"It’s good that everything is going so smoothly, but I didn't expect you to breeze through the practical applications without a single stumble."
Lord Rosenberg wore a smile that was a mixture of admiration, surprise, and the slight exasperation of a mentor who found himself with nothing left to teach. Honestly, I felt exactly the same way.
Even though Curse Magic was fundamentally just another branch of magic, it felt oddly natural—more so than any system I had used before. I had mentioned to Eleanora last night that I seemed to be a quick study, but this felt like it was on an entirely different level.
"I don't mean to doubt you, but have you ever studied Curse Magic before?"
"The first time I received any formal instruction was from Lady Remily Cremis. I ended up being cursed myself as a result of my own ignorance and a few careless mistakes."
In truth, it hadn't been that long since I had started learning any kind of magic, not just curses. I had discussed this with Eleanora as well, but having spent decades in my previous life consuming fantasy through Japanese manga and anime, I had a very solid mental image of how these things worked. That was likely my greatest advantage.
"Ever since I was a child, I read various books belonging to my grandmother. Some of them were stories that featured Curse Magic, so I might have picked up the concepts there."
"I see... Out of curiosity, what kind of Curse Magic appeared in those stories?"
When he asked for specifics, the first thing that came to mind was the Shrine Visit at the Hour of the Ox. Other famous examples included Kodoku and Inugami—generally dark, dangerous-sounding arts.
Kodoku, also known as Kojutsu, involved placing several venomous creatures into a single container, like a jar, and forcing them to kill one another until only one remained. That final survivor was then used as a familiar to kill others.
Inugami involved burying a dog in the earth up to its neck and starving it while placing food just out of its reach. Right as the animal was about to die and attempted to lunge for the food, its head was struck off. The spirit of the dead dog was then utilized as a familiar or made to possess and kill a target... or something along those lines.
There were many variations of these methods, and since my knowledge came partly from fiction, there were undoubtedly inaccuracies. However, they all shared the common theme of being exceptionally dangerous.
I gave a somewhat vague explanation, but as I spoke, Lord Rosenberg’s expression grew increasingly grim.
"Was it... a bad idea for me to know about those?"
"No, there is no problem with simply possessing the knowledge. Such arts weren't uncommon in the distant past, and if one studies Curse Magic professionally, it’s inevitable that they will hear of them eventually.
"However, those arts—or more precisely, any Curse Magic involving the use of sacrifices, or the killing and tormenting of living things—are considered strictly forbidden in the modern era. You must never, under any circumstances, attempt to use them."
Lord Rosenberg went on to explain exactly why these practices were taboo.
Sacrifices were, essentially, a substitute for Mana Stones. Since mana resided in all things—and blood was particularly rich in it—the mana within a slaughtered creature was used to supplement the caster’s own reserves or to amplify the spell’s potency.
The abuse inflicted before death was a method of mana conversion. Just as one would use a Mana Stone that matched the attribute of the intended spell, filling a sacrifice’s heart with negative emotions through torment made the mana easier to manipulate for curses and significantly boosted the effect.
"Hearing that, I can see how accidents like the one from the merchant’s story could easily happen..."
"I’m told they were quite frequent. That is precisely why such magic is banned now. Even so, there are always those who cannot resist the temptation of immense power. The reality is that a certain number of people still practice self-harm to increase their own abilities, rebranding it as 'Ascetic Training' to justify it as part of their path."
Sacrifices left physical evidence through procurement or the remains of the ritual, and if performed on a human, it was a crime that allowed for an arrest regardless of whether the perpetrator was a Curse Specialist. However, inflicting pain on oneself was a matter of personal will. If someone started with something minor and gradually escalated while convinced it was part of their training, many would simply accept it as the norm.
Furthermore, if someone who had endured a difficult past eventually became a Curse Specialist, it was hard to distinguish them from someone who had performed Ascetic Training. For that reason, specialists were advised to avoid such practices entirely, though it wasn't strictly illegal.
"Deliberately harming your own mind and body is never a good thing, though it's virtually impossible to go through life without experiencing some form of hardship. Regardless, attempting to manufacture negative emotions through pain remains a dangerous path.
