~Chapter 124~
“Haaah…”
My legs gave out, and I fell to the floor.
I couldn’t breathe well.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
“Ruby!!”
Damien rushed over to catch me as I lost my balance.
“Why…?”
He quickly took off his robe and wrapped it around me.
My body temperature was dropping.
I felt cold, and I was shaking.
My mind was getting hazy.
“Hah… hah…”
A heavy pain pressed on my heart.
I couldn’t help but clutch at my chest.
“Ruby, does your heart hurt? I’ll get a doctor—”
“No, I’m fine!”
I barely pulled myself together and shouted.
Only then did my blurry vision start to clear up a little.
Why did the ritual go wrong?
Did it get interrupted?
‘No, maybe we can try again. It was working just a moment ago.’
I couldn’t give up now.
‘I…’
The dream of having someone truly on my side and building a life together was right in front of me.
I couldn’t just watch that dream disappear like a mirage.
“Let’s try again. Let’s say the spell together one more time.”
I grabbed Damien’s sleeve and said it.
But Damien shook his head.
“No. Your treatment comes first—”
“I’m fine. I can do it again. Please, say the spell with me again.”
“Ruby—”
“Damien, please.”
I begged. Damien hesitated.
Finally, gritting his teeth, he held me tight in his robe and, with a trembling voice, spoke the spell again.
“Ancestors.”
We kissed again and said the spell.
“We promise to be one forever—”
But a stabbing pain, like a needle, shot through my heart.
“Aaaah!”
“Ruby!!”
I twisted in pain as if my eyes would roll back, and Damien went pale, holding me tightly.
“I’m sorry, I—”
He quickly picked me up and ran across the rooftop.
I weakly shook my head.
I wanted to try just one more time.
But I didn’t have the strength to say it.
‘No…’
The magic circle and rooftop blurred and drifted away.
I reached out toward the fading magic circle, but it was useless.
I saw a ghost butterfly flapping its wings weakly.
“Pl-please… help…”
I barely moved my frozen lips to speak.
With a trembling hand, I reached toward the ghost butterfly.
But the moment I touched it, it scattered into the air.
‘Ah.’
Tears fell from my eyes.
It wasn’t from pain.
I was sad.
‘In the end, it’s all because of me…’
We failed to trick the Devourer curse into being a Maledictus curse.
In the end, the third ritual failed.
“She’s having backlash.”
Alice, who was checking on me lying as if dead, said.
“You forced something that didn’t fit into the soul contract, so the backlash was strong.”
She too was once born into Maledictus and carried its fate.
She died before she could fully carry that fate.
That’s why only Alice and Elliot could figure out what happened to me.
“She coughed up blood at first, right?”
Elliot asked. Damien nodded with a devastated face.
“She probably coughed up your blood. Maybe some of her own, too.”
Damien stared blankly at me.
Once the backlash made me spit out blood, there was no hope for the soul contract.
It meant there was no Maledictus blood left in my body for the contract.
[Lu… hi…]
Luhi cried sadly.
Seeing the caretaker who always smiled now pale and covered in blood was a huge shock and sadness for this little curse.
[Lu… hi…]
The sound, asking me not to hurt and to wake up, matched Damien’s own heart.
He didn’t wipe away the blood from his face or body. He just looked down at me, full of guilt.
Half a day had passed since the ritual failed and I fainted.
But maybe because of the backlash, I still showed no signs of waking up.
The doctor came running and gave me emergency care, but he couldn’t promise when I’d wake up.
“Ruby…”
Damien called my name in a low voice.
My skin, already pale, was now white as a sheet.
Remembering me clutching my heart and screaming in pain stabbed Damien’s heart.
‘It’s my fault.’
He had wanted too much.
‘This must be punishment for my greed.’
If he hadn’t suggested the soul contract, this wouldn’t have happened.
If he hadn’t shown how much he wanted the contract, I wouldn’t have pushed myself to try again.
‘And I couldn’t even find the right way.’
He was the one who said we could trick the curse inside me into acting like a Maledictus curse.
Up until the ritual almost finished, he really thought they’d succeeded.
His arrogance hurt the person he loved most.
Damien, feeling crushed, reached out toward the sleeping me.
My cheek under his fingers felt cold.
He was scared my weak breathing would stop at any moment.
“Seven years…”
The soul contract was no longer about his own safety.
Now, more than the pain of the curse, he wanted to finish the contract to be with me.
Every moment with the person he loved was precious.
But seven years wasn’t nearly enough.
‘Send you away in seven years?’
How could he do that?
If he could give his life and soul to help me live to 100, Damien would do it.
Letting me go in just seven years was unbearable.
“You should both rest for now.”
At Alice’s words, the other curses quietly left the room.
Luhi still clung to the bed, but—
“Elliot, take that one, too.”
“Okay.”
[Luhi, lu-hiiii!]
But before Luhi could resist, Elliot carried him out.
The door closed with a soft click, and silence filled the room.
Damien, his hair and shirt all messy, didn’t fix anything. He just kept looking at me.
‘Where did it all go wrong?’
Was it when he brought up the soul contract?
When he fell in love with me, even after saying it would only be a contract, and there would be no feelings?
Or maybe it was the moment he saw me at the ball and was captivated right away.
“I’m sorry.”
He once said he would heal me, and that I’d never suffer again.
He had never imagined I would be hurt like this, and he had dreamed of a future together.
He even hoped for my answer to becoming a real married couple after the ritual.
‘Useless fool.’
Damien gripped the sheet tightly, leaving deep wrinkles.
He couldn’t just sit and do nothing.
If he had to, he’d even sell his soul or use forbidden magic to extend my life.
He had brought me into the soul contract, and even dared to love me.
He had to find a way—no matter what.
“I swear—”
With the feeling of carving a vow into his heart with a knife, he made a promise.
“I’ll make sure you won’t hurt anymore.”
Meanwhile, at that moment.
“Hey, you.”
A woman with long, white hair tapped her long fingernails as she asked,
“Have you finally gone crazy?”
I silently stared at the Devourer.
This was one of the two ways to succeed at the soul contract after failing it.
