FDPKH 12

Chapter 12

Thwack!

“……”

What struck my face left a brief silence and then fell to the floor. The thing that landed with a splat looked like a piece of whipped cream cake.

Coming to my senses at the butter and raspberry scent lingering at the tip of my nose, I looked ahead. There was Aelita, huffing and puffing with both hands covered in whipped cream.

“Go away, get out!”

Something pure white flew at me once more. I ducked quickly to dodge, but I must not have dodged properly, because cake got smeared on my face again.

“Pfft.”

I heard the Grand Duke laugh low. Surely the Grand Duke is larger than me. He had already entered the room at some point, having dodged. And he was suppressing his laughter as he looked at me, who had been hit by cake twice right at the doorway.

“When did you dodge?”

“Long ago.”

“I didn’t see it at all.”

“That’s because you’re slow as a slug.”

Even if I look like this, I’m someone who has done spy work and assassination work and all sorts of things due to divine punishment. Of course, that was only possible because the vessel’s athletic ability supported it. And unfortunately, this vessel, Aria Belgismaine, is an ill-fated person whose athletic ability is markedly inferior.

I roughly wiped the whipped cream and jam off my face with my hand. Aelita was gathering the remaining whipped cream, as if the cake had almost run out.

I approached Aelita.

“Hello, Lady Aelita.”

“Euaaah, let go of this!”

Aelita screamed and flailed her hands. Looking like she might have a fit from the shock, I grabbed her cream-covered hand and pulled her toward me. Then I stroked her back and spoke softly.

“It’s all right. Shh— calm down.”

As I whispered softly by her ear and patted her back, Aelita’s behavior, which had seemed about to throw a tantrum, gradually lessened. Instead, I heard sniffling and hiccupping, as if she was crying.

“Have you calmed down?”

At my words, Aelita nodded slightly. I met her eyes and spoke.

“Why were you crying?”

“The medicine is too bitter… I don’t want to take it.”

“My goodness. It must be terribly bitter medicine. Doesn’t even this cake help?”

“Yeah. It’s super bitter. Tears just come out.”

I kept soothing Aelita, who was leaning against me and crying. The Grand Duke just stared at me intently from a little distance away.

‘What are you doing?’

When I mouthed the words, he tilted his head. Then, as if he understood what I meant, he just shrugged.

‘Clear this away. Quickly.’

I pointed with my finger at the lumps of whipped cream in front of me. At that, he just looked at me with an expression asking why he should.

‘Lady Aelita will get hurt.’

Only then did he clear them away. To be precise, he lifted the whole table and moved it to the corner. At the loud clattering sound, Aelita, who had calmed down somewhat, looked that way.

“Huh? It’s a handsome oppa!”

“……”

She broke free from my arms and ran to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke’s eyes as he looked at Aelita were sadness itself.

He bowed politely to his mother, who did not recognize him. And at her continued chattering, not knowing how to respond, he merely wore a bitter smile.

In the meantime, I took off the fur coat that was covered in whipped cream. Then I wiped Aelita’s cream-covered hands and face with the wet towel that had been on the table.

“But why is there no maid caring for Lady Aelita?”

“The maids don’t come today. It’s a day when Mother’s violence becomes extremely severe.”

“If it’s a day like today…”

I looked at Aelita, who was chattering excitedly, and swallowed the rest of my words. Then I moved close to the Grand Duke and whispered softly by his ear.

‘The day she takes her medicine?’

At my words, the Grand Duke nodded.

I suppose so. There were small scratches on Aelita’s hands. They were clearly from her hands being scratched on the decorations that held the cake. Among them, there was a rather deep cut, yet seeing how she had scraped up the whipped cream vigorously, it was certain she hadn’t even felt the pain due to the violence.

“Lady Aelita, aren’t you hurt?”

“Mm— this much is nothing.”

“Really?”

When I asked once more, she hesitated for a moment. Then she whispered very softly by my ear.

“Actually, it hurt a little, but I hate taking the medicine more, so I endured it.”

“Is the medicine bitter enough for you to endure wounds like this?”