"If you ever encounter a Curse Specialist performing that kind of training, or if someone encourages you to try it, please, never listen to them."
"I understand. By the way, how does a typical Curse Specialist go about their training?"
"Meditation and introspection are the foundations. For example, if you feel the negative emotion of anger, you examine it. What is this anger directed toward? Why do I find it so infuriating? Once the cause is identified, what countermeasures can be taken? You face the negative emotion head-on and dissect it."
It sounded a lot like counseling—or perhaps mental health care. Since he used anger as an example, it reminded me of the Anger Management Seminars I had been required to take back when I was a corporate employee.
"I’m not sure if it’s exactly the same, but I recall being made to do something very similar a long time ago. I’m also familiar with meditation as part of my martial arts training."
"I see. It’s true that emotional control and healing the mind are necessary skills even for those who aren't Curse Specialists, which is why some of our kind offer guidance to the general public. It’s possible you’ve been training for Curse Magic without even realizing it, Ryoma."
Lord Rosenberg seemed satisfied with that conclusion. So there really were Curse Specialists who focused on counseling and mental care... Well, since the training dealt with negative emotions that could potentially damage the mind, it made sense that they would have accumulated knowledge on how to heal it. It was a deep field of study.
"We’ve strayed from the topic, but for now, you’ve mastered the spells needed after purification. Since we have everything ready, let’s move on to practicing Curse Removal."
Lord Rosenberg gestured behind me. When I turned around, I saw that Sebas had set up a table and chairs in a clearing a short distance away and was using magic to pull an enormous number of boxes out of thin air.
There were far more boxes than yesterday. They varied in size, but once I took my seat, Sebas opened the largest one to reveal that it was packed tight with smaller containers.
"Each of these small boxes contains a single item that has been cursed—a Cursed Object."
"All of these? There must be at least fifty here."
"Since we have no way of knowing what might happen if Cursed Objects are left unattended, the law in this country dictates that they must be appropriately treated, collected, and stored as soon as they are discovered."
If an owner hired an Exorcist or a Curse Specialist to purify an item, they could keep it, but most people relinquished ownership if the cost of purification exceeded the item’s value. These objects were then funneled through the Guard Force or various guilds into a storage facility managed by the local lord, where Curse Specialists and Exorcists would eventually purify or destroy them.
The terrifying part was that it was often impossible to tell if an item was cursed just by looking at it, so they occasionally ended up for sale at second-hand markets or street stalls.
"I withdrew these from the Jamil family’s Cursed Object Storage Facility under my own name, citing the need to train a novice specialist. New items arrive from across the territory every single day, so the facilities are chronically understaffed. Purification rarely keeps pace with the intake, so the staff was more than happy to let me take them."
"Is that... safe?"
"The Jamil family’s facilities are actually quite well-managed. Ideally, everything would be handled within the territory, but if a backlog becomes unmanageable, we coordinate with neighboring lords to find another facility before ours reaches capacity. There’s no need to worry."
Work at these storage facilities could be done as a single-day shift, or someone could take a set number of items home to purify in their spare time, much like Lord Rosenberg had done for this lesson. Since the pay was per item, it was treated as a convenient side hustle for rookie Curse Specialists.
When I tried my hand at purification using Curse Transfer, I found I could do it as easily as breathing. Since there was no shortage of objects or mana, I began purifying them one after another. It reminded me of my school days; there was something oddly satisfying about the rhythmic, assembly-line nature of the work. I felt like this kind of job really suited me.
However, the number of objects was staggering. I had estimated fifty at a glance, but there were even more hidden out of view.
"We can just return whatever we don't finish to the facility, so don't feel like you have to push yourself. I only brought so many because Sebas was here to help carry them, and I figured it was better to have too many than too few."
"I appreciate not having a quota, but it bothers me to leave work unfinished when I know I can get through it. It’s good practice for the fundamentals, so I’d like to keep going until noon."
"If you have the drive, I certainly won't stop you."
