MCDB CH 03

Ten minutes on foot from the North Gate of the royal palace. Once they crossed the gently sloping hill, the northern forest came into view.

Before the dragon awakened, hunting competitions were often held there. At the entrance to the forest stood a small banquet hall where feasts were held after the hunts.

But there were no more banquets there now. A cursed princess lived there instead.

‘Why did he bring me here?’

Standing in front of the princess’s annex, Carlisle’s mind was a mess. He had also heard the rumors that the princess had regained her ability to speak. So, he had planned to secretly visit Helens’s annex sometime between night and dawn.

But before he could do so, the duke had suggested that they go together to find out whether the rumors were true.

Carlisle had not refused the duke’s offer. He was curious about the duke’s intentions. The duke could easily have gone to Helens alone.

So why had he gone out of his way to seek Carlisle out and ask him to come along?

“There she is.”

At the duke’s voice, Carlisle, who had been lost in thought, turned his gaze toward the inside of the enclosure. In the pitch-black darkness, a pair of eyes gleamed.

A beast with dark-brown fur soon emerged with a low growl.

Carlisle flinched at its intimidating appearance. The soldiers who had followed them were already visibly shaken.

“Grrr…”

Helens bared her fangs and approached them. Before long, she grabbed the iron bars, puffed out her chest for no particular reason, and shook them.

Clang!

As the bars rattled, shrill cries escaped from among the soldiers.

“Your Highness.”

The duke remained unfazed. In fact, he even stepped closer to the cage. At that, Helens’s eyes wavered for a moment.

“It has been a long time.”

“…G-grr.”

Helens was genuinely flustered. She had expected that, now that the rumor had spread, someone from the royal palace would come to verify it.

But she had not expected them to come so quickly, with a whole line of soldiers behind them. And the two men standing in the middle were clearly no ordinary people.

Even in the darkness of night, the two of them seemed to have a faint halo around them.

Both were tall and handsome, unmistakably looking like the protagonists of a novel.

‘If the younger one with brown hair is the male lead, then this blond man must be the duke, right?’

Helens racked her brain. She had never expected the duke himself to come. Wasn’t he the powerful figure in the original story who could make even birds fall from the sky?

Couldn’t he simply have sent one of his subordinates to investigate? Why had he come all the way here himself?

And why had he brought the prince with him?

“Your Highness, I hear that you have finally regained your ability to speak. It is certainly something the entire kingdom should celebrate.”

A gentlemanly smile appeared at the corners of the duke’s mouth.

“Would you grant us the honor of hearing your voice as well?”

The excessive courtesy he showed to a mere beast locked inside a cage was almost comical, yet no one laughed.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Helens’s mouth.

“Grrr…”

Instead of speaking, Helens only growled.

‘You think I’m going to speak just because you asked?’

There was nothing she could do about the rumor spreading. But she could make sure that the rumor turned out to be nothing more than a false rumor.

The method was simple.

She just had to pretend she still couldn’t speak.

“Are you unable to speak? Oh dear. It seems a false rumor has spread throughout the kingdom.”

The duke shook his head sadly before looking at his subordinate, Ludwig.

“Ludwig, go and bring the maid who spread this false rumor. How dare that lowly creature slander a member of the royal family?”

“Yes. I will capture her, cut out her tongue, and send her to the labor camp.”

The two of them played their parts perfectly. They were obviously testing her.

Even so, Helens’s mouth went dry.

The fact that this was a society ruled by status bothered her. To the duke, killing a mere maid would be nothing.

It meant that even if he killed Mari as a threat, no one would question it.

“What are you waiting for, Ludwig? Why aren’t you going already? Since she slandered Her Highness, we shall make her apologize for her crime in front of the princess.”

“Yes. I will go and capture her immediately. You two, come with me.”

As Ludwig turned around with two soldiers, Helens hurriedly opened her mouth.

“…It’s not a false rumor.”

She muttered through gritted teeth.

She had fallen right into the duke’s trap. But she didn’t want to see Mari get hurt.

“So you really wanted to hear my voice that badly. Judging by the fact that you’re even threatening me.”

Helens spoke sarcastically as she gripped the bars. Clear traces of blood stained her claws.

The duke’s expression had remained unchanged despite her sarcasm, but the moment he noticed the blood, his eyes sharpened.

“It is indeed something for the entire kingdom to celebrate that Your Highness has regained the ability to speak. But, Your Highness, are you injured?”

“What? No, no.”

Helens quickly hid her claws. She had deliberately positioned herself where the bloodstain on the wall could not be seen, but she had forgotten about her claws.

“Is it related to the bloodstain behind you?”

Ah. He had noticed that too.

Nothing was going according to plan.

“Well, that… What is it? I hunted. Yes, I hunted. A bird flew in, so I caught and ate it. Happy now?”

One advantage of looking like a beast was that ridiculous excuses like this could actually sound plausible.

“But there are no feathers.”

…Apparently, it wasn’t working.

“May I go inside and check?”

“I told you I ate all the feathers too! And why are you touching the lock? Just try coming in. I won’t let you off.”

Helens growled genuinely, like a beast protecting its territory. The soldiers stepped back nervously at the sight of her exposed fangs.

“Ludwig.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Ludwig stepped forward, pushing past the soldiers. He snatched the key from one of them and unlocked the cage.

