Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 507

507

First, I tried to undo the bindings, but the moment I touched them, my hand stung. I recoiled instinctively and saw a black aura swirling around Davian’s body. When I reached out again, I felt a strong resistance, as if it were rejecting me.

‘What is this?’

“Hngh…”

At that moment, Davian let out a shallow groan and opened his eyes wide. I was about to speak, thinking he had regained consciousness, but I shut my mouth at the fierce glint in his eyes. His expression felt completely different from usual, and the shape of his pupils was a little strange. The whites of his eyes had completely disappeared, and his pupils were thin and vertical, like those of a crocodile.

“Um, Davian?”

“Kraaak!”

Instead of an answer, a strange screech returned. With the sound of clanging metal, he thrashed wildly. He tried to lunge at me, but he couldn’t move because he was tied up. Calmly, I took a step back and observed his condition. It was clear that he was not in his right mind, and he seemed to be in a very violent state. Inside his savagely open mouth, teeth as sharp as weapons were bared. *Were* his fingernails always this long? Now that I looked, I noticed shiny, scale-like patches on his skin. It was a form that was clearly not human.

I don’t know what’s going on. Is that *being* in front of me really Davian? I couldn’t understand the situation at all. After sorting through my thoughts, I decided to try talking to him again.

“Hey, Davian? Is that really you? Can you hear me?”

“Krrrk! Kreuh!”

“Um, yeah. I didn’t think you could.”

It seemed too early to ask him about the situation. After pondering what to do, I remembered feeling a repulsive force earlier and approached him again. Davian was horrified and struggled wildly, but I ignored him, trusting that he was tied up. When I reached out, I felt a distinct aura pushing me away again. A painful, stinging sensation dug into the inside of my palm. I endured it and stayed still, and soon black spots began to writhe on Davian’s skin. At first, I was startled, thinking they were insects, but upon closer inspection, they were more like patterns. No, to be more precise, they seemed to be letters.

‘A curse…?’

It didn’t seem like black magic, but it seemed to be a curse filled with considerable resentment. The fact that it was repelling a spiritist like me meant that it was rooted in a very foul energy, which made me frown involuntarily.

“Purification, you said. How far is it usually possible to go?”

His question from a while ago came to mind. I had thought he was just asking out of curiosity about spiritism [the practice of communicating with spirits], but could it be that it had this meaning? As that thought occurred to me, his bound state came into view again. Come to think of it, Chris had tied him up before. He said that he had periodic fits and had to be restrained each time.

“Could it be…”

I was flustered and dumbfounded, so I took a moment to catch my breath. First, I had to resolve this situation. If I were in my original form, it would be a simple problem that I wouldn’t even need to think about, but since I was in a human body, I wasn’t confident that I could completely eliminate it.

‘Still, I think I can at least push it back…’

I decided to try anything, so I grabbed Davian’s hand and poured strong energy into him. The resistance was strong, but not so strong that I couldn’t suppress it. As I pushed the energy in harder, I soon felt the curse covering him being pushed back little by little. The change was evident in his appearance as well. His fingernails quickly shortened, the scales gradually disappeared, and the shape of his pupils began to return to normal. The sharp, gear-like teeth were also gradually becoming flatter.

“Heok, heok!”

Meanwhile, Davian, who had been thrashing about, soon let out a human-like groan. While continuing to inject energy, I looked at his face, which was covered in cold sweat. He still looked dazed, but I could feel his eyes gradually becoming clearer, as if he was regaining his senses.

“Are you coming to your senses?”

When I spoke to him, his eyes, which had been scanning the air, trembled. He quickly looked around and soon his face slowly filled with astonishment as he found me. He swallowed hard, and a terribly hoarse voice flowed from his mouth.

“El…?”

“Yes, it’s me. Just hang in there, even if it’s hard.”

“What… How did you… Ugh!”

Just in time, my energy completely covered his body, and the curse that had been dominating him subsided. While Davian groaned loudly and couldn’t come to his senses, I began to undo the things that were binding him one by one. First, I broke the handcuffs, then I tried to untie the ropes that were binding his knees, but he raised his head belatedly and grabbed me with a bewildered expression.

“What day is it today? How long has it been since the special ops [special operations] disbandment ceremony ended?”

