Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha

Episode 13: The Mask of the Corpse Eater

"... after all, no?

That's what Lina said to me in a carefree tone, fighting with a mask stuck on her face.

Since the mask sticks to my face, I've been working on it for roughly, half an hour.

but no matter how hard you try, it won't come off.

It's like skin or something, and even if it looks like it, it's the end of being taken from face to face.

"No... no..."

In answer to that, Lina said,

"... sorry, it's my fault... actually, now that I think about it, that, the person who sold it, was suspicious... I bought it at an outdoor store, but now it's amazingly priced to keep it cheap..."

And say what not to listen to.

If it's just a selling complaint, it's a regular merchant dialogue, but when it comes to setting a dubiously low price on it......

Whatever you ask, it just sounds like a con artist's M.O.

Well, not a con artist, but an ordinary merchant, I guess not...

"Chi, mi... to, how much, was...?

"It was three copper coins. For a mask that looks sturdy made of metal, it's too cheap for anything...? But I kind of liked it from the first sight..."

Lina's hobby?

Well, then there's no choice... it won't be.

Naturally.

Or three copper coins.

A mask for adventurers, is not surprisingly unusual.

Because, after years of being an adventurer, you can often suffer major wounds that cannot be recovered by low-ranking healing magic.

Major deficiencies in the body, such as arms and feet, cannot be recovered unless they are in the Virgin Class, which is accredited in a religious community such as the Church, and if you wish to do so, there is a huge cost of treatment in the name of a stopover.

What it can't pay, unfortunately, is to give up and live as is, or put on prostheses and prostheses and manage to work hard.

Put on a mask if your face is badly damaged or you can't heal the burn marks that are left unbroken.

Few low-level demons have melting attacks on their faces, such as slime acid bullets (Acid Blitz), and that's what happens when you avoid them.

That's why the mask was surprisingly one of those familiar items to us adventurers.

That's why I know the market somewhat, even though I think about a life I wouldn't use if I could.

From that feeling, I wouldn't be able to buy a metal mask like the one I'm wearing right now without sending out a silver coin.

The amount of copper coin is about whether one piece of bread can be bought in two pieces.

In other words, this mask, not to mention the cost of processing, makes me want to penetrate that the cost of materials alone would exceed three pieces of copper coin.

Yet Lina bought it.

There are some verses that I thought might be slightly suspicious, but they may have lost their cheapness.

……

I stare at Lina with a serious eye.

I'm missing one eyeball though.

Then Lina waved her hand in front of her face like she was in a panic,

"Oh, uh, no, I thought it was going to be okay! There was no sign of a curse either... Look, I, I normally held it by hand, but you're pimping! I thought maybe there was some kind of translation, but if you're not cursed, it's okay..."

Well, sure, when you ask me, yes.

Lina takes this mask out of the bag herself without any particular vigilance and places it on the ground.

I mean, it's not cursed......?

No.

Focus your consciousness on the mask sticking to your face and you feel slightly, evil signs.

This would definitely be a curse.

It didn't affect Lina... probably because she didn't try to put it on her face.

Anyway, I didn't do anything at the stage where I just held it with my hand.

It was a curse that activated as soon as it was applied, so...

Not at all.

But a curse......

Then maybe we can work something out.

Well, that's how I concentrate my consciousness on the power in my body.

Then a blurry, pale, blue light was gushing out of my body.

"Ko, this is haha!? No way, are you sanctimonious......!?

That's what Lina said in a way that surprised her.

The reaction is understandable.

Anyway, it's a force that I rarely see like holy chi.

Even if you have the opportunity to see the very rare use of it by the priests at festivals and such, it is normal that you never see it activated so close.

The reason I used that power now, it's because Holy Qi has the power to purify.

It is possible to curse or lift it, even in sacred sorcery, but there is little flow to the public about it because the priests have a monopoly on its use.

I don't know how to use it either.

However, I have heard that if you are holy, it is also possible to erase the curse simply by releasing it, even if you do not know how to use it in detail.

If it had been me before, that would not have been possible.

Anyway, water purification was the limit.

No matter how hard you try, you can't pay for a curse.

But now that I've defeated the demons and gone through the Evolution of Being...

That's what I thought.

In fact, it worked.

The mask that had been stuck on my face without any reaction until earlier moved with the cataclysm, not with the release of my holy temper.

This... off!?

And I was hoping.

"... Oh, that? Mr. Lent, the blue and white aura, it's kind of less than just now, isn't it?

Lina, who was observing me, shrugged worryingly.

In fact, she's right, the sanctity that's being released from my body is diminishing.

Or we're out of fuel already.

No matter how much I felt more holy, it still seemed insignificant.

Until earlier, I felt like I was pushing the mask, but now, I just feel like I'm being pushed back into holiness.

This is no good.

When I give up, I gradually quit releasing the Sacred Qi, the masked tremor similarly subsides.

And when I stopped completely, the mask was stuck firmly in my face.

It doesn't look like the atmosphere is about to come off anymore.

Again, it seemed to be a shortage in my power...

"... couldn't you"

"No, it was..."

shock and fatigue. When I sat up, Lina said,

"I'm sorry... I bought such a cursed item..."

And I apologized.

Maybe how disappointed I looked.

There were tears in Lina's eyes, and she seemed really sorry.

Sure, oh, you couldn't take it off, too bad, I thought.

But on second thought, nothing. Her actions would not have been so blamed either.

That's why I tell Lina.

"I don't have to... I don't have to... I don't have to... I don't have to... I don't have to... I don't care..."

"But..."

"Earlier, it seemed like a good idea, there was a good idea... if you get better, it might come off... for the sake of the good reason, you can take it off..."

I tried to console Lina by saying so.

And then I try to reach for my shoulder... pull just before I touch her.

Yes, I was a corpse eater, Ghoul, and she reminded me that she wasn't used to it yet.

But as I held back my hand like that, her hand reached out and wrapped it over the gloves.

"Hey, what..."

I'm surprised, Lina says.

"I, I get it. Mr. Lent is a bad person... a demon? It's not! So I'm not scared anymore. I'm not scared..."

As I said, my hands were shaking slightly.

I get it.

You're not scared or anything, but you're still, you're scared.

However, I also found out that while he was in that condition, he took my hand deliberately to comfort me.

So I told her,