Cursed Villainess' Obsession-Chapter 67

My face had definitely been puffy due to fat.

But now, all that fat had disappeared, leaving my cheeks slim and my previously vague features distinctly defined.

‘I didn’t realize my nose was this high.’

As I continued to gaze at my reflection in the mirror, filled with astonishment,

Suddenly, the reactions of people when I used the calorie burn skill and returned from the [Bottom] came to mind.

Especially Emily and Mary’s reactions.

In contrast, Lafne had been crying and making a fuss about losing weight.

But those two seemed to have trouble meeting my gaze, which I could now understand given the state of my face.

Honestly, even I felt strange meeting my own eyes in the mirror.

‘…Let’s just finish getting ready.’

Today was the day I would finally rest for the day and then challenge the Tower of Tarros.

With that in mind, I washed up and changed my clothes.

‘What will happen when I return to the academy…?’

Even while getting dressed, my mind wouldn’t settle.

Thoughts of what would happen after returning to the academy kept popping up.

The chubby Ken, who had been missing for a while, would return in an astonishing new form.

I worried that if my face had changed so much, I might not be able to enter.

。

。

。

After finishing my preparations, I headed down to the restaurant on the first floor of the lodging, and I found Mary sitting alone at our usual table, looking blankly out the window and shaking her feet.

She seemed to have gotten ready first and was the earliest to come out.

As I descended the stairs, the creaking sound of the wooden planks made Mary turn to look at me.

“……Ah. …Ugh.”

Upon seeing me, her eyes widened in surprise before she quickly lowered her gaze, her cheeks flushing red.

She fidgeted with her bangs.

“G-Good morning, Ken.”

She then looked up again and waved her hand at me.

“Yes, did you sleep well?”

“…I slept a little late because I heard Lafne sobbing, but it’s okay.”

“…Haha, I’ll try to be more cautious.”

She’s still crying, huh.

Lafne often cried after I lost weight.

Perhaps it was due to the surprise and disappointment of my changed appearance.

‘Let’s eat a lot again! Let’s quickly go back to the way it was!’

I recalled her clutching my hand while sobbing.

But sadly, I had no intention of gaining back the weight I had just lost.

Of course, if the people around me preferred my heavier self, I might consider maintaining that appearance.

The problem was my stats.

The slimmed-down Ken’s stats were comparable to Siegfreed, or perhaps even to Lafne.

Even if I removed Lafne’s prophecy, having strong power in this dangerous place was incredibly important.

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

“No, I was waiting for Ken to come out so we could eat together.”

“…Not with the party?”

“Ah, ah! It’s, it’s with the party! …I misspoke.”

At my seemingly casual question, Mary flustered and flushed.

She quickly averted her gaze.

‘…Something is definitely different.’

Even before I lost weight, Mary would often blush, but she had never avoided my gaze like this.

But now I understood.

The issue wasn’t with Mary; it was with me.

It was my changed face.

Honestly, I found it somewhat troublesome.

Mary wasn’t the only one; Emily had a similar reaction.

Of course, in Emily's case, she often babbled and laughed instead of avoiding my gaze.

Then, when she looked somewhere else, she would stare directly at my face.

What felt the most awkward wasn’t just the change in my close friends but also the reactions of the general public around me.

“…Wow, look at that.”

“Is he an adventurer?”

“…With a face like that? …Nah, he must be a noble here to commission something.”

I heard whispers from nearby.

Since it was still early morning, there were only a few people in the otherwise quiet restaurant on the first floor.

Those present were mostly merchants or adventurers with early morning business.

Among them, two women who appeared to be adventurers were staring at me intently.

As I turned my head to where I felt their gaze, I met their eyes, causing them to jump in surprise.

One blushed and averted her gaze while the other shyly smiled and waved.

I nodded slightly and returned my gaze to Mary.

To be honest,

I felt incredibly pressured.

Not just the women; even the men stared at me for a long time.

In a world where good-looking people were quite common,

It was odd that they would stop to stare at my face like this.

“Hey, Ken….”

“Yes?”

“What happened in the trap?”

Mary, who had been fidgeting and hesitating, suddenly asked.

It seemed she was trying to break the awkward atmosphere by asking something she had been curious about.

“I mean, it was a week, right? What kind of things happened that made you lose this much weight…?”

As Mary spoke, her expression grew darker.

“What kind of hardship did you go through…. Ugh.”

Then, tears welled up in her eyes.

“No, no! It wasn’t that hard!”

“I’m sorry. …If only I had been a bit stronger, you would have taken me with you, Ken.”

She spoke, as if blaming herself with a quivering voice.

But contrary to her thoughts, that wasn’t the case at all.

The reason I left my party behind wasn’t because they were weak.

The biggest issue was the year-long time frame.

While I had told Siegfreed and Adrian, they didn’t know I had spent a year in the trap.

I didn’t want to make them endure a year in such a hell just for my purposes.

“It wasn’t because of hardship.”

“Then what about this appearance…?”

“This is because…”

How should I explain it?

Saying something like, ‘I actually went on a year-long diet!’ would only make Mary cry even more.

Then a sudden thought struck me.

