Chapter 72

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After talking about the wedding of the Crown Prince and Marianne Alberton for about 10 minutes, Duke Alberton withdrew from the Room of the Sun only after receiving a satisfactory confirmation from the Emperor.

“Then, Your Majesty, I will see you again later.”

Perhaps because he got most of what he wanted from today’s audience, Duke Alberton bowed to the Emperor with a satisfied face and turned back without hesitation.

The Emperor stared coldly at the back of Duke Alberton, who had turned his back even before he had been granted permission to leave. And when he disappeared, the Emperor sighed deeply and leaned back on the throne.

“Your Majesty, would you like to go to the bedroom?”

Count Roche, his vassal, spoke cautiously, looking at the tired-faced Emperor, who seemed to have aged ten years in a very short time.

The Emperor then slowly raised his tired, drooping eyelids, glanced at Count Roche, and spoke as he immediately closed his eyes.

“……Well. This old man will close his eyes for a moment on the throne, so you go away for a while. I want to be alone.”

“I see, Your Majesty. Shake this bell whenever you have to call me.”

Count Roche bowed deeply to the tired-eyed Emperor before coming out of the Sun’s room.

After that, he spoke to the servants and guards standing outside the door with sharp eyes.

“I will be away for about half an hour from now. In the meantime, make sure no one enters the Sun Room. And if His Majesty wants to see me, send someone to the Crown Prince’s Palace without delay.”

“Yes, sir.”

The servants and the guards were scattered in perfect order at the order of Count Roche. Count Roche glanced at the busy figure with a squint, then quickly walked down the long hallway leading to the palace.

The destination was the Crown Prince’s Palace, as he mentioned earlier. Count Roche, who came to the Crown Prince’s Palace from the Emperor’s main palace at once, asked the guardsman who was guarding the Crown Prince’s drawing-room.

“Is the Crown Prince inside?”

“Yes. His Highness is having a little tea time while waiting for Count Roche to come.”

“Tell him.”

The guard nodded heavily and knocked briefly on the door of the closed drawing-room. Then, as if he had waited inside just like the guardsman said, Crown Prince Owen’s answer came back.

“Tell him to come in.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Soon the door opened from inside, and Count Roche had an audience with Prince Owen, who was drinking tea in the centre of the drawing-room.

Owen put down the cold teacup, looking silently at Count Roche, who bowed deeply toward him. Then he asked in a cold voice to the approaching Count Roche.

“Did Duke Alberton have an audience with my father a while ago?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Can you tell me more specifically what he said?”

“Of course, Your Highness. I will tell you everything without missing a word.”

At Owen’s order, Count Roche had told him all the conversation that had happened in the Emperor’s audience a short while ago.

Everything from saying that the curse of Duchess Felix, the ‘sacrifice’, was finally completed and that Duke Alberton urged the marriage to Lady Marianne by referring to the current state of the Crown Prince. As Count Roche continued to speak, Owen’s expression grew colder.

At the end of Count Roche’s brief report, Owen snorted.

“Duke Alberton seems afraid that I will die at any moment. After all, no weakness or prey is as good as me to become a threat to the plans of a person like him.”

“It’s pitiful to hear, Your Majesty. Please refrain from saying such things.”

“Why? Isn’t that true? Do you want me to be more explicit? Do you know what Duke Alberton is afraid of now? That’s if I die before I can make a child with that witch Marianne. If that happens, then all the money and time spent so far will get blown away like dust, and in the worst case, the family will be ruined with the charges of the series of brutal slaughtering of noble wives.”

“……Your Highness.”

“Now that I’ve said it,  I feel a bit tempted, aren’t I? I hate to die, but I’d love to see the viper-like Duke Alberton being taken to prison as a sinner.”

[T/N: Owen, that’s what the fandom wishes to see. ( ﾉ ﾟｰﾟ)ﾉ]

Owen continued to sarcastically say regardless of whether Count Roche looked pitiful or not at his words.

If the dastardly Duke Alberton, who dares to treat him, the Crown Prince, as a stallion and forces him to take a woman he doesn’t even want to touch in exchange for his life, could be destroyed right in front of his eyes, he could have poured out the entire 10-year budget of the Crown Prince’s palace.

‘But it’s lamentable that I can’t.’

However, Owen knew all too well that he could never do that.

The curse, which had been barely suppressed by the blood of the dead or mad Duchess Felix, was about to reveal its fierce teeth.

He hates to admit it, but as Duke Alberton said, he doesn’t have much time left. For this body, which should have died at the age of 20, be looked over of having acquired a power that he should not have, and being revered as a god by humans because of that power, cursed by the First God, and cursed to rot from the blood on his hands.

Owen said to Count Roche, squeezing his left arm, which was throbbing painfully, with his right hand.

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“..…By the way, did Duke Alberton really say that the ‘curse’ was completed?”

