She pondered for a moment.

“If the sealing stone has cracks, it won’t even take a year. But there’s no way it could crack this quickly.”

She trailed off, flustered.

At that moment, I raised my hand to ask a question.

“Could Duke Zieten’s visit have made the seal break faster?”

The Dragon Lord’s gaze turned toward me.

“Someone from the Zieten ducal family went that far? It must have been difficult to go with the cold energy they’d feel.”

The Dragon Lord was impressed.

“If Duke Zieten went, that makes sense.”

She looked at me with a curious expression.

“Do you know the truth?”

The truth the Dragon Lord spoke of. I nodded, knowing what it meant.

“Dragon Lord, I have something to ask after the meeting ends. Could you grant me a small bit of wisdom?”

She smiled faintly.

“Of course, child. But what is your relationship with Duke Zieten?”

“I was his fiancée.”

She frowned.

“Louelle Asnel?”

“That’s right.”

“You must have the Emperor’s favor. Not many would know that truth.”

Then the Dragon Lord smiled slightly.

“As the Emperor’s niece, you’re in a position to obtain anything, yet what could you be curious about that you’d come all the way to me seeking wisdom?”

The Dragon Lord seemed more interested in my affairs than the sealing stone. 

The meeting resumed. However, even the Dragon Lord couldn’t offer any particular solution this time. In the end, they concluded they’d have to subjugate the demon dragon again.

* * *

Inas Rochen. She had lived a long life as the Dragon Lord. During that time, she’d met countless humans and races.

Louelle Asnel. When she first met her, she thought she was simply the Emperor’s niece, someone who came representing the imperial family. 

She assumed the Emperor had sent her to reseal the demon dragon. Even with Liliet present, since this concerned the Dragon Lord, she figured Louelle must be someone reasonably important.

Humans did place considerable importance on maintaining appearances, after all.

“What do you wish to ask me?”

After the meeting ended, Inas called Louelle to her private office.

“Actually, I’m Duke Zieten’s former fiancée.”

Inas nodded. The reason she knew Louelle Asnel’s name was because the Zieten ducal family’s son had been engaged to her.

In this generation, two sons in the Zieten ducal family were born with the qualities of an heir. But one was murdered and the other was forced to become the heir.

“So. What are you curious about as his former fiancée?”

“I want to break the curse that’s been passed down in the Zieten ducal family.”

“Breaking the curse.”

Inas stared at Louelle.

“There is no way to do that.”

The Dragon Lord stated flatly.

“Only the person involved could break a curse.”

She gazed at Louelle.

“Rather than a curse, it should be called the price for obtaining power.”

Louelle was silent for a moment. Then she sighed and spoke.

“The price for deceiving a Dragon and obtaining their heart.”

“That’s right.”

Inas nodded.

“Do you know all about the price of that power?”

Louelle shook her head.

“I thought I knew, but there were things I didn’t. Why the previous Duke died, and why destructive thoughts surge in the Duke when I get close to him—I don’t really understand those things.”

Then Inas narrowed her eyes.

“It seems you and the Duke loved each other.”

“That’s right.”

“Then the price becomes even stronger.”

Inas shook her head slowly.

“The blood of the ducal family absolutely doesn’t want Duke Zieten to love anyone.”

She smiled faintly.

“I can tell you about the price. It may not be a solution, but take at least this much with you.”

Inas told Louelle about the curse passed down in the Zieten ducal family—no, the price for obtaining a Dragon’s power.

According to legend, the Zieten ducal family defeated the demon dragon and as a reward received the Dragon Lord’s blessing, gaining special and powerful abilities. But that was merely a legend embellished for later generations.

The truth was this: The demon dragon was originally an adult Dragon. 

The adult Dragon Sarichel was traveling through the human world when she fell in love with a man. That man approached her even knowing she was a Dragon, and the two soon made an eternal vow.

By becoming a Dragon’s companion and making an eternal vow, one gained power as strong as the Dragon’s. Of course, if the Dragon broke the eternal vow, that power would disappear.

The human who gained powerful strength wanted to become even stronger. He didn’t want to possess half-hearted power that would vanish if the vow was broken. 

The way for a human to obtain a Dragon’s power was to possess the Dragon’s heart. Knowing this fact, the human asked the Dragon for even her heart. He said if she gave it, they would love each other eternally.

Though the Dragon didn’t believe those words, she loved the human and gave him her heart. 

The moment the human obtained the Dragon’s heart and became stronger than the Dragon, he sealed her.

Originally he planned to kill her, but since the heart had been hers, his magic didn’t work well on her. So the man sealed the Dragon so she could never awaken. 

Without a Dragon’s heart, she would lose her reason and rampage, so everyone thought she had become a mad dragon, a demon dragon.

Though Sarichel was sealed due to human betrayal, no one acknowledged this. The human who became Duke Zieten thought he now possessed all the world’s power. But then, the curse began.

The Zieten ducal family couldn’t love normally. Perhaps it was the Dragon’s revenge on the lover who betrayed her. If Duke Zieten loved someone, the curse would continue as always—he had to seek women and produce an heir to survive. 

