A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 288: I Swing

Chapter 288: I Swing

"Is that how it is now, Miss Elaina? Don’t you feel tired holding that hoe constantly? You can’t even put it down?" Princess Margaux asked as Elaina sits on the sofa with a tired look on her face.

"Yeah, I am stuck in this state until I clear off the necessary requirements for this hoe to become a blessed tool."

"Sis, I don’t know where you have gotten that tool or whatever it is, if it is cursed, we needed to head over to the guild and ask a priestess or a saint to bless the tool and remove the curse. Maybe even Grandma can remove that curse easily as well," Julia said while hiding the little fact that she just arrived not too long ago.

"I doubt even Grandma can take this off. But hey, it doesn’t hurt to have her bless it and see if it does work. Less hassle for me if I may say so myself."

"Looking for me?" Just as they were talking about Liliana, she appeared behind them with Grandpa.

"Eh? Grandma and Grandpa? I thought you two have work today?" Elaina was surprised the two were there.

A few of the work has been done before we can do them as a way to train the new employees hired by the guild. As a result, our work has been cut and we are now free from workload for a few while," Grandpa explained.

"That’s great, Grandpa. Actually, we have some little favor to ask and see if Grandma can solve this," Julia pulled Elaina’s hands that are still holding the cursed hoe in her hands and show the current situation Elaina is stuck in.

"Why are you holding a hoe, Elaina? Are you going to work?" Grandpa asked without realizing that Elaina is not holding the hoe because she had to.

However, Grandma immediately noticed the anomaly and quickly asked Elaina about it.

"Where did you pick this thing up, Elaina?"

"Somewhere in the forest. I didn’t know what it was at first until I picked it up from the ground and realized it was a Hoe. I thought it was a great find at first but that was until I realized that it has some bad thing that was currently present and touching it would affect me instead," Elaina explained while spouting convincing lies. Of course, the only one who knew that those were lies in the first place was Elaina herself and Julia who is still hiding the little fact she knew Elaina’s little secret.

"Looks like you picked up quite a strong curse, my dear Elaina. A cursed tool that is so great that I can physically see the curse itself manifesting in your hands. You can’t put it down right now, yes?"

Elaina nodded.

"Thought so. With the curse chaining on your hands, putting down the tool will only stop you from unequipping it and you are stuck at holding the hoe until the very end."

"If it is a curse, shouldn’t that be your specialty?" Grandpa asked.

"Not really. I may be a saintess before but I barely handle curses. And those curses I have dealt with are not too serious that it needed quite a lot of power to lift. They were so easily dealt with that they are not really that much of a problem. However, compared to those curses, the one that Elaina has is something that even I would have trouble lifting."

"How come? Is it that different from the usual curses?" Julia asked.

"Yes. It is much unusual to the point even I will have trouble doing something like removing it completely. It would have been great if it was like the usual curses that are malicious and can threaten the victim due to its trait to degrade it’s victim to the depths of danger and suffering. This curse on the other hand... does not exhibit those characteristics. It doesn’t harbor any malicious intentions against Elaina. It was just a simple curse with the simple intention of keeping it’s victim annoyed."

Elaina already knew this before since the Elder explained the gist of it but knowing the differences of the regular curses and the curse found on the Cursed Hoe made her at least have an idea what they were actually tackling with.

"Nevertheless, even if it is not the same curse that I handle, since it is a curse, I can try to lift this one and turn the tool into a blessed one."

Liliana immediately extends her two hands and started chanting a few words causing holy power to rise around the cursed hoe and enveloping it with the holy aura. Elaina can even see the magic circles exclusive to saint candidates, priests and priestess if they uses holy magic.

"Wow..." Princess Margaux couldn’t hide her amazement on what she is seeing before her.

"Amazing right? My wife is the only one capable of doing that and even those who succeeded her title has yet to even exceed on what she can do. This is why she is not just some saintess who have just retired. She is someone who have done much greater things than what the tales has been told all over," Grandpa said, clearly bragging on Grandma’s feats though Elaina is not to doubt about what he said. After all, her Grandma is a formidable person and she is capable of doing what others can’t easily do.

"Ah...somehow it has gotten lighter in my hands..." Elaina’s eyes lit up after getting a new feeling in her hands. It seems that the curse that cannot be lifted with regular means can still be lifted by using the holy power that her Grandma wields.

However, it didn’t take too long for her Grandma to sweat bullets and she started showing an expression of getting uncomfortable. She even started grinding her teeth as she focused herself on the situation...

Then...she slumped to the floor with her huffing and puffing like she just finished running a 10 kilometer run.

"You alright, honey? Julia can I ask for a glass of water for a bit?

Julia quickly handed the glass of water and Grandma immediately emptied the glass.

"Oh God... That is not something I would want to experience..." Grandma signed as she shook her head.

"I can tell you failed, Grandma," Elaina guessed.

"Indeed. Despite my holy power, the curse is just another breed of its own. I can’t fully lift it off."

"That strong?" Grandpa was surprised. He wasn’t even expecting that there was something even Grandma is incapable of removing.

"Even so, I managed to cut off the duration of the curse, Elaina. You just needed to fulfill half of what was necessary to turn this tool to a blessed one. It might not have fully worked, but at least it is now shorter than before."

Elaina was surprised. Half the original number is big and although it wasn’t fully lifted, having the curse cut in duration is something that she didn’t expect. And since it was cut in half, that also means instead of a hundred usage, Elaina only needed to use the Cursed Hoe 50 times this time around.

"That is a significant cut that I appreciate Grandma. I already expected that there will be no effect on it in the first place but having to perform less actions to make this tool become a blessed tool is a big blessing in disguise, Grandma. Thank you very much!"

Grandma smiled weakly and pat Elaina on her shoulders. "I am sorry I didn’t fully lift it though. The curse is just too strong even for my abilities that remove."

Elaina shook her head. "No Grandma, I appreciate the work you did on this. And even though you didn’t lift the spell, lowering it’s requirements is big. Don’t undermine your work, Grandma."

...

...

...

Knowing that the curse will now be much easier to be lifted, Elaina is now more eager to remove the cursed hoe.

Standing in the middle of the empty and untilled field, Elaina readies the cursed hoe before her. Before Liliana performed her curse lifting ritual, the cursed hoe was heavier to wield and it is hard to even do basic actions.

Now, the tool is not as hard as before. It is still heavy to use, but it was reduced a lot. Looks like not even the duration was fully reduced as a result of the ritual that Liliana did but also negative effects of using the cursed tool.

"Alright, you might still be a cursed tool, but you are not that bad compared to before. If I just persevere enough, this cursed tool will become a blessed tool sooner enough."

Elaina inhaled as she focused her consciousness on the swing she will be doing.

"Heave-ho!"

Clack!

The hoe’s blade landed on the ground and as soon as the hoe till the ground, a few parts of the soil are also tilled. It was like Elaina also tilled the areas that shouldn’t have been hit by the hoe. It was like an invisible blade of the hoe also tilled the ground.

"A wide range tilling action?!" Elaina was surprised as she glanced at the area that was tilled at the same time as the soil she tilled.

"So this was the power of the Cursed Tool in expense to great energy consumption?!"