Chapter 253: Chapter 210 Part 2: Curse
She wasn't the smartest of her peers but she was a bright student who passed all her exams with good marks. There had never been a grade she repeated nor an assignment she had to redo. She was always on the top achievers list, in her class at least.
She had beauty that competes with the most beautiful girls from the academy like Celeste, Olivia, Anais, Adavire and Evelyn.
She's well-liked by the whole academy and students frequently compare her energetic personality to a junior of hers, Rachel von Rynald. The two are sometimes mistaken for sisters since they even look alike. Sabrina is just a little taller and had a more mature face while Rachel was a short bundle of joy with a cute baby face.
What would the students, who put her on such a high pedestal, think if they saw Sabrina now?
The family had a private doctor who could treat every sickness that Sabrina has ever had. Could he get rid of this disease destroying her body from within?
"Hukk, gukk, ugk, kukk!" Sabrina coughed violently, causing a bit of blood to shoot out of her mouth.
Her throat was burning. Not even water could get rid of the pain.
Her eyes were watery, and no amount of wiping could make it stop.
"Owwww…. Oooowww…" Sabrina clutched her stomach as she laid on the grass in a fetal position. She could not even squeeze her tears out.
Sabrina looked at her shivering hands through her hazy vision as she looked at the world from a horizontal position.
Her hands were stained by her blood.
She suddenly heard the grass rustling and hurriedly got up thinking one of the others followed her here.
A hooded young man walked up to her. He had a very muscular build and looked about 180cm or taller. He exuded a powerful aura that makes others wary of him and can even scare the weak-willed away.
Sabrina recognized this presence.
"What… What are you doing here?" Sabrina tried to stand up by leaning against the tree she was sitting against.
"That's funny. I should be asking you that, Sabrina, was it?" Arnold took off his hood, revealing his dark blue hair which seemed even longer than the last time she saw him, "Where's Arthur?"
"…The inn located on the southern side of the city."
"An inn? Hmm…" Arnold stared back at the city, "So, that's why I can't sense him. He's outside the range of my Warrior Sense."
"I-I can take you there. I was heading back there anyway…"
"You don't look like someone who can lead the way." He said while looking her up and down, "What happened to you? Your face looks pale and I can hear you wheezing."
"…Why do you even care?"
Arnold wasn't exactly the person who she expected would ask her that question. He had never shown concern for anyone for as long as Sabrina had known him. Well, she wasn't exactly that close to him but Anais talks about him a lot.
Sabrina also observes him from a distance most of the time at the academy. If he isn't flirting with random students, he can be seen fighting some poor junior of hers. Of course, Celeste regularly stops this delinquent from going too far. Sometimes he even listens to her, which had surprised Sabrina on several occasions.
Come to think of it, Celeste is basically the only person—besides Olivia—he listens to. What will happen to the poor juniors at the academy once she leaves after graduating…? Sabrina shudders at the thought of it.
"Maybe I know a way to help you?" he shrugged casually.
Her eyes widened when she heard his response.
"T-Truly? But you're no healer magician or doctor so how can you help me?"
Arnold smirked.
Anyone else would've rolled their eyes in any other instance seeing that arrogant smirk on his face but this was coming from someone who many consider a genius. He's someone who had shown academic prowess second to none. Who knows how much knowledge was contained inside that head of his?
So, what if he isn't attending any classes in the divine studies course? He probably read some ancient scholar's notes on diseases and was instantly able to put the theories into practice.
The term "if it's him then surely he'd be able to" applies to the current situation.
While trusting him was something she'd have to ponder over many times, having faith in his abilities should suffice to let her guard down.
One might think: Why would you be on guard against someone offering to help? Well, this someone is a playboy who had won over many women and got under many of their skirts. He used any tactic in the book to get what he wants and used situations, where the women appear helpless, to his advantage. Treating this situation the same is the most natural thing to do.
If you want me to do X then I want you to do Y for me, would apply here as well.
Sabrina squeezed out her next words as if someone was holding a sword to her neck:
"I-If you know a way to help me… Please I beg of you—save me…"
A glint flashed past his eyes. Sabrina couldn't tell what it was but his eyebrows creased a little. He composed himself and spoke again while lifting a finger.
"Pull up your sleeve. I need to check your mana channels first. We can't rule out that miasma poisoning might be the cause behind what's happening to you."
"Ah, right…" Sabrina held up her arm and pulled back the sleeve of her blazer.
