'Is this really true...?'
Brentian couldn't believe what Chloe was muttering in her sleep.
He had never imagined he would hear such words from her—not from someone he'd been utterly convinced was Kavala's pawn.
He looked down at Chloe in confusion.
She didn't look like she was acting. Her struggles, her profuse sweating—all of it seemed genuine.
He remembered Granada's words, advising him not to reject Chloe because of her origins.
Looking down at her now—crying, saying she would not leave Ronheim even while groaning in unconsciousness—Brentian felt a sudden surge of emotion. Whether it was shame or regret, he couldn't quite tell.
"...When you open your eyes, I can't help but ask you about that message."
Brentian looked at Chloe again. His eyes were still filled with stubbornness and suspicion, but they had grown much gentler than before.
"Then let me hear your voice..."
Mainz rushed to Callius, who was preparing to leave for the western mountains to find a sacrifice, and spoke urgently.
"The lady has collapsed again!"
It had happened many times before, but Callius felt his heart sink just as sharply as when he'd first heard the report of Chloe's collapse.
Mainz quickly added, watching Callius's expression harden.
"Viscount Brentian summoned the doctor promptly. Her condition is now stable, and she's resting."
"That's fortunate."
Callius let out a heavy sigh.
But Mainz still had a distorted expression on his face, as if that wasn't the real issue.
"Fortunately, the lady is stable, but Viscount Brentian..."
"What about Brentian?"
"He's having a terrible argument with the doctor. I think you should go see for yourself."
It was a strange thing. Why would Brentian fight with the doctor?
"Let's go."
As Mainz had said, Brentian was raging at the doctor in the hallway outside the Marquis's bedroom.
"How can you say there is nothing wrong with her?"
"In my professional opinion, there's nothing physically wrong with her body! I can't diagnose a problem that doesn't exist!"
"Even someone who knows nothing about medicine can tell that this patient is seriously ill. What nonsense are you spouting?"
"The lady simply has a weak constitution...!"
"Isn't that why I brought you here from so far away—to strengthen her weak body? Why does she only get worse by the day? Isn't it time you proved your worth as a physician?"
Brentian glared at the doctor as if utterly frustrated.
The thin, small-built foreign doctor looked quite aggrieved. He cowered in fear when Brentian—a northerner a head taller than him, a Ronheimite called a barbarian by outsiders—became violently angry.
Callius couldn't understand why Brentian was so enraged.
He seemed to suspect that Chloe was faking illness because she couldn't stand the cold. But now... why is he suddenly fighting with the doctor like this?
'If someone saw him, they'd think he was genuinely worried.'
Regardless, it seemed he had to stop Brentian before the doctor fled entirely.
Ronheim, which had relied on divine power to treat illnesses since ancient times, had no doctors of its own. This physician had been brought in with great difficulty from outside.
"Brentian."
When Callius called his name, Brentian finally noticed his presence and coughed loudly. He seemed embarrassed to have shown such emotion over Chloe.
"Follow me."
Callius gestured for him to come into his bedroom.
"Why are you suddenly acting like that?"
"What are you talking about?"
As Callius stared at Brentian, the viscount avoided his gaze and grumbled.
"Did I say something wrong? How can anyone be fine when people are collapsing like that? That incompetent fool—"
"I think you're worried about her."
At those words, Brentian jumped up and denied it.
"No, that's not it. I mean—of course I'm worried! If the Princess makes a mistake here, who knows what Arental will do..."
Brentian, who was usually rambling and tactless, tried to speak more calmly.
"...More than anything, there is something I need to hear from the Princess."
"What do you need to hear?"
Brentian's eyes grew serious. He calmed his grumbling voice and reported with more weight.
"I happened to see, Your Majesty, a message sent by Empress Kavala to the Princess. It was sent by magic, so it dispersed quickly and left no evidence—but I clearly remember the contents."
"What did it say?"
"She said she would send wizards to set up a moving magic circle at the location of the gold mine."
Brentian studied Callius's expression carefully.
"It was a story that was hard to believe from the start. Isn't it absurd that a mage would suddenly appear in Ronheim one day, just as the Princess claimed?"
His voice grew louder and louder—not with anger, but with a mixture of frustration, confusion, and worry.
