In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 3.2

Interlude II: The Cursed Sea 

“This thing can go pretty fast.” 
“Well, that’s because the garden doesn’t have any unnecessary facilities, unlike the other Babylons.” The floating garden silently streamed above the clouds like a boat. Thanks to the surrounding magical barrier, in spite of the garden moving at an impressive speed, we only felt a slight breeze on board. 
Another curiosity of the barrier was that if, say, a bird were to collide with the garden, the bird would instead be teleported behind it. The lack of exploding birds was indeed a welcome feature. 
Cesca, the manager of the garden, operated it using a black monolithic device installed in the center of the vessel. As Cesca touched different places on the touch panel-like device, glowing red letters would appear and disappear. 
Linze and Yumina watched in awe from either side. Similarly, the floating Sango and Kokuyou gazed at the monolith as well. 
“Are you the only one who can operate this thing, Cesca?” 
“The only other one who’s allowed is Master. Though that’s more who may operate it, rather than who can, I suppose.” Cesca answered Linze’s question without moving her hands away from the monolith. 
“Is this vessel for recreation? Since it’s called the garden and all.” In response to my question, Cesca wagged her finger at me with a tut-tut. What’s her problem? That’s really irritating. 
“Just take a look at that flower by master’s feet.” 
“Hmm? These?” I looked down at my feet as told, and sure enough, there was a small yellow bell-shaped flower blooming. 
It kinda looked like a sandersonia. Except there was only one of them. 
“That’s called moonbeam grass, an ingredient in potions for treating mana starvation. And that flower over there is called sunbeam grass. It’s an ingredient in potions for recovering stamina. All the flowers in the garden are medicinal plants with their own characteristics.” 
That’s amazing. Guess it really isn’t an ordinary garden. It’s kind of odd how quickly just hearing that explanation turned my impression around. So a lot of different drugs can be made here, huh? 
“Well, I’ve got no idea how you formulate any of those drugs, though.” 
“Huh?! You can’t make them?!” 
“That’d fall under the alchemy department’s jurisdiction. Or maybe you could look it up in the library. Each Babylon’s been specialized to the point where a single one by itself isn’t all that useful.” Seriously? That didn’t sound very convenient. 
As I thought that information over, a map and some text appeared on the monolith that seemed to catch Cesca’s attention. 
“What’s wrong?” 
“I’m getting an unusual magical reading. It’s down below. Maybe a special kind of magical beast?” 
“Down below? Where, exactly?” 
“A sea to the west of the Kingdom of Belfast. Let’s go take a look.” And with that said, the garden silently began to dive into the sea of clouds, rapidly descending to the sea below. 
The weather below the clouds was gloomy, the air saturated with a dim mist. Though none of it entered the garden thanks to the magic barrier. 
“Hey, did something happen?” 
“The clouds are quite thick, they are.” Elze, Yae, and Kohaku noticed the Babylon’s sudden rapid descent and paused their training to come this way. 
“There was some sort of weird magical reading, apparently.” 
“Magical reading? Could it possibly be another Babylon, could it?” 
“Nope. A Babylon’s barrier should completely isolate its mana signature from the outside world. It’s most likely either a magical beast or artifact.” 
So a magical beast of the sea, maybe? If it lived in the sea, it’d probably be something huge. Like a kraken or a killer whale, maybe. Oh, if it’s a sea-dweller... 
“Sango, Kokuyou. Anything you guys can figure out?” 
“No, I do sense sseveral readings, but no ssstrange magical beastss in particular.” 
“No, my lord. There don’t seem to be any particularly strange ones in the sea. Maybe there’s one in the air?” I thought Sango and Kokuyou would’ve known if it were an aquatic magical beast. So maybe it was something else? Like some sort of artifact swept out to sea. 
“T-Touya, look at that!” Yumina shouted as she looked down at the sea from the garden’s edge. Incidentally, she wasn’t in any danger since the magical shield would’ve prevented her from accidentally falling off the Babylon. 
