#99
After spacing out for a moment, I noticed the hand resting on his shoulder and startled, quickly pulling it away.
Then whoosh.
“Oh.”
Just as I tensed, thinking I might fall backward.
He naturally caught me and helped me regain my posture, and I only blinked slowly at him.
His voice reached me.
“You need to be careful.”
“……”
As if someone were controlling it, my gaze turned toward his face. He was smiling gently, his eyes slightly curved.
Without realizing it, I stared at that face in a daze.
A question flickered across his face as he quietly observed me.
In that moment, I couldn’t gauge how I had been looking at him. Perhaps it was the same pitiful expression that had shown in my eyes on some day in the past when I looked at him, my unseemly feelings laid completely bare.
I remembered how he had been displeased every time I looked at him like that. Recalling that, I was finally able to control my mindless behavior.
I blinked slowly once, and simultaneously raised the corners of my mouth as usual.
“Archduke… this, by any chance.”
“……”
“Are you hitting on me?”
A slightly hoarse voice, heavier than usual, flowed out.
I slowly relaxed the strength in the hand that had been on his shoulder, then carefully cupped his face with both hands as he looked up at me slightly.
“Tell me if you want to.”
He maintained a gentle smile without wavering. With a clear expression devoid of the earlier questioning look, as if finding it amusing.
“Want what?”
“Well. Anything?”
“Will you listen if I tell you?”
“I’ll listen, I’ll listen~”
“Ahaha.”
As if there had been no strange atmosphere at all, he started walking.
As I entrusted my entire body to him without reservation, I swung my feet slightly in a cheeky manner and muttered.
“Seriously. The Archduke definitely doesn’t know how beautiful he is. Otherwise, he couldn’t act so carelessly like this.”
He laughed as if amused.
“Stop doing that. My heart can’t take it~ What if I die suddenly before lifting all your curses?”
“You don’t need to worry about dying. I am a light mage, after all.”
He kept responding to me comfortably.
“……The Archduke should know that he’s not getting scolded right now only because he’s beautiful. That’s just how it is, just saying!”
Moreover, unusually, I couldn’t detect any sign that he was trying to extract information from me. That kept stimulating something inside me.
So I couldn’t stop babbling nonsense.
“No matter how I look at it, it sounded sincere, but you were joking?”
“Hmph, it’s not that it wasn’t sincere. Anyway, please be a little careful.”
He laughs as if amused.
Then he responded with a voice faintly tinged with playfulness.
“Specifically, what should I be careful about and how?”
“Hmm.”
Before I knew it, we had gotten close to the room where Sercil was staying.
Looking at that door, I thought.
‘We’re already here?’
During the curse-breaking process, the other person closes their eyes. Just like when I lifted Crown Prince hyung’s curse so far, I would proceed with nullification alone with Sercil. The Archduke would probably wait outside mostly, like with Crown Prince hyung, or go back.
With an inexplicable sense of regret, I let my legs, which had been swaying slightly, droop down.
I met eyes again with those beautiful eyes that were quietly observing me, and grinned.
Then I turned my head, brought my mouth close to his ear, and whispered.
“Just remember this. If you keep acting like that, I might want to have you all to myself.”
He blinked several times.
He looked as if he’d heard something unexpected.
Soon after, he muttered “Want to have me?” and burst into a short laugh, “Haha.”
“Huh, is this funny?”
When I narrowed my eyes while putting on an ominous voice, he laughed again.
What should I do.
He really looks happy.
These miraculous moments kept continuing for me, so honestly, I was a bit out of my mind.
“What should I do. That’s exactly what I’ve been hoping for.”
My eyes naturally widened at his leisurely muttering.
‘Did I just say… that he wants me to follow him around?’
Ah, does he mean as a special surveillance target?
But it felt like there was some other meaning hidden in it, so I couldn’t think of what to say back.
“Are you serious?”
When I asked lightly with a mischievous giggle, he replied “Who knows” in a casual tone and set me down in front of Sercil’s room door.
Then he hesitated as he was about to move away from me.
Because I hadn’t lowered the arm that had been draped over his shoulder, our posture had become awkward.
When I came to my senses, I found myself in a position where my feet were on the ground but I had my hands on his shoulders, looking up at him while embraced by him.
‘Ah.’
I tried to lower my hands belatedly, but even when I lowered them, he didn’t move away.
He just stared at me with an unreadable expression.
“……Archduke?”
When I called him with a bright smile, he slowly exhaled.
As if even his breath carried his scent, I unconsciously held my breath at the breath that brushed against me.
A small laugh was heard.
Before I knew it, I was trapped between the corridor wall right next to Sercil’s room and him.
In that state, he looked at me gently, then brought his face closer to mine.
“But Your Highness.”
And he spoke very affectionately.
“Do you happen to know in detail what curse has been cast on me?”
“……Hmm. If it’s the Archduke’s curse.”
