As soon as Peiron finished reading the ancient book, he immediately headed to the villa where he always met Rose.

Although he couldn’t be sure Rose was there, she had been visiting frequently lately, so he arrived at the villa with a tight-lipped coachman.

He felt that somehow there were more people coming and going around the villa these days.

Normally, he would have found it strange and looked around, but Peiron, absorbed in the ancient book, moved urgently.

Peiron, unaware of the lingering gazes, entered the villa.

Inside the villa, he saw Rose just putting on a black robe.

“Rose!”

“Ron.”

Peiron felt that Rose had been treating him strangely coldly since she confided everything to him.

It was strange.

Their bodies had grown closer and more honest than before, but he felt their hearts had grown distant.

He wondered if he was the only one feeling that distance, as Rose’s varied and lovely expressions gradually disappeared.

“Are you leaving now?”

“Yes, I’ve finished what I came to do.”

Peiron was at a loss for words as he watched Rose put on her robe without hesitation.

Originally, this villa was prepared for the two of them to meet.

He naturally thought she had come here to meet him, but as soon as he arrived, her business was finished.

“Rose, let’s talk for a moment.”

“Later.”

Rose tried to grab the box on the table, ignoring Peiron who was trying to stop her.

But because Peiron reached out and grabbed Rose’s arm to turn her around, she couldn’t grab the box.

“Hah…, I said let’s talk later.”

Peiron felt miserable seeing Rose openly sigh and act annoyed with him.

It seems he was the only one who thought they had gone through difficult trials together, connected hearts, and confirmed their love for each other.

“What business did you come here for?”

“Do I have to tell you about all my personal matters?”

Peiron was shocked by the line Rose was firmly drawing.

“Personal… matters?”

“Why are you being so annoying?”

Rose’s expression distorted as if she really found him bothersome.

Peiron noticed that Rose’s eyes, which always used to sparkle beautifully when looking at him, had changed.

And what suddenly came to mind were the contents written in the ancient book.

“A curse…”

Peiron began to doubt if his love for her, this aching heart, was really a curse.

“Let go.”

Peiron, stupidly recalling the contents of the ancient book, unconsciously called out to Rose as she shook off his hand and left.

“Rose.”

But Rose moved without answering his call.

As he silently watched Rose, just as she was about to leave with the box, he spoke as if dropping the words.

“The Risky family.”

At those words, Rose’s footsteps stopped as she was about to grab the doorknob.

Peiron couldn’t hide his devastation as he watched her react to the family name he had seen in the ancient book.

It felt like confirmation without even having to ask.

“A descendant of fairies.”

As Peiron spoke, Rose let go of the doorknob and turned to face him.

“How did you find out?”

At Rose’s words, Peiron felt as if the ground beneath him was crumbling.

It felt like all the pillars holding him up had crashed down.

“Is it really you?”

“Tell me, Ron. How did you find out?”

“Is this really, is this feeling all fabricated?”

“Peiron Iolls!”

At Rose’s pressing voice, Peiron’s throat choked up and he couldn’t utter the many questions he wanted to ask.

It was too cruel.

This love, which he thought was worth giving everything for, was all because of a curse.

“Ha, ha…”

Rose approached Peiron, who was laughing blankly, grabbed his collar and asked.

“Where did you hear it, Ron? Huh?”

Rose’s face, which he had longed for every day, filled Peiron’s dizzy vision.

Her appearance, which used to fill him with happiness just by looking at it, felt strangely unfamiliar.

It felt like the shining rainbow colors were slowly losing their hue one by one.

“Why? Did that woman tell you? Tell me right now!”

As Peiron was struggling with his sense of loss, he questioned the mention of ‘that woman’ by Rose.

“That woman?”

“I clearly told you, but you went and asked that woman?”

“Could it be, Erina?”

“So you really went to that bitch and heard it.”

Peiron was bewildered by Erina’s name suddenly coming out of Rose’s mouth.

“Wait, Rose. What do you mean, Erina?”

“There’s no use hiding it, because only I and that woman know about it.”

With those words, Rose’s face turned fierce.

Peiron was so taken aback by Rose’s excessively wary reaction towards Erina that he urgently cried out, pushing aside what he wanted to know.

“Rose! No, I just saw it in an ancient book…!”

“Ancient book?”

