Chapter 91: How to Break the Curse

A phrase appeared randomly in my mind and then scattered like smoke. But I remembered the content clearly.

“Wow.”

“What is it?”

“I-I received a divine revelation.”

“Divine revelation? You can do that too?”

Zzing. When I glared at Lucas who was looking up at me while crouching, he smiled broadly and apologized.

“Sorry.”

“Is this the time for jokes?”

“No, I was just genuinely curious…”

What can you do about this raccoon of a person? I pulled Lucas up by his elbow.

“Let’s hurry. No more wasting time.”

“Why? What did the revelation say?”

“It’s not here. Your Highness got scammed by that spy.”

“Me?”

Yes, you.

I answered by giving a quick glance at Lucas’s dumbfounded face.

“No way!”

I pulled his arm as he agonized and opened the archive door to go outside.

Since it came to this, we needed to find that obelisk quickly. Fortunately, the Moirai History Hall was at the end of this corridor, right across from us.

“It’s over there. The records aren’t on paper but on a black obelisk, and it’s in that Moirai History Hall.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Not written records? The spy didn’t mention that… Though ancient people did record important things on obelisks.”

“So that spy seems a bit suspicious.”

With those final words, I lifted my skirts and started running to the opposite side. Lucas, with his exceptional recovery ability, ran after me. Soon we entered the history hall.

“Huff, huff. Why is no one here? Not even the curator?”

“Yeah.”

How could there be so few visitors?

“It must be because of me.”

“Ah, the warning letter.”

So Xavier fell for the fake after all.

Poor Xavier, he must be so tense and on edge right now. Ugh, that troublemaking raccoon!

“Why are you looking at me so scarily again?”

“Because I hate you.”

“Aah…”

I passed by him as he made a face like he was about to cry, and looked around the exhibition hall for the obelisk.

“An obelisk is like a square pillar that gets pointy at the top, right?”

I tried to recall what an obelisk looked like. I think I’ve glimpsed them in documentaries or news.

“That’s right.”

Though his voice was weak, Lucas was earnestly searching for the obelisk.

‘Why did the spy lie about the records being documents and lure us to the archive? It would be found out quickly anyway? Wouldn’t it have been better to properly complete the mission and get paid more?’

Past the section displaying Moirai clothing and daily items, we came to an area exhibiting ancient artifacts. It was packed with various animal statues. There were statues of all sizes, from huge ones to small ones.

However, after searching thoroughly, we couldn’t find anything resembling an obelisk-shaped stone monument. Just as we were starting to get tired…

“Oh.”

I looked at one spot, closed and opened my eyes. I rubbed my eyes wondering if I saw wrong.

A small obelisk stood next to a huge bear statue. It was in a spot that was hard to notice, hidden by the large bulk. That’s what caught my eye.

“Crazy… this must be the protagonist buff.”

I got goosebumps. Anyway, since I achieved the goal quickly, I called out to Lucas.

“Your Highness! I-I think I found it!”

“I’ll come to you!”

Lucas came to where I was in the blink of an eye, without losing his breath. Without time to marvel at this, I pulled his collar and pointed to where the obelisk was.

“Can you see it?”

“Yes. This is quite ridiculous.”

Lucas muttered lowly, seeming somewhat shocked.

We hurriedly crossed over the roped-off exhibition area.

Numerous statues were displayed on a single stone platform. We carefully approached the obelisk, avoiding knocking over the statues. The black obelisk was barely visible to the naked eye as it stood in the shadow of the 3-meter bear statue.

“No wonder we couldn’t find it. Maybe Eaglin could have…”

Lucas smiled self-deprecatingly as he lowered one knee and crouched down.

The surface of the black obelisk, which came up to my thigh, was carved with unrecognizable characters and reliefs. I bent down to examine it carefully but couldn’t understand anything. I asked Lucas.

“Can you read it?”

“Yes. Fortunately, it’s in ancient imperial script.”

“Not ancient Moirai script?”

“No. You know our ancestor was General Scott Custer of the Empire, right?”

“Yes, Eli told me. That he was cursed for massacring the natives.”

“Our royal family are his direct descendants. Since we naturally have roots in the Empire, the ancient Moirai priest would have known imperial script too. He was probably someone Scott brought with him anyway.”

“Ah, I see.”

After finishing his explanation, Lucas furrowed his brows and carefully read the characters on the black obelisk.

“The Saintess is the vessel… of Goddess Maha’s holy power… Absorbing and containing is… possible, but releasing requires… contact with part of the Saintess… Those who wish to… break the curse must go to the Cursed Land. Taking the Saintess…”

I knew that much already.

