Surprised, Leticia looked at the princess in astonishment. Even Calisto, who had been sobbing, lifted his head with a tearless expression.
“Sister? What did you just say?”
“Haha……”
The princess awkwardly laughed, avoiding the two’s gazes. Not long ago, she had been cursing at the Wings, calling them insane humans. Now, introducing herself as a Wing was incredibly embarrassing.
“The truth is, this is what happened……”
The princess explained in detail what she had experienced: how Kun kidnapped her, how Rehir strangled her, how Rehir destroyed five of the nine Wings while killing her, and how, at the brink of life and death, a strange voice chose her to be a Wing.
Calisto and Leticia had completely opposite reactions. Calisto became as still as a pitch-black night at some point. On the other hand, Leticia asked in a trembling voice.
“The criminal who harmed Your Highness was my brother? And he already destroyed five of the nine Wings?”
“Yes. I clearly saw him breaking the damaged barrier stone in front of me.”
Leticia was at a loss for words. A scene naturally came to her mind.
“Just send her far away. Why not arrange a marriage?”
Long ago, Rehir had advised Josephina, who found Leticia troublesome, in this way.
“Marry her off to Prince Dietrian. He will surely hate Leticia.”
Josephina had eventually accepted the suggestion. After sending a marriage proposal to the Principality, she had engraved a curse on Leticia’s heart.
“I can’t let you live comfortably out of my sight.”
“Kill Dietrian within half a year. If you don’t, you will be torn apart alive.”
Leticia’s marriage to Dietrian was all because of Rehir. In other words, Rehir was the start of all this. Moreover,
‘Banessa was only a temporary Wing because the High Priest’s soul had already been extinguished.’
The soul of the High Priest, who repeatedly reincarnated to protect the goddess’s representative, had been extinguished. Therefore, a new Wing had to appear to protect Leticia in this life.
‘If there hadn’t been a second life, the remaining four souls would have been extinguished too.’
Ahwin, Noel, Calisto, Kailas. Looking back, all four Wings had met a miserable end in their previous lives.
‘The other five Wings, including Tenua, had flourished.’
It wasn’t just fate running its course. The ‘Shadow’ that had consumed Rehir had twisted fate and ultimately destroyed all nine Wing souls.
“Cal! Where are you going?”
Leticia barely snapped out of her shock at the princess’s urgent call.
“I’m going to kill Josephina and Rehir. I’ll tear the mother and son apart.”
“This guy is really crazy!”
The princess was appalled and smacked Calisto’s back hard enough to make a loud sound.
“Why are you stopping me! Rehir, that bastard dared to……!”
Calisto couldn’t finish his sentence and grimaced in pain. Although the princess had survived, the memory of holding his sister’s corpse still remained a deep wound. The princess harshly reprimanded the anguished Calisto.
“You need to get permission first!”
“……What?”
“I’ve felt this before, but you’re too impulsive. You’re a Wing, so why are you always like this? Speaking of which, did you get permission before destroying the shrine?”
“Permission? Whose permission are you talking about?”
Calisto paused briefly, asking in confusion. The princess replied as if it was obvious.
“Of course, from the master……”
“Wait a moment!”
Leticia hurriedly interrupted before the princess could finish saying the strange title.
“Your Highness, please call me the Queen Consort as before.”
“What? But I was chosen as a Wing. How could I possibly call you… master…”
“Enough! Your Highness is destined to become the Emperor of the Empire. Calling me master just doesn’t seem right. Please, call me as you did before!”
After a brief argument, the princess reluctantly nodded, her face full of regret.
“Since Your Highness insists, I have no choice. I will call you as you requested.”
“Thank you.”
Leticia secretly sighed in relief, grateful that the princess was less obsessive than the other Wings.
“Then, Queen Consort, is it okay to go end Rehir now?”
Her relief was short-lived, as Leticia flinched involuntarily at the princess’s gentle smile. For some reason, she saw the expressions of other Wings superimposed on the princess’s face. She quickly shook her head to dispel the ominous thoughts.
‘Surely, Her Highness wouldn’t be like them.’
The princess, who had suffered so much cleaning up after the Wings’ messes, surely wouldn’t be the same.
“Alright. I too need to meet my brother, no, Rehir, to confirm something.”
* * *
At the very moment Leticia, with the help of the child in her womb, resurrected the princess using the power of healing.
“Rehir!”
With a tearing scream, Rehir jumped up from his seat. His eyes, filled with shock, stared at the purple symbol crumbling in midair.
