"Lord Roswaal..."
Ram spoke with a complicated expression.
"As long as the two of you remain alive, that is enough."
"Besides, Rem ended up like this within my territory, so I also bear part of the responsibiliiity."
"A master who allows his servants to suffer like this has already lost the right to remain your maaaster."
Roswaal waved his hand magnanimously.
In reality—The moment Shiro made that proposal, Roswaal no longer had much of a choice.
Within his plans, Ram played an indispensable role.
But if he abandoned Rem now just to keep Ram by his side, then when the day came to carry out his plans, Ram herself would become the most unstable factor capable of disrupting everything.
Rather than wait until their relationship completely collapsed later, it was better to step back now and leave Ram with a relatively favorable impression.
Besides—He had not gained nothing from this exchange.
Through their verbal clash, Roswaal had already confirmed that Shiro was not the person he was searching for.
In that case...
A dangerous gleam flashed through Roswaal's mismatched eyes.
"Then, according to our agreeeement, they are now your personal maids."
"So hurry up and begin treating her with whatever method you haaave."
Shiro nodded.
Then, under the gazes of Ram and the others, he walked to Rem's bedside.
While they had been negotiating, the curses continued eroding her body.
Rem no longer possessed even enough strength to open her eyes.
Her face was as white as paper, her brows tightly drawn together, and dense beads of sweat covered her forehead.
She looked completely on the verge of death.
No one would have been surprised if she stopped breathing the very next second.
Looking at Rem in this state, Shiro gently placed a hand on her forehead.
As his understanding of his own abilities continued deepening, he no longer needed to summon his Device to precisely separate things within the human body.
If he ever fought Reinhard again—
Perhaps he might even be able to remove some of the Divine Protections attached to him.
Magic surged from Shiro.
A faint white glow appeared across Rem's body.
Soon, countless white motes covered her from head to toe, completely enveloping her.
Throughout the process, Roswaal stared intently at Shiro's hand as though trying to observe something.
Then—
Crack—
A sound resembling something being split in two reached everyone's ears.
Immediately afterward—Large amounts of black smoke began pouring out of Rem's body.
Betty, who was deeply familiar with Yin magic, recognized it at a glance.
That black mist continuously emerging from Rem—Was the curse itself.
The smoke drifted upward along the bookshelves of the Forbidden Library before dissolving into the surrounding air and disappearing without a trace.
"Done."
"I also removed the side effects caused by her weakened condition while I was at it."
"You can wake her whenever you want now."
Only after the black mist completely stopped emerging from Rem did Shiro withdraw his hand.
He wiped nonexistent sweat from his forehead and spoke to Ram and the others.
Hearing that Rem was fine, Betty immediately stepped forward to inspect her condition.
It was not because she suspected Shiro had done something to Rem.
She simply wanted to make sure he had not overlooked any curses.
"Her breathing has stabilized."
"Her complexion is recovering too."
"And there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage."
"So you actually removed it..."
Betty used mana to perform a simple examination of Rem's entire body.
After confirming she truly was safe, she looked toward Shiro in disbelief.
"How did you do that?"
"Those curses were tangled together like threads."
"Removing all of them at once should have been nearly impossible."
"Right."
"So I didn't actually remove the curses."
Shiro answered immediately.
He knew absolutely nothing about curses.
How could he possibly know how to properly dispel them?
What he had done was essentially the same thing he had once done while treating Ayatsuji Kaito.
At its core—
It was conceptual separation.
However, Ram focused on something completely different.
The instant she heard Shiro say he had not removed the curses, the heart she had finally managed to calm down immediately leaped back into her throat.
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you say the curse was gone?"
"Why are you saying you didn't remove it now?"
Ram fired three questions in rapid succession.
Shiro realized his wording had caused a misunderstanding and hurriedly explained.
"What I mean is that I didn't painstakingly unravel Rem's curses one by one."
"I used a more violent method and forced all of them out directly."
"There are no curses left inside Rem anymore."
The curses on Rem were like a combination lock sealing her health inside a box.
Betty's method was to test each possible combination until she eventually found the correct one.
But Rem's condition obviously could not last long enough for Betty to discover the answer.
So Shiro used a much simpler and more effective method.
He dismantled the lock itself.
They had no use for the lock anyway.
Whether they knew the combination or not made no difference.
As long as the box could be opened in the end, that was enough.
Of course—It was only "simple" because Shiro possessed the ability to sever things.
Even if someone wanted to destroy a combination lock by brute force, they still needed the right tool.
In that regard, even Roswaal, a Court Mage, could not erase Rem's curses as effortlessly as Shiro had.
Sure enough—After hearing Shiro explain the entire process, Betty fell completely silent.
Only after a long while did she sigh and mutter—
"Betty is starting to wonder where exactly you came from."
"This method of dispelling curses is completely unheard o—"
"Mm..."
A faint groan suddenly interrupted her.
Rem, whose curses had already been removed, slowly opened her eyes.
"Rem!"
Ram cried out and immediately threw herself toward her sister.
"Eh?"
"Sister...?"
"What happened to me...?"
Rem had only just awakened and still looked confused.
Hadn't she been on the verge of dying moments ago?
Why had the overwhelming weakness in her body suddenly disappeared?
But when she saw Ram lying over her and crying uncontrollably—Rem felt that whatever had happened while she was unconscious no longer mattered.
"Mm."
"I'm alright now, Sister."
"Sorry for worrying you."
Following Ram's words, Rem revealed the most sincere smile Shiro had ever seen from her.
She wrapped her arms around her crying sister and gently stroked Ram's hair.
"Eh? Shiro?"
"Why are you here too?"
"And what happened to those two?"
Emilia's voice came from behind him.
Whether Subaru had slacked off on the way or something else had delayed them—
By the time Emilia finally arrived after Shiro told him to fetch her, the entire incident was practically over.
Seeing Ram and Rem embracing each other so emotionally, Emilia, who had absolutely no idea what was going on, could only look toward Shiro for help.
"Give me a moment."
"There's still one person I haven't dealt with yet."
"I'll be right back."
Instead of answering Emilia's question, Shiro left her with that baffling statement and walked straight out of Betty's Forbidden Library.
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