Chapter 20:
Curse Magic
It was now noon.
I yawned. I was tired from having walked for a few hours straight with little to no breaks. I seriously needed to start building up my stamina one of these days.
"Here we are." Alek said, as we passed over a ridge. We'd taken a lot of detours, since there was really no defined path that led to our destination.
"This is a village?" I asked, looking at the settlement that stretched out before me. It barely had enough houses to be even considered a village. The houses were small huts, with ceilings that looked to be made out of large turtle shells. I was going to comment on the oddness of it, but considering where this place was, it didn't look too out of place.
I was surprised to see that some of the homes had small gardens next to them. But, they definitely weren't rose gardens. The flora and fauna looked as menacing as the monsters around here.
We began walking on a small dirt pathway that led to the entrance of the village.
A noise made me perk up. Or, rather, a word. The only thing was that I couldn't understand it. It was in Demon God.
I looked for the source of the noise. Right next to the village gate was a short, young-looking man with blue hair who reminded me a lot of Roxas. He said something which was directed to Alek. Alek stepped forward, and seemingly greeted the blue-haired man.
They began conversing in the Demon God language, but I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. Alek's face darkened, and he replied in a harsh tone. It looked as if the blue haired man was hesitating about something.
What was that about them not being big talkers?
"What is he saying?" I asked Alek.
"They're reluctant to let you stay. I'll convince them, so you don't have to worry about that." He responded.
The boy in front of us sighed. He shut his eyes, and proceeded to stand there in silence for the next few seconds.
"What's up with him?" I asked, wondering if he just decided to take a quick nap or if there was some purpose to what he was doing.
"That's the Migurd's telepathy," He explained. Hmm. Telepathy really isn't all that interesting when you can't hear others thoughts.
I wonder if that was how Roxas had felt. Back when he was still with us at Buena Village, he told me a little about his upbringing. He said that he alone was the only one in his settlement who was unable to communicate telepathically. He grew tired of being excluded, and one day he got up and left. Poor guy.
A man and a woman, both with their signature blue hair walked up to the first villager.
"This man's name is Rokkus. He's the village elder. They called for him to see whether or not you're a threat." Alek told me, motioning to the man who had just arrived. This Rokkus had a small beard, but despite being called the elder, he looked youthful. Like he was in his late thirties. Alek walked towards Rokkus, and they began conversing.
This is really tiring… I can't understand a word they're saying.
I hoped that I'd be able to pick up the language in time, since I'd get pretty fed up if I couldn't converse with anyone here aside from Alek.
The younger boy took notice of me, and walked over to me. He pointed at my pendant, the one I got from Roxas. He seemed to be asking something. I looked at Alek, hoping for a translation.
"Rowin's asking you where you got that pendant from. You haven't traveled here before, I imagine?" He said.
"I didn't do much traveling before I was teleported here, so no. Also, I got the pendant from my old tutor, Roxas." I replied.
The man in front of me widened his eyes, and exclaimed something. He grabbed me by the shoulders and repeated what he had said to me, this time in a much louder voice. "Seriously, what is his…deal?" Alek separated the man and I, and translated.
"He says that he needs to hear everything you know about Roxas."
"Really? Why does he care so much about Roxas anyways?" Did Roxas owe this guy money or something?
"Because Roxas is Rowin's son." Alek explained.
Eh? Say that one more time? You're telling me this guy, who barely looks over fifteen, has children?
"He's old enough to have a son?" I asked in disbelief.
Alek nodded. "The Migurd don't mature in the way most humans or demons do. Their appearance matures to around human adolescence, and then only continues maturing after a hundred and fifty years go by." Alek explained to me.
I widened my eyes in shock. Then how old is Roxas? Wasn't he like fifteen? I remembered that Roxas had never actually told me his age. If he was something like fourty, it would explain why he knew so much about magic.
"...You don't say. Well, tell him that Roxas tutored me for two years, and that after that we went separate ways. The last I'd heard of his location, he was in the Shirone Kingdom."
Alek translated my words, and the man sank down to his knees. He had tears in his eyes. Yet, he seemed relieved. He said a few words to me, smiling. After that, he wiped away his tears, and got back up on his feet. He told Alek something, and Alek smiled in reply.
