Apparently, shadow magic is like a virus.

But instead of using a living being as the host to spread, it uses things that conduct magical power.

Such as… a certain pink metal this sword is made out of.

That’s the conclusion Deliah made.

And it makes quite a bit of sense if you put it that way…

…

Huh…

Well…

Good to know.

Now…

What should I do about this thing?!

Thinking about it, I don’t REALLY need a sword, do I?

My claws should be enough for the odd monster.

And if I ever face off against the other ‘chosen ones’, I’ll make sure to use the cat soul variants anyway!

So what now?

If I leave it lying somewhere, it’s gonna run rampant!

So, I gotta find a way to either uncurse it or keep it stable even when I’m not around…

Or carry it around everywhere I go…

Ugh…

I’m seriously an idiot!

Oh, I don’t like that it’s pink?

Well, let me INFUSE IT WITH SOME EVIL MAGIC!

What the heck was I thinking?

Can someone punch me the next time I come up with something like this?

Well, first stop: the church.

This magic is more or less something granted to me by a god.

And these people are pretty close to gods!

Moreover, they must have some experience with curses as well.

Surely there’s someone there who can purify it, right?

“Where… in the world… did you get this…?”

That’s some serious amount of sweat come off of your head…

Aren’t you going to get dehydrated, Mrs. priestess?

“We… err, we found it in a dungeon…?”

“… why a question?”

Come on Ignis!

Be more persuasive!

“Never mind! Can you do something about it?!”

“… I have never seen a curse like this. Are you telling me it’s bound to this young lady? Poor you, being cursed by this vile object…”

Uhh, yeah.

Let’s put it that way.

Never mind that it was ME who cursed IT.

“Come this way, we’ll see what we can do.”

I followed her and we entered the back room.

She told me to sit down for a bit and before fetching something from an adjacent room.

The thing she brought back was a golden scepter with a ring pattern surrounding the tip and wings growing out of it.

It gave off the impression of being holy.

… a complete opposite of my sword.

“Now let me see- huh?! What?!”

She lightly touched the sword with her staff, but as soon as she did, the shadow jumped onto the staff and began spreading.

“N-no way! The holy scepter!”

…

Is that staff made out of that pink metal too?

Well, that would be bad.

I better absorb it back before another cursed weapon is born.

I hurriedly stood up and turned on panther soul.

“Gyaaah!”

That made her instantly drop the scepter and scream in terror.

…

Oh shut it.

I’m gonna clean it up, so stop your screaming.

Aaand…

There.

It’s golden again.

You can stop cowering now.

…

Ignis, why are you looking at me like that?

It’s irritating.

Want me to punch you?

…

Well…

That went great!

The sword is as cursed as ever!

And on top of that, I think the church has marked me down as an evil demon!

Fun times ahead!

Ughhh…

Can one of my variants give me time travel magic so I can undo this?

“Hey it’s not that bad, right? At least you got an amazing weapon!”

Your words don’t help me Ignis.

Or rather, they make me feel even worse!

“W-well… how about we ask someone who knows more about magic items? Maybe if we can’t remove it, we can somehow contain it…?”

I guess that’s our plan B for now…

But I don’t really know anyone who-

Oh wait.

I DO know someone like that.

Back in Buanna, there’s a shop specialized in magical items, right?

Right, I’m sure the owner will know a thing or two about cursed items!

Let’s go!

I’ve been rejected.

Well…

Since it takes a few days by carriage to get to Buanna from Kalamas, I wanted to run there instead.

But Ignis adamantly said no when I went to grab her and carry her.

Come on, do you want me to go alone?

You’re mean…

“I-it’s your fault anyway! So take responsibility!”

…

Fine…

“Er… I… can go with you…”

Oh?

Have I not been abandoned by the world yet?

“Eh? L-listen! You DON’T want to go with her! You don’t know what she’s like when she’s in a rush!”

Hey, that’s not nice!

Why are you shooing her away?!

It’s not like I’m gonna carry her on my shoulder like I carried you back when we first met!

…

Hmm…?

But…

How else would I do it?

I have nothing to put my sword into, so one of my hands will already be occupied.

And that means I can’t really princess-carry her, can I?

“It’s… it’s fine. I can handle it.”

