Chương 84: Don't Bring Strangers Home, Unless The Stranger Is Me

She let go and soon crashed into the ground below. Once again, I felt a tingling sensation arise within me, proof that I had indeed succeeded in my endeavour… Frankly, I quite enjoyed these little nightmare ventures, and the actual 'Nightmare Form' would be an even better version of this? Talk about making me excited, I am feeling like a little girl waiting for her next birthday right after receiving her gifts.

In any case, I was soon brought back to the real world, and since this little adventure had not lasted very long at all, I was hoping to be able to get into the orphanage tonight, but the grass was cut under my feet as I heard screaming from the inside. … Whoops, I guess she got mangled in real life by the fall, huh? A damn shame I wasn't around to see it with my own two eyes! It must be quite something for someone asleep to pretty much blow up out of nowhere into a wide spray of blood and gore.

Regardless of the aesthetic of my prey's death, this meant that I wouldn't be able to get in and torment some orphans. Everyone in the damned building was woken up, and it would take a while to clean up after what had just happened. I simply waited for the night to pass, returning to my guarding duties in the morning…

"My mastery of exorcism has once allowed me to purge the presence of a prince of Hell-" I headbutted the charlatan to an early sleep for the day. Back in my day, scammers were a bit more convincing than this… If you can deal with a prince of Hell, why the hell would you show up to a random orphanage instead of being literally anywhere else with your skills? It's like they aren't even trying. Or is it that some of those posers are solely here to get hit? Have I been dealing with perverts this entire time?

What a discomforting thought…

"Hello, hello! It's me again! I see that you eat violence for breakfast. You're pretty strong!" Heltna Bombidour whistled as she saw the unconscious charlatan. The noble girl was carrying a bag that I could sense was filled with things I would gladly cram my gullet with. I just stared at her for a few seconds before letting her through. This girl might turn out to be annoying if she could truly remove my nightmares from my victims, which made me want to follow her once she left and murder her…

But I knew that this wasn't going to be possible. I couldn't see them, but I just knew that she had bodyguards lying around. All nobles had bodyguards. Even if the noble was stronger than all of their guards combined, they would always be accompanied. That's just how it was. Moreover, Heltna seems quite young, so even if she wanted to go out without protection, it was probably not up to her at all to make such a decision. That comment she just made, though…

I was indeed pretty strong, even if I didn't have as much brute force in my knightly form as in my 'Base Form', I could still hit very hard. I was made of solid steel after all, and as a Steel-Bound Curse, the iron I inhabited was naturally more powerful than normal as well. And in terms of combat skills, I could really express my capabilities as a knight in this form.

I had yet to manage to acquire an extra ability that would really make me look like a wandering knightess that had once been part of an establishment, but the sheer array of motions I was allowed was more than enough in my opinion. Not to mention… I was quite dashing. Knightess Maya, The Silent Knightess–Had quite a memorable and iconic look, and since there were no links between this identity of mine with my monstrous self, that was a good thing.

Word about 'The Silent Knightess' had spread quite far in a short period of time. Female knights were already somewhat uncommon, so that alone would have been enough to get people to talk about me, but the fact that I was mute, had a very peculiar style of armour, and wore a dress over it had really further agitated curiosity. Coupled with the fact that I had quickly become known as someone who would break bones and disfigure faces…

I had actually acquired quite a few sources of negative emotions by simply acting my part as this knightly persona. Most of those were criminals who were rightfully afraid of running into me when they committed mischief. Crime was already punished rather harshly to begin with, but guards in small towns and backwater cities weren't exactly the most competent bunch. In fact, even in big cities, they were often quite bad at their job.

So, although the punishments were severe and often public, many thugs simply felt like they could evade authorities and get away with their unlawful acts. The criminals here, though? They were living in fear as they should. When I found one, I would catch up, and I would at least break one bone. Thanks to the negative emotions they held toward me, I could quite easily track them down and catch them red-handed as well.

As such, it was quite often for a story about me breaking both arms of an idiot would spread, keeping the fear fresh. Also, the local guards were a bit upset with me since they looked like fools due to a single woman doing their job better with ease. I found that ingratitude to be quite insulting, but I welcomed the negative emotions. Mara. Can you feel it? Mmh? Oh, I think I do. My nightmares were indeed weakening quite severely, and the enfeeblement was not stopping.

Within just one hour, all of the people plagued by my nightmares were fully cured, and I could tell that giving them a good fright would not be enough to bring the nightmares back. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Heltna had successfully plucked the nightmares away. Huh… So they really do count as curses? Wait… Is that why they are kind of easy to survive and require so many losses before I can get a move in? Is it because I suck at curses?

