Chapter 20 – Curse (4)

Translator: Yonnee

—

While Julia was thinking about the curse, she tried to figure out the restrictions behind the ritual.

After her meeting with Thaldin and Moro, Julia went to her bedroom and laid down in bed, summarizing what she heard from them.

First of all, this world and the world she lived in previously were different, so things like magic, curses and rituals were also distinct from each other.

That’s why she couldn’t act rashly and make any guesses.

However, the students’ explanation was quite shocking. Julia rose from her bed and took out a quill and paper, organizing the information.

「 1. When three people gather to perform the ritual of Resurrection, the dead shall come out and grant the wishes of those three.

2. In return, those three will work together to prepare food to offer to the dead. This must be prepared once a month.

3. When food is given, that’s the only time that the three’s wishes shall be granted.

4. If you would like to stop giving food, you will have to give up everything related to and achieved by fulfilling the wish.

5. If you fail and give up offering food, the next person to be eaten will be one of the people who performed the ritual.

6. If you can’t give up the wish yet also cannot provide offerings, pass on the ritual to others. The dead shall be transferred to the next people who have accepted to continue the ritual.

7. The rest are the same. 」

“I think that’s about it.”

It’s a ritual that she heard a lot about before. It was a strange ritual that was commonly known, but she couldn’t remember what it was exactly.

Then, as she tilted her head to the side, she hit her fist over her palm.

“Oh, right! I saw it in a horror movie!”

As Julia suddenly remembered Sadako, she trembled. Even though Julia herself could see the dead, it was a different experience to see ghosts in a movie.

She shook her head and rubbed her arms. Putting down the quill in her hand, she closed her eyes in lethargy.

Because she moved around a lot during the day, she was tired. Since the last time, she still hadn’t recovered all her energy yet.

Yawning as she rubbed her tired eyelids, she could feel a heavy blanket of drowsiness as her consciousness slipped away.

Julia had a dream. The setting wasn’t in this place, but when she was still living in Korea. As she had just become an adult, she received a request. Likewise, it was a dream related to curses.

She went to Japan that time, and it was the first time she went overseas, struggling a lot as she couldn’t hold onto the words that she couldn’t understand.

Then, on the way back, a man introduced himself to her, smiling. He called himself an onmyouji and talked about various things.

As he chattered, he told her about various ways to curse people. In fact, he said, a shaman was someone who relieves resentment while connecting people to nature, but shamans weren’t like mediums who could resolve psychic phenomena.

She only roughly listened to what the man said, then left with a smile. But then, there was something he said that strangely stuck out to her.

[ All curses eventually return to themselves. In the harmony of yin and yang, it is called the law of causality—so you must be careful. If your curse happens to work, the next prey would be yourself. So if you’re thinking about performing a curse, be sure to keep this in mind. ]

Julia asked the man then.

[ Do you think I’ll go get a request related to a curse? ]

He laughed.

[ Because curses aren’t something you can avoid. ]

Julia couldn’t understand what he was saying, but as he said, he couldn’t avoid it in the end. Curses weren’t her specialty, but there was no problem grasping the concept since she knew the basics of it somehow.

But then…

*

“A grudge…”

When Julia opened her eyes, it was already the next morning. Because she fell asleep on a chair, her body was stiff, so she got up and warmed up by rolling her neck. She could feel her fatigue piling up because she couldn’t sleep well, but then Elisa suddenly came in.

“Oh my, you’re awake, Milady?”

“Huh?”

“I tried to wake you up from the chair yesterday, but you didn’t even seem to hear me, so I thought you were very tired.

“Ah, really?”

“Yes, you must be very exhausted. You were even talking in your sleep.”

“I was?”

“Yes.”

Elisa placed a finger on her wrinkled forehead, trying to remember. Then, she opened her lips and said something clumsily.

“Bug… A bug. Something like that.”

It was Korean. When Julia tilted her head to the side at the sudden mention of a Korean word, Elisa was similarly confused.

“I didn’t know what you were saying, but you kept muttering these things, so I thought you were very tired. I just turned off the lights and left, but fortunately, you woke up early.”

“Sleeping on a chair made me stiff all over.”

As Julia muttered this, Elisa grinned.

