Chapter 53: Ruining Other People’s Relationships Is Fun - 1
"Do you think I’m inferior to that guy too?!"
"J-John? What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?"
"Tell me! Say it!"
John felt inferior to Ian.
It was because his father, the village chief, compared him to Ian at every turn.
[ "John, what the hell are you even good for?" ]
The village chief had looked upon John with displeasure ever since he was young.
He was the child of a wife who had committed adultery, so there was no way he could view him fondly.
He had even doubted whether John was truly his biological son.
As a result, despite being the village chief’s only son, John could not help but feel desperate.
That was why he formed a gang and made plans that were beyond his station.
His methods were wrong, but John wanted his father’s recognition.
But the village chief did not acknowledge John.
He already had Ian as someone to compare him against.
They were around the same age, so in the village chief’s eyes, his own son could only seem inadequate.
And now, in that situation, even his lover Isolde was comparing him to Ian. It was inevitable that John would snap.
"What the hell do I lack compared to that bastard?!"
"Let go of me!"
Isolde cried out as she shook off John’s hand.
"John, I’m disappointed. How could you do this to me?"
"You’re the one who started this! Hurry up and tell me! Is there anything I’m worse at than him?"
"Fine? Then let’s compare you properly. Ian wouldn’t have yelled over something this stupid. He wouldn’t have avoided marrying me by making excuses like you have!"
Isolde was not particularly fond of Ian.
Like the saying, “A rolling stone dislodges a rooted one,” Ian had put her in a bad mood every day.
But Isolde had watched from nearby how Ian treated Isabelle.
She could not understand the emotion called love, but she at least knew what a man in love was supposed to be like.
"You only started dating me because of my looks in the first place. My figure! My face! You looked at those and said you loved me, and now this is what you have to say?"
"Haah, fuck, seriously."
John sighed at Isolde’s words.
They were so absurd that all he could do was give a hollow laugh.
"The same goes for you. You’re just a whore dating me for my father’s money, and you’re acting like you’re so fucking pure?"
"A-a whore? Have you said everything you wanted to say?"
"I have. Want me to be honest while we’re at it? Isolde, you’re a woman who’s useless without her looks! You can’t even manage housework or support your husband, so why the hell are you so damn demanding?"
"That’s enough! We’re through! Let’s break up!"
"Break up? You’ve got to be kidding me. Fuck, go ahead and try if you can. Do you think you can date any man besides me? What man would put up with your vicious personality?"
"Why couldn’t I? With my face, even a noble’s—"
"W-what? What the fuck is that?!"
Isolde could not help but be flustered at John’s sudden look of horror.
As though he had seen some terrible monster, he fell backward onto his ass and tried to flee from her.
"What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?"
"Don’t come closer! Stay away from me, you monster!"
Paralyzed with fear, John ran away as fast as he could.
"What the hell was that?"
Isolde stared blankly after the fleeing John.
That was when it happened.
Thwack!
"Eek!"
A stone came flying toward Isolde.
She immediately turned her gaze in the direction it had come from.
"Who was that?!"
The villagers were standing there.
Every one of them was holding stones, terror in their eyes.
"I-it’s a curse! Fuck, it’s a curse!"
"How can something be that ugly?"
"Throw them! The curse might spread to us too!"
Isolde was left dumbfounded by the villagers’ sudden attack.
What is wrong with everyone?
Isolde had lived her entire life being treated as a beauty.
It might have been a small rural village, but from the villagers’ reactions, Isolde knew just how remarkable her beauty was.
For her to be shunned as she was now was impossible. It should never have happened.
"What did I ever do wrong?!"
Isolde hurriedly fled, avoiding the villagers who were attacking her.
"Pant, pant... W-what is this?"
Catching her breath by the riverbank, Isolde saw it.
Her own face reflected in the water.
Her skin was covered in red rashes as if she had caught some disease, and patches of flesh had peeled away.
Her face was jumbled and distorted, while boils had erupted all over it, oozing fluid.
Calling her ugly would have been putting it kindly. The Isolde of now was utterly grotesque.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Isolde screamed.
She screamed and screamed, praying that this was a dream, but reality did not change.
. . .
In [A Country Village’s Circumstances], the curse inflicted upon Isolde for committing adultery with John was nymphomania.
