Wasn’t This a Night Game

Going to Get Hit Right Now

Late, late night.

I rode in a carriage, secretly sent by the Emperor, heading to the Imperial Palace.

At a time when everyone should be sleeping sound, surprisingly, the Emperor and Empress even came out to greet me as I got out of the carriage.

“Thank you for agreeing at this late hour. Saint.”

“His Majesty calls, a matter most natural. What troubles you?”

“A shameful thing to admit… Hearing tales of your healing among the destitute and nobles, I still couldn’t fully believe. It was only after facing you directly at the banquet that certainty bloomed. Forgive my distrust.”

The Emperor spoke thus, and held a silence for a long while, before opening his mouth with difficulty.

“Have you heard of my daughter?”

Princess Almene.

I had.

Heard only the name, knowing nothing more.

For she was a mystical princess, never appearing at official functions, nor ever gracing the news with her face.

“Her Highness, the Princess, is she ill?”

“……. Come, let us enter.”

I was led by the Emperor and his consort, deep into the Palace.

The Princess, eh?

What reason could there be for bringing me, who has never once laid eyes on her, to her side?

Thinking such thoughts, the moment I entered a certain room…

I froze as if struck by lightning.

The woman lying quietly in the corner of the room.

Wasn’t that the woman I saw in my dreams, bleeding and collapsed?

Unlike with Erpa, I’d stumbled onto a clue so quickly!

A cheat code!

A skip-to-hell cheat code is calling out to me!!

“My daughter. Almene is her name. Please. Just…would you look at my daughter?”

“Can you heal her?”

At the Emperor and Empress’s desperate voices, I just nodded.

“I’ll try.”

Carefully, I approached the Princess and placed my hand on her forehead.

I’d never seen her face before, but the Princess had a peculiar visage.

Etched on her left eye was something akin to a magic circle, and perhaps because of it, she couldn’t open her left eye, keeping it closed.

Furthermore, she seemed terribly, almost sickly, emaciated.

The face of someone laid low by a terrible flu.

I observed her face for a moment, then activated my skill.

[Perfectly Healthy Body Detected!]

[Immediate Body Modification Available!]

[Flat, Large, Exploding, Mega-Boobs – Which Modification Would You Like?]

Aish! What kinda twisted explanation is that?! Get outta here!

Still, there’s nothing wrong with her body?

Physically, she was perfectly normal.

Just in case I’d missed something, I checked again and again, but nothing changed.

Strange.

Her body isn’t sick, but…

Why is she so weak and frail, always groaning?

“The Imperial Princess holds no ailment. If there is no ailment, then I can offer no healing.”

I spoke it so, plainly.

Truly.

My Skill, it marks ailments or disease within the body in darkest black.

But she possessed none of it, not a single trace.

No sickness, therefore no cure possible.

Such a case, I’ve never witnessed.

A matter of the mind, perhaps?

“So… healing remains impossible, then.”

The Emperor, with a face heavy with sorrow, bowed his head.

The Empress, too, bore an expression of utter despair.

The Imperial Princess offered a small, bright smile at their sorrow.

“It’s alright, Father. I can endure it.”

The Emperor and Empress, even with her smile forced, their expressions did not shift.

Rather, they seemed even more devastated, their faces more wretched.

“Rest now. Almene.”

The Emperor spoke thus, gesturing as if beckoning me to follow.

I retreated from the room without resistance.

The moment the door closed behind me, the Empress could no longer contain herself, and tears began to spill.

“My lady.”

“Almene… she’s dying! Even the Saint can’t heal her, what are we to do…?”

It was a scream, wretched beyond all measure.

The Emperor could offer no words, only held his wife tight in his arms.

I watched it all unfold from behind, silent.

Only after a long while did the Empress regain her composure, and the Emperor, then, turned his gaze to me.

“I must explain, but the story… it will take some time. Will you hear it?”

“I will listen. No matter how long it takes.”

Even to die from a curse, I must know the truth of things.

The Emperor and Empress led me away.

