Chapter 14: Let's discuss curses and traitors

AN: from now on I will try writting in 3rd person view as a test if you don't like it, I will turn back to first person perspective

After releasing the four frightened to the core ogre girls and making sure the wingfolk girl got all the rest she could Leo went to the cathedral in the noble district to talk with the Skill god about the curse on Rinbell which he acually planned for quite some time already, but didn't find time for it.

The nuns in the cathedral already knew him well so they quickly prepared a chapel for him. Of course, Leo also droped a donation to the church in order to keep good relations with people in here.

Leo walked into the chapel, put his hands in gesture of prayer as he kneeled before the altar of the Skill god and closed his eyes. Not even a second later he arrived in the Divine realm.

But this time, the Skill god wasn't alone like every time before. Actually there were many more people. A green haired woman with big grin and small statured red haired man with piercings in his ears and lower lip were the more noticible duo. Then there was the Water goddess with her big sister vibe as strong as ever. Last person here was probably a male with black hair like Skill god, but was sulking in corner of the room.

"Yo, long time no see Leo. Well, for human, not for me," the Skill god waved at Leo and signaled him to take a seat next to him.

"It's good to see you again, Lord Skill god. As well as you Lady Water goddess. As for the remaining trio, I am most grateful for having chance to meet you," Leo bowed to the three, even though the sack of depression in the corner of the room was most likely not listening.

"The fuck was that? Since when you are so polite?" the Skill god got bewildered at Leo's attitude.

"This is how I usually am."

"Yeah, sure," the Skill god laughed and picked up the sack of depression from it's corner and placed it on chair next to Leo.

"Well, let me introduce you to everyone. The green stuff is wind god and even though he looks like a girl it's actually a guy so be careful and the red punk is Fire god. And lastly is this pile of sadness who is Darkness goddess."

"Yo, Nice to meet you Leo, sorry for our sloppy older brother, he can be serious when he's motivated, but as you probably already know, he's fooling around most of the time," The female looking Wind god gave me a nod.

"Ya! Tha jerk just keep bragin 'bout his Apostole an' stuff! Pissin' me off f'real!" the Fire god snorted self-importantly.

"You..." the Darkness goddess spoke up in low voice, "Came to ask about curses right?"

The Darkness goddess jumped on Leo, holding his collar close to her.

"Y-yeah, that's right..."

"Alright! I will tell you everything I know! Now come with me!" The Darkness goddess picked up Leo with one hand and throw him on her shoulder.

Is this really how 'Come with me' is supposed to be? I feel more like a luggage.

The Darkness goddess run from the room and darted around the Divine realm at breakneck speed. For Leo it meant that even though he got to see more of the divine realm, most of it was blurry due to the high speed

Huh? Did I just saw Creator goddess play with a doll?

As Leo's eyes got used to his current speed, he noticed the unfriendly Creator goddess playing and hugging a doll in shape of a human, sadly Leo wasn't able to see details of the doll.

In the next moment they arrived in Darkness goddess' room. It was comparably smaller room compared to Skill god's one, but it had neat feel to it.

"Where did I... oh, here! Care to dring a glass with me? You were adult in your previous life, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. ...Thank you."

Leo's face turned a little sour when he saw the drink before him. While it looked like a regular glass of wine, it smelled so rotten that Leo almost threw up in his mouth.

"Okay then, cheers!"

"Ch-cheers..." Leo picked up all his resolve strenghten his shaking knees and took a sip.

Huh? It's not so bad... it could even be good with some fish like tuna or mackerel.

"Oh, you actually drink it."

"I-is it really that suprising?"

"Yeah, this wine is made by Goddess of Death and it's called Blackout. Except for me and her there is no other god who was capable of drinking this without passing out."

"And you're telling me that now?!" Leo snapped out.

"Eeeeeek! Sorry! I'm sorry! I forgot that you are human!" Darkness goddess expression changed back to her sobbing face she was making in the Skill gods room.

"Urgh... well, I'm still alive so it's okay... maybe cooking of my fiancées made me immune to death or something?"

"How does they taste I wonder?"

"Hmm, it seems like my skills are working here in a way..." Leo mumbled to himself and opened his Item box, taking out some of Kiira's and Taru's cookies. Luckily they still haven't moved to any other dishes, becouse their claimed to becoming masters of cookies before moving on.

