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Chapter 35
“I think I understand what the Imperial Consort is aiming for. The excuse is that you have to be uncursed for you to wake up… It seems she plans to personally invite a High Priest who isn’t under the influence of the Castraine ducal family to see you.”
“And while she’s at it, the maids who were humiliated in the Empress’s palace will truly become proud maids who threw themselves to lift Princess Titania’s ‘curse’? She won’t be able to get rid of them, will she? She’ll have to bury the past, keep them, and give them a reward?”
“In fact, it seems like she’s trying to pay her back for that.”
Adrian gave a bitter smile.
When I said, ‘Hey, prove your loyalty to your master,’ and rolled the maids through hardship, Imperial Consort Cleo seized the opportunity and created a curse out of nothing, saying, ‘Oh, this kind of prayer is only done for someone who is truly cursed.’ She couldn’t have known that the emoticon sword was no different from a demonic sword to others, and it might have been a coincidence that the Imperial Consort’s plan and the appearance of the emoticon sword aligned at the same time.
No one was unaware that the security of the Rose Palace was a mess. The guards who failed to protect me and weren’t at their posts on time must have given testimonies that suited Imperial Consort Cleo’s fancy in prison. The maids were no exception.
“And Her Majesty the Empress will probably be rebuked.”
A bitter taste filled my mouth.
Wow, how can I not get a week of rest even after almost dying? What a spectacular, dynamic imperial palace life.
I ground my teeth and said, “…For allowing a profane curse to roam freely within the solemn imperial palace?”
“And she’ll just push the blame on my mother, saying that the reason I’m being protected right now is because she was careless in the first place.”
She’s really making good use of someone else’s sword!
The conclusion was simple either way. I couldn’t lie down any longer. But I couldn’t just get up and say, ‘There was no such curse.’ If I did that, it would mean that I had been pretending to be sick all this time without any illness.
Adrian gave a wry smile and continued, “I hear that tomorrow, after a large-scale investigation of the Rose Palace area, the High Priest will come to the Empress’s palace to heal you. A public document with His Majesty’s seal has already arrived, requesting our cooperation.”
They’re going to investigate the Rose Palace tomorrow? It was obvious that they would tightly seal off the Rose Palace area to prevent anyone from entering or leaving and secretly bury evidence of the curse tonight. And tomorrow, she would bring in the High Priest under her influence to make the curse a fait accompli.
I was in a checkmate. I had underestimated the Imperial Consort. She had created a situation that I couldn’t stop even though I knew about it. But I couldn’t just let her get away with it.
I briefly mulled over some of my knowledge from the original story that could be useful in this situation. And I made a decision.
“…Please call someone from the Castraine ducal family. Tell them it’s an urgent matter.”
When my survival and future are at stake, I’ll set my pride aside for a moment.
When Titania told him to ‘not interfere anymore,’ Raymond naturally assumed he wouldn’t see her for a while. However, surprisingly, as soon as she found out about the Imperial Consort’s actions, Titania contacted him without a word. She asked for his help. She was willing to use one of the debts she had so painstakingly erased.
She said that there wasn’t much time left, and since she knew the influence and abilities of the Castraine family well, she had to use them this time.
As he listened to her plan, which was a mix of means he couldn’t even imagine, a bit of coercion, gambling, and acting, Raymond unconsciously parted his lips.
‘Why are you going this far?’
He almost asked.
The Castraine family also knew that the Imperial Consort was up to something. However, since it wasn’t directly harming the Castraine family, they were just waiting to see what she would do. Of course, if it had directly harmed Titania, they would have moved as well. However, they wouldn’t have been so proactive.
Titania, who was resting comfortably in the Empress’s palace, seemed at ease. She even mumbled to herself while reading the book Raymond had brought her, just in case, and said that lounging in bed and eating snacks was the best thing. He never expected her to react like this to this matter.
Whether she pretended to be asleep and woke up after receiving the blessing of the High Priest the Imperial Consort brought in, or whether she announced that she had already woken up before the High Priest arrived. Either way, there was no immediate harm to Titania.
The Castraine ducal family and the imperial family all knew that the ‘curse’ the Imperial Consort was talking about was not real. This was just the Imperial Consort’s provocation.
