Dirty with blood

"Viscountess Tierney is sick?" Elroy parrot. He tilted his head. "Spring flu?"

"Viscountess Tierney is too old to have the spring flu, right?" Louisa said breathlessly.

"Hmmm, yesterday I was just chatting with Her Ladyship. Viscountess Tierney looks fine," Elroy told Louisa. "Hah! Could it be because we ate in the hall that Her Ladyship got caught in the night wind?!"

That afternoon, after not seeing Mariette anywhere in the Palace, Elroy worked up the courage to ask someone how she was doing. It just happened that he met Louisa on his way to the library. It turned out that after being asked, Mariette was sick.

Elroy hoped Mariette didn't get sick from those nights out eating with him. Moreover, their meal was delayed because Elroy was crying.

Very embarrassing!

"Sir Elroy sounds familiar to Viscountess Mariette," blurted Louisa.

Elroy gave a stiff laugh. "It just so happens that the fort where I am guarding is close to Viscountess Tierney's estate."

Louisa looked at him suspiciously. "I don't believe in answers like that."

As expected of a member of the Palace family, her intuition was indeed sharp. "What kind of answer do you expect, Your Highness?" he asked.

"Who knows. Answers with something more sensible," said Louisa. "I mean, Viscountess Mariette seems to be hiding something from Louie and me. Those old men do too. Even Sir Anatole!"

"E-eh?" Elroy didn't expect the sentence just now to come.

"Now, Sir Elroy too. When I investigated, Sir Ferdinand knew nothing about Viscountess Mariette. Even though he is both guarding the same fort as you."

As one would expect from a member of the Palace family. Her intuition is very sharp.

"There were several times when Viscountess Mariette was suddenly sick like this. At first, I thought what's up. But every time she gets sick, Father and Count Lavaud get worried," Louisa continued.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"Wh-why is His Majesty the King also worried?"

"Well, I think Sir Elroy knows why."

"Eh?"

"Huh?"

That can only mean one thing: Mariette's illness is related to her curse.

***

Elroy didn't know how the twins could not know about Mariette's curse when their father did. Besides, the curser is their mother.

Mariette never discussed it. Anatole had even said specifically for Elroy to hide it from the twins. Elroy had to go to great lengths to lie every time Louie asked what he was doing in the library.

Is this one of the etiquettes in the Palace? But the twins loved Mariette, thought Elroy.

Besides, Elroy thought it would be better if the twins found out sooner rather than later. They could both be disappointed that Mariette and their father had been hiding something this big from them all this time

Besides… Louie and Louisa are flesh and blood of the late Queen. Maybe the answer to releasing the curse lies with them.

[...One sacrifice for one wish. Two sacrifices for two wanted. And then according to how much you want. This does not apply to revenge. One, two, three is not enough. Revenge wants bigger. The new birth became one of his sacrifices.]

Elroy propped his chin up as he drummed his fingers on the table. His eyes went back and forth on the paragraph he had just written. The language of other kingdoms far across the ocean is complex. The grammar is different from the neighboring kingdoms.

"Haaah. This is what you do for love, Elroy," Elroy muttered softly.

His hand moves to write a note: [So the twins are sacrifices? Their birth was unwanted?]

If that were the case, it was only natural that everyone would want to hide Mariette's curse. But is there really a mother who doesn't want the child she has conceived and given birth to with great difficulty?

Feeling that it was getting dark, Elroy finished his side job.

Elroy was planning to visit Mariette if she still didn't come in tomorrow until at the end of the hall, he ran into Count Lavaud.

"Good evening, Count Lavaud," said Elroy.

"Oh, Sir Elroy. Good evening," replied Count Lavaud in a tired tone. "Overtime?"

Elroy forced a laugh. "Not as heavy as you," he replied.

"Ah, yes. This is what happens every time there is a big event. What's more, Viscountess Tierney didn't come in. Not that I'm complaining," added Count Lavaud. They started walking side by side. "What made you work late today?"

"Only translating the books Sir Anatole brought."

"I've read the progress report. In just this week, you've already finished half the book. You need not hurry, Sir Elroy."

"No, no. There are still many books waiting for me. I'd love to do it anyway."

Count Lavaud looked at Elroy with a worried look. "But you have turned so pale. If you mind, you can ask an additional person. We can disguise it for some reason."

"I don't mind at all. Compared to menial jobs as a knight–"

"Sir Elroy–blood!"

The scream woke Elroy.

He looked down and saw that a few drops of blood had stained his clothes and the floor. When Elroy wiped his nose, his finger was dirty with fresh red blood.

Elroy looked at Count Lavaud in confusion. Suddenly, he felt something strange.

Elroy started coughing and dropped the books he was carrying. He faintly heard Count Lavaud shouting something, but Elroy was too focused on his coughing.

Elroy coughed up blood.

Huh? What? Why? thought Elroy confusedly as he looked down at his palms which were dirty with blood.

His body felt strange. Something seemed to be burning him from within. It's like being poisoned somehow--

or curse?

"Wait…" Elroy muttered while trying to keep his own breathing rhythm. He could see Count Lavaud leaving in a hurry. "I…"

Elroy collapsed to the floor. Still with the weird burning sensation and coughing up blood.

Between conscious and unconscious, he saw Count Lavaud back together with Ferdinand. Elroy wanted so badly to say he was okay.

But Elroy wasn't all right.