"Hmm…"
Her veins were protruding out of her skin and were abnormally purple.
Sabrina had tried to hide this from everyone ever since the day she experienced the symptoms of—well, whatever's wrong with her.
Arnold didn't even bat an eye seeing her pulsing veins that wiggled like worms. It looked as if he had seen them before.
"There's your mutated veins and the odd black smoke flowing through your body. Hmm, this looks like a curse. Luckily, it's miniscule on the danger scale. For now, at least," Arnold traced a line on her arm which made her squirm a little from the tingling sensation of his mana, "It should be easy to remove the curse with an antimagic rune. Luckily for you it won't take much mana to create such a thing. But I'll need to get some supplies at a magic store first. Certain curses can survive even after antibodies creating by an antimagic rune, attacks it. They can mutate even under the most extreme conditions. To avoid such a situation, I need to draw a multiplier rune on a parchment of paper which will increase the power and efficiency of the rune I have in mind while increasing the amount of mana I produce at the same time."
Arnold looked down at the city.
"What are antimagic runes?" Sabrina tilted her head at the unusual combination.
The two are meant to be opposing natures, or so say the books that date back to the era when runic magic arts were still a thing.
Antimagic is self-explanatory—spells or magic circles that break down an arcane (or any other derivation) magic circle which essentially breaks the entire spell.
Runes are the essence of magic circles itself, which is used in basically 99% of all spells in existence. Runes are what manifest magic circles. They're the building blocks to using arcane magic.
So why the strange combination? And how can these two opposing terms create antibodies to nullify or completely erase curses?
"Antimagic runes might seem like a strange term to you since basically every human alive today has forgotten how great the era of magic, before the Demon Human War, was. Runic arts were the driving force of all things magical. Some regard runic arts as inferior when compared to arcane arts and its derivations, but such judgment stems from ignorance rather than understanding. Just as it would be absurd to claim mastery in architecture after constructing a basic log cabin, criticizing the intricate workings of runic arts without proper knowledge is equally foolish as criticizing the architecture of a manor or cathedral. Magicians who believe they know everything should refrain from criticizing the foundational role of runic arts in the development of magic technology."
He seems… passionate about this, doesn't he…? Sabrina was almost shocked that Arnold, of all people, was interested in something to this extend.
"In any case, even if I go into detail what these antibodies are and how they come to existence, it would be a waste of time to entertain your question if your life is on the line, no?"
"A-Ah, you're right…" Sabrina then broke into more violent coughs. Some blood spurted onto her hand which she hurriedly wiped.
Arnold continued after looking at her in silence for a few seconds:
"Antimagic runes were part of my magic studies. Unlike the academy that only teaches arcane and its derivations only, I delve into all things magic arts. Anyway, I digress. They're useful little runes for pretty much any disease or debuff caused by spells and curses. They can cancel out the curses and blight caused by death aura curses by creating antibodies within your mana channels that act as the white blood cells in our bodies. Anyway, do you really not know what caused this?" Arnold asked as he looked above her head for some reason, "By the looks of it alone, I can tell that you weren't affected by a dying individual's death aura."
"Death aura…?"
"You don't know, huh… Figured as much since you're not a dark magic student. I'm not either, of course. But I do have some knowledge about death aura. Before a monster—skeletons for instance—dies after being slain, they can cast a curse on themselves which uses their body as a catalyst for death aura. Of course, they'd need some kind of intelligence to condemn the one who kills them. One example of lack of intelligence is a toad. It won't curse you even if you leave it bleeding to death, but a Toad Lord would since it can even speak our language. Death aura is a sort of debuff that causes a number of illnesses and afflicts you with a disease status using the 'caster's' life force as fuel for the curse."
He then paused as if he recalled something important.
"They can cause a number of problems but they quickly result in death. People cursed by death aura don't go on to live long like you have. In fact, it looks like you were afflicted with the deliberate intent to give you a slow painful death. Or…"
"Or?"
"You were just one among the many who were afflicted by a Group Curse."
"…"
Arnold sighed when he saw the clueless expression on her face. Since when had he become a professor for his senior?
"Look at this." He surrounded his finger in Sword Intent and went over to the boulder not far from the tree. He carved a big circle and multiple smaller circles, some of which were inside the circle and others which were outside the circle. There were even some who were halfway inside.
"The circle is the Group Curse. This smaller circle is you," he pointed at the one which was halfway inside, "You were targeted by the group curse which results in curse status."
