I Reincarnated As An Evil Duchess - Chapter 124
Translator: Nabi
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Chapter 124
“Kyaaaaakkk—!”
“If you don’t want to be ensnared by that curse, release your grip on Grand Duchess Blaine right now…!”
“….!”
At that moment, Merlin shouted towards the knights who were holding onto the Grand Duchess as she was screaming in pain, and he brandished his staff, casting the completed spell.
The knights, as if they had received an irresistible command, immediately let go, and the magic emanating from Merlin’s staff struck directly at the heart of Morgan, who was standing beside the fallen Rupert.
Then, as Morgan, who had been gazing at Grand Duchess Blaine with darkened eyes, finally closed her eyes and slowly collapsed to the ground, the knights who had been protecting her next to the Grand Duchess scattered one by one.
“…Ugh.”
Left alone in the space where the knights had been standing just a moment ago, Grand Duchess Blaine collapsed with her hand resting on her right upper body, which had a strange vine-like pattern etched from her fingertips to her right collarbone.
Like a broken doll, she fell unceremoniously to the ground as tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
Merlin slowly approached the fallen Grand Duchess Gomby and examined her arm. Fortunately, the curse that had been spreading through her body had stopped, but from now on, she would have to live her life carrying this ‘curse mark.’
In other words, it meant that the nobles of the Empire who cursed magicians and loathed witches would forever shun and detest her. Furthermore, there was the rare chance that the magic he had cast on Morgan might break, and if she were to awaken, it also meant living in constant fear of a curse that could potentially steal her soul at any moment.
Merlin turned his eyes off the woman in front of him and looked at the fallen Morgan, who was screaming at the knights while trying to push them away with a troubled expression.
“Lou, Louise—!”
“Your Majesty, you mustn’t approach! The witch’s curse might spread!”
“Let go of me! Do you dare to stop me! Do you all wish to be punished for blasphemy?!”
“Your Majesty…!”
“Louise! Ah, Louise! What are you all doing? Infuse her with divine power immediately and heal her right now!”
“…The curse mark has already been imprinted onto her body. Even if we infuse divine power, we can’t undo this curse.”
“Shut up! If you’re a paladin, do whatever it takes! D*mn it…!”
Pushing aside the knights who were blocking him, the Emperor rushed towards the fallen Grand Duchess Blaine and embraced her, incessantly wailing and calling her name as he did.
Merlin looked at the face of the Grand Duchess, then at the tearful Emperor before averting his gaze to the paladins clinging to her side while pouring their divine power, for a moment with a complicated gaze. Soon after, he turned toward the fallen Rupert and Morgan.
“Sto-stop! I don’t know what kind of wizard you are, but don’t approach the sinners recklessly anymore!”
At the sight, one of the imperial knights hurriedly rushed over to him to block his way and shouted with a stern voice.
In response, Merlin coldly chuckled and replied in a low voice.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even have a chance at life, and yet you think you can stop me with abilities that couldn’t even save yourself? Not to mention, you don’t even have divine powers?”
“….!”
“If you value your life, you better not think about stopping me.”
Leaving those words behind, he moved the knight who had blocked his path and approached the fallen Morgan, prying open her eyelids and examining her pupils. Her pupils, which were revealed in front of him, were unfocused and had lost most of their original emerald green color and were now mostly tainted with darkness.
Merlin let out a bitter smile, closed her eyes once again, and murmured something that sounded like a sigh,
“…I wished so much for you not to end up like this. In the end, this is how it turned out, Morgan.”
He closed his eyes for a moment with a wry smile and recalled the time when Morgan was a young child.
An apprentice who was naive and pure but was also just as greedy. Since he had cared for her and had been wary of her excessive greed, he intentionally kept her away from magic with too much power.
Even though she resented him for it, it was okay since it was a hundred times better to be hated than to end up becoming a monster like this.
“…Perhaps who was foolish wasn’t just you, but maybe me as well.”
If he hadn’t cast the half-soul spell on the Duchess of Persen with a frivolous desire for a human heart, perhaps none of this would have happened.
With a repentant expression on his face as he looked at Morgan, Merlin bit his lower lip to suppress the strange tugging at his heart. At the same time, he felt Minase’s remaining heart completely melting into himself.
[ T/N: Just in case this is confusing for anyone, but Merlin is talking about the left heart or the emotional heart — Just like what Morgan asked of Rupert a couple of chapters ago! ]
As a result, the second contract with Minase was successfully established, and he upheld the contract. He knew her soul had changed, and the three people who had claimed that fact had been destroyed in the most horrifying way possible.
“…So, I will take responsibility for it.”
To fulfill his final duty as a mentor by taking care of her, who had been trapped in an eternal slumber, neither dead nor truly alive.
With that determination, he approached the slumbering Morgan, took her hand, and lightly flicked his fingers. And the next moment, both Merlin and Morgan vanished into thin air without a trace.
When Seth, Min-ha, and the Persen Knights arrived at the scene upon the imperial order to quickly lead the knights out of the Guinivis estate, it was already a situation beyond their control.
While the Persen Knights, along with other knights, were tending to the surroundings and gathering information, Seth frowned at the sight of the Emperor, half-conscious as he cradled the fallen Grand Duchess Blaine in his arms, and the former Viscount Rupert Guinivis lying on the dirt floor, his arms covered in cursed marks.
Originally, it would have been right to approach the Emperor after resolving the situation and showing respect, but it seemed that the situation had already reached an unmanageable point, and there appeared to be no room for other concerns.
