Chapter 31

Richard begged for his mother’s life, but no one listened to the little boy. His mother was killed, and buried in the ground.

Richard didn’t even get to see his mother’s body. He was confined to a shabby warehouse in a remote mountain. And only after it was confirmed that he had not caught “Tancinol”, he returned to his home.

No one welcomed Richard after half a year.

Richard went to the library, ignoring the people’s words.

And he read a book about ‘Tancinol’.

The Roums were the first to caught ‘Tancinol’. It was characterized by a high rate of infection and death, black spots appear everywhere and have bloodshot eyes.

It was also called the second curse of the goddess because it looked similar to Blake’s curse. Like the heir of the curse in the imperial family, the goddess of light lowered the state of the Roums to punish them and made them sick

Richard found out why his mother couldn’t show that she was sick and why she stopped him when he offered to call a doctor. When people say the Roums were sick, they’ll try to kill them, suspecting that they must have had the “Tancinol.” That’s why she had to endure it.

The small Richard gritted his teeth.

He think his mother died because of him. But instead of grieving, Richard vowed to take revenge.

Richard devoured all the books about ‘Tancinol’ in the library, and became convinced to one fact. His mother was not sick because of ‘Tancinol’. His mother’s symptoms was completely different from the symptoms of tancinol.

No black spots, no change in appearance, no blood vomiting. But the Duke of Cassil killed his mother, without confirming.

The Duke of Cassil did not tell him where he buried his mother. Richard didn’t ask twice, either. He found out the place by bribing and threatening the servants. His mother is buried on a desolate field. Richard planted her favorite red camellia instead of a tombstone where her mother was buried.

He promise to get revenge for his mom, to take everything from the Cassils and kill them.

The Duke of Cassil is after the throne.

Richard smiled inwardly, pretending to follow the Duke’s will.

‘The throne will be my possession. I will sit at the highest place in the Empire, and I will put my enemies on their knees under my feet for all who despised me.’

From then on Richard was completely different. The innocent boy, who only wished to get rid of his mother’s slave status, has become a man who has many greed, and is stained with obsession.

***

I looked at Richard who was standing there. The author says that every time he visited his mother’s grave, he pledged revenge against the duke.

Is he still like that?

I don’t know Richard’s thoughts, but I didn’t feel the seething hatred or ambition seeing him. He was just a lonely boy. Even his neck wound was caused by him trying to save his mother from being dragged out.

Richard opened his eyes and our eyes met.

Richard, who would normally smiled arrogantly and say cheesy things as soon as he saw me, turned his head the other way as if he hadn’t seen me.

The appearance of him looked rather lonely, so I couldn’t get past him.

“Melissa, I’ll be back to say hello to Sir Cassil.”

“Let’s go together.”

“It’s all right, it won’t be long.”

I walked alone towards Richard. He felt me approaching and turned around again.

“Long time no see. Sir Cassil.”

“I didn’t know I’d meet you here, but I’m lucky.”

Richard give me his signature smile, as if he had never avoided my gaze.

But unlike his relaxed smile, his eyes had hardened.

“The flowers are beautiful.”

“This is a monument. There’s a woman of Roum’s blood buried here.”

I was surprised. I didn’t know Richard would say it himself.

It was a secret that Richard’s mother is a Roum. The Duke of Cassil hid it for his family’s honor, Richard even hid it from his beloved Diana.

He never confided to anybody.

Of course, I knew it was a secret, but I was surprised that he mentioned it indirectly.

“So you’d better step back.”

Maybe my silence was taken as contempt, so Richard added the words. He doesn’t sound surprised as if he knew that I would react like this.

“You knew her?”

“No, I only heard of the story. The woman died of Tancinol.”

I was surprised for a moment, but I didn’t think he’d reveal his past.

I gave a silent salute, and then tied a handkerchief to the camellia branch.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ve heard that this is the Roum’s funeral etiquette.”

The Roum have been despised by the world for a thousand years. The language used by the Zelcan Empire disappeared and became an ancient language, and a new language took place in a new Empire.

Nevertheless, people’s anger was not resolved, and letters were not allowed for the Roums. When they died, they could not write a tombstone. Instead of offering flowers to tombstones, they tied handkerchiefs to trees or planted new flowers.

“….you’re doing this for a Roum?”

“Can’t I?”

Not because she’s Richard’s mother. I wanted to offer a little consolation to her soul, who had been persecuted as a Roum all her life and died miserably.

“Don’t you know what tancinol is?”

He spit cynically. The artificial gentleness that had always been in Richard’s voice had completely disappeared.

“I know.”

“You lack awareness.”

“We don’t know if it’s really Tancinol or not. I heard that there are many cases of killing the Roums by calling them sick because of Tancinol. Even if it’s really tancinol, there won’t be any germs left.”

“The curses by the goddess may spread.”

“I don’t believe that.”

The strong wind tried to loosen the handkerchief. Trying to tie the loose handkerchief back, Richard grabbed my hand.

“Are you drunk or do you think you’re a saint just because you embrace monsters?!”

He lost his temper and shouted.

He wasn’t mad at me. It’s just the anger and guilt that he have been suppressing since his mother died. The anger that had lost its place to go.

Richard in ‘The Beast and the Lady’ was six years older than Blake and Diana, who have just become adults. He was so experienced and mature.

Always cold and calculating, never disorganized.

I thought the Richard now had a similar personality.

But that’s not it.

He was still an immature boy and hugging many wounds.

“Well, I’ve never thought of me being particularly nice. I just don’t like vague fears.”

“Vague fear?”

When I lived in Korea, my calf had a big scar. When I was young, I was in a car accident. The accident left my parents dead and I lived in my grandmother’s house in a countryside.

I didn’t care much about the scar when I wore long pants every day. Then I became a middle school student and wore a knee-high skirt uniform.

“What is it? Gross.”

“Is it skin disease?”

On the day of my middle school entrance ceremony, the children who saw my scars suddenly screamed, and I suddenly got everyone’s attention.

There were kids who hated and avoided me until the end of the semester.

I thought it was because the scar was ugly. So I told the school about the situation and got permission to wear pants. But even though they couldn’t see the scar, they avoided me.

When I went to them, they became angry or scared, as if the ugly wound would be transmitted to them. That day I realized.

They don’t hate me, they’re afraid. They treated me as a germ because of that vague fear.

It was ridiculous.

It may look gross, but it isn’t an infectious skin disease, as it had been there a long time ago.

But logical persuasion was useless in the face of vague fears that had already arisen.

The people of this world speak ill of “the heir of the curse” as monsters, and despise the Roums as the people abandoned by the goddess. I accept that such feelings in the end just come from a vague fear.

When the “heir of the curse” dies, the curse is succeeded to another one of the imperial family. And has never transferred the curse to anyone else other than imperial family.

Nevertheless, people trembled with fear. Even though the curse sentence has never been transmitted to another person in the past thousand years.

“The curse has been passed on to the heir’s servant.”

“I heard that a lady, who made eye contact with the heir for a while, suddenly became ill and died.”

The unconfirmed rumors spread on and became a fact for them at some point.