In other words, it turned into a siege. It wasn’t a choice they’d made to try and seize victory; it was simply because they had nowhere to run. For the northerners who prided themselves on their bravery and their defenses, it was likely their way of saying that, even when cornered, they hadn’t given up.
“If you were besieged, then how are you here now?”
“While everyone was preparing for the siege, I had another obligation. I was not allowed to perish in the castle. Because of the power of the spirits, you see. Since I hold this power, I had to survive so that this bloodline wouldn’t be extinguished. I wasn’t allowed to battle it out to the end in the castle like everyone else. Yes, because I hold this power, my father, my mother, my friends, everyone who was important to me... I abandoned them all. I was forced to. I had no choice but to run away.”
Suimei could hardly fathom the regret she carried, but he could see it. Lefille’s shoulders hung low as she spoke. As someone from modern Japan, Suimei would’ve been happy just to be alive in her position. But for someone who made their living in battle and prided themselves on carrying on their ancestral duties, the loss she’d been through was grievous. And because she held the sacred power of the spirits, that feeling was only amplified.
“In the midst of it all, I had a curse cast on me. As I was fleeing to another country, I encountered a group of demons, including that general.”
“Then was it him?”
“No, it wasn’t Rajas. The one who cursed me was a female demon that led an army alongside Rajas. From what I gather, she’s a demon general who specialized in curses. I don’t know what her intentions were, but when I was beaten in battle and no longer able to move, she cast this curse on me as if to make a mockery of me. I was forced to grovel on the ground like a worm and comfort myself in a shameful manner.”
That was everything, or so she said as her body trembled and her voice trailed off feebly. Those were the circumstances of the curse that had been placed on her. But that wasn’t the only reason she hated demons so much. They were the cause of everything bad that had happened to her. Thinking over it, Suimei realized something. Lefille’s curse reminded him of a certain incident.
“Could it be... at the inn in Metel before too?”
“Ah, so you remember that... That’s right. The night before, I apparently wandered out to find a watering hole. I came to my senses when I woke in the morning and tried to return to the inn unseen... That’s when I bumped into you.”
“Do you know what triggers the curse?”
“When I use too much of the spirits’ powers, it seems things ends up like this. The day before the incident at the inn was the day I took on the guild request to hunt that ogre. It was probably because of that.”
“Have you ever tried solving the curse?”
“I’ve attempted it, but I’m no mage. It’s far beyond my capabilities, but even renowned mages and the priests of the Church of Salvation gave up on it.”
That meant she’d been suffering from her curse all this time. Without a spell to remove it or mitigate it, she would continue to unconsciously wander off and do these things. All on her own, she’d just had to endure it.
Lefille then sank into a gloomy silence for a while, but eventually, she let out a self-deprecating snicker.
“Heh...”
“Lefille?”
“Just laugh. This is the kind of woman I am. Having such a vulgar curse put on me by a demon... This kind... This kind of...!”
With those words, Lefille suddenly grabbed Suimei’s collar with both hands. When she told him to laugh, she was pleading with him to laugh it off. Unable to bear the truth, she just wanted him to think of everything she’d told him as a joke. But as her own forced smile crumbled away under the weight of despair, all her stern gaze communicated was hopelessness.
“Isn’t it laughable?! This is my punishment for being swayed by the power of the spirits and abandoning those that I was meant to protect! All that talk of wanting to protect people with this power... How stupid is that?! I was cursed by my enemy, but even without that, not being allowed to die...”
Lefille called it a punishment, and that was how she truly felt. Tormented by it all, she bore her heart and vented her pained frustrations. What part of that was laughable? The suffering she’d endured was all too common in this world, and it was no laughing matter. The bitter tears she’d shed weren’t something that could be laughed away.
“But you wanted to protect them, right?”
“I... That’s right. I wanted to, with this power...”
“That wasn’t a mistake. That’s why you shouldn’t blame yourself so much.”
“But I ran away. Even though I didn’t want to. Even though I didn’t want to abandon anyone. I still ran.”
“Lefille...”
Suimei closed his eyes. Driven to tears, Lefille lost the strength in her hands and let go of his collar. As she trembled between heavy sobs, Suimei grabbed her shoulders.
“Being denied the opportunity to die with your people, and then being cursed to do such shameful things. Can this... this kind of miserable reality really...”
Her country was snatched away from her. Her loved ones were brutally murdered. And on top if it all, she was now disgraced by this curse. To a woman, there was nothing more unbearable. As that all sunk into his heart, Suimei wrapped his arms around the bitterly weeping Lefille.
“Lefille, I’m sorry. Forgive me for this.”
“Ah...”
And then, taking off the outer layer of her knight’s outfit, he exposed her enticing, wet skin.
“Ah, no...”
She must have felt danger at being touched. Shutting her eyes tightly, Lefille’s body stiffened up. The strong swordswoman who fought boldly against the demons was completely unrecognizable in this girl who was frightened of a man. Not minding the change that had come over her, Suimei gently touched her skin where the curse was engraved.
“Correspondence of all creation.”
