The items piled up like a mountain clattered loudly as they collided.

Slurp- Diana abandoned the manners of a noble lady and curled her legs up on the sofa, raising her teacup.

She intentionally made the sound of drinking tea. So they could hear it.

“Great witch who has mastered all magic. Are we still far?”

“Curses aren’t my specialty!”

Benci said irritably, grabbing her disheveled hair.

“Just wait while drinking tea!”

Benci was rummaging through a mountain of antiques to find the scrolls her fellow witches had studied.

“…Huh.”

A large shadow was gradually approaching her. It was the taxidermied wild bear she had collided with when she first arrived. The bear was walking like a human.

Its head seemed to touch the ceiling, but it walked well.

And its sharp claws looked like they could shred whatever was in front of them, but it was precariously holding a tray.

The bear approached the single sofa she was sitting on and wiggled its long claws. It wanted the teacup.

“Ah, thank you.”

The bear skillfully picked up the small teapot and refilled the teacup with black tea.

It grinned at her words of gratitude. Its smile looked just like a human’s.

As if its job was done, the bear disappeared out the door.

“Found it.”

A thin arm lifted up a dust-covered scroll.

Diana looked at the mess of a room behind Benci’s back. Hmm. It was quite bothersome, but she would clean it up herself.

They needed to get to the capital quickly. This old lady wouldn’t let her go.

At this rate, Jamie or Jane might really get married in her place.

“……”

Just imagining it gave her goosebumps.

Jamie would probably be excited. She remembered how Jamie jumped around excitedly whenever she disguised herself as Diana. She said it was the most fun to dress up as her? Her head ached for no reason.

There were too many loose cannons in the capital.

Had Rodrick set off for the capital? She had asked Benci to send Rodrick a butterfly with her recorded voice.

She didn’t know how it worked, but apparently when the recipient touched the butterfly, the voice would play.

She had sent a message saying she was safe, not to worry, and to go ahead to the capital first. Hopefully it was delivered properly.

“Aunt Benci. I’m busy.”

How long did she have to stay? When she asked with that meaning, the movement of scribbling something on the floor with a staff stopped.

“What busy work? Nothing is more urgent than this. Your curse is more serious, where are you going to go!”

Benci seemed to have a lot of affection except for her hot-tempered personality.

When she saw the scar carved on Diana’s back, she poured magic potion on it without hesitation.

She poured it so generously that the skin all over her body regenerated, becoming as smooth as a baby’s skin and soft to the touch.

All that remained was the pattern of the curse.

When she got angry that her magic was distorted, she got furious as if it was her own business when she saw Diana’s back.

‘Which bastard did this to the child’s back?! This is abuse!’

Said the witch who had kidnapped her.

Of course, it was important because it was directly related to her life, but it was okay since Rodrick could temporarily block it if he was by her side.

For now, returning to the family came first.

“I have to go to the capital and overturn my political marriage.”

Benci, who was moving the long staff again, clicked her tongue.

“Beatus is still doing that, I see?”

“Political marriage?”

“Yes.”

Benci, who was drawing a magic circle on the floor as written on the scroll, erased them with her high heels and sat across from Diana.

“Angela also started with an engagement through a political marriage.”

Benci twisted her red lips and ground her teeth.

“That damned Schwartz I could grind and drink.”

What? Schwartz?

“Although it was a political marriage, Angela truly loved that man. She must have fallen for his face, taking after her mother. Tsk.”

This sounded like a story about Rodrick’s ancestor. Diana quietly looked at the sapphire ring on her fourth finger.

Was she about to hear a love story of the ancestors? Contrary to what she thought, what followed was a barren story with no dreams or hopes.

“Like most political marriages, the engagement started without affection. But I thought it would be fine since Angela liked him. The Schwartz of the North were as powerful as the Beatus.”

But the problem was that she couldn’t meet Angela who had gone to the North.

“If I had known that child was suffering so much, I would have broken through the barrier and went in.”

At that time, the wizards of the North were as strong as the witches and thoroughly blocked the approach of outsiders by building barriers.

By the time she found out Angela was withering away from the indifference of her fiancé, a long time had already passed.

It was when they came up to the capital together.

“When that man turned his eyes to another woman, I thought my eyes were going to roll back.”

Diana swallowed dryly. She couldn’t help but be surprised.

“He cheated on his fiancée?”

No way, the man who was so desperate to find Angela!

“You know what’s even more stupid? That man only realized who he truly loved after Angela died.”

It was too late after she died. When she said Angela had cursed Schwartz before she died, it was almost refreshing. Still, there was lingering anger.

“It’s my lifelong regret that I couldn’t cut off that man’s lifeline myself.”

As if strangling the neck of the man in front of her, Benci tightly clenched the air.

Diana swallowed dryly without Benci noticing. It seemed like it would be a mess if she found out the man she wanted to kill was here with them.

Yep. I don’t know. I know nothing.

The past of the ancestors was infuriating, but that wasn’t the important thing at the moment. The ancestors were the ancestors. She asked what she was curious about.