He lived his whole life tormented by cold energy, and couldn’t escape unless he sought women. Since he couldn’t settle with just one woman, forming a normal family was impossible. 

And he lived his whole life feeling anxiety about when he might die. If an heir wasn’t born, he would die on his own.

If, rarely, the Duke came to love someone, and that person loved the Duke back, they absolutely couldn’t be together. The blood flowing through the Zieten ducal family would rage and trigger an additional curse. Torment your beloved. It was made so they could never be close.

The reason Aegis died was surprisingly simple. For the curse to strengthen, it needed power, and if Aegis lived, the Dragon’s energy would be dispersed. To concentrate at the single point that was Fazel, the Dragon’s blood made him kill himself.

Though the Zieten family rarely produced people who loved each other, they all ended in tragedy. 

Unable to endure the bone-chilling cold, the Duke would seek other women, and the woman who waited would leave. Or the Duke would keep his lover close, they would wound each other, and it would end in tragedy.

In Louelle’s case, it was relatively better because Fazel was enduring to the limit of his patience.

“Phew, what should I do?”

Even the Dragon Lord said there was no way to break this curse. To break the curse, they ultimately had to resolve the demon dragon’s resentment, but the man who should resolve that resentment died long ago.

“Really, nothing is easy.”

* * *

I clutched my head. Soon the demon dragon would awaken. The Dragon Lord said one year, but I knew. 

In half a year, the demon dragon would awaken and the world would be turned upside down. Fazel, Caslan, and Liliet would participate in that war. In Liliet’s case, she participated to supply resources.

“Really.”

I thought of the Dragon who became a demon dragon. Sealed by the betrayal of someone she loved. Moreover, responding to love by placing additional curses. Her resentment must be tremendously deep.

“Why did you do bad things and make your descendant Fazel suffer!”

It was no different from a curse designed so the Zieten ducal family’s descendants could never love. I let out a deep sigh. What I gained from coming all this way was the reason for the curse and the cause of Aegis’s death. There was no solution.

Well, I didn’t think I’d obtain it easily. I closed my eyes for a moment. In my dream, Fazel was crying. Thinking he couldn’t change fate, he charged toward the demon dragon. 

That demon dragon slowly disappeared after Fazel died. After waking from sleep, I cried for a while. The curse of fate seemed like it would never disappear.

“Louelle, did you find a solution?”

On the day we left without gaining much from meeting the Lord, Liliet asked hesitantly.

I shook my head.

“They said only the first head of the family can break it.”

Liliet made a pitiful expression.

“Then do you have to part with Fazel forever?”

I spoke with a smile.

“It’s not over yet. I can’t give up with just this much.”

Right, that’s correct. I decided to think more about methods. For Fazel’s sake, who was thinking of me while enduring the cold energy, I had to stay strong.

The Dragon Lord appeared again as we were about to leave. She looked at me and smiled slowly.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of help.”

“No. Thanks to you, some mysteries were solved.”

“There was a time when a different kind of curse was broken.”

My eyes sparkled.

“It was possible when the resentment was resolved.”

I see. That’s why the Dragon Lord said she couldn’t break it. To resolve the resentment, the first Duke Zieten would have to resolve it. But the first Duke Zieten has long since turned to bones.

Wait a moment! In the original work, they said the demon dragon disappeared only after Fazel died. Then was the demon dragon’s resentment resolved? It ends with Fazel’s death!

I stared at the Dragon Lord. I asked, just in case.

“Could I learn more details about that Dragon lady who became a demon dragon, like her belongings or her story?”

The Dragon Lord had a benevolent expression.

“There’s a diary she kept until she was betrayed.”

“Could I borrow even that for a while?”

The Dragon Lord nodded.

“Do so, child.”

Resolving a Dragon’s resentment wouldn’t be easy. But giving up without trying wasn’t like me.

“Many have come to break the Zieten ducal family’s curse, but they all gave up. No one could break the curse.”

The Dragon Lord handed me the diary.

“Louelle Asnel, may you have blessings.”

Her eyes held a pitying light. It seemed like there was something she hadn’t told me, but I didn’t ask. Perhaps the Dragon Lord had a reason for not speaking?

“If you hold the diary, the curse weakens. You can face Duke Zieten just once. The period is about a week, but you’ll be able to live without the curse.”

I read the diary carefully as I left the Dragon Lord’s nest.

* * *

Inas watched the departing humans.

“I want to know how to break the curse.”

The Zieten family only bore sons. Those who came in place of the cursed lover were women with pure and beautiful souls like Louelle. 

Women who loved Duke Zieten like fate. She had never directly told them how to break the curse. But the wise among them found that method through the diary. Louelle would likely do the same.

But even if they learned it, the curse wasn’t broken. During the Zieten family’s existence, attempts to break the curse occurred once every hundred years. But they always ended in failure.

Louelle Asnel. What would become of her fate?

“May fortune be with you.”

The Dragon Lord bestowed a blessing on her. This was all the Dragon Lord could do.