WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: nemui

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◈ The Forgotten Curse Knight ◈

Vol. 1 Ch. 15: Curse Armament Manifestation

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Hot. It hurt. He felt sick.

Pierced by the Blood Tail, Theo remembered the time he had been bedridden with a high fever.

The thick needle tore through his skin and entered his body, pouring a reddish-black curse into him.

Theo summoned what strength he had left and gripped the Blood Tail with both hands. Every moment Theo bought would give Allen more time to move. More time to carry the fallen Olivia somewhere safe.

The wound in his chest hurt and burned. Yet the curse flowing into his body was terribly cold.

（It feels like ice water is being poured into the wound.）

Theo could feel the curse poured through the puncture spreading throughout his body.

Beginning with his heart, his body lost its warmth.

It was as though the concept of death had been turned into liquid and poured into him. Little by little, his whole body was being damaged, consumed, taken away. Theo was dying...

Then the feeling suddenly stopped.

His heart gave a thump.

The warmth he had lost returned, spreading from his heart throughout his body.

Theo's heart, his hot blood, pushed back the cold curse.

（Warm... My heart is hot?）

The Blood Tail embedded in Theo's chest slid free.

From the wound in Theo's chest, something black fell instead of blood. Drip, drip. It was the curse the Termea had poured into him. It fell to the ground and hardened.

Theo looked at the torn front of his shirt. A black pattern had appeared directly over his heart.

（What is this...?）

The next moment, something black burst from that pattern all at once.

His heart pounded like a steam engine, pumping out heat. Thump-thump-thump-thump. In time with its beat, the black substance overflowed.

"Ah... ahh... ngh...!"

As if responding to Theo's will, the black substance writhed at his feet.

Theo realized that he could move this black sludge pouring out from within him with his own will.

But he did not know what he should do with it. The black sludge continued spilling out, rippling around his feet.

（Have I become a Termea...?）

"Theo!"

Allen ran toward him. At that moment, Theo saw the Termea swing its Blood Tail behind Allen.

（No. I have to save Allen. Allen, Allen, Allen...!）

Then the writhing black substance at Theo's feet spread out with a whoosh, forming a black wall.

The Blood Tail attack aimed at Allen was blocked by the wall and deflected.

Allen's eyes widened in shock as he looked at Theo.

（What is this? It's disgusting. Why can I do something like this?）

Theo felt as though some unknown force was taking over and remaking his body. The reddish-black curse dripping from his heart rippled as if responding to his fear.

（Am I going to become a Termea like this?）

An image flashed through Theo's mind. Himself as a Termea, swinging a Blood Tail and attacking Allen and Olivia.

（No. Please, no. Not that...!）

The possibility terrified him more than death itself. Just as Theo fell into despair...

"Swear it!"

The voice rang out overhead.

Theo looked up. The white-haired girl with reddish-black wings spread wide, Carla the Gray Knight, was shouting at him.

"Swear with all your heart how you want to live, what you want to become!"

The Pain Tail aimed both of its Blood Tails at Carla in the air.

Carla circled away to evade them and swung her great scythe.

She could slash it, but perhaps she lacked the strength to sever it.

All the while, the reddish-black sludge dripping from Theo's heart continued to ripple.

"I see. So you were a Mad Walker."

The casually unconcerned voice came from behind Theo.

Walking toward them was Beryl, the Gray Knight with sandy hair and dark skin.

"The Curse Sigil was inside your body... most likely in your heart, huh? That's a rare case. No wonder no one noticed."

The Cursed were people implanted with a Termea's curse.

Among them, there were those whose curse progression miraculously stopped, allowing them to make the curse their own power. They were Mad Walkers.

A Mad Walker could be recognized right away because they had a Curse Sigil somewhere on their body.

Theo now bore a reddish-black Curse Sigil on his chest. But it had originally been in his heart.

Most likely, it had been there since before Allen found him five years ago.

Beryl undid the buttons of her wrap skirt. Both of her exposed legs bore the same reddish-black Curse Sigils as Theo.

"I'll show you how Mad Walkers of the Gray Knights fight."

Beryl let her wrap skirt fall to the ground and lightly kicked off with her short boots.

Her eyes glowed red from within.

"Curse Armament Manifestation. The Beast That Devours Night Runs."

Beryl spoke the words as lightly as a song, as sweetly as words of love. Reddish-black curse poured from the Curse Sigils on her legs.

It took on definite mass, covering Beryl's hands and legs to become the limbs of a black beast.

Beryl kicked off the ground. Her supple body easily leaped over the ungainly black wall Theo had created.

The Termea swung both Blood Tails at Beryl. She slashed at them with the claws on both hands.

"Words are what matter! Give something vague a name, and you can bind its existence!"

Though he struggled against the rampaging curse, Theo forced himself to think, trying to take Carla and Beryl's advice to heart.

Carla had told him to swear. To swear what he wanted to become, how he wanted to live.

Beryl had used words to fix the curse dwelling within her into a meaningful shape.

Then what words could Theo use to give this vague power a fixed form?

The more he panicked, the more the curse raged out of control. His heart was so hot that it felt as though his chest would burn. His breath came out hot, and his throat hurt. Yet the marrow in his bones felt chilled, and shivers ran through him.

Carla switched to low flight, drawing the Blood Tails down toward the ground.

Timing her move with that, Beryl ran across the Termea's body and slashed the giant serpent with the claws on both hands.

The two shouted.

"Say the words that affect your mind the most. Say aloud who you are!"

"If that's too hard, just shout your own name for now!"

Beryl's advice was a little rough, but Theo still felt as though he had grasped something.

（What matters is deciding what I am... I'm Theo. It's the name Mom Olivia gave me.）

What was he? That question had always lingered vaguely in Theo's mind.

