Kwakwang- Lightning struck and a flashing light brushed past pink pupils. Was pink such a cold color?

Irene hid her trembling fingers under the table and clenched them tightly.

“A-are you crazy?!”

She felt humiliated by Diana’s actions. Even though Irene was frightened, she still held her head high.

I won’t let her treat me like this! Irene looked around, wanting to slap Diana, but even the maids and ladies-in-waiting seemed frightened of Diana.

Despite the charm curse, they couldn’t even protect their mistress and bowed their heads. Fear overcame the curse.

“Oh my, why are you shaking so much? It’s as if I scared you.”

When her raised eyes narrowed, her impression changed completely. The atmosphere shifted as if she had never been intimidating.

As she touched the fork, it easily came out from being firmly stuck in the wooden table.

“I just caught a bug that was sitting in front of the young lady.”

It was true. The bug was stuck on the fork in its original circular shape. Its struggling, not yet dead, seemed to be sending Irene a warning.

It seemed to be saying, this will soon be your future. Irene tried to ignore it and spoke nonchalantly.

“Ha, you’re good at making excuses.”

“If you don’t want to believe it, then don’t.”

She lightly dropped the fork on the floor. But no maid picked it up.

Everyone in this greenhouse was on Irene’s side. Yes, everyone is on my side. All the servants in this castle are on my side.

As if she had never been frightened, Irene clenched her fists tightly then opened them. When her trembling hands calmed down, she got up from her seat.

“I think I should get going. I can’t stand being here with someone so low-class.”

As Irene turned to leave, Diana grabbed her.

“Lady Irene the Countess.”

What now? Irene glared at Diana irritably.

She was resting her chin and caressing the rim of the teacup. Irene was taken aback by the question that followed.

“That stone. Where did it come from?”

“Stone…?”

How does this woman know about that? Her heart sank, but she tried to force a smile and put on a face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you know it’s a curse when you use it? That. It looks like it will devour you instead.”

Diana’s gaze, which had been looking down at the teacup, turned to Irene.

“Where did you get it. That thing.”

Under her gaze that seemed to see through everything, Irene shrunk back.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I have no obligation to tell you!”

As Irene hurriedly left, the ladies-in-waiting and maids who had been standing in a line poured out of the glass greenhouse. Watching Irene leave as if running away, Diana’s eyes narrowed.

A curse begets another curse. Irene’s condition, inseparable from the curse, also looked unstable.

She had no intention of directly asking about the stone, but anger welled up at the slander against Rodrick.

She turned her gaze back to the tea in the teacup.

“It’s poison.”

The numbness on the tip of her tongue seemed to be a paralytic poison. There was no blow. According to Noel, the poison imbued with wishes became medicine to her. It seemed a lady-in-waiting who was excessively loyal to Irene had secretly put it in.

“Thank you.”

According to Noel, eliminating the medium of the curse could drive the owner insane.

Even if that happened, she didn’t think she would need to feel sorry after doing this much for her. Diana, holding the teacup, emptied the poisoned tea in one gulp.

Tak- The teacup she set down cracked with a crack.

Ah. Her emotions must have heightened too, as she couldn’t control her strength. Fortunately, her magic hadn’t drained yet, so her body was in top condition.

She leaned far back in her chair and tilted her head up to look at the sky. Above the glass ceiling, water was pouring down as if it would shatter.

Under the ink clouds that had descended like night, the sky was wailing as if there was something so pitiful.

Clanging! The sound of objects breaking and the screams of maids echoed out into the hallway.

“L-Lady, please calm down! Ahhh!”

Irene, who had returned to her room, was throwing all sorts of utensils at the maids and ladies-in-waiting. She seemed somewhat agitated.

“Get out! Everyone get out!”

“We’re just worried about you, my lady.”

“At times like this, you shouldn’t be alone.”

“I decide that! Get out!”

Irene, who had been throwing things regardless of whether they got hurt, stopped her rampage when the maids and ladies-in-waiting left. Irene took a deep breath and huffed angrily.

“It’s mine. This castle too, and the position of duchess. It’s mine. As long as I have this.”

She took out a jewelry box and held up a stone tablet with a red energy swirling.

There was a small figure watching that scene from the wide open doorway. Noel’s red eyes, standing at the door, were oddly subdued.

He had manipulated the woman to go on a rampage using power. Now she wouldn’t be able to harass Diana. Left like that, she would lose her mind on her own.

Noel, about to leave, was startled to see a man’s presence he hadn’t noticed before, his eyes wide.

Rodrick, who had entered the secret passage, was opening the door of the secret passageway against his will.

A male-shaped shadow enveloped him and clung to him.

“What. Is this.”

Rodrick came to his senses in front of a portrait resembling Diana, but it was already too late.

In an instant, his body was engulfed by the ghost of the past.

“Haa. Ha.”

The man, moving his fingers, took a deep breath into his lungs for the first time in a long time. He took off his gloves and threw them away as if stifled.

The descendant closely resembled him in both physique and appearance. Not bad. He felt no discomfort in moving the body.

The man reached out towards the portrait staring at him. The man, caressing the woman revived by delicate brush strokes, smiled bitterly.

