“Dimitri!”

I was so surprised to see him suddenly collapse that I rushed to him in a panic.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

“The curse….”

He clenched his chest in great agony.

Dimitri’s curse was the kind of thing that made him suffer without any obvious cause. Since I was able to alleviate his pain with my own power, I continued to treat him every few days to ease the pain of the curse because that was one of the conditions of this marriage contract.

‘That’s strange. It’s not yet time for him to be in this much pain.’

Since I had alleviated the pain by suppressing the curse with my power just recently, I thought he would be able to endure it for the next day or so. But suddenly, he was in such torment.

“Dimitri, come to your senses. I’ll quickly…”

However, even while he was suffering, Dimitri seemed to be very concerned about Esca.

“Let’s go to the mansion, Rowaine.”

“If you care about Esca, I’ll send him away.”

“No, please. To the mansion.”

Esca was Dimitri’s person, and so far, there hasn’t been anyone as tight-lipped and trustworthy as him. Because of that, I was surprised that he didn’t want to show him my abilities, even to him.

‘But keeping this power a secret and keeping it in Dimitri’s hands was also part of the contract…’

So, if he didn’t want it, there was nothing I could do about it.

‘Or does Esca not know about Dimitri’s curse? Is he trying to hide it?’

That could be the case. Anyway, since he seemed concerned about Esca, instead of asking him to support Dimitri, I asked him to do something else.

“Esca, could you prepare the carriage for me?”

However, Esca’s attitude was somewhat strange.

“You’ve planned to meet with some new people who want to join today, though is it okay if you leave like this?”

Instead of worrying about Dimitri, he was concerned about my schedule. The look in his eyes as he looked at Dimitri in agony was warm but at the same time indifferent. Esca even glanced at him with a strange expression before he shook his head subtly.

‘…What’s wrong with these people?’

Just a moment ago, he seemed like an older brother who looked after Dimitri endlessly and cared for him, but now he appeared so cold and unconcerned, not worrying about him at all.

As I was speechless for a moment out of curiosity, I heard Dimitri groan from beside me.

“Ugh, Rowaine…”

I became impatient again and spoke to Esca.

“It would be best to postpone my schedule a bit. Please prepare the carriage. Quickly!”

Then, I whispered to Dimitri,

“Hold on a little longer. I’ll treat you in the carriage.”

Dimitri nodded weakly, gasping for breath. He leaned in with his arm around my shoulders, clinging to me tighter, perhaps because of the pain.

It was the first time I had seen him like this, despite having treated him preemptively before he suffered like this. Even though I knew curses could be immensely draining, seeing him in such distress in person left me feeling bewildered.

‘…What if the curse has grown stronger? Or perhaps something has gone terribly wrong?’

Various thoughts raced through my mind.

After somehow getting Dimitri into the carriage, I instructed the coachman to take us to the mansion as quickly as possible. Then, as I went to sit opposite Dimitri, he gasped and looked at me pleadingly.

“Please stay next to me, Rowaine.”

I felt so bad seeing him like this.

“Okay, Dimitri. I’ll be right here beside you.”

When I sat down next to him, he leaned his head wearily against my shoulder as if he were struggling.

I gently patted his knee.

“Now that no one else is here, I’ll take care of it.”

In the beginning, he was uncomfortable holding my hand, so I always held his arm while treating him. But today, he reached out and grasped my hand first.

‘Hand… Is he really okay about it now?’

With that thought in mind, I used my power. I could see a faint yellow light emanating from my hand seeping into him. As I concentrated my mind and infused my power into his body, I suddenly noticed something peculiar.

‘He usually complains of headaches, but why is it his chest this time?’

But that wasn’t the only strange thing.

‘Why does he seem perfectly fine…?’

My power usually depleted rapidly when I had to heal severe wounds or pain. However, at this moment, I didn’t feel exhausted at all.

It was a moment when I began to wonder if something was really wrong.

The narration from a documentary I watched long ago vividly came to mind.

Agaliaept had once again dug up useful information from my memory. It seemed like he wanted to tell me something.

But then, Dimitri suddenly stomped his foot loudly.

Thump!

Startled out of my reverie, I instinctively looked towards the source of the sound. There was nothing on the clean floor of the carriage but our shadows.

“What’s wrong, Dimitri?”

“Don’t worry about it. I think there’s a bug.”

Didn’t it mean he was okay if he was paying attention to bugs?

“Are you feeling better now?”

When I asked with a smile, he scowled again.

“Please heal me more, Rowaine.”

Uttering so, he grasped my hand firmly before leaning his head against my shoulder.

All of a sudden, I realized how intimate our posture was. It was as if we were holding hands with our arms linked, closely pressed against each other like affectionate lovers.

“….”

It seemed like I knew what Agaliaept wanted to say.

‘…Is he faking sick?’

It seemed like he wanted to tell me that Dimitri was faking it and was wielding me as he wanted.

‘Oh, could Esca have known?’

The mind reader must have undoubtedly seen right through Dimitri’s ploy right away.

‘So, that’s why his response was so lukewarm…’

Realizing it belatedly, I gazed down at Dimitri’s hand, which was tightly intertwined with mine.

‘But even if he was faking being sick…’

His hair swayed gently, brushing against my cheek with each movement of the carriage. Each time, a pleasant scent wafted over my nose.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Knowing that he occasionally experiences excruciating pain due to a malicious curse, I couldn’t bring myself to turn away from him because I thought he might be faking it. What if it wasn’t a ploy?

‘I’d rather be fooled. It’s better than to let the opposite happen.’

Since I had the power to alleviate his pain, I couldn’t just leave him without even checking on him.

I glanced over at Dimitri.

“How are you feeling now?”

“Strangely, the pain doesn’t seem to be easing today.”

He leaned closer to me and responded wearily. I soothed him and made a firm promise.

‘I will definitely break Dimitri’s curse.’

“It’s okay because I have you, Rowaine.”

“It was part of the contract. Eventually, we will find a way to break the curse.”

Dimitri raised his head and gazed at me.

“Why are we struggling when you’re my answer.”

I didn’t reply, and Dimitri didn’t ask for an answer.

Dimitri knew that what Rowaine was saying now was with her departure in mind.

‘I don’t know how she’s going to break this curse.’

After sentencing Cayetana to imprisonment, he secretly visited her and even resorted to torture until she was maimed, but he couldn’t find a way to break the curse.

Even though she admitted that she had put a curse on him, she didn’t know how to break it. The proud woman even went as far as to beg him for forgiveness, putting everything down. So, the fact that there was no answer truly meant that she didn’t know.

‘Is there really a way to break the curse?’

Ever since Rowaine first came, she had promised to break the curse, but he thought it was just something she said because she wanted to stay in Blois. Knowing that she had the power to temporarily alleviate the curse was enough. No, it was more than enough since it was a great hope for him, and that was why he agreed.

Dimitri had never expected her to actually break the curse. But now, seeing the firm resolve in her eyes, he felt she was not lying.

He tightened his grip on Rowaine’s hand.

‘I just need you to continue to be by my side.’

He wanted to say that. Still, the inevitable answer was clear, so he couldn’t say anything.

He didn’t want to hear from her anymore that she was leaving.

‘You can’t leave.’

Even though she probably sensed that he was faking it, she accepted it without saying anything. She was someone who would turn away but come back when he was in pain.

A person who was endlessly warm and yet cruel to those she loved.

‘How could you abandon me?’

On the other hand, Dimitri was a clever cat.

‘You can’t abandon me because of this curse.’

He couldn’t believe there would come a day when he wanted to hold on to this terrible curse so tightly. It was truly ironic.

 
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