Chapter 177: The End of the Curse
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 177: The End of the Curse
Meisel pressed her face against the gaps in the iron bars, peering into the darkness.
“Grand Duke! I knew you would come!”
Her face was so gaunt that her cheeks had sunken in. Loik studied her condition and spoke.
“You’ve grown thin.”
At first glance, his words sounded like concern. Tears of hope began to stream down Meisel’s face.
“The magic stone has drained much of her energy, so her strength will only continue to fail,” Enolius said flatly from behind him.
“Then the results will be even clearer,” Loik replied with a nod.
Norton stepped forward. “Extend your hand through the bars.”
“M-my hand?”
Meisel’s eyes shook with anxiety, but she eventually reached out. Her thin wrist barely extended a hand’s breadth past the bars. Norton grabbed her wrist firmly and yanked it outward.
Meisel’s entire arm was pulled through the bars in an instant, and her face slammed against the cold iron with a dull thud. Loik didn’t even flinch at the sight.
“Ugh… Grand Duke! Why are you doing this?!”
With her face pressed against the bars, Meisel looked at Loik through sorrowful tears. Ignoring her pathetic plea, Loik removed his black glove and approached her.
He reached out and gripped Meisel’s wrist.
There was no sound but her sobbing. No other reaction occurred. Loik’s heart pounded with anticipation.
“There is no reaction,” Enolius said cautiously.
Loik felt it too, but this was a matter that could not be left to even a shred of doubt. He released and gripped her wrist several times, watching for any change. Finally, he turned to Enolius as if seeking confirmation.
“Your Highness’s mana is more stable now than ever before.”
“Then… there are no more problems?”
Loik let go of Meisel’s wrist without a hint of lingering attachment. For a moment, an uncontrollable surge of emotion rose within him, and he tightened his jaw.
It was all thanks to Annette.
After the Imprint, the two of them had become perfectly connected as one. Every moment, Loik’s mana crashed over Annette like a stormy sea, only to return to him as calm as a lake. His mana, which had always felt on the verge of an overload, had finally regained a perfect balance.
I no longer have to avoid women like a plague victim.
He no longer had to send Annette out alone, like a wife without a husband. He could finally stand by her side as a husband she could be proud of. The thought brought a hot lump to his throat.
“Congratulations,” Norton said in a low voice.
Norton was the only one among the knights who knew this secret. Though he tried not to show it, his voice was thick with emotion.
I must tell Annette that the curse is over.
Loik remembered how Annette had started to say she wanted to see the festival together during the eve of the celebration at the lake, only to quickly shut her mouth. Now, he could go anywhere she wanted to go.
How happy will she be?
Annette was likely already asleep, but he couldn't contain his excitement.
I should at least go see her sleeping face.
Having finished his business in the dungeon, Loik turned to leave with a light heart. That was when Meisel burst into fresh tears.
“Please, listen to me! I can explain everything!”
Loik had been certain the curse was broken, but he couldn't exactly test it on just any woman. Of course, a criminal who had dared to threaten Annette’s life and try to steal her place was an exception. Loik felt not a single spark of guilt for using Meisel as a test subject.
However, since he had obtained the answer he wanted thanks to her, he was willing to hear her final words. As Loik paused to listen, Meisel spoke frantically.
“It was all because of that magic stone necklace! An evil energy bewitched me, and I couldn't help myself. Besides, the shaman threatened to kill me… but I truly never dreamed of harming Her Highness the Consort!”
A cliché excuse.
Loik narrowed his eyes. “This might be your last chance before you die. Is that the best you could come up with after being locked up for days?”
“D-die?” Meisel pressed her face even harder against the bars. “What do you mean by that, Grand Duke!”
Grand Duke.
The unpermitted familiarity of the title sparked a fresh wave of anger.
“When did I ever give you permission to call me that?”
