MLCDF 69

~Chapter 69~

“Damien!!”

Even through the pain, Damien kept his hands over my ears until the Siren curse’s scream finally ended.

I quickly yanked the shovel from the ground and struck the Siren’s head.

But it refused to faint, thrashing for one last struggle.

Damien activated his curse.
His right eye turned black, and a jet-black curse tendril extended outward—instantly sensing the fear inside the Siren.

“Ruby, you know what to do, right?”

I nodded at his voice, shouted despite the blood running from his ears.

[ Gggeeeeehh!! ]

The curse within the Siren’s stomach began to move.
The Siren clutched her belly, shaking her head as fear instinctively tried to cling to the stronger curse.

[ Kkkiiiiiii!! ]

The fear rose higher from her belly to her throat.

I grabbed her and pushed down on her back.
She clawed and bit at me, but I slammed her face toward the ground with my bare hands.

The fear passed her throat—

‘Just a little more…!’

It burst out of her mouth—a sticky lump that hit the ground.

Damien’s curse shot toward it—

“Disappear!”

Before his curse could touch it, I grabbed the tendril and used my power.
It crumbled instantly into dust.

[ Uuugh… ]

Without the fear, the Siren shrank and lost her form, reverting to a low-rank curse’s appearance.

She began mumbling over and over:

[ He killed me. That man killed me. Killed me. ]

Sliding back into the river, she disappeared.

I clutched the remaining fear and rushed to Damien.
“Damien, are you alright?”

No answer. His hearing was gone.

When he finally looked up and saw my face, he gave a faint smile.
“I’m fine. Let’s go back.”

He wasn’t fine.

“Let’s get you treated right away.”

I spoke slowly, exaggerating my mouth movements so he could read my lips.

He nodded.

I tore my sleeve to stop the bleeding from his ear and hurried him to the carriage where the guards waited.

One knew a nearby doctor, faster than going back to the mansion.

On the way, Damien whispered, “Sorry for worrying you.”

I nicked my finger with my knife, writing on his arm in my blood:

[ I’m the one who’s sorry. You got hurt protecting me. ]

He shook his head.
“A husband protecting his wife is natural. You can’t think of that as a debt in marriage.”

‘Idiot.’

I wrote again:

[ Next time, protect yourself first. ]

This time, he didn’t nod.

He just held my hand and said, “Don’t worry so much. Without you, I couldn’t have drawn the fear out.”

But I thought—if I hadn’t insisted on coming, he wouldn’t have been hurt at all.

“You trusted my ability, so I took the risk of rampage to pull the fear.”

[ Your ears are important too! ]

He laughed. “Alright, alright. I’ll get treatment.”

At the clinic, the doctor said, “It’s not permanent. You’ll recover.”

Relieved, we returned to the Grand Duke’s mansion with the collected fear by dawn.

“What exactly is it? We know it’s fear, but of what?”

“I don’t know either,” Damien said.

He could hear faintly after three days, enough for us to talk slowly face-to-face.

The fear sat in a large glass jar, sluggish like a snail.

“Curses can eat people’s fear naturally. But people can’t force curses to eat fear without knowing its target,” Damien said.
“That’s why the royal family never succeeded in feeding fear to Maledictus curses.”

So… how was this fear made?

“Let’s open it.”

Even with the lid off, it didn’t escape or thrash.
I touched it carefully—

[ Kyaaaaaa!! ]
[ Save me save me save me please save me don’t want to die! ]
[ I’m scared I’m cold please save me someone help me! ]

The screams filled my head, stabbing at my ears.
Too many voices at once—it overloaded my mind.

Crash!

The jar shattered on the floor.

“Are you alright?”

My pupils widened, breath shaking.
The aftereffects were intense.

“I… I’m fine…”

But in that instant, I knew.

“That’s fear of death.”

One of humanity’s most powerful fears.
That single lump had turned a low curse into a deadly Siren.

“Damien…”

I’d reached a terrible conclusion.

“What if… the target didn’t need to be discovered at all?”

His face stiffened.

“You mean—”

“Yes. The fear’s target was chosen from the start. The fear was made deliberately.”

“Someone tortured people on purpose… to create fear of death.”