Chapter 196 – Cursed Black Hair
Long long time ago, in the mansion of a certain noble lived a long black-haired maid.
Her hair was supple and glossy, based on just hair they were the best, but they reached her ankle and the bangs always covered more than half of her face, which made her look creepy.
A maid serving her master, wouldn’t be forgiven to let them grow that long even if they were beautiful.
But she had been forgiven to have those tremendous super long hair.
Because, though she wore the apron dress for maids, she was in fact the bodyguard of her master.
That bodyguard maid had the extra magic to use her hair in any way she wanted.
She was the descent of a certain assassination clan, the result of crossbreeding experiments in ancient times was that she could activate extra magic and limit the power of Hydra to her hair.
[ET: Piece of advice here, the hydra family is something else this hydra is something else. Family is called 「ハイドラ（Haidora）」 and and this whatever is called「ヒュドラ(Hyudora)」. One is monster (latter) and one is not related to living things (former). For more info, well read ancient crap and some computer books]
Her black hair with the power of Hydra would turn into impregnable defense at extreme times and also entangle the hands and legs of the enemy to stop any sort of attack, the girl with her hair demonstrated great talent as bodyguard.
However, the reason she was currently hired as a bodyguard for a son of a certain noble wasn’t because of this ability,
「Oh, you have quite a nice face there. If I’m going to be followed by a bodyguard all day long then a girl like you would be best!」
But, it was because of such a vulgar reason.
Judging from the standard basis for choosing her was enough to see that her master, the son of noble was a lewd man.
He liked women more if compared to getting meal three times a day, rather than exploiting taxes, or getting honor from king, he liked making love with women more.
He made love with many women, like, daughter of a wealthy noble, gentle maid, voluptuous high-class prostitute, innocent farmer’s daughters, chaste married woman—–if he liked the appearance, forgetting the social positions he would lay hands on that girl.
Therefore, even though the black-haired woman was an elite assassin raised by an assassination clan, he would choose her based on her appearance and that so without any hesitation.
And he didn’t need to persuade her, the night she was hired, she opened her body as per her master’s orders.
However, the man who liked being cruel while making love, he was displeased with the woman’s attitude of giving her body so easily.
There that man took decided to make this expressionless mannequin-like maid actually love him from her heart.
The man used every viles he had known from experience from various women, and he approached near her.
Between that, some man with displeasure with the tax rates of territory attacked him.
It was her first task as bodyguard, with an expressionless face, she protected her master and killed the ruffian by breaking his neck with her hair.
The figure of maid killing the man without even having a chance to know what happened would be fearful, but the man got worked up because this woman was worthy to fall in the depths of hell.
[ET: For readers who read the TL’s of Nikubenki (r-18) novel, would understand the meaning of falling in depths of hell (pleasure?)]
After that, somewhat time passed.
The man whispered about love to the maid, and gave pleasure to her by embracing her body.
Once again, on some day on new assassins came aiming for man’s life.
The maid once protected the man and strangled all assassins to death.
But at that time, the arm of man was scratched by an arrow that attacked him from a blind spot, though small he was injured.
The man sharply saw that the moment he was injured, the expression of maid changed as though her face had expression.
The man understood that all the work he did till now was not useless, the frozen heart of woman has started to thaw though little by little but surely.
After that, the man approached the maid in more high spirits.
Then, the time the third attack came,
「Master……I’m scared……to lose you」
The maid was worrying over the safety of man while crying.
After several from hiring, the hard efforts of the man finally bore fruit.
From then the maid was loved by the man without being expressionless but with innocent reactions of a lovestruck maiden.
But that life didn’t last even a year and marked its end.
「I’m getting married」
Marriage, yes, the engagement of that man was decided.
If he was getting the bride from family of same status or lower status, then he wouldn’t have stopped on laying his hands on maid or other women.
However the bride was not only of higher status but was the daughter of royalty, the princess of the country he served.
No matter how much difference in positions, having blood of royalty was necessary, the difference in power was like heaven and earth.
It wasn’t girl coming to his house but he going to the bride’s house, the man wouldn’t face against people with more status and power and could only agree to what his bride, the princess said.
Hence, the princess who was to be betrothed to him,
「Dismiss that creepy bodyguard」
Said as such, so he had no choice but to dismiss the maid who had saved him 3 times.
「I’m sorry, but our love will remain for eternity——」
The man bids farewell with sugared words.
The man was a playboy, so he left the woman he was playing with, with those words that would leave no future troubles.
And this time too he thought, that their forbidden relationship of master and maid would clearly end.
「I wil……I-I will protect you……Master!」
But the moment that black-haired woman twined around his body, the man sensed it.
「I don’t know what princess and all that is……but that woman is……an assassin trying to break us apart」
He perceived that she was different from the girls he had been playing with, she was twisted.
「But it’s fine……this time too……I will protect you……」
The black hair covered her and the man inside like a coffin made of steel.
It didn’t take much time for the other people living in mansion to know the abnormality, they all immediately understood the bodyguard maid went mad and attacked her master.
Naturally, to save the man, private army of the noble launched an attack.
By that point of time, the coffin enlarged in size and became to the size of that of a cage.
The defense made by her black hair couldn’t be broken no matter how many times blades cut or tried to pierce it.
