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“Are you talking about the fairy tale in which the Duke of the Snow kingdom meets the Princess of the Spring kingdom and has a happy ending?”
“Yes! That’s right! Did the fairy tale really come from here at Felix Castle?”
“… … Well. I suppose it is, given that Sally, who told me the fairy tale for the first time, had a vague memory of saying that.”
“… … Oh my, that’s amazing.”
Grace was amazed and marvelled at the fact that the background of the fairy tale she had read with her eyes shining when she was a child was based on Felix Castle, where she had been married.
Arthur asked, looking at the cute figure of Grace, who was amazed in a fairy tale story with her eyes twinkling like a little girl.
“Did my wife like the fairy tale?”
“Yes! I didn’t want to read other fairy tales again because I was less interested after reading them once, but I used to read this one over and over again until its book was worn out. It didn’t snow well in the capital, so the story of a fairy tale that has more than half of a year of winter came to me interestingly. And most of all, my favourite was the brave and wonderful Duke of Snow.”
“You liked the Duke of Snow, so that’s why you read the fairy tale over and over again.”
“Yes. I liked the part about defeating the hideous monsters for the people of the Kingdom of Snow. But most of all, when the Princess of the Kingdom of Spring was dying, the part where he tied his life to the life of the princess with magic was most touching. It was so touching to see the willingness to give up one’s life for someone and to vow to live and die with the person he loves. But I didn’t expect the story to be set in Felix Castle!”
Grace recounted her feelings for the fairy tale to Arthur as if she had returned to when she was a little girl back then.
Arthur stopped eating and looked at Grace and agreed with Grace’s words. Even though there may be people who will listen to their conversion, a question suddenly ran through Grace’s mind as she continued to speak with excitement.
So Grace asked Arthur straight away.
“By the way, Arthur. If the fairy tale is the story of the ancestor of this Felix Castle, did that ‘life-binding magic’ actually happen, too?”
Arthur smiled lightly and shook his head in response to her somewhat absurd question.
“I don’t think so. That’s probably what the minstrels made up to make the story more romantic.”
“Is that so?”
“If the ancestors of Felix Castle were able to use such magic, it would probably have been recorded, but I’ve never seen such a story in a book that chronicles the history of Felix Castle.”
“Really?”
“… … And even if the Ancestors had truly been able to use that power, they would never have tried to use it on anyone. If it was a power strong enough to save someone from death, those with dark intentions who wanted to use that power somehow would not have left our ancestors alone.”
“That’s true.”
Grace replied with a nod to Arthur’s subsequent explanation.
If the descendants of Duke Felix had the power to save someone’s life, it was self-evident that the noble who became the head of the empire through the soul would have been Felix, not Alberton.
Imperial families and aristocrats of the ruling family are more obsessed with their lives than anyone else to enjoy their wealth and power until they die.
However, although she was convinced of Arthur’s explanation, Grace couldn’t help it, and a corner of her heart was wretched. She seemed to be forgetting something, and she seemed to be missing it out.
[T/N: Ahhh… Poor memory. （*゜ー゜*）]
So, as Grace was contemplating the “lost link” she was missing. Arthur, who was looking at her expression, whispered cautiously.
“……so I’m a little frightened, and scared.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m afraid that the ‘your secret’ I know will leak to someone else.”
“……Ah.”
What was “her secret” that Arthur was carefully mentioning, Grace quickly recognized.
As he pointed out, she did not dare to imagine what would happen if her father, DukeAlberton, found out her secret, ‘one who died and came back to life by some kind of power’.
After speaking carefully about her secret, Grace patted Arthur’s forearm, whose expression darkened sharply, and said.
“Don’t worry. If you don’t talk about it otherwise, it’s a secret that no one will know.”
“……I know. But I’m still anxious. Because I cannot guarantee that there are no other royals or nobles in my castle.”
“… … Arthur.”
“So I want to be stronger. So that no one even dares to think of doing any harm to you.”
