Lariette was nothing like her confident, smiling exterior on the inside. And for good reason—Asrahan's icy gaze was fixed upon her.
'Scary... he's really scary...'
Lariette did her best to feign composure, but a bead of cold sweat she had been unable to wipe away trickled down her neck.
She had been confident that as long as she could see his handsome face, she wouldn't be afraid at all. Yet now that he was right before her eyes, the dark, abyssal energy seeping from him was rather terrifying.
However, trembling uncontrollably at this point would be unsightly, so she looked straight into his emotionless blue eyes.
"...Can you take responsibility for your words?"
Asrahan, who had been standing motionless in place all this time, asked in a heavy voice and took a step toward her. This time, Lariette involuntarily flinched back.
"If this is a frivolous prank... you will find it difficult to see tomorrow morning's sun."
It meant that if her words were a lie, he would kill her right away.
This was a sincere statement without a single trace of jest. Asrahan was not one to easily lay hands on civilians, but those who dared mock his curse without fear were an exception.
Her actions had been unfamiliar, so he had indulged her quite fondly until now, but she had already uttered words that could not be taken back.
The sinister energy pressing down on Lariette was so oppressive that she let out a shallow groan without realizing it. He had taken only a single step closer, yet his mere aura was enough to completely overwhelm her.
"If you doubt me, you need only verify it."
Lariette drew up her mana, struggling to resist his energy. If he unleashed his full power, she clearly wouldn't stand a chance, but for now, she could barely endure.
In truth, the claim that she was the empire's greatest purification mage was nothing more than her own assumption. She had merely borrowed the words the mages of her household had spoken in praise of her when she was young.
Having received no training for a long time, her skills from that time might have dulled. She was in a position where she could be certain of nothing.
'I'm dying anyway, so what is there to be afraid of!'
In other words, it was a gamble, yet Lariette burned with fighting spirit. A single word—terminally ill—had made her braver than anyone else.
She leaned her body, which had retreated, forward once more. Then she closed her eyes and cautiously reached out to him. Lariette's small hand and his large hand, tightly wrapped in bandages, soon met.
Fwoosh—
A blinding white light burst forth, enveloping Lariette and Asrahan.
Lariette's long pink eyelashes trembled. It was because the mana required was far greater than she had expected.
But she could not back down. If she gave up here, only Asrahan's sharp blade awaited her.
As the white power of purification clashed and collided with his black energy, small sparks seemed to crackle. The information guild employee let out a shrieked whimper in terror and hid his body under the table.
Several minutes passed that way, and it was Lariette's white energy that seized the upper hand.
"...!"
Asrahan opened his sharp eyes wide and watched as the snow-white power seeped into his hand. A warm sensation tickled his hand before soon vanishing.
Lariette slowly opened her closed eyes and stared at his hand. Before she knew it, beads of cold sweat had formed all over her face.
The power of purification was known to consume a great deal of mana, but this was excessive. Her mana had depleted to the point where she could barely support her body, and her stamina had bottomed out as well.
Lariette knew that her mana was by no means lacking. However, what she had not expected was that the power of his curse was also formidably strong.
"Check it."
She urged him on between ragged breaths. Asrahan paused for a moment, his gaze lingering on her slender body as it trembled intermittently, before he soon began to unwind the bandages wrapped around his hand.
'I will see festering flesh. The stench of a rotting corpse will soon fill the room.'
The employee peeking out from under the table would surely grimace at the foul stench, and the woman looking at him so confidently would undoubtedly recoil from the miserable sight.
It was something that had always happened ever since Asrahan was afflicted with the curse in his childhood.
Therefore, he tried to crush his heart, pounding with a strange anticipation, beneath bitter memories. For there was nothing as terrible as facing shattered hope.
Asrahan unwound the bandages with careful hands. Beneath them, smooth skin was revealed.
It was the skin of a living human.
Thud. Asrahan's heart dropped to the very bottom. His tightly pressed lips trembled, and the hand that had unwound the bandage twitched.
Confronted with the moment he had always wished for, his body stiffened as if doused in cold water. And then, a clear laugh pushed through that coldness.
"Hehe, you'll sign the contract, right?"
Lariette smiled brightly, her bunny-like eyes curving adorably.
The scene of her cherry blossom-like hair swaying and her rose-red lips subtly parting was so splendid, as if gazing upon a garden in full bloom, that it was seared vividly into his mind.
In that instant, Asrahan felt an inexplicable premonition that he would never forget this sight for the rest of his life. It was a premonition he himself could not understand.
He slowly retrieved a slim pen from his coat's inner pocket. Then, after scanning the contract, he began to sign elegantly beneath Lariette's tiny handwriting.
I succeeded. Lariette thought with a dizzy mind.
She wanted to confirm that he signed until the end, even with fading vision, but she could not. Her entire body was as heavy as waterlogged cotton, and not an ounce of strength remained to keep her standing.