“Yes, it was written in an ancient book in the vault with the Iolls family heirloom, and I mentioned it because what was written there didn’t seem unfamiliar.”

Rose carefully examined him to see if Peiron might be lying.

Seeing that his foolish look had disappeared and was full of confusion, it seemed to be the truth.

“Where is the ancient book?”

Rose abruptly told him to hand over the ancient book that mentioned the Risky family and the descendants of fairies.

“That book, give it to me. I must read it.”

Rose, pulling Peiron’s collar with more force, whispered to him again with a cunning smile.

“Hm? That book written about me, I really need it. So tell me, Ron.”

Only then did Peiron see the Rose he had always known.

The lovely and beautiful smile that made him unable to take his eyes off her, his own image reflected in her sparkling eyes.

But only then did Peiron see it.

He was not on the barren and dry grass.

In her eyes like green fields, in her heart that seemed full of flowers, he had never existed from the beginning.

The curse written in the ancient book was all true.

“Rose.”

“Tell me, Ron.”

Rose’s eyes sparkled with expectation, but Peiron’s heart sank deeper and deeper.

“Do you love me?”

“Is that important right now?”

Rose’s tone was full of annoyance as if she had heard something completely useless.

“You and I are destined to fall in love because of a curse.”

“That’s why I’m now!”

Rose yelled loudly again, pulling his hand with force, then let out a deep sigh.

Then she gritted her teeth and spoke to him calmly.

With her beautifully curved lips holding a sneer towards Peiron.

“That’s why I’m doing this now. To undo everything, to change the future with you, the so-called destined love.”

“From the beginning…”

Seeing Peiron looking down at her with faint eyes again, Rose couldn’t control her irritation.

“Ha, really.”

“From the beginning, you never loved me.”

“Enough with that love talk!”

Rose violently pushed away Peiron’s collar that she had been holding.

Peiron’s body staggered at her rough touch.

“Listen well, Peiron.”

“Rose.”

“You and I will live only if you do as I say. Yes, we’ll live together and die together, bound by that damn fate.”

“Rose…”

“So think about how to kill Erina, okay? If you want you and I to live happily, use that stupid head of yours to think!”

“Please, Rose.”

Peiron seemed to see an illusion of a precarious thread swaying in the fierce wind behind Rose’s back.

It looked so dangerous, as if it would fall into pitch-black darkness at any moment if one stepped on it.

Although Peiron realized that Rose didn’t love him, he wanted to hold onto her.

“Let’s stop now, Rose.”

Feeling that the path Rose was heading towards was into a fire pit, Peiron wanted to stop her.

Rose carefully examined him at Peiron’s words to stop.

He had the weak eyes of someone who had given up everything due to weakness.

“I guess you don’t want to give me the ancient book?”

“That’s not it, Rose. I just want you to.”

“You readily gave me the Tear of the Sun, an important family heirloom, but you don’t want to give me the ancient book I need. You should have said so earlier.”

“Rose!”

Rose turned her body to leave the villa, frustrated by his appearance.

As she hurriedly moved her feet to leave the villa, Peiron followed to try and stop her.

“That’s not it, Rose! Just talk for a moment…!”

Rose quickly opened the door, not wanting to hear Peiron’s excuses.

But she froze in shock at the scene beyond the door.

“Rose!”

Peiron, who had followed to catch Rose, also called out to her but lost his words at the sight outside the door.

“Oh my, it was true!”

“The rumors were true.”

“This is really shocking.”

The nobles surrounding the villa buzzed with interested looks towards Peiron and Rose, as if watching monkeys in a circus.

Rose was so shocked that she didn’t even think to fix her robe, which had become disheveled in her haste to leave the villa.

Although the future was very different from what she had envisioned due to many prophecies going awry, Rose had been extremely careful about people’s gazes, thinking about what would happen after reclaiming the mana stone mine.

No matter how much they possessed the mana stone mine, the gaze towards a mistress who had ruined a family would not be kind.

Like the twisted prophecy, she could not create a situation where she had to be accepted because she was chosen by God.

That’s why she had been treating Peiron so firmly, but all her efforts so far had crumbled.

Rose bit her lip, pulled her robe down low, and fled, pushing through the crowd.

Peiron could only watch helplessly as Rose disappeared without even looking back at him.

After this day, the social world was full of nothing but talk about the two of them.