"Looks like we're in the clear, Lumina. We'll stay the night here and depart for the nearest city tomorrow morning."
I nodded, and smiled at Roxas's father. Hmm… Would it be okay if I called him my father-in-law…?
Now that we were actually inside of the village, I could see it in much better detail. It wasn't very exciting. There were less than twenty homes, and the soil was pretty much the same as it was everywhere else. The Migurds were all over, though. They seemed to be enjoying themselves plenty, and I noted that every single one of them had blue hair.
A village full of Roxas… this is like heaven! I grinned. I wasn't obsessed about Roxas, but I really liked his blue hair. And everyone here had it!
Unique hair color aside, this place was barren. At least, at first glance. The people here lived in houses that looked to be made by digging into the earth, and covering the top with a turtle shell.
I inquired about this to Alek, to which he responded, "Those shells are from large monsters native to this region. I'm surprised we haven't encountered one ourselves yet." The shell wasn't small, mind you. It was easily ten meters long; I didn't know monsters got that big.
I got to see the plants I had noticed from outside of the village up close. They were wilted, and tiny in comparison to the homes they were next to. I decided to cast a small healing spell on the ones who looked to be decaying, and went on my way. Or, I was about to, when I was nearly chomped by a familiar looking plant. It was nearly half my size, and looked very reminiscent of a certain ferocious plant that was from a game I played in my past life.
They seemed to be alive, more like a monster than a plant.
"Watch out for that Treant, Lumi. I'd prefer to escort you home with your head attached to your body." Alek told me, pulling me away from the monster. This place was just filled with surprises.
Considering the state of their gardens, I imagined that they didn't rely on the vegetables to eat.
"Say, Alek. What do they eat around here?" I asked.
"Cooked monster meat. What else would there be to eat?" He replied, with a confused expression on his face.
"...Am I going to have to eat monster meat?" I asked, despite knowing very well what the answer was.
"You'll starve if you don't. You get used to it eventually, so don't fret over it too much." Alek casually said. I was devastated. Before I could complain about the perils of eating monster meat, Alek stopped walking. We were right in front of a house.
"What's up?" I asked.
"The elder and I are going to talk a bit. I suppose it wouldn't be very interesting for you since you can't understand us. So, if you want, you can go take a look around the village. Stay within the village fences, though."
"Oh, I see. Thank you then." I muttered. Was a hero really about to leave a ten year old girl alone in a completely unfamiliar land? Well, maybe he's just learning. He doesn't look like he has much experience in heroism.
Alek walked inside, leaving me to wonder what I could do around these parts. I sighed, and went to sit down on a stone block. Weirdly enough, Alek reminded me of my father. He seemed to be pretty reliable when it came to it, but he had a childish side to him that was hard to ignore. Like the way he was always going on about being a hero. I'd have to ask him why he wanted to be one so badly later.
The thought made me think of Paul. Where was he now? I wondered if he was alive, and what he was thinking. I honestly didn't know what I'd do if I arrived in Fittoa only to find out he was dead. Thinking about all the possibilities made me worried sick. No, worrying won't get you anywhere.
I needed to do something to pass the time. I settled on practicing magic. I held a shriveled up vegetable in my hand, and began to cast Detoxification magic. Casting healing magic like this reminds me of Sylphie… Is she alright? What if she…?
I shook my head, and focused on the vegetable in my hand. That's when I saw that it had dots all over its surface. It turned mushy, as well. It was almost as if… the spell had the opposite effect. I remembered something from a few months back. I was experimenting with Detoxification magic, and this same thing happened.
Back then, I had worried over the morality of advancing the strange effect and using it in real combat. But now? I could use this power to fight against monsters that weren't human. Also, the kidnapping showed me that dangerous humans in this world had little to no regard for morality. I'd just be handicapping myself if I didn't at least try to understand what this power was.
And so, I tried to replicate it. Going off what little I had learned from a few months ago, I managed to turn the little dots into large blemishes. I pushed it further, pouring in more mana into the spell. And then, it began to break down. It was turning a dark purple color, and then it simply rotted. The smell was foul, so I dropped the vegetable. If I could make this strong enough to use against a monster, I had no doubt that the spell could manage to incapacitate it.
