowing with delight.
The black embers remaining at his fingertips flickered wildly along with his vulgar laughter.
Choi Tae-seong, direct descendant of the Hwanseong Group, a curse technique clan.
A notorious mad dog of a prestigious curse technique family that had cast off the old-fashioned Hall name to rise as a modern chaebol group.
Someone who should never have been in the Gongmyeong Clan was doing something that should never be done, as if it were only natural.
“Happy birthday, Si-u! Do you like your gift? I waited specially for this day!”
By his side, unable to stop laughing, my former fiancée Gong Seo-yul was nestled docilely in his embrace.
Even as his fingers wormed like snakes and groped sensitive places, she showed no sign of resistance whatsoever.
Gong Jin-cheol, who had suddenly announced my severance; Gong Seo-yul, who entrusted her body to a man who was not her fiancé.
The intuition that they could not be trusted had finally proven correct.
“It’s all because you were incompetent. I can't bear the child of a worthless nobody who can't even use curse techniques, now can I?”
Gong Seo-yul condemned me in a frigid voice.
Her expression held revulsion, but that emotion was directed not at Choi Tae-seong, but at me.
In truth, I had noticed long ago.
That her emotions were gradually dulling, and that new disappointment was filling the emptiness within.
The reason I let it slide nonetheless was singular.
“If your body had been fine, you wouldn't have had your woman stolen or been disowned! What? You used a Binding to amplify your talent? If that worked, everyone would've done it, you crippled bastard!”
“How much you must have missed the old days to make such a crazy gamble? Foolish human.”
“And you failed at that too, ending up completely useless! Hahaha!”
Because in trying to hide my strength, I had ended up with a body completely unable to use curse techniques.
For a full ten years.
Publicly, it was known that I had failed an experiment.
A sorcerer's assistant who had recklessly dabbled in a Binding and ended up with a hopeless seal on his curse techniques.
That was my current situation.
“…But is this enough to sever ties? I have contributed to the clan in my own way, haven't I?”
But I could not help voicing my doubt.
I may not have been able to use curse techniques, but I prided myself on having contributed in other areas.
From the Gongmyeong Clan's general curse techniques to its secret arts, all had passed through my hands and been improved to surpass the original generation.
Though I hid my true combat ability, I had proven my worth by showing that my mind was still sharp.
Confident that once this seal was released, I could return to my former self.
I had thought that I had established a certain degree of standing, but had that been my own delusion as well?
“Gong Si-u. I, too, hold your ability in high regard. Even after losing your curse techniques, you developed the Gongmyeong Clan's arts to the level of a prestigious family. …But that is precisely why.”
Gong Jin-cheol's following response was nothing short of revolting.
The Gongmyeong Clan's curse techniques, developed by my own hands, had reached a level that attracted the Hwanseong Group's covetous eyes.
With the Hwanseong Group's support, the Gongmyeong Clan could soon rise to the ranks of a prestigious family, he revealed with a greedy glint in his eyes.
Saying that an orphan like me could be replaced without repercussions.
Such nauseating ambition—willing to betray all morality for the clan's advancement.
Gong Jin-cheol's scar-ridden face twisted viciously, forming the same smile he had worn when he took me in.
“Hah. How could I let a good woman be had by an incompetent bastard like you? Why should I have to endure the sight of a former fiancé wandering around the same household?”
“A direct descendant of the Hwanseong Group is entering the family as a house son-in-law. Discarding one adopted son is hardly any trouble.”
“It’s thanks to you. Since our curse techniques became usable, this upward marriage became possible too. I'll give you that much praise, at least.”
Their self-serving prattle polluted my ears.
If I hadn't hidden my strength and had shown all my talent, would things have turned out differently?
If I had properly revealed what compensation I had reaped from ten years of Binding, would something have changed?
No one can know.
“I said I would sever you, but I cannot let you live as you are.”
“The Gongmyeong Clan's secret arts are inside your head. It's unavoidable.”
At least one thing was certain: those bastards had created this situation without an ounce of guilt.
They easily sever ties, betray, turn their backs, and attempt murder.
“…I see. It's not that I didn't anticipate this, so it was true after all.”
I quietly looked up at the sky.
The truth was, I had considered that things might turn out like this before I applied the Binding.
Compared to the shallow trust I held for Gong Jin-cheol, the gains earned as the price of the Binding were far greater—that was why I had pushed ahead with it.
But I hadn't imagined he would discard an adopted son he had lived with for fifteen years over mere profit.
Even if I couldn't use curse techniques, couldn't I still produce an heir?
Hadn't I developed the clan's curse techniques?
I had hidden my strength, but I believed I had maintained the bare minimum of decency.
“Pretending to be all resigned. Why don't you beg pathetically? If you satisfy me, I might generously let you live, you know?”
“Ha.”
Looking at Choi Tae-seong spewing empty words and the Gongs standing at his sides, I opened my mouth.
“But… what makes you so sure I can't use curse techniques?”