“Can the Schwartz curse be removed?”

Until now, she had only thought about her own body to avoid dying, and had never seriously thought about Rodrick’s curse.

Would it completely disappear once she finished absorbing it?

Noel had said that to remove a curse, you had to get rid of the person who wished for the curse or the medium.

The Schwartz curse, which had been passed down for generations, no longer had the person who cast the curse or the medium, right? Why was it still ongoing?

“Why are you curious about that?”

At the sharp question, Diana nonchalantly blurted out.

“Because my man has to live with me too.”

The witch’s eyes trembled. What did she say just now?

“You’re living with a Schwartz?”

Her crimson eyes were blazing as if telling her to say it was a joke quickly.

“Rodrick is different from that ancestor. He won’t cheat either. And he hasn’t met any women before me.”

“It’s the same bloodline!”

Even at the witch’s thunderous exclamation that made the surrounding objects tremble, Diana calmly looked at the witch despite the tingling magic power springing up.

“He will surely betray you.”

Rodrick would betray her?

“Aunt Benci.”

Diana, who rested her chin on her arm propped up on the sofa armrest, smiled leisurely.

“If that happens, I won’t let that man off easily first.”

Benci slowly retreated as if she had never been excited.

Her lips were pleasantly raised, but her eyes weren’t smiling.

The coldly glistening pink eyes made the other person flinch.

“I’m greedy, so I can’t share my man with others.”

My man cheating? Why would I just watch that happen? I’d have to overturn everything.

“Ah.”

Snap- She broke the handle of the teacup she was holding.

Just the thought of another woman being with Rodrick made her so angry that she couldn’t control her strength.

“I’m sorry. I’ll compensate for it.”

It wasn’t a sorry attitude at all, but Benci shook her head with an awkward smile.

“It’s fine. It’s an antique from hundreds of years ago.”

The teacup that would have sold for a high price as a rare collection if put out in the world was ruined by Diana’s hand like that, but neither the witch nor Diana cared.

“Well, anyway. Shall we continue the story from earlier? You said the child is now having a political marriage, right?”

“No. Aunt Benci.”

As if asking where she was changing the subject, Diana’s pink-tinged eyes narrowed gracefully.

“Shall we start with the Schwartz curse?”

Spit out everything you know right now.

Benci felt like she was breaking out in a cold sweat. She thought to herself that this child definitely had the temperament of a witch.

[This is the timeline separator]

Krawwk- The fierce cries of demons continuously rang out.

A pink butterfly that didn’t fit the Black Forest, the source of demons, was fluttering away.

A man wearing leather gloves caught the pink butterfly shedding particles of light.

The butterfly that had lost its destination flapped frantically with one wing caught, but the man didn’t budge.

The butterfly pitifully flapped its wings and then played a voice.

[Rodrick. Are you listening to me now? I can’t tell you the exact location, but I’m at a witch’s house right now.

I’m safe, so don’t worry and go ahead to the capital with Noel first. I’ll be there soon.

Ah, and since I’m gone, Heli might pounce on you, so be careful. Um, you know. Rodrick. I, I lo-…]

Crack- The voice couldn’t continue and was cut off. The man’s gloved hand crushed the butterfly.

The pink butterfly crumbled and disappeared without a trace.

The man blew the remains of the butterfly into the wind and looked down with crimson eyes under his hood.

Armed, spirited men and one child were walking through the forest path toward a certain direction.

As if he knew where they were heading, the man laughed and snapped his fingers with a clack.

This time, he made the wizard’s castle, his remnant, disappear. It was as easy as getting rid of the butterfly.

The man watched the backs of the men and child for a moment, then used magic to hide his presence.

[This is the timeline separator]

Splash- He surfaced from the lake after diving all the way to the bottom with a luminous stone in his mouth.

“Captain! I said this is crazy in the middle of the night!”

The wizard’s castle was gone. He had come to the first likely place. Where Noel had guided them was just an empty lot.

The majestic castle had vanished into thin air.

“……”

Fortunately, the lake where she had taken him to escape the castle remained. However, no matter how thoroughly he searched the lake bottom, there was no place connected to the castle anywhere.

Where on earth are you, Diana?

Water droplets falling from the top of his head ran down his face and thick neck.

He swept back his wet hair dripping with water.

Phew. He exhaled a breath tinged with deep heat and his eyes looked at the ominously risen red moon.

‘They say it only looks red in the Black Forest.’

When he had his subordinates observe the full moon outside the Black Forest, the outside was normal.

The moon shining red only inside the Black Forest seemed to mock him.

She would not know.

How fiercely the heat that couldn’t be suppressed even by paralysis grass raged as he longed for her every night.

The stench of the disgusting demon blood he faced every night could not erase her scent. It only made him crave her more.

The madness was paralyzing his reason, leaving only instincts like a beast.

He had once again become a time bomb with a fuse barely a hair’s width left.

Time had already passed well over ten days since she disappeared.

His limit was not far off.