By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 10

Chapter 9, Episode 2: Let the Healing Begin

“He’s up,” a voice said.

Who’s there...? A girl? I feel like I should recognize her. 

“You woke him up. He still seems half asleep, though.”

Gain... That’s right, he was going to break the curse on me. How long was I out? 

Gain was looking down at me as I opened my eyes. “How do you feel?”

“Fine...” I answered. My mind still felt sluggish, but that was about it. “Is it over?” I sat up to find Kufo, Lulutia, and even Tekun and Fernobelia standing around me. “What are you guys doing here, Tekun?”

“Gain called us over so he’d have more time,” Tekun said.

“The longer you can stay, the more thoroughly he can treat you,” Fernobelia explained.

Right! I forgot there was a time limit for my staying here each time. “Thank you,” I said.

“Don’t sweat it. Drink up.” Tekun passed me a bottle. Every time I saw him, it felt like he was offering me a drink.

“Now?” I asked.

“Bottoms up.”

I took a swig, and I felt my body warm, although not from alcohol. “What is it?”

“Medicinal liquor. It stimulates your mind and calms your nerves. Perfect prescription, don’t you think?” Tekun grinned.

“It definitely woke me up,” I said. Despite Tekun’s description, I didn’t taste any alcohol in the liquor, but the minty herbs had cleared my mind. At this point, I finally remembered something. “Just now, I saw a goddess I didn’t recognize—”

“Here.”

I whipped around to find a goddess standing there in the form of a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. With her impassive face and frilly dress, she almost looked like a porcelain doll... Hopefully she wouldn’t find my impression offensive. Based on what I’d been told before, she was either Manoailoa or Meltrize. “Nice to—”

“I am Meltrize, the Goddess of Death and Sleep. Nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine.”

“I’ll explain the situation,” Meltrize started.

“Wait a minute. You guys haven’t met before,” Tekun pointed out.

“You have to make better introductions than that,” Kufo said.

“I have already been given information about him,” Meltrize countered. “He cannot stay here much longer. Discussing the matter at hand should take priority.”

Tekun and Kufo fell silent, but I guessed they were still arguing by communicating in a way that I couldn’t hear. I was already starting to get a picture of Meltrize’s character. I’d had members on my team who always spoke too directly and others mistook their brevity for rudeness. As much as I was careful about it, I had a habit of being too direct myself. My intense facial features had made any directness on my part come across as defiance to those above me and as overbearing to those below me. I felt a kindred spirit in Meltrize.

“I don’t need to watch my words as you do,” Meltrize said, “because I have no one to offend. But your impression is accurate, for the most part.” Apparently, she’d heard my silent thoughts. “It’s fine. You did not offend me.”

“I’m glad I didn’t.”

“Let’s continue,” she said.

“I’ll explain the curse on you, Ryoma. First of all, it hasn’t been broken yet,” Gain said, as if the words left a bitter taste in his mouth, although he was calm enough that the situation didn’t seem too dire. “What complicates the matter is that a portion of the demon lord fragment has slithered into your soul through the curse...like a parasite. Whatever shred of the demon lord remains has no mind, but seems to have acted on instinct out of self-preservation. I could have removed the curse and the demon lord fragment from you entirely, but that would have strained your soul. So, I only removed a portion of it and contained the curse that remains. By repeating this process regularly, the curse and fragment can be removed without an issue. It may be a bit of an inconvenience, but I’d like you to come here on a regular basis. The schedule can be adjusted... But I think a good starting point would be for you to come once a month over the next year.”

“Like going to see a doctor? I have no problem with that,” I said. “I’m the one inconveniencing you, if anything. Thank you for doing this for me.”

“As far as I can tell, it won’t damage your health in any way... But I’d like you to be careful of some things until the curse is broken,” Gain said. Treatment of an illness usually came with restrictions, so I was ready to follow the doctor’s orders. “The curse you’re afflicted by—let’s call it the Isolation Curse for now—can damage your relationships with other people.”

“That’s tricky,” I said.

“Indeed. To be specific, this curse amplifies negative emotions that anyone may hold towards you. It will beguile their minds so that a small irritation that they may brush off under any other circumstances can grow into an uncontrollable outrage. As a result, it can damage your relationships and isolate you from others,” Gain explained.

“Wait... Just to be clear, the curse has already taken effect, right? I flew back to Gimul with Reinbach and the others, but they didn’t act any differently. The dragon might have growled at me, but that’s about it.”

“Because there is already trust between you and them. Again, the curse is caused by a mere fragment of a demon lord. In proportion to what is left of the former god, its power has dwindled significantly. At full power, the demon lord could have easily cast a curse that made everyone else burn with overwhelming hatred for you. Of course, it never would have felt the need to do so if it had retained its full power,” said Gain.

“Can we go over who exactly will be affected by this curse?” I asked.

“After what I did to restrict its effect...” Gain went on to describe four conditions.

First, the curse only worked on humans. Monsters and familiars were excluded from the effect. Gain guessed that Reinbach’s dragon had only growled at me because I was a stranger, or because it had sensed the magical energy of the curse on me.

Secondly, this person needed to feel some sort of negative emotion towards me, since the curse could only amplify preexisting negative emotions, not create them out of nothing. Zero times anything was still zero.

