Previously
Giovinetta falsely testifies that she saw Irenia attempting suicide, using her connection to the Empress to gain the crowd's trust. To avoid the social stigma of a suicide attempt, Irenia is forced to lie and claim she simply slipped while looking at a frog.
“So you mean my great-grandfather, Cosimo Flores, placed an incantation upon his bloodline to suppress the curse of the Light Dragon?”
“Otherwise, there would be no explanation for His Highness’s condition stabilizing.”
“I possess such a spell…?”
“Yes. Your magical power is barely perceptible, yet a mysterious trace of a dragon’s latent might resides within you. Those dreams, signs, and visions you have witnessed—all are likely the dragon ability known as ‘Insight of the Laws.’”
“A dragon’s ability… Insight of the Laws?”
Richard nodded. If that was the case, every vision I had seen up until now had to be linked to that curse.
“That I have such power… it is unbelievable.”
Richard added that reaching the truth was the ultimate pursuit of every scholar and wizard.
“The truth…?”
His words sounded far too abstract and complex to me. Concepts such as laws, insight, and truth felt worlds away from my reality.
“Does that mean all the visions I saw were real?”
I had my doubts, but I needed to hear an explicit confirmation from him. He nodded, replying:
“If they were visions of events that have already occurred, then yes, they are real. However…”
“However?”
He raised his eyes toward the ceiling as if a thought had crossed his mind, then continued:
“If they are visions of the future, the matter is entirely different.”
These visions—or the Insight of the Laws, as he called it—had never shown me anything regarding the future. Could they truly reveal that as well?
“The future is peculiar. Because it carries infinite possibilities, it is neither fixed nor immutable.”
“The future can change?”
“Fate can be altered. Yet changing fate means defying the laws, and that never comes without suffering and a steep price.”
“Fate can be changed…?”
Richard’s violet eyes gleamed with a sharp intensity. It felt as though his gaze was telling me something unspoken:
‘Perhaps… perhaps you are the one who can change this destiny by your own power.’
“Therefore, if we can examine your blood…”
He hesitated briefly, as though the request itself weighed heavily on him. A blood examination sounded distinctly unsettling to me.
“And what might we learn from examining my blood?”
“We may discover a way to break the curse.”
“Truly?”
I cried out in astonishment. If we could break the curse, did that mean Caesar could return to his true self? I spun around toward him in haste.
“Ren…”
He smiled, clasping my hand. If the curse of the Light Dragon afflicting Caesar could truly be broken… did that mean he could be happy once more?
All at once, a shiver ran through my entire body, as though every cell inside me had caught fire. My heart thudded furiously against my ribs, and unable to contain myself, I threw my arms around him.
“Caesar, he says we can break your curse!”
“…Curse?”
According to Mercedes, Caesar had been an incomparable prodigy from a tender age, remarkably gifted and bright.
“Yes, you will return to your normal self.”
“My self…?”
He tilted his head in question, yet I knew his impaired cognition was merely the doing of the curse. If it were lifted, he would surely return to the man he once was.
“Hehe.”
Caesar beamed innocently, as if he had understood every word. The mere thought of dispelling the curse allowed me to harbor a grand dream: that he would become the most handsome, wonderful prince in this entire world… No, there was no doubt about it.
Inside my heart, the buds of hope began to bloom, petal by delicate petal.
Elsewhere…
Mercedes could not suppress her ecstatic smirk.
“I have trapped that wretched girl completely.”
Each time the scene played in her mind, she burst into fresh laughter. Her mocking amusement seemed endless.
Yet a single annoyance grated on her: Elda’s failure. How could she bungle an affair of such gravity?
“Is it so difficult to dispose of a worthless, crippled maid?”
Had Elda carried out the plan as instructed, that wench would have been eliminated without a trace, and Giovinetta would have become the Crown Princess. Yet Elda had failed her utterly.
Mercedes shook her head. It seemed the time had come to dispose of Elda as well. The maid already knew far too much.
“Even so, Giovinetta has always stood by my side.”
