Chapter 43

“How am I supposed to find a reason?”

When Grace barely plucked up the courage and asked Owen back, Owen replied as if he had been waiting for her to say something like that.

“Choose me. You can do that.”

“……Just what did you say?”

“If you choose me, you can have both life and status.”

Owen then, deliberately took a step away from Grace. Then he stared straight into Grace’s eyes, whose eyelashes were still trembling with anxiety and confusion.

“The moment you choose that monster, the only thing waiting for you is death.”

After saying that, Owen smiled. It was like a prophet’s choice from God and a glimpse into the future.

Grace felt a sense of unexplained fear creeping from her head to her toes.

‘No, I don’t think so.’

Now Owen’s words are just false courtship. That wordsmith is not even a prophet. Therefore, there is no need to listen to his words.

It’s just the fear of wrong courting of this man, and she doesn’t know what she’s going to do about him. Grace thought so.

However, the more she tried not to give meaning to Owen’s words, and the more she tried to reassure herself. In Grace’s head, the more dreams she had in the morning constantly overlapped and came to mind.

Numerous men tied her body, her father looking down at her. And a man stabbing a knife into his heart without hesitation, and getting her blood poured out. ………The man.

“……!”

At that moment, Grace was like it came to her mind as vividly as if someone had unfolded a picture in her head.

It was the face of the person who was stabbing the knife into her chest in the terrible nightmare she had dreamed of. And he was very similar to the man who was standing right in front of her, Owen.

As soon as Grace realized it she pushed Owen roughly, who was looking at her from about a step away, and started running forward like crazy.

“Wait! Grace!”

Owen called her from behind, but Grace didn’t look back.

No, she didn’t have time to look back. Now she had no reason to beg him to hide the fact that she broke into the study of her father, Duke Alberton, or to ask why he referred to himself as a monster a while ago.

All that was left of her, the only string of reason she held, was the survival instinct to run away from the man who was relentlessly stabbing a knife into her heart, just taking the notes of Duke Alberton hidden in her waist.

Where did this fear of constantly warning her to run away come from?

Was it really out of the mind that she didn’t want to lose her life that she barely recovered, or was this also due to the curse placed on her? Without knowing why Grace ran endlessly to escape from this terrible horror.

Will this fear disappear if she runs away and runs as fast as he can and meets Sally, the only one who is on her side in this mansion? Grace wanted to see Sally’s face at this moment. No, she wanted to see the faces of Arthur and Leon.

“Madam!”

How long did she run like that?

In front of Grace, she could see the old door of the annex and Sally standing in front of it with an anxious face.

As soon as Grace met that friendly face, she rushed straight to Sally.

“Oh my god! Where have you been? What does this look like?”

“…… I’m sorry, nothing. Don’t ask me anything. Just, help me out. ……to the bedroom.”

Grace begged Sally, who caught her, panting in cold sweat.

Sally just nodded and supported her without knowing the reason for the desperate petition.

In fact, she wanted to ask where she had been and why she ran so rashly that her whole body was wet with sweat, but Sally just swallowed all those questions at Grace’s desperate appearance.

“Yes, hold me tight.”

“…..thank you.”

Grace barely replied, leaning against Sally, who held her arm tightly and supported her.

Then, as instructed, Grace walked to her bedroom where all the candles had been extinguished and lay down on the old sofa with Sally’s help. Grace sat on the long sofa as if lying down, catching her rough breath, and looked up at the familiar ceiling.

“Wait a little bit. I’ll prepare hot water.”

Sally looked back at Grace, whose hem was wet with cold sweat and dirt, said so, and disappeared into the bathroom attached to the bedroom.

Grace couldn’t even tell her to ‘prepare quietly because you might be caught outside’, but only managed to escape the thought as she gradually took care of her mind in regaining her composure little by little.

She calmed her heart down listening to Sally’s presence in the bathroom, who was so busy moving in the bathroom, fumbled her waist with a slow touch and pulled out Duke Alberton’s notebook that she barely brought.

‘Still, I’m glad I didn’t lose this.’

Although she was caught by Crown Prince Owen and had to suffer from the terrible fear again, it was a great harvest for her to bring this to her present self.

No, in fact, she actually had to bear all that for this. That should be the case, as this note would reveal the curse that plagued her and Arthur.

‘I will definitely find out.’

