MLCDF 74

~Chapter 74~

The incident began like this.

A few days ago.

“Hmm.”

With five curses chattering in front of me, I had a deep conversation with them.

“Yeah, okay. That’s where it is?”

[Very big house, golden house! Yellow-headed person’s house!]

[Down, down.]

[Scaryyyyy.]

[Deep!]

The curses all chirped one by one.

Meanwhile, Ruhi placed a piece of paper in front of himself and began scribbling something.

I sat quietly, watching Ruhi draw.

He even changed colored pencils as he explained the scene he saw.

‘A blond man going into the palace….’

In Ruhi’s drawing, the “yellow-headed person” entered a shining golden building.

Down the stairs of that building, past a secret door, was a place full of iron bars.

Behind those bars drawn in black pencil were people with X’s for eyes, looking dead.

In front of them, the “yellow-headed person” had red devil-like eyes and held a saw colored gray.

“Mm, yeah. I got it.”

I turned to Damien, sitting next to me.

“The curses say Leonard is doing something in his palace basement.”

In fact, when I visited the palace to submit drawings, I had brought Ruhi and a few curses.

Since I might meet royals at the palace, I wanted to be prepared.

And in case I ran into Leonard, I wanted to attach invisible curses to him to confirm if he was truly manufacturing fear.

‘At first, I only meant to send Ruhi….’

Despite being a lower curse, Ruhi was very smart.

He didn’t speak, but he understood most things.

Unlike other curses, he strangely showed little interest in eating fear, so I didn’t have to worry about him devouring it.

So I only planned to send Ruhi, but on departure day, he brought four other lower curses with him.

He explained to me that he recruited them with sugar cubes.

Fortunately, the curses performed their mission well.

[Ruhi—Ruhi!]

After finishing his drawing, Ruhi ate a sugar cube with sweat dripping down, then tugged my sleeve.

That meant he had more to say.

“Okay, keep watching, Ruhi.”

Ruhi picked up a red pencil.

With his short arm, he worked hard to write.

This time, not a drawing—but words.

“Let’s see, ca…”

I lost my words halfway.

Ruhi had written:

[Be careful.]

“Ruhi, of what?”

He hadn’t put down the red pencil yet. I asked.

Ruhi whined and wrote again.

[They’ll take you.]

“Take who?”

[Ruhi.]

That meant me.

Damien’s eyes instantly turned sharp.

“Who will take you?”

Ruhi waddled forward and stabbed the paper with the red pencil on the “yellow-headed person.”

“Ah…”

Knowing the truth, it didn’t feel that scary anymore.

It was just the kind of plan Leonard would come up with—not surprising at all.

“Hmm, what should we do?”

I turned to Damien.

He already wore a cold expression, brows furrowed in thought.

Probably planning what kind of “best experience” to give the intruders.

“Well, I think we should deal with it our usual way.”

Damien’s purple eyes gleamed with a cold smile.

Unpredictable kidnappings were scary.

“But predictable kidnappings are not scary at all.”

“Things wrapped up faster than expected.”

Wiping blood from his face, Damien glanced around.

I was handing Ruhi a sugar cube as a reward for gathering all the fear from the assassins with the other lower curses.

“The ones alive have lost their memories, right? What should we do with them?”

Those who directly attacked me were swallowed alive by Damien’s curses.

His curses devoured not only human fear but humans themselves.

But some had only their fear eaten and survived.

In such cases, they lost a large part of their memories—especially those linked to the fear consumed.

“They probably don’t even remember their mission.”

His clear amethyst eyes moved toward the traces left by the curses.

“The family will handle it. Same for the dead.”

“Alright.”

Damien spoke calmly, as if this wasn’t the first time.

‘So this is why they don’t lock the front gate.’

I used to think security was weak for the empire’s only Grand Duke’s mansion.

But in truth, curses with strong territorial instincts were more than enough security.

“Ruby, thanks to you talking with the lower curses and tracking intruders’ locations, things ended faster. Thank you.”

Damien could sense curses’ positions, but unless they were speaking curses, he couldn’t converse with them.

So I had to track and talk with the lower curses myself to find the intruders.

“No, if anything, this whole mess happened because of me.”

“Don’t think too much.”

Damien pulled out a handkerchief, knelt on one knee, and carefully wiped the intruder’s blood from my ankle.

“For me, it was quite fun.”

His words were oddly chilling.

And yet, my heart pounded.

‘Guess I’m not normal either.’

But same for me—this time, I wasn’t fighting against curses, but alongside them.

And it was fun.

“If we hadn’t known about the kidnapping, and something really happened to you, I’d be very displeased.”

“Mm, true.”

“But thanks to your idea of attaching invisible curses to Leonard, we got to enjoy this tonight, didn’t we?”

Since lower curses were weak, outside the Maledictus mansion they were invisible to most people.

It was very likely Leonard couldn’t see them either. That prediction was correct, and thanks to it, we won completely.

“We got fun, the curses got food.”

The curses looked strangely thrilled, eyes sparkling, after running around the mansion freely.

“Only Leonard lost his ten assassins.”

And a few days later—Leonard’s scream shook the palace when he learned his ten assassins were all dead.

‘How did it go?’

A few days after the kidnapping incident, I nervously opened my mail.

The envelope bore the crest of the Imperial Academy.

Inside were the results of the first round of the contest hosted by the Imperial Court.

‘Even if I fail, don’t be disappointed. I did my best, that’s enough. I can always try again next year. Be lighthearted.’

With that thought, I opened it.

“Gasp.”

[Passed]

The envelope clearly said “Passed.”

That meant I was in the top 50 of participants.

“Wow…!”

Excited about advancing to the finals, I checked the rest of the paper inside.

The moment I read it—

‘Ah.’

A problem appeared.