“If you knew, would you scold me. I’m a sinner to you anyway. Forgive me just this once.”

The man left the confined passageway and strolled through his castle for the first time in centuries. However, an unpleasant energy was spread throughout the castle.

He moved his steps to find the source of the smell that seemed to numb his nose and rot it.

“Why is the kind young lady acting like that?”

“It must be because of that wicked woman. She hasn’t been well since meeting that woman.”

“But isn’t that woman so creepy?”

The maids and ladies-in-waiting, who had poured out of the room and were pacing the hallway, were startled to see him and bowed their heads.

“……”

He silently looked down at the women. Under his unfathomable dark blue eyes, the women bowed deeply and hurriedly left.

The man passed the wide open door and strode into the room.

That’s when he passed Noel. Without paying attention to Noel’s presence, he picked up the stone tablet Irene was holding.

“Wh-what are you doing!”

“Ha, I wondered where the stench was coming from. Why is this in my castle?”

“Let go! It’s mine! It’s mine!”

Irene rushed at the man in a daze. Tak- The man easily grabbed Irene’s neck.

“Urk-”

“Poor child. You put your wishes into something wicked. Not knowing you’ll be devoured.”

The man, holding Irene’s neck with one hand and the stone tablet with the other, tightened his grip with one hand.

With bulging veins, the stone tablet crumbled into powder and fell. As the stone tablet shattered, the red energy that had spread throughout the castle began to dissipate and disappear.

Irene’s eyes turned bloodshot at the stone tablet that had broken so easily.

“No. With that. I. I’ll be duchess!”

Irene, reaching out into the air, soon couldn’t keep her mouth shut. A chill ran down her spine as if placed in front of the jaws of a huge beast.

He didn’t put strength into the hand gripping her neck. He just stared intently.

Under that gaze telling her to quietly shut her mouth, Irene had no choice but to close her mouth out of instinct. It was a spirit that could suppress the influence of the stone tablet.

“Brother! What’s going on?”

Felice ran over at the maids’ words that Rodrick had headed to Irene’s room.

The room was a mess with all the furniture broken. The biggest mess seemed to be Irene in Rodrick’s hands.

Rodrick, tilting his head slightly, practically threw Irene into Felice’s arms.

“Brother?”

“Is she your fiancée or something?”

Felice frowned, looking genuinely displeased.

“What nonsense are you saying.”

“I see.”

“Won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

“Clean it up.”

The man patted Felice’s shoulder and leisurely left the room.

“How long are you going to glare at me? If you have something to say, follow me.”

Noel, who had been watching him warily, silently followed behind him.

The man moved his steps without hesitation through the interior of the castle he knew thoroughly. And he stopped his steps that were habitually heading to the head’s room.

Frowning, he searched Rodrick’s memories for Rodrick’s room.

The man, who sat on the sofa in his room as if it were his own, crossed his long legs and leaned back arrogantly.

“How did you get out.”

Noel was the first to speak.

“Hmm, this descendant has a good wavelength with me.”

Noel gritted his teeth. He was sure he had made it so the passageway couldn’t be opened with magic.

Damn Schwartz. With only some of his memories, Noel only had ill feelings towards Schwartz.

“I want to ask? Why are you in my castle?”

“I’ll be leaving soon. Don’t worry about it.”

The boy puffed out his cheeks and turned his head sharply.

Did he regress because his body got younger?

The man tapped his fingers on the armrest of the sofa. Hmm. He looked at the boy with an interested gaze filled with murderous intent.

I really don’t like you.

“Get out right now.”

“What?”

“Ah, leave the Beatus descendant. My descendant likes her a lot, right? This kid doesn’t seem to know how deep his feelings have become.”

I really like it. The man smiled deeply. Finally, a connection with her had been made. The love they couldn’t achieve could at least be fulfilled by their descendants.

“Stop joking around. If you leave, Diana leaves with you.”

“That child seems to be cursed too? So she needs my descendant’s curse?”

The man, who had skimmed through Rodrick’s memories, grasped the whole situation.

“And. You. Your name is Noel now? You can’t even remember what you originally were.”

“I-I’m human!”

“Heh. Hahaha.”

The man, who had been laughing for a while as if he found it really amusing, wiped away his laughter and spoke.

“If you’re a beast, act like a beast. Don’t act like a human.”

Noel’s pupils lengthened vertically at his words that infuriated him.

“You have no power anyway. Why are you fussing next to Beatus. If it weren’t for you, I could have asked her for forgiveness.”

It was a very, very old story.

A dragon who loved a woman gave all his power to grant her wish.

But the one the woman loved was another man, and she used the power of the wish for the man she loved.

How nice would it have been if the woman and man had lived happily together.

The tragedy began with the woman’s death.

The man resented the dragon who had been by her side, and the dragon resented the man who couldn’t protect the woman.

“…I can’t remember everything, but I remember this. Because of you, Angela kept crying until she died.”

“……”

“You have to live in pain. That’s why your soul remained and was trapped here.”

“……”

“I live. I will live as a human. Angela said. No matter what, live happily.”

Noel got down from the sofa on his short legs and glared at the man.

“Don’t interfere. No matter what happens this time, protect her.”