The Strongest Ten Year Old Magician - Chapter 37
The Curse of the Picture Book
“Hmph! Beating me won’t matter! You’ll never get out of here, and neither will the others! Stupid! Stupid!”
Bear snarled hatefully under the giant snowball.
Alicia let out a sigh.
“…You’re in trouble. I don’t think he’s learned his lesson at all.”
“Why don’t you just make Bear disappear?”
“No. If the Bear is the only key to the outside world, we might really be stuck in there and never get out.”
“Well, that’s… that’s… that’s not very nice…”
Jeanette shuddered, clutching her arms.
“You’re supposed to take the cursed item to a professional priest to have it analyzed and purified over a long period of time. But if we don’t go outside, we can’t even see the Priest…”
“Oh, um, that…what is that…?”
Ferris pointed to the tail that was wagging jerkily on Bear’s butt.
It was not a normal Bear’s round tail, but was long, black, and lanky. The tip was wriggling like an earthworm.
“A tail…right?”
“Yes, yes, it is. I don’t know, it just feels really bad…”
“Ferris didn’t like worms, did he?”
“I’m almost fine with them now! But it’s not that… don’t you feel something strange in the air…? It’s like there’s a black wave spreading out from around that tail…”
Ferris feels sick just looking at the tail.
“I… don’t feel anything in particular.”
“Me neither…”
Alicia and Jeanette looked at each other.
“Anyway, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I feel like if I take it out, something will change…”
“Screech!!!”
Bear shook his huge body.
“Jumpy…?”
Jeanette raises her eyebrows in suspicion.
“No, it’s nothing! I’m not freaked out!”
“Are you sure… Ferris has hit the nail on the head?”
“No, no, no, no, I’m not the one you’re referring to! I’m the number one star in the world! If any living creature touched that tail, it would die in an instant! It’s got just as much magical power as a magic stone! Don’t touch it, okay? Don’t touch it? If you touch it, you’ll die!
Ferris stepped closer to Bear’s desperately insisting buttocks.
“Ei!”
He clutched his tail as casually as if he were picking a flower.
He tilted his head, staring.
“Umm…it’s nothing.”
“Wait! Why? Why, why, why, why! I’m not lying! You’re really dying! I touched it myself and I collapsed for a month!”
“Are you sure you’re okay, Ferris?”
Both Bear and Jeanette are confused.
Alicia smiles.
“Magic doesn’t work. Ferris’ magic resistance is infinite.”
“Yes! That’s new to me!?”
Jeanette rolls her eyes.
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to know too much. But Jeanette is a friend of Ferris and me, so I thought it would be okay to tell you. I trust you.”
Jeanette’s face flushed red. She scratched her cheeks and said shyly.
“Well, well? I’m glad you trust me, though, aren’t I? I’m a very tight-lipped person! I have no one else to talk to!”
It was a rather pathetic reason.
“I’m going to have to pull your tail off!”
Ferris said with an angelic smile.
“No, no! That’s my tail!”
“Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
He pulls with all his might, but his tail is stuck.
“I’ll help you.”
Alicia pulls on Ferris, but the tail still won’t come off.
“It’s not fair that you’re squeezing Ferris! I’ll help you!”
Jeanette pulls Alicia.
The three girls join forces and try to pull the tail out.
Bear is flailing about, desperate.
“Ouch! It’s coming off! I’m out! Pull out, pull out, pull out! No, no, no! It’s really coming off!
Snap!
With a booming sound, the tails pulled out, and Ferris and the others fell on their butts, folding on top of each other.
“Whew, we’re out…!”
Ferris exhales over Alicia’s body.
“Hey! You’re heavy! Please get out of my way!”
“Oh, I’m not heavy. I’m holding back my snacks.”
“I don’t care, just get out of my way!”
Jeanette screams as Alicia climbs on top of her.
The three girls get up, brushing off the dust.
Then.
The giant Bear that should have been crushed by the snowball was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there was a cute Bear Stuffed Toy, the size of which even a girl could easily hold.
He was wiping his cheeks with his paws and spilling tears.
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I, I, I missed you…I missed Leticia because she never came back. It was hard that she left me. So, I wanted to get together and have some fun…”
“This is…”
Jeanette’s eyes widened.
“It looks like the curse…has been lifted.”
Alicia bent over Bear’s stuffed animal.
She placed the palm of her hand on his head and spoke softly.
“I’m sorry Bear-san, I don’t think Leticia abandoned you. It’s just…she just couldn’t come back to you.”
Alicia recalls.
When she was a little girl, when her mother suddenly disappeared. At the time, I didn’t understand why. I thought my mother didn’t like me.
I thought she had gone to heaven without me.
But that was not the case; Leticia was a mother who loved her daughter with all her heart. She was not the kind of cold person who would abandon her daughter or her favorite picture book.
“What are you talking about, Leticia? It’s like it was something else…”
Bear’s Stuffed Toy is perplexed.
I’m not Leticia, I’m Leticia’s daughter, Alicia.
“I’m Alicia, daughter of Leticia.” “You’re…? Leticia was never a little girl…she came to read me when I was an adult…how could I have forgotten that? How could I have forgotten that?
“It must be the effect of the curse. Leticia, my mother, passed away a long time ago. That’s why I couldn’t come to see you…I’m so, so sorry.”
Alicia’s expression disappears, and the Bear shakes his head.
“You don’t have to apologize! It’s my…it’s my fault that I went crazy! I was so lonely that I just let him get to me!”
“He…?”
Ferris blinked.
