novelraw Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151: The Dethroned Prince (3)
‘Heart.’
I knew it from experience.
The curse was engraved on the heart.
It was a pattern and a language.
I couldn’t decipher it.
It was a language only the master of the curse could understand.
‘There’s no need to decipher it.’
I just needed to burn it off.
Such a vague method was allowed for the Sun.
In fact, that was the limit.
Only by deciphering the language of the curse could I completely lift the curse.
Burning it off was the last resort.
It was also the best Harad could do currently.
‘It’s a temporary measure.’
I would burn it off, blurring the language.
To use a real-world analogy, the book was the curse, and the fire was water.
It was a principle similar to splashing water to stain the letters.
Then the book remained intact, but it became difficult to read.
The curse was the same.
‘It’s working.’
The White Flames slowly covered the heart.
As the heart was lightly seared, the curse was charred along with it. The smell of cooking organs seeped out through Bahav's body.
“You fu, you fucker......”
Bahav spat out the words along with the smell.
The pain looked terrible. But Bahav was still alive.
The heart was a stronger organ than one might think.
The Enverque heart was even tougher.
They were naturally born that way.
‘Elaine would be fine too.’
Elaine was born with Innate Strength.
Harad thought her strength was incomparable to that of a mere Enverque.
‘What the hell is this language.’
Every time the White Flames moved over the heart, a repulsive force suddenly flared up.
It meant that the curse was drawn on that part.
Harad distinguished the patterns engraved on the heart by that repulsive force. The shape of the pattern engraved on the heart was drawn in my mind. I couldn't understand it.
‘I’ll have to memorize the whole thing.’
Bahav Enverque was not crazy.
He was hit by a curse that drove him mad.
So this pattern must signify madness.
‘Ah. There was also a Prohibition that prevented him from speaking. All sorts of crazy things are possible.’
Harad let out a hollow laugh at the diversity of the curses.
I was reminded of the Mage of Promise from the Liberation Tower Rebellion Faction.
The Origin named Curse was closer to a superior version of that.
‘Since a curse ignores the opponent’s will.’
Elaine and Harad in the past life were also hit by a curse.
It was a curse that caused blood to pour out of every pore in the body. One was bound to die if afflicted.
If it weren't for the Stone of Regression, Harad of the past life would have died from the curse.
‘I don’t think Elaine would have, though.’
That Grand Duke would have survived somehow.
Harad had that certainty.
It wasn't a Mage's intuition, but faith in Elaine.
‘It’s weaker than back then. Is it because it’s the future?’
That curse was one implemented by a 6th Rank Mage.
Bahav's curse was not that. It was weaker.
Harad recalled Avery Aquins.
That Star of the Deep Sea was also weak.
‘Is Curse, that bitch, weak now? Or did she cast a weak curse?’
I had to hope Bahav would know.
The smell of the cooking heart permeated the underpass.
The thought of it being delicious didn’t occur to me. Bahav was not a Mage.
It also meant Harad wasn't addicted to that extent yet.
A severe heart addict drools at the mere scent of any human.
How much time had passed, Harad took his hand off Bahav’s heart.
When I wiped my face, blood smeared onto it.
My vision was slightly red, and Elaine held something out. It was a handkerchief.
The handkerchief Ellen carried.
‘How careless.’
Harad gave a wry smile and wiped the area around his eyes with the handkerchief.
“Give it to me.”
“It’s dirty.”
“I can just wash it.”
Elaine put the blood-soaked handkerchief into her pocket.
Elaine wasn’t at all disgusted.
But she looked upset.
“You’re overdoing it again. I told you not to.”
“It was worth it.”
“That thing.”
Elaine clicked her tongue.
Unlike in the past life, she didn't seem to like Bahav much.
‘It must be because of me.’
Elaine was sensitive about Harad getting hurt.
Was it rewarding, or not.
‘It is rewarding.’
From Harad’s perspective, it was a very welcome change.
Elaine didn't necessarily have to get close to Bahav.
But she needed to get closer to Harad.
That way, I could have dreams. Was that the only reason? It was minor. Personal feelings weren't important yet.
“How is he?”
Harad closed his eyes and rolled his eyeballs a few times to clear out the remaining blood.
He then looked at Bahav with his restored vision. His movements and groans were gradually fading.
“The lifting of the curse is complete. It’s not perfect, but it won’t get worse from now on.”
The curse remained, but the language that constituted it had crumbled.
Although the madness accumulated so far might remain, he wouldn’t go any crazier.
The Prohibition wouldn't function either.
“Fu, fuck?”
“That is the curse. Say more.”