“Yes, it is. Your Highness. He said all that was left was to let Duchess Grace Felix die ‘once’. And he said that the wedding of Your Highness and Lady Marianne would be good for the ‘stage where the poisoning would take place’.”

“……Really?”

In response to Count Roche’s answer, Owen nervously bit off the tender flesh by the fingernails.

It was good to say that Duke Alberton could not have told a lie. If it had been a lie to stall, Duke Alberton would not have urged the Emperor himself to come forward with a date for the marriage of Owen and Marianne.

‘If that’s true, should I kill Lady Grace with my own hands?’

Will he be able to point a knife at her heart while looking straight at those kind eyes that see even monsters as human beings?

Owen couldn’t imagine that. He obviously couldn’t. Perhaps instead of stabbing her, he would throw his knife at her feet and beg for pity on himself, a monster more pitiful than the monster duke, Arthur Felix, whom she loved.

Some would think of him as a fool and would laugh at him. He had never truly shared his heart with her and fell in love with her only because she loved the monster duke as a human being.

But there was something he didn’t know. The fact that no one has ever loved a monster ‘as a monster itself’.

Grace Alberton was the only woman who loved a monster and said she could even get cursed for her love and that she would stay by his side no matter what.

‘There is no one like her in the world. Even if I search all over the world, no one has a heart like her.’

So he didn’t want to kill her. He wanted her to live and love him. And to do that, he had to find a way to keep both himself and her alive.

Owen said,  looking at Count Roche with eyes full of impatience.

“Is there any way to undo the curse on her even now?”

“It will be impossible. Even if you find another lady who might like the monster duke, it will still take some time for the monster to fall in love, and that would put your life at risk.”

“..……Damn it.”

At last, should he kill her with his own hands? Owen hurled curses as he ruffled his hair roughly.

‘If only I had a little more time.’

Owen spoke in a subdued voice to Count Roche, who was quietly examining his complexion.

“… … Is there really no other way to break the curse of the First God that has been placed on me other than to use the blood of those who have died and are resurrected? Really, is that the only way? Could it have been that the cunning Duke Alberton had lied to his father to seize power? What do you think, Count Roche?”

“……There is no possibility of that. The first person to discover the curse of Your Highness’s fate was the High Priest. And the High Priest kept it a secret until his death. The only time your secret was revealed to Duke Alberton was only when His Majesty the Emperor sought him to break the curse.”

“Okay. And then Duke Alberton told my father that he would find a way to break this curse on the condition that I need to marry Marianne! Damn it!”

Owen slammed the table hard, swearing again.

Where the hell did it go wrong? Where should he start again to escape this damn fate? Owen has always self-deprecating his own fate.

“Really, both the First God and the goddess of fortune were all impatient to be on the side of the viper-like Duke Alberton. Otherwise, how could things go like this?…… The fact that he found out about the power that has been passed down to Duke Felix from generation to generation, and that Grace is his daughter! And that monster fell in love with Grace so much that he could give her his life! All of this! How can fate flow so well according to his convenience!”

“Your, Your Highness! Calm down! The Crown Prince’s Palace has many ears! If this secret ever leaks out and gets into Duke Felix’s ear, it’s all over!”

“I know! Damn it! I know it!”

Owen, who had been mourning and lamenting his fate, finally vented his anger.

Count Roche was startled by Owen’s loud voice and patted him on the shoulder. Then Owen, who shrugged his shoulders and took a deep breath, looked back at Count Roche with keen eyes and said,

“… … Count Roche.”

“Yes, I’m listening. Your Highness.”

“Are you sure that the present Duke Felix has inherited the ‘power to resurrect the dead by linking the dead with their own life’ just like his father?”

“……..Yes, Duke Alberton says so. He said that ‘Blue and Red Odd-Eye’ is a mark of a man strong enough to defy the fate written by God.”

“Really? Then what is the condition for that magical power to be activated?”

“When he sees someone dying right in front of his eyes, and if he earnestly desires to save that person so desperately that he could even sacrifice his own life, then I heard that he will be able to do it and it will come true.”

“……Okay, like that.”

Owen nodded thoughtfully at Count Roche’s explanation.

He needs to find a way. The venomous Duke Alberton cannot be allowed to move as he wishes.

Marriage to Marianne, a witch who looked just like her father, was terrifying to imagine, and Grace was a pity to die because of them. Perhaps in this Empire, no, even if he searches all over the world, there is only one “woman who truly loves monsters”, and he couldn’t bring himself to kill her.

So it was at that time when Owen was having a hard time coming up with something good. In an instant, a pearl of devilish wisdom came to his mind.

Owen could feel the corners of his lips being pushed up involuntarily.

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[T/N: *Devilish laughter in the background* Ψ(￣∀￣)Ψ]

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