I followed her pointing finger to find a single boat floating through the mist. It was rusted here and there, and barnacles crusted its hull. Tattered sails hung off its three masts. And lining its deck were rusted cannons. 
Ominous light emanated from the tattered ship as it silently drifted in the sea. 
It was obviously in pretty bad condition. The fact that it was still even floating was nothing less than a miracle, actually. 
“A ghost ship...?” I questioned. 
“G-Ghost ship?!” Elze loudly echoed my whisper. Yae, who was standing next to her, turned pale as she cast her gaze to the sea. 
Conversely, Linze remained calm. She had a pensive hand placed upon her chin. 
“Is it really a ghost ship, though? Maybe it’s just been abandoned recently?” 
“Well, if you think about it rationally, I guess that’d make a lot more sense...” I may have been in another world, a fantasy world at that, but a ghost ship...? Really...? Then again, ghosts and wraiths and other spiritual monsters were commonplace. I’d fought the undead a few times, too. 
“The magical reading’s coming from over there, huh? There might be a special artifact on board that ship. Normal artifacts don’t give that sort of reading, after all.” That made sense, I figured. I was surprised that Cesca could tell so easily. It’d be nice to collect another artifact, but I just couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that ship was giving off... 
“Let’s go check it out.” 
“Whaaat?!” Even before I could react to Linze’s suggestion, Elze and Yae shouted first. Relics of the old world may have been involved, but that girl was oddly brave when it came to certain things. 
“That boat may be carrying an important artifact from another country. I think it’d be best to at least check it out.” 
“True. We should retrieve it, and if it’s dangerous, destroy it. Plus, this very well might be... Cesca, please show me the map.” 
“Knock yourself out.” After seconding Linze’s suggestion, Yumina checked the map displayed on the monolith. 
“I knew it... This is the Sea of Blasphemy.” 
“The... Sea of Blasphemy?” 
“It’s a magic sea where all boats, without exception, are said to sink before they can pass through. For that reason, merchant ships and the like take long detours to avoid this area. That could explain what happened to that ship.” All boats sink there? So it’s like the Bermuda Triangle in the Sargasso Sea, huh. Things like the Bermuda Triangle are a myth, but also entirely plausible in another world like this, so it’s kind of scary. 
If that really was the cause of that ship’s demise, then if we left it alone, it could cause another ship to sink. 
“I guess we’ll go check it out.” 
“Whaaat?!” Elze and Yae shrieked again. If we used a [Gate], we could board that ship, and with Sango and Kokuyou, we’d probably be able to manage with the sea somehow. 
“A-Are we really going?” 
“We can’t just ignore it, can we? It could cause another ship to sink, after all.” 
“Th-That may be true, but...” I ignored those two and opened up a [Gate]. It was easy to teleport to somewhere I could see. 
“Kohaku, you stay here. Cesca, contact us through Kohaku if anything goes wrong.” 
“As you wish.” 
“Roger that, Master.” I passed through the [Gate] onto the deck of the ship. 
The hull’s floorboards creaked ominously underfoot. The sea was gentle, but the mist only added to the eerie atmosphere of the situation. 
Linze and Yumina followed me through the [Gate] and boarded the ship. Sango, Kokuyou, and finally Elze and Yae appeared behind me... Why are you guys holding hands? On the deck were cannons jutting out the side of the ship as well as small boards. The cannons were obviously rusted, and the boards were rotten and clearly useless. 
The floorboards creaked with every step. Hopefully they don’t cave in due to decay... 
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s on deck.” Linze was right. Just one cursory glance revealed that not a soul was on deck. 
It was like that one ship, the San Juan Bautista. The first Japanese-built Western-style sailing ship built by Date Masamune, the first daimyo of Sendai. Hasekura Tsunenaga sailed it to Spain as a diplomat. It had been restored and should still have been on display in Ishinomaki. My grandpa took me there to see it once. 
According to a little smartphone research, this type of ship was called a galleon. If this ship had a similar layout to what I found, then the captain’s cabin should’ve been in back. But this ship was the product of another world, so it was unlikely that every detail would be the same. 
