To see how it all began, we must go back thirteen years in the past. The first act of this story occurred in a small country at the center of the continent—the Jade Kingdom.
Breathing heavily, a woman in her early twenties groaned painfully, lying on a bed. Her body was drenched in sweat and her cheeks were hollow, showing that she was afflicted by an illness. Moreover, her symptoms were quite advanced. It was obvious that she wouldn’t last much longer.
“Sasha...” the man next to the bed muttered, his back hunched as he looked down. His face was full of grief as he called the woman’s name, but she didn’t reply. In fact, it was doubtful whether Sasha even heard him at all.
The two of them were husband and wife, but they were no ordinary married couple. They were both heroes who had saved the people from a great calamity.
A year ago, a calamity going by the name of the Poison Queen had appeared in the Jade Kingdom. This Poison Queen was a Demon Lord-class monster who had destroyed countless villages and caused immeasurable damage in the northern part of the country. The very heroes who had put an end to her atrocities were the woman on the bed—Sasha Halsberg, a formidable mage bearing the title of Sage—and the man watching over her—Kevin Halsberg, an expert in martial arts extolled as the Master Pugilist. The couple had been part of the group that defeated the Queen and brought back peace to the kingdom.
However, as revenge for their deed, the Queen had cursed Sasha before she perished, afflicting the Sage with an incurable illness. As Sasha’s life left her little by little, many doctors, apothecaries, priests, and royal mages had tried to save the country’s hero. However, no one was ever able to find a cure for her affliction.
The woman’s breathing only grew more labored.
“Sasha...why did it come to this...? Why must you endure this pain?! God, just why are you doing this to us?!” Kevin cried, appalled at himself for being capable only of watching his wife suffer.
Kevin was known as the Master Pugilist, the strongest martial artist in the kingdom, someone powerful enough to kill a dragon with his bare fists, but he could do nothing against the curse laid on his beloved. He was so stricken with grief that he started to have thoughts unbecoming of a hero—that they shouldn’t have fought the Poison Queen and ought to have run away instead, even if it meant the fall of their country.
“Please, Sasha...don’t die. Don’t leave me alone...”
“Excuse me, Master.”
As Kevin lamented, he heard a knock and a voice. After a few seconds of silence, the elderly servant understood that his master would not reply and entered the room. He threw a pitying glance at his employers and spoke to Kevin in a reserved tone.
“Master, there is someone claiming to be a doctor at the entrance to the mansion. Should I let them in?”
Kevin gritted his teeth so hard it made a clearly audible sound. Many doctors had examined his wife, only for them to give up. He knew that nothing would come of it this time either.
“...Fine. Let them in.”
And yet, Kevin accepted. He couldn’t flatly dismiss someone who had come to try to save Sasha. It also might have been a doctor sent by the king. As thanks for having defeated the Poison Queen, there were talks of giving a peerage to Kevin and Sasha, so it wasn’t impossible.
“Certainly.” Having received his master’s approval, the servant bowed and went out into the corridor.
Before long, another person entered the room.
“Hey, Kevin. It’s been a while. Remember me?”
“You’re...!”
The person in question—who gave a friendly wave—was a tall woman who looked to be in her early twenties, wearing a white coat over her black suit. What’s more, Kevin knew her—she was a former comrade with whom he had broken off relations years ago.
“You! Why are you here, Doctor Faust?!” Kevin snarled.
“Ha ha! Is that any way to greet me? Good to see you’re doing well,” the white-coated woman replied, her red lips curling into a crescent-shaped smile.
The assessment of Doctor Faust varied greatly depending on the people and countries involved.
Some of her good deeds included developing a cure for a formerly incurable illness, sealing a devil before it could destroy a country, and stopping a monster swarm all by herself. The people who held her in high esteem praised her as a wonderful woman, noble as an angel.
On the other hand, she had experimented on and killed hundreds of people to develop her cure, sacrificed a whole village to seal away the devil, and altered demi-humans for use as biological weapons. The people who hated her scorned her as a terrible woman, cruel as a devil.
Kevin and Sasha had been Faust’s comrades in the past, but they had never been able to accept her twisted actions and ultimately severed their connections with her. So why had she suddenly appeared before them now?
“Rather cold of you to question my motives, don’t you think?” Faust said. “I’m not so heartless that I would turn a blind eye to the troubles of my old friends. I rushed here when I heard that Sasha had been cursed by the Poison Queen.”
“How shameless! Don’t you remember what you did to that village five years ago?!” Kevin replied.
“Of course I remember. It’s a researcher’s duty to never forget the people who sacrificed themselves for our experiments. More importantly, would you just let me examine your wife already?”
“You...!” Kevin glared at Faust, but at the same time, he realized that she might be his only hope.
