Cravat told him to wait a moment, then placed his hand on the living armor and channeled his magical power.
Black energy rose around him and penetrated Verom's armor, drawing various magic circles on the surface of the armor.
Several minutes passed.
The trembling armor suddenly stopped, then fell to the ground with a thud.
Verom looked at the scattered armor on the floor with a dumbfounded expression.
"Did it really work?"
His trembling voice indirectly revealed how surprised he was.
Verom looked down at his intact hands.
Hands with small scars here and there, and calluses.
They were definitely his hands.For more than ten years, he had only seen pitch-black armor. He had almost forgotten what his hands looked like, what his skin color was, and what small scars he had.
Perhaps that's why.
Even as he looked down at his palms, it didn't feel real.
Verom clenched and unclenched his fist.
The sensation of clenching and unclenching felt like a dream too real, as if he might open his eyes at any moment and find himself trapped in the black armor again.
"Damn it. I'm so fucking happy."
Tears rolled down Verom's cheeks.
Even the sensation of tears felt unfamiliar after so long.
The living armor consumed all waste products from its host's body.
No matter how sad he felt, tears would never flow down because the living armor took everything away, even tears.
A life where he couldn't properly express emotions that humans should rightfully have.
Could that even be called living?
But now, Verom felt alive.
He was human.
He was not a puppet controlled by a cursed armor.
Verom wiped the tears with his hand.
For him, who had only felt the pain of attacks on his armor, the touch of tears on his skin was very unfamiliar.
But Verom's joy didn't last long.
It was because Rudger stood before him, emitting a cold murderous aura.
"John Doe... no, you're not John Doe. Who are you?"
"That's not what's important right now."
Rudger lifted Verom's chin with the blade of his sword stick.
A situation where with just a little more force, the sharp blade could slice his carotid artery.
Verom gulped.
"Speak."
Rudger, who had deactivated his shadow, looked down at Verom.
"What are you curious about?"
"Information about Nikolai. What he's trying to do here. What his methods are. Tell me everything you know in detail. It would be best not to think about lying."
Verom swallowed and lowered his eyes.
He had no choice.
Verom told him everything he knew in as much detail as possible.
Why he was on this island, and what he was trying to do with Nikolai.
"You don't have much detailed information."
"...I was just the action leader after all."
What Verom wanted was liberation from the living armor.
He accepted Nikolai's deal for that purpose and fought against dark mages in the underworld of Isla Machina in his name.
He didn't know that much because he hadn't tried to hear the details.
"Even if I had asked out of curiosity, that devious bastard Nikolai wouldn't have told me his true intentions."
Verom's words were not an excuse.
Even Rudger, who didn't know much about Nikolai, could fully imagine that he had such a thorough personality.
"I see."
At Rudger's cold, indifferent voice, Verom squeezed his eyes shut but there was no pain.
Wondering what was happening, Verom slightly opened his eyes.
What he saw was Rudger's back as he withdrew his sword stick and turned away.
"You're not going to kill me?"
"There's no need."
"For whatever reason, I tried to kill you guys. You should torture me at the very least, yet you're letting me live?"
"I should be asking you. With no armor or anything, what threat do you pose that I should bother getting blood on my hands?"
"That's..."
It was sophistry. But with Rudger holding the power of life and death, it wasn't appropriate for him to argue.
When Verom closed his mouth, Rudger snorted.
Verom looked at Rudger's retreating back with trembling eyes and opened his mouth.
"Thank you."
With eyes reddened from tears, Verom expressed his gratitude to Cravat and Rudger.
Rudger silently left, and Verom also bowed his head to Cravat.
"Really, thank you."
"Well, I just did what I could do."
"Regardless of the reason, the fact is that I am indebted to you."
Verom spoke formally to Cravat.
Rudger had spared his life, but in the end, it was Cravat who had broken this cursed spell.
It was a debt he couldn't repay even if he devoted his entire life.
"Well, I only heard about living armor from ancient books, so I was curious. So what will you do now?"
"Pardon? What will I do...?"
"It seems like without your armor, you're just a person with no power now."
"..."
Cravat was right.
Verom had risen to the position of First Order solely because of the power given by the cursed relic, the living armor.
Without the armor, Verom was just a treasure hunter entering middle age.
Yes. Before Verom became a First Order, before he was consumed by this cursed armor.
He was a treasure hunter who traveled around the world looking for valuable items.
It was a world where magic and science had developed, but there were still many mysterious places all over the continent.
Ancient ruins of unknown age and purpose.
Forests that had become otherworldly, consumed by mysterious powers.
Unexplored lands that humanity had yet to explore.
Treasure hunters saw what others couldn't see and found what others couldn't find in those places.
Verom was like that too.
He was, if anything, a mid-level treasure hunter.
But an opportunity came to him. An ancient ruin was discovered, and his team was the first to find it.
There was even a relic in the ruins.
Usually, relics crumble away with time, so this was incredibly lucky.
-We did it! We're rich now!
-Life's looking up! We made it!