Because of it, Isolde enjoyed relations not only with John but with numerous village men, eventually degenerating into the village’s communal flesh toilet.
But the curse she received this time could not be nymphomania, and for that, I had to visit the witch in the eastern forest.
"I’d like you to change the curse Marin requested into something else."
"Who?"
Despite my sudden visit, the witch regarded me indifferently.
Light lavender hair and the vertical pupils distinctive to predators, visible amid her red eyes.
She was Aurora, the heroine of [A Gloomy Witch’s Circumstances].
"I’m Ian, a hunter."
"Hmm... is that so?"
Aurora looked me over from head to toe.
She must have realized that I was no ordinary hunter.
"How did you find this place?"
"I followed Marin here."
"Liar. This isn’t a place you can enter just by following someone."
I smiled at her observation.
As Aurora said, the witch’s house where she lived was not somewhere one could enter merely by following another person.
A barrier was spread around it, one that made entry impossible unless you approached with the prescribed direction and gait.
That was why she was wary of me.
"I’m an exceptionally capable hunter, you see. I have a knack for tailing people. Figuring out how to enter places based on patterns is easy as pie for me."
Aurora still did not drop her suspicions, but she maintained her usual expressionless face.
Apparently, she did not find me particularly threatening.
I’m still not enough to threaten someone of superhuman class?
I grew slightly tense.
Unlike the other heroines, Aurora, being a witch, was not friendly toward humans.
Of course, Aurora would not harm me out of the blue. More precisely, she could not.
"By the witch’s code, you are a guest as well, so I’ll agree to trade with you."
The witch’s code.
It was a set of rules created by the Witch Queen, who had gathered the witches together, and every witch was required to obey them.
The stronger the witch, the more tightly she was bound by the code, and pain followed if she violated it.
Naturally, the restrictions Aurora received as the so-called Witch Princess were so powerful that she could not even resist them.
As proof, even though I looked suspicious, Aurora accepted me rather than throwing me out simply because I was a guest.
In the game, I thought it was just a convenient setting to facilitate the standard story progression.
Well, thanks to that, I could safely make a deal with Aurora.
"You want to change the curse Marin requested into something else?"
"That’s right. You can do that, can’t you?"
"Did you bring payment?"
"Wait a second. You let Marin pay afterward. Why am I the only one who has to pay upfront?"
"Marin promised to offer a virgin’s blood. It is a precious ingredient, so I made an exception."
"A shop that discriminates between customers won’t last long."
"I’ll worry about that myself."
"You never let a single word slide, do you?"
Despite speaking softly, Aurora had a forceful personality.
"How about a Goblin Flower? It’s hard to get hold of one of these."
"Not enough. And I have them too."
"What about gold coins?"
"I have no interest in the currency humans use."
"This is driving me crazy. Fine, I’ll take things out one at a time, so tell me how much it’ll take."
I slowly took out herbs and watched Aurora’s reaction.
Golden Flower, Green Herb, Blood Herb, and Blue Flower—even Clown Mushrooms, which were used to make narcotics.
They were all things that would fetch a high price in a city market, but none of them caught Aurora’s interest.
"Then what about this?"
When I took out a White Flower at last, Aurora’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
Hmm, so a White Flower is worth about this much.
The White Flower that had grown wild alongside the Big-Dick Herb in the goblin cave was a type of spiritual medicine imbued with yin energy.
However, in the game, it was a quest item, so there had been no detailed information about it.
But judging by Aurora’s reaction now, I could tell that it ranked among the finest spiritual medicines.
"One pure-white flower will be enough."
"Hey, hey, you can’t just take it without explaining. Be specific. How much will you do for this?"
"..."
Aurora stared intently at me in silence for some time.
She really is beautiful, as expected of someone heroine-class.
With her expressionless face, Aurora was so strikingly beautiful that I found myself wondering whether she was actually a doll.
I wanted to press my finger gently into her cheek.
Just as that impulse arose, Aurora spoke with her small lips.
"I can change the curse, and I can do something else for you too."
"How much does this ‘something else’ cover?"
"I’ll let you take Marin’s virginity."
"Oh?"
Like a proper witch, Aurora made an offer that was difficult to refuse.
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