Chapter 13: The First Meeting (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 13: The First Meeting (2)
‘It must be because of the curse, right?’
The look in the Grand Duke’s eyes a moment ago hadn't been one of contempt or loathing toward me. Rather, what he harbored was closer to fear.
It was the look of someone terrified that he might accidentally harm another.
‘So that’s why he was avoiding me.’
Only today did I faintly realize it. The reason the Grand Duke had run away so persistently—though it might have been partly because he disliked me—was fundamentally because he was afraid of hurting me.
Why hadn't I thought of that?
When the Monster War broke out, the previous Grand Duke had gained a curse as the price for forming a blood contract with a dragon.
And when the previous Grand Duke died, that curse was passed down to his son, Loik.
‘The fact that the Grand Duke suffers from a curse was also in the original novel.’
Yet, it was as if some mysterious force had been blocking my thoughts; I hadn't been able to perceive that fact at all until now.
‘To think I only remembered it after our bodies touched.’
As I lay in bed, I tried to recall as much of the original setting regarding the Grand Duke’s curse as possible.
The contract had originally been the dragon's idea.
The dragon, its strength fading, was on the verge of vanishing and needed a vessel to safely store its mana. Under the pretext of granting victory in the war, the dragon transferred its Magic Core to the previous Grand Duke.
The dragon’s mana was powerful enough to tip the balance of the world, so the previous Grand Duke easily won the war against the monsters and protected the North.
However, there was no way a mere human could fully endure the power of a dragon. Eventually, the previous Grand Duke met his end, and that destiny fell squarely onto the current Grand Duke’s shoulders.
Because dragon mana constantly self-multiplies within the body, it must be released periodically. If the timing is missed or the energy isn't sufficiently vented, the accumulated mana triggers a spontaneous discharge.
In other words, it causes an "Overload," accompanied by pain that feels as if the body is being torn apart.
The Grand Duke constantly consumes the dragon’s mana through monster subjugation.
However, this is merely a temporary measure. The best way to relieve the burden is to channel the mana into another person through physical contact.
The problem was that, perhaps due to the dragon’s nature of coveting women, only a woman could receive the dragon’s mana. Furthermore, if the partner did not possess exceptional mana management skills, the mana would become tangled within them, causing immediate and severe side effects.
In the world of the original novel, the only woman capable of managing the Grand Duke’s mana was the Saintess, Constine.
Consequently, every woman except Constine would experience excruciating pain the moment they touched the Grand Duke. If the contact went wrong, it could even lead to death.
Which meant that when I hugged the Grand Duke, I could have potentially died.
‘Why didn't I even consider such an important fact?’
I almost departed this world prematurely for a truly stupid reason.
And what was even stranger was the fact that I was perfectly fine despite being in contact with the Grand Duke for quite a while.
It was clearly stated that even a mere touch would cause intense agony. I had held the Grand Duke for a significant amount of time, yet far from being in pain, I hadn't felt the slightest bit of discomfort.
In fact, being held in those sturdy arms felt rather... satisfying...
Anyway, the cut on my palm hurt much more than that.
It’s not like I have mana management skills as great as Constine’s. Could it be that the power doesn't work on someone from another world?
‘I feel like I’d know for sure if I could just hold the Grand Duke’s hand one more time...’
Assuming he’d even meet me, of course. After what happened, it’ll probably be even harder to see him from now on.
‘By the way, is his arm okay? What if it’s a deep wound?’
I remembered the drops of blood dripping from the Grand Duke’s arm like water.
‘Well done. You’ve left the absolute worst first impression.’
The Grand Duke’s body, fresh from a bath, had smelled of the cool, refreshing scent of winter. Meanwhile, I must have reeked of wine and tomato stew.
I should have at least gone to see him while sober.
I kicked the innocent blankets repeatedly, swallowing a bottomless pit of self-reproach.
It was strange how sleep still came despite having so many worries.
I offered a deep prayer of apology in my heart to the servants who would have to do a midnight deep-cleaning because of their damn Grand Duchess, and then I fell fast asleep.
*
The Great Lord of Blenheim and master of the Grand Duke’s Castle, Grand Duke Loik Blenheim, had slept soundly.
Waking up early in the morning, Loik blinked several times, unable to believe it. There was no way morning had come already... yet the sun was dimly dawning outside the window.
Hadn't it been his standard routine to toss and turn until the small hours of the morning, only falling asleep as the sun rose?
‘Could it really be because of the Lady?’
Only a very few people, including Whitley, knew about his curse.
Thanks to that, Loik had been in a state of constant tension ever since the oblivious Perel brought the Lady to Blenheim.
Perel had even shown him the wooden planks she had arrived on, trying to argue that she wasn't in league with the Marquis. And the more Perel did so, the firmer Loik’s resolve became that he had to send the Lady back as quickly as possible.
