Leticia thought she was watching a well-crafted tragedy.
Though the world rarely follows theatrical patterns, all the tragedies surrounding Herta’s ‘her’ appeared unnaturally orchestrated.
And ‘she’ knew that fact.
“When I die, burn my body, brother. And if Herta asks where I went, tell him you don’t know. Just say I went on a journey far away, and that you don’t know either.”
“…You should ask the Emperor to avenge you.”
‘She’ shook her head.
“He’s just a child, brother. Tell a child who doesn’t even understand what death is about my death? I’m not that terrible an adult.”
“He is not a child! That man must take responsibility. For you, for your death, for your child!”
Herta’s curse clung to the white baby who hadn’t even opened its eyes.
‘She’ gently stroked the white baby’s forehead with her fingertip and whispered.
“Then, brother. Who exactly should I ask to avenge me? What killed me wasn’t just one person. Some nobles drove wedges between Herta and me, some tarnished my honor, some slandered Basilinte. And someone made it impossible for me to stay, and someone else…”
What’s the point of all this? Her murmurs scattered weakly.
Herta was too strong, too perfect, and didn’t care about others.
And he failed to recognize that she wasn’t as strong and perfect as himself.
Herta was strong like a god, but ignorant of humans like a god.
He didn’t understand politics and intrigue.
“…He’s just a child with too much power. So much power… everyone mistook him for an adult, but he was actually a child.”
So she died, leaving only her child with Herta.
While feeling bitterness at the tragic ending of Herta and her that could be made into a stage play, Leticia looked at the small white baby to which ‘Herta’s curse’ had attached itself.
This baby must have been the first Basilinte to receive Herta’s curse.
It would probably grow up with its mother’s silver hair and golden eyes, and its father’s appearance and white skin.
And it would become the origin of the remarkably similar appearances of Basilinte throughout history.
Suddenly, she remembered Kalia’s puzzling words.
“No matter how much magical power I consume, it’s not enough for me. I’m lacking… You should consume me instead.”
If the current Basilinte were Herta’s descendants, then even after drinking Kalia’s blood, Leticia would have been able to become ‘Herta’ and withdraw the curse.
What this curse responded to was blood and magical power.
Whether Herta’s bloodline gained powerful water magic, or a powerful water mage drank Herta’s blood. Either way, one could become ‘Herta’ and withdraw the curse.
That much wasn’t difficult to guess.
What puzzled her was the Herta imperial family.
‘If that white baby is Herta’s child, then what is the current Herta imperial family that claims to be the first Herta’s descendants?’
‘She’ died after giving birth to Herta’s child.
So, unless Herta had children with another woman, that white baby would be Herta’s only child…
‘Did he remarry after loving her so desperately? Did he have children with another woman and pass the throne to them? No, if that’s the case, why did he curse her so desperately?’
If that were the case, the first Herta would be a scoundrel deserving of being cursed by her master for three days and nights, but—
‘Then the curse couldn’t remain this strong.’
The intensity of a curse varies according to the caster’s longing.
If Herta had forgotten ‘her’ afterward and lived well, the curse wouldn’t have remained until now.
The simultaneous existence of the Herta imperial family and Herta’s curse was a contradiction.
And what was even stranger…
‘Aina’s blood is closer to ‘Herta’ than Basilinte’s.’
Chamuka and Tan had fought to exhaustion, and Leticia had touched their wounds many times.
But they didn’t show an immediate reaction like Aina’s blood.
To see Herta’s memories from just a few drops of blood.
Even though Aina had drunk the first Herta’s blood, that was over 10 years ago.
Yet Aina’s blood felt exactly like ‘Herta’s’.
Not like Herta’s descendant, but like Herta himself.
That was truly nonsensical…
[Return to me.]
Leticia, peacefully attached to the white baby as ‘Herta’s curse’, was instantly swept away by the caster’s longing that sounded too loud.
Herta was sitting in ‘her’ bedroom. He sat quietly on the bed, staring at the door. Continuously.
It was impossible to know how much time had passed.
Day and night changed incessantly outside the window, and Herta, who had moved slightly at first, now remained as still as a statue.
Only occasionally did his lips move.
[Return to me.]
The curse was growing increasingly powerful.
Leticia had seen many children like this at the orphanage.
Children who believed their parents would return and stubbornly refused to leave the place where they were abandoned.
[Return to me.]
Leticia easily realized how to withdraw the curse.
She blinked. Chamuka’s golden eyes, looking down at her, with the rainy rocky mountain behind him, hazily overlapped in her vision.
Herta’s memory was ending.
This memory’s end would probably be Herta’s death.
However, there was still something puzzling.
While Herta was preserved alive without moving an inch in ‘her’ bedroom, not even with another woman, Leticia couldn’t understand how the ‘Herta imperial family’ had continued until now.
Just as she thought this.
“Y-Your Majesty was human after all.”
A man stabbed Herta with a knife.
Nevertheless, Herta still showed no reaction, his gaze fixed on the door.
The man collected and drank Herta’s blood. Not just once. The man kept coming back to drink Herta’s blood, and at some point, his hair had turned golden.
Afterward, the man brought someone who appeared to be his child, and fed Herta’s blood to that child as well. And then to that child’s child, and that child too…
Children with golden hair and purple eyes drank Herta’s blood. And their children, and their children’s children.
Leticia realized at some point.
That ‘her’ bedroom had now become Herta’s tomb.
Herta was already dead, and only his curse remained in his body, continuing to bleed.
Waiting for three hundred years for a woman who was already gone from this world.
[Return to me.]
Leticia blinked, assimilated with ‘Herta’s’ emotions.
This time, she saw Chamuka more clearly than before. She could feel raindrops on her face.
“Leti?”
At Chamuka’s whisper, her concentration wavered for a moment.
She quickly murmured Herta’s last words and curse under her breath.
[Return to me.]
Leticia had to be ‘Herta’ at this moment.
She was the most powerful water mage since Herta, and now Herta’s blood was absorbed and flowing in her body.
Blood and magical power.
All conditions were sufficient for the curse to mistake her for ‘Herta’.
“What can I do for you?”
Chamuka, who had come close enough for their foreheads to touch, asked in a low voice.
Leticia shook her head and cupped his cheek with her hand.
Her eyes met the golden eyes that ‘Herta’ had longed for.
In that moment, Leticia grasped the source of the curse connected to her body. And becoming ‘Herta’, she whispered.
The one thing that could break this curse, the one thing Herta had so desperately wanted to say.
[You have returned.]
Herta’s curse placed on Basilinte was broken.