The Holy Lady, The Curse - Chapter 8 Part 7

“Someone has placed a curse on you. A curse that lures and traps the soul with what the target desires most and fears most.”

A choked voice spilled from between Bellota’s dry lips.

“But it’s all an illusion. You mustn’t let your heart be stolen by that false image…!”

Seiden, who had been watching that face in astonishment, slowly turned his head to look at the other Bellota. The Bellota still tied by the ankle on the hill was no longer shedding tears or blood tears, but glaring at the two with a terrifying face.

As Seiden made eye contact with the other Bellota, urgent hands came down on his cheeks. Bellota held his face with both hands and forcibly turned his head to make him look at her.

“Don’t look, please!”

Bellota was now almost angry. Seiden’s face became dumbfounded at seeing her like this for the first time.

“…Can you see that?”

Seiden asked in a low, tense voice. Bellota glanced at where her other self was, then nodded. At that nod, Seiden’s heart sank again.

What he desired most, and feared most. Something the woman before him should never know.

“What… does it look like to you?”

Then Bellota calmly exhaled and answered composedly.

“It looks like a black aura. The illusion curse only appears as an aura to anyone other than the person targeted by the curse.”

At that answer, Seiden’s tightly wound heart loosened emptily. Ah…

Bellota, mistaking Seiden’s body going limp as him half-falling for the curse, grasped his collar tightly again and pleaded.

“Don’t be fooled, Sir. If you fall for it, you’ll wander in an eternal illusion…”

Seiden stared blankly at Bellota, who was terrified as if he might rush into that illusion. Clear tears were wavering in her eyes filled with fear. Feeling a pain in his heart, Seiden slowly opened his mouth.

“I knew.”

Astounded, Bellota’s eyes stopped for a moment. He knew…?

“That it was all fake. I knew from the beginning.”

Seiden knew that the Bellota crying while caught in the trap was an illusion. How could he not recognize Bellota? No matter what illusion was presented in front of him, he could find the real Bellota within it.

No matter how skilled a mage might be, they couldn’t perfectly recreate this unique woman now looking down at him. Even with the same face, same voice, whispering the same words, they couldn’t imitate the real Bellota.

The reason Seiden had been watching the fake Bellota was to see if he could find any evidence about those who dared to do such a thing at the hunting festival. And to see how far this fake, who dared to impersonate Bellota, would go. He had no intention of playing along. However…

“It’s okay, I’m fine. As long as I have you… Even if I can’t see again, I won’t resent you.”

Even so.

“So please, Seiden…”

Even though he knew that the one calling his name before his eyes was a fake Bellota…

“You love me, don’t you.”

He couldn’t stop his heart from stupidly aching at those stinging words.

“How on earth did you come here?”

Seiden, finally regaining his senses, asked Bellota in disbelief. Right now, for him, the fact that the real Bellota was in his arms here was more unbelievable than any illusion. Judging from the situation, it was clear that someone had targeted him using a curse. Bellota, who noticed this, rushed here to save him. But how? In this vast mountain…

Bellota, now more flustered, blinked her eyes, not knowing what to do.

He knew from the beginning. Seiden’s words were not a lie. His eyes were still the calm red color, solid and clean as always. On the other hand, when caught in an illusion curse, one’s eyes become completely black, and they become hazy, as if in a dream, unable to recognize people.

But how… The illusion curse is such a high-level curse that it can’t be avoided with ordinary willpower. Even many prominent priests have fallen into eternal sleep because of this curse…

Then Bellota soon remembered that the man she was sitting on was one of only three Sword Masters on the continent. One who had faced countless monsters and overcome numerous such difficulties. As that thought reached her, Bellota’s face flushed with heat. Even without her making such a fuss, Seiden wouldn’t have fallen for such a shallow trick.

With her cheeks flushed red, Bellota glanced at Seiden. Seiden was still staring at her intently, seemingly determined to hear how she had come here.

Finally, she moved her lips slightly.