Loik could harm the Lady just by touching her.
It was a truly inappropriate advantage.
If the Marquis were to stab him in the back at some point, would Loik be able to refrain from venting his rage on the Lady before him?
Loik was always in an unstable state because of the dragon’s power. He didn't even have confidence in his own reason.
If he were to lay a hand on the Lady’s body, even impulsively, Loik would never be able to forgive himself.
It would be nothing short of slaughtering the weak.
Whitley was likely seeing to it that she lacked for nothing, but it still wouldn't be an easy life for her. This was a remote frontier without a single friend, let alone family.
He wished she would just go back quickly instead of making herself suffer for no reason.
While swinging his sword hundreds of times alone in the empty training ground, Loik’s mind had been entirely filled with thoughts of the Lady.
It was a very unpleasant and bothersome curiosity.
And it should have remained just that—curiosity... He didn't know how things had turned out this way.
The room at the west end of the third floor, where no one lived.
In that place, which was almost humble for the master of the castle to live in, yet was the only sanctuary where Loik could exist purely as himself, the Lady stood as if she were a part of it.
When the steam obscuring his vision scattered, only one thought came to mind.
‘The knights were right.’
The Lady was very beautiful.
Both objectively and subjectively.
When the moonlight at her back illuminated her white, translucent face, a pair of sparkling blue eyes, like inlaid jewels, met his. The moment her small, red lips parted, Loik felt, ridiculously enough, as if his breath had stopped.
Perhaps his lack of any particular impression of women’s appearances until now had been an arrogance born of ignorance—the fact that he had never seen a truly beautiful woman.
And the moment the Lady’s foot slipped, Loik had embraced her before he knew it.
His body had moved first out of an unconscious fear that she might get hurt. It was an absurd thing to do. If Loik grabbed her, it was certain she would be hurt even more.
It was the very situation he had feared from the beginning—one where his reason failed to function properly.
If there was one thing different from his expectations, it was the fact that the source of his emotion toward the Lady was worry, not anger.
The moment their bodies touched, the mana condensed within Loik’s body flowed into her in an instant. It happened as naturally as water leaking through a crack in a glass bottle.
In that moment, a sense of peace he had never felt in his life enveloped him.
The pain that had tormented him all this time faded away slowly, as if it had never existed. For the first time since being cursed, Loik felt truly alive.
At the same time, a sweet fragrance drifted to his nose.
A scent so subtle it was almost imperceptible, yet so profound it was impossible to shake off, surrounded him completely.
He wanted to hold her in his arms like this for the rest of his life. That was the only thought in his head.
Only after feeling a sense of fulfillment so thick it made his body go limp did Loik snap back to his senses.
‘What on earth have I done?’
His heart, which had just been fluttering, began to beat wildly with fear. Even to his own ears, his voice asking if she was alright trembled ridiculously.
— “I’m fine. Are you alright, Grand Duke?”
Seeing the Lady worry about him instead, as if nothing were wrong, a wave of uncontrollable confusion washed over him.
Even after the Lady left, Loik asked Whitley several times if she was okay.
He didn't know if it was a relief that she was fine, or if the fact that she was fine was the real problem.
Only after Whitley had confirmed the Lady’s condition about ten times without showing any sign of annoyance did Loik lay his head on his bed.
He was surely going mad.
If things had gone wrong, he could have actually killed her.
But that fragrance was truly sweet.
It was a scent he had smelled in his mother’s greenhouse when he was very young—the kind of scent that naturally put one’s mind at ease.
If he held the Lady once more, would he be able to figure out what that scent was?
His mind was in turmoil as all sorts of emotions and thoughts swirled within him.
‘I’ve ruined any chance of sleep tonight as well.’
Having thought that, Loik surprisingly fell into a very deep sleep shortly after, as if collapsing from exhaustion.
It was the first time since inheriting the curse that he hadn't woken up once until morning.
No matter how much he racked his brain, there was only one hypothesis he could come up with.
「A woman immune to the Dragon’s Curse.」
‘Does this mean the Lady is the savior who can silence my pain?’
Why was the Lady unharmed? Was this wild speculation currently in his head actually true? If so, just how important a presence would the Lady become to him...? Everything was terrifying and fearful.
The curse was his fate.
It would be a lie to say he had never resented it. However, Loik had long ago accepted the curse as a part of himself. He hadn't even held onto the hope that a savior might appear one day.
No, he hadn't wanted a savior.
He had no desire for another person to hold the reins of his fate. He didn't want a "special person" to appear. Being desperately bound to the dragon alone was enough.
A relationship where one becomes subordinate to another, craving and pleading for their touch for a lifetime—it was a horrifying thought. Furthermore, it was even more unacceptable for that person to be the Lady.