#60
He had already made up his mind.
What to investigate, what to confirm, and the direction to move—everything was clear.
Eventually, his figure completely disappeared from the ballroom.
And that day, in one side of the corridor, Marcus heard warnings about Ersen’s constitution from Skyle.
Unlike Theodore, Marcus accepted that fact without much disturbance.
“Yeah. Something was strange about it.”
At least on the surface.
“……Now I understand a bit.”
He muttered so several times as if persuading himself, like talking to himself, then soon turned direction toward his quarters.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the first thought I had was that I had wasted blood.
It was a clear realization.
If I had just awakened from this level of pain, generally the first thing that should come to mind was relief that I was alive.
But what first rose in my mind was something completely unrelated to that—a coldly calculated regret.
‘Blood that has consumed poison can’t be used to break Crown Prince hyung’s curse. That’s unfortunate.’
All curses demanded a price.
Among them, Theodore hyung’s curse wasn’t a simple curse.
The curse of slaughter.
What was needed to break that power wasn’t common life energy or simple healing mana, but purified sacrifice.
Precisely, my blood.
My pain.
And my will to willingly endure it.
Throughout the time poison was circulating in me, I regretted that this blood had become unusable.
The conditions for breaking Crown Prince hyung’s curse were that demanding and precarious.
As soon as consciousness returned, my head throbbed.
Pain as if needles were piercing through my brain.
It was familiar.
The migraine I experienced daily for several years after mother died in childhood.
That memory came rushing back.
As if the back of my head had been struck with a thin glass plate, a distant and strange pain followed.
Heavy resistance from every corner of my body.
My joints ached, and my lungs seemed to sting with every breath.
I frowned and slowly blinked.
The afternoon sunlight coming through the curtain gaps stabbed my eyes sharply.
A quiet room.
A small vase was placed by the window, and the flower petals inside were showing off their translucent colors in the sunlight.
And my heart was beating slowly.
The pounding sound was too loud in my ears.
That beat felt discordant and heavy somewhere.
As if my heart had lost its function and was floundering.
It felt like my chest was being heavily constricted, and sharp pain remained below my left elbow.
Had a needle been inserted there?
Or was there a broken blood vessel remaining?
I carefully rolled up my sleeve.
Bandages were loosely wrapped, and slightly swollen marks were visible underneath.
Faintly spread purple bruises, and stinging pain alive at their center.
I slowly raised my upper body.
The blanket slipped down smoothly.
The soft texture of the cotton blanket passed over my legs, but my body was still heavy and not agile.
I thought my head might be dizzy, but fortunately it wasn’t to that extent.
However, I couldn’t maintain my balance well.
Having a heavy body felt like it was crying out that this body wasn’t mine.
As if even my sense of existence at this moment wasn’t ‘normal.’
When I rubbed the back of my neck, it was slightly wet, and I felt as if poison still permeated my fingertips.
There couldn’t actually be any poison remaining.
Nevertheless, that feeling wouldn’t disappear.
Even if I washed my fingertips, even if I disinfected them, that sensation remained.
As if my body was constantly warning me.
‘You haven’t completely recovered yet.’
‘I need to break the curse quickly.’
There was only one reason I barely held onto my sanity.
Before this body became more damaged,
Before the limit of pain I could endure came,
I had to complete what needed to be done now.
Theodore hyung’s curse could be safely broken with just one or two more attempts.
I had been preparing for a long time, and now I was almost at the end.
The problem was time.
The time given to me was always insufficient, and half-demons always arrived earlier than scheduled.
‘After that, it will be a speed battle.’
Breaking the curse meant
It was like a signal that they would reveal their hidden blades.
The moment it was revealed that Ersen Mayer could break half-demon curses themselves beyond ‘nullification,’
What I had to do wasn’t survive,
But bring them down before that.
The moment half-demons noticed the curse was broken, the Archduke and Sercil would be in danger, and Marcus hyung might also suffer who knows what at their hands.
