#63
Without knowing that, Ersen let out a small laugh.
A small, gentle laugh that moved only one corner of his mouth.
It was a laugh without sound or emotion.
But that laugh seemed to be the outflow of his deepest inner self.
And humming, he answered in a tone as if reciting a song.
The pitch of his voice flowed softly.
Those words leaked out carelessly like an old nursery rhyme, but there was shadow within them.
“Well, whatever result comes out, the conclusion will be that it’s because I’m cursed, right?”
Because he spoke so lightly, so nonchalantly, the weight was rather greater.
The resignation contained in those words he uttered as if it were natural made Sercil’s fingertips freeze.
Sercil, who had been sitting expressionlessly sunken, stopped his busily fidgeting hands.
Water dripped from his hands that had been wringing the wet cloth.
The sound of small water droplets hitting the floor echoed unusually loudly.
Only then did Sercil realize that his hands were all wet.
This prince is really strange.
He always seems to be smiling, but what’s inside isn’t laughter.
He always speaks lightly, but what’s held in his heart is deep darkness.
To Sercil, this childlike prince somehow felt like someone who had lived too long.
He acts as if he knows everything about Sercil while knowing nothing.
And like someone looking down at everything from above.
Like someone who already knows everything he possesses in advance.
Sercil found this strangely uncomfortable.
And the guilt he had just shown. It was clear he knew not just everything, but even things Sercil didn’t know.
In those eyes seemed to be contained parts of himself that even Sercil didn’t know.
That was a realm he neither wanted to know nor wanted to be discovered.
But the prince was carrying that weight himself.
His words and actions seemed to act as if nothing had happened despite knowing everything, or like someone who had completely different purposes from the beginning.
The gait of someone who carried everything without removing anything.
Everything he said was either calculation or the bravado of someone desperate.
Between emotions and facts that couldn’t be defined, Sercil quietly wavered.
The baseline he had believed in began to shake.
From someone he had always considered transparent, he was feeling ‘opacity’ for the first time.
Sercil pretended to be surprised at the prince’s answer, turning his head with an awkward smile to face the prince.
But his gaze was directed not at himself, but toward the window.
That wasn’t avoidance.
Just a gaze whose heart had departed.
And he paused again.
That direction he was looking at, that expression, that distance—.
It didn’t belong to ‘reality.’
The prince gazing out the window was raising only the corner of his mouth slightly, but that gentle smile and profile somehow lacked a sense of reality.
As if he wasn’t present in this place right now.
Or like someone who was already prepared to leave.
Like someone who would leave at any moment, an atmosphere where no attachment or lingering feelings could be felt.
He had the look of someone who had organized everything.
Like someone looking down at everything from a step away.
“……”
Sercil, who had been silently looking down, finally called to him gently.
His eyes were gazing at somewhere far beyond the window.
Somewhere where no sky, clouds, or sunlight could be seen.
Like someone looking at a different time, a different world, not this present moment.
He looked like a body left behind by someone who had already departed.
“……Your Highness?”
A small question.
But that question wasn’t light.
“……Ah, yeah.”
The prince turned his head.
But those eyes still held a somewhat hollow look.
The place where that gaze reached felt hollow, as if there was no wind or sunlight.
“What, why are you looking at me like that? Am I that pretty?”
“What the……”
“Look at your expression. Don’t worry, Fairy-nim. The one who’s really pretty is Fairy-nim.”
Suddenly, this thought occurred to him.
Just in case. Though it was really a very small possibility, perhaps the story he had heard about this person’s constitution of ‘stimulating emotions’ might be a ridiculous misunderstanding.
This person might just know something we don’t know.
Of course, it was just a passing thought.
* * *
“By the way, the situation is flowing in an interesting way.”
The words I uttered were half close to a monologue. But Sercil didn’t miss that voice and reacted.
“What?”
Looking at Sercil’s face staring at me with innocent eyes, I realized how much I was marked as someone who usually says strange things. Seeing him even flinch his shoulders slightly and step backward, it seems this time it sounded more terrifying than usual.
To Sercil, who was looking at me with some strange gaze, I casually dropped words that a villain might say. I did it on purpose. Watching his reaction of being startled in that brief moment was secretly amusing.