The accumulated madness didn't matter much.
Bahav was already overcoming it well.
He was the possessor of an incredible mental fortitude.
“Say something you couldn't say before.”
“That fucking hurts.”
“Is the price only pain? Then it's easy.”
Harad didn't place much importance on pain.
The North itself was somewhat like that.
“I also fucking convulse a lot.”
“Indeed. It’s designed to make any of his words seem like the result of madness.”
“The Emperor is a son of a bitch.”
“You did that normally too, didn't you?”
Judging by Bahav's words and actions, the Prohibition only applied to a very limited extent.
Compared to the curse of madness, the Prohibition was a weaker curse.
‘There’s no reason to cast it weakly on purpose. It seems there are curses she is proficient in, and those she is not.’
It must be the innate capacity of the Origin.
Bahav licked his lips.
Then he squeezed his eyes shut and spoke.
“The Emperor, that son of a bitch, cast a curse on me.”
That must have been what he couldn’t say before.
“Huh?”
Bahav, who had his eyes tightly shut, tilted his head.
Neither pain nor convulsions occurred.
“The Emperor, that son of a bitch, cast a curse on me.”
Bahav's eyes finally shone.
That meant, this was the truth.
“The Emperor, that son of a bitch, cast a curse on me!”
“Say something else too.”
“The Emperor, that son of a bitch, cast a curse on me! The bastard who’s my father!”
Bahav ran around under the underpass.
The madness wasn’t entirely cured.
* * *
Bahav Enverque.
It had already been five years since the Crown Prince was dethroned.
“The Emperor, that son of a bitch, cast a curse on me.”
It seemed that Bahav had wanted to say those words so badly for those five years.
He muttered only those words like a madman.
“Crazy bastard.”
Unable to watch anymore, Elaine slapped the back of Bahav's head.
Bahav face-planted onto the ground.
And then he sprang up.
“Thank you so fucking much!”
Bahav abruptly grabbed Harad's shoulders with both hands and shook him violently back and forth.
His left eye was blazing, and his right eye looked like that of a madman.
This was because the curse was blocked, but the mind that had been eaten away by the curse over the years did not return.
‘He’s only half-mad.’
Elaine in the past life had said Bahav was only half-mad.
The Bahav before my eyes was exactly in that state.
In the past life, he would have gone crazier from there, but it wouldn't happen this time. The curse had stopped.
“What is your name?”
“I am Harad.”
“Your affiliation?”
“Serzila.”
“Really?”
Bahav didn't immediately believe it.
He looked back at Elaine.
It seemed he had even suspected Elaine.
‘That’s a good advantage.’
It was natural, if anything.
The enemy of the North was the Otherworld.
The idea of Serzila consorting with Mages was difficult for anyone to entertain.
“It is true.”
“Fucking, Harad of Serzila.”
The half-mad Bahav seemed to have no prejudice.
He gripped Harad's shoulders and said.
“I swear on my name. Harad of Serzila. I will grant you three wishes, whatever they may be.”
It meant he would put his life on the line three times.
Harad thought it was insufficient.
“Not seven?”
“I probably don’t have that many lives.”
“You must have suffered a lot.”
“Fucking, because I couldn’t stand it!”
Bahav knew that the Prohibition caused pain and convulsions.
He must have tried several times already.
Furthermore, he was going mad, and he even ingested deadly poison to escape that madness.
His body couldn't possibly be whole.
“What are you talking about?”
Elaine, who had been listening quietly, tilted her head.
Elaine didn't seem to know the Enverque bloodline well.
Likely because she had never been interested.
“They usually have a long lifespan. The Enverques do.”
The Enverques had seven lives.
The Enverques rarely died, to the extent that such a story was passed down through tradition.
From the perspective of the distant ancient times, that was a miracle.
It must have seemed like a bloodline bestowed by heaven. That is what the Enverque have been, passed down continuously.
“It is such a physical constitution. And also a bloodline.”
Aura reflects a person’s Essence.
When that is realized, it becomes a physical constitution, and if repeated further, it becomes a bloodline.
That is why Elaine's Aura is jet-black.
The Aura of the Serzila, who had been powerful for generations, tended to be strongly inherited.
“That’s right. If I wasn’t an Enverque, I would have died long ago.”
Bahav was afflicted with a curse that drove him mad.
Even that wasn't properly cast. He even ingested deadly poison to resist.
If he were an ordinary person, it would have been unsurprising for him to have died several times already.
It was possible not only because of his mental fortitude, but also because the Enverque bloodline supported him.
‘But why is the Emperor like that.’
I glanced over and saw that Elaine had a sour expression.