“Yeah. So, you see… it’s…”

The fingertips of Aelita’s hand I was wiping drooped limply. Finding it strange, I looked up at her, and Aelita was blinking slowly. Her pupils, disappearing very slowly beyond her eyelids, momentarily grew hazy.

“Lady Aelita!”

Startled, I tried to catch her, but the Grand Duke was faster. As if he had expected it, he caught his collapsing mother in his arms. Then, as if accustomed to it, he carefully laid her on the bed in the room.

“What’s happening all of a sudden? She was fine just moments ago…”

“Calm down. She has merely fallen asleep.”

He glanced at the clock once and spoke.

“The time for her medicine has passed.”

“Will she wake up after taking it?”

“Yes. But recently I discovered another problem.”

He slightly lifted the hem of Aelita’s skirt. Her exposed calf showed some spots. The spots began to slowly spread across her skin as if alive and moving. Like ink dropped on white paper.

It was a rather familiar spot pattern.

This familiar shape—could it be.

Thinking it might be so, I moved a little closer. The Grand Duke stepped aside as if permitting me to come closer.

“Recently, something strange appeared on Mother’s ankle. When she takes the medicine, this too stops spreading, but it doesn’t shrink back. The problem is, even if you press here—”

“She feels nothing, doesn’t she.”

At my words, the Grand Duke looked at me. His eyes had widened slightly, as if a little surprised.

Leaving the surprised man behind, I pressed hard on the spot on her calf and released. The indented flesh took quite a long time to return. I gathered a very small amount of divine power at my fingertip. I felt my fingertip glow very faintly as the divine power gathered.

At that moment, something black writhed greatly.

“Ugh!”

I quickly withdrew my finger. At the sudden situation, the Grand Duke grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. At his eyes asking what I was doing, I held out my finger.

My fingertip was stained black.

In the same shape as the spots on her calf.

“Has Mother’s illness infected you?”

“No. It’s not an infection. This isn’t an illness in the first place.”

“What?”

“This is the most troublesome and vicious of curses. It is the curse called ‘The Black Priestess’s Tears.'”

\* \* \*

The Black Priestess’s Tears.

It was the curse that had killed me the most times so far, and one of the deaths I hated most.

It wasn’t for the simple reason that this curse kills with especially more pain. If we’re talking purely in terms of pain, burning to death or having your skin flayed is far more painful.

Rather, this curse is far from pain.

This is a curse that shakes the very foundation of life.

“What is the Black Priestess’s Tears?”

“I’ll explain, so first—could you let go of this?”

I glanced at my shoulder, which was still being held. At that, he quickly released both hands. I let out a small sigh at his behavior and sat down on the edge of the bed. The black thing was still eroding Aelita.

“The Black Priestess’s Tears is a curse that steals the ownership of divine power.”

“The ownership of divine power?”

“Yes. To be precise, it slowly contaminates the target’s divine power and makes it the caster’s property. These spots are the biggest characteristic.”

“I don’t quite see how that’s different from eating the heart.”

“With eating the heart, the difference in amount is large. You can only ingest the divine power contained in the heart at the final moment of death. If I were in a state where I’d used almost all my divine power and Your Grace pulled out and ate my heart, that would mean you could only ingest the very little divine power remaining.”

I pointed to the area around the Grand Duke’s heart. His heart was beating at a rapid pace.

“But this curse is different. It contaminates the heart itself, where divine power is constantly produced. Once that happens, the heart has no choice but to keep producing contaminated divine power.”

“But in the end, isn’t it unusable unless the person themselves absorbs it directly?”

“I said it literally steals ownership, didn’t I? You can make them extract it from the body, or you can confine them and keep drawing it out. Depending on how it’s used, the possibilities are endless.”

“Hah.”

The Grand Duke let out a short breath. Then he knelt and sank down beside the bed. He gripped his sleeping mother’s hand tightly. There was a very small dot on her palm as well.

There was no way the Grand Duke hadn’t seen what I saw. The Grand Duke gritted his teeth and asked me.

“The method to break the curse—do you know that too?”

There was a hint of hope in the Grand Duke’s eyes.

Of course I know how to break it.

How many times have I been hit by this poison? I had already figured it out and more.

But.

“It’s already too late.”

It was far too late.