Thud.
She, who had barely kept her eyes open, lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot. Asrahan moved and caught her lightly.
"Uuuh..."
Lariette buried her face in his chest and let out a small groan. Her whimpering appearance was like that of a young beast.
Asrahan held her small, slender waist firmly. Then, without hesitation, he lifted her with one arm.
"Felik."
"Y-yes, Your Grace."
Felik, the information guild employee who had been watching Lariette and Asrahan with bated excitement, answered hurriedly.
"The search for a purification mage ends today."
They had found the right person for the job. Asrahan added shortly. Then, recalling the contract's details, he curled his lips up slightly in a smile.
Three months. It was a time that could be considered short or long.
'Like I'd let her do as she pleases.'
However, Asrahan had no intention of ever letting her go. At least, not until the curse afflicting him had completely disappeared.
***
A faint vibration kept shaking Lariette's body. In particular, her upper body intermittently collided with something hard, causing a subtle pain.
Clatter!
When an especially large jolt occurred, she slowly lifted her heavy eyelids. The first thing she saw was the fold of a black coat covering someone's jaw.
A black coat? It was both unfamiliar and not. Lariette, still half-asleep, stared at it blankly.
"Are you awake?"
A blunt baritone woke her mind, which was still wandering in the realm of dreams. With an anxious feeling of 'surely not,' Lariette slowly raised her gaze.
And she found Asrahan's blue eyes right before her face.
"Hic!"
"...You are consistent."
Hiccupping when startled was a trait of Lariette's. Despite not having known each other for long, it seemed Asrahan had already picked up on her peculiarity.
Feeling embarrassed, Lariette hurriedly lifted her head from where it had rested on his broad shoulder. Judging by the fact that the corner of her mouth was not wet, she thankfully did not appear to have drooled.
'Why am I sleeping leaning against Asrahan?!'
Covering her mouth with both hands to stop her hiccups, Lariette desperately searched her last memories.
She had cast purification magic on his hand, and after barely succeeding, she had lost consciousness from mana deficiency. Without having seen Asrahan sign the contract to the very end!
Perhaps sensing her frustrated feelings, Asrahan reached into his coat and soon pulled out a neatly folded contract.
"I will keep one copy."
"Huh, then did you s—hic!—sign it?"
"Yes. You are the first to have lifted the curse, even if only faintly."
Lariette glanced at the hand extending the contract. A large, beautiful hand with visible veins. There was no trace of the curse remaining to be found.
Having confirmed that, she quickly looked around. The interior of a large, ornate carriage came into view.
The sound of horse hooves was steady, and a dark forest path passed by outside the window. Lariette opened her eyes wide and looked up at Asrahan.
"Then where we're going now is...!"
"The Duke of Kandel's estate."
Asrahan answered, gazing out the window instead of looking at Lariette. For some reason, meeting her eyes was a little burdensome.
Meanwhile, her face brightened at once, and she broke into a wide smile. One might think she smiled too easily.
"Asrahan! Please take care of me from now on! I'll do my best for you!"
Lariette grabbed both of Asrahan's hands and shook them eagerly. The sight of her grasping without hesitation even the hand from which the curse had not yet fully lifted bewildered him. A soft sensation could be felt beyond the glove.
Asrahan hastily pulled his hands free from hers. However, his movements were rather careful, lest the small woman be hurt.
"You seem to be under some misapprehension. You and I are merely in an employer-employee relationship."
"Whatever! No one knows what the future holds, and—besides, we're going to be living together now, so what's wrong with a handshake?"
Lariette continued speaking nonchalantly, not at all discouraged that her touch had been rejected.
"Now that I think about it, Asrahan, you've never once called my name. How unfair. I called yours so much! Try it. Rié! Rié!"
"Then you should not call me by mine either."
"No, but you already gave me permission..."
Lariette grumbled and averted her gaze. It was terribly unsatisfying that someone who looked like he had plenty of dating experience was being so guarded with her.
'I never gave you permission.' Asrahan had been about to answer shortly but soon swallowed his words. It was because being called by name after so long was not so bad.
"...Let us end the conversation here. It seems we have arrived."
He spoke in a blunt voice and secured the bandage that had ridden up to his jaw. She glanced out the window.
"Wow..."
Lariette let out an exclamation of awe without realizing it.
At a glance, the Duke of Kandel's estate was so vast and beautiful that it could not be compared to the Duke of Blanche's estate, despite both being ducal residences.
Being farther from the city, the grounds were much wider, and the tall, splendid building looked exactly like a castle out of a storybook.
The carriage passed through the main gate and soon stopped before the entrance of the mansion. Asrahan alighted from the carriage, his coat hem flaring, and slowly turned to look at her.
"...Aren't you going to offer me your hand?"
