#27
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“……”
Watching the person of interest moving away, Archduke Skyle made a strange expression.
‘Right, I should acknowledge it now.’
That he was outside his calculations.
It was a strange feeling.
Why did he keep unconsciously reacting to him?
He reviewed the prince from moments ago as calmly as possible.
‘He didn’t deny that he was the one who hunted the High Priest.’
And he lightly acknowledged that everything that happened after that was done to show us here.
He felt wary because it was unexpected.
The most frightening thing was that even though the prince was moving so openly, it wasn’t clear what he truly wanted.
“He touched what’s mine.”
Well. Was that all?
The moment they heard that answer, an atmosphere of understanding had flowed around them.
Except for the Archduke.
Unlike Crown Prince Theodore’s thought that he would be marked by Skyle for showing similarities to Eris, he felt doubt.
Rather, the moment he heard those words, he clearly felt that this person was different from ‘Eris.’
When speaking of desires, half-demons emit an ominous aura. Every half-demon he’d experienced had been like that.
But he couldn’t feel that from the prince.
Since their origins were different, even saying the same words would inevitably be different.
‘But why?’
Could that be possible?
Half-demons were strange people whose very souls bound each other.
That characteristic was passed down through blood, so once involved with curses, no one could be completely free from that influence.
Let alone not just anyone, but Eris’s child? That couldn’t be…
“Isn’t that guy crazy?”
“……”
……It was, possible.
Wasn’t there evidence right next to him?
Skyle faintly furrowed his brow.
Right, even half-demons could avoid having souls tainted by curses.
‘But Marcus’s situation is special.’
It was different from him. Ersen was a pure-blood legitimate descendant from the half-demons’ perspective.
He would be more deeply connected to everything…
Moreover, Ersen was too suspicious unlike Marcus.
Even so.
Even so, why was he certain that he was different from Eris?
“……His perception of himself certainly seems unique.”
“That’s, that’s a very classical expression, Your Excellency.”
Sercil gaped in admiration.
“I just feel nauseous… Ugh.”
Watching Sercil, who had recently grown close to them quickly with curses as a common denominator, Skyle smiled gently.
‘It would have been good if only that much had been revealed.’
Sercil. No, was his real name Sercil?
A person who had met Theo first a few days ago, listing the hardships of a cursed person and becoming Theo’s attendant.
He wouldn’t know.
That transcendents could distinguish the nature of curses to some extent.
The feeling of curse emanating from Sercil was the same type as the curses that the Archduke himself and Theodore bore.
That’s why Theodore had accepted him more easily too.
Though he hadn’t confessed yet, he could feel they were a community of shared fate.
Though he was still wary of them, that wariness was only to protect himself, not because he had other schemes beyond that like Prince Ersen.
‘The prince is……’
Right, the prince was different.
“Unique magic can cause physical overload if you’re inexperienced with its use… You weren’t worried about that, were you? Don’t worry. I’ve never used this magic on anyone else, but I’m skilled at using it.”
Unique magic doesn’t necessarily require another person to use. Then it could be interpreted as meaning he’d only tried it when alone.
Why on earth had he practiced in hiding like that?
To hide from what?
From them? Or…
‘From Eris?’
Suddenly, the face of the prince looking at him came to mind.
A face excited with fever. A strange smile that rested comfortably regardless of his own precarious state.
Then the face that became clouded with unreadable emotion while looking at Skyle himself.
“You know. I don’t know how to use curses.”
For just a moment, a pitiful expression had crossed his face.
As if he could do anything to reassure them.
‘……Desperately.’
Was that why?
Despite all that secrecy, he had said such things.
“From now on, Your Highness will be our precious curse nullifier.”
So please take care of that body.
Though he had said it in words the prince could accept since he seemed to completely not understand words of concern.
Watching that face gradually become blank, his usual composure crumbling at those words, why did he feel pleasure?
Why,
couldn’t he take his eyes off the prince’s ash-gray pupils that looked at him quietly—yet blindly?
Skyle slowly closed and opened his eyes.
‘I don’t know.’
He couldn’t understand himself, not him.
