[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 77
Catherine's expression hardened at Zeke's words.
She said to Zeke in a cold voice,
"Sir Zeke, you are truly rude."
Catherine's voice was laced with anger.
Her daughter, Angelina Graham, was once rumored to be the most beautiful woman on the continent.
However, Angelina did not appear in society even after she turned 16, the age for debutantes, and various rumors arose because of this.
Rumors spread that she hadn't grown up as beautiful as expected, or that she had contracted a terrible disease that disfigured her face.
Since no one had seen Angelina after she turned ten, these rumors were considered somewhat credible.
Despite the rumors, no one had ever dared to directly mention Angelina in front of the Graham Dukedom, a prestigious and influential clan.
Everyone kept silent, avoiding any mention of Angelina Graham's existence.
Catherine felt insulted by Zeke and said in a cold voice,
"I will remember your rudeness. I would like you to leave the castle now."
She explicitly ordered Zeke to leave, even though he had invested a large sum of money in the mine.
This clearly showed how sensitive Angelina's situation was to Catherine.
But Zeke remained calm and said to Catherine,
"If you neglect Lady Angelina's illness any longer, it will become irreversible."
Catherine was startled by Zeke's calm voice.
She looked at Zeke and opened her mouth.
"You speak as if you know what Angelina's illness is."
"Yes, I know."
Catherine's eyes widened at those words.
"All the famous healers on the continent have examined her, but none of them could even figure out what the disease is. Are you saying that you, Sir Zeke, know what it is and can even cure it?"
Zeke said to Catherine,
"The affliction tormenting Lady Angelina is not an illness, but a curse."
Catherine's face turned pale.
"A c-curse, you say?"
Zeke nodded.
"As time passes, blisters appear all over her body, and her skin rots, doesn't it?"
Catherine was surprised.
"H-How did you..."
"At first glance, it seems like an illness, but it can't be cured with ordinary medicine. It's a terrible curse cast with forbidden magic."
Tears welled up in Catherine's eyes.
"A curse, a curse, you can't be serious..."
"Is there any reason why you think it's not a curse?"
"The first person I called when Angelina collapsed was a mage from Nirvana. The Graham clan has many enemies, so we always take thorough measures against curses. Especially with Angelina, who receives a lot of attention, we were even more careful. The Nirvana mage said they couldn't find any traces of a curse on Angelina, so I thought it was just an illness..."
Zeke shook his head.
"Curses are closer to shamanism than magic. Many exist in the realm of mystery, difficult to interpret with ordinary magic."
Catherine's expression changed completely.
"A-Are you saying that you can lift the curse, Sir Zeke?"
Zeke took out the Bible he had prepared from his pocket.
He made the sign of the cross and said,
"You must have heard about the curse on the Agamemnon clan."
Catherine nodded.
"O-Of course. I recently heard that the curse was lifted. Ah! Come to think of it, the newly appointed successor of the Agamemnon clan is..."
"With the help of the Sun God, I was able to recover the sacred object of the clan and lift the curse."
Catherine felt her heart waver as she looked at Zeke holding the Bible with a pious attitude.
She approached Zeke and took his hand.
"S-Sir Zeke, c-can you really lift the curse on our Angelina?"
"Everything depends on God's will. But one thing is certain, the more you delay, the more danger Lady Angelina will be in."
At Zeke's words, Catherine's face turned pale, and she began to pray, her hands trembling.
Zeke held Catherine's hand and recited the Lord's Prayer with her.
Farel, who was behind them, also clasped his hands and prayed with them.
Only Felix, the descendant of an Arc Paladin, stood blankly, watching the three praying.
***
Farel and Felix returned to their room, and only Zeke followed Catherine deeper into the castle.
They headed towards the north tower, where outsiders were forbidden to enter.
Knights in full plate armor were guarding the entrance to the tower.
Catherine held a lamp and began to climb the narrow passage of the tower.
"We removed all the magic-powered objects because magic is not good for the sick."
Perhaps because of that, the passage was pitch black without a single magic lamp.
The two climbed the spiral tower and entered the room at the top.
As soon as he entered, Zeke frowned at the putrid smell.
'It seems the situation is worse than I thought.'
Kyaaaaaaaaagh!
A sound like a beast roaring came from inside the room.
Catherine bowed her head and began reciting the Lord's Prayer again.
Zeke held Catherine's hand, calmed her down, and asked,
"Is Lady Angelina inside?"
Catherine nodded.
"The caregiver wipes away the pus and changes the bandages every day."
"Please ask the caregiver, as well as yourself, to leave."
Catherine flinched at Zeke's words, but then nodded.
She had no choice but to trust Zeke at this point.
Soon, the caregiver came out of the inner room, and Zeke slowly went inside.
The stench he smelled earlier was even stronger.
'This is serious.'
Zeke closed the door and looked towards the bed in the corner of the room.
There, tied to the bed, was a monstrous creature in the shape of a human, covered in pus-soaked cloths that couldn't even be called bandages.
"Kyaaagh!"
The creature, with its arms and legs tied, screamed, making a sound like scraping metal.
"Lady Angelina."
Zeke slowly approached the bed.
Seeing her condition, it was a wonder she was even alive.
The skin all over her body was festering and filled with pus, and her hair had all fallen out, leaving only patches here and there.
She was so emaciated that her bones were visible.
Zeke tried to talk to Angelina.
"Lady Angelina, can you hear me?"
Even when Zeke spoke to her, Angelina didn't answer.
