Everyone nervously watched the clock as it ticked ever closer to midnight. It moved at what seemed like a snail’s pace, but finally the second, minute, and hour hand all pointed straight up.
“It’s time!”
“Rex!” Rose, who was sitting next to me, squeezed my hand, a worried look on her face.
Black haze erupted from the brand on my chest, then split into multiple different streams, like a many-headed hydra searching for prey, before sinking back underneath my skin. That was exactly how the curse had looked when it activated on Rose in the game. When it hit her, she’d started writhing in pain and lost some of her health and mana.
“Well, that was anticlimactic...” I said as the black mist slammed back into me.
I did feel a light impact, but as far as I could tell, no actual harm had been done. Just to be sure, I looked in the mirror and used Analyze on myself.
【Rex】
LV: 52
HP: 542
MP: 281
Strength: 210 (C+)
Vitality: 204 (C+)
Intelligence: 214 (C+)
Mind: 204 (C+)
Agility: 210 (C+)
Focus: 212 (C+)
Neither my HP nor my MP had gone down, and my stats were all the same. I’d practically spent more time staring at my stats than I had my own face, so I definitely would have noticed if any of them had changed by even a single point.
“Everything looks fine,” I said with a satisfied nod.
Thank the lord...
Rose ran up and hugged me.
“Thank goodness! I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“I did say there was nothing to worry about,” I replied with a small smile.
But while I put on a confident front, I’d actually been quite worried myself. In fact, I’d probably been more worried than Rose. Of course, I knew logically there shouldn’t be any problems since the Mark of the Curse was only supposed to work on vampires, and more specifically only supposed to work on Rose due to her status as the Demon Lord. It shouldn’t have had any effects on Rex, who was just a normal adventurer.
Even in the game, when you took Rose to see the healer, they mentioned that the black fog was harmless to regular humans after they’d examined it. At the same time, I’d learned that while my game knowledge did come in handy, this world wasn’t a one-to-one replica of the game. It was entirely possible that either the Mark of the Curse would have worked on me, slowly transforming me into a new Demon Lord, or that the black fog would come out and attack Rose despite the brand being carved into me. That was why I hadn’t wanted to go with this method if I didn’t have to.
When I’d outfitted Rose for her leveling expedition, I’d handed her the Castling Ring just in case she found herself in actual danger. I hadn’t expected to use it to stop Veltar’s plot, but it turned out to be a very effective last resort.
The Castling Ring had a very simple effect—it let you swap places with someone wearing another Castling Ring. The name probably came from castling in chess, which was a move that let the king and rook swap places. As someone who actually knew the rules of chess, I knew that the king and rook didn’t technically swap places so much as move closer to each other’s starting spots, but the Castling Ring actually did let you swap places exactly. Its effective range wasn’t all that high, and the ring broke after a single use, so it wasn’t a particularly great accessory. However, it was the only thing I’d been able to think of that would let me interfere with the way this event was meant to go.
And lo and behold, I’d needed to use it to save Rose. I hadn’t thought Veltar would still be able to activate the Mark of the Curse even after being stabbed by the Dagger of Regret. Though it was hard to say whether that had been due to Veltar’s own tenacity or the world’s tendency to try and force things down the storylines predetermined by the game. Either way, the Castling Ring had let me rewrite the outcome of this event, which proved that even forced event scenes could be overcome with enough preparation. This was a huge discovery.
“Don’t think I’ve forgiven you, brother,” Recilia whispered quietly into my ear.
A shiver ran down my spine. I’d told Recilia my entire plan beforehand, but I’d neglected to mention the Castling Rings. Mostly because I knew she would have been opposed to the idea and would have insisted that she wear the paired ring instead.
After the battle I’d also had Recilia hang on to the Dagger of Regret just in case the curse had turned me into a vampire. The fact that I’d wanted her to kill me if the worst happened had not put her in a good mood.
“Umm, Rex. Are you okay? You look rather pale.”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.”
I stopped worrying about how I was going to pacify Recilia and smiled reassuringly at Rose. But as I did so, her expression clouded over.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’m happy everyone’s safe, but...now I’ve lost my uncle, and all of you will be returning to your adventures. I was just thinking it’s going to be lonely here again. Sorry for saying something so selfish.” Rose looked away, a sad smile on her face. “I know what uncle was trying to do was terrible, and that he had to be stopped. But he was...kind to me.” Rose looked over at the book she’d been reading, then reached over and stroked the open pages. “Uncle bought this book for me when I was a child. He also...used to make me caramel candy from scratch.”
Rose looked wistfully off into the distance, and I felt a pang of pain in my heart.
“Whenever I asked him why he was so nice to me he’d always smile and say, ‘Because you’re special.’ Thinking back on it now, he was probably referring to the Demon Lord within me instead of me.”
Rose smiled sadly, and it suddenly hit me that even though I’d taken the Mark of the Curse in her stead, she was still a vampire and the fourth Demon Lord. Her original persona was still sleeping, that was all. She must be terrified that at any point the other part of her might awaken and she’d transform into an evil monster. Not only that, she knew she was destined to spend the rest of her days alone in the manor.
“Rose,” I said, making up my mind before I could start having second thoughts.
“Yes, Rex?” She gave me a fearful look.
“We stopped the Vampire Lord who was trying to resurrect the Demon Lord within you, but that doesn’t mean everything’s over. We don’t know what latent effects the curse might have on me, and there’s always still the possibility that you’ll awaken as a Demon Lord anyway eventually.”
“I... I know...” Rose said, nodding and hanging her head.
“Since we don’t know what might happen in the future...”
I trailed off, looking around at the spacious living room. This mansion was too large for one person to live here all alone. Rose waited with bated breath for my next words, looking like a criminal awaiting her sentence.
“Would it be all right if I kept visiting you every now and then?”
Rose looked up at me in surprise. She saw from my expression that I was sincere, and tears of joy welled up in her eyes. “Please do!”
Her beaming smile reminded me of a blooming rose.