“I thought so, that’s why I prepared hot water for your bath. Won’t you feel refreshed this way?”

At the thought of being able to bathe in warm water, Julia smiled and said, “Should I?” Then, she took off her clothes.

Elisa approached her and helped take off her clothes. But the moment she took off her shirt and was about to pull down her pants, already with her pale hips exposed, the door suddenly opened.

“Julia! Nothing’s wr… ong… huh..?”

“……”

Why does that man always come in without knocking.

I let it slide once, but he continued doing it a second, third time. Now, he just naturally opened the door and came in as though there was nothing wrong with it.

As she saw Leo, Elisa covered her mouth while saying, “Goodness!” but even as she was a skilled maid, she couldn’t completely cover Julia’s body.

Standing with his mouth agape, Leo stared at Julia and gulped, then smiled awkwardly.

“Ah… haha… hahaha!! Please… Please excuse my discourtesy!”

Leo finally left and closed the door.

Julia, who was frozen as she was about to take off her pants, finally came to her senses and sat back down on her chair.

Other people would have normally been thrown into hysterics, but Julia, as exhausted as she was, could do nothing but stare blankly into thin air.

*

“Moro from the other academy will come today, right?”

“Yes. And a total of six people will come.”

“Six?”

“Yes. The number includes Moro, the student who taught him about the ritual, and the other people who did the same ritual as a student who had committed suicide at that academy.”

“I see.”

Julia nodded and turned slightly. Leo was at one corner of the room, his mouth shut as he just gauged Julia’s mood.

Baron Gisel was flustered by the Duke’s presence at first, but the calm man handled it skillfully. After finishing his report, he went out and closed the door behind him.

When the door closed with an echoing click, Leo tried to say something.

“Um—”

“Oh, is there a ghost crying somewhere? They’re being especially loud today.”

Julia cut him off right then and turned back to the documents on her desk. Leo could only stand awkwardly.

“I… I did something bad… right?”

“…Is it an evil spirit? Ah, I should exorcise it.”

Her glare then turned to Leo as she pulled out a talisman from her sleeve. Flustered, Leo took a step back, but then Julia spoke to get his attention.

“So. What’s the reason you’re here? I hope it’s not something as trivial as handing me some documents.”

She pointed to the papers that were on her desk, but Leo shook his head vigorously with a straight face.

“No, not at all!”

‘Haa, this guy.’

Julia looked at him scornfully.

“Don’t you have work? Aren’t you busy?”

“I’m all good. My secretary’s very competent and can handle everything. And it’s okay because I handled my own work yesterday.”

Meanwhile—

“……”

「 Sorry, I think I need to go because I’m worried about Julia. I’ll count on you, Olden. 」

Olden looked blankly at the note that Leo left in his absence. And next to that note were about 400 documents to be checked.

The door opened.

“Count Olden, here are the budget reports needed today.”

“Haa…”

Apart from the four hundred overdue documents, the work for today hadn’t even come in yet. As Olden pressed a hand over his forehead while staring at Leo’s empty seat, that’s when Leo arrived to meet Julia.

Julia narrowed her eyes. She had been distracted by the fiasco from earlier this morning, but she needed to know why he was here.

“Is there something you want to discuss with me?”

“It’s not written in the reports… One more incident happened yesterday.”

“What happened?”

Julia tilted her head to the side, and as he saw this, Leo opened his lips to speak.

“Yesterday… No, to be exact, this morning, the ninth suicide happened.”

“Ninth?”

Julia was shocked at this, but Leo continued.

“Yes. But what’s even more surprising is that the suicide wasn’t successful.”

“So that person’s alive?”

“Yes. Her maid found her early and was able to save her. She’s still unconscious right now, but we’ll be able to meet her here the moment she wakes up.”

“How can you bring her here? We should go to her instead.”

Leo shook his head.

“It happened here at Sedetz Academy.”

“What?”

“Yes, here. It was at the dormitory early this morning.”

“……”

Julia bit her lips and thought for a while, then she got up from her seat to find Baron Gisel.

“Baron.”

“Yes, Miss Julia.”

“Please notify me the moment the student who attempted suicide wakes up. I need to meet her.”

“Alright. I’ll notify you once it happens.”

