Excessive Affection
“No way!!”
Surprisingly, the one who answered was Daeho. And it was an immediate response after hearing Diana’s proposal. Every gaze in the room snapped toward him. I was standing right beside him and staring too, so Daeho’s face flushed a deep, burning red. On top of that, Diana leaned forward with clear interest.
“Do you already have a predetermined fiancé…? Could it be you, Duke of White Night?”
“That’s… not it, but….”
Daeho sneaked a glance at me. Had he done something stupid? What if I thought he was weird? Had he been too nosy? What right did he even have to refuse? Negative thoughts swirled through his head like a storm. Why had he jumped in to oppose it? Just as Diana had asked, it wasn’t as if he and I shared any special relationship.
I just hate it…
He simply didn’t want to imagine it—me marrying Nero and building a family together. The moment that picture formed in his mind, his mouth had answered on pure reflex. If someone asked why he’d opposed it so fiercely, the still-honest-with-himself Daeho decided to use his little sister as a shield. S-Sieg-nim belongs to Soho. Blocking the Emperor’s proposal was for his sister’s future! And there was a more urgent matter to handle first.
“I’m sorry, but… this doesn’t seem like the right situation to discuss that. The matter hasn’t been fully resolved yet.”
Daeho gestured around the chaotic hall and spoke calmly.
“He’s right, Your Majesty. If we don’t deal with the traitors first…”
Knight Commander Rose joined in, trying to persuade Diana alongside him. Diana lived and died for her daughter; anything involving her child took absolute priority. Wasn’t that exactly why she had suddenly announced the princess’s husband candidates at a banquet that was supposed to be the eve of the martial tournament? Her bad habit had reared its head again.
Still, as a loyal subject, offering honest advice was only proper.
“Yes, of course. Where is Morgan?”
She had been momentarily dazed by Nero’s uncharacteristic behavior—she had believed Nero would never show interest in men—but Rose’s words snapped her back. Diana shot to her feet and, leaning on Rose, slowly approached Morgan.
“Ugh… M-Mother… Hic.”
Surrounded by knights, Morgan was sobbing. She clutched her head, weeping in obvious agony, occasionally muttering incomprehensible words to herself.
“We must kill Emperor Diana. Must kill her. That is the only way to survive. Killing Emperor Diana is salvation for Mother… ugh… No!”
She immediately denied the words she had just spoken, like someone suffering from split personality. It didn’t look normal at all.
“Could it be… a curse?”
I muttered quietly and asked Nero to use her unique magic. Nero nodded, then locked eyes with Morgan and cast her spell.
“It’s not a curse….”
“Not a curse?”
“She’s dominated by something even more vicious than a curse.”
At Nero’s explanation, Daeho stepped forward and looked at Diana.
“May I attempt to dispel it?”
“If it’s magic from the White Night ducal house, I can trust it. Go ahead.”
Diana nodded and gave permission. She actually felt grateful. She knew the White Night family’s magic was powerful but demanded a price. If it could free her daughter from this torment, she was ready to offer suitable compensation.
Dispel
“Ughhhhh…! K-Kill… must kill!”
It didn’t work. Instead, Morgan only screamed louder, writhing in even greater pain.
“Why?”
Daeho muttered in disbelief. The White Night family’s dispel magic was famous. Hadn’t it instantly canceled Endelion’s unique magic when the demon changed her appearance? I couldn’t understand it either.
“Uwaaaa—!”
Whether my magic had worsened her condition or not, Morgan’s screams grew fiercer and she began thrashing violently. The knights subdued her immediately, of course.
“Could it be…?”
While everyone panicked, Nero approached Morgan. She gently pulled aside Morgan’s clothing and shouted.
“It’s rune script!”
“What is that?”
Diana asked. Rune characters were an ancient magic that engraved letters directly onto the target. It was a lost art, a relic of the past no longer in use. Mages at the Tower specialized in researching them, so bringing one might solve it, but—
“Uwaaaa—!”
Veins bulged in Morgan’s eyes from the pain. No one knew how much time she had left. There was no guarantee the Tower’s mages could even fix it. She looked like she would go mad and die at any second.
I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere recently…
Lost in thought, Nero pulled a ring from her pocket. It was the one she had received from Morgan. She remembered it because of the unusual rune characters engraved on it. The fact that the magic had been erased while the runes remained had left a strong impression.
