~Time goes on~
The Marcian Mansion was busy. The bustling sounds of renovations and the unending work of caretakers of the Mansion echoed. A red-haired boy watching on his balcony, scanning the Mansion’s newly trimmed garden yard. He nodded as he was satisfied with it.
His name was Gallo Marcia, and the red-headed boy grew handsome and considerably taller now. He had his favorite sword on his waist at all times. He tapped it like it was a habit.
Three winters have passed. Gallo’s time to attend the academy has come. He was already prepared; his accomplishments had already been spread out in the central. His help in successfully defending the northern wall and his cannons drew an unceasingly endless invitation from other nobles.
Not only that, he had successfully established a good line of company that was now known as the Laso company; he was one of the leaders in the explorations of the deep roads. It was like he was at the forefront of a new era.
Gallo nodded in the mirror; he was the shit, he thought. It was time to go, he walked out of his room and into the exit of his mansion.
The carriage was waiting for him outside his mansion’s doors. His attendants brought his things and loaded the carriage. “Sir, we will await your return! Please take care of yourself,” his butler said with concern. “Don’t worry,” Gallo stepped into the carriage.
His carriage shook while the attendants loaded his things.
Gallo would leave his mansion from time to time, doing business where the money called for him; he was now renovating his mansion’s west wing. He sat on his carriage; unlike most nobles, his carriage was of a modest design; it leaned more towards comfort, and it was his favorite. Well, he would be going into the Central, so he needed to leave his favorite carriage.
“We are finished loading!! Thanks for waiting!!” the butler declared and the single carriage began to move. They passed through the gates, his attendants and even the gardeners were waving at their lord.
The carriage didn’t clunk that much, the suspension was meticulously crafted and Gallo’s smile reflected its effect.
They were finally out of his estate and into the town.
The lord of the Marcian Land was very popular; the people in his town waved and stood on the roadside for a glimpse of their lord; it was as if he was on a parade with a single carriage. Gallo happily waved at them, which made the crowd cheer… but he noticed something… it was a forest folk.
“Stop the carriage!” Gallo said. He waved at the familiar face… even the people knew who it was since the forest folk would frequent their town… he invited him to go inside his carriage with a smile.
“...I have the reports in,” Afara said.
“Go on,” Gallo smiled.
Afara handed over a brownish envelope with the report for Gallo’s Laso Company and another black envelope with the reports of the intel they had collected. “Good work,” Gallo said as he began reading it.
~Curse of Zhisata (The old lady in the village of Ahas) (Ch 1, 7, 8)~
AN: Happened at the same time when Simon activated the relic.
The Ahas village of the eastern continent was a place that one could call a true frontier. The humans that lived there had already experienced so much. From the harsh weather to the sudden monster attacks, there would also be bandits from time to time.
Still, the village stood the test of time.
The village chief’s house was the tallest building in the village, it could be immediately noticed even from the entrance of the village.
An old woman slept on her bed. The bed croaked as she moved her body. Moans and gasps escaped her mouth. Her face contorted as pain began spreading from her head and into her body.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Zhisata could feel it… she was unconscious but she still suffered. In her dreams a snake was coiling on her body, hissing through her pain as it watched her writhe. Zhisata was a normal human before… that was a long time before. She had been using the relic of the Holy Snake and she had been cursed already.
Forbidden powers tend to bite back as always. She thought that this was the same night as the others. She believed that the pain would subside if she just held on.
But that night was different; she was burning. Her head felt like it was cracking open. At the point where all of her pain was at its peak and when she couldn’t recognize anything anymore, the change began again. Her body crackled, pain numbed her senses… then she gained a bit of her sense back.
She was now wide awake, her eyes shook as the pain consumed her body. The pain suddenly disappeared.
She tried to sit up; she was not wearing her usual robe. She was just wearing her sleeping robes.
Part of her body has already been mutated. Most of her skin was already outgrown by scales… She had been having a bad time sitting properly because a tail sprouted on her tailbone and it had been bothering her since forever. She had to wear the large robes to hide her deformities.
