The man, who could no longer delay, stood up. Yerena’s hand tried to hold him back but fell limply. Even though she was finished anyway. Don’t go. Stay with me.

Yerena silently called out “don’t go” several times in regret. Then she desperately said to the man who was standing up, barely holding onto her fading consciousness,

“Qu-quick… run away……”

She hoped he would live, however small the chance. That he wouldn’t die branded as a traitor because of her. She wished he would live happily for a long time and die only after becoming an old man with white hair.

“Go… go quickly.”

Yerena dropped her head after speaking with her faltering breath. Her faint breathing suddenly grew louder as her chest rose and fell rapidly. It was a signal that the end of life was imminent.

He needed to bring someone quickly, whether a physician or a cleric. The man’s red eyes flashed. At the same time, his body shot forward so quickly it became invisible.

The door was flung open as if it might break. The man saw the stairs. The landing he had frantically climbed. He had briefly seen the collapsed physician. If no one had touched him, that thing would still be in his possession. Praying that what he was looking for would be there, the man crouched slightly. It was to leap over the stairs in one bound. A golden light began to emanate softly from his body.

And at precisely that moment, someone made their presence known as if they had been waiting. The man’s eyes naturally followed the presence and stopped. A priestess dressed all in white stood a short distance away.

The man faced her warily. But Alicia moved toward him without showing fear.

“You’ll need my power.”

The man’s eyes grew incredibly cold. The tower was swarming with mercenaries. Yet how had this woman arrived here so unscathed? And that attitude. Alicia seemed exactly like someone who had predicted the current situation.

“Time is of the essence. If you don’t let me in, the princess will die. Is that what you want?”

Was the priestess’s appearance truly coincidental? The man immediately concluded it wasn’t. A voice inside kept shouting that he shouldn’t entrust the princess to the priestess. But he had no choice. He turned his body to make way for Alicia and hissed ominously,

“If you harm the princess, I’ll twist your neck immediately.”

Alicia gave a twisted smile at the man’s words. Death? If she had feared that, she wouldn’t have come here today. She moved quickly without responding. Then she sat beside the princess, who had turned bluish as death half-covered her.

‘The avenger must be prepared to lose everything and to fall into the fire pit below……’

Alicia reached out to the princess. Dazzling golden light, bright enough to take away one’s sight, burst from her hand.

The unconscious princess’s breathing seemed to return somewhat. Before giving her all, Alicia closed her eyes and called for her mother one last time.

‘Mother.’

A burning temple unfolded. Her crazed mother ran around laughing. The sight of her cackling with her body on fire was sad rather than chilling.

‘Save me!’

‘Please help us!’

The sight of children reaching out from behind iron bars, begging to be saved, along with dozens of voices, confused Alicia’s ears. She examined the faces of the friends she had relied on, one by one.

‘Aaagh!’

Embers entered her eyes. Her body curled up from the burning pain. The image of her young self rolling in agony on a rainy street was vivid.

“……I can finally escape.”

Alicia muttered in a weak voice. Now not only her hand but also her arm was wrapped in light and invisible. Her white hair flickered in the golden light, fluttering as if blown by the wind.

Alicia’s hair began to turn black from the ends. It looked just like a tree turning black as it burned.

“G-give me your hand! Quickly!”

When Alicia’s hair had turned black except for the crown of her head, she spoke to Roshan while coughing up blood. At her urgent voice, he extended his hand without hesitation. Alicia pulled him with a strength one wouldn’t expect from a woman, then took a dagger from her bosom and stabbed the back of his hand.

“Cough!”

Blood flowed from his hand, and at the same time, burst from his mouth.

—The blind mage, betrayed by the radiant princess, was from the Vistius Empire and wielded extraordinary magic. Before dying from the princess’s betrayal, golden light emanated from his fingertips, splitting the earth and making lakes surge. Thus, his enemies trembled in fear and called him this, the Monster with Red Eyes.

The book Hayden had brought from the Sedas Kingdom provided the final key. Through the invader who shared blood with the blind mage, Alicia could break the last shackle of the curse against the princesses of Sedas.

‘Alicia. I’m a witch. A witch, how fortunate.’

Although her mother had withdrawn the curse from the princess and then returned it, completely breaking it now would unleash an even greater curse.