“...Now that’s strange. The magical reading feels weak. It felt stronger when we were up in the air.” Yumina’s words made me turn still and sharpen my senses. She’s right. The magic seems to be weaker than before. Or rather, it feels like the source of the magic isn’t here... 
“For now, let’s just go inside. We might learn something.” 
“W-We’re going inside?” 
“W-We will stay and keep a lookout, we will. So please, go on ahead.” 
“...Well, that’s fine by me.” As Elze and Yae both put up awkward smiles, the rest of us opened the door on the rear deck. 
There was a dimly-lit passage beyond it, both sides of which were lined with cannons that faced outward. I had heard that this world had cannons, but had never actually seen one. My first impression was that they seemed pretty large. 
Though, I’d also heard that having a few fire wizards on board was far more efficient than using cannons. Now that I think about it, these cannons mean that this could be an army ship. It’s a bit late, but whatever. 
We passed through the rows of cannons and came across a thick, long rod protruding out of the floor. 
“What’s this?” 
“It’s the helm. It’s used to make the ship turn to the sides.” So this is what a helm looks like. I always thought it would be similar to the wheel-like thing you’d see on TV... 
Anyway, since the helm was so derelict, I couldn’t help but worry that pushing it a bit too hard would break it. Not that I had any intention to do that, of course. Beyond the helm, there was a door that really stood out. A lot of its decor, which likely used to be beautiful, had fallen off, and the old metallic fixings were covered in rust, but it was easy to tell that it was the door to the captain’s quarters. 
It was probably bent out of place, since we couldn’t open it without using a bit more force. A few creaks later, we were able to get inside. 
Though it was dark, I could somewhat make out the shapes of an old lantern hanging from the ceiling, a plain chair and table, and some curved blades and axes hanging on the walls. 
“Come forth, Light! Tiny Illumination: [Light Sphere]!” Linze cast a spell that lit up the room. 
On the table, I could see a sea chart, a compass, and the ship’s log. And, of course, the papers had deteriorated so much that it felt like they’d crumble with just a stronger touch. 
It doesn’t seem like there’s anything unusual here... 
“I know it’s weird saying this at this point, but this ship is pretty strange, isn’t it?” 
“That sure came out of left field, but why do you think that?” 
“If this ship began drifting around because of some incident, you’d expect to see the crew’s corpses, wouldn’t you? Should we assume that they all jumped into the sea?” Yumina had a point. If it was really drifting about long enough for it to deteriorate so much, then there shouldn’t have been any survivors. With that in mind, you’d expect to find a corpse or two. 
Maybe they’re all piled up in a single room we didn’t check yet...? That’s not really something I’d like to discover, though. 
Making sure not to ruin it, I opened the old ship’s log and found out that the ship belonged to pirates who pillaged Belfast’s waters. My assumption that it was an army ship wasn’t completely off the mark, though, since that was exactly what it was before the pirates stole it and began using it for their own dastardly deeds. 
However, the dates on the log were throwing me off. Why is the most recent entry more than a whole century old? Has this ship really been drifting about for that long...? 
“...Masster, don’t you hear some sstrange ssound?” 
“Huh?” Floating in the air and wrapped around Sango, as usual, Kokuyou began talking to me. 
“Though, it’s less of just a sound... and more of a... song?” 
“A song?” Sango seemed to agree to Kokuyou’s words. 
I strained my ears, turned alert, and began looking around. Still, I could only hear the waves, the creaks of the boat’s hull, and the fluttering of the derelict sails. 
Right as I was about to say that I couldn’t hear anything, the sound entered my ears. 
“...re...s, we’r... pir... ...ow...of...nd ...on...f brine ...boo... we... ho...” Though I could only hear pieces of it, there was no doubt that it was what Kokuyou called it — a song. 
Wait, does that mean that this ship that’s been adrift for more than a century actually has survivors on it?! There’s no way! 
“Kyaaaaaahhhhhhh!” A moment later, a feminine scream reached the captain’s quarters and cut my thoughts short. 
“I-It’s my sister and Yae!” 