We reached a reception hall, wide and echoing, and the two seemed to take a moment to gather themselves.

And after a long, stretching silence.

“Nineteen years ago. My wife and I… we bore twins, a rare kind… Soul-linked twins.”

The Emperor spoke, his tone heavy with sorrow.

*

The concept of soul-linked twins exists.

It refers to twins, unique in that they are born with their souls intertwined.

The Emperor’s twin daughters.

Almene and Iomene, they were born such soul-linked beings.

Every sensation.

Every thought.

Memory.

Even emotions, shared between twin-born – in the Empire, they were beings classified as one soul in two bodies.

Twin-born were a rare birth, and when one did occur, it was considered a great blessing, so when the two were born within the Imperial Palace, an immense celebratory atmosphere blossomed.

But before the celebrations could truly begin.

The joy was smothered by a grief and despair even greater.

“Wings… wings from Iomene’s back!…”

Wings as black as if a sliver had been carved from the darkest night began to sprout from her back.

Startled, the couple immediately summoned priests and mages to ascertain the nature of the wings growing from Iomene’s back, and as a result, they received a shocking answer.

“She is born with a shard of an evil god.”

“A shard of an evil god! How could this happen!”

“It appears someone has been casting a curse… for a very long time… near Her Imperial Majesty.”

All hell broke loose.

The birth of the twin-born princess was thus quietly buried.

Instead, the palace echoed with a blood-scented search and unending interrogations.

Who, in God’s name?

Who cast such a curse?

Maids and butlers attending the Empress, her relatives, and even those who had met her only once – all were investigated thoroughly, but the priests, mages, and intelligence agencies failed to uncover who had cast the curse.

And so, time flowed by endlessly, until finally, three years after the twin-born princess’s birth.

A severe curse began to pour forth from the wings that had sprouted from Iomene’s back.

It began with a maid who was tending to Iomene being struck down by the curse.

With every sacred spell and miracle imaginable, they barely managed to undo the curses choking the maid’s soul, but in the end, she couldn’t overcome the lingering sickness and died.

“This ain’t no ordinary curse. It rips the soul apart, then the curse fills the empty space where the soul used to be. Once that happens, it’s over. She’ll be neither living nor dead, just wandering.”

“And it doesn’t stop there. This curse, it’s catching. Can spread to anyone nearby in the blink of an eye.”

“An undead legion could rise right in the heart of the capital, Your Majesty!”

“Princess Iomene… you must deal with her.”

Deal with.

Of course, no one bothered explaining how to *deal with* her, but the Emperor didn’t need the details spelled out.

Iomene had to die.

To keep an undead legion from rising in the capital.

But…

“If one twin is killed… what happens to the other?”

No one answered the Emperor’s question.

Two bodies.

But a single soul.

If one died, the other would follow.

Killing Iomene was the same as killing the perfectly healthy Almene.

The Emperor wrestled with it.

He wrestled and wrestled again.

And finally.

The Emperor chose not to kill his daughter.

“Speak the way to destroy the fragment of the Evil God.”

No one answered, save for one.

Only the White Order, who had faced countless demons, the devils slumbering in the darkness, and monsters, knew the answer.

“Long ago. Records remain of a hero, chosen by Dullanear, who destroyed a fragment of the Evil God.”

“Speak. How does one destroy it?”

“Imprison the child who bears the fragment of the Evil God in a solitary cell. Isolate them utterly, allow them to meet no one. And periodically, bombard their body with powerful holy magic to weaken the connection between the soul and the fragment of the Evil God. Only after complete separation, can the fragment be extracted and removed.”

“How long will it take?”

“At the very least, a labor of ten years or more. If they endure this entire process, there is a high probability of recovery. However… each time holy magic is unleashed upon their body, the fragment of the Evil God will resist, causing immense physical suffering.”

The Emperor’s face contorts.

“So, you are saying Iomene must suffer each time holy magic is cast?”

“Indeed.”

“……Is that not akin to torture, then?”

The High Priest bows his head at those words.