Still, purifying them one by one felt inefficient. I considered doing them in batches, but I had been told that keeping too many Cursed Objects together could occasionally cause the curses to resonate and trigger bizarre phenomena, so batch purification was discouraged for safety reasons.
...Wait, can slimes use Curse Magic? If the Dark Slimes, who already use the dark attribute, could learn it, I might be able to increase my productivity.
Since the idea had occurred to me, I asked for permission to run a test.
I summoned a Dark Slime from my Dimension Home and set a cursed ring and a Mana Stone on the table to demonstrate.
"Watch closely. Curse Transfer."
Using my mana, I enveloped the eerie magic clinging to the ring and coaxed it to dissolve. Once I had completely stripped it from the metal, I funneled that mana into the stone. After confirming the ring was clear, I was done. I let the Dark Slime observe the entire process, then set out the next object for it to try.
"Can you do it?"
The Dark Slime extended a tentacle and began nudging a cursed earring and a Mana Stone. It was emitting a very faint magic power, but the curse showed no signs of moving to the stone.
"No luck...?"
I often forgot because they were capable of so many autonomous actions, but slimes were fundamentally monsters with very little ego that lived on instinct. Perhaps they didn't possess the emotional depth required for Curse Magic?
I was just coming to that conclusion as I watched the Dark Slime gently nudge the items away. However, as I reached out to collect them, I noticed something strange.
"Lord Rosenberg? The curse is gone from this earring."
"You're right. I didn't feel the curse transfer to the stone, though... Where could it have gone?"
"...It probably ate it. Curses are essentially dark-attribute mana that has been warped by negative emotions. Dark-attribute mana is exactly what Dark Slimes love to eat."
It wasn't the result I had expected, but the curse was definitely gone.
"Let me try something else."
I visualized a mild illness and began emitting cursed magic power as if I were feeding a magic-type slime. The Dark Slime happily extended its tentacles and began drawing the mana from my hand exactly as it did during its normal meals.
So, it was confirmed: Dark Slimes could consume cursed mana. Now that I thought about it, the Dark Slimes had been absorbing ambient mana back in the Town of Ghosts, too. At the time, I was busy excavating the Fragment of the Demon King, so I had just assumed they were eating.
However, that place had been thick with Miasma. Even without the fragment, it was an old execution ground where negative emotions had pooled for ages. It wouldn't have been strange at all for that mana to be cursed.
Had the signs been there all along, and I had just missed them? If that was the case...
"I've made a terrible oversight!"
"Master Takebayashi!?"
"Are you all right? What happened?"
"Ah, forgive me. As a slime researcher, I just realized I’ve been incredibly unobservant."
Sebas seemed to have deduced my train of thought from my reaction and remained calm, but Eleanora and Lord Rosenberg looked utterly bewildered. I had clearly startled them. While I needed to reflect on my behavior, I had more pressing matters.
"Lord Rosenberg, may I use the rest of the Cursed Objects?"
I had confirmed that this slime would eat cursed mana, and I wanted to observe it further while it fed. If it was eating curses this eagerly, there was a high probability of a new evolution.
And so, my practice session shifted from Curse Removal to slime observation. Before long—
"Here it comes!"
Curse Slime
Skills: Dark Magic Lv3, Curse Magic Lv3, Dark Attribute Resistance Lv8, Curse Resistance Lv5, Dark Attribute Magic Absorption Lv2, Curse Absorption Lv3, Jump Lv1, Digestion Lv3, Absorption Lv3, Division Lv1.
Having gorged itself on the mana of a massive pile of Cursed Objects, the Dark Slime had evolved perfectly!
"No change to its appearance... the size, color, and luster are still as black as the void. It’s impossible to tell the difference between the pre-evolution and post-evolution forms just by looking... but in terms of abilities, it’s gained curse-related skills and resistances.
"Did it eat the curse because of Curse Absorption? Even before this, Dark Slimes could eat dark magic to mitigate the damage... How fascinating."
It was quite some time before I, lost in the joy of observing my newly evolved slime, noticed the three adults watching me with wry, indulgent looks.