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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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A few minutes ago.
The men were waiting by the riverside after receiving orders from their boss, Isaac.
Isaac seemed to already know where those brats would come from somehow.
One of the men recalled Isaac talking to someone suspiciously wearing a black robe.
However, after a short while, he completely forgot that scene in his memory, as if white paint had been splattered on it.
‘If you find the brats, make sure to tell them my words first.’
The men recalled Isaac’s order. If the men had faithfully followed Isaac’s order, they might have been safe, at least for a moment longer.
However, that order was never followed.
Shortly after, the boy and the girls appeared.
Three girls, so beautiful that they could mesmerize anyone looking at them. And a boy with a slender body and exceptionally pale skin, possessing an exquisite appearance.
That boy must be the mage, but the boy with a sickly appearance looked much weaker than other boys his age.
‘If we just prevent him from using magic, such a brat is nothing. We can just catch him and take him away, right?’
So they rushed in first, even forgetting what Isaac had told them to convey.
They were arrogant.
“Just feed them stone fists.”
Until several stones were embedded in their faces with the boy’s calm voice.
“Ugh!”
“Urgh…!”
Countless stones, both small and large, mercilessly embedded into their faces and bodies.
Each time a stone was embedded, they couldn’t even breathe due to the heavy pain ringing throughout their bodies.
“Wa…wait…! I have something…”
In the end, only after being beaten to a pulp could they shout these words. They thought the boy might stop if they conveyed the boss’s words.
However, the boy grinned cruelly and nodded.
“You should have said that to your past selves for a moment.”
And a considerably large stone was firmly slammed into their abdomens.
“Ti…time…! Ugh!!”
Each time they were struck by a stone flying from the air, the men begged the boy to give them a moment.
But the boy fired the stones with indifferent eyes as if he couldn’t hear such cries. The men felt a chilling fear at the sight of such a boy.
‘He really intends to kill us!’
The gaze shown by a 10-year-old boy contained a killing intent that was unbelievable for his eyes.
However, with their legs frozen in fear and their bodies already battered by countless stones, they couldn’t correctly escape from that spot.
Instead, they hoped the stones would miss them even a little by crouching their bodies as much as possible. Unfortunately, the rocks accurately struck the men’s bodies.
And shortly after, when all the men had fallen,
“Now there are no more standing guys.”
The boy approached and kicked the head of a man who was still breathing.
“Well, now that it seems roughly sorted out, tell me. What were those words you had to say? And then I’ll make you comfortable.”
The man shivered at the boy’s emotionless voice, feeling a chill. The ‘comfortable’ didn’t seem to be genuinely comfortable.
His future looked bleak.
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“So, your boss specifically pointed out certain locations and told you to monitor them?”
“Yes! Th-that’s right!”
“And the message he told you to deliver was a curse doll? That he would curse the girl with it?”
In other words, is Isaac a survivor of the Rad clan?
“Y-yes. That’s right!”
I let out a small sigh at the man’s words.
A curse doll was a curse that used a wooden doll closely resembling the target to take their life.
This powerful curse could only be used by the Rad clan, and due to the strength and peculiarity of the curse, they were hunted by those who believed in various gods.
This explains why Isaac hated religion.
However… A curse doll? Is that guy Isaac really capable of using it? It’s not a lie?
*Ding!*
And the system window actually proved that these words were valid. But…
‘It’s strange.’
No matter how much I thought about it, it was strange.
The character named Isaac was a kind of minor role without even a single setting keyword.
He would never have grandiose settings attached to him, such as being the previous owner of the magic sword Rukheld or having a secretive birth.
Moreover, the setting of the cursed doll was a background setting that didn’t appear in the original work and was only posted in the announcement thread.
That’s not all. How could he precisely pinpoint the places I had to go and guard only those places?
It was as if someone had artificially granted new settings and even directed the direction.
‘Could it be that the world is moving?’
I have significantly changed the development of this world. As a result, the world’s laws might have begun to change. The problem was that I still didn’t know how it was changing…
‘So there are cases like this too.’
I frowned.