“Did something happen on the deck?!” We hastily ran out of the room and through the gun deck. When we got closer to the upper deck, we could hear the song clearly. 
“We’re pirates, we’re pirates! We know naught of solid land...! Unmatched upon these waves of brine! For there’s booty we must find, yo ho, hoo!” When I kicked the door open, I was greeted by a deck full of skeletons wearing pirate-like clothing and wielding cutlasses. 
“This is...!” I was utterly stunned. 
“Yo ho! We’ve got some more guests, ye bilge rats! Give ’em all a piratey welcome!” 
“Aye aye, sir!” On the bow of the ship, wearing a pirate hat and an overcoat, there was a captain-like skeleton. He was accompanied by another one who also wore clothes different from the rest of the underlings — likely the first mate. 
Once the skeletal captain raised his sword to the sky, the boney underlings charged at us with their own cutlasses. 
“Blade mode!” I pulled out my Brunhild, turned it into a longsword, and cut down the skeletal pirates closing in on us. 
Though they broke as easily as porcelain, their bones quickly began regenerating and came back together in but a moment. Should’ve known that normal attacks wouldn’t work on the undead. 
“Come forth, O Light! Shining Duet: [Light Arrow]!” I fired off three [Light Arrows] in a row, and all of them broke through a different bone pirate’s head. 
The undead were weak to Light magic. The three unfortunate skeletons I hit couldn’t regenerate and quickly became dust. 
“Look at that! A Light magic user! Been a while since someone surprised Captain Trepang like this!” 
“...Trepang?” 
“Aye! The ruthless devil of the seas! The one and only Captain Trepang! Yo hoo!” A devil...? I’m pretty sure that ‘trepang’ is a word for ‘sea cucumber,’ though... 
Captain Cucumber laughed as his bones rattled. As I was wondering how to react, Yumina suddenly called out to me. 
“Touya, look there!” She was pointing at the crow’s nest on top of the mast, where I saw Elze and Yae, tied up and hanging on a rope. 
“Sorry, they got us!” 
“How careless of me...” Oh man... Well, they couldn’t use Light magic and didn’t have anything that was enchanted with it, so I guess this result is only obvious. 
“Hyahahah! Don’t worry, lad. After all, yer joining them soon! Except yer rope’ll be goin’ around yer neck and— Gah!” 

“Not happening.” As he rattled out some more laughs, I fired at Captain Trepang. Though I was aiming at his head, it went a bit lower and shattered his neck bone, making his skull fall to the deck. 
Since the deck was tilting back and forth as the ship was being rocked by the waves, his skull began to roll around. 
“Arrghhh! Me eyes be spinning! Stop me head, ye worthless bilge rats! Don’t let the brine take me!” The captain’s — his skull’s, anyway — order made the crew hastily follow after the head. 
I used that opening to cast [Accel], instantly went up the mast, and cut the rope holding them up. 
Once they landed on the deck, Linze ran over and cut the ropes that bound them. Okay, now there’s no reason to hold back. 
“Heh, you’ve got stones, laddie. It takes big ones to go against me — Captain Trepang! But the price ye pay for that is heavy, indeed! Grit yer teeth, for I’m about to fillet ye like a crab!” Captain Cucumber roared that out as the first mate helped him reattach his head. ...Fillet? 
“...Uh, vice cap’n, sir. Can you even fillet a crab...?” 
“Shh! Shut up!” After a random crew member and the first mate had that exchange, Captain Cucumber shot them a glare. The two looked away from him in a highly forced manner. 
“Who cares ’bout the details?! Just attack them, ya salty sea dogs!” 
“Aye aye, sir!” In response to the skeletal captain’s order, the bone pirates began closing in on us. It was quite a discomforting sight. 
“[Enchant]: [Cure Heal]!” I imbued my weapon, Elze’s gauntlets, and Yae’s katana with Light magic. With that, their weapons should’ve been able to purify the undead. 
“Hhaah!” Elze launched a straight punch from her right arm, blowing away the skeleton before her. Said skeleton became dust and disappeared from the ship. 
