The Only Way to Break the Curse is Through Contact with You - Chapter 84

#84

My father is truly my father. Unlike Duke Feischer, who briefly glanced at me with an indifferent face as if he didn’t care, Grand Duke Wheaton seemed to fully understand Diart’s mood. He turned his gaze away from the silent Diart and looked at me. Unable to tell the truth under his questioning gaze, I pretended to smile as if I didn’t know.

“It’s nothing.”

Even with my words, the suspicion embedded in his alternating gazes between me and Diart was not resolved. Soon enough, he muttered as if it were obvious even without him seeing it.

“What are you doing instead of apologizing?”

Grand Duke Wheaton’s gaze as he looked at Diart clearly conveyed that he believed Diart had done something wrong. In response to his firm conviction, Diart turned his head towards me. He had been disregarding me since we entered the dining room, and his expression looked aggrieved. Yet, I could feel him discreetly observing my reactions.

“I was wrong.”

“Well, if you were wrong, naturally you should apologize first… Hm?”

Grand Duke Wheaton’s words, intended to lecture, came to an abrupt halt. Contrary to his expectation that he wouldn’t even pretend to listen, Diart’s words of apology came out so easily that it seemed to surprise him. Grand Duke Wheaton’s mouth hung open, and even Duke Feischer, who seemed uninterested, turned his gaze towards us.

Regardless, Diart’s gaze remained fixed on me. I felt an unspoken demand for an apology, but I pretended not to notice and put a piece of meat in my mouth. Diart’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.

“Hmph, I’ve lived long enough to hear the word ‘sorry’ come out of this guy’s mouth.”

Grand Duke Wheaton couldn’t believe it at all and shook his head, but then he eventually laughed. Even with the sound of his cheerful laughter, Diart’s gaze never left me. Grand Duke Wheaton, who had been laughing for a while, wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with his finger and spoke.

“If that arrogant guy had humbled himself and gone in first, it seemed like he’s genuinely sorry. How about accepting an apology?”

“There’s no need to force it.”

Grand Duke Wheaton’s words were abruptly cut off as he attempted to mediate. Duke Feischer, who had been stepping back and silently observing the situation, suddenly intervened.

“Don’t accept an apology until your heart is at ease.”

“Look here, we can’t let the children reconcile alone.”

Grand Duke Wheaton frowned, but Duke Feischer didn’t even blink an eye.

“It’s their business. It’s not our place to step in and mediate reconciliation.”

“Maybe they don’t understand. Are you telling me to keep quiet even when I see it right in front of my eyes?”

“They are not children. They are adults who can handle their own affairs. And what use is a forced apology when their hearts are not in it? Don’t impose forgiveness.”

“Impose. I think you’re going a little too far.”

Wait, why is this situation happening out of nowhere?

I blinked my eyes at the sudden confrontation between Grand Duke Wheaton and Duke Feischer. After seeing in real time how children’s fights turned into adult fights, I couldn’t figure out how to intervene between the increasingly heated individuals. I tried a few words of reassurance, but to no avail.

Feeling helpless, I turned to seek help, and when I looked beside me, Diart was calmly keeping his gaze fixed on me, even amidst the commotion. He seemed nonchalant, as if he was in a different world on his own. When I gestured with my eyes, as if urging him to quickly calm down the two people, Diart briefly averted his gaze and nodded.

‘Are you going to relieve your anger then?’

—he said, his gaze, as he said those words, was bewildering, so I used my eyes and hands to send him a signal.

‘Are you saying that now? They are fighting because of us!’

‘What’s the big deal.’

‘If they get really upset with each other, what are we going to do? Quickly stop them.’

‘I hope you also consider my hurt feelings.’

This guy is really… Saying such trivial things at a time like this. Just as I was about to utter a word of frustration, Grand Duke Wheaton abruptly stood up.

“You’ve always been like that. Even in our academy days, you were an uncompromising and self-righteous person.”

“Aren’t you the groundless romanticist? I remember that whenever you caused trouble, it was always my job to clean up after you.”

Duke Feischer confronted him face-to-face. I, who had been engaged in an unspoken conversation with Diart, approached the two of them to mediate the situation.

