Why Would a Holy Knight Be Afflicted with Such a Curse? - Chapter 27

‘You’re asking if Roarna’s lab is like this too? I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been there. Actually, only two kinds of people enter a taboo scholar’s laboratory: those already cursed, or those about to be cursed.’

That was what his brother had told him on the day Celesto visited Leocel’s first laboratory, when he was shocked by the mountains of books…

‘Of course, more people who are about to be cursed visit Roarna’s lab than those already cursed. If they accidentally touch something and get hit by some strange curse, she’ll take an interest in them.’

Along with that strange remark he’d added afterward.

Following that advice, Celesto never went near the taboo scholar’s laboratory. If it had been anyone else, maybe, but this was something Leocel had said.

But was that true for everyone?

Throughout the long time Celesto had known Roarna, he had never really been conscious of his friend’s attractive appearance.

It wasn’t just him either. Actually, until she entered the academy, Roarna didn’t even have a fiancé.

But this was the academy, specifically the research building where only degree-holders engrossed in their studies gathered.

Some of them might not feel particularly put off by Roarna’s peculiar major. Or at least, they might have less aversion than people outside the research building.

Thinking that, he felt strangely irritated.

‘Why?’

Celesto furrowed his brow. He couldn’t understand why he was feeling upset at this point.

His discomfort grew even more when he got off the elevator.

As Celesto stepped out of the marble cube, the people inside blatantly stared at him. They even craned their necks to watch which laboratory he was heading to, as if determined to see.

Celesto let out an annoyed sigh under his hood.

Then, he stomped his foot on the floor with a thump.

“Haah.”

One of the men gasped. It was one of the two who had been watching him since the first floor.

Was it intimidation from his overwhelming physique? Fortunately, the elevator doors slid slowly shut.

Celesto waited until the elevator had completely left the corridor.

Only after everyone was gone did he look around.

It was his first time coming to the academy research building to meet Roarna. Every time he had been here before, it was because of Leocel.

That was probably the reason. Why the floor he had just gotten off on was completely different from the places he had visited before.

Unlike the bustling first floor, the ninth-floor corridor was quiet. Whether the laboratories weren’t all occupied, doors with padlocks could be seen here and there.

But it wasn’t a peaceful place.

First of all, an unpleasant smell emanated from all directions. The acrid scent of chemicals and the stench of something rotting. It was completely different from most of the laboratories he had visited, which were covered in the smell of old paper and dust.

Celesto headed towards the inner part of the corridor. The deeper he went, the more secluded his surroundings became, and the air grew heavier.

For a Holy Knight who had reached a certain level of mastery like Celesto, with his sensitive senses, this environment was close to torture.

So, he couldn’t deny that he found it agreeable.

He actually welcomed this stifling air. The pain, at least, helped dilute the complex thoughts swirling in his head, even if only a little.

Soon, he arrived at the end of the corridor, in front of a door with a nameplate that read ‘Roarna Balseren.’

Whether to protect the corridor from whatever was inside, Roarna’s laboratory door looked much sturdier than Leocel’s had.

Celesto raised his hand. It was to knock according to the rhythm Roarna had told him.

Just then, he noticed something.

‘Ah… damn it.’

Celesto furrowed his brow.

His hand was trembling.

Celesto gripped his thigh with his other hand. It was a familiar sensation of rising tension. The kind he had been feeling since long before even entering the academy grounds.

Knock, knock.

Celesto held his breath and knocked on the door. The dull sound broke the silence of the corridor.

Roarna’s voice came from beyond the door.

“It’s open.”

Unlike him, with sweat trickling down inside his hood, her voice was utterly dry.

Celesto grabbed the doorknob and turned it. The smell he had become familiar with over the past few days rushed at him.

‘I’m really going crazy.’

He mercilessly bit down on the lips hidden beneath his hood.

The strange symptoms that had appeared since the first time he did that with Roarna had only grown more varied with each passing day. His heightened sensitivity to Roarna’s smell was one of them.