The Impact Of The Villainess’ Fake Marriage On The Ending - Chapter 69

Chapter 69

“Aaaaargh!”

As soon as Adeline managed to come to her senses, she fought the terrible pain that had struck her.

There was no time to figure out when she had lost consciousness, how much time had passed since she had returned to the mansion and laid down on this bed, or what was going on.

The pain began as soon as she lifted her heavy eyelids to face the familiar ceiling and slowly got up.

“Adeline!”

“Sister!”

Kael and Simeon rushed to Adeline.

Adeline curled up in pain. It was painful even when she was standing in the magic circle and the brainwashing was broken, but now it hurt even more.

It felt like a hot fire was burning her, and at the same time, a sharp knife was tearing apart her skin. In an instant, her body got wet with cold sweat, and her vision became increasingly blurred.

“Adeline! What are you feeling? You can’t lose consciousness!”

When she thought she was going to lose her senses again, Kael’s voice awakened her. He urgently examined Adeline’s condition.

“It feels like… someone is piercing the right side of my waist with a knife.”

“The right side…”

Kael, who had become contemplative, hurriedly headed behind Adeline’s back with a hardened face.

If it was the right side of her waist, it was the spot where the butterfly that was the trace of the brainwashing was located.

Anxiety sprang up when she said she felt a terrible pain in a place where no traces of the brainwashing should have remained.

Kael loosened the strings of her thin chemise at once. In an instant, the white bare skin was revealed, and his gaze turned to the right side of Adeline’s waist.

“…”

After checking the situation, Kael froze, unable to say anything. His bewildered, blue-grey eyes revealed his shock, which was unlike him.

“Your Grace?”

Simeon, who was at the front of the bed, cautiously called out to Kael. Adeline, who was biting her lips in pain, also turned her head slightly to look at Kael.

“There is now a flower shape.”

After barely getting himself together, Kael relayed the situation in a more sunken voice than usual.

“Flower? What type of flower is it?”

Simeon, who was equally worried and holding his breath, immediately asked for the type of flower. If the black magic was playing a joke again, they had to find out what it was and decipher it right away.

“A snowdrop. A white snowdrop is blooming.”

Kael recited this as if he didn’t know the reason for this, and Simeon, who had heard the type of flower it was, also wrinkled his face as if he didn’t understand.

At least, there was no snowdrop in the token of black magic they knew of.

***

“What in the world is this… Is the pain gone now, Adeline?”

Enoch asked in a worried voice, and Adeline nodded.

Simeon had immediately contacted Enoch and Leo, feeling that the situation was unusual, and they got on the portal and came to Kael’s mansion as soon as they heard the news.

“I’m fine now. To the point that I can’t believe how in pain I was earlier.”

The pain that had been bothering Adeline surprisingly disappeared as soon as the flower took its full shape.

Her senses returned so quickly that she wondered if the moment when the pain hit her beyond tears and screaming was an illusion.

“The butterfly of brainwashing was already complicating my mind, but now a snowdrop bloomed in its place…”

Enoch and Leo quickly heard about Adeline’s brainwashing from Simeon.

They were resentful that someone had dared to cast black magic on Adeline, but right now, it was more important to look after her than to be angry at someone they didn’t even know.

After holding back their boiling anger, the two tried to figure out what the blooming snowdrop that suddenly appeared on her body meant.

The same was true for Kael and Simeon. But there was no success. Although both of them were well acquainted with black magic, this situation was unheard of.

‘What the hell is going on with my body?’

Adeline, who was staring at the four men deep in thought, sighed and closed her eyes tightly.

As the pain disappeared and she came to her senses, Adeline also checked the snowdrop on her waist through the mirror.

For a trace of black magic, an overly white flower was clearly engraved on her body, like a tattoo.

Nothing had been solved regarding her brainwashing, and it felt like a problem that could not be easily solved.

“It’s clearly magic. Even if it’s not black magic, this is something caused by mana.”

“So does that mean someone placed magic on me again?”

“I don’t know exactly, so I can’t say for sure, but it’s clear that someone has done something to you.”

Simeon said, breaking the silence.

“But it really is something unheard of… You can’t find out what that flower is unless you’re a wizard reading extensively on magic that’s not easily known.”

“Then should I take a look around the academy?”

“No. The current president of the academy has a close relationship with the Emperor.”

Kael adamantly denied Leo’s words. It was true that there was an outstanding archmage in the academy, but the president and several other wizards had close ties to the imperial family.

Showing Adeline’s flower to them was like asking for the situation to flow into the emperor’s ears in its totality.

“Is there any archmage that isn’t connected to the academy?”

Leo asked with a pondering face, but there was no answer to follow.

“There’s one person who comes to mind…”

“Who? Hurry up and tell me, Simeon.”

Simeon drove out a fairly long silence. All eyes in the bedroom, including Leo’s, turned to him.

