Chapter 143………………………………
“Enya…”
“Who is this?”
Until I woke up, Dale had stayed by my side, his eyes full of hope, joy, and expectation. And yet, I could not remember him at all.
“My head… it hurts… it hurts so much. Who is this Dale? Is that him? Just seeing him gives me a headache… it’s painful…”
The reason Dale never appeared in front of me again was that every time we faced each other, I suffered from excruciating headaches.
“I smell something strange from Grandpa.”
“This is a world inside a novel. I was the heroine. I have to change my future. Otherwise, our family will be destroyed.”
“Aunt… I had a fun dream. Since you read me so many storybooks, I’ll only tell you about it.”
“I will never marry the emperor. It’s horrible!”
Memories from my childhood until now collided and surged uncontrollably. Everything I remembered and everything I had forgotten merged in my mind.
“Ah…”
What I had thought of as the ‘original story’ wasn’t true.
It was a false memory, created from the side effects of Hexagon’s experimental potion, my fear, and the traumatic events I had experienced at that time.
<The tyrannical emperor, Roman Capracan Torche Eilkeystone, supported by a noble family, falls.>
There was no unhappy original story.
Only memories of other-dimensional visions I had witnessed while facing life and death remained.
‘And the slight foresight and enhanced abilities I gained from the relic’s power caused this. There’s no original story. That’s not our tale. It belongs to the former emperor and empress.’
My entire body ached.
I finally understood what Dale had done for me, after all this time of misunderstanding him.
I slowly looked at Kasion.
“I’ve seen everything. What happened between Dale and me.”
“You succeeded.”
“But I couldn’t change the past. I was still captured by Hexagon, and Dale sacrificed himself for me. He used the relic. I witnessed the entire process.”
Kasion smiled bitterly.
“The probability of changing the past was almost zero.”
“What do you mean?”
It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on me. I staggered toward him and hit the wall.
“Then why did you send me back to the past?”
“To clear up a misunderstanding. Your Majesty, there was a reason Dale did what you disliked. It wasn’t to torment or bother the princess.”
My fists trembled violently.
“…Saying that makes it feel like Dale is about to die.”
Kasion, instead of replying, dropped his head. That was as good as saying “yes.”
“Why… why is there no way?”
“Calm yourself, Princess. You look pale.”
The High Priest entered the room and tried to calm me. I grabbed him and asked:
“High Priest, do you think His Majesty cannot survive?”
“Your Majesty has been cursed by the relic.”
“A curse…?”
“The first problem was the contamination of the relic, and the second was that someone who was not its rightful owner used its power recklessly.”
“!”
The relic had likely been contaminated the moment it came into contact with the former emperor’s blood. Something like that had happened in the past.
“Unless it’s a treatment of equal divine power, it’s impossible. And such a thing… does not exist in the present.”
I knew that fact well.
There was no way. This world doesn’t have a ‘pre-existing story.’
‘If only I could perfectly know the future…’
I buried my head in my knees, desperately believing there must be a way to save Dale.
What had Dale done in the past? Why did the relic curse him? It was to save me.
And… wait.
Why had the former emperor appeared there? Why did he wait as if anticipating Dale, then show up in the office the moment Dale tried to take the relic?
It would have been better to take the relic when no one was around. The emperor wouldn’t have had time to hesitate.
Yet he deliberately waited for Dale.
“Wait, High Priest.”
I grabbed him, curiosity rising.
“The relic has been passed down as a royal treasure, correct?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“It belongs only to the empire?”
“Yes. It was a blessed object bestowed with the founding of the empire.”
“Could anyone handle it freely?”
“No. Only the emperor is allowed access.”
“Allowed?”
It was as if he spoke to a living being.
“Who grants the permission?”
“The relic itself.”
The High Priest patiently explained everything, looking at me with compassion.
“Since the relic carries divine power, it is unlike any ordinary object. It chooses its master directly. No one in the royal family can claim it—only Your Majesty can become its true owner.”
“…Really?”
If the emperor is its master, something is definitely off.
