STVWDTD Chapter 30

You're Saying I'm Cursed?

Slam. Noel shut the door hard and gritted his teeth.

The past was just the past. Not memories he couldn't even recall—he'd move forward, looking ahead.

His short legs carried him running. His destination, as always, was wherever she was.

"Oh, Noel. I was just looking for you. Did you notice the ominous energy suddenly disappeared?"

"Mm-hm."

"I wonder what happened? Did the curse's medium break?"

Without answering her question, Noel silently nestled into Diana's arms.

"Good thing. We were going to get rid of it anyway—less work for us. Right?"

Noel clung to her and rubbed his cheek against her like a wheedling child. He really seemed to have regressed to infancy, but whatever.

"Sis."

His mumbling voice sounded like crying.

"Hm?"

"Don't abandon me."

Don't leave me. Noel hugged Diana tight with his small arms.

"Of course not, my little brother."

At her tender, soothing touch, Noel's expression darkened instantly.

Brother. How would Diana react if she knew he wasn't her real brother?

How long could this false relationship last? The memory manipulation spell might break someday, just like his sealed memories were unsealing.

"What's wrong, Noel?"

Diana asked with concern at his steady stare.

Kind Diana might accept it. Clinging to that hope, Noel forcibly pushed away negative thoughts.

"Sis, I love you. Love you."

"Is it the thunder? My Noel's being so clingy."

Diana should have been annoyed, but she kept soothing him until he fell asleep in her arms.

She didn't even notice tears streaming down at that tender touch.

It was a day when snow scattered like flowers. A woman with especially beautiful pink eyes looked at him.

'Revant Schwartz. Revan. I love you.'

The man couldn't bring himself to reach for that beloved image. His mistake, if it was a mistake, was realizing his feelings for her too late. He regretted it endlessly.

If you'd become Duchess as you were, would I regret this much less?

CRASH—thunder roared loud enough to shatter the sky, breaking the man's reverie as he wandered through memories.

Blue eyes beneath long lashes darkened. Outside the window, rain fell endlessly instead of snow.

As if to announce this wasn't a dream. Raindrops struck the window violently.

Knock knock. He tried to ignore the knocking in the middle of the night.

"Rodrick. Are you asleep?"

He would have ignored it if not for that small voice. He strode forward and yanked the door open.

Diana's eyes widened in surprise at the door opening without warning, then she smiled gently.

"Were you sleeping?"

"..."

"Can I come in?"

Without waiting for an answer, she entered his room. Spring fragrance arrived unannounced in a heart swept by northern winds.

Rodrick's heart pounded hard.

Rodrick with anxiety, the man with longing. Two men's emotions resonated together.

"What's the occasion? I expected you to suggest sleeping together."

He couldn't tear his gaze from Diana's mischievously smiling face.

The familiar scent rippling faintly blurred his vision.

Eyes so clear they stung his chest. The pink eyes he couldn't forget were right in front of him.

He reached out the hand he couldn't extend when wandering past reflections.

His fingertips trembled like touching a delicate craft. He could feel everything—the warm, soft, smooth skin, even the fine hairs.

Diana tilted her head completely at his tickling touch, leaning her face into his large palm.

When she approached without hesitation even as he touched her, his thick-knuckled fingers flinched. Emotion welled up at the trust blooming entirely on her slender face.

Feelings burned to ash and cinder stirred. The man couldn't collect himself before emotions that fluttered and rose.

"Rodrick."

Rodrick's gaze at her was unusual. Blue eyes darker than usual swirled quietly.

Noel too, and now Rodrick—both were acting strange. He looked precarious somehow. He narrowed his brows as if suppressing something, lifting only the corners of his mouth awkwardly.

"Are you crying?"

A single tear dropped onto his cheek as he held her face in one palm, wearing a wistful expression.

"..."

Someone once said something about beautiful men's tears being justified. She was indulging in that inane sentiment when saltiness touched her lips.

"Hn. Wait."

Thump. Pushed onto the bed by him, Diana looked strangely at Rodrick, who attacked without warning.

"Rodrick."

She couldn't read his expression. Even with the same blank face, she could usually read his thoughts—but tonight was different.

"Wait."

She showed resistance at the impatient hand coming down, restraining both her wrists with one hand, but—

"Stop it."

He didn't listen.

"I said stop!"

Diana, whose patience reached its limit, flipped him over in an instant.

Straddling him, Diana pressed the dagger hidden at her thigh against his carotid artery.

"Didn't you hear me say stop?"

One hand pressing his solar plexus, one hand gripping the dagger—the man's eyebrow lifted sharply at Diana's position.

"...A Beatus, but different."

Goosebumps. An alien voice emerged from Rodrick's mouth.

"Who are you?"

"Can you really damage Rodrick's body?"

Ha. What is he saying? She roughly pushed back her fallen hair.

"I don't know who you are. Want me to show you whether I can or can't damage it?"

If Rodrick's playing around, I'm not letting this go.

