The all-nighter brainstorming session that Davey and Perserque pulled off was worth it. As soon as it got bright, Davey left the palace and came to a wide, abandoned plain. He was a little burdened after seeing the militia members’ anticipation and maniac-like looks on the way out, but he regained his peace of mind upon looking at the wide plains that were unfortunately dried out.

A chilly wind hit Davey, who didn’t really have any resistance to heat or cold yet. He hadn’t gone through ‘metamorph’. However, a little holy power could fix this, such as a holy power furnace.

“So, all this used to be farmland before.” Davey looked around the plains that cracked apart from dryness. The plains were so useless that the original owners gave up their ownership and left the territory, leaving the land without an owner. “Ah, I really wanted to be the owner of a building, but I guess I’ll become the owner of a really large land.”

As Davey laughed carelessly, Perserque looked at him with a peculiar look. She thought he was acting ridiculous.

-Your greed is peculiar. If your goal is to live a happy and healthy life in peace, there’s something called exploitation.

“I don’t want to do things like that. People need to live with a conscience.” If Davey couldn’t exalt the heroes who taught him, the least he could do was to not insult them. Whether he liked it or not, a lot of people would eventually realize that he had inherited their skills. In fact, a good example was Sword Lord Ares von Pallan. Above everything… “My goal is to live a long life, but like a human being.”

Perserque was quiet, as if she had understood what Davey meant.

-You…

Somewhat slurring her words, Perserque asked cautiously.

-Was your past life a short one?

“Well, I died before I could do anything.”

-What a wicked life.

“You’re not wrong, but I did live a long life at the Hall.”

-You were alive without possibly feeling like it. I think your ideal life is to live like a human being and share affection with people.

Unexpectedly, Perserque was actually quite accurate.

-Of course I know the feeling; I wanted those things as well.

As Perserque’s origin led her to being the center of the war, the life she led was probably not a good one, either. Perhaps all she wanted was to live a long life with her stepfather, Ares.

As Davey felt himself becoming immersed in sentimentality, he shook his head. “I can’t predict how long it will take me to find the curse’s carrier using regular methods.” It wasn’t a neglected land for nothing. Davey had quite the expertise regarding curses, but it was precisely because of that knowledge that he knew how tedious and difficult it was to break this curse. He sighed. “I wouldn’t even have to think about this if I could cast [Saint Sanctuary]…”

A 9-circle [Saint Sanctuary] wasn’t necessary, but Davey needed cleansing magic at the 8-circle level at least. The curse was quite advanced, and didn’t seem easily breakable with a level-5 or level-6. The problem was that increasing the level to level-8 was difficult for Davey right now. It wouldn’t matter if he had a lot of holy power, but frankly, there was no way another holy power storage that had as much power as [Caldeiras] existed.

‘Should I just ask Princess Illyna?’ Davey thought that the princess might take the bait. Since it seemed like she had great pride in Ares’ swordsmanship, if he borrowed [Caldeiras] to help her a little…

-I don’t really recommend doing that.

Perserque shook her head.

-Anyway, why did you come to see this place?

“I have to get some detailed information about the curse first.” Even if Davey used [Check Information] on the ground, all he could see with Perserque’s powers was that the land was cursed. He had no choice but to examine it with his own powers. He continued, “It was recently whining about why I haven’t used it very often.”

-Whining?

“There’s someone like that, whining and threatening to scream when I don’t use them,” Davey replied calmly. He then went down on one knee and placed his hand on the ground. He cast his will with his eyes closed.

‘Run wild when you have the chance.’ Thanks to the circles rotating around his meridian, Davey gained the ability to cast a spell without uttering it, so he could activate the power without speech.

[Re-Fix Curse]

It was a curse rearrangement spell.

-Huh? It’s the first time I’m seeing this magic spell.

This was unsurprising, since the creator of this magic and Davey’s dark magic teacher, Rho Aias, wasn’t from this continent. It was called the programming language of curse-type magic!

Curses were complex magic spells made from numerous equations and mana arrangements. It meant that even dark mages used the power of various artifacts or spent a lot of time on them. Then, if Davey could read the mana arrangement and rearrange them…

-You could figure out the conditions of the curse, or maybe even find the carrier if you’re lucky.

Such a curse would be impossible with the current knowledge of the dark mages on this continent. Davey predicted that this may be remnants of when Daphne, the first saintess, and Apollo were alive. He was told that there had been a huge battle because the dark mages had tried to take over the entire continent at that time. There was a high chance that this curse upon the Heins Territory was one that worked like mines.

