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Chapter 19
“My heart isn’t exactly pounding, but… that’s the kind of feeling it is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean…?”
“What should I do, then?”
“Just… listen to me.”
“My heart is always open to you, Boss. Please, speak freely!”
The Boss hesitated until the last second before speaking, then finally lowered his head deeply at Joshua’s urging.
Just as he was about to open his tightly pressed lips and get to the main point—
“Can we at least eat while we talk? The food’s getting cold. And this is going to be a long story.”
Joshua interrupted.
We sat in a circle around the table, which was piled high with food. Joshua didn’t take his eyes off the Boss even while he ate, which was… pretty creepy.
“Eat normally, Joshua.”
He ignored me.
I took a bite of salad, and perhaps because the Boss had gathered his thoughts, he spoke without much hesitation, giving a brief summary.
“…Actually, during the sealing, right before the demon of Serael was sealed again, it cast a curse. The curse randomly struck one person, and that person was me.”
Talk about rotten luck.
“The curse that struck that incredibly unlucky person—”
Wait, did I just say that out loud?
“Focus.”
“Yes!”
Then, I carefully interrupted him to ask,
“Even the Saint and His Holiness the Pope couldn’t lift that curse, right?”
Which was why he was telling me about it now.
Both of them nodded heavily. Joshua let out a long sigh.
“The Pope doesn’t know. Even if the demon of Serael was sealed, the contamination that spread across the continent didn’t just vanish. That’s why two years ago, the Pope used a lot of his divine power purifying the polluted lands—and his health deteriorated because of it. Talking about this wouldn’t help anything…”
Fair enough. No point in making his condition worse.
Especially since no one could rival the Saint in purification magic, the Pope couldn’t really do much about it anyway.
“And the curse—it can only be sensed through the Saint’s unique divine power. So unless someone says something, the priests at the temple have no clue. The Pope couldn’t even detect it. What’s the point of telling him?”
After Joshua’s lament, silence settled over the table.
The Boss rubbed his forehead, clearly wondering whether to continue or not—but thankfully, he did.
“The curse is… a ‘spatial restriction.’ If you cross the boundary the curse has set, people start dying.”
“What kind of people?”
“Random ones. An entire village could just drop dead for no reason. That’s why I can’t leave this room.”
Because of the curse, his movements were restricted to this room.
So it wasn’t that he’d become a recluse by choice.
It wasn’t because he’d been dumped by the Saint and locked himself away.
All of it—was because of the demon of Serael.
That revelation truly shocked me.
So that’s why he was so certain he could never leave…
As the Boss spoke about the time he was cursed, his face sank lower and lower. Unable to bear it, I picked up a piece of steak and held it to his lips. He opened his mouth reflexively.
I slipped it in.
All those times I’d fed him when he refused to eat were finally paying off.
While he chewed, Joshua continued the explanation.
“He can’t even kill himself. If he does, the curse’s backlash will hit the entire Empire. So Jer’s been alone…”
“Joshua.”
The Boss cut him off sharply, telling him to stop. Joshua clamped his lips shut and tears started dripping down his cheeks. I handed him a glass of water, and he gulped it down.
So—Boss was the unlucky one struck by this ‘spatial restriction’ curse.
If he took even one step outside this room, random innocent people would die.
And if he tried to die to free himself from it, the curse’s shockwave would engulf the Empire.
It wasn’t a curse that hurt the cursed—it hurt others instead.
For almost two years, the Boss had borne that burden entirely on his own, comforting himself with the thought that as long as he suffered alone, everyone else could live.
How could anyone understand the heart of someone who carried that alone, without telling anyone?
It must have been unbearable.
The fevers and pain he’d had—it might all have been symptoms of the curse.
No—definitely the curse’s power.
Even those negative emotions Joshua mentioned.
…Now I finally understand why Boss always spoke so hopelessly.
He’d already given up on everything and decided to live locked away—because that was less miserable.
And in the middle of that, I’d been there, stubbornly giving him “hope.”
I was basically torturing him without realizing it.
I’d overstepped, trying to push him outside, without understanding anything.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were going through that.”
I couldn’t even imagine how much he must have hated me for saying we should go out when he physically couldn’t.
“How could you know if I didn’t tell you?”
His calm tone somehow made me more grateful.
I straightened my back.
“If there’s anything I can do, I’ll do it. You’re telling me this because there is something I can do, right? What should I do?”
“The space… has expanded.”
“The space?”
He pointed past the threshold.
“Centered around you.”
“Me? Really? But I don’t have any powers…”
“I’m sure of it! I saw it myself!”
…So I have some hidden power now?
“I did always think I wasn’t ordinary.”
Both of them gave me a flat, icy stare, and I couldn’t take it, so I quietly asked,
“So if I stay by your side, you can go outside?”
The Boss shook his head. Joshua set down his spoon and jumped up, running to the door and gesturing wildly.
“This is Jer’s area. But when you stand over there, the space spreads outward like ink in water.”
“And inside the room it’s normal?”
Joshua hurried back to the table.
“It seems to expand from the boundary. I wasn’t sure at first, but now I am.”
“How is that even possible?”
Joshua, who’d been explaining calmly, suddenly slammed his palms on the table in frustration.
The plates rattled.
“That’s what I’m saying! I can feel something from you, but I can’t define it. It’s like this power you’ve buried deep inside is leaking out through your body.”
“I don’t feel anything, though.”
“It’s probably because Jer’s curse affected your hidden power without you realizing it!”
“So if I can understand what kind of power I have, we might be able to break the curse?”
“That’s it!”
Joshua jumped up onto his chair in excitement.
Kid, that’s dangerous.
But he didn’t seem to notice my worry. He pointed at me dramatically.
“From now on, your job is to use that power to lift Jer’s curse. Even if you can’t lift it completely, at least expand the area!”
If that worked, I wouldn’t have to stay glued to Boss 24/7. I’d need to study my power instead.
“So… I don’t have to stay by your side all day?”
Boss just sulked silently.
“I’ll endure, even if I miss you.”
If the Boss’s only hope lay in me, then there was no reason to refuse.
…Well, maybe the huge paycheck helped a little too.
“At that time, both the Saint and the Crown Prince were there, right? So they know about this?”
“They do.”
“And out of the three of you, you’re the only one who got cursed?”
He nodded.
The Saint, blessed by the gods, and the man she loved—so they were spared, and only he was struck.
How unbelievably unfair.
The so-called “spatial restriction” wasn’t a well-known curse.
It was lucky Joshua had figured it out—otherwise, countless people might’ve died by accident.
The demon really struggled to the bitter end, huh.
So it wasn’t a perfect happy ending after all.
The male and female leads got their happy ending… but the second male lead was left to suffer forever.
“Miss Teatime, please focus.”
Mr. Veilt opened the door to the Magic Tower and lightly shook my shoulder.
Only then did I snap out of my thoughts and step through the door he held open.
Inside was an empty warehouse.
He tugged three times on a rope connected to a strangely placed bell—but oddly, there was no sound.
A moment later, a shabby-looking wizard appeared, opening the wall itself.
Though he looked quite young, he seemed so drained that he had to clutch his staff like a lifeline, hunched over as he approached.
“Identity check… please.”
Sure thing.
Veilt handed over a badge engraved with the Eclipse Guild emblem.
“Ah, right. You said you were coming. Forgot for a moment.”
I whispered to Veilt,
“He doesn’t recognize your face?”
“He does, but he hasn’t slept for a month straight. His mind’s gone.”
“How can a human even do that?”
“He’s a wizard.”
But wizards are human too…
