"It'll be fine Cynthia... He'll survive. He's our son after all."
'What's going on?'
I had been drifting in and out of consciousness, and this was the first time that I had remained conscious long enough to listen in on the conversations the family were having. It would seem that the call had still been going on, and though I couldn't move my body, I could hear the resounding words of comfort that the father was offering the audibly tearful mother of this body.
"But... With this phenomenon as an indicator, his chances just plummeted! It's not a good sign!"
Her distressed, manic voice rang in my ears as I lay there, still unable to move my helpless body.
'How tiresome.'
This lack of movement was likely a result of whatever had happened just moments ago.
"You still had medicine ready with Greeves to counteract that, right? It means you predicted this; it means you can definitely still find the cure."
"Hik.. Y-Yes, I can find it. No, I have to find it."
"You'll find it, no doubt about it. But don't overwork yourself too much; I'm sure even Raziel must have caught on to how hard you're working, and he wouldn't want you to work yourself to death to save his."
"Hik.. O-Okay."
"Go rest up for a few hours, then you can get back to it. I'll have the trusted maidservants clean this up as well."
"F-Fine, let me just say goodbye to Raziel before I go."
After a few audible footsteps, I could hear once more her exhausted but concerned voice as she bid me goodbye.
"Goodbye for now, my dear Raziel. Don't mind this setback in your condition... I'll find the cure as soon as I can; just go enjoy yourself at the academy! Mommy loves you dearly."
'She's going to overwork herself even more.'
I could hear her get emotional throughout those words, and soon after I heard more footsteps accompanied by the sound of a door closing soon afterwards. As soon as it closed, however, the tone and atmosphere in the room changed.
"Greeves."
"Y-Yes Master!"
"Stop looking so frustrated. I know you wanted to help by joining in on our expedition to hunt down those bastards who did this to Raziel, but right now you need to focus on helping Raziel by protecting him where you are now and explaining what just happened to him after he wakes up."
"I-I understand, Master Gilcrest!"
"Don't worry about not being here; you'll have a front row seat to their downfall once you can return and are able to join us here."
"But of course! I would have joined the expedition once I returned, even if you had opposed it, Master."
"That's good to hear Greeves and Leon... Son, put that bloodlust away immediately; are you trying to scare every maid and manservant in the house?"
"But father! How can you not be mad at those bastards who did this to Raziel?! How can you remain so ca-"
"Don't misunderstand me, son... You don't know how much I, too, am holding myself back..."
Though I couldn't move, the words caused goosebumps to form on my skin; this family, as advertised, truly seemed to have quite a few terrifying people within it's ranks.
"I understand your frustrations well, don't you worry; I'm going to push the time up for the next expedition to catch those bastards; this time we need to catch one of them, that too alive; we'll need any information we can get on Raziel's condition... So try to, despite how hard it might seem, not kill them all Leon."
"I'll try my best father."
"Well then. Shall we finish this call, Greeves? We have to go rest up and prepare for an early expedition tomorrow."
"I understand Master, First Young Master. Please take care on the sxpedition, and do leave at least one of those bastards for me to hunt down myself."
"I make no such promises Greeves. Now then, let us say our goodbyes to Raziel for now."
Similar to how the mother said goodbye, I could hear footsteps move closer before stopping.
"Goodbye for now, Raziel. Be brave, my son; don't worry too much... Your family will find a way to fix this, so just be happy."
"Take care, brother; I'll soon present you with the heads of the bastards who did this to you. Till then, just be happy, healthy, and safe."
Proclaiming their goodbyes, a set of footsteps started to get farther and farther away while the voice of the father finished up with Greeves.
"Take good care of him till he arrives Greeves, protect him, and tell him everything he needs to know."
"But of course, Master, you can count on this Greeves."
"Good. Then till we see you next, hopefully in person, by our side, in the next expedition; goodbye."
-Click
-Bzzt
The hologram must have collapsed as I heard the device shut off, and as if right on time, my consciousness began to fade again as I returned to my slumber.
***
I had once again regained consciousness, and this time it seemed to be for good. This time it felt as if alongside the sensation within my body, my motor skills had returned too. Without wasting a second, hoping to be rid of floating in and out of consciousness, I attempted to open my eyes and move about-
"Young Master! You're finally awake! A-Ah, please try not to move much! The medicine I gave you was quite strong; it'll still be a while before you can regain your full strength."
The familiar voice comforted me as he adjusted my body into a comfortable resting position as I finally managed to open my eyes to be greeted by puffy eyes and hint's of frustration that were left within his now usual, stoic expression.
'Strange.'
I still wasn't used to someone who genuinely cared for me; this felt exceptionally weird but at the same time awfully comforting.
"..."