“Kasus.”

“Are you referring to the man locked up in the dungeon of the temple?”

Leo asked in astonishment, and Simeon nodded grimly.

Kasus was a wizard who tried to assassinate the previous emperor ten years ago and failed. He was regarded as the greatest wizard in the history of the empire, but he was thrown into the dungeon of the temple due to an assassination attempt.

The atmosphere in the room grew heavy as the name that they had never thought of was mentioned.

“No one living in the empire right now can surpass Kasus when it comes to mana or knowledge. And I can access the temple dungeon. The only problem is…”

“The problem is?”

“Kasus doesn’t open his mouth. He never said a single word, like someone who lost the ability to speak. No matter who talks to him, or what they talk about, he doesn’t say anything. Like a statue.”

Simeon sighed. Disappointment also appeared on the faces of the brothers, who had hoped that they might have found a way although it was quite dangerous.

“I should be able to talk to him.”

But Kael, who had been silent the whole time, opened his mouth.

Everyone’s eyes turned to him at once.

“That person has a debt to me. If I try to talk to him, he’ll open his mouth.”

Everyone looked at Kael, surprised at the fact that Kasus was indebted to him. Among them, Adeline was the most surprised. She met Kael with wide-opened eyes.

“Do you have clear access to the dungeon?”

“Yes. I can’t make time for long conversations, but you can figure out the meaning of the flower.”

“Then, let’s meet Kasus. As the Priest said, no one in this Empire knows magic better than him.”

Kael’s gaze reached Adeline. Facing the blue-grey eyes that reached her, Adeline quietly fell into thought.

She wondered what kind of life he lived. What kind of life he lived that he had a curse on his body, the wizard who tried to kill the emperor was indebted to him, and he exuded a coldness that could freeze anyone?

Adeline felt the bitterness in her mouth and mocked Kael and her situation.

Both Kael and Adeline, the road they walked so far had been very rough.

***

After Kael, Adeline, and Simeon decided to meet Kasus, Simeon was called to the temple and hurried back.

However, Enoch and Leo did not leave and remained by Adeline’s side. They had a lot to hear from Adeline.

“Brainwashing? Who the hell dared do that to you…”

Enoch, who was sitting by the bedside, felt sorry for her, barely enduring the boiling anger.

“And what was it? What was the thought implanted in you?”

The situation was no different for Leo, but he tried to grasp the details more accurately.

Adeline, who was holding Enoch’s hand and soothing him, turned to look at Leo. Then, her gaze reached Kael, who was looking at Adeline from a little distance away.

‘I can’t say everything here. If I tell them, my brothers will know about the marriage contract, and Kael…’

She couldn’t tell the details here and now. Even so, Adeline couldn’t just keep her mouth shut, which complicated her mind.

“It’s a lot, so I can’t give you all the details right now. I have to do my own organizing. Roughly speaking…”

Adeline told them only the overall frame of the brainwashing.

The fact that she believed that she was possessed by a book called ‘Beyond Orange’, that she thought that Adeline Tien was an imaginary character in the book, and that she had no idea what her life was like before the possession, and that she did not think it was strange.

“I mean, a brainwashing like that…”

Enoch looked at Adeline in astonishment. Leo and Kael were no different. In particular, Kael seemed very upset that someone had brainwashed Adeline like this.

“I couldn’t doubt it. I believed that the day I woke up from that accident was the moment I was possessed by the book.”

“That day?”

“Yes. I don’t remember anything from before that day. I’m still trying to recall it somehow, but I can’t remember anything.”

Adeline let out a long sigh as she recounted the time that didn’t come to mind no matter how hard she tried to think about it.

She couldn’t remember a single thing that had happened before that day when she was fifteen.

“What is ‘that day’?”

“Ah, the day I woke up after the carriage accident happened.”

When Kael, who was listening to them, asked carefully, and Adeline replied that it was the day she woke up after the marquis and marchioness died.

“In that case, there may be a clue to that attack. The culprit may have brainwashed…”

“An attack?”

As soon as Kael spoke, Adeline frowned.

“Are you saying someone attacked the carriage?”

When she asked back at his incomprehensible words, Kael’s eyes trembled.

“Your Grace. Please talk to me for a moment.”

But at that moment, Enoch, who had a stiff expression on his face, tried to take Kael out of the bedroom.

“Hold on, Brother. What happened to our parents wasn’t an accident?” Adeline asked, looking at Enoch with a very confused face.

An attack? It was strange.

What Adeline knew had happened to the carriage was definitely an accident. It was an unfortunate accident that had happened while the couple was traveling with their daughter. It wasn’t someone’s malice, it was just a sad accident that happened by rolling over a cliff.

However, Kael’s eyes and the pale faces of Enoch and Leo denied that.

It was at this moment that another lie that Adeline believed to be true was revealed.