Even with her eyes open, she couldn’t tell if she was awake. Only the distant dripping sound of water droplets told her she was in reality. She felt as if her entire body had been thoroughly beaten, making it difficult to move even a finger. Tracing the shattered fragments of memory, Olivia gritted her teeth with effort and raised her body.

“Ughk.”

The sensation below her waist was completely abnormal. Beyond pain, it felt wrong, with dulled and muffled sensations rather than distinct ones.

“At least I’m alive.”

She muttered complacently as she moved her toes. Her legs seemed intact at least. Good, both legs are safe. The process of having to confirm that her limbs were intact was bizarre, but Olivia remained surprisingly calm. Except for one arm that alternated between feeling sensation and numbness, fortunately all her body parts remained attached.

“Lord Alois……”

Olivia discovered Alois collapsed beside her and held her breath. His motionless appearance, as if dead, terrified her. Having fainted first, her anxiety intensified because she didn’t know what had happened to him afterward.

With trembling hands, she checked his breathing. Though faint, he was breathing properly, and only then did the tension leave her body. Seeing that he had returned to his human form, it seemed the heat cycle had passed after she had fainted.

Not much time must have passed, as the s*men between her thighs hadn’t yet dried.

“So you didn’t die.”

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Olivia looked for its source. She recognized the old man crouching at her head, looking at her. Reflexively, she hunched her arms to cover her n*ked body. But the old man seemed uninterested in her n*dity, wearing an indifferent expression.

“You, how are you here……”

“I still find it strange. I should have killed you, but why did I let you live?”

The old man’s finger pointed directly at Olivia. To protect the still vulnerable Alois from this clearly suspicious old man, she embraced him tightly. At the pitiful sight of her barely managing to gather the collapsed Alois with one hand, the old man clicked his tongue and stood up.

“Who are you? What’s your identity?”

The aura he emanated was different from when they met at the cabin. Though his hunched exterior looked much the same, his brightly shining eyes didn’t match the burnt-out years of an elderly person. With his hands behind his back, the old man looked at Olivia with a complicated expression. His gaze was cold, but the subtle sympathy underlying it confused her.

“I am a lingering thought bound to this cave.”

“A ghost?”

“Though similar in that I must borrow another’s body to exist, it’s not quite the same. I’m not a soul left after a human’s death. Just as the cursed one’s body and time have stopped, I have offered my body as a sacrifice and in return am trapped in this space and time.”

Resentment, lingering attachment, obsession. Thinking any of these terms would fit well, the old man smiled wryly. The self-deprecating reaction and relieved expression. The true form hidden behind the deceptive elderly appearance gradually came into view. Slowly but clearly, Olivia realized who was inside the old man’s body.

“You’re the one who placed the curse, aren’t you? The one they called nature’s last blessing……”

“The term ‘blessing’ is too generous. I drove away everyone who stayed here with my own hands, so I dare not be called by such a name. They were foolishly kind enough to grant even my last wish before leaving.”

Prow’s story came to mind. The one who received nature’s love had wished for a forbidden wish, and in the end, they granted their beloved’s final desire and left this place.

In the old man’s eyes, she sensed the sorrow of having chosen to sever the connection with nature with his own hands. But his gaze toward Alois remained utterly cold, and Olivia knew that this lingering thought didn’t regret the choice to place the curse.

But she couldn’t give up. She had finally found the being who started the curse, and whether it was a lingering thought, a ghost, or even a god, she had no intention of backing down. Since he had first proposed a bet, he should rightfully give her the prize she wanted.

“You suggested a bet, right? I’m alive like this, and Lord Alois has calmed down, so I won.”

“……”

“Since you placed the curse, you must know how to lift it. Please remove Lord Alois’s curse. The target of the resentment and sorrow contained in your curse is no longer in this world!”

“Child. A curse isn’t created by my resentment alone.”

A pitying gaze turned toward Olivia. He too knew that his anger had nothing to do with Alois. But curses naturally grew by devouring the accumulated resentment of others.

