~Chapter 55~
BOOM—!
With a loud noise, the curses exploded everywhere.
[“Nooo!”]
[“Ughhh!”]
[“Aaaaaah!”]
The curses that had been crying miserably disappeared into pieces, and black blood rained down from the air like a fountain.
Just like before, Damien held me tightly to protect me from getting drenched in the bloody rain.
When the curses finally disappeared and the prison became silent, I opened my eyes.
“How…?”
Damien looked around the quiet room with amazement.
“This is the first time this has ever happened,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever calmed such a strong rampage in one go… and it’s the first time the rampage has ended so quickly.”
He looked as if he was questioning if this was a dream.
“I never doubted your ability, but… I didn’t think it would be this strong.”
Honestly, it was half a gamble for me too.
Back in the garden when Damien rampaged for the first time, my ability hadn’t been very effective.
‘But strangely, this time my ability worked much better than before…’
I had convinced Damien and believed I could reach his heart. That’s why I thought I would succeed this time—and thankfully, I did.
I had even prepared a last resort in case I failed, but I was relieved I didn’t have to use it.
“Anyway, Damien, are you okay?”
His silver hair, which usually shone as if it had absorbed moonlight, was now sticky and messy with dark blood.
“I’m fine.”
I had gotten a little wet because Damien protected me, but he was drenched in blood—so much that the entire right side of his face, where the curses had spread, was covered.
“Your eye…”
I wiped the blood from his eye with my clean sleeve.
His gentle purple eye, slightly red from the curse’s effect, appeared.
“Thank you,” he said.
Once he could see clearly, Damien immediately checked my condition.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No.”
“Then… is your heart hurt?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Are you asking about my feelings now?”
“Because I shouted at you…”
I could see how guilty Damien felt.
Seeing that expression again made me realize he was truly back to his usual self, and I was happy.
“There’s no need to be so sorry. It’s natural to get sharp when the curses rampage.”
“But I shouldn’t have,” Damien said as he wiped the blood from his cheek with his hand.
“I promised myself that bringing you here would never lead to sadness for you…”
I couldn’t help but think it was ironic—someone in a contract marriage taking this much responsibility.
“Up until now, you haven’t made me sad at all.”
“That’s a relief.”
Damien finally smiled genuinely and held out his hand to me.
“Let’s go out now. I don’t want to stay in this damp room any longer.”
“Yes, but…”
I looked around at the room covered in sticky black liquid.
“How are we going to clean this…?”
“There’s a manual for that,” Damien replied calmly.
“Oh… I see.”
“Yes, so it’s fine to leave.”
I nodded and pulled out the key I had kept hidden in my pocket to unlock the chains binding Damien’s limbs.
“Wait, how did you get this key? Did the butler give it to you?”
“No… I thought he would stop me, so I just took it.”
Damien looked like he was about to say something, but then closed his mouth and gently patted my head.
“Don’t do that next time.”
I stood up to walk out, but Damien suddenly wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Huh? I was going to walk…”
“You’re barefoot.”
“There are shoes outside the room.”
“In this condition, even your shoes will get dirty.”
“W-wait—!”
Damien lifted me up in his arms.
“I’ll bring the shoes later.”
“Uh… okay.”
I worried that Damien’s clothes would get even dirtier because of me, but when I looked at his chest, I realized his clothes were already soaked in blood and torn like rags.
‘Well… no need to worry about that anymore.’
I tried to wipe the blood on my arm, but once it dried, it didn’t come off at all.
‘Huh? Last time it wasn’t this bad…?’
As I rubbed harder, Damien said quietly,
“Once it dries, it won’t come off easily. The blood’s concentration is different from before.”
“Concentration? Does it change depending on the rampage?”
“Yes. This time the rampage was intense, so the blood is very thick.”
“Then how do we clean it…?”
I was worried about the blood sticking to our skin and hair. But Damien must have a solution—he’s been through many rampages before.
“There’s a special cleaning liquid,” he explained.
Thank goodness.
“We’ll both need to bathe with it completely.”
“Yes… it feels like we’ll have to soak ourselves in it.”
“It’s harmless to humans, so don’t worry.”
I nodded, then realized we had entered a hallway I had never seen before.
“Damien, where are we?”
“A secret passage.”
Wow. Even after living here for over three months, there were still parts of the mansion I didn’t know.
“This is… an elevator?”
“Yes.”
When Damien pressed the button, the elevator started moving.
After going up several floors, the door opened to a very familiar room.
“Wait… isn’t this your bedroom?”
I was surprised.
‘So this is how it’s connected…’
“When Maledictuses finish a rampage, they’re covered in cursed blood. To avoid dirtying other spaces, we built passages like this,” Damien explained.
“…So that means Maledictuses have been rampaging for a very long time, right?”
“That’s right.”
Damien smiled bitterly.
“But thanks to you, Ruby, I can stop rampages quickly, and the risk is much lower.”
I thought about the previous Maledictuses who failed spirit contracts. Without someone like me to lessen the curse’s effect, they must have gone mad and died before turning 20.
That’s probably why people said Maledictuses would die young if they didn’t marry.
“Thank you again for today,” Damien said sincerely.
His genuine gratitude made my face burn.
‘So this is what it feels like… when someone you like thanks you sincerely.’
“It’s nothing. I would do the same again if it happened.”
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t,” Damien said firmly.
“I’ll never let you be in danger again. I’ll also find out the cause of this rampage and prevent it completely.”
At that moment, I remembered what I had seen in the garden—the curse devouring a strange black object.
“Damien, come to think of it—”
I told him everything I had seen.
Damien immediately frowned, looking as if he knew who was behind this.
“I see… hmm.”
He gave me a cool smile.
“I’ll deal with them soon.”
It was such a cold smile that it sent chills down my spine.
“For now, let’s take a bath,” Damien said.
“Huh? A bath?”
Still carrying me, Damien opened the door to his private bathroom.
The bathtub was already filled with a mysterious sky-blue liquid, steaming warmly.
“Oh, that must be the cleaning liquid.”
“Yes.”
“Then Damien, you go first. You can put me down now.”
“No.”
“…No?”
I stared at Damien, confused, and he calmly said,
“I’ll wash you myself.”
“…What?”
I thought I heard wrong.
“Did you just say you’re going to wash me?”
I tried to stay calm, but it was impossible.
‘We’ve only hugged when sleeping together, and we’ve never even shown each other our bare skin! Now he wants to see me like this?’
I was already dizzy from the steam rising from the water, and now my head was spinning even more.
But Damien’s answer didn’t change.
“I’ll wash you, Ruby.”
And so, less than an hour after calming his rampage, I found myself facing an even greater crisis than before.