I still hadn’t properly told anyone.
For fear their gazes might waver.
The moment they hesitated, all these plans would crumble.
It would be good if I succeeded in breaking everything before they did something, but that’s actually impossible.
Reality is always different from ideals.
No matter how much I struggle, half-demons are already preparing everything,
And I was merely an existence dancing on those prepared blades.
So.
There’s only one thing I can do.
On this crumbling balance,
Take one step forward first.
‘Proceed as planned.’
That resolution was words I had repeated last night, the night before, and the night before that.
A determination I had been barely holding onto my sanity by constantly repeating.
I mentioned the gray treasure to draw half-demons’ attention. It seems to be having a greater effect than expected.
Their eyes are sharper than needles,
Sharp enough to pierce through hearts.
But now,
I had to prevent them from approaching their real target.
And I seemed to have safely conveyed information about Lady Marsien, who could be a threat besides half-demons.
She reacted much faster and more dangerously than expected.
But that too was not a bad flow.
The moment she revealed black magic,
All possibilities narrowed to one path.
Now I just need to endure curses and black magic while receiving their attention and do what I need to do.
As long as they’re interested,
As long as they’re chasing me,
I can divert their gaze,
And others can hide.
‘……At least for the time being, so half-demons won’t approach near Eris’s corpse.’
Everything converges to that point.
And I know that final conclusion.
In the original work’s sentences,
A clue left in one line of dried documents.
Though it was written casually like a joke,
It was actually the most important truth.
One part where Eris was mentioned in the original work. It came out when revealing the location of the gray treasure that half-demons longed to find.
According to the original work, Eris’s corpse in the half-demon territory was the box that sealed that treasure, the lock was the box’s bloodline, and the key was some cursed ring.
When that setting first appeared, it felt very symbolic.
The corpse of the dead becomes a seal, and whoever opens that body must pay the price of a curse.
To obtain something, one must always accept losses—a very classical and ruthless worldview.
But after actually experiencing it, even though I’m a possessor who knows the original work, I could only let out a hollow laugh.
It was always me who used the body.
The pain, blood, and aftereffects were all my share.
Thinking that this story wouldn’t unfold at all without me, sometimes I felt a bit wronged.
‘Now I just need to pretend to move to obtain that treasure while creating a happy ending for our protagonists.’
That was the best I could think of.
And it was also the most realistic ideal.
Making the protagonists in this novel avoid their fate and obtain their respective happiness.
That was the best mission I could do as someone who knew the original work, and my only value.
It was proceeding successfully.
Until now, I believed so.
The fact that my plan hadn’t wavered even while I was unconscious made me feel a very slight pride.
The conviction that no matter how things got tangled, they were ultimately rolling along the trajectory I designed.
Because I had that belief, I could stand up again even in this endless disease-like situation.
It was when I was checking my plans several times like that.
While organizing my thoughts one by one, drawing diagrams in my head about when to start moving, at what timing to draw in whom.
But as if breaking that quiet flow, the door burst open.
It was a quick and flustered touch.
The door burst open and someone entered the room.
The figure of the person who entered through the door gap along with the low sunlight was familiar.
A voice that rushed in before the shadow.
Ah, as expected.
“Your Highness! Are you awake?”
It was Sercil.
That characteristic bright and clear tone.
But today it was a tone higher than usual.
It was a voice carrying emotion closer to urgency than joy.
“Fairy-nim? What’s the matter at such an early hour?”
I said while rubbing my eyes, but that was only how it appeared on the surface.
To be honest, I was glad.
I had just regained consciousness and started moving, yet his existence, coming to find me so precisely, was somewhat touching.
“Why are you acting so unfamiliar? Who do you think has been taking care of Your Highness who can’t get it together every morning?”
At those words, I found myself blankly staring at his face without realizing it.
Though it flowed like a light joke, the information contained there was never light.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
