Chapter 34

"Hmm, hmm..."

Amu stirred slightly with a faint moan.

"Ah, you're awake?"

"Where are we... What happened to me?"

Amu sat up and looked at me, who was sitting against the wall next to her.

"Unfortunately, we're still in the dungeon. You passed out after being hit by a hobgoblin."

"...I remember. Why did I... to that level of a monster..."

Amu touched the blood on her damp hair and winced. Then she touched her head in various places, looking puzzled.

"Huh, the wound is...?"

"I healed it for you."

"...You can use healing magic?"

Amu then looked at the scattered goblin corpses down the corridor.

"Did you do that too?"

"Pretty much."

Centipedes are messy eaters, so the scene was quite gruesome. But in exchange, they ate a lot of the monsters deep inside, so this place should be safe for a while.

"What are you? I mean, you're a bit strange, aren't you...!"

Amu suddenly pressed her temples and started to suffer again.

"Are you okay? Is it a chronic condition or something?"

Amu kept her eyes tightly closed and shook her head.

"Do you have any idea what's causing it?"

She shook her head again.

I took out a human-shaped figure.

If this is a disease, there's nothing we can do, but I just transferred her injuries a little while ago. It's strange for the symptoms to appear so quickly. So, it might be this.

I set up the human-shaped figure and formed a seal.

"..."

"How do you feel? Are you more comfortable?"

"U-um..."

Amu slowly sat up.

"What did you do?"

"I put up a barrier. As long as you're in here, curses won't reach you."

"Curses...?"

"Yeah. When did the symptoms start?"

"Um... about a month ago. At first, it was just dizziness, but then my head started to hurt more and more..."

If it started a month ago, it would be after she enrolled.

"But, I don't think this is a curse. I looked for a curse mark once, but I couldn't find one anywhere on my body."

"There are places you can't check yourself."

"..."

"I'm not asking you to show me, you know?"

"..."

"Alright. Can you look now? Then it will be clear."

"Eh?"

"Just turn around for a moment."

I turned around as she asked, and the sound of her clothes rustling reached my ears. I waited silently.

"Alright."

When I turned back, there was Amu's white naked back facing me. She turned her head to the side and looked at me with her eyes.

"How does it look? I'm cold, so can you hurry up?"

As she said, I looked from the nape of her neck, down her white back, to her small buttocks and calves, but I couldn't see any curse mark.

"None."

"Right. I thought so. Can you turn around again?"

I turned around again, and the sound of her clothes rustling came again. When I turned back, Amu was sitting next to me, leaning against the wall, back in her clothes. She looked calm, but her face was slightly red.

"I told you, it's not a curse."

Her voice was slightly trembling. Maybe Amu herself had been worried all along. But I had to say it.

"No... it's not necessarily so. For example, the mark might be the same color as her skin, or very small, making it hard to find."

"Are you seriously asking me to show you again!?"

"No! I'm just saying there are plenty of ways to hide it! Like in the scalp, the back of the throat, or various holes. There are many ways to hide a curse mark. I can't deny it."

"Then why did I show you just now?"

"Well..."

"Besides, I don't remember being cursed. Didn't Mr. Karen say in class that to cast a curse, you need to be in direct contact with the target? Isn't that a contradiction?"

"..."

"If you thought it was a contradiction, why did you take your clothes off just now?"

"!! Be quiet, I'll kill you!?"

"I'm sorry..."

I don't want to be the target of your anger.

"Anyway, since the barrier is working, it's better to assume it's a curse. And... curses can be cast from a distance, you know."

"Is that also knowledge passed down in the Lamproug family?"

"Pretty much."

"Hmm... So what? Do I have to stay in your barrier forever?"

"Not necessarily. Just like there are ways to bypass the barrier, there are ways to bypass the curse... Can I have a strand of your hair? It's better if it has blood on it."

Amu pulled out a strand of her blood-soaked hair and handed it to me. I tied it to the human-shaped figure and wrote characters with my curse power, chanting a spell. ...Okay, this should do it.

"Here. Keep this talisman. It will take your place."

Amu looked at the human-shaped figure she received with a suspicious expression.

"Will this really work?"

"It will. But it's a consumable. It will break after it blocks a certain amount of the curse."

"Then..."

"I'll make another one if it breaks, but I'll try to fix it before that happens. I will."

After a moment of silence, Amu stood up.

"Let's move on. If that doesn't happen again, I can fight properly."

As Amu started to walk, I grabbed her hand.