The Villain's Lost Daughter - Chapter 91

A few seconds to close his eyes and wait still.

A warm hand gently pushed back the hair that covered Callian’s forehead.

Looking at the exposed forehead for a moment, Erita sucked in a breath before placing her other hand over his.

Then she slowly bent at the waist. Up close, just before their foreheads touched, his eyes were closed, and his face was still as he waited.

Thump, thump-thump—

For some reason, his heart seemed to be pounding louder than usual in his ears.

Having cleared her mind of her thoughts, Erita carefully placed her rounded forehead against Callian’s cleanly exposed forehead.

“…I’ll start now, then, please make yourself comfortable.”

Callian gave the slightest nudge to our clasped hands in acknowledgment.

Smiling slightly at his small response, Erita closed her eyes to concentrate.

Phew—

A faint trickle of magic began to flow from their clasped hands. The corners of Callian’s eyes twitched slightly as he remained still.

‘This…’

He wasn’t a mage, so he couldn’t really feel the magic, but he could vaguely sense that something had entered his body.

It started with the warmth of our touch.

Warmth that began in the hands and moved slowly toward the face.

The slow movement of the energy looked just like its master.

‘I heard magic has its own colors.’

Callian remembered something he’d once heard from his talkative lieutenant. He’d said that each mage had a unique wavelength of magic.

Since then, Baron had been vague about what kind of magic he had, but it hadn’t stuck in his mind.

Callian squeezed his hand a little harder, feigning casualness.

The warmth that had been lightly touching him grew closer.

‘…Warm.’

In his hand, like a hand that wasn’t quite as fine as it should be from handling magic, Erita’s magic had the warmth of late spring.

‘Hmm.’

At that moment, the hand they held twitched slightly.

His hand twitched slightly, as if uncomfortable with the feeble grip given to it, and then it curled around Callian’s.

Naturally, their bodies pressed closer together.

It seemed to have relaxed into a comfortable position.

‘This is a little awkward…’

Unlike Callian, who smiled with a slight twitch of his closed eyes, Erita continued to pour her magic into Callian without any reaction.

‘…Since you don’t seem to realize it, I’ll stay here a little longer.’

Eventually, pretending to be oblivious, Callian slowly moved his body to a position that was comfortable for Erita, then closed his eyes and let out a low breath.

✿

Biting my lip, I chose my words.

In front of me sat the people who had left earlier and Callian.

The mood in the room was heavy, as if they had guessed the outcome from my unfavorable expression.

Only Callian, who had heard the news from me earlier, had a grim expression on his face.

“…His Highness was right to guess.”

Opening my lips with a calm expression, I slowly began to explain.

“As you know, black magic is essentially the art of gaining power in exchange for life, and it requires countless amounts of blood, especially when dealing with curses that involve a person’s mind or life.”

There was a small groan at my words.

That was why black magic had been banned three hundred years ago.

The vile practice of gaining power by sacrificing the lives of others.

A curse that fed on the collected souls of those unjustly slain.

“…And the curse on His Highness, the Prince, is the kind that takes over the mind of the target.”

My gaze swept over each of the men before me.

“Its signature features are terrible headaches and nightmares that slowly drive the victim insane. They feel the pain in their head splitting all day long, and when they sleep, they have nightmares based on their most horrific memories.”

“…Despicable bastards.”

My father muttered in a low, grinding voice. His reaction was understandable, given that Serbia’s eyes had been closed by the curse.

Besides, from the way he looked at her, he seemed to care about Callian.

“…And the curse is used to drive the opponent insane with extreme mental anguish.”

The one who was slowly driven insane would eventually lose himself or herself.

It was a vicious curse.

After my words, an indescribable emotion flashed in Callian’s eyes. He, too, knew what my words meant.

“…The Empress wanted me to go mad.”

His words were thrown with such gravity that I nodded slowly.

It was true. The Empress had wanted Callian to lose his mind.

And she would have wanted him to fall to his death on the battlefield.

I fiddled with the handle of my teacup once, then lifted my head.

“…But there’s something strange about this.”

Callian repeated, “Strange?”

“It is said that those who fall victim to the curse will lose their minds before two months or a year has passed.”