“Where is the hideout? He must have told you to come find me, right?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
Of course, that’s obvious.
Isaac was currently immersed in his new power. He would have the confidence to never lose even if I, a mage, invaded the hideout.
He must be planning to use the cursed doll at the right time to torment Elin and give a warning.
The man explained the location of the hideout with a stiff face. After hearing the full explanation, I nodded.
“Now you have nothing more to say, right?”
“Yes. B-but wait…!”
The man’s struggle to survive even a little longer was pitiful. But the price of his sin had to be paid.
That’s what it meant to mess with me.
“Elena. Don’t look.”
I mercilessly embedded stones into the man’s face when Elin embraced Elena. The man’s head drooped down.
“That’s too much!”
I spoke coldly to Elena, who was protesting.
“I’m just doing what I have to do.”
For you. I didn’t say the rest.
“Too much.”
Elin also chimed in, but Elin’s wasn’t sincere.
*Ding!*
“Still…”
“This was self-defense. I didn’t attack first, they rushed at us first. Am I wrong?”
“W-well, that’s true, but…”
Elena’s face turned red. I had thought this for a while, but Elena seemed bad at arguing for a saintess.
“Curse doll?”
Nias was restless, hesitating whether to speak or not.
The cursed doll, a curse that could harm the target even from a very long distance, was hidden from the public due to its danger.
Of course, as the Demon King, Nias naturally knew about the cursed doll, but she seemed to want to inform me, thinking I wouldn’t know.
She would try to be as secretive as possible to avoid revealing that she was the Demon King.
However, if it was the Demon King from her previous life, she might not know, but the current Nias was quite foolish.
Although she could use her head properly at times… this wasn’t such a situation.
‘She’s cute, though.’
I smiled faintly.
“Don’t worry.”
The anxious expression on Nias’ restless face disappeared instantly at my words.
With those words, Nias nodded her head with trust.
“Yes! I won’t worry! Ehehe.”
“Are you an idiot? Don’t laugh.”
“I’m not an idiot!”
Nias protested, but I just laughed it off. I casually dismissed the system window, saying Nias’ masochistic tendency had increased.
It seemed that being teased in front of others still worked for now.
But it wasn’t the time to be carefree. Now that it had come to this, Elin was in danger.
A doll that closely resembled the target, requiring a part of the target’s body tissue like hair, and so on.
Although the conditions were challenging, once prepared, the cursed doll was a powerful curse that could kill someone from anywhere.
That’s why it has been hunted by countless people.
Just when I thought I had to act immediately,
“Ugh…!”
For some reason, Elena clutched her chest and curled up her body.
“Elena?!”
“Lady Elena!”
Elin and Nias checked Elena’s condition in a panic.
Elena was writhing in pain, unable to breathe correctly. Tears fell from Elena’s eyes due to the immense pain. The hand tightly gripping her chest area had turned pale.
I firmly held Elena’s hand. It was as if the pain Elena’s body was feeling was vividly conveyed through her agonized breathing and rough pulse.
I realized it in an instant. The curse of the curse doll had affected Elena.
‘But why Elena, not Elin? …Wait, could it be intentional?’
With their almost identical appearance, the curse could have been activated with the doll fragment they had.
Isaac only wanted Elin. So, to Isaac, Elena could die anytime without concern.
This was a warning from Isaac. A warning that he could kill Elin anytime if Elin wasn’t handed over immediately.
I trembled slightly with anger. Those guys were mistaken about me. They were taking me too lightly.
It was the moment another charge was added to their list of crimes.
Seeing Elena in pain, I devised a plan.
The Plot Store had no abilities to heal others or block curses. The Plot Store was stingy even with recovery items for myself.
‘Then I have no choice but to fill in the setting.’
Now that I had decided, the next step was to think about what setting to fill in. The simplest thing would be to add a setting to Isaac, but…
‘It’s already full.’
Isaac had no keyword items. It meant there was no part for me to set separately.
In other words, what I had to set was…
I opened the Settings Browsing Window and entered the curse doll item.
There was but one setting that I could add.
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