The Forgotten Curse Knight - Chapter 36

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: nemui

◈ The Forgotten Curse Knight ◈

Vol. 2 Ch. 17: Self-Forgetfulness

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They could not find the Termea controlling the puppets.

Just as Theo and the others began to grow anxious, the puppets started moving. For a moment, Theo feared Hugo's control had ended, but a closer look showed otherwise.

The puppets were moving very differently from before, running straight for the village assembly hall. If this were the Termea's doing, it would have made the puppets run from the beginning.

（Hugo!）

Vegetation rustled in the forest ahead of Theo and the others.

Alarmed as the puppets moved away from the forest and gathered at the village assembly hall, the Termea approached.

Theo set down the lantern hanging from his belt and placed a hand over his chest.

"Curse Armament Manifestation: Be Thou a Knight."

A black sword, shield, cloak, and boots. Theo manifested them almost at the same moment the Termea emerged from the forest.

Lit by the lantern, it resembled a frog. It was a frog as large as a wild boar, with round red eyes and unidentified growths sprouting all over its body.

（...Are those mushrooms?）

Termea reproduced what they absorbed into their bodies. What they absorbed, and how they reproduced it, differed from one individual to another. This Termea must have absorbed frogs and mushrooms. Theo had heard of Termea reproducing animals, birds, and fish, but one that reproduced mushrooms was unusual.

（Where is its Blood Tail...?）

The Blood Tail was what one had to watch for most when fighting a Termea. Even when it took the form of a tailless creature, a Termea always hid its curse-injecting Blood Tail somewhere.

As Theo watched carefully, the Termea suddenly vanished from sight. No, it had leaped into the air.

Carla readied her great scythe and shouted.

"Theo, above!"

If that huge body crushed them, they would not survive.

Theo and Carla split to the left and right, slashing at the Termea.

A creature the size of a small animal could be killed after a few cuts, but something this large had to be whittled down bit by bit.

Theo cut away one of the frog's hind legs. Carla cut away part of the top of its head.

The frog opened its mouth wide and extended a long tongue. Its tip was sharply pointed. Was that its Blood Tail?

The long, thin Blood Tail shot toward Theo. He immediately deflected it with the shield on his left arm. He tried to cut it off, but the frog's enormous body leaped away first.

The frog landed with a thud that shook the ground. Despite its size, it moved quickly.

（...Even so, we can do this. Our attacks are working.）

Hugo's song only had a few minutes left to keep the puppets at bay. If Theo and Carla focused their attacks together, they should be able to cut it down in time.

The moment Theo thought that, something struck the side of his face and sent him flying.

"Gah?!"

Rolling across the ground, Theo looked around.

（What was that attack? Something flew at me from the side...）

Then he heard a muffled scream. Carla's scream.

Theo looked toward her and froze.

Carla's body was buried in darkness. No, several round black things had latched onto her, pinning her down.

At first, he thought it was another Termea. But Theo quickly realized his mistake.

（I see. That attack was...）

Theo looked behind him, toward the village assembly hall.

It was far away, but he could still see that all the puppets had collapsed onto the ground.

* * *

Hugo, on the roof, was the first to notice something was wrong.

Until then, Hugo's song and the Termea's offshoots had been fighting for control of the humans turned into puppets.

Then, suddenly, the Termea's control broke off.

At first, Hugo thought Theo and Carla had defeated the main body. But something felt wrong.

（Huhhh? What's going on?）

Hugo stopped singing and narrowed his eyes.

A wheat field lay before him, and beyond it, near the forest, were Theo and Carla. Something black was writhing there.

At the same time, he noticed black things flying out of the puppets and heading toward Theo and Carla. The darkness had made it hard to see.

（Those are... the offshoots that were stuck to their backs!）

The black spheres attached to the backs of roughly one hundred and fifty people, the Termea's offshoots, had all detached and were heading toward the main body.

There was nothing Hugo could do in this situation. No, there was one thing.

