Chapter 03
Kali Herace.
She was a minor extra who barely appeared in the romance-fantasy novel <The Rose of Betrayal>.
In short, the novel went like this.
The heroine used a secondary male character to win the hero. In the process, that secondary man fell in love with her sincerely, but when he realized he’d been used, he went mad with rage and tried to kill her. The hero stopped him, and the secondary man died by the hero’s hand.
Kali was the cursed bride of that secondary man, Duke Leonhardt Spencer.
“Because of the curse, Leonhardt can only marry a cursed bride.”
Arthur Spencer, like a great-grandfather figure, approached the witch for her elixir of immortality. He whispered of love, stole the elixir, and killed the witch.
The furious witch cast a curse on the Spencer family. As a result, the curse persisted down to Leonhardt three generations later.
Leonhardt wanted to marry the heroine, so he took his already-married wife, Kali Herace, and left her on a mountain.
“And the poor squirrel bride gets eaten by wild beasts and dies in the end.”
A stifled sigh escaped from the little squirrel’s lips.
“And that’s me.”
Kali’s tail, stretched straight out, drooped. She bit into the blanket and drifted into thought.
“Of all things… why did I have to be turned into some squirrel. Ugh, I’m so tired.”
If I’m going to be possessed, at least possess me as a human. But of all things I end up as this worthless squirrel, and to top it off, the one who dies a pathetic death.
But Kali wanted to live. She had absolutely no intention of dying like that.
Just as she was about to start the second act of her life—she had been so outraged she hadn’t slept properly for two days since becoming a squirrel.
“Waaah. A squirrel? A new life and I’m a squirrel body!”
Kali jumped up from her spot. Sitting her bottom on the soft blanket, she started thinking quickly.
“If I’m not going to die like this, I have to do something. Whether it ends badly or well, I’ll try anything.”
First of all, she couldn’t keep living as a squirrel. She had to be human again to live properly.
To become human, she had to lift the curse.
“So, to break the curse…”
Ugh. A small groan involuntarily escaped her tiny mouth.
There was only one way to break the curse.
The clichéd requirement: the duke must genuinely love his cursed bride.
“Love? Looooove? Anyone can do love!”
Kali wanted to meet the witch in person someday and slap her. Unfortunately, the witch had been killed by Arthur Spencer.
She flopped back down.
“Love, huh. So I have to make Leonhardt love me.”
Then she had a bright idea. She sprang up and began circling the room.
“No. Think carefully. Love isn’t only romantic affection.”
Love contains many feelings. It can exist between friends, between family, between teacher and student.
In other words, if she simply became friends with Leonhardt, that would be enough. Then everything would be okay.
“Yeah, good. I’ll tell him to be friends. Friendships are also a form of loving feeling. How precious is friendship as a form of love.”
Am I brilliant or what?
Kali smiled smugly. To do that, she had to convince Leonhardt.
An hour later, Kali asked Jane, who had just come in.
“Jane. Do you know where Leon—no, the Duke is?”
She asked as if she could go find him right away, but the answer she received was disappointing.
“Unfortunately, the Duke went to the Dark Forest on an extermination mission.”
He had left to subdue his madness.
“What? No… then when will he be back?”
“I’m sorry. Whenever His Grace goes into the forest, he never says when he’ll return…”
In short, she didn’t know. Kali flopped onto her face in despair.
“How long am I supposed to wait for a man whose return I don’t know?”
But if she didn’t wait, what else could she do? She certainly wouldn’t chase after him into the forest.
Reluctantly, Kali decided to wait for his return. But in the end, he didn’t come back to the mansion.
The duke returned two weeks later.
—Kill them, kill them all.
—Hurry, kill them. Drink their blood.
The cursed voices buzzing in her ears hardly stopped.
“Shut up. Stop it. My head’s going to explode.”
The more that voice pressed, the more she forced a smile on her face. The more he smiled, the more fear he spread around him.
Thunk—
He calmly threw his sword at a monster the size of a giant earthworm. The sharp blade flew true and struck the vital spot.
“Gyaaah!”
With a final cry, the massive body of the creature collapsed onto the frozen ground.
“Your Grace!”
Commander Gerald ran up quickly.
Leonhardt continued to walk lightly, his face still full of smiles. When he pulled the blade out, dark red blood spurted like a fountain.