If they made the wrong choice and fell into a trap, they could put all of Ronheim's people in danger.
Callius was the greatest pillar supporting Ronheim, but that didn't mean he bore the burden alone. Though not of equal weight, Brentian also shouldered the responsibility of making careful and correct choices for their kingdom.
"Are you still certain that the Princess is not in league with Kavala?"
"..."
Callius also couldn't understand how Kavala could set up a teleportation circle at the exact location Chloe had mentioned.
Is it just a coincidence? Or does Chloe know something she's not saying?
He didn't know.
He didn't know—but nevertheless...
"I trust Chloe."
Callius looked straight at Brentian.
"Just as I trust myself."
Brentian was speechless.
What more can I say when he claims he trusts Chloe as much as he trusts himself?
"...You won't regret it, will you?"
"No."
Callius was firm.
His firmness reassured Brentian. Callius must have seen and felt things in Chloe that he himself could not perceive.
"All right."
Brentian's voice trailed off in acceptance.
Callius patted his shoulder.
"Still, I have to ask Chloe about Kavala's message. But to do that, I need to save her first."
Callius quietly told Brentian a story he had never shared with anyone before—not even Chloe herself.
"She is dying because of a curse."
Brentian's eyes widened.
"A curse?"
As his voice grew louder, Callius put a finger to his lips and gestured for him to lower his voice.
"So it wasn't that the doctor was incompetent—it was because of a curse...?"
"Yes. It's probably Kavala's curse. Chloe doesn't know about it."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Though he asked in surprise, Brentian already knew the answer.
Curses feed on anxiety and fear, growing stronger the more people know about them. If many discovered the curse—no matter how quietly it was kept—it would become more likely to harm the cursed person.
Curses should be kept as unknown as possible. That was common sense.
"So that's why you told me to prepare a sacrifice. Have you found a way to break it?"
"Perhaps."
Brentian nodded, as if he finally understood everything.
But then, the door leading to the couple's shared bedroom slid open.
Though it was a small sound, both men—sensitive to any disturbance—looked toward the source and froze.
"Am I... cursed...?"
There stood Chloe, swaying precariously, her face pale as death—as if she might collapse at any moment.
I had been wandering for a while, floating like a ghost in a hazy state of consciousness.
But then a loud noise kept coming from somewhere outside my dreamlike stupor.
I felt myself gradually coming to my senses.
It seemed like someone was fighting with the doctor in the hallway... 'What's going on...'
Then I dozed off again.
At the border between reality and dreams—where it was difficult to tell what was real and what was illusion—a familiar voice reached me.
'Callius...?'
His low, soothing voice could be heard from somewhere beyond the door.
A joyful heart woke me up further.
It seemed like Callius was talking to someone behind the door.
'It's not a dream.'
I opened my eyes with difficulty.
I couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but two voices were clearly buzzing outside the door.
But there was one word that struck me with surprising precision.
Curse.
Kavala.
At that moment, a thought struck me hard.
I got up—without even knowing how I managed it—and opened the door.
"Am I cursed...?"
Callius was looking at me with a startled expression.
I staggered toward him and grabbed his arm.
"Is my sickness due to a curse?"
"Chloe. That's..."
His confused eyes were shaking.
I gained confidence from his reaction.
"It was all because of the curse."
My eyes became hot with unshed tears.
Callius spoke urgently, trying to reassure me.
"Everything will be all right. I will find a way to break the curse...!"
I looked up at him—fidgeting, trying so hard to comfort me—and smiled.
"Thank goodness."
"What...?"
"What is that..."
Callius and Brentian were both looking at me in utter confusion.
I laughed, feeling an uncontrollable sense of relief washing over me.
The laughter just kept bubbling up, and I couldn't stop it.
"It's not that my body can't adapt to Ronheim—it's just that I'm cursed."
Tears of relief streamed down my cheeks.
It was so strange to be crying while laughing. But I couldn't stop myself from doing either.
"If it's because of the curse, then I don't have to leave Ronheim."
I wiped away my flowing tears and asked through my laughter:
"But why do you both look like that?"
For Chloe, the curse was not a death sentence—it was proof that she could stay.
And in that moment, the men who cared for her finally understood:this was where she truly belonged.
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