#64
Carefully biting the inside of my lips, cautiously exhaling through the gap where blood flowed.
So it wouldn’t show, so the smell wouldn’t spread. And I smiled at Sercil as if nothing had happened.
He knew nothing.
As always.
And I was, as usual, too good at pretending to be fine.
Skyle—if he caught me, it would be over.
He would recognize such marks instantly.
A person skilled at piecing together the whole from a single clue.
If I were exposed to those eyes even once, everything would be discovered.
Theodore hyung was the same.
Even if he wasn’t strong, he had an unusual sense for detecting lies.
Marcus hyung would seize evidence before I could even hide it.
Really, they were all such sensitive people that hiding things was overwhelming.
So I had to conceal it even more.
Even as the inside of my lips ulcerated and blood flowed down my throat.
Suppressing my breathing, carefully clutching my abdomen, I forced myself to turn my head and smile.
Nodding with a smiling face, I picked up a sip of water.
To act as if I had overcome it.
Fortunately, I was often alone at night.
The pain intensified in the middle of the night.
However, I would get up and quietly organize my room as if nothing had happened, and by morning I never lost my appearance as the ‘weak prince’ as usual.
Because I couldn’t cast off the shell of royalty.
I endured it that way.
The powdered curse sprinkled through the window cracks spread through my skin and caused small reactions in the dermis.
Invisible itching and heat, and gradually progressing internal pressure.
It was such a delicate and sophisticated curse that I wanted to record it.
What I had to do to suppress that pain while sleeping was to curl up with my knees raised under the blankets and quietly regulate my breathing.
But I was never caught. I couldn’t be caught. By anyone.
Not even by Sercil.
Sercil came to wake me every morning and poured out nagging and worry simultaneously as always. I smiled and accepted that nagging.
Even on days when blood came up from inside, even on days when my mouth dried up.
Still, it’s fortunate. Because the Logi poison wasn’t used again.
Thanks to that, I was able to collect enough blood for Crown Prince hyung.
“I haven’t been able to attend any balls since that day. Will you be alright, Your Highness?”
One dawn.
Marcus hyung, who had suddenly visited, asked with a spinning smile.
“What are you going to do with your stamina in that state?”
I smiled back as if angry at those words and replied.
“It’s fine, I achieved what I aimed for.”
“…Aha?”
Marcus hyung narrowed his eyes for a moment. Before he could interrogate me, I shrugged and answered.
“The bait was taken beautifully.”
* * *
Marcus looked at Ersen with a subtle expression.
‘The half-demons took the bait?’
He withdrew his gaze for a moment and fell into thought. The recent conversations with his friends flashed through his mind. Actually, everyone had somewhat noticed that Ersen’s physical condition had been strange lately. It wasn’t because of the poison. He was strangely tired often, occasionally muttered incomprehensible things to himself, and even had an attitude of hiding something. Since he wasn’t completely losing his mind or having seizures, they hadn’t bothered to dig into it.
In fact, the three people excluding Marcus had wanted to find out the reason immediately. But Marcus had stopped them. He said ‘there’s no need to do that right now.’ His stance was that what would be revealed would be revealed someday anyway, and if necessary, he would confirm it himself. If Marcus hadn’t stopped them, Skyle would have already begun investigating.
‘I can understand Theo and Sercil since they’re soft-hearted, but even Kyle…’
Marcus laughed inwardly as if incredulous. He had warned about the prince’s constitution himself, so he didn’t know why he was acting like that.
‘Well, Kyle is also quite tender-hearted.’
Anyway, Skyle paying special attention to the 2nd Prince’s physical condition. It was a picture he had never even imagined in his lifetime. That person who always thoroughly excluded emotions, and not just anyone, but the prince?
‘I should definitely be on guard.’
In any case, it was clear that his physical condition was worse than anyone else in this room. But the person in question seemed quite satisfied with the current situation. Strangely so.
Ersen was quietly drinking tea with a somewhat pale face. The veins on the back of his hand stood out, and there were dark blue shadows under his eyes. Yet his attitude was not just peaceful but even leisurely. It was an attitude as if he knew everything. Despite his poor physical condition, his eyes were clear. That made Marcus more wary.
