Level Eater
Chapter 147

A man in a robe with flashy yellow and red embroidery, who introduced himself as Aarenfrit, laughed confidently at a dumbfounded Leah. He presented her with two choices:

1. Live her life solely for the profit of a man she doesn't love.

2. Use Aarenfrit's curse magic to fake her death and escape from here.

However, there was a problem with the second option: they didn't know how Leah would be treated if she were considered dead. Though Aarenfrit assured that she could eventually be revived, if her body were damaged beyond repair, revival wouldn't be possible. The merchant who bought Leah, Moritz Holbein, might whip her body in anger, and there were too many uncertainties during the period of her feigned death.

Despite this, Leah chose the second option. She believed that staying in her current situation was not truly living. She decided to trust this strange elf she had just met. Aarenfrit, still exuding confidence, nodded and assured her that she would surely gain her freedom with his help, then cast a high-grade curse on her.

"Couldn't the curse be detected with dispel magic? To be honest, when I examined Leah while she was dying and after her death, I found nothing" (Tatsuro)

"If it were detectable by dispel magic, the deception would be immediately uncovered by examining the body. The fact that Aarenfrit can use such a deceitful curse shows he's indeed the world's greatest curse magician, as he claimed" (Leah)

"Wow, he sounds amazing, even if he seems a bit strange. But why did someone like that come to help Leah-chan?" (Ai)

"I don't know. He only said he pitied me." (Leah)

Under Aarenfrit's curse, Leah learned that initially, she would appear dead for a whole day, but after that, she would repeatedly alternate between life and death in short cycles unless the curse was lifted. Aarenfrit promised to meet her again once she got out.

Before she lost consciousness, he told her that if she was caught by Moritz Holbein's men before they met again, she should choose between real death or returning to her cursed state.

"Ah, so that's why you tried to commit suicide back then." (Tatsuro)

"Yes, but where's my dagger...?" (Leah)

"Sorry, I took it to prevent you from attempting suicide again. Here, you can have it back." (Tatsuro)

"Thank you" (Leah)

Leah said as she took back the golden dagger and reattached it to her waist.

"But how did you manage to keep something like that? Is there a custom of placing such items on corpses?" (Tatsuro)

"No, I found it nearby when I woke up." (Leah)

"Found it? It looks quite valuable. What a waste." (Tatsuro)

"Well, that's not really the issue..." (Leah)

When Leah regained consciousness, she found herself inside a burlap sack mixed with other cargo in a wagon. She repeatedly alternated between life and death during the journey until she was abandoned in the depths of a forest. After escaping from the sack using the dagger she found, she wandered cautiously, avoiding wild animals and monsters.

"And then you met us." (Tatsuro)

"Yes, ugh—" (Leah)

As Leah finished her story and tried to catch her breath, the curse activated again, stopping her breathing.

"What a troublesome curse. It'd be nice if it only killed her once." (Ai)

"It must be that making the curse more complex to avoid dispelling magic from high-level users like me and Cardina made it impossible to limit it to a single death." (Tatsuro)

"Then, unless we find this Aarenfrit, we can't break the curse?" (Ai)

"Now that we know it's curse magic, if we focus only on that... maybe combining it with inverse-phase water magic... hmm..." (Tatsuro)

After a few minutes of pondering, Tatsuro came up with a tentative plan and decided to ask Leah if she would allow him to try when she revived again.

"Tatsuro-san? I think it will be difficult..." (Leah)

"But we don't know where Aarenfrit is. He might not even know you're here. It'd be troublesome if something happened while waiting. So, can we at least try?" (Tatsuro)

"Alright. I wasn't particularly fixated on Aarenfrit lifting the curse, so if you think there's a chance, please try." (Leah)

"Okay, but understand—" (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

Before he could finish his sentence, Cardina's cry interrupted.

"Father, someone's coming this way!" (Nana)

"Now? There are five adults. It's unlikely to be Aarenfrit. They're using search magic, so they must be looking for something." (Tatsuro)

"What should we do, Tatsuro?" (Ai)

"Let's do this." (Tatsuro)

Five men approached them, finding Tatsuro, Ai, and Nana fishing by a river with improvised rods, while Cardina and a baby Jeanne lay nearby.

One of the men rushed over and said, "Excuse me, may we have a moment?"

"Us? Sure, what's up? Not much biting here." (Tatsuro)

"Have you seen a silver-haired, red-eyed, dark-skinned dwarf girl around?"

"Sorry, we've been fishing here since noon and haven't seen anyone like that." (Tatsuro)

"How about the others?"

"We haven't seen anyone" (Ai)

"We haven't seen anyone" (Nana)

After scrutinizing their faces, the man turned to a colleague, who shook his head, confirming no one matching the description was around.

"Sorry to disturb your fishing."

