Chapter 103
Just then, there was a knock. Delphina announced that the Royal Preceptor, Richard, had come to call. Cesar was with him.
“May we intrude for a moment?”
The last few hours had been a chaotic blur of shocks, but it was true that Richard had helped me. And I hadn’t even had the chance to thank him properly.
I stepped forward and bowed. “Glory to the Holy Cross. Welcome to the Emerald Palace, Royal Preceptor.”
“Glory to the Holy Cross. Please, call me Richard.” Richard returned the greeting warmly.
“Yes, Lord Richard. I apologize for my discourtesy earlier. You were a great help, and I failed to express my gratitude.”
“It is enough that you are unharmed.”
He quickly turned his gaze to Cesar. Was it my imagination, or did Richard’s expression soften when Cesar smiled at him? Cesar, too, seemed to know him well, treating him with easy familiarity.
Despite having come to see me, Richard remained silent, merely staring at me intently. His purple eyes held a searching, almost persistent gaze that set me on edge.
He remained quiet for so long that I finally had to speak. “Um, was there something you wished to say?”
Richard nodded. “Were you aware that the prince’s curse has stabilized?”
“The curse…?” My eyes widened at the word. He nodded, his face serious.
“Since the prince’s curse first manifested, I have never seen it this stable.”
“You’re saying Cesar is stable right now?”
How could he possibly tell something like that at a glance, even if he was a mage? I didn’t even know what it meant for the curse to be “stable.”
“What exactly is this curse? And how can you tell?” I asked, firing off the questions in my agitation.
But Richard merely shook his head, watching me silently. I bit my lip in agitation, and he finally spoke. His words were astonishing.
“Have you, by chance, been seeing illusions? Hearing voices? Having strange dreams?”
I started, forced to ask, “H-how did you know that?”
“…So it is as I thought.”
I was still bewildered, unable to grasp what he was getting at. Richard simply watched me for a moment before pulling off the black leather glove he wore and tucking it under his arm, revealing long, pale fingers.
“Your hand.”
I hesitated, but this was the man who had helped me. Believing he meant no harm, I extended my hand. He took it silently and closed his eyes.
It wasn’t long before he spoke again. “…You have an aptitude for magic.”
“Magic…?” I narrowed my eyes, skeptical. It had been one shock after another today. And now, an aptitude for magic?
“Flores… You are a descendant of Cosimo the Wise. It is not so strange.”
“But I don’t know how to use magic.” If I could, I would have shown potential from a very young age. The ability to use magic had to be innate; the power to sense and control it was known as magical attunement. This attunement almost always manifested in childhood, and most families with mage blood completed the tests for it at a young age.
Mages were so few that any child who showed the slightest talent was immediately identified and monitored. I, too, had undergone the attunement test before joining the Flores family, so I knew for a fact I had no magical talent.
“Regarding this magic… No, this is a very special case.”
“…A special magic?”
“How much do you know about the curse?”
I shook my head, trying to recall what I knew. “Only that hundreds of years ago, the king was afflicted with it as the price for slaying the Evil Dragon, Tieghrosh.”
“So, you know nothing.”
I felt a flash of indignation, but wasn’t this my chance to finally learn about the curse I was so curious about? As it seemed the story would be long, I suggested refreshments. A tray was soon laid out on the drawing room table.
Richard took a single, graceful sip of the tea Delphina had poured before setting the cup down.
“A more precise examination is required, but His Highness’s condition appears remarkably stable.”
“How can you tell?”
Richard was, I had been told, Cesar’s personal physician. Cesar’s affliction was not something an ordinary doctor could treat, which was why someone special was required.
“I have other talents besides magic, and among them happens to be the study of curses.”
“Curses…”
He began to tell me the truth about the Evil Dragon’s curse.
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