What he cast was analysis magicka. As Lefille cowered in his arms, he placed his hand directly against the curse’s mark and began to investigate the formula behind it. As his magicka circle spread out, information passed into Suimei through his hand. Since it had been inflicted on her, it wasn’t a naturally occurring curse. It was categorized closer to sensory resonance magicka. He could tell that much, but even with his knowledge of modern magicka, it was impossible for Suimei to dispel it. He gritted his teeth when he realized that, but that didn’t mean he was completely powerless. Suimei gathered mana in his hand and used a second spell to alleviate the effects of the curse.
“Hnn, hngh... Ah...”
After a short while, Lefille’s unduly pained voice gradually became more at ease. Before long, her ragged breathing had settled down too.
“How’s the heat in your body?”
“Ah... hahh, ha... Ah.... It’s considerably calmed down, it seems... What was that?”
“I’m using magicka to suppress the effects of the curse. With this, you should feel a little better.”
“Truly? Nobody’s ever been able to do this much...”
She sounded relieved, but that only made Suimei feel guiltier. Even if he could mitigate the curse to an extent, he still couldn’t...
“Sorry. Even though I can temporarily weaken its power, I’m not able to dispel it. It’s a tricky case. We’ll likely either have to take out whoever cast it on you, or do something about the intermediary used when it was cast on you. I don’t think there’s any other way to dispel it.”
As he spoke, Suimei bowed his head down in disappointment. Lefille’s curse was a practical application of sensory resonance magicka.
Sensory resonance magicka, along with contact magicka, was magicka proposed by Scottish anthropologist and scholar of the mysteries James George Frazer. It utilized the idea that things that had similar shapes, and even concepts which resembled each other, were all connected in an invisible manner, and subsequen
tly able to influence each other. A connection of that nature could even mystically amplify a curse.
It was essentially the idea behind using a doll modeled after someone or a picture of them in lieu of doing something to the person themselves. Common examples were the Japanese ritual of nailing a doll to a tree or the Haitian voodoo doll. And based on what Suimei learned from his analysis, Lefille’s curse was probably something similar. That meant it wouldn’t be easy to dispel the curse without eliminating whatever medium resembled the target.
“Sorry. This is the best I can do.”
“...It’s fine. Thank you.”
With a curse he couldn’t undo right in front of him, Suimei was forced to confront his own powerlessness. Suimei apologized as he sank into a deep sense of helplessness, but Lefille managed a pained smile and shook her head. Drop by drop, Lefille’s overflowing sadness began pouring down her cheeks. It continued like a sudden rain, drip... drop...
“Hngh...”
The pain she was going through was something only she could understand. And as an outsider to her feelings, there was nothing Suimei could really say to comfort her. No matter how much he supported her body, it wasn’t his place. And so as Lefille continued to cry, Suimei was unable to say a word.
★
A few days had passed since the evening Suimei found out about Lefille’s curse. Wary both of the wildlife and whatever demons may be lurking, the pair had to proceed with caution, and had yet to actually make it out of the forest.
Currently, they were sitting in a clearing next to a river and having a modest lunch. After rendering the river water safe to drink with magicka and spreading out the food from his school bag, Suimei began chewing on a hard piece of bread as Lefille pointed to a jar that was next to him.
“Sorry, Suimei-kun, but could you pass me the honey over there?”
“Yeah, here.”
“Thanks.”
As Suimei handed over the jar of honey. Lefille thanked him and began spreading some on her bread. And as she was excessively doing so, Suimei called out to her.
“Hey, Lefille.”
“Mm, this bread is quite hard, isn’t it? It’s better if you lightly dip it in water, Suimei-kun.”
“Yeah, I get that, but that’s not what I’m saying.”
“Don’t worry, this honey is quite sweet. Getting it a little wet doesn’t diminish the taste at all.”
“...”
Suimei fell silent over the one-way conversation. Lefille had been acting like this since that night. She was clearly affected by what happened. Not only was her behavior unnatural, she was hardly listening to him and would gloss right over anything he tried to say.
Well, after what happened...
After he’d learned her secret, there was perhaps no helping the awkwardness between them. However...
“Hey, Lefille.”
“What’s the matter, Suimei-kun? If it’s about lunch, I’m fine, thank you. I’ve had enough. Or can I pass you something this time?”
“No, that’s not what I... You’ve got some honey on your cheek.”
“Huh...? Bwuh?!”
Lefille raised her voice in surprise and began scrubbing her cheek with her hand in a fluster before pointing a critical look towards Suimei.
“Y-You should have said so sooner... Wait, there’s no...”
“Yeah, I lied.”
As Suimei said that curtly, Lefille stood up in indignation.
“Y-You! You tricked me?!”
“Well, yeah. A certain someone is refusing to have a conversation with me, so I thought I’d give things a little kick-start.”
“Hmph... That’s...”
“So, Lefille... We’re working together here, so just talk to me, okay? You said so earlier, didn’t you? If we can talk to each other, our teamwork will be that much better.”
“...”
In a complete one-eighty from the act she’d been putting on before, Lefille hung her head down bitterly. Suimei could see sorrow flickering in her eyes. Leaving things like this wouldn’t be any good either.