“Oh, I know that part!”

“Right. This is in regular scripture too. The next part is important!”

Lucas’s voice rose with excitement. He continued reading the characters. I was on edge too, feeling like something was about to be revealed.

“…When the Saintess appears is not determined… that day is far off… It cuts off here. Wait.”

Lucas’s eyes quickly searched for the next characters.

“Here it is! …The Saintess herself must …!”

Lucas’s mouth, which had been smoothly reciting the characters, suddenly closed.

“What is it? ‘The Saintess must herself’, what comes next?”

But he completely closed his eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’

Lucas’s profile with his eyes tightly shut was worrying. His complexion had turned pale. Then suddenly he opened his eyes wide and stood up abruptly.

“I can’t read the rest, how embarrassing. Ahaha.”

“What?”

“What’s wrong with me! I was confident in ancient imperial script, but I can’t understand this last word?”

He puts his hands on his waist and stretches side to side.

Why is he suddenly acting like this without context?

“Do you really not know?”

“Nope. Completely clueless. I’ll have to research it when I get back to Moirai.”

“Then we still haven’t found how to break it.”

“Well, for now…”

Lucas showed a bright smile, but his voice trailed off slightly, seeming disappointed too.

“That’s too bad. I was really hoping…”

“I see.”

“Your Highness, don’t be discouraged though. Even if I can’t break it, I made an amazing discovery.”

“Hm?”

Seeing his questioning face made me itch to tell him.

“I’m going to try making a holy power storage device with a magic engineer.”

“What? Really? Is that true?”

As expected, Lucas jumped up in place.

“I don’t know how long it will take, but soon we’ll be able to distribute the saintess’s holy power to the Moirai beastmen.”

“But the Emperor won’t support it…”

I quickly held up my index finger in front of Lucas and wagged it side to side.

“Hmm, I plan to use my own money.”

“Is that possible?”

Though I used most of my bank balance supporting Xavier with war supplies, it should have recovered by now.

“Yes. I am a Graham after all.”

Color slowly returned to his pale face.

“So let’s have some hope. We can help make things a little less painful for the Moirai people.”

Lucas stared at me with round eyes for a moment before speaking.

“Thank you.”

“Actually, I want to live a normal life — eating well, having fun, and living long. Not just me, but I want that for Your Highness and the people of Moirai too.”

He listened quietly to my words before muttering.

“Normally…”

“Living an ordinary life was the hardest thing for me. I couldn’t even live as well as others did.”

His platinum blonde head tilted slightly. He probably doesn’t understand what I mean.

“It’s just my wish. I hope Your Highness can live normally too…”

And I hope Xavier can live long enough to naturally hunch with age. The black eyes that had been studying my face became moist.

“Th-thank you, Yuria.”

“Duchess.”

“Yes. Duchess.”

Lucas readily answered as he hurriedly wiped his eyes with alternating hands. His nose was red.

“I’ll head back to my country now.”

“Already? Don’t you still have more of your imperial tour schedule left?”

“I’ve already achieved the purpose of my tour. Finding the records to learn how to break the curse was why I came here. I need to go back quickly and research these obelisk characters more.”

He smiled cutely at me with his red nose. It was welcome news.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll contact you when my research succeeds too. Please let me know when you finish decoding the text, okay?”

“Sure…”

When I held out my hand, his large white hand gently grasped mine.

“You live a long life too. Don’t worry about our curse.”

“What?”

“I won’t say I’m taking you away anymore.”

I looked at him suspiciously.

“People’s hearts don’t change that easily.”

“You really don’t trust my words. This time it’s true.”

His deep black eyes seemed sincere, seemingly speaking the truth, like he said.

Lucas answered playfully while gently curving the eyes that had been watching me.

“No, you said living normally was your wish.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

More precisely, living comfortably while playing and eating well.

As we smiled warmly at each other, that’s when it happened.

BOOM.

“Ugh!”

“Eek!”

There was an explosion sound from the opposite side of the history hall where we were.

The archive?

BOOM!!

Just as that thought crossed my mind, the glass walls of the Moirai History Hall shattered with a crash, sending shards flying everywhere.

Lucas embraced me and quickly moved us to an empty space nearby.

The thunderous sounds continued endlessly one after another. The marble floor shattered into pieces, and stone fragments scattered everywhere.

As the ground shook, the statues began falling like dominoes. My screams mixed with the violent sounds. As I tried to cover my face with both hands and dodge, Lucas shouted.

“Watch out!”

What happened next was instantaneous.

Lucas threw himself over me, supporting on his back the statue that had fallen towards me.