The princess would despair at the truth. She would fall into h*ll while still alive.

Alicia’s hair turned completely black. Black blood flowed from the seven openings of her face.

“Ahh……”

With a groan, the light from her hands also faded. And the princess’s figure, which had been hidden by the mass of light, was revealed.

The flesh torn by the whip had completely healed. Her breath, which had reached its limit, returned to normal. The man smiled with joy at the sight, despite feeling as if something had been forcibly drained from him.

Finally, the light completely faded. Alicia, who had been looking at Yerena, turned her head toward Roshan. She had aged decades in that short time. Her hair had also instantly changed from black to white. But not with the sparkling color as before, rather an ashen gray that had exhausted everything.

“Your Highness……”

Alicia spoke to Roshan. He, who hadn’t even been looking at her, turned his head toward Alicia while embracing Yerena and showed a surprised face.

“……I’m sorry for what I’ve done to Your Highness.”

What was she sorry for? Before Roshan could wonder, Alicia dropped her head weakly. And in a very small voice, she muttered,

“I left Sir Frederick a choice. So please leave Juul and Jael alone.”

That was the end. Alicia’s body fell to the side. As Roshan was about to examine her, he felt something move in his arms.

“Ugh……”

A small groan flowed through the gap of those red lips. Roshan held his breath and focused on Yerena.

The fine golden hair covering her eyebrows moved slightly, then her eyelids trembled. And immediately after, very slowly but gradually, her eyes began to open.

A tear dropped from Roshan’s eye and rolled down Yerena’s cheek. He called her.

“Yerena.”

As if in response, blue eyes fully revealed themselves, clearly capturing the world before them.

* * *

‘This, this cannot be.’

Helena, who was once the radiant princess and once the radiant queen, wailed. Beside her lay numerous magic books and scrolls containing information about curses.

Standing on a magic circle in the middle of the room, Helena screamed. Despite sacrificing much time and many things, all she had seen in the end was despair.

‘I cannot do it.’

After telling her half-brother she would break the curse, she devoted decades solely to that task. But all she saw was the shackles of the curse, which reconnected even after being cut.

‘Please. Sister! Find a way. In the old days, you could do anything. Ah…… Those poor little ones.’

Her half-brother, who had retired as the former king, forgot his grudge against Helena and begged her when his granddaughters, who had become princesses, also began going blind one by one. However, it seemed that even the princesses who shared blood with Helena and were descendants of her half-brother could not escape the blind mage’s curse.

Like how she felt with her half-brother, Helena didn’t feel much affection for the young royal children. But she couldn’t bear the thought that the princesses of Sedas would suffer the same pain as herself and her daughters for generations to come.

‘This, this won’t do. A method! Before my life ends, I must……”

Unable to give up, Helena tried to find a way even in despair. Even while suffering from illness, even while extending her life by sacrificing something in return.

Time passed. Her half-brother died, and even his granddaughter’s daughter was born and went blind. For a long time, Helena struggled. But in the end, she failed. She could no longer extend her life by offering something.

‘It’s… over.’

Death approached her. Helena, her body covered in wrinkles, lay like a corpse and cried in despair. Ironically, while all her bodily functions failed, only her eyes remained intact. They were as clear as in her youth, seeing both near and far with clarity.

‘Are you satisfied that things have gone as you wished?’

Looking at the clearly visible image, Helena muttered to the blind mage. After a while, her final obsession compelled her to move.

She fell from the bed and crawled on the floor. Her two feet dragged on the stone floor, which hurt, but she paid no attention.

‘At, at least not according to your will……”

Lying in the center of a huge magic circle, she stabbed her heart. And before her three final breaths were spent, she cast a curse on her blood for her descendants.

‘No, no princess will be b-born. So there will be no, no blind princesses s-suffering.’

A curse or a blessing? As Helena wished, the line of princesses in the Sedas royal family was cut off. But perhaps because she cast the curse with imperfect magic power before dying, princesses were occasionally born.

Due to the influence of Helena’s blessing and curse, most princesses didn’t survive beyond infancy. However, those who even escaped that inherited the blind mage’s curse more strongly than anyone else……

Blind princess. You will wail at the terrible curse.