“W-Well... You know, after what happened, I know it’ll be somewhat difficult. But it’s also awkward for me, and it might be hard, but I think it’ll be better to put some effort into getting along a bit―”
“It’s alright, Suimei-kun. I’m happy that you’re being so considerate, but please don’t be concerned about me anymore.”
“Lefille...”
Suimei’s expression became somewhat lonely. His proposal to put some effort into getting along was shot down by just a few words of refusal.
“This is a good opportunity, so let me speak plainly here. You shouldn’t be with me.”
“Shouldn’t be with you? That’s a little...”
“Getting involved with me will only bring misfortune on you too. That’s why you should stop trying to get any closer than you need to.”
Just what was Lefille thinking about as she issued that declaration with such gloomy eyes? Perhaps she was recalling the people she’d been unable to protect in the past. Looking into her eyes, Suimei could sense her pain.
“Everyone who gets involved with me... vanishes. And if you insist on sticking around, you’ll be killed by Rajas and the demons too. I’ve had enough of it. I’ve had enough of watching people die right in front of my eyes because of me. That’s why...”
“Don’t just decide on your own that I’m gonna be killed by demons.”
“But that’s just how it is. The demons are strong, and they make for terrifying enemies. And if it comes down to that, I’ll end up abandoning you. I have to. For the sake of protecting the power of the spirits. And I’m sick of abandoning my friends.”
“...”
Suimei remained silent with a stern expression, but Lefille closed her eyes and spoke earnestly and imploringly.
“I know I’m being selfish, but could you back down here? Once we clear the forest, let’s split up immediately. Please.”
“That’s so sudden. Surely you don’t expect me to come up with an answer on the spot, right?”
Lefille awkwardly cast her gaze downwards at Suimei’s reply, but their conversation was brought to an abrupt halt when the thickets behind them had suddenly started rustling noisily.
“Tch... Suimei-kun!”
“Yeah.”
Turning around immediately, Lefille called out to Suimei as if to warn him, and Suimei hailed her back. Was the identity of that obscure, loitering presence a stray dog? A wolf? A monster? Or perhaps even a demon?
Faced with a potential attack, Suimei put all six of his senses to work and stayed on his guard. Things had gotten serious in mere seconds. With an armed swordswoman and a powerful magician ready to throw down, the air was bristling with tension. But what appeared before them wasn’t at all what they were expecting. What came crawling from the rustling thicket was a badly wounded man.
“What?!”
“H-Hey!”
Lefille and Suimei both voiced their surprise. The wounded man was dressed in armor like an adventurer, but his steps were unsteady, his eyes were vacant, his clothes were stained red with blood, and his entire body was festering from the aftermath of what looked like lacerations and burns. His breathing was but a faint wheeze, as if he was already at death’s door. He was in such bad shape that his eyes were unable to focus on anything. Lefille quickly ran over to him.
“Hang in there!”
“Ah, guh... Y-You’re...”
“What happened?!”
“W-We... were attacked... by demons... in the mountains...”
“Mountains? Demons, you said?”
That was all they were able to discern from the man’s faltering speech. Hearing just those fragmented words, Lefille’s expression became grim. Coming to a different realization altogether, Suimei tapped her on the shoulder.
“Hey, Lefille. This guy’s...”
“What about him?”
“He’s the adventurer from before.”
Lefille was surprised when she realized what he meant. Thanks to all the blood loss and trauma, she hadn’t recognized the man at first. When Lefille was forced to leave the trade corps, this was the escort who’d been so nasty and raised a fuss about it. After being attacked by demons somewhere, it seemed he’d run away on his own. Or perhaps he came looking for help. Suimei didn’t know which it was, but the pressing matter at hand was that this man needed help. While gathering mana in the palms of his hands, he gave directions to Lefille.
“Lefille, lay him down over there. I’ll cast healing magicka right away.”
“R-Right... Got it.”
Lefille responded without any sharpness in her voice. She understood the gravity of the situation and gave a firm nod before approaching the man and helping him lay down on the ground. This earnest girl didn’t seem to have even a hint of resentment for him.
“I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Yeah.”
Suimei nodded back to her. He then got to work casting healing magicka. As long as his target wasn’t in critical condition, Suimei should be able to use his techniques to save them. Spirit healing was especially effective for external wounds. It couldn’t do much in the way of alleviating the symptoms of serious blood loss, but there was restoration magicka for that. Multiple magicka circles rose up from beneath the adventurer and Suimei’s palm. An emerald light then covered the adventurer’s wounds and sealed them up quickly. However...
“...”
Suimei stopped there. In the middle of healing him, Suimei hung his head and lowered his hands.
“What...?”
Lefille was bewildered at his actions. From where she was standing, it simply looked like Suimei had abandoned the treatment. Seeing him unexpectedly pull back his hands, Lefille called out to him in a stringent voice.
“Suimei-kun, what’s wrong?! Why did you stop your magic?!”
“...It’s no use. His astral body has been irreparably damaged. No healing can help him now.”
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! Volume 2 Page 20