She'd reincarnated and regressed herself, but the other party being possessed—that was hard to believe. Possession or split personality.

The voice was subtly different, making him feel like another person entirely.

"..."

"Why aren't you answering?"

Should I stab him just enough to scare him into snapping out of it? Just as she angled the blade to graze past the vital point—

"Diana."

Rodrick's voice emerged with difficulty.

"Dodge."

Before she could respond—WHAM! Rodrick swung his fist.

"Rodrick!"

At Rodrick's warning, Diana jerked her body back swiftly, escaping the furious arm's trajectory. Rodrick punched his own cheek.

Thud—thud—

"Stop! Stop it!"

He hit his face mercilessly, then flinched and stopped his fist right before his cheek.

"I won't! Damn it! I won't!"

At his surrender, the man who'd regained control of the body shouted.

"Just don't touch her!"

The man who rose from the bed—ptooey—spat bloody saliva on the floor. Diana was already outside the bed, standing far away.

"Ha, I can't believe this lunatic is my descendant."

"Did you just say descendant?"

The man who'd been hitting his own cheek like a madman rubbed his throbbing face and paused. His gaze returned to Diana.

"Beatus."

The man who approached Diana stopped at a distance, as if keeping his word to Rodrick.

He placed one hand over his heart, lifted her long, waving hair, and kissed it. The posture of a knight showing proper courtesy.

Their gazes tangled in the air through loosely draped hair.

In blue eyes thick with obsession, she suddenly remembered the voice from her dream.

[Beatus.]

"Beatus. You don't know how much I've missed you."

[Angela Beatus. My love.]

"You truly resemble her."

Ah, not Rodrick. She could tell for certain. Looking closely, he wore only expressions Rodrick never made.

"Mm, you seem to recognize me. Right?"

"Are you the one who invaded my dreams uninvited?"

The man, who'd been quietly trying to figure something out, burst into laughter.

"Hahaha. I'm sorry. I wanted to escape so desperately. I touched your unconscious mind."

I don't find this funny at all. Diana glared at him as if demanding he explain this situation immediately.

"Let's sit first. This story might be long."

With steaming black tea in front of her, Diana was being observed.

Dark blue eyes traced from her head to her toes, looking at her intently as if drawing something.

The rain kept falling endlessly. Only the sound of rain filled the silence.

"Excuse me. Ancestor?"

The man's eyebrow rose crookedly.

"You called Rodrick your descendant, so aren't you an ancestor?"

What are you so displeased about that your expression's so dark? Diana swallowed the words.

"Yes, time is truly cruel. Let me introduce myself. I'm Revant Schwartz. I was the sixth Duke."

"Uh, I'm Diana Beatus."

His arrogant gaze held enough power to make anyone bow their head instinctively. Diana introduced herself without realizing it.

The man smiled with satisfaction.

"Pleased to meet you, Diana. I'm especially glad you're Angela's descendant."

"Who's Angela?"

"My fiancé. And the woman who possessed the greatest magical power of her time. Called a witch. A woman who could have become head of Beatus if she hadn't been engaged to me."

She'd never heard this story. If such a person existed, she would have been mentioned at least once when studying the family tree.

"It's natural you don't know. All information about her was destroyed. Even if anything remains, she'd be recorded as a villainess who committed crimes."

His dark blue eyes looked at her while gazing toward the distant past.

"Did you know? In the past, using the magic power existing within the body wasn't so difficult."

Diana nodded. She knew that much. But as generations passed, magic power decreased until only the imperial family could freely wield it.

"Isn't it strange? Why only the imperial family can use magic power. Even mages use magic stones."

"Are you saying there's another reason?"

"The imperial family is very greedy."

Well, that's obvious. Those holding power are greedy—isn't that the same in any world? Diana looked at the man with sullen eyes.

"Does that have anything to do with you possessing Rodrick's body, Ancestor?"

"Mm, is that title going to continue?"

"We're not close enough for me to call you by name?"

"Haha. I like your spirit."

The man, who stopped laughing because of his increasingly swollen cheek, frowned slightly and touched his split lip.

"In a way, the imperial family being the only ones who can wield magic is thanks to Angela Beatus. She obtained even a dragon's power."

The man's voice gradually sank.

"But the imperial family killed her and erased everything about her. They disposed of everything containing her wishes. All I found was a single portrait."

He leaned forward and grasped Diana's hand. Rodrick stayed quiet at his desperate grip.

"So I borrowed this body temporarily. Descendant of Beatus. Help me. Help me find Angela's traces."

"What?"

"If we find the gravestone containing Angela's soul, your body can return to its original state too. Your curse also originated from Angela, in a way."

Diana was confused. She understood this ancestor wanted to find his ancestor Angela's gravestone.

What she couldn't understand most was this. She'd died from an unknown illness, then lived again. Magic power leaked out and pain came. Noel called it an illness. But—

"You're saying I'm cursed?"

Rodrick's ancestor was talking about something entirely different.