When he merely stood there motionless, looking at her without making any move, Lariette asked in a petulant voice.
It was common courtesy for the gentleman who disembarked first to offer his hand to the lady, but he, who wouldn't even call her by name, seemed unwilling to offer his hand either.
Only after hearing her words did Asrahan cautiously extend his hand.
In truth, it was an action he had never once done before. There had never been a woman who wanted to touch the cursed him. Therefore, the hand he offered to her felt extremely awkward to him.
Lariette, having no way of knowing this fact, pouted her lips and took his hand without hesitation, descending. She merely wondered if her own charm was so lacking.
"Welcome back, Master. ...Who might the person beside you be?"
"She will be staying at the ducal estate from today. See to it that she is comfortable."
An elderly butler came to greet the master of the ducal house. He revealed quite a surprised expression upon discovering Lariette, but soon composed his face with practiced skill.
"Ah, hello. I'm Lariette."
"My Lady Lariette, greetings. I am Halshtein, the butler of House Kandel. I look forward to serving you."
"I look forward to it as well, Halshtein."
Lariette replied gracefully to the greeting given with a polite bow. Then she glanced subtly at Asrahan.
‘Even the butler I just met called me by my name!’
It was a distinctly deliberate look, but he coldly ignored it.
“It is late tonight, so please rest for now. We will discuss the details tomorrow.”
Asrahan, who had entered the mansion, handed his luggage to a servant and spoke. Thinking she couldn’t let his coldness defeat her, she answered even more brightly on purpose.
“Yes, Asrahan, you should get plenty of rest too. See you tomorrow—!”
“……Yes.”
Would it kill him to say a little more? Lariette barely held back the urge to demand an answer.
Meanwhile, the servants of the Candel ducal house were quite astonished. The duke had brought a woman with him? And a woman who called the duke by his name so casually? There was not a single part of it that wasn’t shocking.
The room assigned to Lariette was far larger, more splendid, and more luxurious than the room she had had at the Blanche ducal house.
A bed large enough for four people to lie on, a chandelier studded with jewels one by one, tapestries embroidered with gold thread…… It was a scene worthy of the richest ducal house’s reputation.
Seeing all the glittering things, Lariette wanted to lavish praise on herself from a week ago, the self who had decided to date him.
‘Ah. But where did my bag go?’
At the sudden thought of its absence, Lariette looked around, but her luggage was nowhere to be seen.
The bag she had bought in town a week ago was neither expensive nor particularly special, but the notebook and magic pouch inside it were extremely important. Her bucket list was written in the notebook, and inside the pouch was her entire fortune.
She wanted to have a maid find it for her, but unfortunately, the maid had only shown her to the room and then left. Thinking she couldn’t have gone far, Lariette opened the door and stepped out of the room.
After walking down the beautiful corridor for a few minutes, she soon came upon the voice of the maid she had been looking for.
But what she heard was not what she had expected.
“What was she thinking, coming in here? Judging by her clothes, she doesn’t seem to be a noble.”
“She didn’t even give a family name. She must be a commoner. What was her name again? Rirarira?”
The maids laughed loudly, as though they had heard an especially amusing joke. Hearing them talk behind her back from just beyond a wall, Lariette stared at them with eyes gone cold.
“Do you think she came here hoping to seduce His Grace and climb the social ladder?”
“Oh, come on, no way. Does that even make sense? No matter how desperate someone is for money, ……that monster duke?”
When she mentioned “the monster duke,” the maid lowered her voice as much as possible. Though the duke wasn’t the type to wander around the mansion often, she was afraid the butler might overhear.
“Ah, still, that Rirarira has it nice. What did we do wrong to have to serve a commoner too?”
It was nice and easy when it was just the duke. The maid grumbled as she added that. And Lariette could no longer listen, so she stepped forward.
“It’s not Rirarira. It’s Lariette.”
“Eek! M-Miss!”
At Lariette’s sudden appearance, the maids jumped in fright and shrank back. She continued speaking, not as the Lariette who stood before Asrahan, but with the face of Lady Blanche.
“You asked for my name, didn’t you? It’s Lariette Blanche. Now then, how is it? Since I’m not a commoner, does that make you feel more like serving me?”
“Huk, M-Miss, that, that’s not……”
“And there’s something you’re mistaken about.”
Lariette reached out a finger and lifted the chin of the maid who had frozen stiff and bowed her head. It was the woman who had spoken of the monster duke.
Contrary to the innocence they had expected, Lariette’s face was cold and still. She smiled crookedly and continued.
“I don’t need to climb the social ladder, but I did come here to seduce His Grace. I fell for him at first sight.”
“He is terribly handsome, isn’t he?” she added, and the maids could only tremble.
And behind another wall, unseen by them, someone who had come in person to return the luggage Lariette had left behind stood quietly for a moment before soon leaving.