Click.

At the sound of the lock opening, Helens’s heart sank.

At that moment, Carlisle quietly took hold of Helens’s hand.

“…?”

When Helens turned toward him, Carlisle whispered with only his lips.

‘He’s gone.’

‘Gone?’

While Helens was still confused, the duke had already strode inside the building enclosed by the cage.

And then—

Nothing.

The man should have been discovered the moment the duke entered. He had roughly hidden himself beneath the blanket, after all. So why wasn’t there any reaction?

Anxious because she had no idea what was happening, Helens heard Carlisle whisper very softly beside her.

“Listen carefully, Helens. Be careful with your food.”

No sooner had Carlisle finished speaking than the duke and Ludwig emerged from the building. Carlisle quickly stepped away from Helens.

“Fortunately, the inside of this place is perfectly safe, Your Highness.”

The duke shamelessly said something completely absurd as he stepped outside the cage.

He had clearly gone inside to check for anything suspicious, yet he was pretending he had merely checked whether the place was safe.

“Well, thank you very much.”

For reasons she still didn’t understand, Helens shamelessly played along.

The duke naturally stepped outside the cage and locked it again.

‘She can speak. She can even hold a conversation. And they’re still keeping her locked up.’

Even at a glance, the cage was in such a miserable condition that Carlisle had to grit his teeth to suppress his rising anger.

He wanted to take Helens out of there immediately, but he had to retreat for now.

‘Or perhaps I should say… we have no choice but to retreat.’

His mouth felt bitter.

Please, let the duke not decide that Helens was a threat.

Please, let Helens be clever enough to keep herself alive.

Carlisle forced his reluctant feet to move.

Beside him, Duke Grace was also lost in a storm of thoughts.

‘She didn’t recognize the prince.’

She hadn’t asked who he was, but her gaze toward the brother she was seeing again after so long had been completely indifferent.

‘All right, perhaps I can understand that when it comes to the prince. But Ludwig? No.’

The princess, who used to tremble violently whenever she saw Ludwig, had looked at him today as indifferently as she would look at a passing cow.

Her mind had returned, but her memories had not.

Would the princess’s memories return as well?

And what exactly was that bloodstain?

As the duke’s thoughts grew deeper, a letter from the Empire arrived at his office.

It was a letter ordering that the princess be escorted to the Empire for research into the curse.

“What? What the hell?”

After the duke and prince returned, Helens hurried back inside the cage.

The spot where the man with the injured head had been lying was completely empty.

“You said he was gone earlier.”

Carlisle had definitely whispered those words to her.

Gone.

Apparently, the man had disappeared just as mysteriously as he had appeared.

And Carlisle was the only one who had witnessed it.

If Carlisle hadn’t warned her, she would have behaved even more suspiciously.

Of course, the bloodstain alone was suspicious enough.

“But what was that guy, anyway? Why did he come here only to get beaten by me and then leave?”

“Who says I left?”

“Eek!”

Once again, Helens jumped at the voice coming from behind her.

But perhaps because it was the second time, she didn’t attack immediately as she had before.

“How dare you lock me in a place like this… Ugh.”

“Why do you keep passing out when I haven’t even hit you?!”

The man gasped for breath, grabbed the back of his neck, and collapsed.

No—

Halfway through falling, he suddenly regained consciousness and even managed to steady himself.

“What?”

What was this, some kind of freak show?

“I’d rather die than pass out in a filthy place like this.”

The man shuddered as he glared at Helens.

Helens felt wronged.

“Who told you to come in here? You barged in without permission and now you’re making a fuss.”

Seriously. How ridiculous.

As Helens stood there with a crooked expression, glaring at the man, her gaze dropped to his chest.

“Huh? Your wound…”

There was no wound.

Earlier, there had been scratches on the man’s chest from Helens’s claws. But now, there wasn’t even a trace of them.

The only evidence left was his tattered shirt.

“What are you?”

Dark energy began to creep up from beneath the man’s feet.

Helens instinctively took a step backward.

“What do you think I am?”

The man ran a hand through his hair and stared at Helens with pitch-black eyes.

“I’m a dragon.”

If anyone else had said it, it would have sounded like complete nonsense.

But Helens instinctively knew.

It was true.

“Are you the one who cursed me…?”

“Yes.”

Helens let out a short gasp.

First, the dragon’s secretary. Then the duke and the prince.

And now even a dragon had rolled straight into her life.

She couldn’t tell whether she was incredibly lucky or whether this was simply a sign that she wouldn’t have a single peaceful day in this life either.

Whatever it meant, Helens was exhausted.

“…But what are you doing right now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m cleaning.”

And when the dragon summoned a water spirit and began cleaning without offering a single explanation, all while wearing an expression of utter contempt, Helens genuinely felt like collapsing from exhaustion.

‘Did hitting his head against the wall earlier mess him up somehow?’

Helens wanted to cry at the thought that she might have to take responsibility for an incompetent dragon too.

“But you haven’t asked me why I cursed you.”

“Before I could ask, you suddenly started cleaning. I was so dumbfounded that I forgot for a moment.”

“So you are curious.”

Helens wasn’t actually curious about why he had cursed her.

She wanted to know how to break the curse.

But before she could even ask, the dragon began telling her his story.