"No problem, we haven't caught much anyway." (Tatsuro)

"By the way, if you see the girl I described, please inform any guild in Liushten. You'll receive a reward from the guild master himself."

"A reward? From someone that high up? Must be a hefty sum." (Tatsuro)

"Yes, enough for a lifetime of leisure. Please consider it."

"Hmm, that's tempting. Maybe we should look for her." (Tatsuro)

"I want to help too!" (Ai)

"Alright, let's give it a try." (Nana)

"Thank you! We're heading to town. Goodbye."

"Ah, wait a moment. Are you the only ones looking for that kid around here? If others are searching too, they might find her first." (Tatsuro)

Tatsuro, trying to extract information about other search parties from these men, asked them this question, though he thought it might make them suspicious. However, the man didn't seem to find the question suspicious and answered normally.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. We don't think anyone else is still around here. No one should be searching this area. We're just passing through to be sure. But because of that, if he is here, you guys can take all the credit."

"That's great. We'll search here thoroughly, so don't sneak around trying to take the credit." (Tatsuro)

"Haha, we won't do that. See you." (T/N: A master of deception once said: the best way to full others is to full yourself first)

Saying that, the five men left. After confirming they had left the forest using mixed magic of darkness and detection with Cardina, Tatsuro moved the chair he had been sitting on and dug up the area with earth magic, revealing an air-holed space. From there, an open coffin appeared, containing the body of Leah, whom the men had been looking for.

"Oh, she's in corpse mode now." (Tatsuro)

"Not even a sound or a breath; even ninjas would be amazed at such stealth." (Ai)

"It's not a technique, it's a curse." (Tatsuro)

The moment they knew the men were coming, Tatsuro and the others first stored the bridge in the item box.

Next, they dug an underground hole and placed Leah in the coffin, covered it with an air-holed lid, and camouflaged it with a chair. To avoid suspicion, they pretended to be traveling fishermen. Tatsuro and Cardina used mixed magic of darkness and detection to ensure that Leah wasn't detected. The men completely mistook Tatsuro and his team for innocent people and left.

"Alright, we've deceived them for now. Those guys were clearly from the merchant guild." (Tatsuro)

"Which means, they've found out that saying she was dead was a lie?" (Ai)

"That's probably the case. We need to consider hiding our conspicuous appearance, or we might not escape." (Tatsuro)

Though Tatsuro was tired of the human relationships' troubles, he felt uneasy about abandoning Leah at this point and had his own reasons. If necessary, he could use his connections back in Lyadas, to ensure their safety. Those connections could handle the merchant guild's head or even the lord of Liushten. Thus, they decided to gather SP for their return while ensuring Leah's future.

When Leah woke up, it was already dark. They decided to delay their initial goal of hunting the deep-sea monster Piporin until the next day. Tatsuro attempted to break Leah's curse.

"Then, please." (Leah)

"You can use the [All-seeing Eye], you know? It's not good to trust people you've just met so easily." (Tatsuro)

"Embarrassingly, I have no choice but to rely on you to survive. Also, using this eye too much seems to hasten my death." (Leah)

"Oh, so that's why the living time varies but the dead time is the same." (Tatsuro)

"Yes, it seems so." (Leah)

Learning new information about the curse, Tatsuro noted it mentally. He had Ai stick close to him for the title effect, and Nana continually enhanced magic-related stats. He and Cardina cooperated to cast the Dispelling magic. Jeanne was on alert in her adult form, ready for anything.

Since they knew about the curse, they focused on gathering information and scanning Leah. However, the curse didn't reveal itself easily. Tatsuro reduced some resources for the dispelling magic and infused water magic into Leah's blood. He detected a reaction from the curse magic.

"Cardina, around the lower sternum!" (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

They thoroughly searched the area, but could only grasp the tip, unable to analyze further. Realizing they couldn't proceed alone, Tatsuro asked Leah for help.

"Leah, use the [All-seeing Eye] on anything. If the curse activates, we might catch it." (Tatsuro)

"Yes." (Leah)

Leah strengthened the [All-seeing Eye], her eye color changing to sky blue. At that moment, Tatsuro and Cardina detected the activated curse magic.

"Ugh, what is this? Cardina, you take the lead. If I analyze this, my head will go crazy." (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

The touch of the curse magic gave Tatsuro a headache. He let Cardina take charge and assisted. They spent the whole night analyzing the meticulously constructed curse magic, finally able to create a counter-phase with water magic.

"───Did it, take that! Ha... sorry, I need a break. My focus can't hold." (Tatsuro)

"────" (Leah)

"Leah?" (Tatsuro)

"Leah is in corpse mode now." (Ai)

"Huh? Oh, right..." (Tatsuro)

Ai quickly supported the exhausted Tatsuro, who thanked her and, overwhelmed by fatigue, fell asleep resting against her.