“Aargh no!!!” she felt it; the scales painfully moved, sprouting new scales, covering more of her skin… but the relic was far from her, how could it be?
Well, it was because of the holy relic that she was still alive until now. The white hair was the proof…
“Aah” then she felt as if her youth was getting restored… but her tail was growing longer; it literally punched a hole in her bottom… her lower limbs were now getting shorter. “NO!!!” she screamed in despair.
“... But I played my part!!! You can’t do this!!!” she was muttering to someone who wasn’t there.
~Down the fall goes endlessly and your life flashes back~
Simon POV
I can’t remember what happened… Percival and Paramour… Black Hood guy… can’t feel my hand… oh… it's gone… my body feels numb… I’m probably going to die if I hit the bottom… why am I even falling?
This shit has happened to me before, when I fell down in an underground dungeon, that dark chasm that eats light.
I remembered the old man screaming to close my eyes… but I don’t hear it now. Still, I closed my eyes as memories began flowing.
<--->
Simon 5 years old.
“Simon… is it hard? Sparring against me?” for some reason the old man asked Simon who was down again after getting hit in the head.
“Hard? I enjoy it though!” Simon said as he stood up again.
“I see… let’s go at it again… find my weak spots okay?” the old man urged Simon to attack again, the training was simple, it was to find good spots to attack by looking at the old man’s stance.
FLASH.
“8 days' worth of food… see that village, that is where you are born,” the Old man said as they were walking down the mountain, there was an open cliff where one could see the fields down the plains.
“I don’t remember,” the boy said.
“Of course, you were still a baby before then… we will be taking the shortcut!” The old man smiled as he urged Simon to follow him.
FLASH.
“Spread the salt thinly, that’s right” he was instructing the boy in preparing the fish.
The old man then checked out the boy’s face, he was already salivating…
“Eating it raw makes it taste gummy and the stench is horrible, you have to cook it so that the flavor that comes out becomes juicy,” the old man said and like an open book, the boy stopped salivating.
FLASH.
“Simon… I will now lay down the rules you need to follow… only 3 of them,” the old man said.
Simon nodded as he was stuffing his mouth with meat and vegetables cooked from the stone slab.
Rules:
1. Never panic
2. Conserve everything
3. The old man’s words are always right
<--->
I finally remembered why I fell down, I gained consciousness again. I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!!! The rapid fall makes it hard to discern where am I… but I will survive!!! I will continue to live on.
“Curse you child!!!!” a voice in my head tilting my consciousness into pain. “Suffer for eternity!!!” and it resounded again but nothing was much more louder than the next sound I heard.
SPLAT!!!!!!!!!
<--->
It was dark… deep… like hope is to light nothing was in sight. Still, steps of tattering joy could be overheard in the whole abyss.
“Hmm~Hmm~!”
A man humming walked by, there had been some movements from above, and his curiosity was getting stirred. Then there was a splattered sound.
“They threw something in the bloody abyss!!~” the man said and he started dancing, finally something new, something fresh from his 400 hundred years of self mumble. From the sound that stirred his sleeping mind, he could tell where it landed. He trotted excitedly.
“Oh!!! Crap!!! It splattered!!” the man said disgustingly, it was a splattered body of a human. Not sure of its age since it was mangled and splattered in a bloody pulp. Its arm was missing, the man started looking around and saw it. “Oh there!!! Lucky!! I can use see-in-the-dark magic!!” he said comically.
But he didn’t bother taking it, getting closer to the bloody splat, he sat there staring at the mangled body “I wonder how it would regenerate?” he said. Then a smell of burnt salt started to permeate the air “WOAH!!!!” the man said clearly amused with little to no things.
He then decided to take the arm and placed it near the body specifically to where he thought the missing arm should be… “Same type as Taya!!!” he exclaimed as he clapped his hands, the part that looked like a head that had hair was starting to lose its dark color… he smiled and had this insane look on his eyes like a boy that found a good toy.
“This is too exciting!!!” he said. He excitedly stares at the regenerating body wondering what it would look like when it's already back in its shape.