Since Rho Aias made this spell to decode nasty curses and lift them in the first place, it wasn’t entirely being misused right now.

As the devil mana began flowing out and releasing its powers instantly, Davey could feel the vibration of a great power. This was the reason why he refrained from using it here; it was about the level of a 5-circle dark magic spell. The devil mana he possessed was quite a crazy and proud one, always boasting about its presence. As soon as [Re-fix Curse] was used, anyone who could use even a little bit of mana would instantly notice this cold and dark mana. That was why Davey came to this empty field by himself, because the hardest power to utilize out of the ones he learned was advanced dark magic.

Whoosh… A black and white magic circle traveled along Davey’s hand and spread out. Since the structure of the curse was probably the same, he didn’t feel the need to find another sample. The large magic circle was about three to four meters wide. As the circle transformed, it began printing out strange letters that were as cramped as those on enormous stone boards. It was as if a computer console was printing out the C language. The code-like contents looked like illegible symbols, but they were just familiar letters to Davey.

“Huh?” As Davey was decoding the arrangement of the curse, he saw something confusing. “Perserque.”

-You have found something.

“Is this really a curse?“ Perserque seemed puzzled by his question, so Davey explained, “This is more like an automatic greenhouse than a curse.” He couldn’t think of a better way to put it.

* * *

Curse-type magic, known to be one of the most complex types among dark magic, was like an intricate program. It was maintained by creating an intricate arrangement of the complex dark mana, and that was why it was the only dark magic spell that [Re-fix Curse] was effective on. Although Rho Aias wasn’t a dark mage from the Tionis continent, the spell was definitely useful, since it was dark magic that used devil mana.

It was a good decision to use [Re-fix Curse] to investigate this strange curse-like phenomenon. Although the spell couldn’t be used frequently since it left a large trace of devil mana, it wouldn’t matter if Davey resurrected a corpse or summoned the Demon Lord if no one was here on this dying land.

“….” Davey was silently deep in thought.

Perserque pulled Davey’s hair in frustration.

-Stop being like that and tell me what’s going on. I can’t decode that.

It took Davey 30 years to learn and apply this decoding technique. He could read and decode it right away, since the language had become so familiar. However, Perserque didn’t have the same ability. Even if she was a genius, it would be difficult to understand these weird letters at once. Simply put, this code message that Davey was reading was similar to a computer language.

-Are you saying it’s not a curse?

“Well, technically speaking, it is a curse with a very cruel purpose as well. But it’s a little iffy if you look at it a different way.”

After replying to Perserque, Davey lightly twisted his hand that was on the ground. Whoosh! At the same time, the printed window disappeared and the remaining light started forming into large arrows.

“There seems to be a carrier nearby, so let’s go check it out.”

The seigneur’s castle was located in the eastern region of the vast and wide Heins Territory. As such, the carrier Davey decided to go to was obviously the one on the east, which was the closest to him.

‘No wonder the border is so clear-cut. They placed the carriers in such a way so that only the Heins Territory was surrounded.’

There were seven locations where the successfully identified carriers were thought to be located. They were each located toward the north, south, east, and west, and also toward the southwest, northwest, and southeast. All of them were placed very close to the territory’s border.

It wouldn’t be strange for a curse, which covered this entire huge territory, to have over seven carriers. In fact, it was actually placed very intricately and effectively, as it considered the conditions of the terrain quite well.

‘How about elsewhere?’ Davey considered mobilizing the militia members and ordering them to check every carrier. However, he couldn’t just send anyone because he didn’t know what kind of tricks were placed to protect the carrier. If something happened, it would be a catastrophe whether they had buffs or not. ‘That can never happen.’

It may be impossible, but if Davey happened to serendipitously meet the heroes of the Hall again, he wanted to be able to confidently say that their student was leading this kind of life. He wanted to be able to talk about his achievements with pride while pouring them a drink. He had absolutely no intention of sacrificing someone who believed in him for his goal.

-You never know about the defense mechanisms; I suggest that you prepare more.

“I don’t think there will be too big of a problem.” If things started going haywire, Davey would have no choice but to pull out his trump card.

* * *

Davey was led to the rocky terrain in the Heins Territory’s eastern region as he followed the GPS-like arrows. The structures of the rocks were oddly inappropriate to make a quarry. He did, however, notice the beautiful view which could be called a masterpiece. It seemed like a good place to enjoy a picnic while taking in the view from up high. However, since Davey wasn’t actually here on vacation, he ran into the rocky terrain without hesitation.