Arthur said the same thing as a pledge to himself, holding Grace’s hand, which came upon his forearm and then releasing it.
At that, Grace smiled bashfully and nodded her head. It was extremely lovely to see him saying that he was determined to become stronger for her.
At that time, she forgot to eat and was concentrating on the conversation with Arthur. Leon, who was quietly emptying the food on his plate because he was alienated from the conversation, said to the two with a sullen face.
[T/N: Awww…. Poor Leon. (〜￣▽￣)〜]
“I’m so sad, just the two of you having fun talking, leaving me alone.”
“… … Oh, I’m sorry. Leon.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“Pii.”
“Please accept our apology, Leon. Then I’ll give you all of my share of desserts today.”
“Really?”
“Sure.”
“Well, then I’ll forgive you.”
Leon had been puffing up his cheeks as if it was disappointing for him to see the two only talk among themselves. But, he quickly resolved his anger when Arthur said that he would give up the dessert.
Grace looked sweetly at Leon, who was smiling mildly, and Arthur, who stroked Leon’s head. At the same time, she also thought she would give up her share of dessert to Leon as an apology.
[Eileen, please open your eyes!]
“……!”
Once again, in Grace’s head, a man’s scream could be heard.
Is it an illusion if she feels a sense of strangeness from the voice and the wretchedly desperate sadness and despair contained within?
Grace jumped up and looked around in surprise at the voice as if he were shouting directly into her ear.
“What happened?”
“Sister-in-law?”
Then, the voices of Arthur and Leon came from the side asking about her unknown behaviour.
However, Grace focused more on the ‘screaming of an unknown man’ echoing in her head than on those voices. For some reason, she felt like she shouldn’t miss this voice.
Then, she felt her eyes darken just like she had experienced in the Secret Garden one day. And after a very fleeting time, a scene flashed before her eyes.
A woman dying with the bottom of her white dress all red with blood and a man hugging her and screaming.
It was the scene she had seen just before she collapsed in the secret garden that day a few months ago. However, the only difference was that unlike then, the scenery and the voices that were heard were clearer than before.
‘Why, why is this happening to me again……?’
The bloodshot eyes of the man she met at that time. The pain and the never-ending fear that she had experienced while meeting those eyes once again penetrated vividly into her mind.
Grace trembled with her long eyelashes as she witnessed the same day the man placed his stern hand over the dying woman’s belly in a white dress.
‘Now that bloodshot man’s vicious eyes are staring at me, am I going to faint again?’
She trembled in fear as she recalled the terrible experience she had experienced a few months ago.
However, contrary to Grace’s expectations, the man’s eyes full of despair were not directed at her. The terrible eyes of the man were fixed solely on the woman who seemed to be his lover dying right before his eyes. The man pressed his strong hand down on her bloated stomach.
‘… … Huh?’
That’s right. What unfolded in front of her right now was what it looked like after ‘that scene’.
Grace focused her eyes on the scene that followed as if she was reading a fairy tale book. It was because of a vague premonition that there would be a clue to the curse she was looking for in this “dream-like fantasy”.
[Aaargh!]
After that, Grace felt a very powerful “wave” pouring from the man’s strong hand which was pressing down on the dying woman’s stomach.
Grace knew at once that it was the man who used “magic” for the dying woman. The man poured red blood out of his mouth but did not put his hand down from the dying woman’s stomach.
Soon after, a transparent red thread came out of his chest and was sucked into the area of the dying woman’s left heart. Then, a deep sigh burst out of the woman’s mouth, who had stopped breathing a while ago.
‘… … What is this!’
When Grace screamed inside at the magical thing, the ‘fantasy’ that was unfolding vividly in front of her disappeared in an instant.
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T/N: Hi, dear readers! I’m sorry for making all of you this long for an update and I’m grateful for your patience. I was too busy irl with many stuffs but now I will start updating the chapters just the way I used to do before.
Enjoy reading…!
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