“With the… necklace you gave me…”

Ah… Only then did Seiden understand, letting out a small laugh. He never thought it would be used like this. When Seiden realized how Bellota had found him, something inside him loosened emptily while simultaneously making the back of his neck tingle dizzily.

At that faint breath, Bellota, feeling so embarrassed she wanted to run away, bowed her head deeply. Seiden watched her persistently, not missing a single moment. Even so, to rush into this dangerous hunting ground relying only on tracking magic… What if she encountered a dangerous monster on the way.

Seiden recalled Bellota’s urgent face as she had grasped his collar and pleaded just moments ago. That face that didn’t hesitate to rush here despite fearing for his safety. The woman who, even while relieved and happy to have found him, still held onto him to the end. So, perhaps it wasn’t those who dared to perform this dark magic at the hunting festival who had gone mad, but himself, who was only happy and elated even in this situation.

Although Bellota’s face, now slowly regaining her senses, was flushed red, Seiden was too happy to care about such things. Just this morning, he had been troubled, thinking Bellota might never speak to him again.

“I, I was afraid you might be in danger… This curse is one that even priests can’t avoid…”

Having lost all her usual calmness and composure, Bellota haltingly offered excuses, her face flushed.

“So you came to save me?”

When Seiden asked intently, Bellota finally raised her head to meet his eyes. They were eyes filled with faint resentment and sorrow towards him for teasing her.

“You said… you would win…”

It was at that moment while Seiden was gritting his molars, trying to resist the urge to embrace the small head of the woman on top of him and kiss her immediately, that the air around them suddenly became chillingly cold. A huge black smoke loomed over Bellota, who was sitting on top of Seiden.

Seiden’s eyes stopped for a moment when he saw it. As his expression suddenly hardened, Bellota’s face became puzzled. When Bellota was about to turn around carelessly, Seiden quickly embraced her and picked up the sword lying beside them. Before the surprised Bellota could say anything, the tightly entangled bodies of the two floated into the air.

“Huh……”

As the startled Bellota held her breath, black aura gathered around their overlapping bodies. It swallowed the two in an instant.

Seiden realized in the blink of an eye that he and Bellota were trapped inside the black aura. At the same time, the vibration stopped, but the two were frozen, not daring to make a sound. Quiet and intense breaths mingled in the narrow space where only the two were barely trapped.

Seiden calmly rolled his eyes to examine the barrier that had trapped him and Bellota in an instant. It was as if they were trapped in a black oval box tailored to fit their bodies. So that they couldn’t move at all inside.

Sensing something was wrong, Bellota tried to turn her head to look back, but Seiden quickly warned,

“Don’t move.”

Hearing that, Bellota immediately stopped moving and looked at Seiden with frightened eyes. Seiden, still holding Bellota tightly, looked into her eyes and swallowed a sigh. Whoever it was, they were undoubtedly desperate to kill him.

“It seems we’ve fallen into a second trap.”

A second trap? Bellota held her breath in surprise, but Seiden’s face, who had noticed the trap first, was surprisingly calm.

“The barrier surrounding us will tighten more and more as we move.”

At those terrible words, Bellota’s already low breath stopped completely. Only then did Bellota realize what kind of trap the barrier that was holding her and Seiden captive was. It was dark magic designed to slowly tighten and compress, ultimately crushing the trapped prey to death.

Bellota had also heard of this dark magic before. Though not a common spell, it was a method that demons used to enjoy hunting humans as food for monsters in the past.

This black barrier was imbued with magical energy that attracted hungry monsters. So if a monster roaming around were to discover the black cloud floating in the air, it would swallow the prepared prey in one bite.

Bellota’s face turned pale as she recalled that terrible hunting method. The place where the two were trapped was in the middle of the hunting ground where the hunting competition was taking place. And Bellota had never dealt with such magic before.

“What, what should we do?”

As the end of her panicked voice trembled, Seiden quietly put strength into the hand holding Bellota. Fortunately, Seiden, who had constantly faced monsters and countless traps in their habitats, had encountered this trap before. Thanks to that, he clearly knew the weakness of this dark magic.