“It’s still the same day.”

At those words, the blood completely drained from Davian’s face. I was amazed that a person’s face could turn so white. He grabbed my arm even harder.

“Don’t untie them.”

“Huh? Ah, it’s okay. You can rest assured…”

“No, it’s definitely not okay. How did you get here? I don’t know what’s going on, but stay away from me. It’s dangerous.”

He answered hastily and began to re-wrap and tie the ropes that had almost been untied. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but be sure. He had tied himself up. I couldn’t help but sigh at the indescribably bitter feeling. I forcibly grabbed his frantically moving arm to stop him, and he looked at me with trembling eyes. His face, filled with anxiety, was shaking.

“It’s really okay, so calm down. The curse is gone for now.”

“……Yes?”

“I did something similar to purification in a hurry. It’s not a complete exorcism, but you’ll be okay for a while.”

Davian stopped breathing and slowly blinked his eyes. I couldn’t guess what he was thinking, his face was blank, and I didn’t know if he understood what I had said. He looked down at his body for a moment, then looked back at me.

“Purification…?”

“Yes, doesn’t your body feel lighter than usual?”

Davian paused and looked around for a moment. His face darkened rapidly as he checked the space covered in filth, then he looked down at his body again and wore a puzzled expression.

“The transformation definitely started, but…”

“Yes?”

“……What was I like? Was my appearance different from usual?”

“Oh, that. It was a little different. Your pupils looked like a crocodile’s, and your teeth and fingernails got longer? I think you had some scales, too.”

Davian groaned softly as I answered honestly.

“The transformation already happened… but it’s back.”

The end of his muttering voice trembled slightly. His face, which had raised his head again, was wavering as if he was about to cry.

“That… it can be purified. Really…”

“As I said, it’s not a complete exorcism. It’s just temporarily pushed back. It will take over again over time.”

“I see.”

It wasn’t good news, but his face, answering calmly, wasn’t very dark. It seemed that he felt relieved just by the fact that the curse could be purified.

“I suspected it, but… spiritism is really amazing. Even if the transformation hasn’t happened yet, once it starts, the only thing I could do was tie myself up until it was over the next day. This is the first time it’s been purified in the middle.”

“What happened?”

Judging from what Chris had described as a chronic disease, it was a fairly old curse. I had so many questions about who had cast such a terrible curse and why. As I asked cautiously, he hesitated for a moment and opened his mouth. I frowned without realizing it at the words that followed.

“It’s been there since I was born.”

“……Since you were born?”

What kind of crazy bastard puts a curse on a newborn baby? Davian roughly explained the past to me, who was dumbfounded. His father had incurred the resentment of a shaman [a person believed to be able to contact the world of spirits] in his youth, which resulted in the curse. The problem was that the shaman’s hatred was so deep that he sacrificed his own life to complete the curse, and it was passed down through the bloodline, so the descendants, not the person himself, suffered.

The curse that was engraved in that way was that he would turn into a monster at night. At the time, Davian’s father was the eldest grandson to inherit the family line. Perhaps the shaman thought that if he cast such a curse, he would be deprived of his right to inherit and would be lonely for the rest of his life. But he defiantly had a child, and the resentment that had been directed at him was completely taken over by Davian, who was born as his first child.

“Did your mother know about it when she married him?”

When I asked with a dumbfounded feeling, Davian shook his head with a bitter smile.

“She couldn’t even get married.”

“That means…”

“I’m an illegitimate child.”

Wow, I almost swore for the first time in a while. A man who knew exactly what curse he had had a child without even getting married. There was no need to interpret it, and the situation was obvious. It was clear that the man, who could only be described as inhuman, deliberately had Davian so that he would be cursed before he had a child with his legal wife.

“My mother tried every possible way to get rid of the curse for me. Thanks to that, I was originally supposed to become a violent monster every night, but I was able to adjust it so that I only transform on the full moon. But I couldn’t purify it completely.”

Davian, who was explaining calmly, seemed to have already transcended it. There were many words that came to mind right away, but instead of conveying them, I sighed.

“You’re doing something like a shadow weapon [a person skilled in espionage and assassination] in that situation.”

