I Can Copy Curses

'She has changed that much?' Orion felt a little sad. He remembered her as the most cheerful person in his life. When everyone bullied him, she was the only one who fought back for him. She had cheered for him too many times and always told him to remain optimistic, saying good days would come soon.

'Big Sister Emily, good days have come but you are gone.' He thought silently.

"It looks like she is going to finish it." Erick's voice brought Orion back to reality.

Looking down, he saw that Elyn was preparing to use a sword move.

"Die!"

Uttering a single word, she swung her sword and the centipede was cut in two halves. It was dead in only one move.

'Too powerful!' Orion was shocked by her strength. 'I guess this is the result of training with Sword Sage.'

He was just a little bit jealous of her.

"Let's go down." Erick shouted at everyone.

They all moved down towards the forest when they noticed that the centipede's corpse had disappeared into grey particles.

A moment later, everyone landed in the strange grey forest. It looked like any other forest but it was grey. Everything appeared black and white in there, as if there were no concept of colour in this world.

Orion too landed and let go of the men he carried here. Some thanked him and some just didn't say anything and just stood there.

"Everyone, listen to me." Erick shouted but in a very low voice. He didn't want to alert any more monsters to their arrival.

"Stay close to each other and don't go wandering alone here. Understood?" He ordered, looking at everyone.

They nodded in understanding.

Astral then walked up to a tree and touched it with his hands.

"These are indeed trees, just like in our world," he said, rubbing hands. "I think we are in a dungeon."

"Dungeon?" Erick shook his head, saying, "When I came to planet Roele and saw the smoke and the ruined city, I thought it was a dungeon break but when I checked the mana radiation stone, it didn't have any reactions."

"What? Mana radiation stone didn't have any reaction?" Astral asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Erick nodded solemnly. "You know what that means, right?"

"This planet, Roele, either didn't have any dungeons or all of them were cleared." Astral said with a frown. He couldn't understand; if they weren't inside a dungeon, then where were they?

"You guys are right. This planet doesn't have any dungeons, and all of it was clear beforehand." Orion said to them this time. When taking the mission of the assessment, he was also given all the details of the planet Roele and it was mentioned that all the dungeons on the planet were cleared.

There was another reason he believed it wasn't a dungeon. He had tried to move into his dimension just a moment ago but failed to do so and that didn't happen to him last time when he was in that unforgetful dungeon. So he believed that either this place was somewhere on the planet Roele or that it was some form of restricted space.

With Orion's words, they knew the dungeon was out of the question, but that still begged another question: where were they?

"Astral, can you go and scout the area around here?" Erick asked Astral.

Astral nodded and went away to scout.

Erick then turned his attention to the people here.

"Everyone, listen to me!" he shouted solemnly. "Apprehend every member of the Valen family."

He thought that if anyone could know what was happening here and where they were, then that could only be the Valen family.

As soon as he made the announcement of capturing the Valen Family members, they started running in all directions.

"It isn't our fault."

"Don't come after me. I didn't know anything."

"Only the higher-ups of the family know what happened here. We are innocent here."

"Please let us go!"

They shouted as they ran but sadly, their numbers were pitifully few and they were soon caught by the others.

Erick lined them up and looked each one dead in the eyes.

"Your family is already doomed. So, tell us everything you know and we might let you go; otherwise, only eternal rest awaits you."

He threatened them but didn't forget to give them hope—hope of getting away with everything.

"We didn't know anything; believe us."

"We are innocent."

"It was Evans who brought us here, saying there would be rewards if we came."

"Let us go. We didn't do anything."

They all shouted but nobody said anything about this place or the cursed tree.

Seeing that, Erick's face became dark. "I guess I will have to use some force then."

He smiled cruelly and took out a knife from his storage ring.

"Cough. I think I know who would know some answers." Orion said and smiled wryly, seeing Erick take out a knife. He wondered if he was going to torture them with that if he hadn't stopped him here.

"Who?" Erick asked.

"That girl," Orion said, pointing at the girl he saw with Evans when they arrived near the cursed tree.

"She was with Evans when I arrived at the barren land and from the looks of it, Evans and that girl were the leaders of this group of the Valen Family." He further said:.

"You, come here." Erick ordered the person Orion pointed to.

The girl hesitated but ultimately listened to Erick and came in front of him.

"What's your name?" Erick asked.

"Mika." She replied quietly.

"Mika? Where have I heard that name before? Ah, I remember you are the youngest daughter of the Magi King of Aurora Haven. I came to your family a year ago when I met you there." Erick said it with a smile as he remembered her.

"Now, tell me, what is going on here? A lie and your head will roll down." He threatened her as he held the knife in front of her.

"I don't know." Mika stepped back, stuttering.

"You know very well and what's with this face? Where did the 'you' go when you came to mock me?" Orion said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Tell me everything and I may spare you or else." Erick once again threatened at this time.

"I really don't know. It was all Evans's plan. I know just as much as you do. He never told me about this world or anything related to it." Mika said, tears flooding her eyes.

Erick and Orion both frowned as they heard her. She seemed to not know anything and it didn't look like she was lying either.

"Are you lying?" Orion asked, and his eyes became emotionless as he looked at her.

"No-no. I am not. Please don't kill me." She started trembling as she begged them not to kill him.

"Hey, that's enough!" Princess Luma interfered at that moment and took Mika away.

"So?" Erick turned to Orion.

Orion shook his head. "She wasn't lying."

Erick nodded with a grim expression. "That means we are stuck in a foreign land and we don't know anything about it."

Orion nodded and was about to say something when he noticed someone among the group of Valen Family members.

"Brother Kyle, you are here too." He smiled upon seeing him, though the smile appeared rather strange.