Thirdly, the curse wouldn’t work if that person felt positive emotions towards me that were more powerful than their negative emotions. The more the person liked me and trusted me, the less effective the curse would be. This was the reason that Reinbach and the others were not affected by the curse.

Finally, the curse only worked when a person directly acknowledged me. Because the core of the curse was within me, I’d have to speak, touch, or show myself to them for the curse to take hold. Sending messages or letters would not trigger the curse.

I contemplated all of these conditions. “It’s kind of underwhelming.”

“Is...that so?” Gain asked. “I thought this curse would be a particularly cruel one for you.”

True, I did get nervous when I first heard that the curse could damage relationships. But it didn’t seem like it would wreck the relationships I’d built so far, and the curse itself would be moot if I just holed myself up for a year. Besides, before I was reborn in this world, I was an unmarried geek approaching forty. That was a combination that invited judgment in Japan, even though I’d dodged the worst stigma of all: joblessness. I’d had plenty of accusations thrown at me, so I never really had the privilege of a high social standing.

In this world, I’d already left trustworthy people in charge of my businesses and submitted all of the paperwork needed for them to make executive decisions. That made it easier for me to set out to the Sea of Trees, so I didn’t foresee any problems on that end, especially since I could still send letters if I needed to.

My savings would easily cover my living expenses for a year, unlike in my previous life when quitting a job meant not having food on the table. Even if I didn’t have that nest egg, I felt confident that I could get by. Of course, not having to worry about money took a huge weight off my shoulders, so that might have contributed to my optimistic outlook about this curse.

“There’s plenty of things I’d like to study about and experiment on. I feel like I could kill a year working on those projects,” I concluded.

The gods all seemed to agree, except for Meltrize, whose eyes seemed watchful...or utterly uninterested. I couldn’t tell.

“You’ve already spent three years alone in a forest without a curse,” Kufo pointed out.

“That makes me feel better, somehow. It’s better that you’re not worried about the curse, of course,” Tekun added.

“Technically, this was the dying curse of a god more powerful than any of us...” Lulutia said.

“It was a streak of bad luck for that demon lord that Ryoma found the fragment and brought it here before it could cause any serious damage,” said Fernobelia.

Gain chimed in. “If you’re going to be a hermit, I recommend spending the first half of the year preparing for the second. To break the curse, I need to drag out the fragment that embedded itself into your soul. It’s a necessary process, but the curse will become stronger the farther it’s dragged out.”

“In other words, the curse is at its weakest now,” I said.

“Exactly. You only need to avoid most contact with others during the last few months of the year. If you have no choice but to interact with others during that time, we can temporarily dampen the curse with magic. I had planned to explain more about that if the prospect of isolation troubled you, but it seems that won’t be necessary.”

That settled the matter of the curse, at least for now.

Gain glanced at Fernobelia, and the two gods instantaneously swapped places. Standing in front of me, Fernobelia quietly said, “I have something to give—no, to return to you.” Before I could wonder what that something was, the magic gem that I’d dug up popped into the air between us.

“You’re returning that to me?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure what to do with the fragment of a demon lord...”

“Do not concern yourself with that. Any remnant of the demon lord’s power has been extracted and destroyed. Now this is an ordinary magical gem. As the finder, you have the right to it. And to decide how to use it. However, I do not recommend trying to sell it. That would draw you unwanted attention. Crafting it into a staff may be an appropriate use. If anything, consider it your reward for having to cope with the curse,” Fernobelia said.

As long as it wasn’t going to harm me, I saw no reason to refuse, so I took the gem and stowed it in my Item Box.

An arm grabbed me by the shoulder. Tekun was suddenly standing beside me. “You don’t have a staff yet, do you?”

“No. I was just starting to think about getting one,” I said. After Remily had told me the traditional method of crafting a staff, I had vaguely daydreamed about making one once I could find the time.

“Perfect! Use that magic gem. For the staff itself... Didn’t you get your hands on the branch of an elder treant?” Tekun asked.

“Now that you mention it... It’s been sitting in my Item Box since I got it.”

Tekun was clearly not happy with my answer. “What a waste! What’s the use of good materials if you don’t do anything with them? You’ve got the woodworking skill, so try crafting it yourself. You’d have to know what material to choose, and detect its magical energy... You know what, I could teach you step-by-step when you come for your curse-breaking visits.”

“You’re allowed to do that?” I asked.

“It’s no big deal, if it’s just the basics. Technology has to be built upon, generation after generation. It’s my job as the god of artisans and technology to watch over that process, and give a helping hand every now and again. I don’t meddle too much now, but I used to guide humans a fair bit. Take the gift, Ryoma.” Tekun laughed, knocking back his drink. It obviously wasn’t a big deal to him, but I felt incredibly lucky to be able to receive instruction from the god of technologies himself.

“I’ll take you up on that when I come back from the Sea of Trees,” I said.

Tekun’s laugh cut off, and he gave the other gods a weird look. An awkwardness came over them, except for Meltrize.

Did I say something wrong? 

“Waste of time,” Meltrize said, her patience apparently having run out. She stepped up to me and added, “Ryoma Takebayashi. We request your help.”

It was a very concise and unilluminating request.