Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 77

Chapter 77

When Zeke spoke, Catherine’s expression hardened.

She addressed Zeke in a cold voice.

“Sir Zeke. You are being extremely rude.”

There was anger in Catherine’s voice.

Her daughter, Angelina Graham, was once rumored to become the continent’s greatest beauty.

However, Angelina did not make her debut in society even after turning 16, the typical age for debutantes, which led to various rumors spreading.

People speculated that she hadn’t grown up to be as beautiful as expected, or that she had contracted a terrible illness that had disfigured her face.

Since no one had seen Angelina after the age of ten, these rumors were considered somewhat credible.

While rumors were rampant, no one had ever dared to directly bring up Angelina in front of the prestigious House Graham.

Everyone kept quiet and avoided mentioning Angelina Graham’s existence altogether.

Catherine, feeling insulted by Zeke, spoke in a cold voice.

“I will remember your rudeness clearly. I would appreciate it if you would leave the castle now.”

She clearly ordered Zeke to leave, despite his large investment in the mines.

This demonstrated how sensitive the topic of Angelina was to Catherine.

However, Zeke remained unfazed and said to Catherine:

“If we leave Lady Angelina’s illness untreated any longer, it will become irreversible.”

Catherine flinched at Zeke’s calm voice.

She looked at Zeke and spoke:

“You speak as if you know what Angelina’s illness is.”

“Yes. I do know.”

Catherine’s eyes widened at those words.

“Are you saying that while all the renowned doctors in the continent couldn’t even diagnose it, Sir Zeke knows what the illness is and can even cure it?”

Zeke said to Catherine:

“The affliction troubling Lady Angelina isn’t an illness, but a curse.”

Catherine’s face turned pale at those words.

“A… a curse?”

Zeke nodded.

“Doesn’t she show symptoms of blisters appearing all over her body and decaying skin as time passes?”

Catherine was shocked.

“How… how did you know that…”

“While it may appear to be an illness at first glance, it cannot be treated with ordinary medicine. It’s a terrible curse cast through forbidden magic.”

Tears welled up in Catherine’s eyes.

“A curse… that’s impossible…”

“Do you have any reason to think it’s not a curse?”

“When Angelina collapsed, the first people we called were the wizards from Nirvana. House Graham has many enemies, so we’re always thorough about preparing against curses. We were especially careful with Angelina since she received so much public attention. The Nirvana wizards said they found no traces of a curse, so we only thought it was an illness…”

Zeke shook his head.

“Curses are closer to sorcery than magic. Many exist in mysterious realms that are difficult to interpret through ordinary magic.”

Catherine’s expression completely changed from before at Zeke’s words.

“S-Sir Zeke, do you mean you can break this curse?”

Zeke pulled out a holy book he had prepared from his chest.

He made the sign of the cross and said:

“You must have heard about the curse of House Agamemnon.”

Catherine nodded.

“O-Of course. I heard the curse was recently broken. Ah! Come to think of it, the newly appointed heir of House Agamemnon is…”

“With the help of the Sun God, we were able to recover the family’s sacred object and defeat the curse.”

Catherine felt her heart waver as she watched Zeke holding the holy book with a devout posture.

She approached Zeke and grabbed his hands.

“S-Sir Zeke. Can you really break our Angelina’s curse?”

“Everything will depend on God’s will. But what’s certain is that the more time we waste, the more dangerous it becomes for Lady Angelina.”

At Zeke’s words, Catherine began praying with trembling hands and a pale face.

Zeke held Catherine’s hands and recited the Lord’s Prayer together.

Farrell, who was behind them, also joined in prayer with clasped hands.

Only Felix, the descendant of an Arch Paladin, stood there blankly watching the three people pray.

* * *

Farrell and Felix returned to their room while Zeke followed Catherine deeper into the castle.

They headed toward the northern tower where outsiders were not allowed.

Knights wearing full plate armor guarded the tower entrance.

Catherine took a lamp at the entrance and began climbing up the narrow tower passage.

“They said magic power wasn’t good for the illness, so we removed all magic-powered items.”

Perhaps because of this, without even a common magic lamp, the passage was pitch dark.

The two walked up the spiral tower and entered the room at the top.

As soon as Zeke entered, he frowned at the rotten stench.

‘The situation seems worse than expected.’

Kaaaaaak!

A sound like a beast howling came from inside the room.

Catherine bowed her head and began reciting prayers again.

Zeke held Catherine’s hand to calm her and asked.

“Is Lady Angelina inside?”

Catherine nodded.

“A caretaker changes her bandages and cleans her discharge daily.”

“Please have the caretaker and madam step outside.”

Catherine flinched at Zeke’s words but soon nodded.

At this point, she had no choice but to trust Zeke.

Soon the caretaker came out from the inner door, and Zeke slowly entered.

The foul smell from earlier became even stronger.

‘The condition is serious.’

After closing the door, Zeke looked toward the bed in the corner of the room.

There lay a monstrous humanoid figure covered in discharge-soaked cloths that could hardly be called bandages.

“Kaaak!”

The bound creature with tied arms and legs screamed with a sound like scraping metal.

“Lady Angelina.”

Zeke slowly approached the bed.

Looking at her condition, it was more surprising that she was still alive.

Her entire body’s skin was festering and filled with pus, and her hair had mostly fallen out leaving patches.

She was so emaciated that every bone was visible.

Zeke tried speaking to Angelina.

