Chapter 75 - I don’t want to read, so I cheat

When Shirayuki opened her eyes thirty minutes later, she saw Marc washing for real in the bath. She was embarrassed—but didn't show it— that she fainted. She originally thought she would have him around her little finger in no time, but it seems he was more animal than human.

Without saying something to each other, the two cleaned themselves in silence. Only the sound of water splashing could be heard.

Mard didn't say anything as he was embarrassed too after having nearly drowned her after he dropped her into the water.

When Marc finished cleaning himself, he intended to leave. He wore his clothes again and finally said something "Well, I will be going. See ya'."

Shirayuki didn't immediately reply "…How long will it take for you to finish that spell you used to shrink?"

Coming to a stop, Marc scratched his non-existent beard in contemplation. "About three weeks if I train it in both secret and moderation."

Without replying, Shirayuki just continued washing and ignored him. Taking the cue, Marc left the bathhouse by jumping over the roof like he did when he came.

Marc continued sightseeing in the village and spotted many kids training and having real fights against each other— not kids fights.

"I wonder where that Najah woman went? Oh well, let's go find Rofta and Gina. They should be at Ihwach's house." Thought Marc before deciding to go and see what his comrades are doing. But his usual problem occurred. He got lost and didn't know the direction to Ihwach's house.

"Oh boy. Am I under an illusion? That's the only explanation why I always end up here." There was no way in hell, Marc was admitting he was worse than a kid with directions, so he disillusioned himself that he was under an illusion.

"Marc! Over here. Where were you? I have been-" It was Njah who had just spent over two hours looking for Marc like a caring caretaker that just lost sight of a kid.

"Oh, Najah. Where have you been? I have been looking for you for a while now." Marc shamelessly threw the 'I have been looking for you' sentence right back in her face. Technically it was her who stalled and got lost and not him.

"You have?" Asked Najah.

"Yes." Confirmed Marc, lying through his teeth.

"But where were you? I looked at the bathhouse you mentioned before we got separated, but you weren't there."

"…No, I was there. You must have missed me. You know I'm not that tall, so you might have overlooked me." Marc used his height as an excuse and it worked as Najah nodded.

"I might have." Najah was convinced and proceeded to ask "Then where are young going now?"

"Let's go see how the others are doing at Ihwach's house."

"Okay." Said Najah and just waited for Marc to walk.

"…"

"Aren't we going now?" Asked Najah confused as Marc was just standing still without saying anything. In reality, he was trying to come up with an excuse for her to lead the way without revealing he was lost.

"… You see, I was in a ruthless fight after you got lost, and my hips hurt like hell right now. Can you carry me to Ihwach's house?" Again, technically he wasn't wrong as he was 'fighting' with Shirayuki.

Because of Najah's good and heroic-natured personality, she wasn't able to refuse Marc who was in 'need' of help. "Ah!? You are hurt? Sorry, I didn't notice. Of course, I will carry you. Get on my back."

Marc was almost sorry—almost— after seeing the genuine sorry and caring expression Najah was showing.

.

.

.

When they reached Ihwach's house, they saw Rofta getting beaten senselessly in a spar with Ihwach while Gina was reading a ton of books. None stopped to look at the image of Marc being carried by the swole Najah on her back as they were too focused on what they were doing—much to Marc's relief.

Jumping off Najah's back, Marc did the act and limped over to sit beside the reading Gina. Taking a look at one book's cover, Marc's eyes nearly popped out in shock when he looked at the title "Possible country-destroying magic". After calming down, Marc was curious which crazy author would write such a book and kind of regretted his decision as it was none other than Rofta's grandfather, Ihwach Jaeger who was the author. His image of the amicable old man changed.

Opening the book, Marc browsed the magic included in it.