"Oh, cookies," Darkness goddess' eyes sparkles and took a bite.

A strange, motionless silence covered the room.

"Oh wow! What is this?! This is amazing! I never had a cookie like this!"

Really?! Was Leo's only dumbfounded reaction.

"Um, can I ask a weird question?"

"Yeah, ask right away," the Darkness goddess smiled warmly.

"Is there any connection between you and Goddess of Death?"

"Oh, yes, there is. Well, I guess in your human terms you would probably call her my mother, I guess?" She said with a smile while muching on more cookies.

How did you managed to make a cookies with taste of death you two? Leo asked Kiira and Taru inwardly.

"Hmm, this is good and all, but we came here to talk about curses," Darkness goddess said while pouring another glass for herself and Leo, "The truth is that I'm the origin of all curses. Though there are some twist as for their use."

"I see, what kind of twists?"

"Well, unlike mana, which came from nature and everything living, curses comes from emotions. Stronger the emotion stronger the curse, you could say."

"So curses come from emotions... does that mean fear, anxiety saddness and such?"

"Yes, but no at the same time. Yes the curses use primarly negative emotions, but they can use positive emotions as well. This world is build on balance so if I only used negative emotions there would be build up and I don't want to accidentaly create apocalypse again..."

"Again?"

"A-anyway! Becouse the curses are made from emotions, places with a lot of inteligent creatures tends to create a lot of the energy. Most of the time there is a balance between good and bad emotions, but there are places that are unballanced like cementeries for example."

"Yeah, I can see how that would be a place with a build up."

"And that is where people with my blessing comes in play! There are fundamentally only two groups. Exorcists and Curse users. Exorcists use positive emotions to banish evil and Curse users use Evil curses to banish evil."

"I see, they use curses... but what exactly are these curses? You said they are born from emotions, but are they sentient?"

"Sometimes... on rare occations they do develop intelect, but that only happens once every two or three hundread years so you should be fine. Curses are... most simmilar to spirits..."

And so, Leo and Darkness Goddess spend time chatting and drinking for the rest of the day. During this time, Leo found out that she had an apostole before, but he turned into Deviant curse user who collected curses to use them against other living beings, giving birth to demons in the process.

"Aaaah~ I really enjoyed this!" the Darkness goddess smiled happily, "I know, I will give you a little something before you go so you will remember to stop by from time to time."

With that, few balls of black light came from her fingertips and flew into Leo's chest just before the time run out and Leo had to return back to real world.

Back there, not that much time have passed, but Leo still had to return home promptly. His head was slightly hurting, but it was nothing he couldn't surpass by few pain killers. Though he remembered what happened to Taru once she got them so he took just half of the pill, just to be sure.

Back home, Leo just fell on his bed and fell asleep.

But this sleep, took three whole days.

The morning of the third day started like any other. With Kiira and Taru by Leo's side.

"Huh? ...Did I slept for too long?" Leo slowly left the bed as to not wake up the duo on his side.

He slowly walked over to the bathroom, charged magic item with energy and heated up the shower. Though colder shower in morning would be better, Leo heated it up to make it bearable.

Exiting the shower and drying himself with magic, Leo took on his clothes and left for kitchen. This evoked memory from the first time he came here and completly suprised his staff who didn't knew what he was doing. Later, they came to agreement so that everyone could make their own breakfast, except for the time they had guests over or during school days. Today was a free day, the eight day of the week.

In the kitchen, Leo washed his hands and started making omelettes from eggs of monsters he had in his Dimension home.

"Leo!" Suddenly, Alette jumped at him right after walking into the kitchen.

"Huh? What is it Alette? Are you okay?"

"You... You were asleep for three days straight Leo," Alette said while still hugging Leo tightly.

"Huh? Three days?"

And just now Leo realized just how much he have slept for and used King of Wisdom to check on himself. Yet the results were not what he was expecting.

Name: Leonard Hirano Dragonrose
Level: 59
Race: Majin (unawakened)
Titles: Third son, Father’s boy, Reincarnator, Natural enemy of monsters, Favorite child of Skill god, Destroyer, Natural predator, Apostole of Skill god, For the peace, Event orchestrator, Dragon slayer, Count, Prodigy, Thief of maidens hearts, Trickster, Tamer of disaster, Gods drinking buddy

Skills:

Unique: King of greed, King of wisdom, Loyalty, Spell weaver, Indomitable, Lord’s ambition, Soul binding

Supreme: Auto-heal (9), Magic power armor (9), Fly (7), Water manipulation (8), Water walking (8), Invisibility (6), Crate wing (7), Dragon breath (4), Nature manipulation (5), Iron stomach (5), Wind reading (2), Evil eye (Magic sight) (3), Divine step (1), Curse sight (1), Curse Removal (1), Curse resistance (1)

Exra rare: Increased mana recovery (10), Increased stamina recovery (10), Magic manipulation (10), Space magic (10), Void magic (8), Petrification gaze (10), Hide presence (10), Sense presence (10), Shock absorbtion (6), Light step (8), Shadow walk (7), Air walk (7), Nature magic (6), Ghost magic (2), Intimidation (10), Angel flash technique (10), Demon sword technique (10), Contract (1)

Rare: Fire magic (10), Water magic (9), Wind magic (9), Earth magic (10), Ice magic (10), Lightning magic (10), Metal magic (10), Item box (10), Transmute (10), Apprisal (7), Analyze item (7)

Uncommon: Etique (10), Hereditary (10), Paralyze spore (5), Sleep spore (5), Taming (3), Sense temperature (8), Iron skin (10), Sticky thread (8), Charge (9), Ostilian slashing technique (10), Unmovable Kastena technique (10), Mist sword technique (10)

Common: Leap (10), Kick (10), hand to hand combat (10), Swordsmanship (10), Animal training (6), Dissolve (9), Marksmanship (10), Keen hearing (10), Spearmanship (10), Metalwork (10), Deffence shell (10), Long sight (10), Cooking (8)

Blessings: Skill god (10), Darkness goddess (10), Magic goddess (9), War god (8), Merchant god (9), Alchemy god (8), Water goddess (8), Fire god (8), Wind god (8), Earth goddess (5), Goddess of Love (4)

Blessing of Darkness goddess, title Gods drinking buddy, skills Divine step, Curse sight, Curse Removal and Curse resistance were new addition to his arsenal. Also, at some point he leveled up once again.

"Alette, could you tell me what exactly happened?"

"Um. You came from the cathedral in somewhat high spirits, Kiira later found half of those pain killers so she thought you took it on a headache. But then you fell asleep without even giving anyone a welcome kiss on cheeks so they were worried about you... and when we came to your room you were already sleeping."

"I see. Sorry I made you worry, it seems like I got some new skills while I was praying and they took some time to acclimatise to my body..."

"What kind of skill are they?"

"They're called Curse sight, Curse removal and Curse resistance. Given that the resistance skill didn't united right away with [Indomitable] unique skill means something... Well, if one skill didn't add up, there might be others too."

"So... you can manipulate curses now too?"

"No, I can't use them, but I guess I can make sure they are in ballance. Anyway is there anything I missed?"

"Nothing much, though a few lettera came from Chevalier Jo-Rou Halian and Marquis Hadrius."

"I see... The marquis is probably sending me letter about the workshop visit I asked for at the party... When I confirm it, I would have to take Raidur and Reidur with me."

"The dwarf brothers will be happy about it too."

"Oh, and what about the princess."

"She actually came to look at you a couple of times with Lulu and Victina."

"They were here?"

"Hm. Lulu didn't want to let go of your hand back then so it was little hard to get them to go home."

While Alette was grumbling about all this, she was still hugging Leo, which made quite a contrast to her words, but to Leo she was irresistibly cute.

As she was grumbling, she pulled out her head and looked at Leo who was looking at her with warm smile.

"Um... what is it?"

"You can be really cute you know?"

"Wha–?! N-no... definitely not..." Alette blushed and faced away.

Leo kept smiling as he pulled her face back before his own. And he followed that by planting a kiss on her lips.

"Ah–! L-leo..." Alette smiled warmly and burrowed her face in Leo's chest.

"Thank you for always being here for me. It's really reasuring to have you by my side."

If Leo's fiancées had strictly defined roles, then Kiira would be Magic swordswoman, Taru would be healer, Nina would be inquisitor, Goli would be frontliner and a painter, Lulu and Victina would be the newbies and Alette would be in charge of logistics.

<Loyalty level maxed out. Soul binding between Leonard Dragonrose and Alette Netrose have been established. Each can now use each others unique skills.>

Alette blinked a few times before she returned the kiss to Leo, "Fufufuu, now I'm like Kiira, Victina and Lulu. Taru will be so jealous."

You forgot to mention Lani, but she's still new so it's okay I quess, Leo thought while still hugging Alette.

♦♦♦

Meanwhile, in slums of the city. Some shady characters were having a secret discussion.

"So the Guardian knight is sick?"

"Ye, that's what brother said. No one saw him for three days straight. He can't take quests outside tha city 'couse the princess would have to go with 'em."

"So when will the plan start?"

"Tomorrow at morin. They gonna smack them where it hurts."

"It should work. She's will be only guarded by little girls. Those can't do any shit. Her knight from the Sorcery kingom will not be there to stop them too," a clearly older voice asked the first two man.

"Ya should be more careful Mr. Noble. Those bandits were also done in seconds. Not even a single one remains in Netrose Duchy and Royal lands. There is something fishy about this kingdom nowadays. It's almost as if someone was eradicatin' em like weeds."

"Oh, please. As if one person was able to destroy entire organization like Golden quince! We may have little setback with the auction getting ambushed by royals, but we will always get away. That guy... Kogane was his name? That's the only one you should fear. He can take your skills from your souls and drain you of your life force. But we made sure he's branded criminal."

"Heh, pulling strings in royal palace again? That's so you Mr. Noble."

"Tsk. Go do your work. I want to see that princess dead. If she's not dead by tomorrows noon, you know what will happen, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

And so the three man went on their own ways.

♦♦♦

After calming down Alette, and the rest of the girls too, Leo decided to accompany Kiira and Goli who were on duty to protect Gloriosa today.

The carriage arrived at the villa shortly after leaving.

"You know, what about suprising the princess?"

"Well, she will definitely not expect you to be here, but why?" Kiira was first to question Leo's actions like always.

"Just feel like it," Leo smiled at her with a wink.

Once again, like in his past life, Leo felt like doing something out of character, he did enjoy a little bit of trolling from time to time. One great instance of this was when he joined Theathre club in high school for a year just becouse of a bet and by the time he ended, no one wante to let him go. Most recently though, he used dragon materials for alchemy and created some unusual items, to say the least.

The girls met the princess at the doors and as they started heading for the carriage, five dark hooded thugs jumped from nearby bushes and tried to ambush them as only the three of them were going. While they used invisibility potions and «Silent wind» spell, they were still detected by Leo's space magic.

"Get out the way!" Leo yelled at the girls when he noticed the thugs and jumped from the carriage. "«Stasis!»"

The spell Leo used was one of the most advanced spells he ever made. Stasis was somewhat brutal spell as only way to resist it was to be user of space magic.

"What the– he's here!"

"What is the meaning of this?!"

The men were restrained, but still had enough energy to speak. If compared to anything, this would be like being burried up to your neck in wet sand.

"Huh? Lord Leo? What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry princess Gloriosa, I was planning to surprise you as I am finally healthy again, but it seems like someone tried to use my sudden sickness to their advantage."

"I still can't see anything..." Goli made a little sour face.

"They probably used invisibility potions. Though, you can still sence their heat and magic signitures. You should add that to your training. Want some help with that?" Leo smiled warmly at Goli who moved before Gloriosa to protect her before, but now was standing next to him with sparkles in her eyes.

"Um... yes please..." Goli smiled bashfully and flushed red as a rose.

"Well, I will take these guys for questioning, go have fun by yourself and stay on your toes," Leo smiled warmly at them as he patted Goli (and Kiira who forced her way in).

"Yessir!"

Leo returned to his villa and called out for Nina who was currently in the kitchen preparing snacks for evening so after she was done with that, she accompanied Leo for questioning.

When she entered the underground chamber, that was completly soundproof, she noticed a that the pool that was usualy empty was swarming with maneating bugs called Hikaru bugs. From what Leo found in the Diary of the Hero king, he named the bug after his older sister who swiched men more then socks.

"Please! Let me live! I have family! I'm sorry I attacked you!"

"EEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkkk!!!! Please don't! I don't wanna die! Please! I will do anything!"

"If you don't want to lose limbs to these bugs, then you should start talking," Leo's calm voice to the attackers pleas for their lives.

"Let me tell you something," Nina spoke up with a smile, "In this country, for attacking members of royal family, even that of a different kingdom, you get death penalty no guestions asked and your families get the same."

"You are indeed correct my dear. But I can appeal to the king to only held accountable you guys, so to say your families will only became criminal slaves and won't be killed before your eyes."

"Wh-what do you want to know?"

"Jer! You jerk! You're selling us out?!"

"Shut it! I have family to take care of! Do you think I want to see my daughters and two years old son got hanged?!"

"You should tell me what you know before I change my mind."

"Right! We came from dark guild! We were hired by an old guy. Fifty gold per person upfront another one hundread after the job was finished."

"And?"

"He was really high class! Looked kinda like a butler, definitely a human. He had his face covered though."

"What kind of coins did he paid you with?"

"I don't know where they were from! I never saw a gold coin in my life before!"

"Well, you at least should know how it looked like, right?"

"Y-yeah! On one side was a gryffin with a sword and on the other side were two spears and a shield!"

"I see…"

"Darling that sounds like…"

"Yeah. Gold coins of Swordrose family. Royal family of the Knightly kingdom."

The Netrose family which Leo was appart of until recently is at it's founder connected to the royal family of the Knightly kingdom. Gavin Hirano Netrose, the founder of Netrose family was a spare of the king at the time and as such had little to none actual political power back in Knightly kingdom. And so he decided to ditch everything and went on a journey around the world. Sadly this journey ended in just half a year becouse he joined a party of adventurers under leadership of his future wife, third princess of this kingdom. She same as him, was hiding her identity at the time. While adventuring together they grew closer and the rest is a history.

Sadly, when his identity was revealed, the noble faction that stood against the royal faction of the king (his brother), tried to sway him on their side to crown him the new king.

To that, he raised his middle finger and returned home.

"If someone from Knightly kingdom is connected to this incident, it will start quite a rucus. Though there is also a chance that they were from somewhere else and just changed their coins and then came here... urgh such a pain."

"We don't need them anymore now, right?"

"I guess so. Call the guards and inform the king. Oh, and inform him about our deal."

The three tied man looked with surprise at Leo.

"...I'm man of my word. Your families will be hust turned into slaves. Luckily, you were captured by me so I will have the right to claim them as my property."

"Th-thank you..." the three lowered their heads and the one with family even started sobbing.

"One more question. When was the man supposed to contact you?"

"Oh, he said that after the job is done, we should throw a stone he gave us into well in the slums."

"Where is that stone now?"

"You took it with the shoulderbag, sir."

"...Alright, I got it."

With that Leo took the stone and left for the slums. Using his Space magic Quick change he took on old tattered clothes and tattered cloak hiding his entire body. As a finishing step he took out his Kogane mask and in such attire entered the slums.

"Alrighty... so where is the well? Ah, over there. Hm? I'm being watched?"

Leo silently went to the well and threw in the stone and acted as if he wanted to pull out some water.

Truth be told, there is a lot of orphans here. I heard that when explorers fail to return from their expeditions and leave children behind, they usualy end up in the Capital's slums, Leo thought.

In that moment an enourmous wave of magical energy surged from the well.

"What now?!"

As Leo jumped back, a completly black monster flew out of the well and kept it's low altitude.

It was monster seeping with miasma, it had black bird-like wings, yellow beak and bloodshot eyes. With it's complete human like figure and razor sharp claws, there was no mistaking it. Even without it's fear infusing aura everyone could tell it was a Demon.

Name: Gururu
Level: 49
Race: Lesser devil (Death claw)
Titles: Murderer, Demon king's pet

Skills:

Supreme: Fly (6), Shadow dive (5), Shadow manipulation (5)

Extra rare: Ghost magic (5), Death magic (2)

Rare: Lightning magic (5)

Blessings: Demon kings blessing (5), Demon progenitors blessing (1)

"This is bad."

As if ghost magic wasn't bad on it's own, but this thing have Death magic?! What the hell is that?! Leo got surprised, but remained calm.

Alright, first I need to get rid of that death magic and Shadow dive. Then I———

"DIEEEEEEEEEE!"

Suddenly a person with long red hairs fell from the sky. No, she didn't fall, she flew at high speed cutting the demon in half with her giant broadsword.

"Fuuu! I'm in capital for the first time in a while and a demon appears!"