Chapter 5. The Cursed Prince Clade Euphris
2023.10.05.
It was there that my sister died.
While hoping to bring Yuan here within a year and form a new family.
There lies Yuan’s new family.
Without Louise, it remains an incomplete family.
But it is the only lifeline to escape from those monstrous relatives.
Passing through one snow-white winter forest after another, the imposing mansion awakened Yuan’s dulled sense of reality.
Her sister had died, and Yuan, as the younger sibling, would now take her place.
A marriage that was nothing more than a transaction between the royal family and a noble household.
“That will be my home now.”
Without even a wedding ceremony, she became a wife—and part of a family—the moment she passed through the gates.
The seventh or eighth wife of Clade Euphris, the prince known as a monster.
***
The carriage was blocked at the entrance of the mansion.
Yuan cautiously stepped down after watching Marquis Companni jump off first and undergo inspection.
A black iron fence, two spans taller than the well-built guards, surrounded the estate.
Though clearly meant for security and protection, to Yuan it looked nothing short of a prison.
“…….”
And the main building of the mansion—so grand it made her mouth fall open.
The garden, clearly untouched by human hands, was buried under snow like a blanket, hiding its grotesqueness.
Following that pitiful white garden upward, one’s gaze would land on the unnatural, artificial black mansion standing out in this white world.
Like a lump of black coal dropped by a giant, the mansion’s grandeur made the surroundings appear even more desolate.
Even from a distance, its overwhelming scale made Yuan’s eyes tremble slightly.
“It really is pitch-black.”
That was the only thing she could manage to say. Yet Marquis Companni quickly responded as he finished dealing with the guards.
“It used to be called the Red Brick Mansion.”
“?”
“It burned fiercely around the time the current Emperor ascended the throne.”
Marquis Companni glanced wistfully at the mansion as if recalling old memories, then passed through the iron gate alone, leaving only the words: “Wait here. I’ll go announce your arrival.”
Yuan remained silent for a moment, slowly studying the mansion.
Now that he mentioned it, it felt even more desolate. A fire so intense that not a single red brick remained visible across this massive estate—and no effort had ever been made to restore it.
It had been nearly ten years since the current Emperor took the throne.
Even if Clade Euphris was a cursed prince, he was still of royal blood. Why would they leave it like this—so blatantly, like discarded black ash?
‘As if on display.’
Yuan felt solemn not at the mansion’s grandeur, but at the past it must carry.
Did Louise also stand here and look at this mansion?
What thoughts passed through her mind as she gazed upon it?
***
As Marquis Companni entered the second-floor corridor, guided by the butler, a sharp medicinal odor stung his nostrils.
It was proof the master of the house was awake.
Without pausing, he passed through the door that opened instantly and bowed respectfully.
“Your Highness. I grieve deeply for the loss of your eighth consort.”
As expected, there was no reply.
Companni slowly raised his head.
He saw Marquis Rev offering a silent greeting with his eyes, and beside him, a blond man slouched in a rocking chair, not even glancing toward the door.
The one sitting there with heavy curtains drawn, eyes closed even in broad daylight, was Clade Euphris, the cursed prince.
The master of this black mansion.
Companni concealed his tension and struggled to speak calmly and gently.
“Fortunately, her younger sister, Miss Yuan Pelliese, has been appointed as the new Crown Princess and has arrived with me.”
A thick thread of light slipped through the narrow gap in the slightly parted curtains.
It glinted precisely on the tip of the cursed prince’s nose, stretching upward toward the ceiling.
Staring blankly at it, Marquis Companni added:
“She is a beauty rivaling Lady Louise, gentle in temperament as well. She will surely make a fine wife. She is waiting in front of the mansion now.”
With Clade offering no response, Marquis Rev beside him quietly cleared his throat.
Under long lashes casting elongated shadows, dark violet eyes flickered open.
Marquis Companni held his breath, waiting for the cursed prince’s reply.
“Waiting. For me?”
The voice, deep and hoarse, was closer to a whisper than a declaration.
Companni seized the faint words eagerly.
“Yes. She has traveled a long way, so it would only be proper for you to go out personally—”
“Isn’t it better for both of us if I don’t go out?”
It was a question, yet carried no real insistence.
Leaving only words that blurred the line between muttering and inquiry, the drowsy eyes that had briefly opened slid shut again beneath smooth eyelids.
Without a single smile or glance, the cursed prince Clade Euphris continued:
“If the royal family wishes to bring another woman into my mansion, then it’s better that I don’t go out. You know it, I know it, and Marquis Rev here surely knows it too.”
Companni traced his eyes over Clade’s state—his nightgown half-undone, his upper body almost fully exposed—then forced a smile.