They were able to cut some fibres of hair, but they were immediately regenerated.
Even so, the soldiers didn’t gave and kept on attacking, without choosing any way they just tried to destroy it.
1 month passed after that.
In the mansion of noble, the jail of black hair was still enshrined.
She didn’t even once opened the defense and ‘protected’ her master from every sort of attacks by capturing him in the jail of eternity.
Like that, one day the defense made by her black hair vanished maybe because she used up all her strength.
All that remained was the corpses of a man and woman wrapped in between the black hair as though they were embracing each other.
The man had an expression of despair on his face, the woman had a kind expression as though to comfort the man.
.
.
.
A worker told that the bunch of black hair in his hand was the hair of the girl who went through all that.
Even after the dying, the black hair didn’t lose its glossiness and looked beautiful, even if the story of bodyguard was a lie, it doesn’t change the fact that this black hair had some sort of magical power stored into it.
Then the worker, made gloves by knitting the black hair.
The worker wore it the moment he finished making it, and,
「I will protect master」
Heard that voice.
The next morning, the corpse of worker wrapped in black hair and strangled to death was found in the workshop.
Ever since then, every person who wore these gloves was killed in the same way.
At some time it was called as『BlackHair Curse「Coffin」』and every person feared it.
It was unknown how many people had died before it was sealed as a dangerous cursed item.
Like that even after people stopped reaching her, she was still waiting, for her new master to appear.
.
.
.
Those cursed gloves,
「Noisy, shut up and listen to me!」
Are right now silent due to blackening and fitting just perfectly in my both hands.
It almost feels like they’re part of my skin.
The only fault is, sometimes the shout of a woman shouting「Master~」would echo inside my brain.
Well it’s fine, this is normal for a cursed item.
These gloves which feel really great to wear and are made from the black hair of a lovestruck maiden named as『Black Hair Curse「Coffin」』, is a gift from Lily.
I’m too scared to hear the price because she said this was brought from the high-class shop of Mordred Weapon Company within the noble area.
I don’t know how she used a shop in noble area, seems like the secrets of Lily have increased in just one day.
Keeping that aside, let’s talk about gloves.
This is not just gloves which feel good to wear but also have a great effect hidden inside them. This isn’t called cursed item for no reason.
「Great. With this, the strength of『Anchor Hand』is more than double」
You will understand that if you see the scene in front of my eyes.
Within the mountain forest in the northern part of Galahad Mountain Range, the Doltos, having a gigantic body like an elephant, had its movements sealed by my『Anchor Hand』wrapping around it.
The wire-like『Anchor Hand』would not seem different at a glance, but looking more properly, it could be seen it is made by many strands of hair bundling up together to form a wire.
Apparently, this『Black Hair Curse「Coffin」』, these gloves, have an effect of enhancing the strength of magic which restrain other people.
Furthermore, though I haven’t used it during battle, but it also enhances the defense magic.
The reason Lily gifted me this is because it enhances the defense force and binding forces.
Compared to other experimental subjects, I’m not much specialised in defensive magic, and『Anchor Hand』is a magic I can rely on, it played an active role in fight with Cyprus and Ai as well.
『Black Hair Curse「Coffin」』has no firepower, but it supports in other sides, as an equipment this is an ideal one which implements all the effects from just being gloves.
Indeed Lily, this the best choice, completely different from the White Punpun robe I bought for her.
Well then, it’s not the time to be always getting impressed by the ability of『Black Hair Curse「Coffin」』.
I’m not binding the Doltos on whim, but capturing it alive is the quest this time.
「I will open it’s mouth, so shoot the anaesthetic ball」
「Yes!」
「Roger」
As if I’m controlling a marionette, several『Anchor Hand』extend from my hand and wrap around Doltos’ mammoth like face with a long nose and teeth.
I reel in the black wires which have dug into the upper jaw and lower jaw, finally my power surpasses the power of jaws and I open up the mouth of Doltos.
「Eii」
「Here we go」
The two shoot the softball-size ball within the mouth of Doltos while raising enjoying voices.
This ball is commonly known as anaesthetic ball, though it does not has immediate effects but it can intensely paralyse the body of monsters.
It won’t take effect upon hitting the body, but only upon intake of it like right now, in other words it’s a paralysis poison capsule.
After silencing the monster with anaesthetic ball, the capture is completed, after that we have inform guild by the bird for transportation uses (loan), and give the monster to the retrieval team which would be dispatched by guild.
「Then I will start installing the binding item」
「I leave it up to you, and I think it would be bound for a while, so you don’t have be in a hurry」
It takes a while for the anaesthetic ball to take effect, in that time if not binded up, then there is a risk that monster would run away.
And, even if the anaesthetic ball is working, one needs to be on guard and keep it bind up using a thick rope.
And it would take place for retrieval team to come here, during that time it is needed to maintain the prey captured.
Quests like these are not easy with just defeating monsters and showing their body parts for proof. These are really troublesome
That’s why the levels of difficulty changes in subjugation and capturing quests, even if they are of same monsters.
「Seeing the Doltos, somehow you start feeling hungry, right?」
「You’re right, it is really tasty」
While chatting idly like that, the first capturing quest of Element Master was completed.