~Chapter 60~
[“Ruuu–hiiiiiiiiiii!”]
The tiny curse, barely even 2-heads tall (its head and body were practically one blob), leapt over the window frame and began to plummet toward the garden.
“Ah!”
Ruby, who had just noticed a dark blob falling from the upper window, immediately jumped to her feet.
She ran forward and caught the jelly-like blob that wobbled as it fell in the wind.
“Whoa!”
Because it had fallen from such a high place, Ruby felt the impact strongly in her arms.
Fortunately, Ruhi was so light that it wasn’t injured.
“Ruhi, are you okay?”
[“Ru–hi!”]
Completely ignoring the situation, Ruhi clung tightly to Ruby’s chest and nuzzled against her skin.
“Looks like you’re fine…”
Just as Ruby was relieved at the lack of visible injuries, she heard Damien’s voice from above.
“Ruby!”
She instinctively looked up and froze when she saw Damien leaning out of the window frame.
“Damien, wait, don’t do it!”
But Damien, just like Ruhi, jumped over the window frame without hesitation.
Ruby panicked, screaming from below,
“No! Damien, I can’t catch you!!!”
Flustered, she stamped her feet in place, unsure what to do, but Damien lightly stepped onto the first-floor terrace roof and landed safely on the ground.
“Damien…”
Her voice was a mixture of anger and relief.
“Sorry for scaring you. But I was worried about your arm…”
“Who jumps from the second floor like that?!” Ruby scolded, genuinely upset for once.
Damien lowered his head quietly.
“Sorry. I thought you wouldn’t be worried since I jumped out of the imperial palace window before.”
“That’s not the point! Do you know how much you scared me? You could’ve just come down the stairs!”
“This way was faster…”
“Ugh! Even so, it would’ve only taken five minutes to come down normally!”
“Sorry,” Damien apologized again.
Even as he apologized, his eyes kept flicking toward Ruby’s arms.
Fortunately, her arms seemed perfectly fine.
“My arm’s okay, so stop worrying. You really didn’t need to jump like that,” Ruby said with a pout.
Damien thought even her pouting was cute, but he wisely kept that thought to himself.
“I’m just glad you’re not hurt. If you had been injured because of this thing…”
Damien shot Ruhi a glare so sharp that even mid-level curses would have cowered.
But Ruhi, despite being a low-level curse, glared right back ferociously.
[“Grrrr…”]
“Huh?”
Ruby tilted her head at the uncharacteristic growl.
Then,
[“Ru–hi?”]
Ruhi instantly switched to its usual innocent look and made its typical cute cry.
Damien found it infuriatingly fake.
“Oh, I thought I misheard you,” Ruby said, relieved.
[“Ru–hi? Ru–hi?”]
Ruhi kept up its innocent act, making Damien’s irritation clear on his face.
“But Damien,” Ruby said, pressing a finger gently to the frown on his forehead.
“Please stop fighting with Ruhi.”
“…Yes, Ruby,” Damien said reluctantly.
That Night
Knock, knock.
“Ruby?”
Damien’s surprised voice came from beyond the door.
Because of the soul contract, he must have realized it was me.
“Yes, it’s me, Damien.”
Before I could wait for his permission to enter, the door opened on its own.
“Come in.”
Damien stood there in a shower gown, his silver hair still damp and swept back.
“Oh, you just bathed?”
“Yes, I was busy and got around to bathing late.”
Click. The door closed.
I settled comfortably on Damien’s bed as usual.
“Where’s Ruhi?” he asked, looking down at me.
“I left it behind,” I said with a small smile.
“It’ll probably follow me here and start crying soon… but I’m not letting it in tonight.”
Sure enough, the moment I finished speaking, there was a soft thud outside the door, like jelly hitting the floor.
[“Ru–hi… Ru–hiiiii…”]
A pitiful cry followed.
Even so, I didn’t move from the bed. Damien looked puzzled.