"…What kind of curse does the circle represent?"
"I'm not sure. I can't draw a conclusion unless you can tell me if there are others who've shown the same symptoms as you. A curse can mean literally anything. You can curse a woman to always miscarriage when pregnant, then you have conditional curses which only go away when requirements are met, like making a man impotent unless he cuts off a leg. A curse that can cause any number of misfortunes is what one would call this. But unless we test if there are conditions to removing the curse, we should assume that it's both the aforementioned and a conditional curse combined. I should be able to remove it easily since the corruption hasn't spread that much."
"…What does that mean? The corruption not having spread that much..."
"You're still standing, aren't you?"
So, if she had lived with this curse a little longer…
No, it's best to think of only the positive now since Arnold seemed confident that he'd be able to remove it and stop her suffering.
A feeling of relief washed over Sabrina. For some reason she chose to trust Arnold. He's shown that he knows much more than her so why not take his word for it?
"Come on," Arnold held his hand out to her, "You want to get better, right?"
"Y-Yes!" Sabrina nodded strongly.
She timidly held out her hand to Arnold who quickly pulled her up.
"Eek!?" he suddenly picked her up in a princess-carry.
'S-Strong!' she could feel his stiff muscles even through his coat.
"H-Hey, you should ask a lady if you can pick her up!"
"You're complaining even in this state… Haa… Having you lean on me will only slow us down. I want to get in contact with Arthur as soon as possible to tell the bastard to leave the dungeon."
Arnold quickly ran down the hill.
"...Then why not leave me and go do that?"
Arnold merely glanced down at her.
"Do you want to continue suffering?" he asked a question of his own as he ran through the crowds of people.
"W-What? N-No…"
"Let's leave it at that then."
Their conversation ended just like that.
Really? Not even a "I can't bear to see someone so beautiful suffering when I can help"? Or a "You can repay me by letting me have sex with you"?
Sabrina closed her mouth just when she was about to question him further. She'll have to trust him even if this helping hand was from someone she hated… or someone who she thought she harbored hatred for…
◇◇
It didn't take long for the two to find a magic store. Luckily it was already open even though it was still very early in the morning.
"Good morning!" the Elven store clerk greeted them when they entered. The shack behind him was stacked full of all sorts of potions, all of which had labels that Sabrina couldn't quite recognize.
Then again, she's never really studied how to make potions and what kind of potions one can make so the potions on the shelf might be familiar to magicians from her world.
Arnold wasted no time ordering the supplies needed for the "cleansing" as he calls it. Apparently, the antibodies cleanse the body of curse residue.
"Do you have magic potion brewing equipment I can use? Or general lab equipment?" Arnold asked the clerk after taking the bag full of supplies, which ranged from needles, cloths, holy water, scrolls, herbs, goblin ears, etc…
"Of course, but what for? This shop doesn't have a lab so a customer is limited to what can be made in the back with the limited equipment."
"That's fine. I only need some flasks, a Bunsen burner, empty magic crystals (crystals with no mana), an operating table or chair and a headlight."
"O-Oh, you seem well-prepared for anything, dear customer. Please use the back as you wish. We have everything you listed."
Arnold nodded and approached Sabrina who was sitting next to the door.
"Let's go."
She stood up and leaned on Arnold. The hand he was using to grip her waist felt like it could snap her back in an instant. He held onto her so firmly that she was basically glued to him.
Sabrina could feel her heart racing a bit.
She never expected to love being held so strongly by another man. Most of the guys she'd dated weren't seasoned warriors or knights. They ranged from science, economics, magic and tactical military studies. In total she's dated almost twenty guys over the last eight years.
It was a silly thing to focus on but neither of them could hold her quite like Arnold could. He effortlessly lifted her into a princess carry like she was just some ordinary wooden sword. How many times had he swung his sword to get that superhuman grip that squished into Sabrina's butter-smooth skin?
The two of them went around the corner, entering another room. Arnold flicked a nearby light switch, illuminating the room then he went over to the nearby window and opened it. The room was a small study area with some lab equipment.
He helped Sabrina sit down on the treatment chair with a slightly elevated top side. After leaving her on the chair he went over to a nearby table and threw all the supplies onto it. He grabbed a mortar and pestle from among the supplies and threw some of the ingredient herbs into the mortar.
Sabrina recoiled in surprise when Arnold began taking his coat and shirt off, showing his muscular upper body.
