“You really caught him.”

“Didn’t I promise I would?”

Clea, newly impressed by him capturing Steve in just a few hours, shifted her gaze.

Steve, not knowing where he had been brought, was busy looking around while kneeling on the floor.

‘He really is such a worthless fellow.’

Thinking about it, she couldn’t understand why Grit wanted him to inherit the family.

In her view, Steve had no abilities whatsoever and was not fit to lead anything.

If she could notice this, surely the vassals following the Odoi family would know too.

Of course, he was the child of the woman Grit truly loved, so it couldn’t be helped.

‘If it’s revealed, everything will be over.’

Perhaps Grit thought it would never be revealed. After all, all witnesses from that day were mercilessly killed.

But Clea had already planted seeds of doubt in Grit.

She was curious to see how far that doubt would grow.

She greeted Steve before her.

“It’s been a while.”

“You, you, did you orchestrate this?”

“What if I did?”

Clea didn’t particularly care. Even if this got to someone’s ears, it wouldn’t be a problem.

If the Odoi family made an issue of it, she would just mention that he was in Curtis Street.

If what Steve did in Curtis Street was revealed in detail, the rest was obvious.

“Because of you, the family is already in chaos. And now you’re trying to mess with family too?”

“Ha.”

Steve showed visible signs of anxiety. He seemed scared, not knowing what would happen to him.

But Clea had no intention of harming him. She had only called him to ask questions.

However, she was disgusted by his attitude. The family being in chaos wasn’t her fault.

It was utterly pathetic that they still didn’t realize their own incompetence.

So she decided to let Steve know his place.

“Don’t misunderstand, Steve. You’re nothing to me. Isn’t it too much to use the word ‘family’ between us?”

Their relationship was so bad that using the word ‘family’ was a luxury.

Steve had always expressed feelings of inferiority towards her since entering the academy.

Steve, who tried to be helpful to the family but ultimately accomplished nothing.

If Clea had wanted revenge on him, she would have done it long ago. But Steve was so insignificant to her that she couldn’t even be bothered to do that.

“The reason I called you here is just one thing, to ask you something.”

“Do you think I’ll tell you willingly?”

“You should talk. Because if you don’t want people to know where you’ve been going, that is.”

She whispered quietly in his ear.

Curtis Street.

At those words, Steve’s eyes widened and he bit his lip.

It wasn’t her concern how much a noble’s honor would fall just for going there.

But what would happen if it reached Grit’s ears?

She had heard that Steve hadn’t been able to attend social gatherings for a while.

The Odoi family said he was sick, but Clea knew the real reason better than anyone.

Steve glared at her with a distorted expression.

Feeling displeased by Steve’s gaze, Barwin’s expression seemed to harden, but she signaled that it was okay.

“Tell me how I lived when I was young. Then I won’t tell anyone about what happened to you today.”

Both a persuasion and a fair deal.

At Clea’s proposal, Steve’s heavy mouth opened.

“What do you want?”

It was a voice tinged with gravity.

He seemed to think she would ask about some family secrets. That made him look even more incompetent.

‘Has that fool forgotten that I was once a member of the Odoi family too?’

As she had also been a member of the Odoi family, there was little information she didn’t know.

In fact, she could confidently say she knew more than Steve.

She asked meaningfully.

“Rather, haven’t you thought there was something strange about yourself?”

“Stop talking nonsense and just ask what you want to know!”

He clearly wanted to get out of here quickly. Clea forcefully told him what he didn’t want to hear.

“As far as I know, the Duchess was only pregnant once.”

“What do you mean?”

Grit had not told Steve the secret related to his birth until the end.

He thought Steve would surely not be able to accept it if he found out.

But Clea didn’t care. Rather, she intended to shatter everything he hoped for.

“Want to hear more? Then tell me what I want first.”

Steve’s gaze changed.

He became urgent about something. He wanted to hear the continuation of what Clea had said.

“Tell me what the relationship between Aria and me was like when I was young.”

* * *

An ancient book passed down through the Hersher family.

All sorts of things were written in the book.

From drugs that could instantly render a strong person unconscious, to drugs that could completely control a person’s mind just by smelling them.

