"He is infected," the Duke said as Rosalind approached them. The fighting had ceased and the bodies of humans and so monsters were all over the ground. The sll of death surrounded them.
She stared at the Prince and imdiately notice the black blood.
"That is not from any wound," she stated.
"You are right. It's from an old one. I believe that the dark curse had infected the crown prince a long ti ago. It is either the crown is purposely hiding it or they are not aware of it," the Duke continued.
Soone infected with a dark curse was different from soone who was born with it. For instance, Alma, who was born with a dark curse, would suffer excruciating pain every night until her body could not take it and she died a painful death.
On the other hand, soone who had been infected by a curse using a weapon would have imdiately died from it. The pain would be too much to handle.
Being bitten or scratched by soone infected with the curse also had different effects. Princess Isabel received a wound from an animal with a dark curse. She would not die as fast as soone who recieved it from a cursed weapon. However, she was still going to suffer until her death.
The Priests from the south insisted that this was because the weapons directly received the curse from the Dark Lord while the animals got it from their environnt. This explanation actually made sense since those people haven't seen the Duke of the North, who clearly survived after being stabbed by a cursed weapon.
She narrowed her eyes at the Prince.
This only ant that
"The Prince was not infected by a weapon," Rosalind mumred. "He is not a Blessed one and his body wasn't as strong as the Duke's. He would have imdiately died the mont he received the wound from a cursed weapon.
"Brilliant," he squatted near the prince, who fainted from exhaustion. "Those people didn't intend to harm the Prince." He put his hand on the wound. "It's nothing but a flesh wound. What an elaborate sche."
"Sche?"
"The assassins are wearing black, ard with weapons from the North."
"They" Rosalind's eyes widened. "They wanted to fra the Duke?"
"I believe they had another reason for doing that," the Duke said as he gave her a aningful gaze.
"You an they wanted to get rid of ," Rosalind answered casually. This was indeed a brilliant sche. Federico Lux, the man considered the real ruler of this Empire, had two potential plans that he could use once this plan succeeded.
First, he could bla the Duke for Rosalind's death.
The Duke seed to enjoy killing his potential spouses and so they could easily take advantage of that and stop the Duke from leaving the empire so they could investigate the situation.
Second, they could say that those assassins wanted to kill the Prince but accidentally killed her instead.
The second plan had more advantages than the first and she guessed that Federico would use it to fra the Duke and tell everyone that the Duke wanted to get rid of the heir of this Empire.
The plan only had one simple miscalculation
They didn't think that Rosalind would not follow the Prince around.
This was the first ti that won were allowed to join the event. Because of this, everyone was under the assumption that the n would protect the won while fighting for their lives and the won would follow the n to survive in this exciting atmosphere.
However, Rosalind did the opposite.
She refused to follow the Prince after he left her alone. This might be because the Prince was unaware of Federico's plan.
"Are you well?" he asked.
"Yes," she frowned as she did not miss the softness that lingered in his tone. She did not like that. She blinked and turned her head away. "Are they all dead?" she asked.
"Yes."
The fight ended in just a few minutes.
"Why did you kill them? We could bring them with us to prove your innocence."
"They are not from the North."
"No one would believe that." It would be easier to tell everyone that the Duke did it than to find the real culprit.
"They will," the Duke said. "Can you heal his wound without taking the curse?"
She pursed her lips. Even if she could do that, she had no reason to help her enemy.
"I am going to hide all the bodies while you heal him " the Duke continued.
"What are you planning to do?" she asked. In response, he smiled.
"You are too impatient," said Lucas as he got up and stood in front of her. "If I tell you you wouldn't be able to fake the surprise on your face."
"Try ," she answered before she could even process her thoughts. She silently reprimanded herself. She was an adult woman whose soul was already in her seventies! Why was she acting like this!?
He chuckled in response.
"There will be many opportunities for us to explore each other's plans My Lady, but now is not the ti," he smiled before disappearing once again into the night.
....
"She was with the Duke?" Federico's wizened face turned uglier when he heard the words from the attendants who carried Princess Isabel after the attack.
"What about the Prince?" he asked, he had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.
What Federico hated the most was being a step behind his enemies.
"We did not see His Highness, Prince Lawrence, your Blessedness. The Young Miss was all alone with the Duke and found her near a tree."
Federico snorted, he had always known that there was sothing about the horses and a coat. Now, he knew, the Duke must have added so sort of tracking device to the coat and the horse.
The man must have known about the plan ahead of ti. So he took precautions and even took advantage of the situation to show his affection towards Rosalind.
Federico eyes narrowed.
'This was not going well,' he thought.
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