"Uhm, what are you doing?"
"The antimagic antibodies are going to exude a nauseating stench when they get rid of the curse inside your body. I don't want my only good shirt and favorite adventurer coat to smell like rotten egg. The smell will take weeks to get out if I keep both on." he said with his back turned to her, crushing the herbs together in the mortar and grinding them together. His back muscles flexed with every motion.
Sabrina looked at the scars on his upper body. Some were very noticeable while others were hard to see unless you really focused on them. And for some reason… most looked fresh…?
How many battles has he been through... He was notorious for getting into fights and humiliating his opponents either through bullying or harassment after assuring victory. First years became so afraid of him that the mere sound of his voice was enough to scare them away.
Even Sabrina felt a little scared by just looking at his back. Despite not facing her, he could probably tell every move she's making and would be able to respond in a split second. If she were his enemy and had malicious intentions while his back was turned then her head would go flying in an instant.
Maybe Sabrina's hate and anger for Arnold von Berkley was just disguised fear. He'd cheated on and hurt her friends so many times that she had lost count how many times they came crying to her. Yet some even go back to him.
Even though she was angry, Sabrina never had the guts to confront him over his actions.
Why would you promise my friend that you'll marry her if she gives up her arranged marriage? He never would've done so.
Why did you tell my friend that you'll support her financially if she drops out of school? He never did and that friend had dropped out of school years ago, never to return.
The above weren't the only scenarios she could recall but remembering them all will just cause anger to rise in Sabrina. She needed to focus on her recovery.
"Alright, it's done." Arnold turned around just when Sabrina was deep in thought.
He approached the table beside the chair, grabbing a paint brush from among the supplies. He put the brush into the bowl of goo and smeared it onto the piece of paper that he put on the table. A maroon-like substance covered the surface of the paper, which glowed with a dim red light.
Now that she looked closely, there was some kind of rune on the paper. When did he draw that?
She timidly undid her bra.
Noticing that, Arnold looked at her in confusion.
"What?"
"…I never thought anyone other than my women would willingly strip for me."
"D-Don't kid yourself! I don't want my clothes to stink!"
Really, cracking a joke in this situation with such a straight face!?
"Lie back down once you're done." Arnold ignored her glare and continue smearing the goo onto the opened scroll with a paint brush. He looked so focused on the task that Sabrina suspected that he'd done this countless times before.
Sabrina pondered whether it's necessary to take off her bra too… With a sigh, she unclipped the bra and set it aside. She quickly covered her chest.
She caught Arnold glancing at her for a moment causing her to glare at him.
"Lie down." Arnold frowned at her who was curiously peeking into the bowl of goo.
"O-Okay…"
"Don't be alarmed if it feels like there's bugs crawling under your skin." He held the paper over Sabrina's body.
"What did you smear on the paper…?" she looked at the dark red substance dripping from the paper.
"Magic grease that I made. It will supply the layered rune formation on this scroll with mana. The layered rune is just another name for the multiplier rune I mentioned earlier. I can't focus on sending mana into the antimagic rune and the layered-technique runes as well. It's either one or the other. The layered-technique rune will automatically supply its power to the antibodies once the antimagic rune is activated."
'How does he even have mana in the first place…'
Maybe he was born with it? It's not uncommon for people to be born with little mana then decide to become warriors or other close-combatants later in life. Magic swordsmen also exist but are much rarer than people like Arnold. Evelyn is the only magic swordsman in their grade with the potential to use magic and weapon arts. There's like a handful others in the academy but they aren't as proficient in both fields like Evelyn.
"I'll first need to draw the antimagic rune on your stomach. A magnetic-like field will suck the paper onto your body automatically. The process will begin when that happens."
"Okay… I'm ready."
With a nod, Arnold placed his finger on her belly. It felt like a steel rod was being traced on her skin.
The mana surrounding his finger let out a low whirrr sound. The tips of Sabrina's fingers and toes stung every few seconds while Arnold was drawing the rune. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling. In fact, it distracted Sabrina from her aching body and the lump in her throat which made it difficult to swallow.
'A-Amazing…' Sabrina thought as she looked at the rune that Arnold was drawing from memory alone.
How could he draw such a complex shape without hesitation or hardships?
The divine studies field also used to use runes, in particular the first 30 runes in the runic alphabet. Some of which had healing properties. Runic arts were outdated these days so not many people knew about the kind of runes you'd find in books from a bygone era.