…

Well, if you say so…

Nina express stopped some distance away from Buanna’s gates.

From there, we walked inside.

But…

What’s up with this?

This girl is much more resilient than Ignis.

Far from shaking or feeling dizzy after the journey…

She simply dusted herself off and stretched after I stopped.

Is she simply tough, or is Ignis fragile?

Hmm…

…

Oh my…

Is that you, Mr. gate guard?

I haven’t seen you in ages!

“Hmm? Aren’t you…?”

“Hello! I’m Nina!”

To my greeting, he rose his eyebrows and half-opened his mouth before turning it into a smile.

“Hey. Welcome back to Buanna. I heard quite a number of rumors about you.”

Oh, what is this?

Am I famous even here?

“Things like bringing an ogre corpse with horrified expression back into the guild… nearly killing the employer you were escorting… and stuff like that…”

Hmm…?

H-hold on a second!

Isn’t that only the bad things?!

You heard nothing else about me?!

And wait!

I didn’t try to kill that guy!

I didn’t even touch him!

And anyway, there was a goblin archer right behind him so I had to act quickly!

“Hahaha… I’m kidding. I also heard you saved the town from an underground criminal organization. Good work on that.”

…

T-this gate guard…

I can never win against him…

“By the way… I can’t help but notice the… thing… in your hand.”

Hmm, you mean the sword…?

Wait, no!

That’s another one of my blunders!

Please ignore it!

“Umm, that’s why we are here… we were hoping to find someone, who can deal with the curse on it.”

Oh?

Cana is substituting for Ignis as my mouth piece?

Nice!

“Curse, huh… well, Rennack knows a lot about magical items, he might help you with that.”

Yeah, that’s exactly the man we’re planning on visiting!

“I guess I shouldn’t hold you any longer. Well, your identifications, please.”

We hand over our adventurer guild cards, and he smiles as he checks them.

“Cana Rank D and… Nina Rank B… so it was true.”

He then hands them back to us and lets us through.

“Good luck with that thing.”

We wave at him and enter the town.

…

Buanna.

It’s the first town I visited when I initially got into this world.

Quite nostalgic…

It feels like it’s been just yesterday since I had to scrub that cart dirtied with wolf blood…

…

Why am I remembering THAT of all things?!

As I reminisced about the city, we made our way to a nearby diner, before heading to ‘Rennack’s treasures’.

“Welcome! Hmm…? Oh! If it isn’t missy! It’s been a while! And you even brought a friend!”

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

The bearded man nods to himself before turning to me again.

“So, is that thing in your hands the reason why you are here?”

As expected, he immediately understands our purpose.

“Y-yeah… it’s cursed, so…”

“Cursed… are you alright carrying it with you? You look fine at first glance, but…”

“No… I’m immune to it.”

“Hoh? Is that so? Let me take a closer look at this then…”

After a warning to not directly touch it, I lift it up and let him inspect it.

He rubs his beard, squints his eyes and mumbles some incoherent words, before standing upright again and crossing his arms.

“I’m not too sure about this… but it might be the work of the evil god.”

…

Evil… god?

I’m an evil god?

What kind of plot twist is that?!

“You know about the world’s gods, right?”

“Umm, it’s Nix, the goddess of life and Torta, the god of earth, right?”

Oh?

Thanks for the quick religion lesson Cana!

…

Wait, where does Kat fit into this?

“Right. That’s what’s taught everywhere. But the truth is… there’s one more god… probably.”

Probably?

I would say, most certainly!

“I don’t have any concrete proof, but I think there’s a third god… an evil one. And he was banished by the other two a long time ago. All of the records about this god must have been erased.”

…

So it really is an evil god?!

Give me a break!

I don’t want a blessing from an evil god!

…

Wait!

Are you sure he’s been banished?!

Why can a banished god forcefully reincarnate people from other worlds?!

This doesn’t make sense!

…

Okay, let’s relax.

He said he isn’t certain and that the records were erased.

No need to overreact to this.

“Now, from my experience, blessings and curses are two sides of the same coin.”

Well, yeah.

This ‘blessing’ I have sure feels like a curse at times.

“I’ve seen some techniques of removing blessings from items, so it might work on curses as well.”

Ehhh, only from items…

Well, let’s hope this works!