“W-Well, actually, I have a skill that makes dieting really effective if I meet certain conditions!”

“…A skill?”

“Yes! You’ve seen me lose weight before, right?”

Mary nodded slowly.

She would remember, too, the time I briefly lost weight after resurrecting from the curse of the previous Reaper.

I decided to murmur that it was one of the effects of calorie burn.

“…Ken, you’re so kind.”

However, even with the plausible explanation I made up, Mary smiled faintly, as if she didn’t quite believe it.

It was a smile that didn’t express joy, but rather one of incredulity.

Then she gently took my hand.

“…Just looking at this hand makes me understand how much you’ve struggled.”

“M-Mary….”

She carefully brought the hand she held with both of hers to her face.

Then she pressed it against her tear-streaked cheek.

I could feel the softness, warmth, and tenderness of her skin.

Mary lingered like that for a moment, seeming to sense the texture of my hand.

Gently, she caressed the roughened skin that had endured a year in the trap.

As if comforting me with her actions, I couldn’t help but smile softly as I stroked Mary’s hair with my other hand.

Startled for a moment, Mary now looked at me with a gentle smile.

。

。

。

“Ken, be careful. You absolutely must not leave my side!”

“Is there anywhere that hurts? If you get hurt, please tell me!”

“Don’t worry about the back. I’ll protect you no matter what.”

“Hey, …I’m strong now, you know?”

Once the preparations for the entire party were complete, we re-entered the tower.

The issue was that after I had fallen into the trap once, their overprotectiveness had become excessive.

Lafne clung tightly to my arm, growling and scanning the surroundings, while Emily remained on alert on the opposite side.

And behind us, Mary followed, radiating a chill.

We moved to the tenth floor in this state, a stark contrast to how we had initially positioned ourselves when we entered the tower.

Instead, Siegfreed took the lead, and Adrian remained at the back, both keeping watch.

‘…I suppose I did frighten them.’

I recalled how I had used petrification to prevent them from joining me in the trap.

While it had been a year for me, it had only been a week for them.

It wasn’t odd for them to overprotect me after I had suddenly fallen into a trap and barely made it back alive.

‘But I’m really strong now.’

If I measured my adventurer rank again, I might come out as an S-rank.

As we encountered monsters, I led the charge, taking them down as before.

I defeated a significant number of monsters, enough to rival Lafne.

But despite that, they remained anxious.

And in response to my thoughts, Emily admonished me.

“You might do something dangerous on your own again, so just hold on!”

That was her response to my saying I didn’t need so much protection.

I suppose it was karma…

In that state, feeling both very sorry and a sense of reassurance, we arrived at the tenth floor.

“…Let’s see.”

I unfolded the map of the tenth floor to check our location.

Fortunately, the path to our goal on this floor wasn’t too difficult.

Considering my improved stats, there were no monsters on this floor that could pose a threat to our party.

So we arrived at the door to our destination without any incidents.

“Something’s covered in vines.”

Lafne murmured as she looked up at the tall walls of the location we reached.

The wall, obscured by vines and moss, made it hard to believe it was a door at first glance.

But there was indeed a gap in the center of the wall, with a hole for something to be inserted.

This was the only shortcut in the tower discovered by a user who escaped after finding the key in [The Bottom of Tarros].

I asked Adrian to burn away all the vines on the wall.

━ Fwoosh.

As the smoke billowed, the stone door slowly revealed itself.

It appeared almost 4 meters tall, impressively high and large.

I inserted the key I had barely managed to acquire into the groove at the center of the door.

━ Crrruuuuk.

As the key fit perfectly, the massive stone door opened slowly, groaning as it moved.

“…How did you find something like this?”

At Emily’s surprised question as she gazed at the scene, I awkwardly smiled and averted my eyes.

“Well, …I have a few sources of information.”

I brushed it off vaguely, but she didn’t press for more details.

After all, it didn’t really matter where I found it.

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

“Shall we go in?”

“If we go in here, will we immediately reach the 100th floor?”

As the magical vortex appeared when the door opened, Adrian asked me as I turned my head.

I nodded in agreement and added for the party.

“We’re going to defeat the boss of this tower now.”

I confirmed the tense expressions of my party members one by one and spoke with a serious face.

“If anything dangerous happens, I’ll signal immediately. So don’t hesitate to run away.”

From now on, we had to take down what the tower was built for.

The ancient dragon Tarros, a legendary creature.

I had previously reached the ancient dragon Tarros through this shortcut in [Epiris Academy].

However, I had never actually fought against it.

The reason was that when Emily discovered Tarros, she had immediately fled.

‘…I absolutely can’t defeat that.’

That sentiment displayed in my thoughts prevented Emily from approaching Tarros again.

That was a system mechanism that made this tower impossible to conquer.

To conquer the tower, one had to defeat the ancient dragon, but the Emily in the game had completely avoided fighting.

To be honest, I didn’t think I could win if we did fight.

But now, in reality, I could.

The problem was that I had never fought it before, and I didn’t know its battle patterns at all.

Nevertheless, I turned around and walked toward the portal of the shortcut.

Even if the opponent was a legendary ancient dragon, there had to be a way to defeat it.