#110
“……Archduke.”
I saw him not as he was now, but as he had been just before my death.
He who hated the sight of blood would, paradoxically, quietly stare at the pool of blood when I bled heavily. With a completely unwelcome expression.
Then he would slowly close and open his eyes like a tired person before silently leaving.
Then one day, he kissed me.
It was my first real kiss, so I only realized what had happened a beat too late after it was over.
“Why……”
“……”
He said nothing.
Ah, wait…… was this really a memory that happened?
I kissed him…… how did I forget this moment?
But absurdly, as soon as I thought that, everything around me distorted as if to tell me this was all a dream.
As if someone was forcibly moving my body, when I came to my senses I was standing in a completely different space.
‘This place looks like a noble lady’s room……’
As I looked around in a daze, I suddenly held my breath.
“……Huh.”
……Eris.
In front of the mirror in the center of the room. I could see Eris wearing Isabella Marsien’s body.
I don’t know how I recognized it……
She didn’t seem to see or sense me at all. But I instinctively knew. I was dreaming, but for her, this was reality.
In front of a mirror so shattered that it couldn’t even properly reflect a person, Eris stood still.
Then she shouted something and threw what she was holding to the floor.
Then she sat at the desk with a cold expression and recorded something.
I hesitated, then approached her.
Eris still didn’t notice my presence.
‘What’s going on? This is exactly like the situation where Eris is suffering the reverse of the curse she cast on the five of us.’
As if it had been reflected back.
However, I had never heard of such a case, not before my regression, nor in the original work.
It’s just that since I’m the medium connected to their curses, it wouldn’t be strange if some special effect occurred unexpectedly.
Before Eris folded the letter, I quickly took in its contents.
Since it was a dream and I couldn’t write, I memorized it.
Fortunately, the content was short enough that I could memorize it on the spot.
The problem was the content itself.
‘……She’s giving orders about beastification.’
While chewing her lips and muttering about how no one could possibly not know of her existence, that the situation was changing, that this couldn’t be…… such words.
That this letter must reach one of them.
‘Them?’
Beastification is a symptom of acceleration.
‘Does Eris not know that the acceleration ritual has been performed?’
Could it be that no one among the half-demons knows about Eris’s resurrection yet?
Plus this phenomenon of me spying on her now.
Many things were different from what I knew, but I wasn’t anxious. Not only was Eris getting impatient, but strangely I had that feeling.
The feeling that things had begun flowing toward the happy ending for the four people I had hoped for.
Eris fed the letter to a black snake and sent it somewhere.
I thought about following that snake, but unfortunately, it seemed this was the end of what I could spy on through dreams.
—Your Highness.
I scanned the desk to gather as much information as possible.
Then I found a memo.
‘Replicas aren’t enough?’
And sacrifice constitution and gray treasure.
……What did it mean that Ersen had a sacrifice constitution?
I knew he had been used as a medium. But was there something special enough to warrant the term “constitution”?
No matter how much I thought about it, there was nothing I could figure out right away.
‘More than that, Eris. It seems we have the same goal.’
Though it wasn’t unexpected that she would target the treasure.
The gray treasure must not fall into Eris’s hands. My goal from the beginning had been to get that treasure myself and eliminate future troubles.
I unconsciously touched the black ring on my finger.
Eris doesn’t have the key to obtain the treasure.
So she’ll probably build up her strength to get the key, and after adapting to some degree, she’ll secretly provoke her faction among the half-demons to get the key first.
Once her purpose became clear, I could clearly see how she would be moving now.
‘That’s fortunate.’
Of course, protecting the four people from those predictable actions would still require risking my life.
But it was better than uncertainty.
—Your Highness.
“……Hm?”
At the faintly audible sound, I responded with certainty that this time it wasn’t a hallucination.
This time I heard it more clearly.
—Prince Ersen.
Yes, Archduke.
I’m here.
* * *
“……Ah?”
When I woke up, the faces I encountered were three, contrary to my expectation.
I tilted my head for a moment, wondering if I was still dreaming.
Marcus hyung twisted his lips into a smile and said,
“Your Highness, are you awake?”
He looked displeased. Though it didn’t seem like he was angry with me.
I observed his expression as I groggily got up from my position.
“Mmm.”
The Archduke naturally supported my upper body. I awkwardly accepted his help and asked,
“But what’s this? Why are you all gathered here?”
This is the Archduke’s office.
Perhaps understanding the omitted words, Sercil cheerfully exclaimed with his flower-like face,
“Is there anything different about me?”
“Different?”
I hope acceleration symptoms haven’t already appeared.
Hiding my anxious feelings, I pretended to be relaxed and looked him over with a “Hmm” and a gaze that seemed to look down.