It gave off a strong feeling of a spell book that witches in fairy tales might have used.

‘I didn’t believe it at first either.’

Fairy tales and reality were different.

Before turning ten, Aria realized she was an ill-fated being sentenced to death.

So she thought all the wonderful things in fairy tales were just fiction.

In that sense, when she first discovered this ancient book, she only read it for fun.

There were actually some drugs she wanted to experiment with, but due to poor management, they were erased or torn, making actual production difficult.

The existence of the ancient book, which she had completely forgotten about since entering the academy.

Until then, she had been busy trying to break the curse somehow.

She had hope that if only the curse was lifted, she would marry Admund and live a happy life.

‘But in the end, no one could break my curse. No, they couldn’t even notice the curse.’

Hayden, whom she met at the temple, showed a strange reaction, but that was all.

No one else noticed her curse.

So she read through the ancient book in a half-given-up state.

Then she accidentally discovered content about curses. It was a section she had carelessly passed by before, as it was only in prose.

When she discovered the content about curses, she was enraged.

Someone’s diary was written in it.

[To get what you want, you had to sacrifice something. I, Isabel Hersher, obtained what I wanted in exchange for cursing a child named Aria among the family’s descendants in order to marry Rodrick Wilhelm.]

Isabel Hersher.

It was a name she had heard constantly since childhood.

The only woman in the family to become empress.

Aria couldn’t believe the content written along with the name of the person she had always respected since childhood.

She who eventually married into the imperial family and lived a happy life.

It reminded her of herself and Admund.

She wondered if the ancient book was wrong, but the family seal was undoubtedly stamped on the cover.

From then on, Aria’s anger did not subside.

‘Why me of all the descendants! Why on earth!’

The ancient book said that Rodrick’s first love at the time was named Aria.

Selfishly, Isabel married Rodrick after sacrificing a descendant named Aria without sacrificing anything of her own.

Although she was furious at the ugly side of the person she respected, she soon became complacent.

According to what was written, the curse could be broken by true love.

So she thought she could break the chain of the curse through Admund, whom she truly loved.

In fact, she had experienced the miracle of reduced pain while being next to Admund.

It was proof that Aria truly loved Admund. Aria expected that as time passed and the two married, it would become perfect love.

But contrary to that thought, Admund kept looking elsewhere.

Namely, at Clea Odoi.

During the time when Aria, Admund, and Lloyd were close friends at the academy, she who was busy chasing Lloyd and showing jealousy towards Aria suddenly changed.

Looking back, it was from then. From then on, Admund’s gaze often followed her.

“It’s all because of you, Clea. If only your heart hadn’t changed, everyone could have been happy.”

Feeling a sense of crisis, she searched for the ancient book again.

When she found what she wanted in it, she smiled.

She thought everything would end by directing the curse she had received towards Clea.

She thought Clea would die soon, and she herself would be the true victor.

However, contrary to expectations this time too, Admund chose Clea, not her.

‘All your true love is mine.’

There were various ways to break the curse.

Isabel passed it on to her descendants, and Aria passed it on to her friend.

They were both ducal ladies of the same age, rare in the empire.

Now they may have become mortal enemies, but before their families cut ties, they were close friends.

So she had a token of friendship shared with Clea.

She unhesitatingly took that token and transferred the curse.

She acted thinking that surviving was more important than a friendship she had already cut off.

“It’s the same this time, Clea. I’ll make you suffer slowly in agony.”

While smiling at the thought of selling out their old friendship again, Duke Hersher approached her.

“Aria, why don’t you accept it now?”

At Duke Hersher’s words, Aria’s expression, which had been smiling until just now, turned cold.

She said to the duke, as if nailing it down:

“I will never marry Lloyd.”

“Don’t be like that, the Grand Duke’s son has come, so meet him once.”

But at the duke’s following words, her fine brows furrowed.

“Who has come now?”

She didn’t want to face Lloyd again. However, Duke Hersher, not knowing her feelings well, just said his piece and went outside.

“He’s waiting in the reception room.”

Aria bit her nails in bewilderment.