“Rehir, ugh. It hurts, it hurts…!”
Right below the symbol, Josephina rolled on the ground, clutching her arm. It was the backlash of the curse.
“Aaagh!”
Unable to bear the pain, Josephina tore at her hairpins. All the pins were pulled out, and her elaborate dress was crumpled.
Tears flowed down her face, smudging her makeup and leaving unsightly streaks. Josephina, oblivious to her ruined appearance, crawled on the floor, crying.
“Rehir, save me… It hurts, it hurts!”
Regardless, Rehir glared at the symbol as if he wanted to kill it.
“What is this! Why is the Dragon’s power involved again! How dare he interfere again!”
The golden energy surrounding the cursed symbol was unmistakably the Dragon’s.
“No way! How could Sigmund… unless he was prepared to be obliterated, how!”
For a transcendent being to interfere with fate, a price must be paid. Just as Rehir had killed the princess to meddle with Leticia’s curse, Sigmund must have given something up to counteract the curse.
“Sigmund, that idiot, wouldn’t kill a human!”
Thus, only one path remained. To give up his own power or lifespan to take on the curse. Sigmund had already interfered with human fate several times. He was sure Sigmund wouldn’t be able to protect Leticia for a while. Yet, the golden energy threatening the curse was brilliant.
“Is he willing to go this far to ruin my plans? Is that it!”
Unaware of Leticia’s child, Rehir’s face twisted with rage.
“Fine. Do as you please! Try to stop me to the end. Your fate is already sealed!”
Sigmund. That foolish dragon only knew one side of the story. No matter how much he tried, he could never completely block Leticia’s curse. Once all his power was spent, only the path to obliteration would remain.
“Dinute alone can’t oppose me. The true saint will disappear forever, and this world will eventually be mine!”
Rehir’s smile twisted as he glared at the symbol. Determined to make them pay dearly for their misunderstanding, he roughly pulled Josephina to her feet.
“Mother. Calm down and try to stand up.”
“Ugh, Rehir. It hurts, I’m in pain…”
“You must endure it, no matter how painful it is. We need to reclaim the life force stolen by the Dragon!”
Rehir shouted.
“The only way to do that is to finish off Leticia. So you need to gather your strength!”
“I can’t do it. I’m too scared. I don’t want to be in pain…”
Josephina burst into tears like a child. One of her arms was completely shriveled. The initial scar from when she cursed Leticia had spread to her entire arm.
“If this continues, I will eventually die. My life force will be completely taken away…”
Having endured the backlash of the curse multiple times, her skin had turned like tree bark, extending beyond her shoulders to just below her collarbone. Unable to overcome her fear, Josephina clung to Rehir.
“I want to give up, I want to give up, Rehir…”
Unlike usual, Rehir didn’t comfort Josephina. The curse he had hastened by killing the princess had failed. Josephina’s mere presence was driving him crazy.
‘You idiot! This is all your fault! If you had managed the Wings properly, things wouldn’t have gone so wrong!’
The fake Wings created by killing countless humans and violating causality. Josephina had lost two of them and even lost the loyalty of the true Wings. Thinking back, it seemed it would have been better to approach Leticia directly.
“Rehir, my son…”
He was so angry that he wanted to plunge Josephina into even deeper despair.
He wanted to tell her that her beloved first son had long since perished, that his soul had been used to twist her daughter’s fate. That the soul of the speechless child had suffered excruciating pain for years before finally disintegrating!
‘Not a bad idea.’
Rehir’s eyes narrowed as he coldly glared at Josephina, contemplating.
‘Josephina’s despair would be quite valuable in terms of causality.’
Though she was a fake, Josephina was still the saint of a country. The divine power Rehir had forcibly imbued in her was overflowing in her body.
‘Make her die as painfully and as slowly as possible.’
Just the thought of it made him picture the greedy fate devouring Josephina’s soul. Rehir’s lips twisted into a smirk.
‘Fine. If all else fails, I’ll kill Josephina and wait for the next opportunity.’
Perhaps because he had found a solution, his previously rock-bottom mood improved slightly.
‘I failed to manifest the curse, but everything else is going well, right? By now, the Queen Consort must be seen as the one who killed the princess.’
As he reassured himself and reviewed his future plans, a hurried voice came from outside the door. It was Kun.
“Lord Rehir! Something terrible has happened! The princess has come back to life! The Queen Consort resurrected her! They say she used the power of healing to revive the princess in front of everyone!”
