~Chapter 113~
“Damn it!”
Leonard slammed his hand on the desk, grinding his teeth.
‘Magic doesn’t work? Spells don’t work either?’
He had returned to his usual residence after his confinement period ended.
But his royal palace was no longer as it used to be.
The guards were stricter, and imperial soldiers watched his every move.
‘Stay like this for now. Don’t touch the Maledictus now that they’re stable.’
That was the cold, calm message from the emperor.
‘Have they all accepted the Maledictus now?’
Leonard clenched his teeth. His foolish relatives seemed ready to accept the Maledictus, even though the partner was an outsider. They only wanted to maintain the status quo.
‘They’re so careless. They have no urgency.’
Except for Leonie, none of the princes or princesses had the courage to aim higher.
Leonie, skilled in magic, had never experienced lack or failure, so urgency didn’t exist for her.
‘Everyone’s never been lacking anything.’
Leonard realized he was the only one struggling.
‘Maintaining the status quo? Such stupid thinking can go to hell.’
He would dream bigger and achieve more.
He would instill fear in the Maledictus and continue dreaming of monopolizing magic.
But even at his own residence, Leonard couldn’t act freely. The guards blocked any attempt to produce fear.
If anyone found out he was trying to control fear, they would know he wanted the throne and to hoard magic.
Obsessed with the dream of monopolizing magic, Leonard only thought of exploiting the Maledictus couple’s weaknesses.
No method worked.
“Even though I got her hair…”
Leonard shook as he held a perfect strand of Rubiana Maledictus’ long black hair.
He had picked it up from the floor before Leonie caught him.
No one would inspect a prince’s belongings, and even if a strand came out of his pocket, no one would notice unless it was a bundle.
He had planned to use it for a forbidden spell to hurt Rubiana, to control her curse and feed fear to Damien.
‘But magic and spells don’t work?’
Leonard was confused as he saw the black hair absorb any nearby magic.
‘Should I report this immediately?’
A human immune to magic… this was already a threat to the royal family.
Even worse:
‘That woman made the curse attack me.’
The Maledictus’ curse had bypassed the rule that it couldn’t attack royalty.
‘So in the future, she could control Damien’s curse to attack any royal.’
“This is it.”
He decided to report this to the emperor immediately.
‘And if she divorces Damien…’
He planned to kidnap her and extract fear directly.
Thud.
A thick stack of papers flew and hit Leonard’s head.
The emperor’s expression was icy.
“Are you sane?”
The room went cold.
“Now you want to eliminate Rubiana Maledictus?”
“Your Majesty, please listen. That woman—”
Leonard explained that magic didn’t work on Rubiana and she could control the curse to attack royalty.
But the emperor grew angrier.
“Impossible! Your magic must be weak, that’s why it didn’t affect the Duchess!”
Leonard lost his composure.
“And what do you mean she attacked with the curse? I heard she was injured because you tried to kidnap the Duchess first! Now you’re making up delusions?”
“……”
“Not only that! Why are you still bothering the now-stable Maledictus? That day, you even prepared a swapped body to make it look like the Duchess jumped out herself?”
The emperor pointed angrily, shouting.
“Do you know how hard I worked to cover all this and stop rumors?”
He threw the last floating paper onto Leonard’s desk.
“Get out. Stop your nonsense.”
Leonard’s plan was once again ruined.
A few days later, the long-awaited Halloween arrived for Damien and Rubiana.
‘She’ll come in ten minutes.’
Damien checked his pocket watch on the west tower rooftop and looked at the full moon.
‘Still white.’
The purple moon hadn’t risen yet.
He wanted to start the ritual immediately but had to hide his impatience.
Otherwise, Rubiana, already told she had a short lifespan, could get anxious.
‘What will she dress as?’
Hopefully something cute… a fairy, maybe.
‘No matter what, she’ll look cute.’
He usually didn’t care much about costumes, but this year he wanted to impress Rubiana.
He chose the ghost ship captain costume carefully: a stylish hat and jacket, a pirate-like shirt with flowing sleeves, gloves showing hand bones, and an eyepatch over his right eye.
“Hmm?”
A dark figure moved strangely in the distance.
It was about the size of a small adult woman and carried a huge scythe.
The footsteps made a creepy “sasak” sound, and the face was a sinister skull mask.
It would have scared children away.
Damien said nothing as the figure approached.
Finally, the figure stood right in front of him and silently lifted the skull mask.
“Damien!”
Inside was his wife, smiling brightly—Rubiana.
“How do I look? Scary, right? I’m the Grim Reaper Killer from Frightening’s new novel!”
She had prepared a remarkable costume, matching Damien’s tastes.
“I’m really surprised. It looks exactly like the illustrations and novel description.”
“Yes, yes!”
The “sasak” sound of her feet matched the scary effect.
Seeing his wife’s childlike joy made Damien smile.
‘Not the cute costume I expected…’
But watching her happily carry the giant scythe, his amethyst eyes softened.
‘No, she’s still cute.’
“Damien, you look so cool!”
Her pure red eyes met his.
“You look like the handsome captain in a novel.”
“Ah, uh…”
Damien blushed but felt satisfied that today’s goal—making Rubiana happy—was achieved.
“No, Rubiana, you’re scary but cute too.”
“Really? Cute?”
Damien smiled at her doubtful look.
‘That’s what makes her cute.’
He grabbed Rubiana’s hand, satisfied.
“Shall we bring the butterflies inside now?”
“Ah, wait.”
Rubiana removed her black hood.
“I really wanted to try this costume, but the servants would be too scared. I wore another outfit underneath.”
She pulled a string, and a black robe fell to the floor, hiding what she wore underneath.
“……Oh?”
Damien was speechless.