He opened his mouth indifferently.
“Strange? That clan was very quiet. You say they took the bait?”
Ersen nodded slowly.
“Mmm.”
His expression was mysteriously bright. To the extent that one would wonder if such an expression could emerge in this situation.
No, it wasn’t just satisfaction, but the expression of someone whose plans had gone accordingly.
The fact that Ersen had consumed the rare poison Logi at the ballroom that day was known only to a very few, including Marcus.
Even though the victim who consumed the poison was royalty, no one properly made an issue of it. Noble society quietly closed their mouths, and the court magicians provided nothing other than saying “treatment was completed.”
Did Ersen know?
That everyone was mocking him.
That all those responses were rumored to have happened because he was abandoned by the Emperor.
The ones who had definitely gained something through that ball were Marcus himself, Skyle, and Theodore.
The three of them moved behind the scenes to track Lady Marsien’s suspicious behavior and obtained various circumstances regarding the relationship between the half-demons and her. It was an unexpected harvest.
‘But Ersen?’
He seemed to have gained nothing.
“I don’t understand what help that could have been in obtaining the half-demons.”
Marcus looked at Ersen with doubt in his eyes.
As if reading his mind, Ersen chuckled and slowly provided more explanation.
“Originally, bread that’s too big has to be broken into pieces to eat.”
“Ooh. Are you going to remove the mold before eating it?”
“As expected of hyung. You understand quickly.”
In other words, he was going to sow discord within the half-demons.
‘With what?’
One young lady couldn’t have accomplished anything, right? The group of half-demons who came then didn’t seem interested in the prince either.
Marcus clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘But that worked?’
However, regarding this question, Ersen didn’t give any particular answer.
He only smiled quietly.
* * *
About a month later.
Walking quietly through the inner corridor of the Crown Prince’s annex, Skyle suddenly thought.
‘Why don’t you harbor any doubts?’
For several days, no, in fact for over a month, Prince Ersen had been unable to return to his own palace.
They had detained him here using the ball where he consumed the Logi poison as an excuse.
Theodore hadn’t forced it, but had recommended it in a way that was difficult to refuse, and Marcus had been somewhat coercive.
Sercil chimed in with the two of them, jumping around saying to go after his body was completely healed.
Their coordination was perfectly seamless.
“Hmm. What does the Archduke think?”
He recalled the prince’s appearance, rarely showing a troubled expression as he subtly sought him out.
As if expecting that only he would take his side.
“What would you like to do, Your Highness?”
“I want to go back.”
“Why?”
He had stubbornly insisted on that palace where there was nothing good, as if honey had been spread on it.
But he couldn’t answer that question.
Prince Ersen just mumbled for a while, then stuck out his lips slightly once and smiled again.
All four people had paid attention to Ersen’s rarely sulky reaction.
Even Marcus, who had been subtly treating Ersen carelessly lately, was very secretly enjoying it.
‘What a frightening constitution.’
Skyle smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Between the dark cloak flowing from his shoulders, a small glass bottle in his hand was visible.
He stood in front of the door, took a moment to regulate his breathing, then quietly turned the handle without knocking.
Moving the stubborn Ersen to this place had been yesterday’s work.
When they moved him to such a good place that he wouldn’t even think of his own palace, Prince Ersen finally lost his words.
Then after a long while, he laughed as if sighing and said:
“Ahahaha! No, what do you all think I’m going to do to you that you keep acting like this?”
“What would Your Highness do to me?”
“Fairy-nim. Really, Fairy-nim is too gentle and kind, that’s the problem.”
“Your Highness. I’m not gentle or kind at all.”
“Fine, let’s say that’s true!”
The inside was warmer than expected.
Sunlight slanted in, illuminating the shoulders on the bed.
The sunlight warmly filled the bedroom as if embracing it. In the heavy air, dust danced slowly, and the light that squeezed through the curtains naturally wrapped around his shoulders as if it had been there for a long time. As if that alone could be comforting.
The person who had been leaning against the headboard gazing out the window slowly turned his head.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