“The captain knows about my situation. I can adjust the intelligence missions well with just the holidays, so it’s not as difficult as you think. Besides, it’s closer to doing it because of this situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s called thought, isn’t it? I have to keep my enemies in a place with strong yin energy [negative energy in Taoism]. That way, I can alleviate the curse. There weren’t many places that could meet that condition.”

The special organization run by the Emperor suddenly became a mass of thoughts. It wasn’t exactly wrong, so I just let out a hollow laugh.

“How did you hide it when you were being brainwashed?”

“I couldn’t hide it. I think they kept me alive because they were curious about the transformation. …The last thing I remember is having a seizure during the interrogation process.”

He smiled bitterly, saying that there are times when curses can be helpful. Would it have been better if he had a painful expression? I felt more disturbed because the person who should be crying was smiling. I knew I shouldn’t do this, but my mouth opened on its own because of him.

“Do you want to learn spiritism?”

Davian’s eyes widened at the sudden words. Now that I had said it, I felt relieved, so I just kept talking.

“If you make a contract with a spirit, pure energy will settle in your body. Then the curse won’t affect you either.”

“Um, I know that too. But I heard I don’t have the talent. I don’t have the natural affinity, and I heard that it’s impossible to even try because of the curse.”

I knew he was interested in spiritism. Besides, he seemed to have already looked into it quite seriously. Well, spiritism was the first way to get rid of the curse. I saw the light of resignation on his powerless smiling face and patted him on the shoulder, meaning it wasn’t time to be disappointed yet.

“That’s generally the case. But sometimes, doesn’t a good relationship lead to good results?”

“What do you mean…?”

“I’ve been holding back because I was worried it would be bragging, but it’s generally difficult to temporarily purify your curse.”

The sound of swallowing echoed as if he had realized the implied meaning. I chuckled, and his eyes shook greatly. It seemed like light was blooming in his lifeless eyes. Now that I’ve seen this, I really can’t take it back. I steeled my heart and nodded.

“I’ll help you.”

“Can I really learn spiritism?”

“You can make a contract right now.”

“Re, really?”

“Do you want to try it right now if you want?”

When I held out my hand, he grabbed it in a daze and wore a bewildered expression. In that state, I had him recite the spirit contract spell, and he began to follow along diligently, stammering.

“I ask for permission from the ruler of the beginning. I present the evidence of the contract with the four elements of earth, wind, water, and sun as witnesses. Here, a qualified person dares to hope to continue the will of water. ……Isn’t this a lie?”

“Worshiping the true master of this world today, I want to ask for a part of him. Those who have noble intentions within the allowed destiny will surely fulfill their reasonable wishes. ……Can I really say this?”

There were a lot of unnecessary additions, but anyway. The spell was steadily continuing. Even though the caster was not concentrating at all, the spell, which was already close to completion, was smoothly activating the summoning circle connected to the spirit world. The energy that I had poured in to push back the curse was still full in his body, and I was even personally leading the spirit summoning, so the situation was bound to be smooth in many ways. Davian, who kept asking questions, was also uneasy, but he couldn’t hide his excitement. He seemed to clearly feel that something was moving inside his body.

“Now it’s the last one. Undine, who rules the rivers and lakes, answer my call.”

“Undine who rules the rivers and lakes… Yes? Undine? Isn’t Undine a mid-level spirit? Are you telling me to summon a mid-level spirit right now?”

“Davian.”

“Yes, yes?”

“If you object one more time, I’ll quit.”

When I said with a smile, Davian closed his mouth with an almost crying face. Then he closed his eyes tightly and shouted the last words.

“U, Undine, answer my call!”

For him, it was probably a feeling close to resignation. But thanks to that, the summoning circle gained full power. The moment Davian, who had been holding his breath, staggered greatly, a blue magic circle appeared in front of him, and several streams of water stretched out and began to spin around him. The streams of water soon merged into one and soared high into the air, then rapidly descended. However, before it even touched the ground, it soared upwards again and began to take shape. The shape that was being completed was that of a beautiful girl.

“Heok.”

Davian, who was shocked as if he had never imagined that the summoning would actually take place, swallowed his breath again. Meanwhile, Undine, who had become completely clear, opened her eyes and looked at him. The eyes that found Davian, who was stiff, curved softly.