Yae, too, was using her Light-imbued katana to sweep through the bones coming close to her. 
Keeping up with them, I was firing Light-imbued bullets at the skeletons, destroying them one after the other. Linze was casting lances of light, while Yumina was keeping the bone pirates at bay with her wind magic. Kokuyou and Sango were firing some water projectiles as cover. 
One by one, the pirates became dust, mixed with the wind, and simply disappeared. 
“Oohhhhh?! Y-Yer pretty good at this!” 
“I have a question. Are you the ones sinking all the ships that get close to this area?” 
“Huhh? We never sunk any ships. Not a single one. Here, let me show ya.” After saying that, Captain Trepang created a pale-blue, soul-like flame in his hand It was about the size of a basketball. 
As if it was some sort of call, similar flames began appearing all over the thick fog around us. 
Once the fog, littered with countless such flames, began to clear, I could see more ghost ships. They rode the waves around us and were as numerous as the lights. What the hell is this...? 
“Wait, are these all...?!” Straining my eyes, I saw that there were both war and merchant ships among them. They were all crowded with similar skeletons to the ones here, and I could see them raising their swords and the like. 
He changed all the ships that came here into ghost ships! 
“Hyahahah! I’ll make yer death swift and painless! Ah, today’s rum will be a blessing on these organs of mine!” 
“...Vice cap’n, sir. We don’t have any organs, do we?” 
“Shh! I told you to shut up!” I could hear the first mate and the underling whisper to each other again. Man, having a sea cucumber like this for a captain sounds like a pain. 
“Kheheheh! With there being so many of us... What the bilge are ya doing?” I ignored captain sea cucumber as he turned, or at least seemed to turn, looking confused, then took out my smartphone and ran a search. Obviously, it was for ‘undead.’ I should’ve done that from the start. 
The map that extended as far as my sight quickly became covered in pins that marked my targets. At the same time, the sky above the undead became covered in small magic circles from the [Multiple] spell. 
Target locked. 
“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” I cast the spell through the smartphone, making the magic circles above the undead create a rain of holy light lances. 
“Gnyaaaaahhhh!” 
“Ghyaaaaahhhh!” 
“Goaaaaaahhhh!” Countless pirates released their final screams. After getting hit by the spears of light, one after the other, the undead became dust and disappeared from this world. 
Of course, the pirates before us were no exception. I looked and saw Captain Trepang getting reduced to ash. 
“Ooaghhhhh?! This can’t beee! What the bilge is thiiss?!” As he expressed his shock, Captain Trepang joined the rest of his crew. Good bye, Cap’n Cucumber... 
Once the undead had all become dust, all that was left were the ships and the waves that gently caressed them. 
“Well then, we’re done here.” As if timed for when I took a sigh of relief, an unpleasant voice rang out around us. 
“Heheheh... I wouldn’t be so sure about that...” 
“What?!” Like a will-o’-the-wisp, a new flame appeared in the fog and came out of it with another ghost ship. 
Standing on it and folding his arms was a skeletal captain wearing a differently-colored coat than Captain Trepang. In all honesty, since they were both just bones, that was the only difference I noticed. I could see more boney pirates behind him. They, too, were all holding cutlasses. 
“I suggest against getting uppity just because you defeated Captain Trepang. He was the weakest captain of the ‘Pirate Elite Four.’ Your next opponent is me: Captain Turbanshell!” 
Turbanshell...? As in, ‘turban shell’? The sea snail?! Does every pirate in these waters have a terrible naming sense?! And what the hell’s the ‘Pirate Elite Four’ supposed to be?! 
“...What now, Touya?” 
“...Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” 
“Ughyaaaahhhhhh?!” Goodbye, Captain Snail. 
I paid my respects to the ghost ship, which was now cleansed by Light magic. A moment later, I saw yet another pale-white flame appear, which was followed by yet another ghost ship. Seriously? Again?! 
“Heheheh. You are now faced with another of the ‘Pirate Elite Four,’ Captain Seahorse! Your lives are forf—” 
“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” 
“Fghaaaaahhhh!” Fare thee well, Captain Seahorse. Suddenly, another ghost ship came out of the fog and... “Heheheh... I be the—” 
“Just stop already!” 
