Chapter 162 : Chapter 162
Chapter 162: Kingdom-Toppling Beauty (2)
“……!”
And so, Kurt, having definitively been afflicted by 「Word Command」, noticed the fact that his body would not budge and appeared momentarily flustered.
And no sooner had that happened.
“Serves you right, you pervert bastard.”
Evie approached the four-legged kneeling Kurt from behind, tilted his head back, and pressed a knife to his neck.
“If you move even a little, know that I'll slice you immediately.”
“How…”
With his head tilted back, Kurt tried to turn his eyes to look at Evie behind him.
“You thought it was just the two of us, but it wasn't.”
“Exactly, since when…”
Evie was with me all along, from the start.
Since the moment I entered the room, continuously.
Wearing the 「Pitch-Black Shadow Cloak」── the ‘Invisibility Cloak’—she suppressed her presence and waited for her chance inside the room.
“Since you were drooling over her, you son of a bitch.”
It was for this very moment.
I, who had gotten up from the bed in the meantime, put on the 「Witch's Eye」 again, then, as if changing a mask, I smoothly wiped my face once and released 「Disguise」.
Seeing me return to my usual appearance, not the blonde elf, Kurt showed a startled reaction once more.
“「Disguise」, huh…”
“Don't worry, my beauty is still intact.”
“──Ha.”
At that moment, Kurt suddenly let out a laugh.
Although he was still under the domination of 「Word Command」, it was as if he could deal with the likes of us anytime once his body, which had begun to move slightly, including the twitching corner of his mouth, became completely free.
“You know how to make me even more aroused.”
At that remark, which suggested he was taking the current situation as part of a scenario, it was Evie, who was holding the knife, who flinched in confusion.
“What, what is this bastard?”
His attitude was that he didn't feel threatened at all by merely having a knife pressed to his neck while his body couldn't move.
And he truly couldn't be threatened.
“Didn't you hear, you seed of Kain, even though you were in the room the whole time? I am immortal.”
For this reason.
“Go ahead and slice me a hundred times. I'll slice your necks the same number of times in return.”
The current situation was just a momentary amusement for him, so calling it a somewhat aggressive role-play wouldn't be too far off.
If only.
“Why did you try to lock Shurine up and make her a slave?”
We didn't have the card to instantly twist this situation.
“What?”
“Why didn't you just kill her? Was it because you felt sorry to kill a part of the god you worship? ──No. That can't be.”
The source of his confidence, his power, his immortality,
“You were continuously searching for the Shurine you let slip away that day.”
The way to steal it── the existence who could, was not with us.
“So, I brought her here. Right here to Shurina. To this ‘Divine Palace.’”
“What…!?”
“If you don't believe me, I can show you right now.”
Saying this, I clapped my hands loudly, clap.
At that.
──BANG!
The tightly closed door was roughly kicked open.
And Toric, who kicked the door, strode into the room.
When Evie saw his face, nearly half covered in blood, and asked, “Hey, are you alright?” Toric calmly replied, “It's not my blood.”
Then Lily followed behind Toric.
“──!?”
Along with Miki, who was carrying the soundly sleeping Rine on his back.
Since the ‘Invisibility Cloak’ that I had been wearing all the way here was now being worn by Evie, it was natural that their appearance would be revealed.
“The doll…!”
“Furthermore, you weren't just planning to lock her up; you tried to take all her memory and ego to make her a slave. Why?”
It was because Rine, Shurine, knew very well.
That even those who became immortal by drinking her blood, she, who had that blood flowing entirely within herself, could take back the immortality ‘she had given’ to them.
Simply put.
“She can kill you.”
“…!”
For them to maintain their immortality, Shurine had to continue existing.
But Shurine could take back that immortality at any time.
“So, to hide that fact as well, you tried to make her truly like a doll, not just a part of Shurine. Am I wrong?”
“You bastards, where on earth did you get that…!”
“I'm the one asking the questions, Kurt.”
As expected, Kurt could not answer.
Even though the effect of 「Word Command」 must have faded somewhat by now, he still couldn't move his body.
“No answer, I see.”
Because this was no longer a ‘scenario.’
“Then, shall we experiment?”
From this very moment, when the knife I had gently placed in the sleeping Rine’s hand was pointed directly at his heart.
“To see if you're truly immortal.”
“W-Wait a minute…!”
As expected, Kurt began to show a noticeable agitation, unlike a moment ago.
“It seems I hit a nerve.”
The concept of ‘death,’ which he hadn't considered at all until now, was finally eliciting the reaction of a person when it approached closely.
In other words, I was right.
“W-What do you want, exactly…!”
Knowing that he would actually die if stabbed by this knife, and facing the fear he had forgotten for hundreds of years, Kurt finally began to tremble in his voice.
“Break the curse placed on her.”
I said to Kurt in a calm tone.
“That is our demand.”
***
Kurt said it was impossible for him to do.
And because that was the truth, we were following him down to the basement of the Divine Palace.
His arms and body tightly bound with chains so he could do nothing but walk.
Of course, with the knife still held in Rine’s hand, ready to stab him anytime if he entertained any other thoughts.
“……Where on earth did you find that?”
“By chance.”
Because of this, Kurt, who was reluctantly leading us to the basement, to the place where the ‘person who could break the curse’ was, still asked with an air of not being able to accept the current situation.
“How did you bastards know that… was Shurine's avatar…?”
“Well, it was a chance encounter.”
Though it was from the very beginning.
“Stop with the senseless thoughts and just lead the way.”
Of course, since I had no reason or loyalty to explain it, I merely urged him to hurry.
“…Was it by using the cloak that Dark Elf wore that you were able to bring her here without being noticed by anyone?”