The “hiding your strength” meta had to end now.
I had intended to lie low until my growth was complete, like a web novel protagonist, but I had no intention of clinging to a failed method until the bitter end.
I looked down at the restraining curse formula that bound me, preventing even the slightest movement.
Metal chains created sturdy enough to be unbreakable by brute force.
“Void Illumination Technique.”
With a low incantation, one of the rings on my finger shattered, and the Gongmyeong Clan's secret curse technique activated.
I may not have been able to use curse techniques, but I could still raise my curse energy itself.
And the items to make use of that raised curse energy—curse tools—were always on my person.
Emergency measures I had hidden until the very end, not even trusting such a fake family.
No matter how much I aimed for the highest heights, I wouldn't have sealed my curse techniques for ten years without any preparations.
“Wha—…!”
“How…!”
I leaped across space, enjoying the sight of their gaping faces.
***
The Gongmyeong Clan's secret art that manipulates space—the Void Illumination Technique.
It was a curse technique perfectly suited for escape, but I was not the only one who specialized in spatial curse techniques.
Every member of the Gongmyeong Clan was an expert in spatial curse techniques that I had personally refined.
Escaping their pursuit with the limited effects of curse tool activation was impossible after all.
“Just how many curse tools did you prepare, young master? We had quite a hard time finding you.”
Unfortunately, the ones I encountered at the end were neither Gong Jin-cheol nor Gong Seo-yul.
Grade 1 sorcerers of the Gongmyeong Clan who, just days ago, had been leisurely exchanging jokes.
“Young master, my ass. That bastard's nothing now.”
“At least show some respect; it's true that we grew stronger thanks to the young master.”
Finally, the three sorcerers surrounded me with weary expressions.
The curse tools disguised as accessories—necklaces, rings, piercings, and such—were more than half destroyed.
“The Clan Head ordered your immediate execution. It's a shame, considering it's your birthday today.”
“He probably doesn't even know his real birthday, being an orphan. Today's date was just slapped on by the orphanage.”
Ignoring their abusive words, I quietly looked up at the night sky.
Not a single cloud in the clear sky, and the nearly full moon faintly asserting its presence was already floating at its zenith.
“Will you take the moon as your final scenery? How poetic.”
One sorcerer who had maintained a kind tone reached out his hand.
At the same time, the others took the same action.
A joint attack to dispose of me thoroughly and without opening, ensuring I could no longer slip away through petty tricks.
Watching the phase of the moon slowly shift, I opened my mouth at an opportune moment.
“Today makes exactly ten years, you see?”
“Pardon…?”
“It’s been exactly ten years since my sorcery was sealed.”
In other words, the ten-year period set by the binding expired today.
I had calculated it deliberately.
The moment I became an adult. The time when a sorcerer could stand alone. The day I could break free of Gongmyeongdang by myself.
Ironically, Choe Taeseong had also chosen this day as the point of severance.
A day when I couldn’t tell whether my luck was good or bad.
The moment the moon exquisitely passed the vertical by a hair.
Today came completely to an end.
Kuuuuuu—!
“No…!”
“The binding is coming undone now?!”
The formless sorcerous power gained direction.
Together with a strange sense of liberation, the sorcerous power erupting outward chaotically drew a technique.
“N-no matter who you are, a ten-year gap is still…!”
“You’re too late.”
Even if they were sorcerers belonging to Gongmyeongdang, they did not possess the secret art, the Heogong Myeongsa Art.
The sorcery they had was a degraded, general-use version.
Secret arts were sorcery permitted only to the bloodline of the family, except for exceptions like me.
“If you were going to come at me with nothing but an inferior substitute, you should have ended it quickly.”
I had waited until just before their sorcery activated, aiming for this very moment.
All of their spells misfired.
It happened in an instant.
The space in the area fell entirely under my control.
At the same time, I fixed their positions so that not the slightest tremor would be permitted.
“…!”
An absolute state of stillness in which they could not even open their mouths, nor even breathe.
It might have been different with other sorcery, but if it was a degraded version of the Heogong Myeongsa Art, suppressing it was easy.
I opened my itching mouth toward those ungrateful acquaintances.
“…If this binding wasn’t a side effect, then what exactly did I gain?”
For a full ten years, I had lived quietly with my mouth shut.
For the acquaintances who were going to die anyway, so that their road to the afterlife would not be boring.
—Magic.
I spoke aloud a word that did not exist in this modern-fantasy world.
“This is kind of exciting. To think I can finally shoot it with my own hands.”
The conversion technique I had constructed independently activated, and my sorcerous power began to alter.
Before long, blue mana, different from red sorcerous power, glittered at my fingertips.
Runes and a magic circle were drawn following the movement of my hand.
The six-pointed star drawn at the center shone brighter than anything else.
The bestseller that comes to mind first when one thinks of magic.
—Fire Ball.
“Th-that isn’t sorcery…!”
Kwaaang—!
As if to mock their desperate resistance, three fireballs burned the sinister sorcerers to ash.