Dietrian quickly lifted his head, his eyes widening.
Josephina was looking down at him with a smirk.
“How about it, want to live?”
Her voice seemed to tempt him. His eyes twisted with malice, filled to the brim with a desire to kill.
Reflexively, his hand reached towards his waist, intending to draw a sword and charge at Josephina.
He grasped nothing. In desperation, he picked up a broken arrow from the ground.
However, it was insufficient to charge at Josephina. His legs wouldn’t support him.
“Ha, ha.”
Josephina’s eyes widened at the sight of him gasping, and she burst into laughter.
“Ha-ha! Prince Dietrian, what are you doing? Trying to kill me? With that look, you’re trying to kill me? Ha-ha!”
She laughed heartily for a while, then signaled to a man standing behind her.
“Ahwin, did you see? The Prince tried to kill me. Just like that, he tried to kill me! Ha-ha!”
Shockingly, it was someone Dietrian knew well.
Ahwin, who had been assigned to escort the diplomatic mission, the Third Wing.
But something was off. Although it was undoubtedly the same person, he seemed entirely different.
‘His eyes are dead.’
It was as if his body was alive, but his soul had perished. Regardless of what Josephina said, he just looked down at the ground, his face gaunt.
Josephina’s laughter faded. She clicked her tongue at Ahwin.
“Still haven’t given up your foolishness. Begging me to let you do the job yourself.”
Then she turned back to Dietrian.
“Prince, shall we continue our conversation?”
Josephina smirked again.
“Still curious about how to save Leticia? When you’re about to die?”
Simultaneously, Dietrian felt a strange sensation. His body gradually slipped from his control.
As if the real owner had returned, his consciousness was pushed back.
“Right? Now it doesn’t matter if she lives or dies, right? Be honest. You don’t care about her life. Just beg me to save you. Beg me like a dog. Who knows? Maybe I’ll treat you. I am the master of Kailas. I can heal any wound. You probably won’t last past midnight. No, not even an hour. You’ll die from blood loss soon.”
“…”
“Don’t want to die, do you? Not, right? So, beg. Entertain me. Last descendant of the dragon, eh?”
Josephina’s words were like the whispers of a demon wishing for corruption.
Dietrian looked up at her silently, then let out a faint laugh.
“From the way you speak, it seems my guess about breaking the curse was correct.”
“What?”
“Yes. I thought so. After all, that’s all you could come up with.”
Josephina’s laughter stopped abruptly. Her eyes narrowed.
“What are you talking about!”
“My guess was right, ha, ha. Yes, that was it. That’s how to save her.”
While laughing, he coughed. Dark red blood spilled out. The head rush was due to the bleeding.
Yet, he kept laughing.
A sense of relief filled his heart.
Suddenly, he was holding the broken arrow reversed in his hand.
With a bright smile, he said,
“You’ve lost, Josephina. The curse will soon be broken.”
With those final words, the vision ended.
* * *
Even after the vision ended, he was engulfed in its aftermath for a long while, holding the sleeping Leticia and lost in thought.
‘What exactly did I see?’
Was it the future, the past, or a story from a completely unrelated world? It was unclear. But one thing was certain.
‘Someone is trying to help me.’
That entity must be showing him these visions to aid him.
‘But it seemed there were restrictions on perfectly aiding me.’
The voice had cut off intermittently. It said it could no longer help him, and the rest he had to figure out on his own. His gaze deepened.
‘Still, I saw all that I needed to see.’
Thanks to the vision, he could grasp a rough outline of the curse.
‘The way to save Leticia is indeed…’
He recalled the last scene he saw in the vision. His action of holding the arrowhead towards himself, the relieved smile as if everything could be ended, and Josephina’s frustrated expression.
‘If I die, she lives.’
It was still a guess, but he was almost certain of his speculation.
The pieces between the vision and reality also fell into place.
Cursing the hated daughter to kill her husband upon marriage. It was something Josephina could very well do.
‘Did Leticia also know the condition to break the curse?’
