Peace didn’t last long.

From a certain point, tranquility was broken, and the clear reason could not be identified.

There were too many things that could be inferred.

“Louis, the duchess asks if there’s any news of the child yet. Shouldn’t you at least show some effort?”

Pressure about succession.

“Didn’t you say last time you couldn’t recover the investment funds? And now you want to persuade the duchess to spend a large amount again? I can’t do it.”

The struggling business.

“I didn’t want to say this, but you’re too much these days. Can’t you come home? Think about how I feel having to tell the duchess you’re not home every time she comes to the mansion looking for you.”

Louis’s attitude, further aggravating the situation by prioritizing his outdoor life.

Everything was encouraging the cracks.

“Odette, please don’t get upset over nothing. You think I have no complaints about you? You didn’t even say thanks when I bought you that fur last time.”

“How can I say thanks when I’m not grateful? When did I ask you to buy that? When did I say I needed fur? If you have time to buy that, you could accompany me to the couple’s gathering I asked for last time…….”

Odette cried at the drop of a hat. She became irritated and no longer laughed.

Even if Louis bought her something nice out of guilt, she refused it.

“Don’t try to appease me with things I don’t want. I’m not grateful at all.”

Of course, Louis wasn’t going to feel good seeing that attitude after he’d put thought into a gift.

He naturally became increasingly neglectful of the household, and that eventually led to the illusion.

“I regret marrying you. It was the worst decision of my life…….”

Truly, a terrible curse.

The fact that it’s a delusion, and therefore Odette isn’t really crying, is particularly so.

The problem is that having seen the illusion so much, now even when he sees the real Odette, he feels the same way.

Just today, when he met Odette to attend a banquet, he almost made a mistake.

“Sorry, Count Clovis. Did you wait long?”

“…I really missed you.”

“…What?”

“Oh, no… I made a mistake. Forget it. You look truly beautiful today, Your Highness.”

Could this curse be a curse of fascination?

Otherwise, why would Odette, who knows nothing and smiles, look so pretty?

‘I’ve been living like I’m out of my mind for days, so maybe it makes sense.’

He was blinded by the illusion of Odette and couldn’t go outside at all.

No, it’s more accurate to say that he didn’t want to pay attention to anything else.

So even when friends came looking for investment, he didn’t show his face once.

“Louis! I know what’s inside you. Will you really not meet me?”

“If you don’t attend this meeting, your standing will weaken! Do you really want to throw away everything you’ve invested in, really!”

His friends were those who chased after alcohol and women under the pretext of investment, but nevertheless, Louis was making good use of them as connections.

He earned a playboy image because of them, but that didn’t matter.

There were always many people around those who liked alcohol, and Louis had just appropriately used them.

So, rationally, he knew he should join them with a smile again.

“Going to hang out with them again? You can skip it once.”

“If you don’t attend this meeting, all the effort so far will be wasted. I won’t be long, so don’t worry too much.”

“…….”

The sad face of Odette in his illusions held him back.

Looking back, there was almost no nutritional value in the meetings he attended because they said, ‘You must come.’

He couldn’t let go of it just in case of any possibility, knowing that.

“Damn business.”

Although it was something he wanted, thinking about how many times the Odette in his illusions cried because of it made him sick and tired.
Was it irritation towards the evermelancholy Odette in the delusion, or even the ambiguity of whether it was irritation towards himself who made her cry like that?

‘Why do I keep seeing such a delusion?’

Even the highest authority in imperial magic didn’t know how to solve the curse.

He couldn’t even guess how to escape it.

At least when he met the real Odette, only then did his sharp irritation subside.

‘Must I really marry the 4th Princess?’

At that moment, such a thought occurred.

Walter brought up that story.

About the insubstantial thing that comes to mind, which is not in his memory.

“Such a delusion, it’s really fascinating. Earl, do you have anything to point out?”

“……No.”

“Lucky. It’s a pretty malicious curse, in the cases I know of, they committed suicide.”

“……!”

Suicide.

Louis’s eyes trembled, but Walter calmly continued without noticing.

“It’s a curse that drives people to madness to the point of death… It’s fortunate that it doesn’t apply to you, Earl.”

“That… Can you tell me more about that curse?”

“You said you had nothing to point out?”

“It’s something I might not know.”

The reason for suddenly jumping out was a rather lame excuse, even in Louis’s opinion.

Walter’s eyes narrowed and then slowly turned back.