“Both of you, stop it now.”

“I guess there’s nothing good about seeing your face anymore today!”

“I agree.”

Grand Duke Wheaton and Duke Feischer turned their backs at the same time. I turned my head to stare at them as they disappeared into the wind, as though they were competing about who would leave the dining room first.

I looked at Diart, who was calmly drinking water as if nothing had happened, and he raised his eyebrows when I glared at him.

* * *

I sighed as I heard the announcement outside the dining room that Grand Duke Wheaton and Duke Feischer, who were having a second round of their battle over whose riding scores had been higher during their time at the Academy, were heading to the training ground to settle the score.

“Things seem to be getting weird.”

I rubbed my forehead, then looked up at the unexpected stare. Diart, who had entered the room without my noticing, was leaning against the bedpost with his arms crossed and his shoulders hunched.

I quickly grabbed a pillow to block him out.

“We agreed to use separate rooms for a while.”

“Did you mean it?”

“Yes. I’m completely serious. One hundred percent.”

Diart’s expression wrinkled uncomfortably at my firm tone. I turned my head away, trying to ignore the stare that was piercing me. It was wise not to look at his golden eyes because I’m sure I would be mesmerized if I kept looking at it.

Diart, who had been staring off into space, turned his gaze back and approached me after removing his shoulder from the post. As his long legs climbed onto the bed, I felt a sense of danger and quickly moved backward, shouting,

“Why did you come up here?”

“There’s one thing you don’t know about the curse.”

His low voice was filled with intent, but I couldn’t afford to pay attention to him after hearing something I couldn’t ignore.

“…Something I don’t know?”

What else is there in this damn curse? Anxious, I could only watch as Diart’s knees completely occupied the bed. When I came to my senses, I was trapped under his much larger frame. Diart looked down at me with a strangely satisfied expression on his face, apparently having lost the grumpy expression he had just a moment ago.

“What are you doing?”

As I furrowed my brow, Diart smirked and raised the corner of his mouth.

“You were lying when you said there are things I don’t know, right?”

I shot him a suspicious glare, and Diart chuckled as he lightly grabbed a few strands of my hair and held it to his nose. His gesture was so strange that I had to fight against my determination, which kept crumbling.

‘Yeah, doing good things is good, right. If you do good things(?), it’s good.’

‘No, after making such a big fuss, how can I crumble so easily? It wouldn’t seem real.’

‘So what if it wouldn’t seem real? It’s great!’

Among the two options that fiercely clashed in my mind for a moment, the one that won by a very small margin was ‘don’t let it go.’

When I pushed away his hand with a touch of regret, Diart’s expression, which had been crestfallen, quickly returned to its natural state.

“A few days ago, the Sau clan member told me directly.”

Come to think of it, Diart had mentioned meeting the Sau clan. I couldn’t dismiss the words of someone from Ursula’s tribe. The hand that pushed at his shoulder weakened; his large hand wrapped around me and held my cheek. Before I could savor the sharp yet warm touch of his palm on my chin, I blinked at his following words.

“They said you can develop resistance to contact.”

…Resistance? What does that mean?

I was at a loss for words when I heard his unexpected words. Diart lowered his body and whispered secretly in my ear.

“They say that as time goes by, it becomes impossible to neutralize it with just touching hands like this.”

Diart wickedly smiled as he twisted my fingers, which were trapped in his hand. His pupils were filled with a strange satisfaction, and they playfully danced. Suddenly, I remembered a phrase that I had skipped over in the history book of the Wheaton family when I first learned about the curse.

Something about how the first duke, Beast Wheaton, had put in a leave of absence at the imperial castle after being cursed and hadn’t come out of his room with Ursula all day… I bit my lips. Diart’s eyes were already filled with lust as he stared down at me.

‘No, what kind of damn curse is this?’

Of course, I don’t mind! But Diart’s impure touch as he tried to use that as an excuse felt creepy. I grabbed his hand, which had been digging into my skirt without me realizing it. Trying to play tricks on me?

“Get off the bed.”

I smiled coldly, as if to say I would never just let it go. At my firm expression, Diart’s face twisted.

* * *