Even those who are involved in this curse.

‘The secrets hidden under the name of ‘Curse’.’

Grace, whose fear subsided a little before she knew it, constantly repeated what Owen had said to her so as not to forget them.

‘A monster, a monster like me.’ He said that she would even love a monster like him. And even her father’s record in this notebook, in which he was pleased to mention the future of the Crown Prince.

Also, she will find out the cause of this nightmare that she constantly dreams of and what that dream wants to tell her. Grace made a resolution like that.

“I’ll help you take a bath.”

“Yes, thank you.”

As she already finished the preparation, Sally approached Grace and talked to her.

Grace quickly put the notebook under the sofa where she was sitting a while ago and got up with Sally’s help.

───※ ·❆· ※───

After taking a bath with Sally’s help, and changing into her pajamas, Grace lay down on the bed that Sally had heated up with the brazier.

Sally then quickly put the sheet up to Grace’s shoulder and covered her, and patted Grace as if she were a mother putting the child to sleep.

“Go to sleep now.”

“Yes, I will.”

“You’re not going to sneak out of me again, are you?”

“Not anymore.”

“Really?”

“That’s right.”

“…..I trust you.”

Sally constantly interrogated Grace, who seemed to be still anxious because of what happened a while ago, and Grace explained with a faint smile.

Seeing this, Sally turned around and went out of the bedroom as if she was barely relieved. Grace, who was lying in the darkened bedroom as if she were buried in bed after the door closed, got up and walked to the sofa.

After that, Grace, who took out Duke Alberton’s notebook she had put between the cushions of the sofa a while ago and brought it to bed, lit a candle on a small table next to the bed.

And lying down on her bed, she opened Duke Alberton’s notebook and read the last part that kept bothering her.

[“On the 28th of July, the conditions for the casting of magic, His Majesty the Emperor jumped in delight. … And on July 29th, the future of this empire is mine. … The survival of the imperial family, the future of the crown prince. And the rise and fall of this empire…”]

Grace looked intently at the record of that part and pondered it over and over again.

What is the true nature of the magic that Duke Alberton found out? And what is the magic’s identity that the emperor was so pleased with?

Is there any clue that she missed in the records that are confusing no matter how much she looks at it? Grace kept looking into that part and contemplating, but there was nothing in particular.

‘The only thing I can be certain of is that the magic that my father discovered and the Crown Prince are related. I wonder how that much is….’

And it was the misfortune that happened to Arthur’s ex-wife and fiancées that gave him a clue to figure out the conditions for the magic to be cast.

So far, this is all Grace has found out. Grace covered and put down the notebook, making a short groaning sound.

She needed something more to get closer to the truth. Grace, who was wondering if she should hide in Duke Alberton’s study again, soon shook her head.

‘My father is not a very sloppy person. I’m sure he’ll strengthen the guard after today’s event.’

So if she hid again to get a clue, she would have been caught properly this time.

Grace groaned again and fell completely on the bed. It really gave her a headache. So, Grace stopped thinking about it further, pushed the notebook under her pillow, blew out the candle next to her.

It became dark in the bedroom again. Grace looked at the dark ceiling for a moment and soon closed her eyes. She wasn’t very tired, but she had to rest because she had to force herself to endure tomorrow again.

It was when Grace, who was forcibly closing her eyes, fell asleep after tossing and turning for a long time. Again, just like last night, a magical circle of bizarre patterns appeared on the empty ceiling.

[T/N: This thing is giving me chills. ≡(▔﹏▔)≡]

The magical power, which had a dark green light and stretched out on its path like a vine, wrapped around Grace’s sleeping body.

But it was then.

When the power extended from the bizarre pattern wrapped around Grace’s body, then suddenly a pale blue light emanated from her body.

The bizarre green light then rushed as if swallowing the blue light, and for a moment, the two lights fought fiercely with sparks. One side seemed to be trying to protect her, and the other side seemed to be trying to harm her.

Then, in the end, the defeated side was the green light extending from the ceiling. The light gradually stepped back to the blue light that had built up a firm shield over the sleeping Grace’s body, and then flicked in a flash.

[T/N: Yay!!! (～￣▽￣)～]

Even the blue light, which was firmly protecting Grace, slowly faded away and soon disappeared.

As if there was nothing from the beginning.

The advanced folder is updated from Chapters 44 to 48.