Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 375 The Cursed Monster
"how so"

Viyn stared blankly at the horrific scene.

She had imagined that Price's outcome might not be good. But she never expected it to unfold in such a terrible way.

Is this the life of her "elder brother" that she once envied?

This is only part of it.

Like Wayne, although there was nothing blocking her throat, Charlotte spoke with great difficulty, her voice hoarse.

"Part of it?"

"Yes, part of it. If I remember correctly, before Ritas came to our family, more than ten of his adoptive parents had passed away. Although not all of them were as tragic. But that's precisely why he was called..."

The cursed child.

Now, Xia Luoluo feels she can no longer mention this word.

Until she actually saw the scene before her, the number of parents who died in Ritas "K" was really just a number in Charlotte's mind.

A dozen or so people?

Hey, that's really amazing!
This matter, which seemed to be something anyone in the family could easily mention, was basically like a fictional story in Xia Luoluo's mind.

Because Ritas always seemed unresponsive and unaffected.

She couldn't feel the weight of these tragedies from Ritas.

But these weights are undeniably present, and it's impossible that Ritas didn't suffer any harm from those encounters.

"Since it's such a serious matter, why don't you show it? Why do you let that stupid brat keep yelling at you?"

Xia Luoluo pursed her lips tightly.

It wasn't until the "stories" she believed in were no longer unreal that she truly realized just how outrageous her actions had been at the Elson mansion.

While Charlotte and Wayne were still processing the shock of what they had just witnessed.

The scene, which had seemed frozen in time, suddenly started moving again.

In the memory, young Ritas somehow obtained a golden apple and then made a gesture of holding it up.

The golden apple rapidly transformed into golden particles, spreading throughout the scene of memory. They stained the blood on the ground, transforming into a crimson vortex that swallowed everything around it.

The crimson vortex gradually shrank, swallowing all the memories and turning them into a point condensed to its extreme before exploding again.

In the re-emerging memories, Ritas returned to a point in the past, shortly after he moved to the new town.

Price reappeared before him and began to gather up the five portraits that had just been laid out on the table.

"That's wonderful, dear 'Mischi'. You really do bring me good luck."

The past is recreated.

This moment should be the moment in Ritas's memory when he had just chosen a new "father".

"Li, Litas"

Beyond the scene in her memory, Xia Luoluo couldn't help but reach out her arm to the other side of the picture, but quickly withdrew her hand.

Even she knew that the current situation was that Ritas was running away from his past.

In Ritas's actual experience, there could not have been anything as useful as the Golden Apple. Nor could he have done things over again after they had already been decided.

However, Charlotte couldn't blame Ritas for running away, nor could she stop him from doing so.

However, it's unclear whether Ritas's "rewinding" went poorly. What followed was an incredibly bizarre scene.

After the surrounding scenery seemed to suddenly fade, and in the gray and white landscape, only Ritas and Price had their own colors.

"You should actually know what might happen after you chose 'Draco Hasbed,' right? After all, I've taken you to meet him before. And with your intelligence, didn't you already see through that deadly criminal's true identity back then?"

In the bizarre scene, Price asked a meaningful question with the corners of her mouth.

"No"

Ritas's barely audible voice was interrupted by Price.

"Without a subject, I have no idea what you're denying. Let's use a simple binary choice, my dear."

As Price spoke, two lines of text, seemingly forged in blood, appeared on either side of her.

On the left is, "I realized Draco's true identity and hoped he would kill his adoptive mother, which is why I chose him."

On the right is, "It really was just a coincidence. Or perhaps, it was the 'curse' on me that made the inevitable choice for me."

There is no right answer at all!

Ritas angrily rebuked him.

Price simply said "Time's up" and then chose the left side.

The scene shifts, and we're back on that tragic night.

Ritas emerged from the cabinet only to find two dead bodies lying horribly in pools of blood.

Unlike last time, this time Ritas's expression showed obvious hesitation.

Suddenly, Price's battered corpse on the ground abruptly turned its head, twisting its neck at an odd angle to stare at Ritas.

"You really are a cursed 'monster'—"

Amidst Ritas's screams, which Charlotte had never heard before, the golden apple once again reshaped the scene of her memory.

Returning to the selection node once again, Ritas quickly chose the option on the right.

But without a doubt, his choice was futile.

Regardless of Ritas's reasons for choosing "Draco Hasbed," Price's fate will remain unchanged.

A cursed monster!

As Price's corpse once again voiced its accusations, Ritas once again rewound.

This time, Ritas retraced his steps to the moment when he stood around the town's guard post.

And the relentlessly persistent Price, like a venomous snake, once again gave Ritas two options.

The left side reads, "Expose your true, deeply loving adoptive mother and have her cruelly executed."

The right side "realizes that no one will trust its words."

This time, faced with a future that seemed to be changeable through choices, Ritas immediately chose the left side.

Even so, the situation remained unchanged afterward.

Contrary to the options suggested, Price was not taken away and executed by the guards. Instead, she "peacefully" welcomed the night.

The only difference was that before Price accused Ritas of being a monster, she added a sentence.

"You actually betrayed the person who loves you most in this world! You are a 'monster' who was born cursed!" And yet, another golden apple was consumed, with the same result.

The options on the right seem to simply describe Ritas's inner thoughts at the time, and also seem to show his original choice.

Watching Ritas return to that blood-soaked night time and time again, even Vayne, as an observer, felt despair.

Just as she had sensed before. Ever since being targeted by Price, the "Black Widow," all of Ritas's choices seemed to lack any correct option whatsoever.

"No, don't choose anymore! Apple products are almost gone!"

As the creator of the fairy tale world, Wayne instinctively felt that the power left to maintain this world and the fairy tale script was almost gone.