“We will take numerous measures to minimize the pain as much as possible… but we cannot eliminate the pain entirely, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor’s hand trembles.

“Is there no other way?”

“If a Saint or Saintess were to appear and perform a miracle, it may be possible. But for three hundred years, no Saint or Saintess has been permitted to our Empire. The method I have spoken of is the only way, Your Majesty.”

“Gods of the Pantheon. Why, in heaven’s name……..”

The Emperor informed the Empress of this truth.

“It cannot be!! It is, in effect, torture!”

“……It’s the only way.”

“Twinborn share a single soul!! If Iomene suffers so greatly, then Almene! Almene will suffer along with her!”

“I am told that magic can sever the link between twinborn.”

“I can’t!! I can’t!! They are children I bore after ten months of pain! They’re my flesh and blood! How could I do that to such a child…….”

“If things continue this way, the entire Empire could be destroyed by the curse flowing from that shard of the Evil God. And if we allow the shard of the Evil God to fester within Iomene’s soul, do you believe Almene, who shares the same soul, will be safe?”

At those words, the Empress began to sob uncontrollably.

“…….To a three-year-old…….How could they inflict such torment…….”

The Emperor clenched his fist tightly.

“We must. By any means necessary.”

“You are the worst father!!”

The Empress’s voice was choked with emotion, but the Emperor looked at her with sorrowful eyes and replied.

“Between the Empire and the twins, I chose the twins. By the book, I should have killed Iomene outright. Wife. Do not say such things again.”

The Empress could offer no further reply to those words.

The two parents embraced each other, weeping and weeping for a long while.

They grieved at the thought of causing such agonizing pain to their three-year-old blood from this point on.

But this was the only way to save them both.

On their third birthday.

A potent magic was cast upon the twinborn princess, who was born with wings sprouting from her back.

Iomene and Almene, sisters who underwent the severance of their soul link, were separated from one another.

Iomene, alone and in solitude within a detached palace, a place paved with every miracle and magic that would staunch the outflow of the curse.

Once a week, a body-wrenching torment, like being torn apart, she had to writhe in agony.

Almene, as the Emperor’s daughter, flourished upright and proper in the sun.

Like that.

For sixteen years.

The sisters were separated.

*

The long tale ended.

The Empress was weeping, and the Emperor wore the kind of face only a person with a shattered soul could make.

“For sixteen years. We abused Iomene so terribly. Not even the trashiest parents would have done what we did. We forcibly stopped her from trying to kill herself, repeatedly.”

“What of the shard of the Evil God?”

“The connection to Iomene’s soul is greatly weakened. But in exchange, Iomene’s ego and mind are damaged beyond repair. Enough to affect Almene through the magic that blocked the connection between souls.”

So that’s why Princess Almene couldn’t be healed.

It’s only natural, since she suffers from a spiritual, not a physical, problem.

The Emperor takes my hand.

“Saint. I implore you, not as the ruler of the Empire, but as the father of children. By your miracle, save Iomene. Before the shard of the Evil God is separated and falls from her soul, Iomene’s mind is being destroyed first. I believe that you can remove the shard of the Evil God while simultaneously healing her ego. I beg you…”

The Emperor sheds tears.

I’d heard that the Emperor of the Empire was a hardened, strong, and absolute military ruler, an iron-blooded ruler.

Indeed, the Emperor I’d seen in the newspapers always had a stern face, issuing grave warnings.

But the middle-aged man before my eyes just looked so gloomy and tormented.

Devoid of any dignity.

In this situation.

Truly a shameful thing to say, but I was silently cheering inside.

A curse!!

And a damn powerful curse, enough to destroy the world!!

A cheat code!

No need to search for it, it’s delivered straight to me like this!

If I extract the fragment of the evil god from the princess’s body and use it to destroy my soul?

The princess is saved, and I go back to Korea!

Good for the sister-in-law, good for the brother-in-law!

Isn’t it killing two birds with one stone!

“Leave it to me.”

Wait for me, curse!

I’m coming to meet you now!!