MLCDF 70

~Chapter 70~

Damien’s amethyst eyes widened.

Even he—who had opposed the royal family for so long—had never reached such a shocking conclusion. His normally calm gaze began to tremble.

“They’ve finally gone insane.”

I knew exactly who he meant.

Sweeping his silver hair under the moonlight, he spoke with a troubled look.
“I think it’s possible. Even if not the entire royal family, some of them could have done it.”

Even if a Maledictus refused to absorb more curses, with this method it would be difficult to prevent the curses they already carried from growing stronger. It felt like a tactic targeting that weakness exactly.

“…Why go this far?”

I looked down at the lump of fear slowly crawling along the floor.
“They can all already use magic. Is that not enough?”

“They say the more you have, the more you want,” Damien replied, his gaze filled with contempt and disgust.
“Some even openly show they lack magic.”

“Who?”

“Leonard.”

I widened my eyes.

“Leonard, as the second son, was already pushed out of the succession race because his magic ability was weaker than his elder brother Leonie’s.”

“…So that was part of the reason.”

I’d met Leonard before.
“I thought it was because of his leg.”

“That too, in part. But now it makes sense. If he has to act like his bad leg is fine, he’d have to use more magic than Leonie. That extra strain would lower his magical performance.”

“So… he might have done this to gain more magic?”

“It’s possible. Especially if it’s Leonard.”

After calling servants to clean the broken glass and bandage my cut hand, we continued discussing who might have made the fear and why.

“But could it really be Leonard? If it’s just about increasing magic, others could be suspects too.”

“I agree. But the fear appeared right after the victory banquet, making him the prime suspect.”

“True.”

Leonard’s obsessive interest in me and the Maledictus Grand Duke’s house was enough motive for something this insane.

“But if Leonard’s making fear to weaken us, there’s one unanswered question.”

The distribution of magic gained from consuming fear wasn’t fixed. It could even end up strengthening Leonie instead.

“They might be researching a way to prevent that. They just haven’t succeeded yet.”

Where could they be doing this?

Royalty had their own assigned palaces that others couldn’t freely enter. And the imperial palace couldn’t be searched by police—no one would accuse the empire’s sun of a crime.

“Recently, there have been missing persons reports in the capital—several per month.”

I’d brushed it off before. But now I wondered if they’d been used as sacrifices to produce fear.

“Yes. And one nobleman who supported Leonie has also been missing. He supposedly left a letter apologizing to his wife for cheating and saying he was leaving her, but he took his wedding ring and her photo with him. Suspicious, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“For now, we should try to make them stop torturing people.”

We had plenty of suspicion but no proof—too risky to act openly. But if we could make them think they might get caught, they might stop for now.

“They’ll stop if they think they might be discovered.”

I thought of the newspapers.

“You’ll run an article?”

The Maledictus Grand Duke’s family owned several newspapers. Damien usually avoided interfering in their politics, but this time was different.

“Some of the journalists once worked for Maledictus. I’ll give them the topic—report on the increase in missing persons.”

“What if the royal family notices?”

“I’ll just tell the reporters to look into it because the public will be interested. And we’ll tell them to publish before other papers. That’s all.”

The journalists wouldn’t know the royal connection, and the royals couldn’t punish them just for covering missing persons.

“If they pressure the reporters, I’ll block it with my authority.”

Even the royals had to care about their image—they couldn’t abuse power openly without consequence.

“Let’s do it this way.”

[Missing persons increase in the capital… trend continues in provinces.]
[Calls grow for searches and prevention measures.]

Leonard’s eyebrow twitched as he read the paper.

[Missing persons include nobleman: Baron Philip M. Struthers.]

Seeing a familiar name, he sighed and crumpled the paper.

‘Why have cases from months ago suddenly been brought to light?’

Reporters were always hungry for stories, but the timing was bad.

‘Gathering scattered cases and publishing them like this will draw too much attention.’

Public vigilance would make abductions harder. The palace—and especially his own prince’s palace—was safe, but getting people there quietly was not easy.

“Damn it, and the stock in East City is already gone.”

He thought of killing the article, but the paper belonged to the Maledictus Grand Duke’s family. Interfering might give Damien leverage over him.

“Damn it, he’s useless!”

Slamming the door behind him, Leonard decided to halt fear production and lay low for now.

A few days after the Siren curse incident ended—

A new uproar began.

“Grand Duchess, have you been abandoned? Or—”

And somehow…

“You feel like having an affair with me?”

…I ended up face-to-face with this bastard.