I tried to speak as well, but to no avail. My throat felt as dry as the desert sand. I tried my best to get even a peep out, but it was hopeless. Noticing my plight, the butler spoke out.
"Y-Young Master! You mustn't speak now either! I know you have many questions! I'll explain everything, but try not to move around."
I nodded; thankfully, at least I was able to do that much. With my approval, Greeves began to explain what had happened and why.
"As you are aware, you've been afflicted with a curse, specifically, 'The Curse of Demonic Manifestation'. The curse, though terrifying given that it saps away your vitality over time and uses it to summon a Demonic Being, is curable. But it's different for you, Young Master."
"According to the Madam, your curse is a variation on the traditional one and is much worse. It's more aggressive and saps away lifeforce at a much faster rate, consuming it all in the span of meager days, and worse yet, given that this variation is unknown and it isn't curable yet. Even identifying it was a difficult task for the Madam."
'Then how was I alive?'
By the amount of entries I had seen in this child's diary, it must have been months since the incident where the child had been cursed. If the curse was supposed to have run its course in days, how was this body still standing?
"Thankfully, Madam was able to identify it and, at least temporarily, suppress it using a stigmata that she painstakingly and carefully engraved on your back."
'That how, huh?'
Stigmatas, at least in this game, were something similar to tattoos. They were patterns of spells and runes engraved on your body that could permanently give you certain traits, stats, or abilities. Though obtaining them was an incredibly difficult task since people with the ability to do so were increasingly rare. But in this child's case, his mother was a Master Artificer.
Given this title, she was someone who engraved complicated runes and spells on many a device on a daily basis; be it in the processes of making artifacts, medicine, or tomes, it was her bread and butter. Still engraving stigmatas must not have been as easy, especially since she had to do it on human skin, that too on her suffering child. Still, she must have managed to do so, despite the likely emotional and physical toll it took on her since this body was still here alive and breathing.
"But since this is an unknown variation of the curse, the stigmata is barely managing to suppress it. To be honest, even suppress isn't the right word; it's barely managing to reduce the rate of progression of the curse to a very slow speed."
"That's why the Madam asked me to give you a few ground rules; though it may be a little constricting, please follow them for your own safety, Young Master."
The butler quickly rummaged through his interior coat pockets, obtaining the smartphone-esq device once more and scanning through it carefully before starting to read something off of it.
"Firstly, avoid taking off your blindfold at any cost; secondly, avoid high-ranking members and well-known faculty in the academy; and finally, this one is the most important Greeves; be sure to let him know this at least, though the chance of encountering them is rare; avoid any and all demons entirely."
The butler had read the message from mother word for word, unknowing of the fact that he wasn't supposed to do so, but despite the slight hilarity of this situation, he continued on reading the messages out loud unperturbed.
"Unlike most spells and runes, curses work on the basis of demonic energy, which causes people affected by these curses to emit such an energy as well. But for Raziel, through the use of the blindfold and the stigmata, I've managed to lower that energy to its absolute minimum. But if he removes the blindfold, the demonic energy that was being suppressed will escape in a burst, and given the basic curriculum of the academy, specifically the mandatory lectures of 'Curses and Demonic Energy' students take in the first year, it would be difficult to avoid detection of his condition."
"Take special care about this young master! During our stay at the hotel, I even had to place a special device prepared by the Madam, just to ensure that none of the staff noticed it."
He chimed in quickly amidst reading the messages out loud, and just as quickly went back to reading the messages.
"Similarly, if well-known faculty or skilled students linger near him for long, despite the presence of the blindfold and the stigmata, even the miniscule demonic energy that leaks out would likely be detected."
"And the last point is most important; please emphasize this, Greeves! Tell him to avoid demons at all costs! Tell him to try and limit his contact to demonic beasts as well, though demons are the main priority to avoid! Demons will easily recognize this condition despite the measure I've set and will definitely try to do one of two things: they'll either use their own demonic energy to push the curse to progress faster or... kill him and harvest that energy for themselves! Though a situation where he'll encounter a demon is very unlikely to occur since he'll be in the academy, please, please, please make sure he understands the severity of this point!"
"That's all that the Madam had asked me to inform you of Young Master! As per her request, please take special care following the last rule; after all, even if you're caught in the academy by your peers, we can somehow manage and remove you from the academy, but if you're caught by a Demon... It just won't end well for you, Young Master."
With those words, he ended his lengthy but largely helpful monologue. Though it was funny that he had read out exactly what mother had told him, I couldn't focus on it since these rules had just thrown a spanner in the works.
'This complicates matters.'
To prevent the downfall of this house, it was obvious what I had to focus on.
'Me.'
Though I now knew that I had likely been sacrificed in-game to summon a demon, quite a few details were still missing. When did it happen? How did it happen? And now given this new information: Was I sacrificed to summon a demon or killed by a demon? There were still too many variables to consider.