“I shall report to the palace that the ninth bride has safely arrived at the mansion.”
Marquis Companni shifted his gaze from the still-closed eyes of Clade to meet Marquis Rev’s eyes.
It was a silent transfer of responsibility—now, the fate of the new cursed princess consort rested entirely with Clade.
Marquis Rev stiffened his lips and gave a firm nod.
***
After Marquis Companni left, Clade’s eyes snapped open again in the darkness.
His sharp gaze reached toward the curtained window.
Seeing nothing, he immediately frowned.
The chilling aura, which he had only half-revealed to Companni, now immediately enveloped Marquis Rev standing beside him.
“The bride?”
“So they say, Your Highness.”
“Stop with the ‘Your Highness.’ How long has it been since I became a clown of the Euphris family?”
“According to Marquis Companni, the carriage carrying the Crown Princess is at the front of the mansion.”
“The Crown Princess.”
Clade repeated the words and laughed.
His thin lips twisted, stretching wide to both sides.
White teeth glinted in the shadow.
“They’ll call her the cursed prince’s consort in public. So predictable, so tiresome. So, how will the story go this time? Shall we cry out for justice? ‘A violent prince with a history of killing or driving away his eight previous wives—must we stand by and watch?’”
“…….”
“A slaughter party in the black mansion. Something like that?”
“It’s not Your Highness’s fault.”
“Who said it was my fault?”
Clade, slouched in the rocking chair, shrugged his shoulders and stood up.
The old chair shrieked and creaked as he rose to his full height.
Marquis Rev said nothing more, simply waiting in silence.
Clade walked to the console across from him and opened the first drawer.
With rough movements, he tore open a medicine packet and chewed and swallowed it dry, without water.
It was due to the headache he always suffered after encountering the Emperor’s watchdogs from the royal family.
His long, thick-fingered hand naturally pressed against his throbbing temple.
His sharp, finely-tuned voice scattered carelessly into the air.
“Just tell them to start looking for the tenth cursed princess consort from now on, Uncle. How about preparing coffins or divorce papers in advance? So my wife can choose.”
“Will you make no effort at all?”
Finally, seeing Clade tear open yet another medicine packet, Marquis Rev asked. His voice dripped with sorrow.
“You may not live with honor. But you can still live happily.”
“Here we go again. Is that what happiness means to you, Uncle? Holding a woman, seeing a child. Laughing and chattering as a husband, as a father?”
Marquis Rev fell silent.
Clade, his eyes streaked with blood, spread both arms wide and laughed like a clown.
“Look at me, Marquis.”
“Your Highness…….”
Half his body, previously hidden in shadow, was now fully revealed to Marquis Rev.
Clade’s smile was brief—clearly hating to show his body under even a single ray of light.
His bloodshot eyes quickly vanished into shadow, gleaming like those of a wounded beast.
“Who would ever want a husband like me?”
Marquis Rev respectfully clasped his hands and swallowed hard.
Before him stood the youth once hailed as the most beautiful young man in the Euphris family.
One half of his face was stunningly beautiful. The other half was horrific.
The skin resembled tangled, thick veins like animal entrails, hardened into a grotesque, scarred mass.
Rough and hard as bark to the touch, it could only be described as the result of a terrible burn.
The traces of that horrific day ran not just across his face, but down his exposed torso and beyond.
Exactly half his body was vertically split—ruined, grotesquely crushed.
The cruel curse was made even more tragic by the fact that the unblemished half of his body was blindingly pale and beautiful.
Marquis Rev slowly scanned the figure before him, then closed his eyes.
Ten years had passed, yet time here had stopped.
When the previous Emperor died, his brother, Grand Duke Igor, had attempted to seize the throne by killing his young nephew—and failed.
Instead, he left behind this horrific mark.
By some unknown means, the boy’s entire body had turned black, rotting and decaying like spoiled flesh.
He suffered excruciating pain every night, his limbs writhing in agony, and by day, he was hypersensitive from pain and insomnia.
Even foreign magicians were summoned, exhausting every effort to heal him, but the beautiful prince ultimately had to abandon half his body.
With his uncle Igor Euphris ascending the throne, Clade Euphris, now the cursed prince, had imprisoned himself within this black mansion.
And even then, he never left his bedroom—just like a prisoner.
Ten years had passed. A full decade.
For a mere 14-year-old boy, barely past childhood, it was an unbearable burden.
No one could possibly understand his feelings, his pain.
Marquis Rev, gripping his heavy heart, opened his eyes.
Clade’s pain-hypersensitive eyes still stared at him intensely.
As if he knew exactly what the other was thinking.
“Who would ever want a father like me?”
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
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