Grabbing another cursed item shaped like a duster, I jump down the hole and hit each floor with the duster, forcing it to revert to its previous form, as I pass through until I land on the mass of my bullies at the bottom.
Liina reforms, and I stare at all of them covered in slimy, goopy floor, and all the other items I threw at them with their butts tooted up to the sky as they try to remove their hands from their pants.
"DRAGOSTE!" Lich shouts
"What is it? Speak up, I can't hear you."
"Do you think you'll get away with this? I will make you pay!"
Pulling out a page that looks like it's composed of water, I say, "Do you know what this looks like? Answer or your life may be ruined."
Their eyes full of rage, calm as they realise what I am holding, causing Lich to say, "That can't b-."
"But it is. It's a copy of the projector they use in the three Grand Churches. Right across the school, I have them set right this very moment, where your current wonderful state shall be broadcast across the entire school."
"You wouldn't. You're a coward."
Liina, crouching beside him, says, "If only he were. Dragoste over there is tired of your bullying and wants to give you a taste."
Walking forward, I say, "You've made school hard for me, far more than anyone else has. The only place where I am rewarded for my learning was taken from me, it became hell for me." Glaring at him, I say, "And I am going to make sure it is hell for you as well."
"No, no, please don't do this. I promise I will never bully you again, I promise I will return everything I have ever taken from you."
"Reaaaaaaaally?"
He nods his head rapidly, and I say, "Deal."
Lich lets out a sigh of relief, and reaching into my bag, I add, "Now it's time for the fun to start."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Did you think this was going to end here? You could easily walk back your words, that's why I am going to use this special container here, which can record things projected by my trusty cursed item here."
Walking over to my bag, Liina pulls out a set of cursed drums far bigger in mass than that of the apparent bag. Then places them all across the boys' butts as she rolls up her sleeves.
Smiling, she says, "Let's get this party started."
Holding up the cursed items to record, I say, "3, 2, 1-."
Lich with sweat moving down his face says, "NOOOOO!"
"GO!"
Liina pulls back her hand and smacks it down right into the drums.
-Break-
Φ Looking at the boys with tears running down their faces, Dragoste says, "Get me the book by the end of the day in prime condition, or I will spread this using Balaurs body itself. Do not underestimate the reach of the Frumos."
Liina absorbs the slime binding the boys' bodies, and rising up from the ground with tears running down their faces, they say, "Okay."
Turning to them, Liina shouts, "NOW SCRAM!"
The boys all run away, and as they leave his sight, Dragoste falls to his knees and says, "I did it. I managed to get through the whole thing without collapsing."
Liina tackles Dragoste to the ground and runs her cheek against his face, saying, "YOU WERE AMAZING! The way you used all those cursed items and planned out everything was completely masterful."
Turning red in embarrassment, he turns his head and says, "No, you were amazing. If it wasn't for your plan to bribe all of the teachers to go out to a cafe for lunch, we wouldn't have been able to do this."
Smiling, she says, "Let's just say we both did a good job." She sits up and separates for me right before sticking up her fist, and says, "Good job."
Hitting his fist against her, Dragoste says, "Good job."
I can feel it, Dragoste, no more than that, I know it, that this is the core of what you have become. She was the trigger that lit the fire of the man with whom I clash with right now.
-Age 12-
She granted you connections with those you once lost.
Location: Nightmare Nation, Blestemate; Frumos Castle Blesteosteo; Library
Sitting in front of a book, Dragoste say, "Hey Liina, I found something co-."
Turning his head, he sees Liina with his father and mother, as she says, "Hi, I am Liina the slime, and Dragoste is one of my bestest friends."
Rushing over to her, he drop kicks his Father in the face, and holding up the book to block his parents, he says, "Liina, I told you to avoid them."
Staring daggers into his eyes, she says, "Hey Dragoste, it's rude to enter someone's house and eat their food without talking with them. My parents didn't raise me like that."
Trying to push the book out of the way, Draga says, "What a kind-mannered girl she is, I think I love her."
Forcing the book up, Dragoste says, "You don't get to love her."
Grabbing the book and pulling it down, Captivant says, "Then does that mean the only acceptable love for her is your own? What a little player."
Kicking him in the face as he turns red, Dragoste says, "STOP BEING WEIRD!"
Smiling as she places her head on Dragoste's shoulder, Liina says, "I will always love Dragoste; he has made my experience in the big city super cool."
"EH, EH, EHHHHH!" Dragoste says unable to string together words.
Tears burst out of both of his parents' eyes as they force themselves closer, with Dragoste fighting them back.
-Age: 15-
She helped him spread his voice far further than he ever would've been able to do alone.
Location: Nightmare Nation, Blestemate; Căderea-Dracului; St. Alucard Community College
With Dragoste's eyes covered in a blindfold, Liina pushes him from behind, causing him to say, "Where are you taking me?"
"To your surprise. You love them, don't you?"
"Your last surprise almost gave me a heart attack. I never thought you'd be able to get the results to get into our school."
