Chapter 25: Curse of Sun God
"Damn! Why do they always cling to me even when I told them I didn’t want to? ...Guess most members of legendary clans are dead-brain guys."
Alaric wore the academy uniform, grumbling about a tiring day after continuously dealing with those bastards from the investigators.
Most of them pressured him for simple reasons—he didn’t have a big background to support himself, and joining a legendary clan would bring him many benefits.
Sure, he knew all of that clearly... but he had to refuse. Not only would he lose his freedom in the future, but also face the danger in those clans since he had killed the legendary clan’s children in the challenge of the nameless god.
On top of that, there was the warning from the nameless god: all reincarnators would be his enemies in the future, which meant the leaders of legendary clans were his enemies.
"I didn’t expect all of them to be people from another world... So I need to get strong as fast as I can before they figure out my blessing."
Then he quickly left the privileged room and headed to the academy classroom before the professor arrived.
He didn’t want to deal with anything particular trouble on the first day of academy.
However, his life was not going to follow the path he wanted, and as he walked hallway of academy he caught unfriendly looks from the normal students.
Confused, he had no idea what was going on, but his expression darkened when he heard their chatter.
"Hey, he’s a slave."
"Really? Are you kidding me? How can a slave even compete in the challenge of the nameless god?"
"That’s impossible to believe."
Another student added,
"Well, from what I’ve heard, it seems he really is a slave... Even all the professors believe it."
"Tch. I suppose he’s just lucky or used some trick to get through the challenge," a girl nearby said.
"Indeed, I’ve never seen him in any meeting-noble family... But if it were wrong, I’m sure his family would have intervened days ago. Yet... nothing happened," another student nodded, agreeing.
"Does it make any sense?"
"There are two possibilities," one of them continued.
"First, he accepted his low profile."
"Second, he’s simply ignoring the rumors as if they don’t affect him. But that’s stupid—rumors spread through the academy without stopping. Pretty soon, whatever his real identity is, he’ll face the hatred and jealousy of all the students."
...
Alaric frowned, glaring at the students with an uncomfortable expression, and hurried into the classroom as fast as possible.
Damn. He was certain those shitty investigators from the Rhodes Clan had spread the rumor. After all, he expected this ever since he had rejected their invitation to join the clan.
Creak!
He opened the classroom door and stepped in.
Blinking a few times, he directed his attention to his classmates.
Four child of the gods. And more importantly, three of them were reincarnations. He believed that if the nameless god hadn’t said it, Alaric would never have known. Either way, they had combined with the body of this world, which meant they would know everything about it and wouldn’t show any weird actions from another world—except for directly revealing their true identity.
He imagined having friends to share this with, yet they were his enemies. How ironic.
After taking a few seconds to assess them, he stepped forward and found a proper seat. Seeing that most of them looked irritated as he observed them, he made a conclusion: they had the typical personality traits of arrogant nobles, but they were highly intelligent because they had deliberately hidden it—though showing a little as a warning.
"Seems they’ve figured out my true identity... Good, I dislike them too."
By now, there was only a spot left near Dana Leonard. He slowly approached, passing by her seat.
By the way, he took a quick look at the woman who was supposed to be the most beautiful of their generation. Yet, her gorgeous face had been marred by an unhealed scar on the left side.
"She’s still pretty beautiful up close... How could those guys before have felt disgusted seeing a face like that?"
"Guess that’s a curse, according to what the scar-faced man said. I wonder what kind of curse it is? I’ll make sure only those perverted men are the ones affected by it."
He smiled, feeling smug about the purity of his soul.
Dana was sitting gracefully, slowly lifting her long black hair that covered half her face to look clearly out the window. Then, she turned her coldly-carved face toward Alaric as he passed by. At first, she barely showed any sign of care, yet for a brief moment, her expression flickered.
She immediately stood up and asked Alaric in a questioning voice,
"Don’t you feel nauseous seeing my face?"
Alaric frowned in confusion.
"W-Why? You’re... pretty beautiful."
Dana froze, stammering,
"B-Beautiful?"
Of course, it wasn’t just Dana who felt confused by Alaric’s answer—the other children of the gods shared the same reaction.
The first to burst into laughter was Phyllis Leonard, one of Dana’s siblings. She looked at Alaric with full mockery and disdain.
"You must have serious problems with your eyes. How could you call such a hideous face beautiful? Her face is nothing but a devil’s... Look closer... Her face even gives off the smell of shit and trash."
"Or maybe a slave’s standard of beauty is that of a demon."
Alaric frowned at the scene—this wasn’t the first time he had heard words like that. But honestly, in front of him now was just a beautiful girl. Whether he had some problem with his eyes... or...
No. His eyes weren’t the problem here. If he couldn’t see what that rude, muscular bitch described, there was only one reason.
That was how Dana’s curse worked on everyone—but it didn’t affect him, because he possessed the [Blessing of the Nameless God], which neutralized God’s curse and blessing.
By now, he thoroughly understood what his blessing really was.
To his delight, Alaric chuckled, casting playful eyes toward Phyllis.
"I don’t know what an ugly woman even is, since they don’t exist in this world, but I believe anyone who says a woman is ugly is just rude and uneducated."