I laughed quietly, then languidly lifted my head to look up at Sercil and spoke to him.
“Just kidding. So, Sercil. Is the ball over?”
Before answering, Sercil examined me once more carefully. I was just wearing my usual smiling face, but he looked at me with an unusually deep gaze as if trying to peer into my soul.
“It doesn’t seem like a joke……”
A suspicious tone. Just how many jokes that didn’t sound like jokes had I made? I smiled it off.
“Hm?”
When I pretended not to know, Sercil reluctantly returned to the main topic.
“No. The ball is over. It went on for three days as originally planned. What’s with the awakening ceremony anyway. It ended too well, that’s the problem.”
“Yeah, yeah. Are you that bothered by how it was glossed over? Really, our Fairy-nim, having so much affection, what are you going to do about it?”
I clicked my tongue. My voice was playful, annoyingly leisurely in tone. At those words, Sercil naturally got fired up.
“It’s not like I’m upset because I’ve grown attached to Your Highness! It’s just that it’s such a big deal but everyone’s acting like nothing happened!”
Isn’t this emphasizing too much that he hasn’t grown attached? I nodded knowingly and replied leisurely.
“Yes, yes, I understand.”
Then Sercil’s face finally turned red as an apple as he called me distinctly.
“Your Highness!”
Forgetting the fact that he had patiently nursed me, I just felt like smiling mischievously. Even when he acted serious, when teased like this, he would react again immediately – he was truly an amusing person.
While exchanging such playful banter with apple-faced Sercil, I unknowingly felt somewhat relaxed. And one thought that arose quite naturally.
‘The Archduke. He’s safe.’
During the three days after I lost consciousness, the ball seemed to have continued. And during that time, there was no word that any urgent matter had befallen the Archduke.
It seemed there were no problems even during the fairly long ball period.
Sercil was the type whose worries immediately showed on his face. If some problem had occurred to the Archduke due to the half-demons, he couldn’t have been as calm as he was now.
Secretly relieved, I stared at Sercil’s face for a long time.
He was continuously saying something, but for that moment, I couldn’t concentrate on those words.
The way his lips occasionally opened while pursed, then closed again, was just like a cat, and the way his emotions showed completely on his face…… tickled my heart.
And once again, strangely warm emotions arose.
After some time like that.
Finally, the awaited event began.
* * *
“Cough!”
The coughing erupted exactly three times a day, precisely at ‘that’ time.
The same time, the same position.
Being precise was convenient. As long as I didn’t let my guard down, I could prepare for it.
Other times, it was quiet as if it were a lie.
It was a quite plausible cycle for inducing the illusion of normalcy.
I quietly curled up under the blanket and swallowed the blood.
I didn’t spit it out. I couldn’t spit it out. If it splattered on the blanket, I’d be caught immediately.
When the hot, thin blood that had climbed up my throat touched the tip of my tongue, nausea overwhelmed me along with the salty smell.
It seemed that the tea I had drunk earlier had a very minute amount of emetic mixed in.
The scent was the same, and the color wasn’t murky.
But right after swallowing the first sip, hot heat spread throughout my mouth, and along with twisting stomach pain, I felt nauseous.
But that was only for a moment.
As if it had never existed, it disappeared again like water without leaving any taste.
Thanks to that, it was all the more impossible to arouse suspicion, and all the more dangerous.
When I raised my head, I spotted thin paper that someone had stealthily attached to the window frame.
It was so faint it was barely visible, but its position and texture, and the subtle tremor of mana dwelling on the paper, were familiar.
I recognized it immediately.
It was a curse mark.
Though it was a crudely drawn symbol, the overlapping traces and faint tremor of mana proved its existence.
Though hastily made, it had the precision of something prepared from long ago.
What kind of person would put such effort into trying to bring me down?
I tried to trace my memory, but no name came to mind.
This was only the beginning.
Certainly.
I concluded as such. As if there was no point in examining the reasons.
Putting a snake in the bedchamber.
That poison wasn’t lethal to me, but when bitten, I killed my breathing and bit and extracted the poison that had spread to my fingertips with my teeth.
It was one of the few habits I had trained from childhood.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