“Gyoeeaahhhh!” Without even letting him name himself, I made what was probably the fourth and final captain return to dust. I didn’t care what they were called. To me, they were nothing but troublesome piles of bone. 
“Is that all of them?” 
“Who knows? The fact that I can still feel some magic around here is pretty damn...” 
“T-Touya-dono! Look there!” Yae noticed something and pointed at the fog-shrouded sea. 
Can you just stop it already...? This is getting really annoying. The same joke can only be funny three times, at most, is what I... think... 
Sure enough, the thing that appeared from the fog was a ghost ship. However, its size was different. This one was significantly larger. 
In fact, it was at least four times bigger than the ship we were on. Not only that, but this one seemed to be somehow different from the others. 
Standing on the bow of the ship, there was a new skeletal captain. He was clad in a crimson mantle and arrogantly spread his arms outward. 
“Been a while since such good prey came along! Very well! I, the King of Pirates — Captain Wharfroach — will bring forth a bloodbath!” 
...Wharfroach? Of all things, a wharf roach? Captain wharf roach? Seriously? 
As I grew increasingly pissed with the pirates’ absurd naming scheme, Captain Roach raised his black cutlass and shouted an order. 
“Fire, you bilge rats!” The giant ghost ship’s side, which was directed straight at us, suddenly started barraging us with cannon shots. 
Cannons were basically a weapon that did nothing but fire cannonballs. Though a hit would break the ship, it would never result in an explosion. 
I also heard that cannonballs fired from ships had a low accuracy and rarely landed where intended. That was why the sides of ships would be lined with many cannons and used in unison to increase the chances of landing hits. 
We happened to be aboard a ghost ship, which basically put us in the palm of their hands. In fact, the ghost ship we were on was actually heading straight toward the rain of cannonballs they’d fired. 
Exposed to the shots, the ship’s mast broke as many holes opened up on the deck. It was already a wonder why the ship was still afloat. It had basically no endurance to speak of. 
“Touya, at this rate, the ship’s going to sink!” 
“Khh, [Gate]!” Since Sango and Kokuyou were with us, there was no chance of us drowning, but staying on the ship was dangerous nonetheless. I opened a [Gate] on the deck and went through it to end up on Captain Roach’s ship. 
“Wha—?!” I materialized on the stern of the ship, behind the enemy, and used my smartphone to lock onto the undead. Spears of light rained down upon them like lightning. 
“Gwaaaaaaaaarrgh!” With a final agonized scream, the skeleton pirates turned to dust. Thinking that had to be the last of them, I let my guard down. Then suddenly, there was a blade swinging down at me from behind the curtain of ashes. 
“What?!” Instinctively, I flung myself down on the deck, avoiding the blade by hair’s breadth. The owner of the ominous black cutlass that had nearly taken my life was none other than Captain Roach. 
“Tch, almost had you there, laddie. Anyone who dies by this cutlass becomes my eternal servant.” 
“What’d you just say? That cutlass... Don’t tell me that’s the cursed Artifact?!” 
“Aye. This here be the Soul Reaper, a cursed Artifact that lets me turn anyone I kill into my undead slave. But it turns its wielder into an undead too. Guess that’s where the ‘cursed’ part comes from!” Captain Roach’s jaws clacked together as he laughed heartily. 
I see now, he turned all the other captains I fought into the undead with that cutlass. In other words, they too were victims. Brandishing his cursed blade, Captain Roach charged at me again. 
“Come forth, O Light! Shining Duet: [Light Arrow]!” 
“That ain’t gonna work, lassie!” Linze fired a barrage of Light arrows at Captain Roach. But with a single wave of his red cape, the arrows all vanished before they could strike him. 
What the hell was that?! Is that what he stopped my [Shining Javelin] with earlier?! 
“Hehehe, this is a very special cape. You see, it can nullify all Light magic, which means you have no way of defeating me! Shame, ain’t it, laddie?” How kind of Captain Roach to reveal his secret to me. This guy’s a moron too. 