After Gisel left, several students approached Julia at once. Julia looked curiously at them, and one of them spoke.

“We came here because we heard you had something to ask us.”

“Ah…!”

Julia realized that she had forgotten about the students she had to meet. After making up her mind last night, she forgot to send a letter of request to the Dean.

She opened the door with a smile and ushered the students inside.

“Come in.”

The students followed her as she went in first, but when they saw Leo there, they all gasped. Julia looked back perplexedly, then shifted her gaze forward again.

While Leo sat idly, Julia narrowed her eyes and walked closer to him.

“…I have to question them. But if you’re here, they’ll only feel uncomfortable. Why don’t you stay somewhere else?”

“What? Uncomfortable?”

Julia nodded. Leo looked into the students’ eyes and nodded, then he went outside. The students hurriedly bowed their heads as he passed by, but Leo didn’t even seem to mind them. He never disregarded Julia like that, but sometimes, he seemed to do that to other people.

When Leo was finally gone, Julia gestured to the chairs.

“Have a seat.”

And so, the interview began.

*

During the line of questioning that followed that spanned until the sun was high up in the sky at noon, Julia sank down behind her desk with a tired face. Leo, who came back in, handed her a cup of tea.

“How was it? Dozens of people went in and out.”

As Julia sipped the sweet lemon tea, the refreshing taste energized her.

“You saw?”

“I’m just worried about everything that’s happening. How was it, then? Did you find out anything?”

“Hmm…”

Julia swirled the teacup in her hand slightly, watching the liquid inside move.

“There are no ghosts in the academy.”

“Huh?”

Leo was dumbfounded at Julia’s sudden words. She placed the teacup back down on its saucer and stared out the window.

Others would only see a bright sunny sky, but to her, the landscape was full of hovering spirits. Julia stared at the dead, who stayed here whether it was against their will or not.

“…There are no spirits inside the academy. However, there’s a huge number of spirits hovering over the academy in the sky. They’re trapped. It’s like they want to leave, but an unknown force is forcing them to stay.”

Leo approached the window and looked towards the sky that Julia was staring at. All he could see was a clear sky.

“…What’s the reason? Have you talked to them?”

“They won’t answer me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Julia continued to sip her lemon tea.

“Even if I talk to them directly, they won’t react at all. And when I release my energy, they run away because they get scared… It’s true that it’s difficult to communicate with evil spirits, but it’s the first time I can’t talk to ghosts. It’s strange.”

Julia frowned. As Leo hesitated to answer, the door opened suddenly and Baron Gisel walked in.

“Miss Julia.”

Julia turned to him.

“The child who attempted suicide woke up.”

*

Julia glanced at the small girl sitting in front of her. She looked very tired and fatigued.

Lowering her gaze to look at the child’s thin wrist, Julia quietly reached out and wrapped her hand over the child’s.

“…I know it’s hard, but can you tell me why you chose to end your own life all of a sudden?”

With a voice filled with as much tenderness as possible, the girl looked up and opened her dry lips to speak.

“…didn’t……”

“Huh? What is it?”

The girl spoke in a very small voice, so Julia had to lean forward. But then, the girl suddenly screamed as she shook her head.

“I didn’t! I didn’t attempt suicide! I… I don’t want to kill myself!!”

Startled, Julia took a step back at the sudden scream straight into her ear. The girl grabbed her own hair and started sobbing, then she went on into a frenzy.

“I, I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!! I… I didn’t do anything wrong! Is, is it… is it wrong that I want to live?! I-I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!!”

“Calm down, calm down!”

Julia and the maid rushed in to stop her, and after being held back by two people, the trembling girl’s shrieks were soon reduced to sobs.

“…Si-Sister……”

“What’s wrong? What’s the matter, hm? Tell me! I’ll help you!”

Even as Julia spoke urgently, the girl struggled to answer.

“…I want to live.”

“Yes, you will live.”

At this, the girl only shook her head without wiping her tears. When Julia looked pitifully at her, the girl stared back into Julia’s eyes.

“…I can’t run away. I… the price… I will have to pay the price.”

“What price? What’s the price?!”

Julia shouted with urgency, but the girl struggled to speak as she smiled helplessly.

“…My life.”