Chapter 8: The Cursed Village
Sniff! Sniff!
A dog with two heads sniffed an in unconscious body lying in the ground and it barked.
"Did you find something Jack?"
An articulate female voice said upon hearing the bark. Then she slowly walked towards the dog and found a body which was looking pale.
"Mana exhaustion?"
She frowned and ordered her dog to carry the body back to the village.
Woof!
The dog bit a little piece of cloth and threw the body at its back and headed towards the village with its master.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar place. He was inside a house made up of mud which seemed like it could fall any minute and when he looked around he saw a bed, two chairs and some utensils in the small house.
He also found a weird girl before the fire who seemed to be cooking something. What was weird about her wasn't her appearance but the mask she was wearing on her face. It was creepy.
He rolled his eyes looking outside the door, or the gap where a door once was, he saw a dog outside tied to a pillar.
When he tried sitting straight, he felt the heat in his stomach which was very scarce but it was still there. But as before it didn't pain him but he didn't feel normal either.
'Looks like it'll take some time before I fully absorb the core.' When he frowned his eyes widened.
'A new skill? How?' An image flashed across his mind and he realized he had indeed gained a new skill. With a surprise expression, he thought of trying it when a voice interrupted his rejoice,
"You woke up,"
The girl wearing a mask said, "Just lay there and rest for a bit, although your mana has returned you're still weak and you need to rest."
The girl then provided him a bowl of rice and asked him to rest after finishing it. The treatment he was getting was too good to be true, he thought. He knew there was ko such thing as free meals in the world.
Although there were some people who were helpful toward others but the girl wearing a creepy mask giving him such treatment made it harder for him to swallow the rice. He knew he shouldn't judge a book by its cover but believing her was too much to ask of him.
"Do you need some meat?" The girl offered to show the meat that was being grilled in the fire.
"What do you want?" Oslo asked in return.
Not expecting such response, the girl shook her head,
"I don't want anything."
Her reply made it even more suspicious. He asked, standing up,
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Then," He put down the bowl, "Thank you for taking care of me. I appreciate it."
He said, standing. He then walked towards the door.
"W-Wait a minute," The girl said in haste, "I saved your life, don't you think you should return the favor? If I hadn't saved you, you were about to be eaten by a two-headed monster."
"Monster? You mean your pet dog?" Oslo asked.
The girl became red in embarrassment, though it didn't look like it because of her mask, she then asked,
"H-How did you know it was my pet?"
"If you didn't want for me to know that then you shouldn't have tied it right outside the house." He said pointing at the dog.
She was now even more embarrassed. When Oslo took a step to leave again, she hurriedly grabbed him by his shirt.
Tak~
The creepy mask she was wearing fell down and when Oslo looked at the one grabbing her shirt, he was mesmerized.
Why was a beauty like her wearing such a creepy mask? But the girl then said,
"I want a favor to ask of you. Please help us!"
She was too close, Oslo leaned back and said,
"O-Ok, but it will depend on what sort of problem it is."
He knew he owed her for saving his life. If he had been left unconscious in the wild like that he would have been eaten by monsters for sure. If it was a problem that could be solved by him, a D-rank adventurer; he would gladly comply with it.
She then sighed deeply looking down, at least he was willing to listen to their problem. When her eyes glanced at the fallen mask she took a step back. Touching her face she found out that it was indeed her mask at the ground.
She immediately picked it up and put the mask on her face.
"Did you see it? Did you see my face?" She asked looking at him.
'Shouldn't I have seen it?' He thought.
She then sat down and said," Well it doesn't matter. Since you have already seen my face then it would be easier for me to explain."
Oslo was shocked when she said that. Was being a beauty her problem? If it was indeed her problem then why?
"The problem lies in my face." She said.
Hearing her he thought, 'Girl you shouldn't say something like this so casually, if it was a girl instead of me sitting here, she would've scratched your face to death.'
"Not only my face but the problem is related to the faces of every villager." She added.
"Every villager?" Oslo couldn't help but exclaim.
Were all the villagers suffering from the disease called 'Handsomeness' and 'Beautifulness'?
"Yes, the village has been cursed by a magician. He is too powerful to curse the whole village at once. What we want for you to do is that you help us by defeating the magician and lift the curses he put on our faces." She replied.
Wait, does that mean they were originally ugly ones but a magician was kind enough to beautify them?
"Since you've seen my face, you saw how the curse worked. You saw my rotting face, didn't you? Because of the curses, my flesh in the face is rotting day by day. When I look at myself in the mirror I can't help but cry at my own face."
"Many days have passed since we were cursed and now, I even see the bones of my face when I look in the mirror. My own face makes me puke. It won't be long before we die because of the curse and every villager will have the same fate." She said.
The words she said were too hard to process for Oslo. When he saw her face, she was completely fine and healthy and her description of her own face was the complete opposite of what he saw.
According to her description, the magician was too powerful and he thought he as a D-Rank adventurer cannot match up to such dangerous foe. He shook his head saying,
"I'm sorry but I don't think I can help."
Hearing him, the girl felt hopeless. There weren't any magicians in the village who could save them and they rarely came across one. Oslo was their last hope and watching him deny, she couldn't help but cry. She said with tears,
"It won't be for free, we'll pay you."
"Pay me? pay me what?" Oslo said as he thought he could reject anything she offered.
"We'll reward you with a magical artifact that will amplify your magic and help you while hunting."
"I don't want it." Oslo shook his head and said.
He then started leaving when he heard her laugh.
"Hehehehehahahahahahaha, even if you leave right now, you're going to die anyway."
"Hm?" Oslo turned back in surprise.
"That rice you ate...it was cursed!"
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