“Lady Angelina. Can you hear me?”

Despite Zeke’s words, Angelina did not respond.

Then after a moment, her lips began to quiver as she tried to say something.

Zeke slowly brought his ear close to her mouth.

“…Ple…ase… kill… me.”

She had been living each day writhing in pain worse than death.

Watching Angelina, Zeke took out a bible from his possession and placed it on the table beside her.

Then he took out Agamemnon’s Golden Mask from his inventory.

He took a deep breath while looking at Angelina.

‘I hope this method works well.’

Zeke knew about Angelina’s curse through events in his past life.

He had once tracked down and captured a Nage who used evil ancient curses, under his master’s orders.

During interrogation, he learned that among the Mage’s commissions was cursing the daughter of House Graham in the past.

Since Angelina was already dead at that time and the Wizard died without revealing the client, they hadn’t notified House Graham.

‘Even if House Graham knew, they couldn’t have broken it since it used ancient forbidden magic.’

Ancient curses required extremely complex procedures to cast and had high risks if failed, but once successful, they were equally difficult to break.

Even the Mages who cast them often couldn’t break them.

In fact, the curse on Angelina was that kind.

‘A curse that causes more pain the more beautiful the target is. Who would create such a crazy curse.’

Zeke clicked his tongue and infused mana into the Golden Mask.

Like at the lake, the Golden Mask activated and transformed into a helmet covering his face.

[Mask functions are linked with the system.]

[Great Purification function is now available.]

After purifying House Agamemnon’s curse, Zeke was able to gain ownership of this divine item as the family successor.

Afterwards, he tested various functions by activating the mask.

As a result, he discovered that while holding the mask only allowed limited functions, wearing it activated like this enabled use of the ‘Great Purification’ skill.

“Phew.”

Wearing the Golden Mask, Zeke slowly approached Angelina.

He used the Great Purification skill and Area buff skill, designating the area around Angelina.

Woooong!

Golden waves emanating from his body seeped into Angelina’s body.

“Aaaagh!”

When the golden light enveloped her body, Angelina screamed in pain as if her body was on fire.

Hearing a different scream than before, Catherine grabbed and shook the doorknob.

“Sir Zeke! Is everything alright! Angelina! P-please open the door!”

Catherine couldn’t enter because Zeke had previously used a scroll to magically seal the door.

Zeke continued infusing the power of Great Purification into Angelina’s body.

Chiiik!

Suddenly, black smoke rose from Angelina’s body.

“Uuurgh!”

Soon after, she twisted her body and vomited black liquid.

“Aaaaaagh!”

Angelina screamed and writhed her entire body. The black smoke coming from her body was growing thicker.

Zeke quietly watched this, then took out a potion from his inventory and sprayed it on Angelina’s body.

Chiiik!

When the potion touched Angelina’s festering skin, new flesh began to grow.

‘Still not enough.’

This time he took out a supreme grade potion, forcibly opened Angelina’s mouth and made her swallow it.

“Uuurgh!”

Although Angelina tried to resist drinking the potion, Zeke grabbed her throat and forced her to swallow and absorb it.

Her entire body had weakened from being cursed for so long.

If he only removed the curse, her body might go into shock from the sudden change and her heart could stop.

“Unnngh!”

Angelina writhed in pain, twisting her body on the bed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

There was a loud noise outside, perhaps Catherine having knights try to break down the door.

Zeke focused the power of Great Purification on Angelina once more.

Woooong!

Angelina’s body bent at a grotesque angle.

Then suddenly she opened her mouth wide and vomited black smoke.

Kwakwakwakwa!

The source of the curse burst out of Angelina’s body, unable to endure.

Zeke immediately used Gluttony on the source of the curse.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The black shadow from Zeke’s body swallowed the source of the curse.

Soon a message appeared.

[You have devoured an ancient cursed spirit.]

[Your depleted mental power and mana are being restored.]

[You have acquired the Curse Reflection (A-rank) skill by absorbing the devoured spirit’s ability.]

After devouring the spirit with Gluttony, he gained the Curse Reflection skill.

‘An unexpected gain.’

Zeke cast the Healing Factor skill as an area buff to regenerate Angelina’s body.

Crack! Crack!

Heal! Heal!

With the power of Healing Factor, Angelina’s damaged body began to recover.

Since this was the same Healing Factor that had restored the House of Agamemnon’s people who were crumbling from magical contamination, Angelina’s cursed body also returned to its original state.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

After confirming that her fallen hair had started growing back, Zeke put the golden mask back in his inventory.

Then he slowly approached Angelina.

Unlike before, he checked her pulse by holding her wrist, which was now silent.

Fortunately, there was a pulse.

Angelina, now free from the curse, had regained her original form.

Zeke took off his outer coat and covered Angelina’s bare body.

That’s when it happened.

Bang!

The door opened as the scroll magic Zeke had set up wore off.

Catherine entered the room with the knights.

Catherine realized Angelina was no longer screaming and covered her mouth.

She thought her daughter had died.

Catherine shouted at Zeke.

“Sir Zeke! How, how could this happen?! My, my daughter..!”

She had entrusted Angelina to Zeke with a thread of hope, but mistakenly thought it had led to the worst outcome.

Zeke scratched his head while watching the grieving Catherine.

‘I missed the timing to tell her the treatment was successful.’

While he was wondering how to explain since she seemed unlikely to listen to anything right now.

“Mother…?”K