Blood splattered unpleasantly across his jaw and cheek. Leonhardt, tilting his head to the left, wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand. His black glove was stuck with gore.
“Not bad…”
His low voice contrasted with his beautiful face in an oddly fitting way. It enhanced his decadent air.
“This is unpleasant.”
“You all right?”
“Why, this is nothing.”
He bit the glove to take it off.
Then, perhaps the monster wasn’t quite dead, because it writhed once more. Its golden eyes flashed for an instant.
With the hand he’d used to pull the glove off, he moved quickly. The monster’s life was cut in an instant.
“Excellent.”
“Is this the last one?”
“Yes. The rest seem to have fled in terror.”
Gerald took a new glove from his pocket. He tossed the blood-soaked black glove to the ground and accepted the fresh one, slipping it on.
“Your Grace. Shall we return now?”
“Return? To where?”
He tilted his head as if he had no idea. Gerald scratched the back of his head with a helpless look.
The bloodlust had lessened from before. He’d indulged in the festival of blood to his fill.
“Maybe it’s time to go back.”
He pictured his mansion that now had an extra…something, and his brow naturally furrowed.
“Your Grace. A messenger crow.”
Just then, a white crow that had been circling overhead spotted Leonhardt and descended.
He extended his arm to catch the crow. The bird landed safely on his outstretched arm.
“Looks like it came from the duke’s manor.”
“Of course. This one’s my crow.”
Seeing the white feathers made a white tuft of fur come to mind.
Round ears, a plump body, a fluffy tail—there was no mistaking it: a squirrel.
“How… how is that my bride?”
She was his marriage partner no matter what.
“Marriage, marriage.”
Among nobles, arranged marriages were very common. Romantic marriages were rare.
Yes. A political marriage was acceptable. After all, as head of the Spencer house, my betrothed was already decided.
But of all things, my cursed bride wasn’t human. If only she’d been pretty at least.
“Well done, Kay.”
Leonhardt scratched the crow’s chin with his fingertip; the bird shook its head in pleasure.
He propped the crow Kay on his shoulder, tilted his body, and opened the paper.
“Return to the manor, it says?”
“Yes. It says not to stay out too long.”
The note was simple.
They told him to hurry and prepare for the wedding with his cursed bride, and had set the earliest possible date.
“Will you really do it?”
“I have to. What else can I do? If I don’t, I’ll die, won’t I? Hey, Gerald. You want me to die sooner? Huh?”
The smile on his face made him all the more terrifying. Gerald flinched.
At that moment, Peter ran up from afar and saluted in front of Leonhardt.
“Your Grace! The other side is wrapped up too!”
“Oh, good. And loud today as always. So noisy.”
“Forgive me!”
Peter glanced at Kay perched on Leonhardt’s shoulder and spoke again.
“Will you be returning today?”
“No.”
“Your Grace. Then the wedding…”
“Eh? A wedding?”
Peter’s voice, loud enough to shake the forest, drew a frown.
“Do I really need to go? It’s a merely formal marriage. No need for pomp.”
Leonhardt flicked the paper between his index and middle fingers. The crow tugged at the edge and tore the paper neatly in half.
“This marriage isn’t like an ordinary one.”
“But Your Grace, it’s your one and only marriage…”
“Shut up. Ah… my blood’s boiling again.”
Thinking of the witch’s curse, a heat rose in his gut.
That curse tormented him with madness and forced his duchess to be a cursed woman sent by the witch.
Damn those three generations of dukes before me.
“Ah. I can’t stand this.”
His golden gaze flashed.
The whisper of the curse slipped into his ear again.
—Do you want to kill? Then kill.
—Hurry up and kill. Relish the blood.
He gripped his sword tightly. Leonhardt’s movements, which had been fixed on something in the distance, quickened.
From behind a large rock, a giant spider-like monster revealed its legs. With his usual smile, he cut off a leg without hesitation. Black blood splattered the air.
“Gerald. Handle the rest.”
“Eh…? What should I say?”
Gerald stammered in confusion.
It was practically an order to slaughter. No one dared to speak.
Thus the northern lands were protected today as well.
“Tell them to take care of the preparations.”
The white crow circling around Gerald waited for an answer. Gerald sighed, resigned.
“Whatever. It’s not that important anyway.”
