I'm going to puke.


　The next morning.

　I left the Duke's mansion alone, covering my face with my right hand and muttering in a wrinkled voice.

　My headache, dizziness, and nausea were so bad that I couldn't walk straight. I must be looking like a dead man right now. The gatekeeper looked very worried.

　I've got the worst kind of cold I've ever had.

　I should have stayed in the house to recuperate, but I was complaining of tearing pains in my joints, and I couldn't even sleep slowly.

　To be honest, it's also quite painful to walk, but I'd rather be feeling better than laying on my bed and moaning.

　So this is why I am leaving the mansion and walking through the streets of the capital.


"Geez........I didn't expect to recoil so badly.


　Of course, the recoil was a soul-granting experiment that I had tried on Lunamaria last night.

　The experiment itself went well.

　Or rather, it was a huge success at a dangerous level.

　Lunamaria's level rose from '19' to '20'.



　So I had the means to intentionally raise the level of others.

　Just by looking at the characters alone, anyone can understand that this is a problem. How much of an uproar would there be if I went public with this? A shiver runs down my spine when I think about it.

　What's more, my soul-eating is basically as efficient as a high level opponent. In other words, the perpetual motion of raising Lunamaria's level, eating her soul, raising my level, and raising Lunamaria's level would be completed.


　Oh, I'm invincible. For a moment, such a thought flashed through my mind - although it didn't occur to me that way until I checked my level.

　The headache, nausea, dizziness, dizziness, joint pains, stomach pains, chest pains and all the other things that are still tormenting me, but last night was even worse than now.

　Something was wrong, even if it was a reaction to the soul granting. Feeling that, I checked my level with a bad feeling.

　The number that was '8' had been reduced to '7'.

　A level down had occurred.



　The last time my level went up was when I defeated the Gryphon.

　Since then, I've defeated Scylla and War Wolf, eaten Lunamaria's soul almost every day, and even defeated the Serpent King (Basilisk), but my level didn't go up.

　And yet, his level dropped easily after sharing a little bit of his soul with Lunamaria.

　It's hard to say, but the souls I've saved up until today and Lunamaria's one level are not evenly distributed.

　No, it's still fine if the amount I've saved up just becomes paa. But I'm not convinced that I'm going to get cut down to the level.



　To begin with, I've never heard of a level being lowered once it's been raised!　You're kidding me!

　That's what I wanted to yell at.

　But I don't know who to yell at - no, since I was the one who performed the soul-granting experiment, I have no choice but to direct all my anger and abuse at myself.

　The simple fact is that as a result of soul-granting, Lunamaria's level went up and mine went down.

　That's how it is, I had no choice but to be convinced.



''Well, it's better that I've made the math to save the tomboy princess.


　I chuckle.

　The higher the level, the tastier and purer the soul becomes. This means that increasing the level has a direct effect on the soul.

　Right now, Claudia's soul container is in a state where the bottom is missing. It is good if that hole is filled by leveling up. Even if it doesn't go that far, we can expect the hole to become smaller.

　If that happens, it's as good as finding a way to solve the problem. If you want, you can level up a couple of levels, and you'll be able to get to full recovery.


　The problem is that my level is likely to become '4' or '3' as compensation for that...

　Claudia's screams from last evening came back to my brain.

　It was a year ago that Claudia was affected by the curse.

　She's spent the past year tormented by that pain. She was only twelve or three years old, but she never lost her soft heart, resisting the pain that could come at any moment.

　To think that such a wonderful child would never have to cry out like that again - yes, just two or three levels, cheap cheap!

　I suppose I'll have one more event to be proud to report when I go to visit my mom's grave!　You can raise the bar again when it goes down!



　So, originally I wanted to go to Claudia's right away, but after all, I'm in a condition where I can't even walk straight now.

　I don't know if I'll be able to share my soul well with this. Or rather, I will probably fail.

　So now I had to recover my physical condition as soon as possible.

　Thus, the reason why I came out was also for the purpose of being a toolmaker's cure (potion) or a temple's recovery magic.



　--and yet, in terms of results, neither was effective.

　It seems that this malfunction is an inevitable symptom of soul granting. In other words, it looks like we'll just have to endure it until it recovers spontaneously.

　I let out a sigh of relief that this isn't going to be so convenient.

　While listening to the sound of a biwa (lute) coming from somewhere, I turned back to the Duke's residence.


◆◆◆


Uh, before Claudia fell?

'Yeah. I think Lunamaria heard some strange noises, has Seal noticed anything?


　When I returned to the duke's mansion, I directed my question to Seal.

　Originally, I had planned to ask him yesterday, but the aftereffects of the soul granting had made it impossible for me to do so.

　Seal raised his eyebrows and tried to remember what happened yesterday.


'You mean right before the dishes broke... oh, by the way, I heard you crying...'

Crying?

'Yes, I think it was a woman's voice. Um, beastmen have good ears, so they can often hear the sounds of neighboring houses and streets. Especially the high-pitched voices of women and babies can reach quite far away on the wind...


　So I wasn't particularly concerned about it, Seal says apologetically.

　He seems to be regretting not reporting the necessary information to me, even though he doesn't know why.

　Of course, I told him not to worry about it, since I didn't want to berate Seal, but Seal's information bothered me.


　If it was just the sound of crying, then I wouldn't have to worry about it, as Seal said. However, at about the same time, the elf Lunamaria felt an abnormality in her ears, and even Claudia was in pain to the point of crying out.

　The overlap to this point forces me to pay attention to what Seal calls "the woman's voice".

　I once exorcised a banshee from the Ishqa communal cemetery. That banshee was attacking me with his very own cries.

　This time it could have happened again.


　--I'm sure you'll find that if Claudia's pain was caused by the banshee's crying, then we who were in the same place should have been damaged as well.

　So we can't just say it's the banshee's fault, but it's worth looking into.

　You can't deny the involvement of witchcraft and ghosts if you look at Claudia's symptoms.

　With that in mind, I decided to head to the National Cemetery north of the royal capital. There are the tombs of generations of the Dukes of Dragnaut there, and it seems that Astrid and Claudia's mother is also resting there.

　It seemed to be the perfect place to curse the dukes.