"Maman helped me study."
"Please don't go calling my mother yours, she will get the wrong idea."
"Maman says I can come over whenever I want, and eat whatever I want, and I get to have a sleepover in his bed as she gives me cheek kisses, that's what my own Mama does."
Mumbling, Dragoste says, "She is my mother."
A click enters Dragoste's ears, causing him to say, "What was that?"
"Just a recording, for Maman."
"DON'T SHOW HER THAT!"
"TOO LATE!" Liina laughs right before she pushes Dragoste forward, and says, "We're here, you can lay your eyes upon my creation."
Taking off the blindfold, Dragoste looks forward, where he sees Avram and a boy with black and red hair standing under a banner in a small room that says, "Welcome to the Curse Item Development Club, or CIDC for short."
"What is going on? Avram, Xevi, why are both of you here? Don't you boys have detention?"
With a nasty look in his eyes, Avram says, "Liina got us out of that retard's class."
Xevi then says with a look of superiority, "As if any fucking prison by the monkeys in this country could hold geniuses like us." Xevi points his fist towards Avram, who smashes his own knuckle into it.
Walking forward, Liina hits both of their throats as she says, "WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE, OR I WILL WASH YOU BRATS' MOUTHS WITH SOAP!" Turning around, she says, "All kids have to take on an extracurricular activity that they qualify for with their grade. Since you and I have zero overlap, I used your mother's influence to start this club. Isn't this amazing!"
Moving up close to him, Liina says, "Now you don't have to be lonely without me."
Smiling far brighter than I ever thought his face could be, Dragoste says, "Right."
"Oh, and if we don't make any progress that the Queen herself signs off on, we have to repay all of the fees used in this club with a 30% interest rate per year."
"WHAT!"
-Age 18-
She gave him the courage to rebuild and reform himself into someone who could face the world in front of himself.
Location: Soarele Blestemat; Throne Room
Standing in front of the door to the throne room, Dragoste rights a character on his hand again, and again before eating it. Causing Xevi, who stands with a proud smile as sweat barrels down his face, to say, "What are you doing?"
"It's a practise passed down from the Queen's son-in-law millennia ago, apparently it originated from Seirei. It gives courage to people."
"How pathetic."
"Says the man who looks like he could fill up a pool with his sweat," Avram adds.
"I don't hear that from the bitch with shaky legs."
"Unlike you, I am a Blestadrac. I actually have had the pleasure of meeting the Queen, and seeing the glory she radiates and the air surrounding her presence."
"Stop talking about my future wife so lightly, servant."
"Keep speaking, but we'll see if you can actually propose to her when you see her, like you always say."
"I-I-I wi-ill, ju-ust watch m-m-me!"
Both of the boys grabs Dragoste sleeves as the terror grows in them, yet a blow smacks all three of them on their heads from behind, and soon Liina voice says, "Stop being a bunch of babies, we are here to tell her of all your good work over these last three years, and the fruits if all our labour, my social skills and logistical management, Xevi idea's, Avram engineering, and Dragoste understanding of curses have allowed us to create our magnum opus, so if you feel even a bit of fear your spitting on all the time we've spent the last three years together."
The three of them calm down, and then Dragoste says, "We can do this."
"Of course, you have me," Xevi says.
"It's just another day, just have to get through it," Avram says.
They all turn to face Liina, and they see a ridiculous amount of slime tears flowing out of her eyes, as they move back into her body, which constantly deforms itself as it struggles to take on a humanoid shape, causing all three of them to say, "YOU HYPOCRITE!"
"I AM A COUNTRY BUMPKIN! I AM NOT PREPARED TO MEET THE QUEEN!"
The doors soon swing open, and the four of them say, "Fuck."
-Age 21-
Location: Carne Sange Laboratory
In the middle of a large laboratory, a man sits on his desk with his head completely buried in papers and cursed items. A woman wearing a rather elegant gown smacks him on his back, forcing his head up and as his eyes land on her, he says, "Liina, what was that for?"
Dropping a paper in front of him, he says, "Lookie what your sister has done."
"Urgh, Lich has already told me. It's been three years since she left for Molstoria, and in that time, she has already become the most wanted pirate on the seas, running circles around the Rinastcean Union admirals, their 1st seats."
"All the people across the country are celebrating, especially the Cursed Sea District, saying it's a rival of the old history in which we rampaged all across the seas, assaulting the Empire of Nero. She has become a point of national pride."
"Our national pride is in a criminal who breaks the law."
"Hey, you know sister wouldn't commit crimes without reason."
"I know how violent she can be to protect the innocent, though at least from an optics point of view it's awful for us, given that the Queen's current rule since the death of Alucard has been non-interventional."
"I have heard the Queen is a moment away from flying over to Molstoria."
Sighing, Dragoste says, "That's what I expected." Looking through a giant glass dome above himself, Dragoste says, "I guess Intrare is going to be causing a lot more chaos. Maybe I should become a minister."