“Come forth, Fire! Whirling Spiral: [Fire Storm]!” 
“Kakaka, you fool! Fire magic can’t hurt the undead! Even if you do scorch these old bones, they’ll just regenerate!” 
Captain Roach was enveloped in a whirling torrent of flames. But they burnt out quickly, revealing an unhurt skeleton. He stood there unfazed, his pale bones on display for all to see. Some of them had cracked from the heat, but they’d regenerated almost instantly. 
“Kekeke. See? You finally understand now?” 
“Well, I do understand that you’re a complete dumbass.” 
“Huh?” 
“Why don’t you take a good look at yourself?” 
Captain Roach obediently looked down at himself. There was a cursed cutlass in his hands and the white bones that made up his frame, but that was all. 
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!” Indeed, his coat, his hat, his shoes, and most importantly, his Light magic repelling cape had all been torched the flames. His shock was evident on his face. He looked more like a comical Halloween costume than a fearsome ghost pirate. 
I started chanting slowly. 
“Come forth, Light! Shining Exile—” 
“W-Wait! We can talk this out! I’ll listen, so please don’t. Don’t—!” 
“[Banish]!” 
“Huhaughaue?!” My purifying Light magic reduced Captain Roach to dust. 
His black cutlass fell to the deck with a metallic clang. I deftly picked it up and activated the Null spell, [Power Rise]. 
“Hiyah!” With my empowered arm, I split the sword in two and flung the pieces into the depths of the ocean. It didn’t matter how rare an Artifact it was, I had no need for a cursed sword. 
“Touya-dono, the fog is...” I looked up, and watched as the fog began to vanish. So even the fog was part of that cutlass’ curse. 
The gloomy clouds that had been hovering overhead cleared up as well. Sunlight poured down from the gaps in the clouds, its dazzling radiance illuminating the ocean. 
“Looks like this sea’s curse has been lifted.” 
“Most likely.” 
The curse that had plagued this sea for over a hundred years, claiming the lives of any crew unfortunate enough to sail into its waters, had finally been dispelled. 
“I see. So the cutlass was cursed. Among Artifacts, there are those that use the life force of people to power themselves. That sword was probably one of them. Had we ignored it, it would have only continued to grow more dangerous.” I was back in the garden’s gazebo, listening to Cesca’s explanation. Her description of it reminded me of those magical swords that fed on blood. Breaking it had been the right choice. 
The jewel Yamamoto Kansukay had back in Eashen must have been something similar. Curses and the undead seemed to go hand in hand. 
According to Cesca, some items had their curses woven into them as they were made, while others were normal items that were cursed later on. 
“I believe there should have been a grimoire on curses in the Library of Babylon.” 
“Hey, don’t just leave dangerous things like that lying around.” So Doctor Babylon had been a dangerous person after all. 
“If you want to break a curse, you have to start by learning how to make them. Plagues, banes, divine retribution... There’s all sorts of curses out there. Come to think of it, I believe there’s a curse out there capable of calling forth disaster too.” 
“A curse that can bring about disaster...” 
That sounds like one of those misfortune curses. Kind of like how there’s people who are always hounded by bad luck. You know, the kind of people who always have bad things happen to them... Hm? Huh? Why’s everyone staring at me?! 
“I see. A curse that brings disaster, you say... Or if you want to rephrase it, a curse that invites misfortune,” Yumina replied. 
“Why do I feel like you’re all making fun of me?” 
“Can such a curse be dispelled?” 
Hey, wait just a second. What are you all implying? That I’m under this disaster curse? Haha, don’t make me laugh. 
“It’s a shame he isn’t aware of it...” The four girls all sighed at Elze’s comment. 
Huh? I glance over at Kohaku, but the damn tiger just averts its gaze. Hey now... It’s not like I go out looking for trouble, all right? Trouble just always finds me... Yep. There’s no way I’m cursed. No way at all... I think. 
I offered a small prayer up to God, just in case. Though I had no idea if that would be enough to free me from any such curse.