Regardless, I had to survive. If I managed to survive, the household wouldn't drop everything to look for me and, in the process, ruin themselves financially or become prone to any demons as a probable candidate to corrupt.
Thankfully, survival was one of the few things I was good at, and at this point I thought I had an ironclad method to do so.
The method, though cliche, was simple: befriend and hide behind the MC and supporting characters. Though it was admittedly a cowardly thing to do, utilizing the unique strengths of these characters, I knew that no matter what came at me, I could manipulate said characters into helping me and thus prevent me from going missing.
But if I was going to follow my original plan, I could abide by none of these restrictions that had now been imposed upon me. This would turn out to be much more difficult than I had initially expected. So it was true that I needed to start thinking up a new plan, but..
'That can wait.'
I still needed to find out what in the actual hell I had gone through that had made me end up in the debilitative state.
"W-What J...t H-Hap...d?"
I barely managed to ask the butler, who was struggling to put away his phone while pointing to my chest.
"O-Oh.. I had nearly forgotten about that matter... My apologies, Young Master; I'll relay what the Madam had told me."
I nodded gently as I waited for him to begin explaining the reason I was unable to properly speak at the moment.
"But before that, I know we will soon arrive at the harbor, so please take these."
With that, he placed two small bottles in my lap, each with different spherical pills. One bottle had a blood-red, even crimson colour, whereas the other had a design that made it look oddly similar to the modern-day yin-and-yang pattern.
He began fastidiously explaining the uses of these medicinal pills, pointing to the bottle containing the blood-red pills first.
"This red pill, as you know, is the standard medicine passed down to the direct descendants of the House of Eliziere, used to aid in the use of your [Bloodline Trait]. But given your condition, it's formula for it's production was specially altered by the Madam, taking into special consideration the change in your body."
Concisely explaining the merit of this pill, he turned to point at the bottle containing the odd-looking pills next.
"I... Had hoped that I wouldn't need to give you these pills, young master. It was just a precautionary measure provided to me by the Madam. But, now it's best you know, given that you won't have a choice but to use them."
"It is related to the sensation you experienced today... The sensation, according to the Madam, is called ⸢True Demonization⸥. The Madam came across it when she was looking up the few past cases that were at least similar to yours. She read about it in this one specific case that was nearly a millennia old."
"The record was old but well preserved and stated the case of a young man who had nearly the exact same curse. Using it, the Madam learned how to identify and counteract the curse, but it also stated this side effect."
"According to the records, this curse was used to summon an incredibly powerful 'True' demon. This demon was apparently powerful enough to manipulate the curse's progression without even being present in the human realm."
'Wait.'
"Though it was stated that this demon, when materialized in the human realm, could not be defeated and was only barely managed to be sealed and sent back to the realm of demons, but not before it apparently cut the then-present singular continent into the 4 continents present today."
'No... It can't be!'
"Though the Madam had hoped it was just a joke and that this wasn't the case or you, if this ridiculus lore was true, this meant that this demon could attempt to forcefully extract the extract of your lifeforce at once and summon itself immediately. That's why she prepared these pills, just in case a similar phenomenon occurred."
"But these pills were made using spellcraft and alchemy from that same millennia and seem to be incomplete. Even though the Madam attempted to make improvements on the medicine, the formulas even for her were too complex, and she barely made any progress."
"Using this pill will temporarily increase your vitality and trigger your stigmata at the same time, putting it into overdrive and helping it suppress the sudden change in the curse's progression. But... The problem is that with each use, the time required to heal, that is to say, the time you fall asleep will increase, and... eventually, excessive use would put you into an i-irreversible vegetative state."
It appeared to be difficult for him to get those words to come out as he spoke; finally, tears began to return to his puffy eyes and began to slowly move down his face.
"I pray that you don't have to use this medicine to that extreme of an extent, Young Master! Please don't worry.."
The butler drifted on and continued with his words of attempted comfort as the weeping worsened within the carriage. Yet I couldn't focus on him again.
'No... That's not possible! It just can't be!'
Like each character in the game, every enemy had descriptions and backstories written for them within this eternally intricate game. And how could I forget the specific entry of the most terrible boss of them all? I didn't want to admit it, but the similarities were all there. The name, the mention of dividing the world into the 4 differing continents... it was, unfortunately, all the same.
The last boss I had defeated before my death, the boss notorious for failing so many runs of the game, and the true final boss of the game. It couldn't possibly be that Monster... Right?
'Sikanus, The One True Demon—Demon Progenitor'
A name I didn't want to recall, especially in this case, popped up within my head.
'Damn it all.'
My situation just got even worse, something I didn't think was even possible at this point.