The Impact Of The Villainess’ Fake Marriage On The Ending - Chapter 65

Chapter 65

“Do you mind if I check?”

“Ah…”

Adeline’s face turned red when he asked if it was okay to check.

It was a spot on her waist, so she had to take off her dress and expose her back in order to show it to him.

“It’s because I think I know why you suddenly collapsed and lost your memory. To make sure of my judgement, I need to check the spot.”

As Adeline hesitated, Kael gave a more detailed explanation.

Adeline wanted to know what he was guessing, and why he was thinking that. However, it was not easy to say that it was okay for him to check it.

Even though she knew there was no sexual intent at all, and that it was just to confirm something, the situation of having to untie her dress in front of him was too much.

And she was also worried about looking bashful on her own for thinking about things like this, unlike Kael, who was taking a serious approach to the matter.

“Adeline?”

Kael asked Adeline’s intention one more time, and Adeline finally closed her eyes tightly and opened them.

“You can check.”

After she answered carefully, Kael asked for the location with his eyes. Seeing the expression on his face, he seemed to be thinking of places like her neck and arms at best.

Adeline let out a faint sigh and whispered in a low voice, avoiding his eyes.

“There’s a spot on the right side of my waist, so I have to take off the dress. I think I just need to untie the waist strap, but…”

Kael stiffened, finally realizing why Adeline was so hesitant.

As Adeline had expected, he thought that the butterfly-shaped spot would be in an easy place to check.

Even Kael didn’t know why he thought that. He thought that all too naturally. He had never thought that it would be in a place where she had to take off her clothes to be able to show it.

“Ah…”

He had to tell her that she didn’t have to show it if she didn’t want to. Kael felt the same way, so he wanted to tell her that.

But the situation was different now. If what he was guessing was correct, he had to check even one second sooner.

“I’m sorry.”

Kael, who was thinking about what to say first, offered an apology. It bothered him to push this kind of situation.

Adeline said it was fine and shook her head, saying that he didn’t need to apologize.

“I can’t untie the strap… Please do it for me.”

“Ah.”

This time, Kael’s face turned red.

He had previously tightened the straps of her loose dress during a fitting, but it was the opposite of what was happening now. Just tying her dress tightly was nothing to be embarrassed about.

But now, he had to untie the straps with his hands. He had to untie the straps, dig through her underclothing, and look at Adeline’s bare skin, which he had never seen before.

“…”

In an instant, the atmosphere became strange. Both Kael and Adeline tried their best not to show it, but the temperature of the air was different from a little while ago.

Kael hesitated for a moment before carefully pulling on Adeline’s dress straps.

The straps that had been tightly bound opened a gap, and a white corset was visible underneath the dress. Kael slowly grabbed the corset’s strap.

As the corset loosened, Adeline held on tightly to the dress flowing down the front. She was worried that her clothes would completely flow down, and she felt as if her body would burst with shame if she didn’t hold onto something like this.

The same was true of Kael, who was on the verge of going crazy.

He was stripping Adeline’s clothes with his hands. The tips of his ears were already red from a long time ago, and his hands, untying the straps, were getting hotter.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“No! I was just surprised…”

Adeline shuddered as the corset loosened completely and fell to one side.

Her face burned even hotter when she noticed that he could see how nervous she was.

However, only Adeline became embarrassed, and a small smile spread on Kael’s lips because of how she looked.

She looked lovely, not knowing what to do at his small touches. He couldn’t be seen by Adeline, so he just swallowed his voice and thought how relieved he was that she had his back to him. But even in this short moment, his feelings for Adeline grew helplessly.

In an instant, Adeline’s waist was revealed. Kael followed the beautiful curve down and noticed the butterfly-shaped spot she had mentioned.

There was a small butterfly on the right side of her waist. It became even more pronounced because of Adeline’s pure white skin.

‘… I was right.’

The embarrassing yet pleasantly burning heat quickly subsided, making Kael serious.

“… Kael?”

Adeline cautiously called out to Kael after reading the atmosphere had changed. Turning her head slightly, she saw Kael looking at her spot with a serious face.

He swallowed a sigh and quickly returned Adeline’s dress to its original form.

The corset touched her waist again, and the strap of the dark green dress was neatly and firmly restored to its place.

As soon as her bare skin was covered, Adeline turned around to face Kael.

“Tell me. What did you guess? Was it correct?”

Kael hesitated for a moment before slowly opening his mouth.