He didn’t know how she interpreted his gaze, but Titania blinked her clear green eyes and said, “It won’t cause a great loss to the Castraine family.”
“…I wasn’t worried about that.”
“Are you worried that you’ll unintentionally get caught up in the next succession dispute?”
“Are you worried about His Highness Adrian?”
That wasn’t his true intention. He couldn’t speak the words he wanted to say, as he remembered the expression Titania had on her face when she smiled and said, ‘Don’t interfere anymore using the excuse that you’re my savior.’
Ah, yes, that face. A smile that looked like a mask made by shattering his heart, which had once cried out, ‘Love me, look at me, I’m here,’ into a thousand pieces and putting them back together one by one.
When he thought of that smile, his breath would unconsciously stop. It was like that time he held her body, which had gone limp like a corpse, unable to breathe, in his arms.
He felt like a sinner. His emotions were swayed by a single word or expression. If Raymond had been a little more objective, he would have realized that it was strange for him, who had seen the death of people and monsters without rest since childhood, to be so easily swayed.
“Ah, you think I’m helping Her Majesty the Empress with this? And ultimately, you think I’m helping His Highness Adrian become the Emperor? And you think I’m creating a situation where I hope the Castraine ducal family will join that side?”
So when a sharp answer came back as if she were suspicious of him, Raymond almost answered without realizing it.
That it wasn’t like that.
He knew that if she had said, ‘I wish the Castraine ducal family would support His Highness Adrian as the next in line to the throne in exchange for my debt,’ it would have been an issue that could have been easily concluded after a discussion within the family.
Yes, I know that Titania would never use me, Raymond, or the Castraine ducal family for her own sake…
How?
How could he say that? Based on what?
Suddenly, Raymond felt a sense of helplessness. He couldn’t dare to say that he knew about the festering emotions of his young fiancée, Titania, who had grown up isolated in the imperial palace and only knew how to act maliciously, but had shown him her unwavering devotion. Even if it was a feeling that would make her despise, rage, and endlessly fester until it rotted her from the inside, the foundation of it was… that she was blindly devoted to him and could never turn away from him. He couldn’t say that he was the only one who knew that.
Suddenly, at some point, as she had always said, when she hit her head on the balcony and fell into a coma… that young, blind girl, the fiancée who loved Raymond, died. And the woman who opened her eyes again was one who said she ‘understood’ Raymond but didn’t expect any love…
He was reborn as someone who could say that she could use Raymond and the Castraine ducal family for her own sake.
He should not have said that much. It was an instinctive feeling.
Why?
Why?
Before he could even realize the question he had, something that may or may not have been an illusion appeared and blocked his view.
-I’m sorry…
It felt as if a desert had formed in the deepest part of his heart. As soon as he heard the voice, he felt as if someone was whispering to his shriveled and cracked heart below the parched, cracked earth.
-I’m sorry.
It was a hoarse voice, almost a whisper. Her dry, straw-like hair was tangled on the floor. He saw her exhausted-looking green eyes. Her eyes, which had always been as cloudy as muddy water, were as clear as spring water after a long rain. Eyes that seemed to hold the answer all by themselves.
-I’m sorry that someone like me loved you.
Is this what it feels like to scrape the last of the emotions that have nothing left and light a fire? If I were to scrape together the dry, crumbled, ashen leaves and throw them into the embers, would a bigger fire ignite?
An indescribable emotion surged within him. He wanted to grab her emaciated wrist right now.
What are you planning? What are you trying to do? What do you mean? Stop your nonsense and just tell me.
Are you trying to stir up someone by showing me a side of you that looks like you’re about to die or disappear?
Just as a spark that spreads over a drought-stricken field instantly becomes a disaster, he felt like he would lose his composure and shout at any moment. But before the inexplicable emotion could completely consume his heart, the illusion disappeared without a warning.
Before Raymond could fully regain his senses, he had to listen to Titania’s cold words.
“I know my place, so you don’t have to do that.”
“…May I ask what you mean by that?”
“Since Vivi isn’t here, I’ll be honest.”
Titania, who used to put on a smiling face for young Vivi, now spoke with a face that looked tired beyond her years.
“You don’t even like me, the Castraine ducal family.”
“That’s… not…”
Feeling as if he had been hit in the back of the head, Raymond couldn’t bring himself to deny it.
