“Look here, Mr. Petoras. Don’t you think this is too much?”

“I’m not sure. What’s too much?”

“Not only am I cursed, but what sin did the person commit who has to have physical contact with someone they don’t even like for their entire life?”

“Well. It doesn’t seem like you dislike it as much as you think.”

Kervel muttered meaningfully.

However, Yvette was too busy trying to resolve the immediate problem to notice this fact.

“Anyway, just break the curse quickly. If you say you have no intention of breaking it, that means there’s a way to break it, right?”

Yvette glared at Kervel as she spoke.

She was determined to persuade him to break the curse somehow.

However, Kervel was even more unreasonable than she had imagined.

“No matter how much you say, my answer will be the same. So instead of wasting your effort, think about how to sweet-talk your destined partner. Without that person, your life is over too.”

Kervel answered coldly without blinking an eye. Then he turned his back on Yvette without hesitation. “Since our business seems to be over, I’ll take my leave first.”

“What? Where are you going when we’re not done talking!”

Towards Yvette who asked in disbelief, Kervel smiled slightly.

“I’m going to find the person I like.”

With those final words, Kervel snapped his fingers. Instantly, the blocked noise returned to normal.

At the same time, Kervel disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that not even a trace remained, it seemed he had used magic to teleport.

Faced with this unexpected turn of events, Yvette collapsed to the ground where she stood.

She had thought that if she could just meet Kervel, she would naturally be able to break the curse.

But this situation was not in her calculations.

Yvette lightly bit her lip and then released it as she stared at the empty corridor.

‘…What should I do now?’

Ruhen Academy wasn’t a place one could visit anytime.

Even a meeting couldn’t be requested without the other party’s consent.

In other words, this meant there was no chance to meet Kervel except for today.

Yvette closed her eyes and took a long breath.

She had to find a way somehow.

‘Think. How can I get Kervel to break my curse?’

After pondering for a few minutes like this.

Yvette suddenly remembered a name.

‘That’s right. There’s Liliana!’

Liliana was practically Kervel’s whole world.

Wouldn’t she be able to change Kervel’s mind?

A glimmer of hope appeared on Yvette’s face that had been completely dark until now.

***

Meanwhile, at the same time.

Noel, who had barely managed to shake off the nobles approaching him, set out to find Yvette.

‘I’m sure I told her to stay nearby.’

Whether she had moved in that short time, Yvette was nowhere to be seen in the party venue.

‘Really, I can’t take my eyes off her for a moment.’

Noel chuckled as he rolled up his sleeve. Then, a bracelet identical to the one he had given Yvette was revealed.

As he moved towards the corridor, the pendant attached to the bracelet emitted a soft light.

Noel slowly walked following the light from the bracelet.

The communication stone he had gifted to Yvette was a magical tool capable of not only communication but also location tracking.

The method of tracking the location was simple.

The closer the communication stones get to each other, the stronger the light from the pendant becomes.

This was how one could find the other person.

Thanks to this, Noel was able to find where Yvette was without much effort.

‘…I didn’t think there would come a day when I’d use this.’

Noel thought as he walked.

Since meeting Yvette, he had been acting unlike himself more and more.

Where she was and what she was doing.

What she was thinking, and who she was talking to.

Questions he had never considered before would occasionally occupy his mind.

It wasn’t to this extent when he first proposed engagement to Yvette.

But as time passed, he became more and more conscious of her.

‘By the way, she’s gone quite far.’

Even though he had moved quite far from the party venue, Yvette was still nowhere to be seen.

Noel let out a short, hollow laugh as he brushed his hair back.

‘Judging by the stronger light, she should be around here.’ It was then.

As Noel looked around, a large old tree suddenly came into his view.

It was a tree that had stood in the same place since he attended the academy.

“…That’s still here.”

Noel moved towards it as if drawn by something.

Looking at the old tree that stood so tall it seemed to cover the sky, memories of the past suddenly came flooding back.

***

It was about 7 years ago when Noel Averon became ‘Duke Averon’.

His father, the previous Duke Averon, was a dissolute man with no concept of chastity.

Because of this, Noel had five half-siblings older than him.

Noel, being the youngest, could barely cling to life, pushed aside by his siblings.

So, to escape the suffocating air of the Duke’s household, he enrolled in the academy as if running away.

Even there, Noel lived quietly, like a mouse.

Just having the surname Averon was enough to draw people’s attention.

Then one day, while living like that, as if he didn’t exist, barely breathing.

Noel came across the news in a newspaper that his entire family had been found dead.

The person accused as the perpetrator of this tragedy was Petrine Averon, the Duke’s fourth wife.

She was his mother.

[“…Did you hear about that? I heard the Duchess Averon was arrested this time.”]

[“I heard too. It seems even His Majesty the Emperor is taking this matter seriously.”]

[“Did she really kill them all by herself? It’s not like there were only one or two people there.”]

[“Well. She might have received help from someone.”]

With the tragedy of the Averon ducal family as a catalyst, Noel’s life changed drastically.

His mother, whom he thought was his only ally, was imprisoned, and his relatives were desperately trying to bring him down.

The siblings who had tormented him were all dead, but the hell didn’t end.

Noel realized then.

Holding his breath wouldn’t keep him alive.

As long as he bore the name Averon, people would constantly try to kill him.

So to survive, he had to trample them first.

The moment he realized this, Noel firmly locked the door to his heart.

Then, without blinking an eye, he dealt with those who opposed him one by one.

There was nothing to hold him back.

Anyway, people had already branded him as the son of a murderer.

What difference would it make if his already rock-bottom reputation got worse?

As he eliminated his enemies one by one like that, before he knew it, he had become ‘Duke Averon’.