-Good job, guys! Go enjoy time with your wives and kids!
How his teammates, who were like friends, hugged each other and rejoiced.
The living armor kept in a coffin-like container was rather ominous, but if they could sell it, they would have a fortune in their hands.
But an accident happened.
The moment they touched the relic to take it, the mechanism inside the ruins activated.
A careless judgment thinking everything else was broken and would be fine.
Normally, they wouldn't have done it, but they overlooked important things due to the excitement of finding a relic right in front of them.
-Damn it!
-Everyone run!
The mechanism moved, shaking the ruins.
The ceiling, which had been dropping dust, collapsed, and fleeing colleagues were crushed to death one by one.
Seeing friends and colleagues who had been laughing and talking together disappear with red bloodstains, Verom felt everything was empty.
Thinking it was all over, was it fate that the living armor entered Verom's sight at that moment?
[Come here. Quickly.]
He thought he heard such a voice during the chaos.
Verom used his last bit of strength to run not toward the exit, but toward the relic.
The living armor opened wide as if it had been waiting and swallowed Verom, consuming his body.
Immediately after, the ceiling debris crashed down, and the ruins completely collapsed.
A moment later, in the center of the collapse filled with hazy smoke and fallen debris, a red pillar shot up, and a black knight emerged through the debris, looking around.
All that could be seen was the night sky full of stars.
Everything else had disappeared.
The ruins, the luggage, the colleagues.
All that remained was the ancient relic he had unintentionally put on.
"From that day on, I've been..."
Verom's path after obtaining the relic was not smooth.
He tried to report the situation to the Treasure Hunter Guild, but instead, they branded him as the culprit and expelled him from the guild.
Not content with that, they put a bounty on his head.
The reason was simple.
They coveted the living armor that Verom was wearing.
He had promised to sell the relic, make money, and return before the child was born.
He promised to make them happy.
-But I couldn't do anything.
He couldn't imagine how difficult and lonely his wife must have been without him.
What was more painful was that he didn't have the courage to face his wife.
Verom touched his face with his hand.
-Clank.
The armored gauntlet and helm made a metallic sound as they touched.
There was no sensation on his skin.
Even when he tried to remove the helmet or armor, the living armor stuck to him like glue and wouldn't come off.
-Why?
A feeling of suffocation.
Although he survived thanks to the living armor, Verom felt no gratitude toward it.
-Why did you choose me?
Verom could realize the moment he put on the living armor.
That it wasn't him who chose it, but it who chose him.
If only it had let him die there, then he wouldn't be suffering like this.
-Aaaargh! Why!
Verom struck the ground with both hands with all his might.
-Crack.
Spider-web-like cracks formed on the ground.
He struck hard enough to break his hands, but what broke was the solid ground instead.
The armor absorbed all the shock, so he couldn't even feel the pain.
-Why! Why!
No matter how madly he cried out, it was useless. Even when he tried to shed tears, the living armor wouldn't allow even that.
This is punishment.
He was being punished now.
Punishment for abandoning his friends and surviving alone, for breaking his promise to his wife, for staining his hands with countless blood.
Despairing, frustrating, crying out.
After being exhausted like that and panting, Verom made one determination.
-I will definitely break free from this curse.
So please wait until then.
All Verom could do was wish like that and secretly leave a letter at his wife's house.
After that, Verom became a wandering black knight and joined the Black Dawn Society.
That was the path he had walked.
"It's over now. I'm going back to my hometown. I did this work to break the curse, but since it's over like this, I have no lingering attachments."
"Really? What about that armor?"
"That thing? I'm sick of that damn armor! I was trapped in it for more than 10 years!"
Still angry, Verom glared at the living armor, breathing heavily.
The living armor, wanting a host, wriggled red threads like heat haze through the gaps in the armor.
It looked like it was desperately reaching out to him, making Verom feel nauseated.
"I'm going back to my hometown to see my wife and child. And I'm going to eat delicious food and drink plenty of alcohol."
"So you're leaving that behind? It seems to need you though."
"It probably needs a host. It can't do anything alone."
"No. It's different from that."
"What's different?"
"Originally, living armor operates using the wearer's life energy. No matter how healthy and strong a person is, they would dry up like a mummy and die within a week. But you've been with that thing for more than 10 years. Do you know what that means?"
"...Are you saying it protected me?"
Cravat smiled and shrugged.
"From the situation. Even if it's different from ordinary living armor, it's the first time I've seen a host who lived in symbiosis for more than 10 years and is still fine."
"...Even so, it's a disgusting thing that kept me imprisoned. I don't even want to look at it."
"As a curse specialist, I can tell. That living armor has no intention of harming you. Rather, like a baby bird seeing a person for the first time and considering them its mother, it thinks the same way. It just didn't know because it was young."
"..."
"Actually, you knew it too, right? You just didn't want to admit it."
"..."
Verom closed his mouth at Cravat's words.
"We can't change the past. I'm sorry for the pain you've endured all this time. But... what matters is what happens from now on, right?"