Why aren't you responding, Nara? That's it, right? I really need to increase my natural talent in casting curses… The difficulty of acquiring the 'Nightmare Form' is literally because I am just that bad at spellcasting in general, huh? That's quite annoying… How the hell can I gain access to this noble girl's residence? Nara, give me your wisdom! You are the smartest sibling! Huh… Find out where she lives and probe around for a way in…? No, that's obvious, I mean right now.

What can I do to convince her to take me into her residence? She's obviously a free-spirited girl, and considering that her guards stay hidden, I bet her parents spoil her. How do you come up with such ideas with these bits of information? I do not see the links between unseen bodyguards and being a coddled girl… Don't question it, it's my instincts. Mmh… What could be done right now… As in, when she comes out and passes by us again?

I can think that maybe we could get her attention by somehow convincing her to cast a curse? We found out, thanks to Argantis, that we are immune If Heltna notices this, she would surely be interested, considering curses are her speciality But I have no idea how she could be convinced to do that in the first place… … Might as well just be as direct as possible.

I reached into one of my pockets–My dress had pockets by default, because Ophelie was just that much of a genius when it came to designs–And pulled out a piece of paper and pen, writing a few words on it in cursive. I had been forced to learn to write in this god awful manner because it was apparently how the people of high society wrote, and as such, I figured that Heltna would be able to read it, and might just be curious as to why a knightess would write in such a manner.

Regardless of that, the content was what was more important. As soon as the noble girl stepped out of the orphanage, I walked up to her and gave her the piece of paper.

"Oh… A paper message? Reminds me of when I was in education class with some other scions… Heh?" The words I had written were not so subtle. I had just been straightforward and told her that I was quite interested in curses, and that she should try casting one at me to see what would happen.

"Aherm… Are you sure, Miss Knightess…? There is no need to go that far… And where did you learn to write so nicely? You have beautiful handwriting…" I tapped my chest as an indication that she really should do it.

"Alright… I'll just use a small jinx of confusion then" Heltna performed the spellcasting without any superfluous motions or words. She just did it as easily as she breathed. I wish I could be a quarter as good as that. The noble girl looked quite confused, as instead of the jinx actually working, I just ate it as soon as it touched me.

"That's curious, hold on…" She attempted to cast many more things at me, subtly increasing the power as she did, but no matter what, everything just ended up in my nonexistent stomach. Ah yes… That's good stuff. I should just hire some curse slingers to curse me all day long eventually…

"In… Incredible! You are actually completely immune! You might actually be a genius at curse slinging!" Quite the opposite, actually.

"You have to come with me, please! Can you?" She grabbed my hands and started jumping in place like a little girl. Quite unusual for a young woman, but I guess she was a bit sheltered and probably had probably never had any peers to relate to. I nodded and prompted her to start dragging me away by the hand… Following her would make me abandon my post as the gate guardian, but going with a noble was more important than that. I am quite surprised this worked… Always trust in your big sister, Darling.

Though the biggest challenge isn't convincing Heltna, but getting through her parents, who I am certain will not be too happy about their daughter bringing a random woman back home. The trip from the town to the noble residence was rather short. As I had expected, Heltna lived very close by, and for some reason, the Bombidour mansion was quite the gloomy place–Or should I say, the yummy place? Literally everything had some trace of being cursed.

The damned gates were more attractive than any curse Argantis had owned. It was obscene. Good thing I can't salivate, Heltna would have been drenched otherwise. Just as we arrived in front of the gates, two armoured figures popped out of seemingly nowhere.

"Young Mistress… Is it really wise to…?"

"Shut up. Miss Knightess is my special guest. Am I not allowed to invite people over? I am way past marriageable age, I am an adult! I'll invite whoever I want!"

"Very well…" The two knights backed off real quick… A shame, they were wearing cursed armour and wielding cursed weapons. I don't know exactly how it worked, but unless they were being forced to carry such items, it meant the Bombidour household was using the art of cursing as a sort of replacement for enchanting. Interesting…

She kept on holding my hand, looking very happy with herself, until the doors to the residence opened, revealing a rather stern-looking man with a beard that was long, but only covered his chin.

"Oh… Papa… I thought you were out for an important meeting?"

"It was over sooner than expected" You're calling your old man 'Papa' at your age? You really are sheltered. I stopped doing that with mine when I was able to make sentences longer than two words.

"Would you mind explaining why you brought the maniacal Silent Knightess home? I love you very much, and I can understand that you aren't the sort to continue the bloodline… But is this really the sort of person you are-""I-It's not like that, Papa! Miss Knightess is completely immune to curses!"

"Is she?" Her father, with his beard that was basically that of a goat, instantly cast a curse at me, and I ate very good.