“It breaks my heart, but… Ruhi is a curse, and I’m human,” I said quietly.
We could hear scratching at the door and Ruhi’s sad voice, but I just smiled bitterly.
“I need to make sure it doesn’t depend on me too much… in case something ever happens to me.”
“What do you mean, ‘if something happens’?” Damien immediately sat down beside me.
“That won’t happen. You’ve been healthier lately, haven’t you?”
“Ah, just… you never know.”
The truth was, I had another reason, but I could never tell Damien.
“And… I wanted to talk to you alone.”
“Ah.”
Damien grew serious at that.
“I’ve been paying too much attention to Ruhi lately. You felt neglected, didn’t you? I’m sorry.”
Damien never seemed to like Ruhi. He never mistreated it outright, but whenever I mentioned it, he would press his lips together and look displeased.
I realized that since Ruhi appeared, it had always been between us.
“We used to spend a lot of time just the two of us, but Ruhi’s always with us now. Did that upset you? If so, I’m sorry.”
From Damien’s point of view, maybe it felt like this curse had pushed him aside.
After all, we shared unique hobbies and conversations only with each other.
Damien pressed his lips together again, his expression sour—just like when Ruhi was in the room.
“I wasn’t upset or resentful,” he said.
“Then… what?”
He let out a long sigh and ran his fingers through his damp hair.
“I really don’t want to admit this, but…”
Damien’s amethyst eyes glimmered red at the edges as he looked at me with a wounded expression.
“I was jealous. Of that tiny curse.”
“Huh?”
His unexpected confession left me speechless.
“I mean, think about it! I tell scary stories with you, take you on curse tours, and buy you sweets just to see you smile. It gives my life meaning!”
Damien pointed dramatically at the door.
“But that thing makes you smile without doing anything!”
…Oh.
Um.
My brain froze at the ridiculous reason.
At first, I thought Damien was teasing me, but… he wasn’t.
“Well, I guess it makes sense. Objectively, that thing is cute, and I’m not cute,” Damien muttered.
“Uh…”
“So yes, I was frustrated. I loved seeing your happy face, but I might not be able to make you smile as much as it does every day.”
Ah, so that was the reason.
I didn’t fully understand, but I got the gist.
And I decided I needed to comfort my pouting husband.
“Damien, you’re misunderstanding something,” I said, asking him to recall the time when we first married and I came to live here.
“Back then, I probably smiled a lot.”
It was the first time I’d ever experienced being treated like a real person, escaping the hellish home I’d come from.
A warm, accepting atmosphere that even let me enjoy my hobbies.
Kind people who didn’t treat even strange, cursed beings as monsters.
“Back then, everything was new happiness for me.”
But now things were different.
“You know what? After three months, I’ve gotten used to that happiness.”
Now, I didn’t jump around the room every day with joy.
“Just because I don’t smile as much doesn’t mean I’m unhappy.”
I had been happy this entire time at the Grand Duke’s mansion.
Sure, there were sad moments, like the issues with my father or Cecilia, but I overcame them and returned to a happy life.
And that was thanks to Damien.
“I’m always thankful and happy that I met you and came here.”
Damien’s amethyst eyes wavered beneath his disheveled silver hair.
“I was able to get used to this happiness because of you, Damien.”
“….”
Damien stared at me in silence for a long time.
Then—
“Haa…”
He sighed and suddenly pulled me into a tight hug.
“You really know how to get me,” he murmured, still sounding a little sulky.
“How do you always say exactly what I want to hear…?”
I chuckled softly and hugged him back.
Because I knew his anger had melted away.
The Next Morning
The morning after making up with Damien, I rubbed my sleepy eyes and stepped out of the bedroom.
Then—
Squish.
I felt something wet underfoot.
“…”
A puddle of bright red blood.
And then—
“Good morning, milady—kyaaaaa!!!”
The maid who came to attend me dropped the laundry and screamed.
“M-milady! Your mouth…!”
