Chapter 57: 57

The Price

 

  「……I feel like throwing up」

 

  The next morning.

 

  After I left the duke’s residence alone, I muttered to myself with a hoarse voice as I covered my face with my right hand. 

 

  I have a terrible headache, I feel nauseous, and I’m so dizzy that I can’t walk straight. Right now, I definitely have the complexion of a dying person. The gatekeepers of the residence seemed like they were worried about me too.

 

  It feels like I caught the worst cold ever.

 

  Normally, I should be resting in the residence in peace, but due to my body’s joints hurting like they were tearing, I couldn’t sleep at all.  

 

  To be honest, it’s pretty painful to even walk, but compared to rolling around groaning on the bed, walking distracts me from the pain.

 

  That’s why I left the mansion to walk on the streets of the royal capital.

 

  「Ughh…I didn’t expect the repercussions to be so bad」

 

  Of course, what I’m talking about is the repercussions from the experiment to grant some of my soul to Lunamaria.

  The experiment itself went well.

  Or rather, it went too well.  

  Lunamaria’s level went from “19” to “20”.

 

   That means I got my hands on a method that would let me deliberately raise other people’s levels.

 

  Anyone could tell how big of a deal that is just from those words. If this information was released to the public, just how big of a commotion would there be? Imagining that makes my spine quiver.

 

  Also, my soul-eating ability is generally more effective the higher level my opponents are. In other words, I would be able to achieve the endless cycle of giving Lunamaria levels → Eat her soul to level myself → Level Lunamaria on repeat.

 

  Ohh, aren’t I invincible then? For a moment, that thought crossed my mind…until I checked my own level that is.

 

  I’m still suffering from the headache, nausea, dizziness, joint pain, ab pain, chest pain, and many other things, but things were much worse last night.

   Even if those are the side effects of soul granting, there’s something wrong. After I felt that way, I checked on my own level with a bad premonition.

 

  Then, I saw that the number “8” had decreased to “7”.   

 

  I have leveled down.   

 

  The last time I leveled up was when I defeated a gryphon.

 

  Since then, I defeated a werewolf, a scylla, ate Lunamaria’s soul every day, and even took down a basilisk in the end, but my level did not go up.

 

  And yet, I de-leveled just because I gave Lunamaria a little bit of my soul.

 

  How do I put it? The souls I’ve saved up until today are completely disproportionate to Lunamaria’s gain of one level.

 

  Well, it would still be okay if losing those souls was all it was. But for me to lose a level over it too is unacceptable.

  In the first place, I never heard of anyone going down in levels! Stop fucking with me!

 

  I wanted to explode on somebody like that.

 

  However, I don’t even know who to yell at…Well, I was the one who wanted to do the soul granting experiment, so I can only direct all the rage and blame at myself.

 

  The simple fact is that Lunamaria leveled up, and I leveled down as a result.

 

  It’s just how it is, I could only accept that fact.

 

  「……Well, doesn’t this mean that I have successfully found a way to help the tomboy princess?」

 

  I made a bitter smile.

 

  The higher level someone is, the more delicious and higher in purity their soul becomes. So that means that leveling up has a direct impact on one’s soul.  

 

  Claudia right now is in a situation where the container of her soul is missing a bottom lid. It would be nice if that hole gets filled from a level up. Even if it doesn’t go that far, there’s a high chance that the hole will get smaller.

 

  If that happens, it would be the same thing as being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I were to give her a few levels then, it would probably bring her to complete recovery.

 

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  The problem is, I might end up going down to level “4” or “3” as the price…

 

  Claudia’s screams from last night resurfaced in my brain.

 

  She had been suffering from that curse since a year ago.

 

  That girl has lived while being tormented by that pain for a whole year. She’s only 12 or 13 years old, yet she fought against that pain that would come at random times, and she had never lost her gentle heart. 

 

  If I can prevent such a wonderful kid like her from crying like that again…Yeah, just two or three levels would be a cheap price to pay!

 

  It would be another thing that I could tell my mother proudly about when I visit her grave! I can just get those levels back after!

 

  And so, my original plan was to go to where Claudia is immediately, but I’m in a state where I still can’t walk straight currently.

 

  I don’t know if I can do soul granting properly like this. I mean, it’ll probably fail.

 

  Therefore, right now, I have to recover quickly.

 

  I came out of the duke’s residence like that with the purpose of buying some potions at the utility shops on the street and getting healed at a temple too.

 

…To note, the result was that neither of those things worked.

 

  Apparently, this bad condition is an unavoidable symptom of doing soul granting. Basically, I have to recover naturally.  

 

  That’s just life I guess, I sighed.

 

  While listening to the sound of a lute that was coming from somewhere, I turned back to the duke’s residence.  

 

◆◆◆

 

  「Ermm, before Lady Claudia fell over?」

 

  「Yeah. Lunamaria said that she felt like she heard some kind of strange sound, did you not hear anything?」

 

  I asked Ciel after I came back to the duke’s residence.

 

  Initially, I wanted to ask her yesterday, but I didn’t end up doing it due to the aftereffects of the soul granting.

 

  Ciel knitted her brows as she thought about what happened yesterday.

 

  「So it’s before the tableware broke, right?… Ah, now that you mention it, I heard a cry」

 

  「A cry?」

 

  「Yes, I think it was a female’s voice. Um, since we beastkins have good ears, I could often hear sounds from our neighbors and the streets. Especially the high pitch sounds of females and babies. I could hear them from far away since the wind carries their sounds……」

 

  That’s why she didn’t pay any special attention to it, Ciel said as she apologized.

 

  I don’t know why, but she seems to regret not reporting the necessary intel to me.

 

  Of course, I have no intention to blame her, so I told her not to worry about it. But I was curious about the information she gave me.  

 

  If it’s just her picking up some cries, I probably wouldn’t need to worry about it. However, Lunamaria felt something strange at almost the same time, and then Claudia was attacked by the scream-inducing pain. 

 

  When so many things overlap, I can’t ignore the “female’s voice” that Ciel was talking about.

 

  I once purified a banshee at the public cemetery of Ishka before. That banshee used precisely her cries to attack me. 

  It’s possible that something similar caused what happened with Claudia.

 

  …However, if Claudia’s pain was from a banshee’s cries, it would be weird that nothing happened to us when we were there with her.

 

  Therefore, I can’t rule that a banshee did it, but it’s probably worth looking into.

 

  Above all, if I look at Claudia’s symptoms, I can’t say that it’s totally unrelated to witchcraft and ghosts.

 

  With that thought in mind, I decided to visit the national cemetery that’s north of the royal capital. That is where the house of Dragunaut buried their dead for many generations, and Astrid’s and Claudia’s mother seems to be resting there as well. 

 

  It seemed like the perfect place to go to if one were to curse the duke’s family.

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