“Though it wasn’t my resentment, the fact that he is cursed means someone else must have desperately wished for it, right? For this terrible curse to befall him. So they must have painfully found the necklace and placed the curse. That’s how it’s passed down. Resentment continues to exist in the world, riding on other resentments.”

“But! They no longer resent Alois either, do they? They said they regretted doing this!”

She had heard that both the current emperor and the late empress had endured a heavy sense of guilt toward Alois throughout their lives. She couldn’t understand why a curse that brought happiness to no one should continue to exist. As if reading her desperate cry, the old man smiled and shook his head.

“No. But you’ve gotten what you wanted because of it, haven’t you?”

The approaching old man cupped Olivia’s cheek as if to comfort her. His action was very affectionate, gently stroking her face despite it being covered in s*men. But the old man’s following words were not at all warm.

“Because he is cursed, he loves you like this now, cherishes you, and gives you his all. So even if the whole world calls it a curse, you shouldn’t say that.”

“What do you mean……”

“Nature’s providence eventually balances things fairly. One person’s misfortune becomes another’s joy. It’s always been that way. You should just enjoy this situation. Once cursed, he can never escape you for life. An ordinary human couldn’t endure like you do.”

Examining her injury-covered body, the old man stroked Olivia’s head with an appreciative smile.

“I wondered why someone who should tear apart and kill everything in sight spared you, but it’s because you carry the bloodline of our tribe, however faintly. This too could be fate, if you will. If the curse placed upon the one who betrayed me has come full circle to bind him to you.”

“I don’t want Lord Alois to be bound to me because of a curse.”

She glared harshly at the old man who spoke words that were curses in all but tone. The old man frowned in confusion at the sight of Olivia angrily brushing away his touch.

“It’s true that Lord Alois and I met because of the curse, but that was just the occasion for our meeting, not what created our relationship! The reason Lord Alois doesn’t kill me even when he goes berserk is because he always desperately wishes for me not to get hurt, not because of my bloodline that I didn’t even know about until now. He simply heard my voice.”

“I’m not doubting your love. Love exists, surely. But could that love have formed without the curse?”

“What?”

“If he hadn’t been cursed with a heat cycle that drives him into frenzy, would he have desired you so much? If the curse disappeared and he no longer needed the heat cycle, or you, would he still think of you as special then?”

It was a very seductive and cunning whisper. A powerful doubt that momentarily silenced even Olivia, who had always confidently proclaimed her love. As the old man said, their first meeting and their first physical union had both been because of the heat cycle, so her denial was caught in her throat as if someone had choked her.

“If you wish, I could adjust it slightly so it won’t hurt you like this time. You lose nothing. Just take this human who worships you like a god, receive his love, and enjoy as much as you want.”

The sweet whisper that no one would blame her for simply stopping the frenzy of a poor cursed human continuously tempted Olivia.

“Can you control the degree of frenzy? Really?”

“Yes. Judging by your current state, he may not kill you, but it’s not a pleasant sight.”

She glanced at her arm, which was bleeding from being bitten when she was attacked from behind. The holes where teeth had penetrated remained intact. Even with treatment upon return, they might leave scars. Looking at the wounds, Olivia seemed to make a decision and turned to the old man.

“I want nothing except for Lord Alois’s curse to completely disappear.”

Not understanding her firm answer, the old man slowly circled around Olivia. After pacing for a while, muttering to himself things like ‘I really don’t understand. It’s a chance to permanently have what you want, so why?’, the old man now showed two fingers.

“A bet is a bet. But just as creating a curse requires a price, removing a curse also requires a price. That’s how balance is maintained. So let’s do this.”

The old man folded one finger.

“One option is to return home as I’ve been saying. Just as you’ve been doing well until now, you’ll continue to manage his heat cycle and become his only weakness and lifeline.”

“I don’t need that.”

“The other option is to remove the curse as you wish. Instead, I’ll take away all his memories from the moment the curse was placed until this very moment. What do you think?”

Olivia’s eyes widened as she waited for the second option. Though it was the offer she anticipated—to lift the curse—she couldn’t feel completely happy about it.

“Yes. I’ll cleanly cut it away as if he never experienced the curse from the beginning. How about it, isn’t that what you wanted?”