“Someone has implanted black magic in you.”

“Implanted black magic?”

Adeline was astonished at the words she heard for the first time in her life.

“They implanted a thought. I don’t know what it is, but it’s so that you recall something and don’t think of something else. The butterfly spot you have is a vestige of black magic.”

“…”

“You lost consciousness because you thought of something that is being blocked with that magic. That’s why you lost your memory.”

Adeline stiffened and looked at Kael.

She couldn’t say anything.

***

The pain of the terrible curse caused Kael to wander endlessly in search of salvation.

He was in terrible pain, so he gathered information about all kinds of black magic, even though he knew that there was no way to relieve it.

Adeline, whose memory had been cut, suddenly remembered what she had read about black magic in an old book a long time ago.

To be precise, it was ‘brainwashing’. It used the energy of darkness to plant a thought and block a person’s thoughts, and as proof, a small butterfly would appear in one’s body.

“So, does it mean that someone… brainwashed me?” Adeline asked again, and Kael nodded.

He had some certainty, even before he checked the spot himself. What he wanted to know was the price she had to pay to wake up from the brainwashing.

The butterfly differed in color depending on the degree of brainwashing.

In the worst case of black magic, in which the person would die the moment the brainwashing was broken, it was a red butterfly. Fortunately, Adeline’s butterfly was black.

It was a relief despite the misfortune. The moment her bare skin was exposed, and he trembled in fear that he would see a red spot was still vivid in his mind.

“What would have been planted in me? Who the hell…”

Adeline closed her eyes in confusion. She could hardly breathe at the unimaginable situation that was unfolding.

The fact that she had been living with the wrong thoughts that someone had planted was painful, but what was even more painful was that she lost her memory when she reached a question that could break her brainwashing.

She had clearly shaken her brainwashing once, but she was so wrapped up in the black magic that she forgot about it again, and she was frustrated because she couldn’t remember what it was now.

‘Every time I doubt Vanessa’s possession, my head hurts. I still get a headache when I think about it. Then Vanessa’s possession is the key…’

Adeline tried to regain the memories she had lost due to the pain.

She thought it had something to do with possession, but that was it. She couldn’t think of any more than that.

“Will it continue to be like this? My head hurting just from thinking about it, and collapsing and forgetting about it again when I manage to remember?” Adeline muttered, as if talking to herself. “Then I will never be able to wake up from the brainwashing.”

If she continued to lose her memory like today, there was no hope.

Her heavy eyelids covered her light green eyes. Adeline was distressed by the truth she suddenly encountered, and Kael, who was watching her, also felt sorry for her.

“There must be a way. It’s the butterfly of brainwashing that disappears at a cost. I remember reading it in an old book.”

Kael thought of an old book he had read a long time ago and carefully brought it up.

“At that time, the impression of death was so intense that I only looked into the red butterfly, and I never regretted that like today.”

It was so long ago, but Kael knew well the brainwashing that could only be broken by paying with his life. That was why he couldn’t fully help Adeline now.

“I have to find that old book again, but books about black magic are so hard to find that I’ll need time. It will take a long time.”

“…”

“It will be faster to find someone who knows black magic well, so let’s move in that direction. There will be clues.”

Kael said he would find someone and tried to relieve Adeline’s confusion.

With a small nod, Adeline quietly chewed on the words ‘someone who knows black magic well’.

Suddenly, she remembered someone.

“Simeon might know.”

“Priest Simeon?”

The priest was an identity on the precise opposite side of black magic. Kael looked at Adeline, not sure why she thought of Simeon.

“A priest won’t be able to research black magic.”

Moreover, in principle, a priest could not study black magic. It had been hundreds of years since the temple had banned it because there were many priests who lost their divine power and were corrupted while approaching to purify black magic.

“There was a time when he wasn’t a priest. I remember how much magic Simeon researched back then.”

“Black magic is a slightly different realm. Few people can detect it in the first place. Things can only grow bigger.”

Although he was Adeline’s brother, Simeon’s position was strictly that of a temple priest. There was also the possibility that things would grow out of proportion if he got deeply involved with the temple.

And above all, Kael was convinced that Simeon did not know much about black magic.

“I’ll find someone as quickly as possible, so wait just a little…”

“Simeon knows, Kael.”

Adeline carefully brought out the words.

“Simeon knows that you harbor a curse of darkness. That’s why he gave me the necklace.”

“…”

“He said he was going to protect me from you.”

The spoken truth froze Kael in place.