WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: nemui

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◈ The Forgotten Curse Knight ◈

Vol. 2 Ch. 18: Be Thou a Knight

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Theo swung his black knight's sword with a vacant expression.

Lying facedown on the ground, Carla looked up at him and remembered the feeling of impatience for the first time in a long while.

Theo's current state was probably mental contamination from overusing Curse Armament Manifestation. Hallucinations, lost reason, severe mood swings.

Theo had likely forgotten who he was. Even so, he still gripped his sword. He was still being attacked. So he kept fighting on instinct.

（I should have been the shield.）

Carla bore the Curse of Immortality. Even if her bones were shattered or her entire body pierced through, she would not die. She should have acted as the shield and opened a path for Theo.

But the enemy had been wary of Carla's ability to fly and restrained her first. Without a ranged attack, Carla could do nothing.

As Carla desperately searched for a way out, she noticed something.

Her right hand and both legs were almost completely buried beneath the black spheres, but she could still move her left hand from the wrist down. That was thanks to Theo having cut the offshoots earlier.

（Then...）

It was fortunate that Theo had lost himself. He would not be able to stop what she was about to do.

Carla focused on her left hand. She could not manifest her great scythe at a distant location, but she could create it anywhere close to her body. Now, she manifested it in her left hand, gripping the handle as close to the blade as possible.

Still lying facedown, Carla arched her upper body as far as she could and raised her head. Then she manifested the scythe's blade just short of touching her throat.

She dropped her raised head and pulled the handle in her left hand with all her strength.

Schk.

The girl's head fell to the ground. Her mask came loose in the process, and spurting blood stained her young face and white hair.

Before long, blood vessels stretched out from the girl's rolling head. Bone, flesh, and skin formed over them. In other words, a body was growing from her head.

Carla's immortality had several rules.

① If her head was severely damaged, it would be repaired first.

② If her head and the rest of her body were separated, she could choose whether to reattach the body or grow a new one.

③ If she chose to grow a new body under rule ②, a new body would generally grow from the side with the head.

That was why Carla had severed her own head and chosen to grow a new body from it.

Only to escape the Termea's restraints.

Wings stretched out from the Curse Sigil on the back of the girl's slender, white, naked body.

The Termea noticed her, but it was already too late. Carla rapidly closed the distance and slashed apart the frog's enormous body with her great scythe.

She reversed the blade and struck again. About a third of the boar-sized body should have been carved away.

The rule of thumb for killing a Termea was to reduce it to half its volume or less. She was almost there when an impact came from behind.

All the offshoots had returned to the Termea's main body. Probably to sustain its life by replacing the flesh Carla had cut away.

The malformed frog was covered in mushrooms. Its body swelled and bulged, and more mushrooms grew from it. Those mushrooms would likely become offshoots.

During the few seconds it took the Termea to absorb the offshoots, Carla chose to kick off the ground, spread her wings, and fly to Theo.

Even after the offshoots' attacks stopped, Theo did not dismiss his Curse Armament Manifestation.

His green eyes, stripped of sanity, stared blankly into space. His slightly parted lips asked emptily,

"What am I?"

Carla landed in front of Theo and touched his cheek with fingers that had only just regenerated.

Look at me, she prayed through her fingertips.

Theo's head shifted slightly, and he looked up at Carla.

Carla opened her mouth. The voice that slipped out trembled far more than she expected.

"Help me, Sir Knight."

There was one memory Carla had clung to for the long years of her life, never wanting to forget it.

It was her precious, precious treasure. A story that made her heart race as she turned each page, one that moved her again and again. The story of a kind knight.

"Be Thou a Knight."

She spoke the words as if in prayer.

Light returned to Theo's green eyes.

＊　＊　＊

Everything was vague and blurred. Theo only knew that the world was dark.

He stood there alone.

He did not understand. He could not remember. What was he? Why was he here?

In the right hand he looked down at was a red-black sword.

Was he a sword? Why?

（I shouldn't be able to hold a sword...）

"Help me, Sir Knight."

The girl's voice stirred an old memory.

He was not a knight. Even so, he wanted to save the girl, so he took up a sword. Clouds drifted through the wind, and the moon that had been hidden lit the boy's path. A forest swaying in the wind, the neighing of a horse, and his meeting with the girl. That was when the boy's story began.

When had he read that story?

（That's right... I wanted to become a knight because I read this.）

After the Lawrence family took him in, he could have simply become a miner in the coal-mining town of Worg. Theo learned quickly, and he could read, write, and do arithmetic, so he must have had other career paths to choose from.

Even so, Theo had continued to admire knights.

He longed for the way they lived.

It was probably because of that story. That was why those words showed Theo what he was.

The girl's voice spoke like a prayer.

"Be Thou a Knight."

I am a knight. Your knight.

I will save you.

Even if everyone forgets me.

＊　＊　＊

The blurred world regained its shape.

It was completely dark around him, and the feeble light of a lantern illuminated Theo's surroundings.

Which meant he could also clearly see the naked girl standing before him.

"Whaaaaaat!?"

The white-haired, red-eyed Carla pressed her fingertips against Theo's cheek without a stitch of clothing on.