The only runes people know about these days are pseudo-runes which appear in every magic circle once a spell is cast. They're merely an imitation, taking the formations and shapes of old runes and using them in arcane, necromancy, divine, healing, etc…
Sabrina had seen most of the 30 runes in the archive of the divine study field, all of which were ranked by "Levels".
Level 1 have two runic letters. Unlike the traditional Diacreerian alphabet which consists of 26 letters with simple shapes, a runic letter was made up of complex shapes and patterns, most intertwining with each other and creating formations.
If a letter from their alphabet were made up of two strings, then a runic letter was made from 10 or more strings.
Level 2 runes have five runic letters.
Level 3 runes have seven runic letters.
Level 4 runes have ten runic letters.
Level 5 runes have eleven runic letters.
To Sabrina's amateurish eyes, she could tell that Arnold was using a level 3 and above rune. There were way too many patterns overlapping each other.
'How can someone who slacks off half the school year be this brilliant in arcane knowledge… Did he really just read this stuff from books…?'
"Done." Arnold wiped the sweat from his brow, "Can you feel them?"
"Yes, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be."
In fact, it felt like toddler hands pulling on her skin. Sabrina grew up raising a lot of her relatives' children who would pull on her cheeks and pinch her so she understood the feeling.
The glowing rune on her belly resembled the poorly-drawn rune on the piece of scroll in Arnold's hand.
"They'll get more aggressive from now on so prepare yourself. It might feel like they're crawling under your skin which will cause a lot of pain. Not to the extent of ripping off skin but being stabbed by a rusty sword."
"…Would you hold my hand?" Sabrina asked timidly.
"Shouldn't you be covering your breasts? Surely you don't want a guy like me to see your sensitive bits."
"T-That's… You saw everything anyway!" she retorted, "Forget I said anything! Hmph!"
She turned her head to the side, refusing to look at him.
She heard an amused chuckle.
"I never thought your blushing expression would be this cute. I usually just see you glaring at me even across the academy's halls."
'!!'
"Eep…!" she felt him touching her hand, intertwining his fingers between hers.
That same hand of hers was still on her breast, which means…
'H-He's touching my breast!'
Slap his hand away.
Slap his hand away.
He'll think you're easy.
He'll think you're a slut who lets any man touch her.
Sabrina's heart pounded.
She couldn't open her mouth to yell that he's a pervert and to let go.
His hand was so strong. It felt like it could crush her delicate fingers. His hands were twice as big as hers and unlike her soft, smooth fingers, he had thick fingers and calluses that felt rough to the touch… And yet… And yet he held her hand so gently.
Sabrina slowly creaked her neck to look at him. He wasn't focusing on her, instead he was inspecting the rune that he drew. He was moving his mouth, probably chanting something.
Sabrina closed her eyes and looked away again.
"…Thank for doing this for me..." She said in a small voice.
Perhaps subconsciously, she squeezed his hand.
"…Mm."
Arnold let go of the scroll which was pulled towards Sabrina's body by an invisible force…
***
· Name: Sabrina von Beurot
· Level :23
· Condition: unconscious, mildly aroused
'That's weird. Her status changed to aroused. Is she a masochist too…? While Sabrina isn't a major character in the game and was just an optional capture target, I don't recall her showing any exhibition fetishes during the School Arc…' Arnold thought while inspecting Sabrina's status window who was now unconscious.
It seems the pain was too much to bear for her so she was knocked out.
He let go of her hand and took off the remains of the scroll. It had torn apart on its own after the antibodies flushed out the curse. It resembled the remains of burnt paper.
Arnold inspected the dark cloud that loomed in the room. It smelled horrible but luckily, he had opened the windows beforehand so it was slowly drifting out.
"What kind of curse could this be?" Arnold waved his hand through the cloud. It felt several times heavier than aura yet it drifted through the air like vapor.
'Can you identify it?' He spoke to the system.
It responded in a few seconds.
· System updated!
· Patch notes: The analysis confirms that it is not a traditional curse.
What does that mean?
'Is it a type of group curse at least?'
· Yes. Several targets are affected by it, User Arnold included after being exposed to its target range. By removing the curse from one individual, however, user Arnold has caused another curse to activate.
Activate? Hold on a second…
A curse from a "group curse" that only activates once it's removed or an individual among the mass of afflicted by the curse dies…
Arnold's eyes widened.
As expected, it's a Forbidden Curse.
And he was now infected by it as well.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone