Chapter 1 – 1. Hilda (1) [Edited]
A peaceful day.
A woman was sitting on a chair in the front yard of the bakery.
Her name is Hilda. No, she is now a woman who goes by the pseudonym ‘Hylia’.
One of Hilda’s daily routine is to sit here every morning and watch ‘Arthur’.
As I waited, the door of the house in front opened as usual, and a man came out with Arthur.
“Hilia, good morning~”
The name of the man greeting Hilda is ‘Jade’.
She is a grateful person who accepted Arthur as her family without prejudice.
“Hello, Mr. Jade.”
“Arthur, you should say hello too!”
After hearing Jade’s words, Arthur, who was hiding behind her, spoke.
“Ah. Hello…”
“Yes, Arthur. “Did you sleep well at night?”
“… Yes.”
Arthur, who was still afraid of others, was clumsy with people who were not her family.
Hilda looked at Arthur’s face.
If someone who didn’t know her saw her, she had the appearance of a handsome boy who would have mistaken her for a girl. Her hair was black, and it was long like a bob because she didn’t want to cut it.
Even though she is 7 years old, she is still noticeably small compared to her peers.
‘I think my strength is weaker than average.’
She could only guess that perhaps the curse had slowed her growth.
* * *
While Hilda was chatting with Jade, someone’s voice was heard behind Jade.
“Dad! Mom takes a long time to eat!!”
The owner of the voice is ‘Aris’. It was the child of Jade and his wife ‘Milia’.
Even though he was born later than Arthur, he was taller.
Her appearance resembled Millia’s, with a gentle face and white hair, and she inherited blue eyes from Jade.
When she grows up, she will definitely have looks that will make many men cry.
‘Yes, our Arthur is much cuter.’
If Aris had heard, she would have said, ‘I hate Hilda!’ And would have been upset all day, but there was no way she could have known what Hilda was thinking.
Hilda’s foolish imagination was short-lived, and Jade said, holding Arthur’s hand as it was time to return home.
“Hilia, we’ll just go in now.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later.”
After saying hello to her, Hilda also went straight into the bakery.
A house made of oak and a seemingly ordinary interior. However, there was a secret space in this house that only Hilda knew about.
Entering her own room, Hilda pushed her dresser next to her bed.
What you see is an ordinary-looking wall.
It was a location where no one would have imagined that there was a secret space, but Hilda took out a black key from the subspace pocket she was holding and tried to insert the key into the wall. Surprisingly, the key went through the wall.
Clap-
When Hilda turned the key she inserted, the wall that had been plain until now became a ‘door’ through which people could enter.
Why was this possible? It was simple. This is because the black key that Hylia had was not an ordinary item.
And there was only one type of object in the world that could make these things possible.
These are treasures called ‘artifacts’.
An object that contains a ‘mystery’ that cannot be discovered even with modern magic. Although the empire also has a history of 1,000 years, it is known that the number of artifacts it possesses is not very large.
Hilda also obtained an item from the Demon King’s treasury after killing him.
The effect is limited to ‘one time’ and completely blocks the outside world in one place. In other words, it is an artifact that allows connection to a room that exists in another dimension, and can only be entered through a key.
There was no room for doubt as the warrior said that this information was obtained by checking it using an emotional ability called ‘Status Window’.
Hilda immediately opened the door and went in. The interior was large enough for a person to live alone.
In my field of vision, I saw a large desk and bookshelves filled with various unidentifiable objects.
Hilda sat down on the desk chair in front of her, picked up the paper lying on it, and began to read.
Her hands became more urgent, and her reading speed also increased. And as about half a day passed, her complexion gradually darkened.
‘The Goddess’ Tears’, an artifact that has been tracked for several years.
According to the information collected, it stores powerful divinity, can remove all types of curses, and is known to have a total of 3 uses.
The most recent record used was for a princess in a border kingdom 15 years ago. However, it is said that after that, she wandered around the continent and fell into the hands of people who crossed the Red Sea.
They were not even funny bitches. At the time, she hired numerous skilled people, saying she was looking for a ‘new continent’, and began collecting all the artifacts she could find around her.
The empire’s nobles also invested a lot of money for political purposes, and thanks to this, they built as many as three of the largest ships in history.
The ship set sail carrying hundreds of people, food, and precious treasures, and the scene where tens of thousands of people gathered at the port to watch the departure was captured on video in the Magic Ball and can be viewed at the Imperial History Museum.
So, was it successful?
Unfortunately, less than a month later, all magical communication was cut off from the ship that entered the Red Sea, and it is said that there is still no contact.
It was 10 years ago when the ship set sail, so seeing as there is still no contact, I assume she is all dead. Or maybe I was lucky, and it really passed.
Only the people on board the ship will know the answer.
If so, you could also ask like this. Isn’t there a single person who crossed the Red Sea?-
My answer to this is, there is only one person.
Because among the people I know, there was the only one who came from the Red Sea.
That guy, who was a member of the warrior party, crossed the Red Sea and came to the continent where we live.
Of course, even if there are cases, you can never overcome the Red Sea using general methods. If it were that easy, traveling between continents by ship would probably have been common by now.
The record about the Red Sea states this: As you travel by boat, there is a sea area where mana, corrupted by the influence of ‘something unknown’, begins to turn the sea red. That place is the Red Sea. Also, it is easy for ships to be wrecked due to attacks from vicious sea monsters.
However, if this is the only problem, you would have succeeded in crossing over even if it was difficult.
If you take the Royal Knights on a ship right now, the ship won’t sink due to marine monsters.
The biggest problem is the mana storm that occurs periodically. Due to its influence, all magic becomes useless and the ship’s protective magic also breaks down and becomes vulnerable to shock. If you encounter a tornado in such a state, all you can do is pray to the goddess.
Of course, there will be no change in the fact that you will be thrown into the sea.
I was so curious about the unknown beyond the Red Sea that the people of the Empire did not know about, so I asked that guy about how he got there during his travels.
Then he told me about the way he came across.
-The sea? The color is so unique that I still remember it. I remember sailing alone, and a strange storm suddenly destroyed my boat. So I had no choice but to ‘walk’ across. Occasionally, I encountered a large octopus and some talking fish, but they were all troublesome, so I ‘cut down’ them all. So, I guess I ended up here. What do you think? Isn’t there more to it than you think?
At that time, I was mad to the core that this guy was making fun of me again with that nonsense.
Because of this, even I, who had never been touched by a man before in my life, could not hold back my anger and tried to hit the guy on the head with a chestnut, but the guy’s expression was so serious that I couldn’t help it.
Well, he was a strange guy from the first time we met. The warrior brought me a new colleague, so I checked the mana amount to see how skilled he was, but I couldn’t feel any mana, so I thought he was an ordinary person.
In his own words, he reached the level of ‘rebuttal’ and said something incomprehensible that he couldn’t feel it.
So I said it sarcastically.
-Hero, I still don’t trust you, but shouldn’t you test your skills? There’s no way you can leave your back to a guy who looks weak like this.
-What do you mean by a bitch like a pig? Tsk.
Ah! I remembered. So I…
-Wh, what did you say? A pig.! Can’t you see these strong abs?
-Kuhm… Hilda.? Well… I can see your abs, but you’ve been binge-eating a lot lately. It definitely doesn’t seem like it used to be-
-Hey!!! Newcomer! You come to work, and I need to sort out the ranking right away today. I will personally test your membership, so please feel honored.
After hearing what I said, he looked at me with a disdainful expression.
-Hey, what is that look on your face? You won’t be able to do it. It’s too late to apologize now. Today I’ll show you what hell is. Be prepared. They don’t regard me as a man.
-. Warrior? Isn’t the entrance test too easy?
The moment I heard those words, my hand was already swinging the sword at him.
-Chaeng!
-Let’s get it right first. You cocky guy!!!
How much did you fight back then? I couldn’t do anything and lost a crushing defeat… I think I lost narrowly rather than losing.
Since then, we haven’t won a single game, but I remember all of them being close losses.
Actually, if you think about it again, you could say it was a draw all along. Because I didn’t put in all my effort to look after that guy…
Yes, because I, a woman, looked after it. If I had given my all, I probably would have won easily. Maybe.
Anyway! After becoming a colleague, I got to see a lot of his eccentricities.
There was a time when, as a training exercise, I sat in one place and meditated for 15 days without eating. In his own words, he said that he was just eating breakfast.
At that time, I was so dumbfounded that I took all of his rice balls and ate them, right?
‘Now that I think about it, where is he and what is he doing?’
The last time I saw him was right after I caught the demon lord. He said he suddenly gained enlightenment.
To summarize, he said that he would reach the level of ‘reincarnation’ and that he was going on a trip. Then, he said to the warrior, ‘It’s been fun, friend.’ And disappeared without even looking at the rest of his colleagues.
If I had known this would happen, I would have listened to how to cross the Red Sea while holding that guy by the collar.
No, in fact, it would already be too late. Because the artifact is buried under the sea and cannot be found.
I don’t think the boat would have made it across safely. Because only he knows how to cross the Red Sea.
“Ha… I need to at least lift Arthur’s curse…”
It’s not that Hilda didn’t look for other ways.
But I couldn’t solve it by any means.
Prelate’s fortune? 7th class magic? It was all meaningless.
Because it was not an ordinary curse, but the devil’s curse. How can you be sure?
When she was cursed, Hylia felt the devil’s energy.
It must have been a curse using the ‘Essence of the Demon King’ that she brought as evidence during the subjugation.
‘It was definitely something the emperor ordered. Because my position was greatly shaken by the hero who ended the 1,000-year war.’
Hilda closed her eyes and recalled her memories of that day. Even though years had passed, she still felt like it was yesterday.
Hundreds of curses were spread, and most of them could certainly have been avoided with the warrior’s skills. However, because of Elin and the child behind her, she ‘intentionally’ took most of the curses with her body.
Among the dozens of curses that were not received, Elin and herself succeeded in receiving the curse that affected the child’s vitality on behalf of the child, but in the end, we saw several curses enter the child’s body.
“I miss you. Elin…”
My close friend, Elin, a ‘saint’, had the highest chance of being able to heal the curse, but I was just frustrated because I didn’t even know if she was alive or dead.
Hilda spent the day with guilt and pain, just like yesterday.