And I soon noticed.
“Huh? What’s this, Fairy-nim. You’ll be taller than me now?”
That’s a relief.
Well, if acceleration symptoms had appeared, they would have told me as soon as I woke up. If that had happened, I would have had to use nullification on all three of them before they became beastified.
‘Then I probably would have.’
In the worst case, I would have had to cast the ‘curse of balance’ on myself, which would make me fine only during the day and suffer all the penalties concentrated at night.
‘Then I’d owe a debt to the moderate half-demons.’
The possibility of not having enough time to create happiness for the four people would also have been high.
“Again!”
Because I was relieved, playful words also popped out.
“Hmm…… did you become more my type?”
“Did I become more handsome?”
“I think so?”
When I chuckled and responded as if a child was bragging, Sercil beamed.
‘He has an atmosphere like he’s shaken something off.’
Even though he’s not completely freed from the curse yet.
‘Did something else happen?’
While I was internally surprised and relieved by myself, I belatedly noticed that Marcus was looking at Sercil with a sour gaze and the Archduke wasn’t even glancing toward Sercil at all.
And before I could say anything, Sercil approached and gently wiped the cold sweat on my forehead with his sleeve, saying,
“Actually, there’s something else besides that. My memories have returned too.”
“Huh? Fairy-nim, did you have amnesia?”
There was no such mention in the original work.
Not before my regression either.
……More than that, did Sercil just wipe my forehead?
‘……Huh?’
As I was belatedly surprised by his action without distance, I saw the Archduke slowly turn his gaze toward Sercil.
It was a strangely heavy gaze.
Just as I was being drawn to that gaze, someone clicked their tongue.
It was Marcus hyung.
Hyung looked at me with a complicated expression—it seemed like something had happened with him too—then cut off Sercil’s words as he was about to exclaim something and said,
“He says that as his fairy powers returned, he inherited the memories of the fairies together. What does this mean?”
“……Fairy memories?”
Just as my head was about to turn toward Sercil, Marcus hyung asked again, standing in a swaggering posture,
“Yeah, Your Highness. Don’t tell me you mean the fairies from fairy tales?”
“Ah.”
The Archduke, whom I inadvertently met eyes with, smiled with his eyes slightly curved. Part of his face was shadowed.
After glancing once at Sercil, who had a sulking expression, I took in this strange moment and hid my bewilderment.
Their gazes felt unfamiliar.
On the other hand, it also felt strange that whenever I lost consciousness and woke up, it seemed natural for them to be by my side.
Trying not to show this, I said,
“Well, yes. Sercil is truly of fairy blood. The curse was serving two roles. One was the curse’s direct effect, the other was sealing the fairy’s power.”
“Huh.”
Marcus hyung pulled over a chair and sat facing me. However, for not having known this, his level of surprise seemed mild.
But before I could think deeply, hyung continued,
“I see. Then Your Highness, according to that fairy’s memories, nullification doesn’t eliminate curses but transfers them. Could it be that our curses are being transferred to Your Highness?”
There was a strange coldness mixed in with his languid tone.
I briefly lowered my eyes and managed my expression.
‘Fairy memories. I didn’t expect such a variable to appear.’
Because if that were the case, it would mean Sercil’s memories had returned before my regression too, but I had never seen him tell Theodore hyung such things.
And for that content to contain such……
“Your Highness.”
……secrets I had tried to hide until death.
The reason I had to use blood was actually there.
“It does seem to have been transferred to Your Highness.”
The sound of Sercil calling me dryly.
And the Archduke’s definitive words delivered in a gentle tone.
“Mmm. That’s right, but.”
……I can’t hide this.
I quickly reached a conclusion and nodded reluctantly.
I thought this content itself wasn’t something I had done wrong to them, nor violated our contract, nor would it make me useless, so there wouldn’t be a problem.
“I have a special constitution, so I can easily handle about four people…… It shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“……”
Sercil made a strange expression.
The Archduke looked at me with an expressionless face, then when he felt that he was angry and I opened my eyes slightly wider to examine him, he immediately smiled as if nothing had happened.
And he answered gently with eyes that seemed to have a purplish tint,
“How fortunate that it won’t be a problem.”
He seemed relieved that there wouldn’t be a need to dispose of my corpse at his estate.
When I winked mischievously as if I knew everything, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
“A special constitution.”
Then Marcus hyung opened his mouth again in a leisurely tone.
“Are you perhaps referring to a sacrifice constitution?”
I couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.
It was very brief, but all three of them seemed to have seen my surprise, as sharp gazes flew from all directions.
At that moment I realized.
That the escape route I could usually slip through with a smile was blocked.
The three of them waited silently for my answer like that.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
