Chapter 181
Eugenie blinked silently at Cassius’s words. No matter how many times she turned them over in her mind, her thoughts refused to sharpen.
‘The priest isn’t under a contract with Mrs Norton.’
What was that supposed to mean?
“Uh… why would you say that?”
—Lady. Do you remember that Mrs. Norton explicitly wrote into the contract, ‘Do not cause trouble among the husbands’?
“Yes, I remember.”
—That clause is the only reason we managed to restrain ourselves when we wanted to strangle each other…
Arguing verbally—shouting about becoming the one and only husband—had been acceptable. That kind of clash likely didn’t count as ‘trouble’ in Theodora’s judgment.
But injury did. Which was why there had been no gunfights or fistfights among the husbands. If anyone had crossed that line, the backlash from trying to break Theodora’s magic would have come down on them immediately.
Yet an unforeseen variable had appeared.
—The priest wasn’t affected by those restrictions at all.
“……”
—And when we tried to attack him, there was no penalty reflected back onto us either.
At that point, Eugenie had no choice but to accept it.
Carter had deceived her.
But before she could sink into deeper confusion, Eugenie forcibly snapped herself back to the present—mentally smacking herself with a stack of textbooks.
“How is everyone right now? What about Napier?”
—I’m alive, the hero’s alive, and the duke’s alive. We’re busy dealing with the aftermath, though… As for the count, well.
“Is he in bad shape?”
—…He seems to be under some kind of strange curse. Did you know about it?
Eugenie’s eyes widened.
‘The petrification curse…!’
Hadn’t she just seen it through the memories that tree pervert showed her? The hereditary curse of the Napier family—Magnus, still young, despairing as the petrification spread through his body. The emotions from that memory were still painfully vivid.
“I knew, but only recently. Why? What happened?”
—I don’t know what happened between him and the priest, but the curse seems to be spreading rapidly.
“……!”
—Until now, we had no idea. But his leg and one arm are starting to go numb.
“Is there any kind of emergency treatment? Among your tools—”
—I’ll try something.
From Cassius’s hesitant tone, Eugenie immediately understood. I’ll try, but don’t expect much.
“Cassius. I’ll try teleporting to a midpoint near the Troys territory.”
She couldn’t bring herself to claim she’d make it all the way, if she failed and drained too much mana…
‘I could end up grabbing the nearest person and having s*x just to survive.’
With a stiff expression, Eugenie glanced over her shoulder. The tree pervert was smiling mildly, innocently and it made her skin crawl.
“So have everyone come down there together.”
—Yes, Lady. Let me know as soon as you arrive. Be careful. And… I love you.
Even in a crisis, his playful declaration made her want to laugh.
But only after the connection cut did Eugenie finally let her carefully maintained composure collapse.
Meanwhile, Alokes watched her with a smile like a seductive demon, gauging her expression. Brazen on the outside, soft on the inside, seeing her stunned by betrayal and emptiness sent heat surging through him.
Eugenie slowly turned to face the tree freak and murmured.
“…So this is how Carter truly deceived me.”
“That’s right, Eugenie Norton.”
It wasn’t the imperial blood in his veins. It wasn’t his divine power. It wasn’t even the fact that he’d known about the existence of other ‘husband candidates’ far earlier than Eugenie herself.
“Carter was never someone my mother considered a ‘husband candidate’ to begin with. Even when I turned twenty-four… he wasn’t supposed to come for me.”
“Hm.”
“Then how did he even—”
How had Carter forged Theodora’s letter? Even copying her habitual spelling mistakes?
But how he managed it wasn’t the real issue. With the temple’s resources, there were plenty of ways.
The real problem lay elsewhere.
When Theodora used contract magic, her body and mind were already deteriorating.
‘Did he really want to forge the letters of someone like that?’
For some grander plan devised with Richard Livingston? Because he wanted the Fey family’s mana?
…And yet, deep down, Eugenie already knew.
The young Carter she’d seen in those memories, when he said he needed to meet Theodora privately, wasn’t thinking that far ahead.
He’d simply been desperate to stay beside the woman he loved, no matter the means. Eugenie stood up and rubbed her brow with a hand heavy with exhaustion.
‘Did it really have to go that far?’
What even was love, that it could drive someone to this?
* * *
Across Troys Castle, acrid smoke drifted through the late-night wind.
Even though they’d retreated to a distant hill, the gray, ash-laced stench lingered stubbornly in the air.
“Haa…”
As Carter exhaled while gazing at the castle, the priest attending him asked cautiously.
Discussion
1 Commentmilano0
are you splitting chaps? how many more to go?