Hugo took a breath. He did not want to shout like this because it would hurt his throat, but this was an emergency.

"Offshoots! The offshoots have gone back to the main body!"

* * *

Hearing Hugo's shout, Oswald Gregory understood the situation and ground his teeth.

Before him and his subordinate Matthew stood an amorphous Termea. It swayed and sloshed.

At first, Oswald had thought they had found the right Termea, but that was not the case.

Numerous black spheres flew from the assembly hall, crossing the wheat field toward the forest. That was where Theo and Carla had gone. Which meant the main body of the offshoots controlling the puppets was likely there.

（That many offshoots would add considerable mass... That's too much for those two.）

Even so, they could not leave the Termea before them alone.

Oswald drew his sword. It had been the right choice to leave the horse behind. He had borrowed it from a villager to circle around, but the sun had already set and visibility was poor. This was no situation suited to mounted combat.

"Matthew, let's finish this one, then go support the Gray Knight."

"...It may take some time."

"What?"

With his free hand, Matthew pointed toward the forest. A faint sound of vegetation stirring came from within. More Termea seemed to be hiding there.

"How many?"

"Two small ones in the forest... No, three."

If Matthew, with his keen hearing, said so, it must be true.

Oswald quietly suppressed the surge of emotion rising within him.

More Termea were appearing. That likely meant people from the neighboring village had turned into Termea. The amorphous Termea swaying before them had also been human only a short while ago.

Since it was amorphous, it had not absorbed any other living thing. Not much time had passed since its transformation.

（If we had arrived a little earlier... we might have been able to save them.）

What stood before them was a horrifying monster, but also something that had once been human. The mass before him was the mass of a cursed human.

Keeping that fact engraved in his heart, the holy knight raised his sword.

To prevent any further victims.

* * *

From every direction, front, back, left, right, and above, black spheres, the Termea's offshoots, battered Theo's entire body.

There were about twenty of them. The remaining spheres pressed down on Carla, who lay on the ground, holding her in place. They must have decided that letting her escape would be troublesome because she could fly.

They were exactly right.

As the spheres attacked, the frog-like Termea lashed its long tongue like a whip at Theo. That tongue was its Blood Tail. A needle tipped it, and if it pierced him, it would inject him with a Curse.

Theo was a Mad Walker whose Curse Progression had miraculously stopped, but if more Curse were injected into him, it was entirely possible that he would turn into a Termea.

（This is bad. I can barely defend myself. I can't attack.）

Theo's only option was to endure the offshoots' charges and rush the main body.

But the offshoots hit harder than he expected. Each charge carried the force of a grown adult's serious punch, perhaps even more. Theo's small body lost its balance from a single blow, leaving him unable to reach the main body.

"Gah... ngh..."

He protected himself with his shield and struck back with his sword, but the attacks from every direction mercilessly hit his arms and legs, which the shield did not cover.

It hurt. His bones felt like they might break.

His whole body was not the only thing hurting. A dull ache began to spread through his heart. Theo could maintain his Curse Armament Manifestation for around fifteen minutes. He had passed that limit.

（Not yet. I can't dismiss it. If I lose the shield, I won't have any way to protect myself...）

Beryl had told him before. Forcing himself to use Curse Armament Manifestation could cause mental contamination or accelerate his transformation into a Termea. That was why he had to stop using it at the first sign of anything wrong.

（Even so, not yet... I have to let Carla escape at least!）

Theo rolled across the ground while the offshoots battered him, drawing closer to Carla. Then he slashed at the offshoots pinning her down.

But before he could cut them away, a offshoot flew in from the side and struck his arm.

The arm holding his sword hung limp.

"Theo...!"

Carla was shouting something, but he could not hear it.

The sound of blood rushing through his ears and his heart pounding were painfully loud.

His vision blurred. No, he had to stay conscious. He could not dismiss his armament.

As he kept telling himself that, his head gradually grew heavy.

（...Huh?）

A thought suddenly came to him.

（Why am I holding a sword?）