“Then he only has three lives left?”
“Probably four. Yes, that’s the feeling.”
Bahav didn't give all his lives to Harad.
He kept one for himself.
“May I try killing him once? I’m curious.”
Elaine stared intently at Bahav's neck.
“……It’s a metaphor, you stupid bastard.”
“What?”
“It’s the curse, fucker.”
Bahav glared at Elaine with a dumbfounded expression. Elaine didn't flinch.
In the end, it was Bahav who looked away.
He turned his gaze to Harad.
“Was this what the Tyrant of Serzila meant?”
Bahav seemed to have immediately realized that Elaine was uneducated.
“Harad of Serzila. You are the Brains of this next Tyrant.”
Bahav chose Harad as his conversation partner.
“You are distracted.”
“Because I’m crazy!”
Bahav giggled.
He was genuinely happy.
“Ask me anything. Of course, it won't count as one of the three wishes.”
“Three wishes. Where will you use the remaining one life?”
Bahav considered his remaining lives to be four.
“I have to kill those sons of bitches.”
Bahav cursed at the drop of a hat.
If you listened carefully, his cursing had a pattern.
“The Emperor and the Pope. I will definitely kill those sons of bitches.”
Son of a bitch.
Bahav only used that curse for the Emperor and the Church.
Even when he was severely afflicted by the curse.
* * *
“Are there no one watching?”
“Only at first.”
It meant the Imperial Family now regarded Bahav as completely insane.
There was a reward for acting completely mad even when he was only less so.
The Emperor and the Church.
To take revenge on those sons of bitches, Bahav prolonged his life even to the extent of defecating in the middle of a tavern.
‘Did he only defecate? That can’t be all.’
Bahav, who was once the Crown Prince, must have performed all sorts of actions that weren't even easy for a beggar.
It must have been thanks to revenge as his driving force.
‘How persistent.’
Elaine in the past life couldn't help but be interested.
Bahav, in fact, was not an idiot, unlike what was expected of an Enverque.
“I heard he was known as a scoundrel even when he was the Crown Prince.”
The karma Bahav Enverque had accumulated was enormous.
It accumulated and led to his dethronement.
Deeds that couldn't be committed unless he was afflicted with madness.
“Bullshit! I didn’t do any of that. I only cleaned up the mess.”
Bahav leaped up.
“Taking out the Chamberlain’s organs and killing him while alive? That was my son-of-a-bitch elder brother’s doing. I was the one who prayed for the Chamberlain’s peace!”
Bahav abruptly sat down and dug into the ground.
It seemed to mean he helped with the Chamberlain's funeral.
“Gathering dozens of male courtesans, holding a feast, having fun with all of them, and setting a fire? Fuck, I’m a man!”
Bahav clawed at the ground with his fingernails.
That was the 3rd Princess’s charge.
“I have never cut off anyone’s hands or feet. I’ve never said someone’s head was too big and would make it lighter by cutting off their neck, nor have I wagged my tail whenever the Pope came. Hands, feet, heads, organs, male courtesans, the Pope, I don't care about any of them! Because I am not a son of a bitch!”
One of Bahav’s eyes wavered.
It seemed the remaining madness surged up when he thought of his family.
“Trivial charges, indeed.”
“Because it’s Enverque!”
It was the omnipotent Imperial Throne.
As long as they kept an eye on the Church, the Enverque could do anything.
“But why were you dethroned?”
Even if karma accumulated, they were insignificant deeds under the name of Enverque.
There was another reason for Bahav’s dethronement.
“I don’t know!”
“……”
“But I know!”
Harad frowned.
“Are you that crazy?”
At Harad's words, Elaine stroked the hilt of her sword.
Elaine still seemed curious about Bahav's life count.
“It means there’s nothing certain, you stupid bastard.”
Bahav shouted, conscious of Elaine holding her sword.
Elaine flinched.
She had been holding back a lot. It was because Harad had business with Bahav.
“There’s nothing certain. It means you have a conjecture.”
“Precisely, Brains of Serzila.”
Bahav's eyes gleamed.
He seemed to like smart people.
‘Didn’t she say they got along well?’
Elaine in the past life had said that.
Maybe it wasn’t 'getting along' but 'fists.'
“I have a conjecture. And only one!”
Bahav held out his index finger and stabbed it straight down.
The index finger dug deeply into the hard winter ground.
“That’s all there is! No, it must be that bitch.”
“Bitch?”
“Yes, the Saintess! No, that Scarred Pockmarked Bitch!”
Bahav shouted, convulsing.
“I was that bitch's friend!”