‘…What on earth happened in that short period of time?’
As he quietly bit his tongue, Min-ha, who had approached him, tightly gripped the hem of his sleeve and whispered softly.
“How in the world is this… what on earth happened here?”
“…I don’t know.”
Seth released her hand that had been holding onto his sleeve, and with a similarly astonished voice, he looked at the scene in front of him while placing his arm around her shoulder.
At that moment, Gallahed, wearing a solemn expression, approached the two and spoke.
“…You have arrived, Your Excellency.”
“Sir Gallahed.”
Min-ha immediately recognized the man who bowed politely to Seth as the young paladin who had delivered a secret letter disguised as a confession from her a few days earlier. A bright smile was painted broadly on her face as she was grateful and happy to see him.
Then, as their eyes met, Gallahed smiled sweetly and bowed his head toward her.
Seth, who had been watching the two of them with affectionate eyes, soon returned to his expressionless face and spoke to Gallahed.
“What happened here a moment ago, Sir Gallahed?”
“…To put it bluntly, the witch’s curse that was on Viscount Rupert Guinivis went out of control.”
“…What?”
“Yes? The curse was running rampant? What does that mean?”
In response to his explanation, both Seth and Min-ha simultaneously questioned him. Gallahed, seemingly recalling the scene he had witnessed a while ago, responded slowly with a complicated look on his face.
“….”
“…Oh, my God.”
Seth’s expression hardened as his words continued while Min-ha sucked in a sharp breath.
The time it took for them, Seth, the Persen Knights, and the Emperor’s party to separate at the Guinivis mansion and reunite here couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes at most, yet the events that had transpired during that time were so numerous and gruesome that they couldn’t conceal their astonishment.
Min-ha asked, glancing at Rupert, who had fallen unconscious and was surrounded by paladins, and Grand Duchess Blaine, who was in the Emperor’s arms, covered from fingertips to collarbone in the same vine-like patterns.
“…So, how are the two of them right now? Are their lives in danger?”
“That’s not the case. Both of them are not in danger of losing their lives, but…”
“But…?”
When he hesitated at her question, Seth inquired calmly. In response, Gallahed let out a short sigh and answered with a bitter smile.
“…To put it simply, right now, former Viscount Rupert Guinivis is alive, but at the same time, in a state not much different from being dead.”
“What on earth does that mean?”
“He’ll never regain consciousness for the rest of his life, until his last breath. And even if by some chance he regains consciousness, the moment he opens his eyes, he’ll cross into the realm of the dead.”
“…Yes?”
Min-ha was shocked by Gallahed’s words and questioned in disbelief. The contract with the witch and the consequences it had brought were too gruesome.
Unconsciously, she clenched both of her hands tightly and trembled. Come to think of it, her own body had two contracts engraved by Minase. Could it be that if she made a wrong move, something like this might happen to her, too?
As she shuddered momentarily at the thought, Seth, who had been watching over her, gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders and asked Gallahed.
“Is he in this state because of the curse going out of control, as you mentioned?”
“Yes. If the unknown wizard hadn’t cast the eternal slumber spell, he probably would have either lost his life or become a living corpse without a soul due to the curse. Not only that, but the curse would have probably engulfed all of us as well.”
“So, in the end, whether he wakes up or not, the only thing waiting for him is doom.”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
When Gallahed answered with a bitter smile at his question, Min-ha gestured with her eyes at the Emperor, who seemed to be in a daze and Grand Duchess Blaine, whose eyes were closed in his arms.
“T-then what about Grand Duchess Blaine? Is she going to be like him, like Rupert?”
“That won’t be the case. Grand Duchess Blaine was merely a third party in that curse of the contract. When the witch lost consciousness, the curse that had been affecting the Grand Duchess also lost its power. It was a small stroke of luck in the midst of misfortune.”
“Luck in the midst of misfortune? But isn’t she safe now that she’s alive?”
“That may be true, but the problem lies in the curse marks on the Grand Duchess’s arms.”
“…Yes?”
“If the fact that the witch’s curse marks are engraved on Grand Duchess Blaine becomes known to other nobles, they will constantly petition His Majesty to strip her of her title. Even if she somehow manages to maintain her position, being branded as someone who used forbidden magic, prohibited by the former Emperor, will make everyone in the Empire look down upon her… The same goes for the two children the Grand Duchess gave birth to.”
“…Goodness.”
In response to his continued explanation, Min-ha sighed deeply and once again looked at Grand Duchess Blaine. Gallahed, too, glanced briefly at the Grand Duchess, then lowered his gaze heavily as he continued to speak.
“That’s why I said that the Grand Duchess Blaine isn’t in a much better situation compared to the former Viscount Rupert Guinivis.”
“…I see.”
Seth answered in a heavy voice, giving strength to his arm around Min-ha’s shoulder, who was sighing repeatedly with the corners of her eyes drooped.
__
Translator’s Note: Hello, it’s Nabi! I’m the translator of this novel ପ( ๑•ᴗ•๑ )ଓ♡ If you like the novel and would like to support me, please feel free to click the button below to go to my kofi~! Thank you so much for always supporting the novels I work on, even if you don’t buy me a coffee, I really do appreciate it a lot. ❤︎
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Rate the novel on Novel Updates.
Join our discord to receive the latest update as soon as possible!
Comments for chapter "Chapter 124"
MANGA DISCUSSION
What Are Pilot Novels?
Pilot novels are novels that will only have a few chapters released from our group. We hope that someone else can continue these novels for the enjoyment of everyone!