“You’d have to drink it for it to work, though, wouldn’t you? Where is the advantage in that? Wouldn’t it be easier if people only had to touch it for it to work…?” Homura asked, cocking her head in confusion.
“Yes, the need to drink the blood would require more time and effort than a cursed item that transforms its targets on touch. But that extra time and effort is where the advantage lies.”
“How so…?”
What could be advantageous about something taking more time and effort?
“Of course! If it doesn’t take effect unless you drink it, then it’s safer to carry,” Psycho said.
“Yes. A cursed item that can be easily handled is a dangerous thing. It becomes that much easier to spread it throughout the world.”
Homura blanched, realizing now how dangerous, and easy to control, such an item would be.
“But doesn’t that mean that absolutely anyone could be turned into a monster at any time…?”
If that was true, there could be monsters like Rotraud out there just waiting to spring out from around every corner.
“I would not worry quite that much… At least, I think not.”
“Do monsters only change physically? That monstrous beast we ran into before—the bloodlicker cat, or whatever it was called—was able to dive into shadows.”
“The terms magic and monsters refer to things that exist outside common sense,” Melch explained. “Magic bends the natural laws of the world, whereas monsters constantly live in a reality where such laws are already bent. I was told that a dragon visited Galdorssia the other day. Do you remember that?”
“The other day…? I thought that was already over a month ago…?”
Homura was confused at first, but she quickly nodded. Perhaps when you had lived for as long as the witches had, time simply felt different.
“Usually, something so large would be incapable of remaining aloft. But it was able to do so, was it not? That is an example of what I mean.”
“Now that you mention it…”
Homura had already accepted that dragons flew, based on all the fantasy she had consumed, but if the laws of physics in this world were basically the same as those on Earth, it shouldn’t have been so easy for a creature that large to fly.
“Even among other monsters, dragons are particularly powerful creatures. So much so that they are rarely even described as monsters, per se. It is in a dragon’s nature to readily distort the world around it. There are dragons that can manipulate the very weather, or who can even cast curses upon those nearby simply with their presence.”
“I had no idea… Seigrat killed that dragon in a single blow, so we never got the chance to see much of it.”
Now that the girls thought about it, there was a lot about this world they didn’t know yet.
“By the way,” Yppa said, “evil eyes are supposedly when just the eye transforms, but here, take a look at this. Depending on the eye’s power, sometimes you even have to bind it like this.”
Yppa pushed her blindfold aside, giving them a quick glance at her right eye. She seemed to be having fun. The eyelid had been sewn shut with black thread. Yppa had shown Homura her sealed evil eye once before, but seeing it again still gave Homura the heebie-jeebies.
Evil eye or not, was that really necessary?
“Next time you want to lose control, Homura, you better remember my eye. You could be next!”
“Eek…”
Homura didn’t like the sound of that at all, and she clamped a hand over her own right eye. Although Yppa couldn’t see Homura’s scared reaction, she was delighted by it nonetheless.
“Getting back on subject, while all monsters exist outside rationality, the degree to which this is true can differ greatly from creature to creature. There are monsters like dragons that can fly through the air despite their massive size, and monsters like bloodlicker cats that can immerse themselves in shadow. On the other hand, there are also monsters such as thornhounds that are almost unremarkable. Thornhounds are far stronger than ordinary hounds, but that is where their differences end. Physically speaking, their bones have simply undergone an aggressive transmutation.”
When it came to monstrous alterations, apparently mileage could vary.
“So there’s no guarantee, then, that everyone would become as powerful as Rotraud did.”
“Of course not. That would be ludicrous.”
“Thank goodness…,” Homura said, sighing in relief. Still, they couldn’t get careless. “It’s still possible, though…isn’t it?”
“I suppose,” Melch said. “Monstrous beasts such as thornhounds have developed naturally, for the most part. But human transformations are more complicated. Humans are naturally resistant to alterations in their souls, which is why curses must be used to forcibly alter them. Depending on the level of the curse involved, the body and the soul might not be able to withstand the process. And while this can lead to magnified abilities, it is likely to lead to death or the destruction of the psyche. The creation of a flawed monster, so to speak.”
