WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: nemui

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◈ The Forgotten Curse Knight ◈

Vol. 1 Ch. 13: Pain Tail

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The mine foreman’s voice was said to echo from one end of the tunnel to the other. That booming voice, so often joked about, suddenly broke off in a deathlike cry.

The rawness of it sent a shiver down Theo’s spine.

（A Pain Tail!?）

Termea were graded by their size and the number of Blood Tails they possessed.

Those the size of small animals or smaller were First Grade. The Termea that had absorbed a horse, which Theo and Allen had defeated together the other day, was Second Grade.

A Pain Tail was said to be at least Third Grade.

（Just how big is it...）

At that moment, it emerged from the largest side tunnel.

Its round, smooth head was large enough for an adult to form a circle around with both arms.

It was the head of a red-eyed snake. Its mouth split wide open, and two long, thin tongues stretched from deep in its throat. No, those were not tongues. They were Blood Tails.

Though they were called tails, a Termea’s Blood Tails were not necessarily located where a living creature’s tail would be.

One of the two long tongues, or rather Blood Tails, wrapped around a miner who had failed to escape and drove its hooked claw into his torso.

It was planting a curse in him.

“Stoppp!”

Theo ran toward the mine entrance. To defeat the Termea, he needed a Red Steel sword. But the Termea’s head was near where the swords had been left.

It had two Blood Tails. One was planting a curse in the miner, while the other targeted Theo.

（Watch carefully and dodge. I can do this.）

Theo leaped to the right and avoided the Blood Tail’s attack. He rolled across the ground from the force of his leap, but managed to get closer to the sword rack.

The moment he reached for a sword, a powerful impact struck him from the side.

The enormous red-black serpent had crushed Theo beneath its massive body.

（How huge is this snake...!?）

The serpent’s body stretched deep into the tunnel, and Theo could not see its end.

That terrified him.

Theo put all his strength into both hands and tried to push its body away. But it would not budge.

“Ughhhhh...!”

Far from pushing it back, the pressure grew stronger, making his bones creak. He could barely breathe.

At the edge of his vision, Theo saw a red-black Blood Tail. Its hooked claw was aimed at him.

（Not here...）

Just as the red-black claw went for Theo’s throat, something black passed through his sight.

“...Work.”

A girl’s emotionless voice whispered quietly.

Before he knew it, the white-haired girl had closed in on the Termea. She held a red-black scythe in her hand.

The scythe’s blade severed the Blood Tail that had targeted Theo.

The scythe spun in the girl’s hand and lightly cut across the serpent’s head.

“Hold on.”

The girl grabbed Theo’s hand with her free hand, kicked off the ground, and rose into the air.

It was not a jump.

She had truly flown.

Wind and raindrops struck Theo’s cheeks.

The miners on the surface shouted in alarm, crying out, “What is that?”

Dangling from the girl’s hand, Theo’s eyes widened.

Something like wings, the same color as her scythe, had grown from her back.

They resembled bat wings with membranes more than feathered bird wings. In the Wing Cross faith, wings were sacred, but black wings were said to bring misfortune.

Even so, they were too beautiful to look away from.

“You are...”

Only then did Theo realize it. Beneath the collar of the girl’s tattered clothes, he could see a black choker.

Was it not the same thing Beryl wore?

“Could you be... Carla, the Gray Knight?”

The white-haired girl, Carla, gave a small nod and landed just beyond the reach of the Termea’s Blood Tails.

The serpent-shaped Termea slowly slithered out of the tunnel.

（I see. She was drawing the Termea outside...!）

The Termea extended a Blood Tail toward Carla, trying to plant a curse in her.

Carla flew up to avoid it, then landed again at the very edge of its reach. After repeating this several times, much of the serpent’s body had emerged from the tunnel.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Theo’s chest trembled at that voice.

A white slash came down upon the serpent’s neck, where it protruded from the tunnel.

“May we give thanks for the Angel’s blessing, which grants a sword from its own flesh and blood.”

The sword, created through the Angel of Creation’s Grace, the power of Blessed Armament Manifestation, cut through the serpent’s neck as lightly as if slicing paper.

Wielding that blessed sword was the hero who bore the Three Angels’ Grace.

Paladin Elbert Randolph.

The miners all cheered at once.

Theo joined them, crying out in delight.

The sword of a holy knight blessed with Angel’s Grace was said to cut through a Termea’s body even more lightly than a Red Steel sword.

Elbert’s sword cleanly severed the serpent’s neck where it emerged from the tunnel. The fallen head gradually hardened, but the body still inside the tunnel had not hardened and continued to writhe.

That meant the creature’s body remaining within the tunnel had even more mass than the severed head.

Just imagining that mass made Theo’s spine go cold.

The cut surface of the serpent’s head faintly pulsed, but it did not regenerate.

Theo did not know whether that was because Elbert’s sword was special or because the enemy lacked the strength to regenerate.

Still, he told himself not to let his guard down.

“Lord Elbert!”

Theo called his name with gratitude and admiration for the hero who had saved him from danger.

Elbert nodded firmly. His expression said, It’s all right now.

The headless serpent slowly retreated deeper into the tunnel.

Elbert spoke to Carla, who still gripped her scythe.

“You are Carla, the Gray Knight, correct? I’ll enter the tunnel, so I’d like you to watch the entrances from the air. We do not know where the Termea inside might emerge.”

That made sense. Since Carla could fly, she could watch the mine’s several entrances from above.

Moreover, her weapon was a large scythe. It was not suited to being swung inside the tunnels.

But Carla furrowed her brow at Elbert’s instructions.

“...Shouldn’t we regroup?”

The serpent Termea that had appeared in the mine was clearly at least Fourth Grade. Its full length was unknown, but it might even be Fifth Grade.

If things went badly, it could destroy one or two towns.

Furthermore, the enemy had holed up inside the mine. The dark, narrow tunnels favored a Termea over people. Requesting reinforcements from the Holy Knight Order would be the sensible choice.

But Elbert shook his head.

“The Cursed are being consumed too quickly... They probably won’t last even one day. We need to hurry.”

Theo, who had overheard their conversation, went pale.

The miner whom the Termea had just cursed had turned red-black over a wide area of his left side.

If that red-black stain, the Curse Mark, spread throughout his entire body, he would fully become a Termea.

There was no longer time to call for reinforcements. Unless they quickly killed the Termea that had planted the curse, the people who had become Cursed would turn into Termea.

And once that happened, they could no longer be saved.

That was why Elbert intended to enter the mine alone.

Unable to stay still, Theo raised his voice.

“Lord Elbert, I can guide you through the mine!”

“Thank you. I appreciate the thought, but honestly, it would be difficult to fight while protecting you.”

His voice was kind, but firm.

Theo was reminded once more that this was the kind of situation that made even the hero Elbert say such things.

As Theo swallowed his words, Elbert softened his voice.

“If you find Beryl, could you speak to her? Please tell her that Carla, the Gray Knight, has been found, and that I entered the mine.”

Theo was only a burden.

That frustrated him, but he did not want to insist and cause Elbert trouble.

Theo obediently backed down.

“Yes, I understand.”

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