His curse was one that turned him into the most violent and base beast. If the half-demons had their way, it would be a curse that would make him kill or harm anyone he saw indiscriminately due to randomly exploding urges, eventually turning him into a real beast.
That’s why it was called the beast’s curse.
“You do know.”
“Of course.”
“Then Your Highness, shouldn’t you be worried about yourself rather than me right now?”
“……Hm?”
For a very brief moment, his face filling my vision looked unfamiliar.
If he had looked like a statue until just now, in that moment…….
“You said earlier that our curses would have started accelerating.”
His slightly curved eyes were emitting a strange light.
It was a look I’d never seen before.
‘Why now, in the middle of the corridor, when he’s neither holding a sword nor facing an enemy.’
……Like looking at prey.
I belatedly understood what he meant.
‘Ah, right, acceleration.’
Of course, I knew the results of acceleration. To put it simply, the Archduke and Marcus hyung would undergo transformation before their curses were lifted. They would unconsciously turn into beasts and then return to human form after half a day, happening intermittently.
‘But acceleration isn’t exactly beastification.’
That’s literally the intensification of the curse, which means the Archduke would undergo changes beyond what was visible.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know.
What was puzzling was.
“Who should I be worried about?”
After staring at him blankly for a moment, I asked with pure puzzlement, and he closed his mouth.
Actually, when beastification caused urges to run wild randomly, I had never imagined a moment when I would be standing intact in front of him like this.
If things went according to plan, I should be able to avoid the rampage situation.
‘If I can’t avoid it, I’ll probably be beaten to a pulp.’
Then I’d have to prepare not to die by his hand and lift his curse, so the difficulty level would increase dramatically.
But the Archduke wouldn’t be unaware of such a situation.
Who was the ‘person who should really be worried’ that he mentioned?
“Oh my.”
A moment later.
In a gentle tone, the Archduke tilted his head slightly.
I flinched for an instant.
Because his blue eyes, which had been showing a strange hunger, momentarily looked violet.
The eyes flickering with interest were strangely brilliant, making it impossible to look away.
“You don’t know.”
I had seen the eyes of a starving beast before.
Nothing but hunger. Eyes filled only with hunger, leaving only a predator’s instincts. Before I was possessed, the dog kept at the house where I was abandoned had rushed at me with such eyes.
It was different from killing intent.
Since then, I had never seen such eyes again.
……Until now.
“That’s not bad either.”
Beyond the gentle smile, eyes quietly lurking.
Leaving behind the gaze that flickered for an instant, he quickly returned to his usual expression.
And looking down at me with benevolence as I had frozen, unable to make any other movement, he said.
“When lifting Sercil’s curse, I’m thinking of being present too. Would that be alright?”
After what felt like a long time, I answered slowly.
“You don’t like seeing blood.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you, Archduke.”
If you had no qualms about seeing blood, the torture I received wouldn’t have stopped at that level.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them.
He was still in front of me.
“Hmm. If you’re uncomfortable with it, it can’t be helped.”
I quietly looked at the Archduke’s regretful face and thought about how much he must be suppressing to live normally.
Why the half-demons called him, who endured the curse, a monster.
……And also about the intensity of the curse he must be enduring right now.
Ah, damn Ersen. Damn…….
Because I was afraid the ending would be ruined, I had been relatively indifferent to the pain of the curse he was experiencing now.
“I’ll be waiting outside, so please call me when you’re finished.”
“Archduke.”
I called him with a humorless face.
And said.
“Seriously. What do you mean I don’t know? I may look like this, but I’m the child of a demon.”
“……Pardon?”
“I mean. I won’t be frightened by something like that.”
The Archduke blinked deliberately.
With the appearance of a beautiful, docile-looking beauty.
“Actually, what just happened seemed much better?”
With the appearance of suppressing all desires.
“I was feeling frustrated just watching sometimes anyway. So that’s why.”
He raised his eyebrows slightly.
His blue eyes held the most intense curiosity I’d seen so far.
“But surely you weren’t trying to threaten me just now?”
“……What?”
Faint suspicion and deep interest, and something else.
“Really. What do you think of me? This is why I say you’re naive, Archduke.”
I pushed him away forcefully.
With an annoyed gesture like an arrogant cat, I slipped out of his embrace.
As he slowly turned his gaze toward me, I drew a satisfied smile and spoke leisurely.
“Archduke, why don’t you just treat me like you did just now? It’s less frustrating that way.”
You can devour me.
You can hurt me.
It’s okay if you can’t bear it and make a mistake.
It’s okay for you to do that to me.
“……”
The statue’s smile gradually fades.
He remained silent for a long time.
Then he bowed his head slightly, silently indicating that he understood what I meant.
I smirked as if to show off, then threw open Sercil’s room door. Sercil, who had been standing right in front of the door, opened his eyes wide and looked at me.
I put my finger to his lips and shushed him, then went inside, leaving the Archduke outside.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