Then, after a while, she started to move her lips slightly and say something.
Zeke slowly brought his ear to her mouth.
"...Please... kill... me."
She was living every day in agony worse than death.
Zeke, looking at Angelina, took out the Bible from his pocket and placed it on the table next to him.
Then, he took out the Golden Mask of Agamemnon from his inventory.
He looked at Angelina and took a deep breath.
'I hope this works.'
Zeke knew about Angelina's curse from an incident in his past life.
He had once received a mission from his master to track down and capture a shaman who used evil ancient curses.
And while interrogating the shaman, he learned that one of the shaman's past requests was to curse the daughter of the Graham clan.
At that time, Angelina was already dead, and the shaman didn't reveal his client before he died, so Zeke didn't inform the Graham clan.
'It was a curse using ancient forbidden techniques, so even if the Graham clan had known, they wouldn't have been able to do anything.'
Ancient curses required incredibly complex procedures to cast and had a high risk of failure, but once successful, they were that difficult to lift.
There were quite a few cases where even the shaman who cast the curse couldn't lift it.
In fact, the curse on Angelina was one of those kinds.
'A curse that causes more suffering the more beautiful the victim is. Who knew such a crazy curse existed.'
Zeke clicked his tongue and channeled mana into the Golden Mask.
As it had by the lake, the Golden Mask activated and transformed into a helmet, covering his face.
[The function of the mask is linked to the system.]
[You can use the Grand Purification function.]
After purifying the curse on the Agamemnon clan, Zeke was able to acquire ownership of this sacred object as the successor of the clan.
Since then, he had activated the mask and experimented with it.
As a result, he found out that when he simply held the mask, he could only use limited functions, but when he activated it and wore it on his face like this, he could use the 'Grand Purification' skill.
"Whew."
Zeke, wearing the Golden Mask, slowly approached Angelina.
He used the Grand Purification skill and the Area of Effect Buff skill, designating Angelina as the target.
Woooong!
Golden waves emanating from his body seeped into Angelina's body.
"Aaagh!"
As the golden light enveloped her body, Angelina screamed in agony as if she were on fire.
Catherine, hearing a different sound than before, grabbed the doorknob and shook it.
"Sir Zeke! Are you alright? Angelina! O-Open the door!"
Since Zeke had previously cast a spell on the door to prevent it from opening, Catherine couldn't enter.
Zeke continued to infuse Angelina's body with the energy of Grand Purification.
Sizzle!
Suddenly, black smoke rose from Angelina's body.
"Ugh!"
A moment later, she convulsed and vomited black liquid from her mouth.
"Aaagh!"
Angelina screamed and writhed in agony. The black smoke emanating from her body grew thicker.
Zeke watched for a moment, then took out a potion from his inventory and sprayed it on Angelina's body.
Sizzle!
As the potion touched Angelina's festering skin, new flesh began to grow.
'It's not enough yet.'
This time, he took out a top-grade potion, grabbed Angelina's mouth, forced it open, and made her swallow it.
"Ugh!"
Angelina tried to resist the potion, but Zeke held her throat and forced her to swallow, making her absorb it.
Her body was weakened from being cursed for so long.
If he only lifted the curse, her body might go into shock from the sudden change, and her heart could stop.
"Ugh!"
Angelina writhed in pain on the bed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A loud noise came from outside, as if Catherine was having the knights break down the door.
Zeke concentrated the power of Grand Purification on Angelina once again.
Woooong!
Angelina's body twisted at a grotesque angle.
Then, she suddenly opened her mouth wide and vomited black smoke.
KwaKwaKwaKwaKwa!
Unable to withstand it, the source of the curse was expelled from Angelina's body.
Zeke immediately used Gluttony on the source of the curse.
Tsst!
The black shadow that emerged from Zeke's body swallowed the source of the curse.
Soon, a message appeared.
[You have devoured an ancient cursed wraith.]
[Your consumed mental strength and mana are restored.]
[You have absorbed the ability of the devoured wraith and gained the Curse Reflection (A-rank) skill.]
By devouring the wraith with Gluttony, he gained the Curse Reflection skill.
'An unexpected gain.'
Zeke used the Healing Factor skill as a Area of Effect Buff to regenerate Angelina's body.
Crack!
Heal!
Angelina's damaged body began to recover with the power of Healing Factor.
Since it was the Healing Factor that had even restored the bodies of the Agamemnon clan members who were collapsing from demonic corruption, Angelina's cursed body also returned to its original state.
Whoosh!
Confirming that even her lost hair had started to grow back, Zeke watched Angelina recover and put the Golden Mask back into his inventory.
Then, he slowly approached Angelina.
He held her wrist, which was no longer making any sound, and checked her pulse.
Fortunately, her pulse was beating.
With the curse lifted, Angelina had regained her original form.
Zeke took off his coat and covered Angelina's naked body.
It was then.
Bang!
The door opened as the scroll magic Zeke had cast wore off.
Catherine entered the room with the knights.
Catherine, realizing that Angelina was no longer making any sound, covered her mouth.
She thought Angelina was dead.
Catherine shouted at Zeke,
"Sir Zeke! How, how could you do this! My, my daughter..."
She had entrusted Angelina to Zeke with a sliver of hope, but she mistakenly thought the worst had happened.
Zeke scratched his head and watched Catherine grieve.
'I missed the timing to tell her that the treatment went well.'
He was wondering how to explain the situation, as it seemed she wouldn't listen to anything he said right now.
"Mother...?"
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]