He had no memories from before meeting Allen. He was easy to overlook. People quickly forgot him. No one but his family remembered his name.

（But now I finally understand. I was a Mad Walker. I was cursed even before I met Allen... I never could have become a Holy Knight.）

Allen was looking at Theo anxiously.

Theo was a Mad Walker, pouring curse from the wound in his chest, yet Allen was still worried about him.

See? Allen really was kind.

（But, Allen... Even if I can't become a Holy Knight... I still want to be a knight.）

When darkness settled over his heart, he had already been given the words to say.

Theo placed a hand over his heart, which continued to pour out curse, and drew in a breath.

"...Curse Armament Manifestation."

Then he raised his voice and shouted.

Words to give fixed form to the vague power called a curse.

"Be thou a knight!"

The black sludge rippling at his feet stopped dead.

The next instant, the reddish-black curse overflowing from Theo's chest gathered around him all at once.

There was a form he had always imagined.

A sword in his right hand. A shield in his left. Boots with spurs on his feet. A broad cloak flowing behind him. And at his side, a white horse.

He had imagined it while reading stories. He had longed for the knights of old and wished to be like them.

The reddish-black curse gathering around Theo changed shape as though tracing that ideal.

A reddish-black one-handed sword.

A shield roughly half Theo's height.

The boots covering his feet had spurs at their heels.

The cloak billowing in the wind was soft, with a texture much like cloth, yet Theo somehow knew it was sturdy.

（This is the Curse Armament Manifestation Beryl mentioned...）

And then...

"Meu."

A cry sounded at his feet.

A white ball of fur was rolling around Theo's boots. It was one or two sizes larger than an adult's clenched fist. It was a ball of fur and nothing but a ball of fur.

"Did you... um, come out of me too?"

"Meaa."

Making strange cries, the ball of fur rolled from side to side.

It looked like a baby rabbit with short ears, or an excessively fat mouse.

（Could it possibly be... my white horse?）

Theo had indeed wished for a companion white horse, but was this not far too different?

For the moment, he was afraid he might step on it if he left it there. Theo picked up the ball of fur and tucked it inside his clothes.

"Stay in here."

"Meaa."

Hiding the not-quite white horse, provisionally so called, inside his clothes, Theo raised his sword.

Beneath his vivid blond hair, his green eyes glowed red from within.

He planted his feet firmly on the ground. Unbelievable strength welled up inside him.

He was not as nimble as Beryl, but Theo still ran faster than he ever had before.

One of the Blood Tails struck at him.

Theo blocked it with the shield in his left hand.

（I could never handle a shield properly before.）

Theo deflected the Blood Tail with his shield and brought down the sword in his right hand.

Until now, he had only barely managed to strike with a Red Steel sword using both hands. But the reddish-black blade slashed through the Termea's body again and again.

The giant serpent's body writhed as it tried to slam Theo into the ground.

Theo swung the sword manifested from his own curse and willed it with all his strength.

Oblivion, be. Forget.

Forget what you are. Forget why you are here. Forget everything, all of it.

No one had explained it to him, but Theo understood the true nature of the curse within him.

（My curse is... the Oblivion Curse.）

A cursed sea surrounded the continent. It was commonly called the Sea of Oblivion.

It was said that everyone who sailed into that sea forgot why they had set out. They forgot where they had come from and where they were going. Forgetting everything, they would eventually be shipwrecked.

Theo's curse was the same.

He had probably been spreading that curse unconsciously all this time.

And now, as Theo began to learn how to use his power, he deliberately turned the power of oblivion on the Termea.

White mist formed around his sword.

The Termea that touched the mist stopped moving.

If it had been human, it would have been like asking, "Where am I? Who am I?"

Having forgotten what it was and why it was here, the Termea stood still like a person utterly lost.

（Now...!）

Now that the Termea had stopped moving, it was his chance to attack.

But as Theo tried to raise his sword, he fell to his knees. A sharp pain ran through his heart.

"Cough... Hah... haaah... gah!?"

Theo knelt and clutched his chest. His heart hurt as if a stake had been driven into it.

It felt as though he had spent all this time sprinting with all his strength while holding his breath.

Breathing was so difficult. The air he drew in would not circulate properly through his body.

The Termea's huge body bore down on the kneeling Theo, trying to crush him.

Carla kept it at bay with her great scythe. Beryl, who had been darting around on beastly limbs, swiftly tucked Theo under one arm and retreated.

"Your power has only just awakened, and you've already gone all out like that. Of course your body is going to suffer for it."

"Beryl... I..."

"For your first time, you did very well. Very well. I'll praise you for it."

"B-but... the Termea is still..."

"It's all right. Thanks to you trying so hard, look, he made it in time."

With her right hand, shaped like a beast's paw, Beryl pointed to the rooftop.

Standing there was the hero Elbert, his pale blond hair blowing in the wind. The longsword in his right hand shone white, blessed by divine grace.

When Elbert raised his sword, white light gathered in the sky, and ten-odd shining white swords appeared.

The swords hanging in the air fell like rain, pinning the giant serpent's body to the ground.

Elbert's violet eyes fixed on the Termea.

"Give thanks for Angel's Grace. Let those who defy God be purged."

His voice was solemn, yet kind enough to pity his enemy, as he brought down his sword.

Once a Termea's body was reduced to half its volume or less, it hardened and died.

The grotesque giant serpent struck by Elbert's attack hardened with a crack, crack, then stopped moving.

（Lord Elbert really is amazing.）

Fixing that sight in his memory, Theo let consciousness slip away, certain that when he next opened his eyes, he would no longer be the same as before.

Footnotes:

Theo's invocation combines the written sense "Oblivion, be" with a reading meaning "Forget."

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