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Chapter 5
Embarrassment surged over me like a crashing wave.
‘I tried so hard to look dignified all this time!’
Just as I was about to hurriedly make an excuse, I caught sight of Valentin’s brightly smiling face.
His milky white skin, once pale, was now full of life. The corners of his lips curled up pleasantly, brimming with mischief.
I shut my mouth.
‘Well… if it’s good, it’s good.’
His smile was so radiant it made even the onlooker happy, and I found myself smiling along with him.
I briefly set aside my worry that my sharp fangs might make me look frightening. I didn’t even have the mental space for that kind of calculation.
I was simply so happy to be able to face someone and smile that nothing else could intrude.
‘If it’s Valentin…’
Yes. If it’s this man, bright as sunlight, even if he learns about the curse, he won’t despise me. He won’t mock me for daring, as a beast, to seek true love.
“Valentin.”
The voice that left my mouth sounded stiff. Not just my voice—my entire body had gone rigid with tension.
Perhaps sensing the sudden change in me, Valentin’s expression also turned serious.
“Please, go ahead.”
Even his honey-sweet voice couldn’t calm me at this moment.
“In truth… I have a secret.”
Valentin blinked slowly and turned his body fully toward me, as if urging me to continue.
“I’ve been cursed by a dark mage. A very, very wicked curse.”
I wouldn’t tell him everything. Not that I came from another world, nor that I would die if I failed to break the curse.
I didn’t want to burden someone who didn’t yet know me well with more than necessary.
Valentin was the kind of gentle person who would worry over someone else’s troubles as if they were his own.
“I used to be human. I wasn’t always like this… I was cursed and turned into a beast.”
“……”
Silence fell.
The words—to break the curse, I need a kiss filled with true love—caught in my throat like a thorn.
That was, that was too…
‘How embarrassing!’
It felt as though I’d be asking Valentin to become my lover.
Of course, I wanted to. But it felt shameless.
So I kept my mouth tightly shut and cautiously studied his reaction.
Perhaps shocked by the unexpected revelation, Valentin’s face had grown solemn. But when our eyes met, he softened his expression and comforted me as though nothing had changed.
“You must have suffered greatly.”
Contrary to my fears, he didn’t look at me strangely. Nor did he seem repulsed by the fact that the beast was once human.
‘What a relief. I’m glad I told Valentin.’
Overjoyed at being understood, I nodded vigorously.
“Is there no way to break the curse?”
My rapidly bobbing head stopped at once.
This time, Valentin didn’t say that I didn’t have to answer if it was difficult.
He simply stared at me with unwavering eyes.
Unwavering? No, that can’t be. He just looks worried.
He must be upset, as if it were his own problem, thinking I might have to live forever as a beast.
How could he be so kind?
Encouraged by his warmth, I carefully explained the condition for breaking the curse.
“If I receive a kiss filled with true love, that will do.”
“…A kiss?”
“Yes, a kiss filled with a man’s love….”
An even heavier silence followed. I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head and stared only at the floor near Valentin’s feet.
‘Lift your head! You had to cross this mountain eventually.’
A long time seemed to pass as I tried to steady myself, yet the silence remained.
Unable to endure it any longer, I cautiously raised my head—and saw Valentin wearing a rather subtle expression.
In that instant, realization struck like lightning.
‘…He must not know that I’m a woman.’
Who would look at me and think that? This physique! This build! An androgynous husky voice, and even a man’s vest!
From any angle, I was entirely male.
From Valentin’s perspective, it must look as though I had trapped him in Raphelia Castle just to devour his lips.
‘That’s not it…! I mean, it kind of is!’
Flustered, I hurried to speak, but Valentin was faster.
“Are you trying to seduce me right now?”
“Eh—”
A strange sound escaped my lips, but Valentin’s gaze didn’t waver.
Far from showing disgust or contempt, he stepped closer.
Why—why are you coming closer?
I stumbled backward until my back hit the hard surface of a portrait.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Looking up at the portrait of Nathan Raphelia hanging behind me, Valentin asked,
“Is the woman behind you… you?”
“……Yes.”
No, but.
“Hm.”
I’d expected him to be pleased at the sight of a beauty, yet his reaction was oddly ambiguous.
Don’t tell me he doesn’t think she’s pretty?
‘Is he blind!?’
I’d found it strange from the start that he treated me so well. Maybe he needed his eyesight checked.
As I was worrying about his vision at the most inappropriate moment, his blunt voice cut in.
“You don’t look alike at all.”
Of course we don’t! Heat rushed to my head in indignation.
I glared at him fiercely.
“Are you mocking me? It’s only natural that I don’t resemble that appearance in my current state.”
Aside from the black hair and golden eyes, there wasn’t a single thing we had in common.
Not one.
I shot him a look demanding an apology, but Valentin didn’t look sorry at all.
Instead, his beautifully shaped lips curved slightly like a villain’s.
“That’s not what I meant… but never mind.”
He ended the matter neatly and stepped a few paces away from me, lowering his gaze. A shadow fell beneath his long lashes as he pondered.
