The answer Duke Schwarz expected from Diana was about her illness.

There were rumors that she never stepped out of the mansion, which led him to wonder if she had a chronic illness. That was all he had in mind.

“I can lift the curse on this family!”

He hadn’t expected such an absurd statement. The Duke’s brow furrowed deeply, unable to hide his expression.

“Um, Father?”

The Duke raised his hand to silence Diana.

Declan, who had brought a chair from a distance, sat beside Diana’s bed.

He sighed deeply, interlocking his fingers.

As he pressed the deep wrinkles on his forehead, his blue eyes turned towards Diana.

Thus began the conversation with her prospective father-in-law.

“My lady.”

His gaze resembled one watching a wild, unruly foal.

“Yes, Father. Please speak freely.”

With a smooth, dignified smile, Diana’s response only stiffened Declan’s expression further.

Diana pushed off the blanket covering her up to her neck and rose from her bed.

One cannot lie down while talking to an adult. The curse she absorbed from the Duke had improved her condition significantly.

“Can you take responsibility for what you’re saying?”

Who’s speaking nonsense?

“Of course, Father.”

Yes, it’s not nonsense.

Their pink and blue eyes clashed, as if in a battle of wills.

Finally, it was the Duke who looked away.

“How much do you know about the curse of our family?”

“I know that the so-called hereditary madness caused by blood is actually a curse passed down from our ancestors. And that when pushed to the extreme, it leads to drastic actions. I also know that Roderick’s time is running out.”

“Did Roderick tell you this?”

She knew it from the original story, but she kept that to herself.

“Right. Roderick is going to die soon, because of the family curse. As the years pass, the intensity of the curse only grows stronger.”

The weight of time was evident in the Duke’s tired eyes.

“Do you know why Felice ran away? Our family has tried every possible way to lift this curse. Everything has been in vain. The temple knows nothing about it, and we can’t suspect or seek help from the royal family. We’ve even sent secret envoys abroad to investigate, but to no avail. The madness affects only our family.”

The Duke wanted nothing more than to lift the curse. Every time he saw his wife, a member of the family, succumb to its influence, it tore his heart apart.

After her death, years passed, and his emotions seemed to have eroded away, leaving him to perform his duties as the head of the family mechanically.

Yet, the curse remained an object of hatred that needed to be eradicated.

“I see.”

Diana responded briefly, lost in thought. Declan’s eyebrows twitched at her seemingly disinterested reply.

“…….”

In his desperate situation, she claimed she could lift the curse. She didn’t understand the gravity of her words. Declan’s eyes grew colder.

“Duke.”

Diana, having concluded her thoughts, looked directly at him with clear pink eyes. Using a formal address indicated a public, not personal, conversation, tilting Declan’s head slightly.

“Do you know that the Beatus family is well-versed in curses?”

He knew. Since the founding of their family, they were renowned for their expertise in curses. Despite the stigma of practicing black magic, they expanded their influence beneath the surface.

Whether their knowledge of curses was still useful in a time when magic was fading was another story.

He had swallowed his pride and approached the Beatus family for help, only to be repeatedly rejected. It was clear that this was the royal family’s way of keeping the Schwarz family in check.

The Beatus family couldn’t defy the royal family, after all.

To control them, a weakness was needed. For the royal family, the Schwarz family’s curse was no less than a leash on a wild beast.
So it was unexpected. When the youngest lady of the Beatus family asked for his son.

The Duke assessed the situation.

Was she acting independently, or following her family’s orders?

“So, the lady claims she can handle the curse?”

He had not expected much from the Beatus, as they didn’t seem particularly capable.

He thought her desire to marry Roderick was just to siphon off something from the Schwarz family, suspecting ulterior motives.

Even knowing she had lived almost imprisoned in her family’s estate, being referred to as an abandoned lady due to mistreatment.

Declan remained skeptical.

“I can see magic with my eyes. It’s a unique trait only I possess.”

She didn’t understand why she could see magic, why it was leaking from her body, or why she could absorb it, but she just chalked it up to being a unique trait.

“Do you know? Curses are created based on magic.”

So what? Diana longed for Roderick as Declan’s eyebrow skeptically raised.

“What I’m saying is, I can see the curse that has seeped into your body.”

“…….”

It was a fact unknown to anyone. Everyone thought only Roderick had inherited the curse. Even his sons didn’t know he was affected by it.

“I can absorb the curse. You won’t believe it unless you experience it directly, right?”