Jin placed a hand on her malefic sword, Crimson Rain.
“A flawed monster…”
“Like that ogre…”
The ogre they had encountered in the fishing village had already lost its mind by the time they arrived. Was that what a curse could do to a person?
“Intentionally transforming into a monster to become more powerful is a tricky thing. I’ve been forced to learn that lesson in the past,” Melch said, staring off into the distance as she related her own painful history. “Which is why I’m here in the Academy now, I suppose.”
It sounded like she really did have herself to blame.
“But the target could lose their psyche and still acquire great physical strength, correct? Something like that would make for an excellent soldier, wouldn’t it?” Psycho asked.
What a heinous thought. But Psycho’s face was deadly serious.
“It sounds like you’ve got something specific in mind,” Carlila said with a knowing smirk.
“We saw some very odd monsters recently.”
Recently…? Homura gave a start. “You mean…”
She was finally beginning to put the pieces together.
“Yes, the horse-people. They were clearly transformed humans.”
Homura felt an icy chill run down her back. “But there were so many of them…!”
“It may have been an accident that caused a curse to spread, or it may have been intentional. Either way, a whole settlement, at the very least, has been lost.”
“That’s terrible…!”
“What if someone were to use creatures like that as soldiers? They would have an instant army at their fingertips,” Psycho said, describing what sounded to Homura’s ears like an atrocity.
Carlila cackled out loud. “If this was the new Dark Lord’s doing, he must be rotten to the core! Do you see what you’re up against now, Homura? You girls will have your work cut out for you.”
Homura was getting a sense of just how difficult it was going to be to carry out the Goddess’s request and defeat the Dark Lord.
“I wonder if we’re actually up to the task…”
When the Goddess first made her request, Psycho had told the Goddess to kneel, insisting that just asking wasn’t enough. At the time, Homura had assumed Psycho was just being nasty for nastiness’s sake. But maybe Psycho had had an inkling of what such a task would involve. Not that that made her any less nasty, of course.
At present, Psycho was already absorbed in her next thought.
“So if a change in the soul means physical changes and the bending of natural laws…then these creatures…”
Psycho was being surprisingly serious for a change. And this time, it didn’t seem as if she was just pretending while secretly plotting something devious.
“What is it, Psycho?”
Psycho lifted her head in surprise and stood up from her chair.
“It’s nothing; never mind. I think we’ve heard all we need to. We should probably get to the church now. Carlila, Melch, Yppa, thank you for your help.”
Homura doubted it was really nothing, but she rose from her chair along with Psycho. At least Psycho didn’t seem like she was up to no good.
Homura sighed. They now had even more to report. Just as she was about to walk out the door, Carlila suddenly stopped her as if remembering something.
“Oh, I almost forgot, one of those two girls who couldn’t come with you loves to read, doesn’t she?”
“You mean Tsutsumi?”
Carlila nodded vigorously.
“Here, why don’t you take this for her?”
Carlila handed over the book she had been reading.
“This book looks pretty old…”
“That’s because it is. You need to be careful with it, however.”
“Careful?”
Did she mean Homura needed to be careful not to damage the book because of how old it was?
“You must not allow anyone else to see you with it.”
“Why? Is there something dangerous written inside?”
“There is. This book deals with taboo black magic. It appears the enemy you are facing is well versed in such things. Make sure your bookworm friend reads it well. She is stuck inside anyway, after all.”
“Thank you.”
The book that Carlila handed over was much thicker and heavier than Homura had expected, and the feel of it made her skin crawl. For some reason, Homura didn’t want to touch it any longer than she had to.
“A book about curses that no one else is allowed to see… It almost sounds like some sort of forbidden grimoire.”
Homura was worried the book might be dangerous, but since Carlila had handed it over so willingly, she was probably just imaging things. Or not.
“That’s because it is a forbidden grimoire.”
“A forbidden grimoire?!”
A forbidden grimoire!!
“Obviously, removing it from the Academy is prohibited. If anyone finds you with it, you’ll be sent to the dungeons immediately.”
They borrowed the book nonetheless.