Anxious, I waved my hands frantically.
“No, I’m not saying I’d force you. It has to be a kiss with sincerity—how could I force that? I just thought if we spent a little more time together, naturally our hearts might open, and then perhaps—”
The more I spoke, the further off course I went. I hadn’t realized I had such a talent for climbing mountains…
‘I want to cry.’
My lines sounded like something a shameless scoundrel would use to seduce a woman, and tears welled in my eyes.
Fortunately, Valentin didn’t seem to be listening at all. He merely stood there with his arms crossed like a statue.
“Are you even listening to me?”
When I pressed him for a response, he finally met my eyes.
I was about to hurriedly clarify the misunderstanding, but I fell silent.
Because Valentin was smiling brightly.
His eyes curved into crescents as he smiled, like an angel descended from heaven.
“So you’re not a demonic beast or a monster… just a cursed animal.”
Still reeling from seeing his true smile for the first time, I could only nod slowly.
I didn’t even have time to notice the flaw in his wording.
“And to become human again, you need a kiss filled with love.”
He paused briefly before continuing briskly.
“That’s perfect. I was just in need of an obedient puppy.”
That’s good, then. Hm…?
Something was strange. Very strange.
His green eyes, once warm, now gleamed like polished glass beads. Though his voice remained gentle, a chill ran down my spine.
‘Run.’
Without understanding why, I moved on instinct—only to be blocked by Valentin’s body.
Before his tall, solid frame, I couldn’t take another step. It wasn’t just his physique; the presence emanating from him overwhelmed me.
Turning my desperate gaze from the exit back to himself, Valentin parted his shapely lips. The content, however, was far from beautiful.
“Want to bark?”
“…What?”
The dignified tone I’d worked so hard to maintain vanished instantly. Before I knew it, my hands were clasped politely in front of me.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
“Or maybe lie down.”
“What are you—”
My heart pounded, my voice trembling unsightly.
Lowering my gaze to his feet in inexplicable anxiety, I felt Valentin seize the front of my vest.
“The puppy doesn’t know any tricks.”
His sweet voice fell by my ear, utterly at odds with the situation.
When I came to my senses, I was pinned beneath his grip, sprawled on the floor.
“This is ‘lie down.’”
Got it?
At his whisper, every hair on my body stood on end. At the same time, a flash of realization struck.
A familiar name I’d heard somewhere before. A gaze I’d encountered several times since Valentin first stayed at the castle.
The source of the unease I’d been ignoring revealed itself in stark clarity.
Blond hair and green eyes. A holy appearance like sunlight, paired with a personality that was anything but. A twisted smile. A black beast.
And Valentin Junoa Berenice.
This place was the romance fantasy novel The Flower That Bloomed on the Cliff.
Valentin Junoa Berenice, First Prince of the Richard Empire and Duke of the North.
Lineage, appearance, ability, wealth.
There was nothing he lacked. His every move was the subject of fascination and gossip throughout high society.
Whenever Valentin, who had spent most of his life on the battlefield, showed his face in the capital, a full romance novel practically wrote itself.
They said His Highness handed his handkerchief to a young lady shedding tears after hardship.
They said he noticed and complimented a changed hairstyle with meticulous care. (Though that young lady had met him for the first time that very day.)
The longer he stayed away, the more Valentin became an unattainable prince—perfect for yearning, hopeless unrequited love.
Even when he returned from war and declared he would yield his claim to the throne to the Second Prince without contest, even when he accepted a dukedom and relocated to the barren northern lands of Berenice, the fervor did not cool.
If anything, the contrast between his sunlit face and his resolute masculinity only drove women wilder.
Ah, the Duke of the North, so breathtakingly beautiful!
The empire’s infatuation with Valentin burned ever brighter.
And the very man who set the hearts of imperial ladies aflame was now—
Shhk—
In an instant, his blade sliced sideways and buried itself deep into an assassin’s body.
‘Damn.’
Valentin frowned at the red blood splattered on his sleeve.
Without hesitation, he kicked the assassin in the chest with his long leg.
With the sound of bones crushing, the assassin collapsed to the ground. Around him lay various monsters that had likewise met their end at Valentin’s hands.
As for the assassin—who had sent him was so obvious it wasn’t even amusing.
“I’ve said I’m not interested in the imperial throne, and they still pull this.”
Though his lips curved as if smiling, his green eyes gleamed sharply. Lowering his gaze at a dull ache, he saw blood flowing from the wound in his abdomen where a dagger had stabbed him.
After a brief consideration, he clenched his teeth and pulled the dagger free, bracing for the pain. It wasn’t a major injury, but the blade was clearly poisoned.
Valentin had resistance to most poisons, but to avoid unforeseen complications, he decided to end his scouting here and return.
“How troublesome.”
Despite the considerable blood loss, Valentin wasn’t particularly worried. He had survived countless brutal wars; he was strong—and lucky.
He was more irritated that his horse had died, meaning he would have to walk a long way back.
But there was one thing Valentin hadn’t anticipated:
A magnificent castle appearing in the middle of the forest.
