Marcel, after listening to Kenny’s story about their Oni’s primogenitor and how they came to be, was fascinated. He realized that their race had so much history that he’d never even thought they did.  

He’d always thought that the things they’re best known for now had been with them since the beginning, not something someone worked hard to deliberately attach to their beings. Now he was very curious about the primogenitors and to what extent their powers were. Alas, he was never going to meet one in this world. None are still around. 

When he had some free time, he should probably check out some books or even ask Kenny about the Oni’s entire history. He’d love to hear more tales like this, he thought. The sucker for a good story was going to be bothering Kenny a lot in the future. Poor guy! 

Kenny pulled Marcel out of his daydreaming to get back to the mission at hand. He’d been stuck in there for too long. One would think his mind was leaving the world again from how quiet and cut off from everything Marcel was. 

“Ahem! With that out of the way, let’s get back to curses.” That did the trick. Marcel’s eyes gleamed with sparkly stars of excitement. The type to make overly gloomy antisocial people puke their guts out. He looked ready to believe everything Kenny told him. Nauseating!  

“Great! So, how do they work?” He asked eagerly. 

Kenny ignored the sparkly light everywhere and did his job,  

“First, you draw power from the darkness in natural power, an otherworldly source, or wherever else power carrying a lot of darkness can be located. It could even be inside yourself. Witches draw their power for curses through their primogenitor. After that, one has to channel the power into the curse element.” 

“Is that all?” Marcel was surprised. He thought I'd be harder. 

“Yes! You imbue your will into the power then you release it. That’s how it usually works. It isn’t as constrictive as how witches do it. That’s what works for them.” 

“I see!” Marcel responded. Ha, if this is all he needs to use curses, then he’s pretty sure he can do it.  

“Oh, and to use curses for a long time without side effects, you need the special Curse element. That’s also true if you want to use our race’s method of cursing.” Kenny finally remembered. Uh-oh, will this be what stops Marcel from learning curses once and for all? He doesn’t have the curse element... or does he? 

Kenny, already knowing the various powers a hero possessed, wasn’t worried about Marcel not being able to learn curses thanks to their affinity to all elements. He was just worried about what degree this affinity would help in learning his race’s method of cursing. However, when he tried to pass some curse power into Marcel’s body to call that affinity to the surface, he was surprised. 

What did he find? Well, the little guy had a distinct but unawakened curse element already inside his body. It bore a faint trace of energy he was very familiar with. It was his father’s, inherited from the first Onis. It just sat there, dormant inside Marcel. Just how did it get there? Wait, did his father also—Oh, never mind!   

I’ll tell you! It’s from the night when drunken Marcel was tricked into getting engaged. Who knows what little fun the man had on him while the boy was asleep? 

With a bit more stimulation, Kenny’s energy awakened the curse element, then they continued. 

“Sweet!” Marcel exclaimed happily. He had no idea that begging the Spirit of the World was indeed useless up until this point. Now, he changed his mind about Vitalis not abandoning him after all. The world was still on his side. He got what he needed before he begged pitifully for it. Now he feels slightly embarrassed. 

“Now channel the power, use your will to embed the curse into it and inflict it on a target of choice. That’s it!” Ha, now that Marcel was listening to usually silent Kenny talk, he really found that depending on Allan to teach in the first place was a lost cause.  

This really is like how he uses any kind of magic power, except this time, he needs another new element for it. His imagine-create now turned measure-imagine-create thanks to Sephana’s training was the right way to go. 

Imbuing one’s wishes into a formless power and hoping it works by casting it directly unto the target sounds simple enough, but adding it to another spell provides cover to the hidden curse within. It’s as simple as that. The more power one can draw from the source, the more powerful the curse becomes. Because of the Oni’s direct link to their primogenitor’s power, their curses turn out extremely powerful if the curse’s purpose is inflicting troubles on their targets. Also, they imbue them in their blades, mix them into their elements, and even use the curse as subordinates and even in daily used items. It’s like their race’s main power source.   

Kenny explained further about the possibilities for curses and Marcel easily understood them. Now all that was left was to implement what he’d learned into practice. 

Beginning, he cast a fire spell in one hand and then in the other, he prepared a special curse and then combined them and hit Kensuke with it.  

Yes, Marcel can multi-cast now. Sephana upped his training difficulty again. It’s boring, so I don’t feel like going there. Don’t blame me because it was boring to watch mo—I mean, Marcel, learn to do something that’ll seem pretty insignificant in his future. Besides, it’s only dual-casting. How insignificant and unimpressive! Allan can cast five spells at once while combining them and Silva can almost do the same with four spells now. What’s so interesting about being a dual-mage? 

