CH 95

“I didn’t ask in detail because I thought it would be better to meet and talk directly, but was there a basement in this castle that I wasn’t aware of?”

Nellia was puzzled by their conversation and found it strange.

Regardless of how many decades the duchess has lived in this castle, the duchy was incredibly vast and huge.

Moreover, she knew that it wasn’t an uncommon thing for each territory to have a secret room that could be used as shelters in preparation for any attack coming from the air.

Duke Hart added, as if to answer Nelia’s question.

“Nelia doesn’t know about this either, but when my father died and my mother came here to live by herself, she rebuilt the castle building. That’s why it’s strange that there was a room she didn’t know about until just now.”

Nelia opened her eyes wide. She finally understood the pace of their conversation.

However, she had another question, which is why on earth did they rebuild this huge castle…… it must have been a massive construction.

Nelia wondered, but the duke and Duchess of Hart were continuing their conversation about the basement.

“Where do we find the entrance of the basement?”

“It’s located in the training hall in the back of the castle, which hasn’t been used anymore.”

“Training hall?”

“Yes, the servant who was plucking up the weeds found a weird-looking door and later found out.”

Duke Hart’s gaze was serious.

“What else was there in the basement besides books?”

“There were only bookshelves, desks, and books that looked old. The books seemed to be linked to the curse, and since I think they were kept there secretly, it seems that Hart Family was a place where people studied about the curses from a long time ago.”

Nelia thought the duchess’ guess could be right.

Although the duke was giving up on resolving the curse, he decided to meet her and solved the curse anyway.

The previous Duke of Hart would have been the same. Anyone would have tried with all their might to lift this curse. That’s why it was no wonder that such a room existed.

“You know, there’s no one in this world who wouldn’t be tired of this curse, isn’t there?”

The duchess spoke pitifully and lifted one of her lips.

“In the past, my ancestors must have done everything to solve this curse as well. Well, that’s why I did that, too.”

The duchess unfolded the fan she was holding as if she felt hot. The baby hairs that stuck out of her finely-curled hair were scattered everywhere due to the wind.

The duchess’ expression stiffened, which made her wonder what the woman was thinking. However, soon enough she controlled her expression again.

“I’m glad I found the basement now. Griff’s transformation pill doesn’t work as well as before.”

The Duchess stopped fanning herself and asked Duke Hart.

“Come to think of it, Shilian. How many pills are you taking a day now? If you take more than three pills everyday, it will pressure your body a lot……”

“I’m barely taking any medicine right now.”

The duchess folded the fan with a snapping sound.

“What do you mean?”

The duchess, whose eyes were wide open, glanced at Nelia.

“Is it because of Young Lady Nelia? The last time I visited the ducal’s mansion, I heard you came back into your human form……”

“That’s right. When Nellia is near me, I don’t turn into a snake even when I don’t take medicine.”

“Were you thinking about the reason?”

Duke Hart couldn’t immediately answer it.

When simply asked if they have thought about the reason, both Duke Hart and Nelia would say yes.

However they couldn’t find an answer despite having worked hard for it.

The duchess, who concluded the answer from Duke Hart’s silence, being the first to speak again.

“Never mind it. It would be nice to know the reason, but it’s obviously a good thing.”

“However, I can’t live like this forever. Not being able to be apart is more uncomfortable than I thought.”

Nelia felt a little weirded out at the duke’s firm answer.

‘He felt uncomfortable being with me…….’

However, to her…… Although it was uncomfortable to not be apart from the Duke more than a certain distance, she didn’t hate it either.

However, Nelia soon shook off her subdued mood and tried to understand the Duke’s feeling.

As he said, they can’t live like this for the rest of their life, and he must have been much more worried than it seemed because he was the person who carried out the curse.

It was just astonishing that the duke never showed his true feelings.

“I wonder if the day of the total lunar eclipse would be better because of Nelia.”

The duke seemed to be thinking for an answer.

“Nelia’s touch changed me back to human.”

The duchess’ eyes were wide open at the wishful story, but the duke soon continued in a self-mocking voice.

“But before that, I lost my senses and went crazy trying to attack Nellia. That’s why I can’t be reassured yet.”

The duchess’ expression stiffened as if she was genuinely surprised.

“You almost caused a huge trouble……”

“That’s why I’m going to prepare everything perfectly for the upcoming total lunar eclipse.”

“That would be better. I’ll do whatever I can to help, so please don’t mind talking to me.”

The duchess’ gaze toward Duke Hart was pitiful. As if she was looking at such a poor thing.

The cold tea they had been holding for a long time seemed to be forgotten.

Duke Hart spoke in the midst of the gloomy atmosphere.

“If you’re not going to drink it, I’d suggest we go down to the basement.”

The duchess put the teacup back on the table and stood up.

“Yes, we’d better go now.”

***

As the duchess said, there was an old wooden door on the floor of the training hall at the back of the main castle.

Seeing the basement door, Nelia tilted her head wonderingly.

‘There was a door in a place like this, but no one knew about it?’

Regardless if it was said to have been unused, there was a wooden door that appeared completely different in color with the floor……

Moreover, the training hall was not used anymore, but it was very neat and clean enough to conclude that it has been taken care of from time to time.