Nevertheless, Kurt continued to ask questions, as if trying to re-examine his own mistake.
“What good does it do you to know that now? We already brought her here, escaping your gaze long ago.”
“Falling into a state of suspended animation—did she use Shurine's power? How did you make her use that ability again?”
“She did it while trying to save us, so what?”
“Nonsense.”
Kurt immediately scoffed at my words.
“Even if she lost her memory and ego, her essence doesn't change. That kind of being would use a god's power just to protect the likes of you? When she didn't care about us at all?”
“Stop running your mouth, you bastard, and hurry up and break the curse or whatever, damn it.”
At that, Evie, who was listening beside him, punched Kurt once in the face as if she couldn't take it anymore.
He didn't show signs of pain, but he did stop talking for the moment.
“…Here.”
Until he stopped walking a short while later.
The place Kurt guided us to was a prison prepared in the basement.
To be precise.
“Kurt…!”
Seeing Kurt's face, they instantly became enraged and rushed to the prison bars.
“How dare you show your face here…!”
“Have you been well, Elders?”
And.
“T-That…!?”
They showed a reaction of shock upon belatedly confirming the appearance of Rine, who was carried on my back.
“Shu-Shurine’s, avatar…!”
The prison where the ‘Elders’—the ‘nobles’ who were the masterminds of the seizure of power, using Kurt as their hitman, and were now skinny from long starvation—were confined.
They, like Kurt, received Shurine's blood, so they had been confined here for 30 years since the coup, in bodies that could not easily die even if they wished to.
“Why, why is that thing here!?”
For the crime of spiriting away the Shurine on my back.
Well, officially, they were confined for the charge of trying to overthrow this city with the ‘False God.’
That wasn't particularly important.
“Surely, you don't intend to… kill us!?”
The important thing was.
“──No.”
They could break Rine's curse.
“I came to break the curse you placed.”
“……!?”
Because they were the ones who had personally devised that very curse.
“W-Who in the world are you bastards…! Who are these outsiders, Kurt!”
“They are the companions of the person you treated like a doll. You damned old fools.”
At my words, the ‘nobles’ were aghast.
They then looked back at Kurt with eyes demanding an immediate explanation of what was happening, but Kurt also showed no particular interest in their gaze.
“What do you plan to do by breaking its curse? Are you going to return this city to it?”
So, instead of answering their question, he revealed his own doubts instead.
“Or, do you plan to use it as a stronger slave?”
Of course, since it was a question not worth answering, we also ignored Kurt's query.
“Just break the curse.”
These were the ‘blood-bound ones’ of Shurine.
Did Shurine share her blood and make them immortal just because she was bored?
She intended to take them as her ‘vassals’ because they were useful.
And their usefulness was ‘magic.’
All these nobles gathered here were excellent wizards.
As one could tell just by looking at the very powerful curse placed on Rine.
“After you do that, I will release all of you from here.”
Therefore, even in a state of utter exhaustion from having been literally unable to die and only survive for 30 years, they could still lift the curse they had personally placed.
“…!”
Although they couldn't possibly guess what was happening right now, they must have known for certain that they might finally be freed from the long 30 years of confinement.
For that reason, they eventually began the preparations for the spell to break the curse willingly.
After cutting their own palms with the knife we offered and bleeding, they drew a magic circle on the floor with that blood.
Then, leaving Rine carefully in the center of that magic circle, they began to chant the incantation.
After some time had passed.
Suddenly, the magic circle drawn with red blood began to emit a blue light.
And soon after.
“…Ri-Rine!”
Rine, who had been sleeping in the center of the magic circle, suddenly shot up her lying body.
“Sister, are you alright!?”
Rine looked at her companions, who had instantly gathered around her, one by one with her usual expressionless face.
“Hey, are you okay? Are you conscious?”
Her eyes were those of someone who had no idea what had just happened.
Suddenly.
“……!”
Until she clutched her head.
It was a reaction I had seen before.
And had experienced myself.
I knew that sensation of the hole in her head being filled… of the ‘Fragment of Memory’ being filled.
And the sensation of not just one, but several of them pouring in simultaneously.
“K-Ugh, aaah…!”
Because of this, while I had only frowned slightly whenever I recovered a ‘Fragment of Memory’ until now, Rine was now screaming, unable to overcome the pain.
But Rine wasn't the only one screaming like that.
“Aaahhh──!!”
“Kraaahh──!!”
The ‘nobles,’ who were standing circled around the magic circle to wake Rine, also simultaneously began to clutch their heads and scream.
As if they were feeling the exact same pain that Rine was feeling now.
As if their senses were ‘connected.’
“Rine! Are you alright!”
“Shit, what is this now!? What the hell is going on!?”
Seeing the horrifying spectacle of Rine and twelve nobles simultaneously screaming, the companions were greatly flustered.
“What!?”
Kurt, who likewise had not anticipated this situation at all, was also aghast.
The current Rine was clearly in an unusual state.
Even if one wasn't sensitive to mana, even if one hadn't learned magic, it was far too easy to realize that her mana was fluctuating… that she was experiencing a mana overload.
A moment later.
“──!”
Rine's eyes, which had been squeezed shut and grimacing in pain, suddenly opened wide.
And.
Once more, all time stopped.
When I regained consciousness, all the nobles around the magic circle were sprawled on the floor.
Their heads were scorched as if they had been burned by fire.
Kurt, who had not been ‘connected’ to them, had suddenly vanished, leaving behind only the chains that had bound him.
“……Ri-Rine? Hey! Rine!”
Rine, who was clearly in front of us just a moment ago, was no longer visible.
Instead.
“……Am I too late?”
Another person, who hadn't been visible here, was now in front of us.
Pariah.
The one who had sought to kill Rine.