Dietrian looked silently at Leticia. She had clearly stated that she would die in six months. Thinking about it now, it was strange.
‘If she was cursed, she shouldn’t have been waiting for her death but rather looking for a way to break the curse.’
But she wasn’t. Regardless of the curse’s conditions, she was convinced she would die in six months.
‘As if she knew how to break the curse but chose to give up on trying.’
Then it was one of two things.
‘Either it was something she couldn’t do, or she didn’t want to do it.’
Leticia could have killed him at any time. If she wanted to, it would have been entirely possible.
As his wife, she would have seen him off guard countless times.
Then, there was only one way left.
‘…You knew.’
She knew that killing him would free her from the curse.
Yet, she chose not to escape it.
Because.
‘She wanted to save me.’
The sight of her sleeping blurred. He gently pressed his lips to her forehead.
‘To protect me.’
When healing Enoch, Leticia had said.
This time, she would protect him.
He hadn’t taken it seriously then, thinking it was just her resolve to help. But her will was much stronger than he had thought.
‘To save me, she was willing to die in my place.’
Tears silently soaked the pillow. His heart ached terribly. At the same time, he found her incredibly endearing.
The word love seemed insufficient to describe it.
So, he was more confused.
‘Why would you go so far for me?’
He loved her.
He would die in her place a hundred, a thousand times if he could.
But not her. Yet, from the beginning, she was prepared to die for him.
From their first meeting, when she requested a divorce in six months, it was evident.
‘Because I’m my brother’s sibling?’
Because she owed a debt to Julios, she tried to save his brother. It seemed plausible at first, but still insufficient.
Julios himself had not returned from the dead; he was merely his brother. It would make sense to heal Enoch and smuggle out the remains under her mother’s watchful eye, but sacrificing her life was too much.
‘Then why, exactly?’
There was too much to figure out. He still felt like he was wandering in fog.
Dietrian let out a soft sigh.
Despite the pain, one thing was comforting.
Leticia will not die. The worst-case scenario could be avoided.
Just as he had seen in his dream, he would surely save her.
That fact made him tearfully happy.
‘She will definitely live, so now I just need to find a way for us to live together.’
In a mix of intense sorrow and joy, he moved his lips slightly.
“Leticia.”
Leticia was still deeply asleep. On her white finger was the wedding ring he had placed there.
Pressing his lips against the ring as if making a vow, he said,
“I won’t die. I will live with you. I’ll never give up on the time we have together.”
“…”
“We will find a way for us all to be completely free from the curse.”
Because he had to live on with her, even after half a year. He smiled faintly and closed his eyes.
* * *
Her hands trembled slightly as she fastened the buttons, repeatedly fumbling.
Leticia clenched and unclenched her fists a few times before starting to button up again. A relaxed voice came from behind her.
“Do you really not need my help?”
“No! I’m fine. I can do it.”
Leticia hurriedly replied, then quickly added,
“Really, I’m fine, so you absolutely must not turn around.”
“Don’t worry.”
“It’s a promise. You can’t just come up behind me without saying anything like before.”
A soft laugh followed.
“Understood.”
Leticia looked into the mirror. Over her tense shoulders, she could see him leaning his chin on the window frame.
Under the blue sky, his fine black hair gently swayed.
His profile looked unusually relaxed compared to usual. A few buttons of his shirt were undone, adding to that impression.
The moment she remembered who had unbuttoned that shirt…
Leticia’s face flushed red. She quickly looked away and started buttoning up again.
‘Don’t tremble. I mustn’t tremble.’
Although she missed the buttons a few times, she eventually got dressed. She checked her appearance in the mirror repeatedly. Despite being fully dressed, she couldn’t muster the courage to call Dietrian.
“Are you still… getting dressed?”
“Yes, yes. Just a moment.”
Leticia clasped her hands tightly.
‘Stay calm. Act as if nothing happened. Calmly, just behave normally.’
Even as she tried to reassure herself, she knew it made no sense.
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