The duke frowned and looked at the basement door, as if thinking about the same thing.

“That’s strange. I’ve been to this training ground when I was very young. That’s why I remember this place clearly, there wasn’t a door like this at the time.”

Things were even more strange upon hearing the duke’s remark.

Where did the door appear from?

It was then.

Something was trodding on Nelia’s foot. Nelia looked down when something was moving around below. There was a broken transparent egg shell behind her feet.

‘What is this?’

Astonished upon spotting the object he had never seen before, he crouched down and stared at it.

He muttered in a low voice that only Nelia could hear.

“It’s a magic ball, an instrument used for sealing.”

“Magic ball……?”

“Yes, it’s very outdated. It seems that the magic ball has been damaged as time passed, so the door that was sealed and hidden was revealed.”

So it was like that……

Nelia thought it was a good thing to bring Zenuit here as he could reveal the secret about the basement right away.

At first, she was anxious to take Zenuit to the basement where the important things must have been kept, but she reluctantly brought him as well because he made a fuss and wanted to go along.

The duke and duchess didn’t really seem to mind whether Zenuit followed or not.

Fortunately, Janewitt, who focused on the magic ball, did not seem upset about it. Luckily, Zenuit didn’t seem offended by it as he focused on the magic ball.

“Nelia, is there something on the floor?”

Duke Hart approached and asked Nelia and Zenuit, who were whispering to each other while staring down at the floor.

Nelia, who was startled, answered with widely opened eyes.

“Oh, I found this……!”

“What is it?”

“……Magic. I think this magic ball has been hidden in the basement.”

The panicking Nelia recited exactly what Zenuit said a moment ago.

Duke Hart leaned over and picked up the broken magic ball at Nelia’s feet. Upon examining the piece of magic ball more closely, he nodded.

“I think what Nelia said is right. Although it’s weak, I can feel the magic here.”

Zenuit’s words turned out to be true.

Moreover, the duke seemed to be able to feel magic. She wondered how much ability he had.

“By the way, how did Nelia know it was a magic ball?”

“Oh…… I saw a magic ball that looked like it in the book I read last time. I thought it looked like that, but I guess it was right.”

“I see. Nelia seems to read more books than me lately. I can’t believe I knew it right away after looking at the magic ball once.”

“Haha, I was lucky.”

She felt very guilty because it felt as if she stole someone’s ball, but Zenuit didn’t seem to mind. Duke Hart opened the basement door. Then, he saw a staircase that went down quite deep.

The duke walked down to the basement first. Followed by the duchess, Nelia and Zenuit.

The room wasn’t big. As the duchess said, there were two bookshelves, a desk, and a chair.

The duke took out a book on the shelf. Nelia peeped from behind, but the book was written in unreadable letters.

Even so, it was too early to give up. Afterall, the duke has studied various languages since he was young……

“I can’t read it.”

……D*mn it.

Duke Hart quickly turned the book over. However, it all seemed to be written in the same exact letter.

‘What on the earth are these letters?’

The duke said while staring at the opened book.

“This…… I’ve never seen this letter before. It seemed to be a language that I don’t speak. I think this place is much older than I thought.”

They’d come all the way here, but even the duke couldn’t read the book here.

Nevertheless, the reason why the duchess saw this book and thought it was related to the curse was because there was a snake in the middle.

It seemed that the book was definitely related to the curse. However, they couldn’t collect any more information.

When Nelia stared at the letters with a sullen expression, she noticed that they looked undoubtedly familiar.

‘I  wondered if I’ve ever seen this kind of letter……’

The letters looked a lot like hieroglyphics, too.

But at that moment, the Duke spoke while taking something from the bottom of the bookcase.

“There were books here as well.”

The duchess, who had come down to the basement before them, looked surprised upon seeing it, as if she hadn’t discovered it before.

The duke opened the book he’d found on the desk. Nelia, Zenuit, and the duchess also stood surrounding the desk and looked at the book.

He turned the page slowly from the very first.

There was a picture on the first page.

If the other book was painted so that the snake were the only recognizable figure, this book contained much more detailed and colorful pictures.

‘Luckily……’

The picture was painted, so she thought it could be interpreted.

Nelia stared at the painting concentratedly.

In the first picture, there was a man standing alone in the flame.

“Fire……”

Something crossed Nelia’s mind as soon as she saw the picture with a man and fire. It was the burnt smell that came from the duke when he turned into a monster or got enraged.

There was no burning fire at all, but it smelled bizarrely similar to having been burnt. And it was quite terrible, too.

The smell made her feel like she was somewhere in hell and being surrounded by flames.

The duke looked at the painting motionlessly. Nelia knew he must be thinking about similar things like her.

And upon closer look, there was a black circle in the back among the clouds.

The black circle…… Does it represent the moon? If it’s drawn black, does it mean a total lunar eclipse phenomenon?

Although it was just a guess, she thought the ducal family might be related as he turned into a monster on the day of the total lunar eclipse.

The duke flipped the page of the book again. She didn’t count how many pages he flipped until another picture came into sight.

However……

‘What is this……?’

There was a drawing of a completely unexpected picture.