“Then the master of the relic would be the currently sleeping emperor, correct?”
“No.”
The High Priest quietly shook his head.
“Princess of the Lockhart family, I will explain. His Majesty did not formally inherit the throne from the former emperor, so he never completed the ritual to inherit the relic’s mastery.”
“Isn’t that ritual presided over by you, High Priest?”
“Yes, but it requires the former emperor’s blood. Since his body was immediately cremated, the ritual was impossible.”
“…No, that can’t be.”
The former emperor’s blood could have been obtained—the palace and the stabbed emperor’s statue surely left enough.
But more importantly, the relic’s state mattered.
‘It was contaminated when it touched the former emperor’s blood.’
If the relic had recognized the former emperor as its master, would that have happened?
I didn’t think so.
“How do you explain a relic being corrupted by human blood?”
“That… is a rare scenario. It occurs when someone the relic has not approved of touches it and is violently rejected.”
The High Priest tilted his head.
“Even if blood or skin touches the relic, it shouldn’t react so severely.”
The relic had mutated instantly when it contacted the former emperor’s blood.
I remembered that the former emperor had been Dale’s uncle.
And that he had killed Dale’s father, the previous emperor, to claim the throne.
“It’s possible the relic sensed contaminated blood, Princess.”
Kasion, quietly listening, interjected, his eyes darkening.
“Did you see something in the past?”
“I discovered something.”
If this could provide a clue to save Dale…
“The moment the former emperor’s blood touched the relic, its mutation began.”
“…When contaminated blood contacts a pure object, mutation occurs.”
Kasion stroked his chin.
“Yet the former emperor wasn’t a monster. It must have been the relic’s will. Since it is for the empire’s prosperity, it may have treated anyone who could destroy the empire as impure.”
“High Priest, could that be true?”
He nodded cautiously.
I spoke to explain my own observation.
“I saw it clearly in the past. Dale opened the door to the relic himself.”
Why would that greedy former emperor allow it? To save his own power, to show Dale where the relic was stored?
I didn’t think so.
“That means the former emperor was never recognized as the relic’s true master.”
“…!”
That explained why he hated Dale for resembling his brother but didn’t kill him. It wasn’t only because of the empress’s request. There was another reason.
“So Dale wasn’t spared—he had to be spared. Even when he took the relic, the true master was still Dale’s father, the previous emperor.”
“Impossible…”
“Really?”
“If the relic had recognized the former emperor as its master, contamination would never have begun. Instead, it would have activated a protective measure. Dale would not have survived the curse—he would have died instantly.”
I approached sleeping Dale and stared at him quietly.
“The former emperor didn’t know he couldn’t open the relic’s chamber by himself. To hide evidence of the poisoning, he had the previous emperor’s body disposed of immediately.”
Left alone in the palace without even his father’s grave, Dale survived.
His forehead was cool to the touch.
I desperately wished for Dale to come back to life.
“So the relic’s true master is still the previous emperor.”
“…But Princess, the relic is already gone.”
“It’s inside my body.”
The relic had not disappeared. Its presence was evident in the special power flowing through me.
“My abilities didn’t affect Dale. Since he carries the blood of the master, he was shielded from powers that might otherwise detect or harm him.”
Yet Dale, not being the full master, used the unstable relic, which triggered the curse.
“Because Dale is his son, he can stop the curse.”
“…!”
“Princess, can you save His Majesty?”
I placed my hand on my chest.
Dale’s heart, made to beat again, thumped strongly.
“I’ll try.”
Feeling the relic’s power flowing through me, I felt both weight and wonder.
“Dale.”
His face, asleep and pale, was frightening.
Dale must wake. I gently stroked his face and gazed at him.
Then I closed my eyes and whispered to myself:
‘I will no longer reject Dale.’
I had always resisted Dale.
So I prayed that the power of the relic within me would no longer reject him.
‘Accept Dale.’
I intertwined my fingers with Dale’s neatly placed hand, holding it tightly.
‘Return to where you belong.’
With all my heart, I pressed my lips to Dale’s dry ones.