"What? It's all gone? Did you hear that, Ritas?! Don't keep getting stuck in this kind of illusion!"

Hearing Wayne's words, Charlotte, who had been stunned for a moment, shouted loudly.

She then realized that, unlike other times, their ability to see Ritas's memories now was not the usual occurrence. It was the "Wanderers" using some means.

As someone who experienced it firsthand, Charlotte knew very well that the Wanderer had the ability to incite and control the darkness within people's hearts.

Therefore, the more he retraces his steps, the fewer golden apples he will possess. Furthermore, as his inner wounds and darkness deepen, he will become increasingly unable to escape the power of the Wanderer.

This may be the true purpose of the Wanderers using the blood cocoon to "hatch" Price.

But realizing this now seems too late.

Like Ritas who had completely fallen, he spun the golden apple once more.

This time, the memory returns to just a short time ago, before the last family dinner began.

Ritas reached out and stopped Price, who was carrying a bottle of special wine and was about to enter the restaurant.

Just like in a normal memory scene, two more dreadful options appeared beside Price, who stopped and smiled at Ritas.

Left: "Confess your betrayal to the person who loves you most, and become an accomplice to escape from a deadly criminal together."

The right-hand option suggests "helping a deadly criminal and making the person who loves you most careless. After all, your ultimate goal is to erase her existence and gain freedom."

These are two options that not only make no difference even if you choose them, but also have no correct answer among them.

If Ritas doesn't choose, Price will make the choice for him on her own.

The result of the choice was that the nightmarish scene reappeared twice.

Two more golden apples were consumed from the remaining few.

Amidst the desperate but ultimately unanswerable cries of Wayne and Charlotte, the memories shifted repeatedly, eventually returning to the point when they first chose the portrait.

In the spacious, magnificent mansion rented by Price, Ritas was once again looking at five portraits of men at the table.

The mansion's splendor didn't last long, soon transforming into a scene of complete darkness, where only Ritas and Price existed.

"So, this time, are you still going to choose 'Draco Hasbed'? Are you going to choose to be an accomplice who, despite being 'Black Widow,' truly cares about your mother? Or... kill her?"

"I"

Ritas, who already seemed completely lost, was once again forced to choose from a new set of options that existed solely to torment his mind.

Just as Ritas was about to point with his trembling hand to the option he didn't actually want to choose.

The shouts, which had initially been coming from afar, gradually drew closer.

"Go for it, Miss Charlotte!"

With Wayne's encouragement, Charlotte raced through the empty, dark space toward Ritas and Price.

With a faint glow emanating from Wayne, Charlotte used a skill that could never be replicated in reality to quickly condense azure ice platform in mid-air as her foothold, and in the blink of an eye, she had already approached the two of them.

Then, Charlotte leaped into the air, her body almost forming a horizontal line in the sky. With both feet off the ground, she forcefully imprinted two clear footprints onto Price's face.

"From the moment you create a situation where no matter what you choose, it's wrong, you don't deserve to be a mother!"

A perfectly executed, powerful side kick sent Price, whose face was completely contorted, flying far away.

"Hmph, he follows you around all the time, but in the end he still doesn't want to choose you. And you still have the nerve to blame him!"

In the dark space, Xia Luoluo got up from the ground, habitually dusted off the dust, and then, with her hands on her hips, didn't forget to finish off "Priss," who was lying motionless on the ground in the distance.

"you"

"Don't worry! You may be confused right now, but I assure you, your future self will have fully proven that you are not cursed, nor are you a monster! So..."

Looking at young Ritas, Charlotte, her heart filled with a mix of emotions, spoke these words succinctly. After taking a deep breath, as if she had made a decision, she hugged Ritas tightly.

then
She immediately felt Ritas struggling violently in her arms.

"Are you serious about trying to beat up a phantom from a memory?"

".Huh?"

Listening to Ritas's logical and reasonable rebuke, Charlotte, who didn't seem to be experiencing a mental breakdown at all, sensed something was amiss.

With the pressure on his shoulder released, young Ritas slipped out of Charlotte's arms.

The young Ritas, whose features had previously been disjointed and whose expression seemed completely broken, now had a tense expression and a deep frown.

Oops!

This isn't just a little off, it's seriously off!
Suddenly, she realized that Ritas might have been faking it. For some reason, Charlotte, who had been deliberately consuming the golden apple, was suddenly struck dumb, her mind went blank, and she completely forgot her current situation and what she should do next.

"Damn it—! We were so close to succeeding!"

Not far to the side, the object that was previously Price had been completely deformed after being hit by a flying kick, and "collapsed" into a lump of bloody mud.

"You mean you're almost successful, but you haven't even gotten to the starting line yet?"

Ritas's sarcastic words further proved that his previous words and actions were all a pretense.

"Absolutely not—forgive—!"

It emitted a muffled growl, as if it were inside a vat, and the pitch-black space suddenly began to tremble violently.

"Ooohhhhhh!"

Charlotte, already in a dazed state, had no way to escape and was instantly entangled by the tentacle-like objects extending from the surrounding space, then dragged into the surrounding darkness.

In the blink of an eye, half of Xia Luoluo's body had already disappeared into the darkness.

Although tentacle-like objects also attacked Ritas, those objects were covered in countless cracks containing golden light before they even made contact with Ritas, and then collapsed to the ground.

Although he was not worried about his own safety, looking at Charlotte who was being attacked and Wayne who was also entangled by tentacles in the distance, Ritas raised his right hand with an extremely helpless expression.

As the last golden apple was placed in Ritas's hand, it transformed into a large number of golden particles.

As if drawn by a spell, the golden hue quickly emanated from all directions within the space inside the blood cocoon.

(End of this chapter)