Unfortunately for Marcel, Allan came back to his workshop at the wrong time; just when he threw the fire-curse composite spell at Kenny. Allan panicked, then afterward, asked Marcel why he did something so dangerous. Allan reprimanded him, telling him to give someone a heads up before he suddenly hurled a spell at them, though, not when it’s an enemy.  

Marcel said,    

“Relax~ I didn’t do anything dangerous. Just watch and you’ll see.” He patted Allan on the back, then he looked at Kensuke again.  

Huh? Nothing happened? So, strange! Did his spell not work? Why is Kenny the same as before he cast the curse? He was disappointed and so, left depressed. I guess he has to practice more on his own before he can curse people like some badass. He left quickly as Allan nagged like a mother.  

‘The dangers of curses, fire spells indoors, unexpected surprises, blah, blah, blah,’ he nagged. Marcel quickly escaped from the words of that ‘mother’ of his. 

* * *  

After he’d left, Kensuke stood there, silent as always. Suddenly, the taciturn and blank-expressioned guy actually fell to the ground and laughed wildly as he beat the floor, unable to control his laughter now that Marcel and Allan weren’t there anymore. The curse could no longer be withstood. Marcel’s curse power already differed greatly from his own. He couldn’t fight it. 

Marcel, as he was leaving, saw the spirits rush into the room he’d just left. They were in a rush. Even the ones who usually hang around him left to go see. Something wasn’t right and he was very curious as to why the spirits were gathering in the place he’d just left. He was in for a surprise.  

He went back, only to find Kensuke as he epically destroyed the floor with his strength, laughing uncontrollably.   

“Ha, it worked!” He shouted. Allan came back after hearing him shout.  

“It worked!” Marcel repeated, a smile on his face as he looked back inside the room from the front door. 

“What did?” He asked. He still hadn’t looked into the room yet. 

“The laughing curse...” he answered, “...I cursed Kensuke to laugh till he breaks.” He said as he grinned in happiness. Allan finally looked into the room. He was intrigued. There was no way! 

“Okay, now... make it stop! I... haha... I can~t...hahaha... stop laughing... Make~ haha... It~ Stop~!” Kensuke laughed, bashing the floor.  

Cracks appeared in it but they got repaired thanks to the castle’s Auto-Repair function. It didn’t take long before everything looked normal before Kenny bashed it again as he laughed uncontrollably on the floor, forcing the repairing cycle to repeat.  

Allan was dumbstruck. Was this really Taciturn Kenny laughing on the floor in front of him?  

Marcel after Kensuke had asked, laughing even if he didn’t want to, nodded and then readied another spell to return Kensuke to normal. He wasn’t sure if it was going to work though. He conjured a small ice spell in one hand and a ‘Revert’ curse command in the other and then combined them, then hit Kensuke with it. Kensuke slowly then stopped laughing after that and then said,   

“Don’t ever do that again!” He said, expression especially menacing, like he was angry, making Marcel break into a cold sweat. Kensuke’s facial expression then reverted to normal. He nodded frantically. He was very excited that both his curses had worked and so, he began thinking up new ideas for curses.  

Claude came and asked what all the noise was for and Marcel answered, “I’ve learned curses.” He said, shocking the man once again.  

Claude never actually thought that the boy was going to learn curses when he brought Kensuke to him. All he thought was going to happen was Kensuke explaining the nature of curses, then Marcel failing because he didn’t have the Curse element or the ‘darkness’ needed for invoking curses.  

He expected failure, but then he comes back to not only find that he has the curse element but has also learned about the complicated nature behind curses in just under the 3 hours since he brought Kensuke to him. Marcel was amazing! Too amazing, in fact, that now, Claude became even curious about what he was. Every day that went by, Marcel was seeming more in nature to the Demon Lord. It was scary how fast the boy he met not so long ago was growing now. He was certain that he’d been raising a cataclysmic monster. 

After getting what he wanted, Marcel left Allan’s workshop and let him work, leaving the rest behind. He’d gotten what he came for and was ecstatic to leave the place to go experiment on his own. 

He walked away, full of glee. As he was walking, he felt like skipping, so he did. He was so excited and so happy! He skipped on the way back to his room, feeling like a child again. Well, technically, he still was. It was like when he learned his first magic spell all over again. Learning curses was something he really wanted to do and now, he had the knowledge and power to do so. Who wouldn’t be excited? His future victims maybe, but that’s a story for another time.