1. Weather Summoning Magic - Produces rains, lightning, and tornadoes that destroy everything.

2. Gravity Magic - Might be able to pull stars down from the sky to raise countries or even the world.

3. Explosion Magic - Carefully places bombs around a country before exploding simultaneously.

4. Phoenix Bait Magic - Attracts phoenixes in a frenzy, making them destroy everything in sight.

When Marc wanted to look further, all he could find was white pages. The book was unfinished or Ihwach simply dropped it. Marc didn't know. Putting the book back on the table, Marc looked at Gina and asked "Are you looking for something specific or are you just reading?"

Hearing him, Gina didn't remove her gaze away from the book she was reading and just answered "I'm looking for a way to remove the curse on me that makes me unable to use other magic than Sand Devil Slayer Magic."

"Do you want to use other magic? Don't you like your Devil Slayer Magic?"

"That's not it. Look at this book." Said Gina while giving Marc a book.

"Surveillance Magic?" Marc was confused when he read the title of the book.

"Yes, this spell makes people able to share their vision in a specific radius between each other," Gina explained.

"And you want to learn this?"

"No. I want to combine it with my Sand Devil Slayer Magic to make a new spell. But this damn curse stops me from it. It won't allow me to do anything other than creating and controlling iron sand."

"Well, actually I think I might be able to dispel your curse with my Paw Magic in the future. It's just, I don't really know how curses work, so I don't know what to look after when repelling." Marc regretted his sentence when Gina's expression lit up and she began stacking books about curses in front of him.

When she was done stacking, Gina said "Then read these. They are very detailed and explain everything about curses."

Marc, who was the type to skip his homework and never having read a book that wasn't a manga or Light Novel in his previous life, was crying internally. Once again, Marc was trying to come up with an excuse. He didn't want to even read one of those books. Seeing his thoughtful expression, Gina already knew what he was up to and said "No excuses."

With a defeated sigh and muttering "My and my big mouth. Shit!" Marc began reading the first book and nearly fell asleep after 15 minutes if it wasn't for Gina smacking him. Another 15 minutes later, he tried to sneak away when he saw Gina absorbed in another book, but Gina was still keeping an eye on him, and used her magic to hold his feet in place.

After another defeated sigh, Marc suddenly thought of a cheat. Marc looked at his hand that was holding a book before looking at his free hand with an intriguing idea. He used his magic to make a paw appear in his hand and touched the book he was holding with it.

"Please work-please work-please work… '' Marc prayed for his success with closed eyes. A little while later everything turned quiet. Rofta and Ihwach that were sparring stopped and looked at the blue paw bubble that came out of the book Marc was holding.

Gina was shocked and got impatient when Marc was still not opening his eyes and kept mumbling about wishing for success. "Open your eyes. Look in front of you!" Gina poked Marc and said.

Looking at the dark-blue bubble in front of him after having opened his eyes with glee, Marc put the book on the table and grabbed the bubble to inspect it. "It worked!?"

"What worked?" asked Gina. Ihwach approached and looked at the book Marc just put on the table and where the blue bubble came out of it.

"It's blank!!" Ihwach was greatly surprised when he saw his book that was filled with pages about different curses- was now completely blank. He moved his attention to Marc that was just about to absorb the bubble into his head without answering Gina's question.

After having absorbed it, Marc looked at Gina and began lecturing "Curses are accordingly run off of Curse Power, which in and of itself is the manifestation of powerful, negative human emotions. Every curse has a condition and the degree of harmfulness is very broad as some curses can simply cause you to slip many times to cause your origin release to explode. Much to everyone's belief, high-ranking demons— also called devils— hate to use curses and even things it's a disgrace to their Devil Slayer Magic. That's why low ranking demons that aren't able to use magic like humans, have created the use of curses."

"…"

"…"

"…"

Gina, Rofta, and even Ihwach didn't know what to say after hearing Marc. They all just thought the same thing "Did he just absorb the knowledge in the book?"

***

(A/N: What can I say? I kinda wish I had the same ability to absorb books. The thing about Devils being high-ranking Demons is just something I made up.)

(Words: 1611)