“If we could only bring the person who erased the rune magic on this ring…”
But that was impossible. Rune characters were used by ancient dwarves and dragons. Even the Tower’s researchers struggled to decipher them perfectly. One character per day? Per week? An indefinite wait seemed likely. Unless a dwarf or dragon happened to stroll by and take a look, completely freeing Morgan from the magic appeared impossible.
Nero let out a deep sigh and lamented. Did they have to give up?
“Then is there truly no way…?”
Diana felt the same. If even Nero, a genius of magic, wore an expression of hopelessness, what could anyone do?
That was the moment.
Heal
I casually walked over to Morgan and activated my healing magic. Green light wrapped around her.
“Ugh…”
Like a lie, Morgan suddenly grew calm and fell into a peaceful, steady sleep.
“H-How?”
Nero checked Morgan’s condition with a flicker of hope. She wanted to see what had happened to the engraved runes.
“They’re gone?”
The characters that had seemed impossible to erase had vanished without a trace. Nero looked at me and shouted in disbelief.
“C-Could you be a dragon?”
Nothing else could explain it.
“R-Really, you’re not?”
“I keep telling you I’m not.”
After the banquet incident was settled, I explained myself countless times, but Nero’s suspicion refused to disappear. She was so persistent that even during the martial tournament finals she never took her eyes off me. Whenever I drank water, ate meals, or tried to sleep, she would pop up from somewhere and watch me. Once Akasha caught her hiding, pulled out her claws, and I had to break a sweat just to stop her.
“So what exactly will it take for you to believe me?”
“I’ll confirm it with my own eyes.”
That was how I ended up in Nero’s workshop. She wanted to examine whether I was truly human. I was surprised she let an outsider like me inside—her workshop wasn’t a place just anyone could enter.
“S-Since I’m the one asking… It’s humble, but please come in.”
The moment I stepped through the door, I felt like I had entered another dimension. A second ago I had been walking down a luxurious imperial corridor; now I stood in an incredibly crude space. It contained only the essentials for research, perfectly matching Nero’s rational personality. It absolutely did not look like an imperial princess’s room. Bookshelves lined the walls all the way to the ceiling, packed with ancient magic tomes and countless other books. Strange glass vials stood between them, bubbling with liquids of every color imaginable. It was the very definition of a mage’s workshop—exactly as I had pictured.
“D-Don’t look so closely…”
Nero blushed and covered my eyes.
“You literally just said I could look.”
“I-It’s embarrassing. It’s so mortifying I’d rather show you my bare body.”
That sounded pretty tempting. Then how about showing me your bare body instead? Before I could voice the thought, Nero sat me down in a chair.
“I-It’ll be over quickly. Just a moment.”
She opened a magic book and began chanting. After I endured that awkward stretch of time…
“H-Human?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
It seemed she had successfully confirmed I was one hundred percent human. What a relief. I already knew I was human, but after her relentless insistence that I might be a dragon or something else, I had almost started doubting myself.
“Sieg-nim’s hand size is about this… shoulders this much, pelvis is… Ah! I have something urgent to note down, so please rest for a while.”
Even after the examination, Nero stayed busy with something. Seeing how preoccupied she looked, I decided to secretly explore her workshop a little more.
Is she hiding something interesting?
She had blushed and called it embarrassing, so my expectations rose. Besides, this place was basically a treasure trove of magic. Even though I could only use healing magic, my interest in the subject had never faded. If I could use any other kind, I’m certain I would have gone straight to the Magic Tower.
“Ancient magic…?”
The bookshelf I reached was packed with materials on all kinds of ancient spells.
“Huh?”
As I carefully examined them, I couldn’t help but freeze in shock. It was a language I hadn’t seen once since arriving in this world.
“Hangul?”
I had found a book written in Korean. Why would ancient records contain Korean? I slowly began reading through several documents.
“The god of the beastmen…?”
Maybe it was because Akasha was always nearby, but the section on beastmen caught my eye first. Detailed information was written about the god Akasha constantly worshipped.
He who descended from a higher dimension came to this world in the body of a man and performed miracles, healing all beings, ruling them, and making them stronger.
And that person is also one permitted to read this text. You must awaken before it is too late. If you are late, your dependents may demand expressions of affection that border on obsession…?
What the hell is this nonsense?