I kept trying, forcing myself to hold back the nervousness that continued to grow stronger. Cold sweat began to form at my temples even though the air around me was chilled. After several attempts—on my fifteenth try, to be precise—something finally happened.
All at once, an unpleasant sensation pressed up from deep within my stomach, sharp and sudden, then surged rapidly into my chest.
My breath caught, as if an invisible hand had reached inside and gripped my lungs, forcing the air out before I was ready. My knees nearly gave out, and I reflexively tightened the muscles in my legs just to remain standing.
There was a strange sensation—utterly unfamiliar—like something inside my body was being forced open. Something that had been tightly sealed for a long time was being shoved aside with rough insistence.
It was not entirely painful, but it was far from comfortable—more like a steadily increasing pressure that offered no chance to adapt.
Then I felt it—my Cursed Energy.
Its flow was different from before. It no longer felt calm or easy to guide; instead, it was rough, heavy, and packed with pressure. The energy surged violently through my body, crashing against the pathways it normally traveled with excessive force.
It was no longer fully obedient as it had been before, moving wildly as if it possessed a will of its own, testing my physical limits, daring my body to endure for a full minute.
I immediately tried to focus my Cursed Energy into both of my hands. The effort was anything but easy. My concentration nearly collapsed under the sheer pressure, too strong to be controlled calmly—like trying to stop a raging current with bare hands.
That coarse flow of energy continued to batter me from within, forcing my mind to stay awake even as my body's instincts screamed to give up. The muscles in my arms and shoulders tightened rigidly, veins standing out clearly beneath my skin, while my jaw clenched without me realizing it as I struggled to maintain control.
A few seconds passed, yet they felt far longer than they should have. Time seemed to slow, each second heavy and suffocating.
Cold sweat streamed down from my temples to my jaw, while my breathing grew harsh and uneven. Slowly, through an almost painful act of will, that Cursed Energy finally began to flow into both of my hands.
Heat and pressure immediately built up in my palms, intense and searing, as if red-hot iron were being pressed from inside my flesh and bones.
The sensation made my fingers tremble violently, my joints stiffening, and my muscles tensing on their own, as if my body were instinctively trying to protect itself from something that was never meant to be held back.
Gradually, the energy began to take shape in both of my hands. It rotated in an unstable manner, twisting and pulsing erratically.
Its flow rose and fell, as though it were being forcibly gathered before my body was truly ready to contain it. Each pulse felt like a small abrasion, slowly grinding away at my stamina and focus, little by little, until the edges of my vision began to blur.
I knew my time was limited—and sure enough, before I could do anything more, before I could truly test what I had activated, that one minute came to an end.
In an instant, a strange wave of exhaustion slammed into my body without warning. It was not ordinary fatigue, but a sudden hollowness that swept through me entirely.
The strength drained from my legs as if the floor beneath me had been pulled away. My vision wavered, my focus scattered, and the world around me spun briefly—just enough to rob me of my balance.
I was forced to let myself fall onto the cold, damp grass of the forest. My body hit the ground flat on its back with a heavy sound, my spine immediately meeting the wet earth.
My breathing came in ragged gasps, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I lay there, panting, allowing my body to accept the reality that it had been pushed beyond its limit.
"Hahaha… I did it. I really did it." My laughter spilled out rough and broken, mixed with heavy breaths that had yet to steady. My voice sounded strange even to my own ears—somewhere between relief and near despair, yet filled with a satisfaction that was difficult to put into words.
There was pain throughout my entire body. My muscles ached, my joints felt heavy, and there was a lingering pressure that hadn't fully faded yet, as if my muscles and veins were still trembling from the surge of energy earlier.
But more than the pain, there was something far stronger—an undeniable certainty that made my chest quiver, a warm and tangible conviction that could not be refuted.
None of it was a hallucination.
I had truly activated a Binding Vow.
That realization filled me with overwhelming happiness. The feeling seeped in slowly, pushing through the pain and exhaustion. My lips curved upward without my noticing, forming a wide smile even though my body still felt shattered and too heavy to move.
This was the beginning of my goal to become stronger, so that I could survive in this cursed world. At the very least, I had taken one real step forward—no longer just empty wishful thinking.
I then began to think about many things—about my next training, about the true limits of this body, about how far I could grow if I kept pushing myself like this. Those thoughts spun rapidly, a mixture of ambition and caution tangled together.
Then, suddenly, my train of thought was cut off.
I felt something.
That strange sensation appeared out of nowhere, sharp and cold, like an ice pick stabbing into my back. My skin immediately prickled, and the smile on my face vanished in an instant.
I wasn't sure what it was, but my instincts screamed loudly. It felt as though something was watching me from behind the trees, a heavy, unfriendly gaze pressing down on me.
Damn it, it's not a Cursed Spirit, right? Right?
I immediately tried to sit up, but pain shot through my entire body the moment I moved. My muscles screamed in protest, sharp agony stabbing into my back and shoulders, yet I forced myself anyway.
My back hunched slightly, one hand bracing against the ground, while my eyes moved quickly, straining to sharpen my vision and find the source of that discomfort.
"Uh? But do Cursed Spirits even appear in the morning?" I muttered irritably, trying to calm myself down. Even so, my tone wavered—uncertain even to my own ears, as if I didn't fully believe my own words.
At that exact moment, something moved behind the trees.
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows. It resembled a dog—but it was clearly not normal.
The creature's body looked strange and disproportionate, its silhouette feeling wrong even from a distance.
Its movements were low and cautious, as if it were evaluating me as well, its eyes hidden within the shadows of the trees.
"Damn it… this cursed world never lets me stay out of trouble," I muttered, my voice laced with irritation and fear.
My breathing grew tense again, my chest feeling heavy, and my gaze locked completely onto the creature.
Should I go to the city? No.
That thought surfaced instantly—hard and absolute, like an iron hammer smashing into my head from the inside, leaving behind a painful echo in my skull. The decision formed without discussion, without inner debate.
There was no room for hesitation. No other choice. Even before I could draw a full breath, my heart had already settled on the answer.
If this Cursed Spirit truly moved closer to the city and someone died because of it, I knew I would never sleep peacefully again. Even if I survived, even if my body made it through the night, my mind never would.
Every time I closed my eyes, that guilt would return, clinging to me like a shadow that could never be shaken off.
Images of terrified faces—eyes wide open, breath choking, screams dying in their throats—surfaced unbidden in my mind.
Too real. Too vivid. As if I were truly standing right in front of them. And the most painful part, the one that made my chest tighten the most, was the worst possibility of all.
If this creature were to attack the orphanage.
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