Then, I had a thought. If it was a new spell, did that mean there was more I could do with it? Or rather, make more spells? I grabbed another vegetable, but this one was clean. I tried to do something different. I spent a good few minutes pouring mana into the spell, but nothing aside from what I had already accomplished seemed to change the vegetable.
I looked over to the living plants that tried to bite me earlier. Since this monster was undoubtedly living, maybe I could work a new technique into existence. I tried all sorts of things, but only ended up making the plant have spots over its surface. I was getting frustrated, so I decided to throw all the mana I had at the plant, while still working within the boundaries of my new spell. And then, something new happened. The monster stopped moving. More accurately, it was immobilized. It seemed to want to chomp down, but it couldn't do anything. It was able to move just slightly, but the mana seemed to have stunned it somehow.
I tried sticking my hand into the mouth of the monster, but even that wasn't enough to make it move. After a minute or so, it went back to normal. It seemed like I had successfully managed to create a new spell. I pumped my fists towards the sky, and exclaimed in joy. I got a few weird looks, so I scurried out of sight.
My mind was racing. I had been able to create two completely new spells, all by myself! Okay, maybe I was cheating. I had studied biology, and pulled from those memories, after all. But still, it felt like a great accomplishment to me. And all great accomplishments have names, right?
I wondered about what to call this new type of magic. Illness magic didn't seem quite right, since I doubted being able to stun someone was related to illness. Reverse Detoxification didn't roll off the tongue at all.
"...Curse Magic." That was it. It sounded cool, and it fit well enough. If I practiced this enough, maybe I would grow up to be a badass after all.
The next morning, we were departing from the village. Alek and Roxas's father were exchanging a few words. When they were done, Roxas's father came over to me and said a few things. He seemed to be in a good mood, and then he lit up. He said something, and then ran back inside the village. After a few minutes, he came back holding a sword in hand.
He offered it to me. But… I'm no swordsman… I was about to say.
"You should probably just take it. The sword looks nice, and it could be useful for one of these days." Alek told me.
The blade was wide, and had a sharp and blunt side. It was also curved, like a machete or a cutlass of sorts. I reluctantly took it from his hands. Then, Roxas's father handed Alek a few glimmering stones.
"He says it's money for the road. It should be enough to cover half a week's stay at a hotel. I'll tell you more about the currency later, since we need to get on the road." Alek explained.
I bowed in a typical Japanese-style fashion, and we departed from the village.
It took a few days of travel to get to the nearest city. The way there was paved in a lot of struggle. Alek showed off a few new sword tricks that I hadn't seen him do, and he managed to massacre any monsters that dared get close to us. I practiced using my Curse Magic, and made a little progress on that end.
We had to sleep and eat in small makeshift tents, and let me tell you, monster meat tastes terrible. I nearly cried when I realized this was all I was going to eat for the foreseeable future. But, eventually Alek and I made it to the city.
The city of Rikarisu was located in the middle of an enormous crater. The rim of the crater created a natural city wall that warded off dangerous monsters, and kept the inhabitants inside safe.
I thought about what Mister Man-God had told me. My main goal here was to help that boy I had met before, Ares. If his advice helped me live for just a bit longer, I'd take it. I needed to survive this trip.
I didn't know what there was in store for me, but I knew that I had a long road ahead of me. I steeled myself as we stood in front of the city gates. This was the first destination in the long journey that I had just embarked on. It didn't matter how many road blocks I encountered, or how long it took. I was going to get back home to my family, and fix my mistake. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do at least that much.
Mother, please wait for me. I'll see you soon.
End of Volume Two.
Author's Note:
Thank you for reading volume 2! Thank you for all of the support and feedback so far. In other news, my school has finally begun again. So, I might slowing down my updates from now on.
Once again, I'd like to thank a few people by name, who gave me ideas and motivation to push forward.
Monsoon (Thank you again for the cover image!), Isomery, Alioka, RJWritingInk, and #mushoku-fanfic in the mushoku tensei discord server.
I may or may not write an extra chapter for Volume 2, but that should release within 7 days.
This story is still at the very beginning, so please stay tuned!