Aside from the knights who called him Captain, Annette was the only one who didn't have to use his formal title. When Annette called him "Grand Duke," his heart fluttered. Hearing it from Meisel, however, was utterly revolting.
Seeing her look so terrified after committing such a brazen crime only fueled his rage.
“Because of you,” Loik said, his teeth clenched. “The Grand Duchess was frightened.”
Meisel’s lips trembled at his low, biting tone.
“Because of a creature like you… my wife almost lost the ability to ever step into a carriage again.”
The thought that Annette, a woman who loved going out so much, could have been so traumatized that she might have fled back to the Capital was horrifying.
“But she wasn't even hurt!” Meisel cried out, her eyes twisting with resentment as if to ask if this was truly a capital offense.
In her lemon-colored eyes, her true nature was revealed; there wasn't a hint of remorse.
“If the Grand Duchess had been hurt even as much as a scratch on her fingertip, your limbs would have been severed and hung at the castle gates,” Loik said, his eyes glowing with genuine fury. “You shouldn't harbor any hope of escape. The only reason I haven't executed you yet is because I'm worried about the Grand Duchess.”
Annette was soft-hearted by nature and wouldn't be able to handle such a thing.
“What is the Grand Duchess to you, anyway?” Meisel glared at Loik, her eyes now filled with venom. “How am I so different from her?”
Her fingertips turned white as she gripped the bars.
“I have lived my entire life to become a woman worthy of you. I endured a lifetime in this barren land looking only at that position! How could you choose her over me… She is the daughter of a Marquis! She is the enemy of the North!” Meisel screamed, frothing at the mouth. “That woman is not worthy of you!”
“You’re delusional.”
Loik let out a hollow laugh at her attempt to lecture him.
“Of course the Grand Duchess isn't worthy of me.”
“Then—!”
“Because she is far too good for a man like me to possess.”
At those words, Meisel’s eyes clouded with despair.
“That is why I can never forgive this stunt,” Loik said, his eyes flashing with clear hostility. “I am already doing everything in my power just to keep Annette by my side. I will not tolerate you tripping me up like this.”
Meisel gasped for air, choking under the sheer weight of his murderous intent. Even when Norton called out to him, the bloodlust didn't easily dissipate. It was only after the knight called him a second time that Loik finally managed to rein in his anger. Perhaps because he took after a dragon, it was difficult to control himself once he lost his reason.
Loik turned away without looking back at Meisel again.
“Grand Duke! Please! Don't go!”
Realizing instinctively that this was the end, Meisel broke into a shrill wail.
“I was wrong! I only did it because I love you so much! Please don't leave me alone. I'm so scared, Grand Duke!”
Leaving behind Meisel’s voice, which sounded more and more like the howling of a beast, Loik stepped onto the stairs.
“Are you truly going to sentence her to death?” Norton asked cautiously as they walked out of the prison. “Count Arbor will not sit idly by.”
“I don't care.”
“Word will surely reach the Capital as well.”
Loik remained silent. In truth, that was the reason he was hesitating. If a daughter of a vassal family was executed in Blenheim, the Imperial family would certainly try to dig into the circumstances. He couldn't afford to have eyes on the North right now.
Especially for Annette’s safety.
“Leave her in the cell for the time being.”
He wouldn't let the matter drag on for too long. Loik gave the firm command and headed toward Annette.
*
“Madam, aren't you going home?”
Late at night, the sewing room of Couter was brightly lit. The last remaining employee asked while glancing at Ramondria.
“You go ahead. I’ll stay a bit longer.”
The employee lingered for a moment before bowing and disappearing.
Madame Ramondria.
She was the owner of Couter, the most successful boutique in the North. When she first arrived in Blenheim, Ramondria had been consumed by despair and frustration. To go from running the most popular boutique in the Capital to being pushed to the edge of the North, where fashion was most outdated…
And all for the crime of failing to please a single Lady.
All her troubles had begun when Ramondria took charge of the debutante dress for Ladriel, the second daughter of the Marquis Frais.