Chapter 203: The Man Behind the Legend (2)

Ars was born into the Heart Clan, but his arrival in the world was anything but a joyous occasion.

He had been cursed from the very beginning.

His father was a hunter who had died several months before his son’s birth, killed on the battlefield.

His mother also lost her life mere seconds after giving birth to him, suffering from severe internal bleeding that neither miracles nor healing spells could stop.

Ars’s mother died with grief and terror reflected in her eyes as the light faded from them.

And the reason for that terror was the appearance of the child she had brought into the world.

He was no ordinary human infant.

He was a savage, grotesque creature that looked as though it had been born in the depths of hell, so horrifying that everyone who laid eyes on him recoiled in fear.

A demonic child with horribly deformed features.

He had no nose, long pointed ears, and not a single strand of hair. His enormous crimson eyes were so frightening that they seemed to belong to a demon rather than a human being.

But there was something even more horrifying.

The Full Eclipse mark had appeared on the infant’s shoulder.

Unlike most people, the Golden Dawn Knight had been cursed from the moment he was born.

"Cursed from birth... Is that even possible?"

I couldn’t hide my astonishment at what I was witnessing.

Until now, I’d believed that curses could only be acquired through encounters with exceptionally powerful monsters, such as the Night Lords.

That was how I’d received mine from the Demon of Balance.

"Curses differ according to the concepts from which they originate. You were cursed by the being who embodies Balance. Your curse revolves around obtaining what you desire in exchange for paying a price."

"Mine, however, originated from Wisdom. What distinguishes its victims is that they are afflicted by the curse from the moment of their birth."

The Golden Dawn Knight went on to explain many things about curses.

Balance and Wisdom were not the only concepts from which they originated. There were numerous others, each corresponding to one of the Night Lords.

Those monsters were the beings behind the Curse of Darkness, the direct followers of the entity that had shattered the Light long ago.

Gladius, the Wisdom of Night.

The Demon of Balance.

The Champion of Night, commander of the army of death known as the Wild Hunt.

And many others.

I remembered every single one of their names.

They had appeared before me as bosses in the game, making my life a living hell before I finally managed to defeat them.

Ars’s curse had originated from Gladius.

It had condemned him to a deformed, monstrous body and burdened him with a fatal weakness: vitality so low that it was practically nonexistent.

No matter what he did or how desperately he tried to increase it, his HP would always remain at one.

Even the slightest amount of damage could end his life.

His monstrous appearance and crippling weakness had turned Ars’s life into a living hell.

He faced persecution and discrimination wherever he went, even among the members of his own clan. They had never treated him as one of their own. After all, he looked nothing like an ordinary human, nor did he resemble any of them.

As though losing both parents and living under constant persecution while carrying a deadly curse weren’t enough, Ars had also inherited another curse, just like every other member of the Heart Clan.

It was the curse that bound him to the Arden royal family as a slave. Even if he had wanted to leave the clan, he couldn’t. He was forced to spend most of his life enduring persecution while living in constant fear of death, knowing that his single remaining HP could be taken from him at any moment.

After witnessing everything he had suffered, I found myself unable to utter a single word.

Compared to his life, the suffering I had endured in my previous one seemed like a trivial ordeal, hardly worth mentioning.

What I saw wasn’t a great knight born with extraordinary talent. It was a cursed child who had entered the world already bound in chains, unable to begin his journey from the same starting point as ordinary humans.

If everyone else started at zero, Ars had started below zero.

Being humiliated every day, living in terror of the slightest injury because even a scratch could mean death...

How had he endured all of that?

If it had been me, I probably would have...

"Suicide."

Ars spoke the word himself.

"Believe me, I considered ending that miserable life many times. Dozens of times... No, hundreds."

"Every day, I would stare at that single point of HP and tell myself, ’Why not let it fall to zero and put an end to everything?’"

What was the value of life?

Ars had asked himself that question countless times, yet he had never been able to understand its worth.

After all, he didn’t have much life to begin with.

Just one.

A single point of HP.

Ending his own life had seemed like a tempting option, but despite everything he endured, Ars never went through with it.

"Somehow... as I continued staring at that one remaining point of HP, I ended up learning to cherish my life, even though I couldn’t see any value in it."

That single point was all he possessed. He had nothing else in life, so he began to treasure it, clinging to it more desperately with each passing day while searching for a reason to continue living.

And then, one day...

He finally found his answer.

"I understood it... I finally understood the wisdom behind all the suffering I had endured."

He had found the answer.

He had gained wisdom.

And in doing so, he had finally fulfilled the condition imposed by his curse.

Unlike the Curse of Balance, which granted its reward and demanded its price simultaneously, curses originating from Wisdom offered no benefit until their victims first understood the wisdom concealed within them.

Only after that condition was fulfilled would the power hidden behind the curse finally awaken.