“…Yeah. A woman wrapped in a pitch-black shadow said, “I’ll help you so that you won’t be alone. She said she would help me so that I wouldn’t be alone. I realized that I had become a cursed item…”
“I wonder who she is…”
Jeanette murmured.
“I don’t know. I don’t know, but he was very scary. He had a tremendous magical power. I just don’t want to get close to him. I… got close to him.”
Bear nodded.
“I feel really bad about what I did. But it’s all over now. I’m no longer a cursed item, and I have no power. I can’t keep them all. I’m all alone again…”
Tears well up in Buttons’ eyes.
“I’m not alone.”
“What…?”
Alicia’s words made Bear pause.
“I’ll take you as my responsibility. You are your mother’s memento, after all. I’ll make sure I take you back to school with me, so you won’t be alone.”
“Alicia! The girl asked. You’re going to leave the picture book that was a cursed item in your room?”
“I’m fine. Normally, I would be scared, but I have Ferris with me. You know?”
“Yes, yes! If the Bear-san in the picture book tries to do something bad, I’ll do my best to stop him!”
Ferris made a clenched fist and said enthusiastically.
“Oh, you’re so sweet…it’s like a dream…that you would take me like this…”
“It’s not a dream. Let’s all go home together, okay?”
Alicia gently hugged Bear’s Stuffed Toy.
“Thank you… I’m leaving… I’m going home… with the precious girl Leticia left behind…”
Bear smiles.
His smile is almost the same as the adorable smile on the cover of the picture book.
The only difference is that his cheeks are wet with tears.
“Wow…she’s kind of sparkling…!”
Ferris looked around and let out an exclamation.
The castle, the walls, and the ground scattered as shards of seven shining colors.
The chains and iron balls that had restrained the people disappear, and those who had been turned into crystal dolls return to their original forms, rushing to Ferris’ side.
“Thanks, little sorceress!” “I can finally go home!” “My son is looking forward to seeing his souvenirs!” “Oh, my wife will be so mad at me, wondering what I’ve been doing all this time! I will have a hard time making excuses, ha ha ha!”” “”See ya!”” “You really saved my life! You saved my life!”
The captives cheered and rushed out of the castle, leaving the storybook world behind them.
Soon, Ferris, Alicia, and Jeanette were also enveloped in the seven-colored light.
“…See you later, Leticia’s daughter. And take care of me, too, now that I’m a free picture book.”
Bear’s Stuffed Toy smiled serenely and waved his paw.
The next thing I knew, Ferris, Alicia and Jeanette were lying in the attic.
A picture book with a cute little Bear on it was lying in front of them.
“You’re back…aren’t you?”
“Yes. It’s good to be back. I was able to save everyone. And… you have your mother’s precious memento.”
Alicia cradles the picture book in her arms and puts her feet up on the stairs leading down from the attic.
“Let’s go back to your room. I don’t want to stay here forever.”
Jeanette turns to leave as well.
“I agree. We’re hungry, and it’s time for a snack.”
“Yay! Snack time!”
Ferris was overjoyed and went to chase after Alicia and the others.
“!!?”
Behind him, he felt a strange presence.
“What’s wrong, Ferris?”
Jeanette and Alicia were looking up from the bottom of the stairs.
“No, no! I have some business to attend to, so please go ahead of me!”
Ferris said, and went back to the back of the attic.
Near the window, between the bookshelves, there is something.
I looked at it and wondered if it might be the evil that Bear had mentioned earlier.
Gradually, I could see something clearly.
It was a beautiful woman with a very kind face.
There was not a trace of miasma, and she radiated a divine aura that was the opposite of an evil presence.
“Oh my…you can see me.”
The woman said, surprised.
“Yes, yes… have we met somewhere…? You look like someone else…”
Ferris tilts his head at the déjà vu look.
The woman smiles quietly.
“Hmmm, yes. You look so much alike.”
“Yes, we do look alike!”
“Thank you, Ferris, for saving Alicia. Thank you, Ferris, for helping me with Alicia and for saving my picture book. You saved two of my most precious things today.”
“Fuee… are you an acquaintance of Alicia-san?”
“Yes, I know Alicia better than anyone.”
“Is that so…?”
Ferris had no idea what was going on. The atmosphere made it seem as if she was a relative of Alicia’s, but it was unclear why no one had seen her earlier.
The woman pulls a face at Ferris and whispers.
“Please continue to take care of…Alicia. She may be all grown up…but she is really a child. She needs your strength and your wonderful heart.”
“Yes! I don’t know what I can do, but I will always be there for Alicia-san!”
“Thank you. I will always watch over all of you.”
With that, the woman disappeared.
“Fuee! Huh! Where did she go? I don’t know you!?”
Ferris looked around in surprise.
From the bottom of the stairs, Alicia peeked out, looking exactly like the woman from earlier.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know you, take care of Alicia-san. She just disappeared! She was nowhere to be found! She was so beautiful!”
“What…? Who is she…?”
“Ughhhhhh, I wish Alicia-san could have met her!”
Ferris looked at the attic with teary eyes.
But then that woman told me again.
Ferris renewed his belief that he would always stay by Alicia’s side.
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TL Note: I’ll be stopping translations of this title for some time, since I can’t put the time into continuing this and lose Focus on my main works that I actually refine. I simply wished to continue this series because I had some time to spare, and I like the series. Sorry, if the quality is not up to par since this is just a personal project.
If someone else wishes to continue this series, they are free to have at it, refine to and put it out there.
I will instead focus on titles that I really work hard to refine and titles that I am getting support with.
Thank you for reading my translations for this series so far.
Till next time.