“Two months to a year…”

“But you lasted three years, Your Highness.”

That was not something that could have happened according to common knowledge.

“That’s certainly strange.”

Hearing my words, Callian looked puzzled, as if he too felt strange.

So I told him my theory.

“This is just my opinion, but I think the effects of black magic don’t seem to work well on you, or should I say, you’re resistant to it…”

“You mean it could be a natural constitution.”

Fern chimed in.

“Well, that’s the only way to look at it, for now.”

Giving him a half-hearted nod, I shrugged.

“And that’s great news.”

Whatever it was, it was good news for us.

And it was certainly a relief.

“If my constitution wasn’t like this, I might have gone insane and wouldn’t be here anymore.”

Thankfully, Callian seemed to take that as a positive, and said with a wry smile.

“Thank goodness it was a mind attack, not a physical one.”

The heaviness in the air lightened a bit at Callian’s addition.

“Your Highness, you said those headaches don’t have a cycle.”

“Yes, there is no such thing as a pattern.”

Callian’s answer gave pause.

There was a way to break the black magic on him.

A burned tome I’d saved years ago. It contained instructions for breaking some unnamed curse.

A tome that was tattered and torn in places, but not too difficult to interpret.

“It’s not something I can do right now, but… the curse on you, Your Highness, isn’t something I lack the means to break.”

“…!”

“Is that true?”

The surprised gazes of the five men flew to me at my words.

They all looked at me in varying degrees of disbelief.

Neither did I. At this point in my life, there were few details about black magic left.

Still, I nodded meekly.

“I once found a scroll in a burned-out book, and I researched the formulas in it, and found that it was a formula for breaking certain curses.”

Hope shone in their eyes as they listened.

“You’re saying that the formula in that book was the one that broke the curse on His Highness?”

“Yes, it’s the formula for breaking the curse I told you about, though there are still some things I need to work on, so it’s difficult right now…”

It would be best if we could break the curse on Callian right now, but that was impossible.

“Such a…”

“Hmph. I’ll have to do some more research on how to do that, I have some preparations to make.”

Knowing I was going to make another embarrassing statement, I turned to him and spoke up.

Maybe it’s because I’m not a very bold person, but I’m unusually embarrassed by other people’s admiration.

Except, of course, when it came from family and people I was close to, like Mary, Marilyn, and Fern.

“I’ll help you with your research.”

In my words, Fern volunteered to help with the research.

I glanced over at him.

“Fern?”

“Since I’m within the top three most powerful people in this empire, I’m sure I can be of at least a little help.”

Fern’s eyes lit up as he said that. Firstly, the clan itself, which was basically a mage clan, was intriguing.

Fern seems to be equally inquisitive about black magic.

“Hmph, okay, I’ll take you as my assistant.”

“Haha, ha, assistant…”

Fern gave me a look of incredulity at my playful remark about treating a top-notch mage as an assistant, but then he chuckled.

“I’m a novice in that field, so I’ll let it slide this time.”

But I didn’t forget to add a little something.

‘It doesn’t change anything.’

He was the first one to lighten up when the mood turned serious.

Now, slowly, the mood for the day’s meeting was set.

Since it was an unplanned meeting, there were many things I couldn’t say properly.

“Then I’ll retrace the tracks of those who have gone missing in the last five years. You said it was three years ago that you were cursed, so surely the number of missing people has increased, even slightly, in that time.”

“Please.”

Cayden decided to look for signs of black magic.

Or, to be more precise, traces of the Empress using black magic.

To use black magic, someone must be sacrificed.

‘And to do that, she would have to kidnap people. Or tricked them into it.’

A curse that takes a person’s life.

It required not dozens or hundreds, but at least a thousand souls.

“Among the missing people, I want you to focus on children. Most likely children under the age of five.”

In a low whisper, I spoke to Cayden.

The souls of innocent children could produce a strong curse with even a small amount of fatigue.

Predictably, the Empress would not feel guilty about sacrificing children.

“…Children under the age of five. I see.”

Cayden nodded, looking distasteful.

The thought of them taking children’s lives without guilt for their ends disgusted him.

Clearing my throat, I took a sip of my tea, which had gone cold.