His Curse Armament Manifestation had ended, and the sword and shield in his hands had vanished. His whole body was soaked in sweat, probably from forcing himself to maintain the manifestation. His chest still throbbed painfully, but that was not important right now.

"I'm glad you're back to..."

"Not good, not good, not good! Clothes! Clothes!"

Theo immediately took off his jacket and put it on Carla. It was the fastest he had ever undressed in his life.

Theo was bigger than Carla, but even so, his jacket did not completely cover her body. Her white legs showed beneath its hem, which was far too much for his eyes.

Theo looked away from Carla, only to see the headless corpse of a girl.

His legs nearly gave out.

"Whaaaaaat!? Ah, ahh, that body... It can't be... Carla's...!"

"It's fine."

Carla spoke quietly, but firmly.

"I won't die."

Oh, then it's fine! Theo was not bold enough to say that.

He immediately understood.

Carla's Curse was Immortality. She had likely used that immortality to escape danger by sacrificing everything below her neck. The blood on Carla's white cheeks and hair made the reality of it painfully clear.

Just then, he heard a dragging sound.

It was the Termea.

The giant frog Termea had mushrooms stuck all over its body like warts.

Carla manifested a great scythe in her hand and wings on her back.

"I cut it up quite a bit... Just a little more."

It seemed that while Theo had lost himself, Carla had cut away much of the Termea's main body. Hardened remnants of the Termea lay scattered across the ground.

（I see. That is why the Termea called back its offshoots to regain its volume.）

Theo placed a hand over his chest. His heart pounded loudly as if he had just finished a full sprint, but the stabbing pain had subsided.

It was strange. He had just pushed himself beyond his limit.

"I think I can use Curse Armament Manifestation a little longer."

"That is proof that the Curse has settled into your body."

It was not a particularly commendable method, but using Curse Armament Manifestation to its limit would increase that limit. Just as Beryl had said.

Theo was about to manifest his usual sword and shield, but changed his mind.

（What I need right now is...）

Having finished collecting its offshoots, the Termea swayed its Blood Tail as though licking its lips.

Thinking of what he needed, Theo spoke to Carla.

"Carla, I'll stop that thing from moving. Watch out for the offshoots that come flying at you."

"Okay."

"Curse Armament Manifestation, Be Thou a Knight."

Putting his way of being into words, he manifested only a sword and boots.

Theo ran forward, kicked off the ground, and leaped high into the air. While manifesting these boots, Theo could jump as high as the second story of a building. Now, he pushed himself to the limit, aiming high above the Termea.

Theo usually did not move like this because he had no projectile weapons. His weapon was a sword, so he had to get close to an enemy to attack.

（That is why I'll do this.）

He pictured the hero he admired. The Paladin Elbert Randolph.

The white light that had pierced the giant Termea in Worg, swords of light pouring down from the sky.

Theo still could not manifest something at a distance from himself. That was why he had leaped directly above it.

"Hyaaaaaah!"

He imagined creating a greatsword in his hands.

Curse oozed from the Curse Sigil on Theo's chest, coiling around the sword and increasing its mass until it became a greatsword. As thick as a log, he slammed it down onto the Termea from above.

（It is hard to throw a manifested weapon, but... I can drop one!）

The greatsword in Theo's hands pierced straight through the frog-like Termea's huge body and pinned it to the ground.

The frog's body trembled beneath Theo's feet, and all the mushrooms growing from it shot out at once.

Having its body pierced was not fatal for a Termea. Unable to move, it sent out its offshoots to attack.

There were around a hundred offshoots, most of them aimed at Carla.

The Termea must have realized their plan. Theo would immobilize it from above with the greatsword, and swift Carla would attack during the opening.

Using her ability to fly, Carla dodged the offshoots' attacks while moving away from the Termea.

（Now!）

Keeping a firm grip on the greatsword's hilt with one hand, Theo held his other hand over the frog-like Termea's head.

"Oblivion, Be."

The curse of 〈Self-Forgetfulness〉 was a curse that made someone forget who they were.

In other words, it was the same condition Theo had fallen into earlier.

Not knowing who you were, not knowing what you had been trying to do. Just standing there blankly, thinking, Where am I? Who am I?

The power of that oblivion only lasted for less than three seconds.

But three seconds was enough.

The Termea stopped moving. Its hovering offshoots fell to the ground, plop, plop.

"A knight's sword never dulls!"

Theo swung down the newly manifested knight's sword with all his strength.

The cursed black sword cut through the Termea's body with sharpness equal to, if not greater than, a Red Steel sword.

He swung again in a horizontal slash. The Termea's body collapsed to the ground and began to harden.

Just as he thought.

Before the offshoots returned, there was less volume to cut away.

"...We won."

Theo dismissed his Curse Armament Manifestation and collapsed among the Termea's remains.

A round moon floated in the sky when he happened to look up.

A black shadow crossed it.

Carla was flying toward him with her black wings spread wide.

The silhouette of those broad black wings was beautiful. Her white hair shone in the moonlight, and the hem of the jacket Theo had lent her fluttered up in the wind, revealing her slender legs...

"You should not fly dressed like that!!"

For Carla's honor, Theo quickly looked down.

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