She recalled the events of earlier that day. She had managed to corner their common enemy entirely thanks to Giovinetta’s support. That moment when they tightened the noose around that woman together had been exquisitely sweet.
“Ha, hahaha…”
Only a little remained. Just a little more, and everything would be fulfilled. Once it was accomplished, everyone would live happily.
If only she eradicated that wicked woman who had driven a wedge between her and Caesar…
Caesar would smile at her again just as he used to.
“My boy is well; he is merely deceived by that cursed woman.”
She needed to tighten her grip even further.
“I am Caesar’s mother, and it is my sacred duty to cleanse him of that vermin.”
She was prepared to do anything. Even if it meant tumbling straight into the blazing depths of hell.
Late that night…
I lay pondering everything that had transpired.
‘Giovinetta colluded with them, and the head maid I expelled tried to murder me…’
Mercedes’s cold countenance flashed before my eyes—how she had defended that maid while driving me straight toward the abyss. I had always known she despised me, but I had never imagined she would go to such extremes.
‘Yes, she was the one behind the downfall of the other women as well… She must have pushed Elda to do this.’
The memory of nearly drowning in the pond still made me shudder. If Caesar had not arrived right then…
‘I must find a way to counter Mercedes…’
Though Elda was the one who pushed me, the true danger was Mercedes.
Yet the situation was not in my favor. Under the Empress’s watchful surveillance, and with Caesar’s condition deteriorating, it felt as though I was walking a tightrope over an endless abyss.
On top of that, the banquet to be hosted by the Empress drew near.
All of it made me feel as if a noose were tightening steadily around my neck.
‘What worries me most, however… is Giovinetta’s alliance with Mercedes.’
My bitterest foe, someone who knew me intimately, was now joined in cause with the woman actively trying to end my life.
That unholy alliance struck genuine dread into my heart.
“Haa…”
As I remained lost in thought, Caesar called out to me.
“Ren, are you angry?”
“Huh?”
He touched my brow with his index finger. Only then did I realize that my face had hardened into a scowl.
He had likely felt anxious because of my troubled state.
“No, I’m not angry.”
I offered him an involuntary smile.
“Then you are all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Opening my arms wide, I pulled him into a tender embrace.
I had grown accustomed to his warmth, to a body heat that far exceeded that of any ordinary mortal.
Whenever we held each other like this, all my dark and brooding thoughts seemed to dissolve into nothingness.
‘Does Caesar feel the same way?’
Did he share that same sense of tranquil comfort?
Richard had said the ancient magic coursing through my blood had mitigated the severity of the curse upon him.
Therefore, I resolved to cooperate with him in examining my blood, just as he had requested. Perhaps, if he could unravel the secrets of the Great Wizard’s incantation, we might discover a way to break Caesar’s curse through that very power.
Even so, I still did not know what exactly I ought to do.
‘Not yet…’
If only I could discover the way, how marvelous it would be. Caesar would return to his rightful self—not as he was now, but the person I had always longed to see him become.
How wonderful it would be if that came to pass! Reaching out, I brushed aside the bangs falling over his forehead, smoothing them back.
‘He is this handsome even now, so what will he look like then? How striking will he be?’
Even then, I could not picture it clearly. What would Caesar look like at the pinnacle of his masculine charm? I had never gazed upon an exceptionally handsome man from up close, nor had such an image ever crossed my mind, making it hard to envision.
‘Will Caesar become a master of swordsmanship? A dashing knight roaming the far horizons?’
The closest comparison my mind could summon was the image of a knight from folktales—a warrior wandering the continent, aiding the downtrodden, and lending a helping hand to the oppressed.
I envisioned Caesar as the hero of one of those stories, setting off on a grand adventure in gleaming armor and a deep purple cape, clutching his sword resolutely with an aura of nobility and valor. Picturing him that way, I could not help but smile.
Caesar, who adored the tale of The Ugly Duckling and giggled whenever I planted a peck on his cheek… as an imposing, solemn knight?!
“No… that doesn’t suit him at all!”
I dissolved into helpless laughter, clutching my stomach as giggles bubbled over.
FADE OUT