Why did he want to know about him?
Wasn’t it just a matter of using him as much as needed and thoroughly cleaning up afterward?
The prince should be that level of existence.
Because of these thoughts he stirred up, he became more wary of the prince…
‘Even so, we’ll have to be together from now on.’
“Calm down, Sercil.”
Offering Sercil a seat again, Skyle looked once more toward the direction Ersen had disappeared.
He didn’t know why Theo wasn’t coming out right away…
It would probably be audible over there too, and the prince had already been half out of his mind from the moment he entered, so there would be no need to discuss things quietly.
‘He’s probably sleeping.’
Sitting back on the sofa, he calmly opened his mouth.
“I’m not sure yet what kind of overload there is in nullifying curses, but it’s certain he can’t nullify them all at once. Since we made a contract, there’s no risk of conveying our condition to the half-demons. He seems to want something inside them more than the half-demons themselves, but we’ll find out about that gradually. However, one thing.”
Pausing briefly, he continued.
“It bothers me that he doesn’t place much meaning on physical pain and emphasizes the soul. That’s a sight commonly seen among half-demons.”
“What, all half-demons are like that?”
But for that to be true, that was…!
Sercil muttered with a confused face.
“I know what you want to say.”
“Right! Doesn’t something seem different? The prince said he doesn’t know curses.”
Valuing soul over body is behavior shown when using curses. But the prince had shown such behavior in situations unrelated to curses.
“This is my first time seeing half-demons.”
What Sercil had seen this time were only their corpses or traces.
At Sercil’s words, Marcus slowly nodded with a cold expression.
“I can’t be certain whether he really doesn’t know curses. But it’s certain it’s behavior shown regardless of curses. That’s why it’s strange.”
“So, that’s strange?”
“He lived as a prince despite being like that.”
Sercil pursed his lips tightly.
Right. That appearance was exactly like someone who had experienced abuse for a long time, wasn’t it?
And severe abuse at that.
“That’s true…?”
It was strange even to Sercil, who didn’t know much.
Right, certainly as far as the three knew, the prince had never experienced such things.
At least not after age seven.
‘So, we have to assume he definitely experienced something before age seven.’
Because it couldn’t be explained otherwise.
While Sercil was confused, Marcus and Skyle recalled the same thing with sunken eyes.
“Why is that a problem?”
The prince who had reacted as if he’d never imagined worrying about his own physical condition.
Even though there wasn’t something he greedily craved before his eyes, just treating that pain as natural…
‘And acting like it was familiar.’
The only thing he’d done disregarding pain was actions to dispel their worries.
And he’d even carved a seal into his heart, saying he’d do so in the future too.
As a result, was there anything the prince gained from these actions?
‘I can’t understand. Really, would half-demons who had never once been of help to him in his entire life be worth enduring that?’
Though it was powerful, it wasn’t powerful enough to aim for the throne.
If Ersen had wanted to protect himself from the Emperor, it would have been better to enter the Magic Tower rather than the half-demons.
Yet he moved like this, even receiving such treatment from the Elder?
“That, that prince seems a bit unstable to me. Don’t you think?”
Sercil muttered blankly.
“In what way?”
Skyle asked with a thoughtful face.
“Well, like a child abandoned by the water. You said he seemed to have been abused too…”
“We don’t need to worry about him, Sercil.”
Skyle answered indifferently.
Right, no need to worry.
That was something he was saying to himself too.
“Unless he’s a god, he can’t be free from the contract he made today.”
“……Ah.”
“That’s all we need to worry about. Isn’t that right?”
“Mm. That’s… true.”
People who had suffered terrible curses for no reason ultimately couldn’t like those who were the source of the curses.
They had no leisure to consider them, and couldn’t find a reason why they should.
Unless they were someone like Marcus.
But even while saying that, Skyle knew too.
That he was ultimately anxious about the prince’s condition.
That beneath his curiosity about what the prince’s true desires were, a very faint concern for him was beginning to settle.
‘……I acknowledge it.’
That what the prince had done to gain their trust had been effective in opening their hearts.
Had the prince anticipated this far?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