True, she’s a madwoman who has transgressed the boundaries of humanity. But it’s also true that she’s the finest doctor in the world and an incredible mage. Maybe she’ll be able to save Sasha... In fact, if she can’t, then nobody can.
“...If you do anything untoward to my wife, I won’t show you mercy,” Kevin said with a groan, frustration clear on his face as he allowed Faust to examine Sasha.
“Fine by me. You should just have said so from the start.” Faust smiled wryly as she tapped Kevin’s shoulder. Then, she started her examination. “First, I need to undress her.”
Sasha groaned in pain as Faust stripped her to reveal purple bruises on her skin. The marks seemed to originate near her heart, and they had spread to just below her face.
“Well, well... Interesting,” Faust muttered, groping Sasha’s body.
Kevin watched her silently, telling himself he would never allow her to do this if she weren’t a doctor...or a woman, considering how carefully she was examining certain parts.
“I think I’ve got the gist. Basically, the Poison Queen’s curse is a cursed illness, as the name suggests. It’s a pretty annoying one, but there is a way to heal her...somewhat.”
“Really?!” Kevin couldn’t keep himself from shouting. Countless renowned doctors and great mages had tried, but none had found a way to cure Sasha. And yet, in just a few minutes, Faust had done that very thing.
Faust first calmed him down, then explained the details to him slowly. “Sorry to dash your hopes, but I can’t dispel the curse of the Poison Queen, a Demon Lord-class calamity, without risk. The only thing I can do is transfer it to someone else.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ever heard of the Soul Exchanging Technique? The one where you sacrifice someone’s life to revive a deceased person? Well, it’s possible to use that to transfer the curse from Sasha to someone else.”
Kevin gasped. To save his wife, he would have to inflict the curse on someone else—a truly selfish and blasphemous act.
“Fine. In that case, I’ll do it,” Kevin said, resolved to sacrifice himself for his wife.
However, Faust shook her head. “Unfortunately, it can’t be you. It has to be someone with a soul close enough to hers, which means only direct blood relatives like parents, children, or siblings.”
“What?! Then it’s impossible to save her!” Kevin slammed his fist into the wall. “Sasha has no relatives! Her parents are dead and she was an only child! There’s nobody to transfer the curse to!” He had seen hope for an instant only for it to immediately escape his grasp. Kevin sank again into despair, but Faust smiled bitterly as she pushed up her glasses.
“That’s not true. There is someone, actually.”
“What...?”
“Blood relatives include the unborn.”
“Wait, don’t tell me...?!” Kevin understood the implication behind Faust’s words and looked at Sasha’s naked body as she struggled to breathe.
Was a new life budding inside her?
“You mean she’s carrying my child?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s yours... Ah, sorry for that nasty comment. Anyway, she’s indeed pregnant. As a doctor, I can guarantee it.”
Kevin’s expression warped. He had been ready to sacrifice a lot of things to save his beloved wife, but he had never imagined the possibility of using his unborn child.
“How can this happen...? Is there no God in this world?”
“I don’t care what you do, and I’ll respect your choice either way. But if you leave her like that, just know that she won’t be the only one to die.”
Kevin groaned. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists for a few seconds and...then made a cruel decision.
“Please, save my wife. Transfer the curse to our child.”
“No problem. I’ll do—”
“W-Wait!”
“Sasha?!”
Sasha, who had been breathing faintly until now, interrupted Faust. She had woken up without anyone realizing, and she glared up at Kevin from the bed. “Don’t do...something so...foolish... I don’t want to...survive...if it means...sacrificing my child!” she said in between pained breaths.
“But Sasha! It’s the only way! If you die, then the child will too! In that case, I would rather at least save you!”
“It’s my baby! I won’t let them die alone! I will hold them in my arms as I pass through the gate to the underworld!” She might have been panting as she spoke, but the resolve in her eyes was clear. Even at the cost of her life, Sasha refused to abandon her child. Her unshakable will was truly the embodiment of maternal love.
“Hmm...you sure?” And yet, Faust asked Sasha this question, cocking her head. “You’re certain that you don’t want to transfer the curse to your child and instead let yourself die?”
“Of course... Parents must protect their children, not sacrifice them!”
“But...if you do that, your children will also die. By sacrificing one, you can save the rest. I don’t think it’s worth killing all of you.”
“I told you—” Irritated, Sasha forced her weak body to shout at Faust, but as she started to speak, she realized something about the doctor’s words. “Wait...children?”
“Yep, children.” Faust nodded. “You have two fetuses in your womb, which means twins.”
“What? Twins?!” Kevin yelled as Sasha gasped in shock.
If there were two babies, then that changed everything.