TGDHC Chapter 177

Chapter 177 – The End of the Curse

In the darkness, Meisel pushed her face between the iron bars.

“Grand Duke! I knew you would come!”

Her cheeks were hollow from how much weight she had lost.

Loic studied her condition calmly.

“You’ve gotten thinner.”

It almost sounded like concern.

Hopeful tears filled Meisel’s eyes.

“She’s been drained by the mana stone,” Enolius said flatly from behind. “Her strength will only keep getting weaker.”

“Then it should be even clearer,” Loic replied with a nod.

Norton stepped forward.

“Put your hand through the bars.”

“M-my hand?”

Meisel’s eyes shook with fear, but she slowly stretched her hand out.

As her thin wrist barely passed through the bars—

Norton suddenly grabbed it and yanked hard.

“Ah!”

Her entire arm was pulled out, and her face slammed against the cold iron bars with a loud bang.

Loic did not even blink.

“Grand Duke! Why are you doing this?!”

Meisel cried pitifully, her face pressed against the bars.

Ignoring her, Loic removed his black glove and stepped closer.

He grabbed her wrist.

“….”

She sobbed, but nothing else happened.

Loic’s heart beat with anticipation.

“There is no reaction,” Enolius said carefully.

Loic had already felt it—but he needed absolute certainty.

He let go and grabbed her wrist several times, checking carefully.

Finally, he looked at Enolius.

“Your mana is more stable now than ever before,” Enolius confirmed.

“Then… there is no longer any problem?”

Loic released Meisel’s wrist without hesitation.

Emotion surged inside him, and he clenched his jaw.

It was because of Annette.

After the imprinting, the two of them were perfectly connected.

Loic’s mana, which once raged like a violent storm, now flowed to Annette and returned to him calm and balanced like a peaceful lake.

The power that once threatened to go berserk had completely stabilized.

‘I don’t have to avoid women like a contagious patient anymore.’

‘I don’t have to send Annette out alone like a wife without a husband.’

‘I can stand proudly by her side.’

His throat tightened with emotion.

“Congratulations,” Norton said quietly.

He was the only knight who knew this secret. Though he hid it well, his voice was thick with feeling.

Loic nodded.

He had to tell Annette the curse was over.

He remembered how she once stopped herself from saying she wanted to attend the lakeside festival with him.

Now he could go anywhere she wished.

‘How happy will she be?’

She was probably asleep already—but he could not calm his heart.

‘I’ll at least go see her sleeping face.’

Just as Loic turned to leave—

“Grand Duke!”

Meisel burst into tears.

“Please listen to me! I can explain everything!”

Loic was certain the curse was gone. But he could not test it with just any woman.

Of course, the criminal who tried to threaten Annette’s life and take her place was an exception.

He felt no guilt using Meisel as a test.

Still, since she had given him the answer he wanted, he was willing to hear her final words.

“It was because of the mana stone necklace!” Meisel cried desperately. “Its evil energy tempted me—I couldn’t help it! And the shaman threatened to kill me! But I never intended to harm Her Highness!”

What a cliché excuse.

Loic narrowed his eyes.

“This might be your last chance before death. After days in prison, that’s all you’ve come up with?”

“D-death?”

Meisel pressed her face tightly against the bars.

“What do you mean, Grand Duke?!”

Grand Duke?

Loic’s anger flared at her using that familiar title without permission.

“When did I allow you to call me that?”

Only Annette—and the knights who called him Commander—could address him without formal honorifics.

When Annette called him “Grand Duke,” it made his heart flutter.

From Meisel, it only disgusted him.

“You.”

Loic’s teeth clenched.

“Because of you, the Grand Duchess was frightened.”

Meisel trembled.

“Because of you… my wife nearly couldn’t even ride in a carriage again.”

Annette, who loved going outside.

“Because of you.”

The thought that she might have been too afraid to return to the capital was unbearable.

“But she wasn’t even hurt!” Meisel shouted resentfully.

There was no remorse in her lemon-colored eyes.

“If even the tip of her finger had been injured,” Loic said coldly, eyes blazing, “you would have been displayed at the castle gates with your limbs severed.”

His voice carried true killing intent.

“Don’t bother hoping for escape. I’m only delaying your execution because I’m worried about the Grand Duchess.”

Annette was too soft-hearted to endure such things.

“What is the Grand Duchess to you?” Meisel suddenly snapped, venom filling her eyes.

“How am I any different from her?”

She gripped the bars so tightly her fingers turned white.

“I lived my whole life to become a woman worthy of you! In this harsh land, I endured everything while looking only at that position! How could you choose her? She’s just the daughter of a marquis—the enemy of the North!”

“She doesn’t suit you!”

“How ridiculous.”

Loic let out a dry laugh.

“The Grand Duchess doesn’t suit me.”

Meisel’s eyes widened with hope.

“Because someone like me is far too unworthy to have her.”

Her face fell into despair.

“That’s why I can’t forgive what you did,” Loic said, his hostility clear. “I’m already struggling to keep Annette by my side—and you dared to try and trip me up like this.”

The killing intent pouring from him made Meisel gasp for air.

“Commander,” Norton called carefully.

It took effort for Loic to calm his rage.

Perhaps because he resembled a dragon, it was not easy for him to control himself when angry.

Without another glance at Meisel, Loic turned away.

“Grand Duke! Please! Don’t go!”

Realizing this was the end, Meisel screamed desperately.

“I was wrong! I just liked you too much! Please don’t leave me alone! I’m scared!”

Her cries grew more like the wail of a beast as Loic walked up the stairs.

“Will you truly execute her?” Norton asked cautiously once they left the prison. “Count Abor won’t stay silent.”

“And rumors will spread to the capital.”

Loic pressed his lips together.

That was exactly why he hesitated.

If word spread that the daughter of a vassal family had been executed in Blenheim, the royal family would investigate.

And right now, attention must not turn toward the North.

For Annette’s safety.

“Keep her imprisoned for now,” Loic ordered firmly.

He would not delay the decision for long.

Then he headed toward Annette.

Meanwhile…

“Madam, aren’t you going home?”

Late at night, inside the brightly lit sewing room of Couteur.

The last remaining employee looked at Madam Lamondria cautiously.

“You go ahead. I’ll stay a bit longer.”

The employee bowed reluctantly and left.

Madam Lamondria.

The owner of Couteur, currently the most successful dress shop in the North.

When she first came to Blenheim, she had been filled with frustration.

She had once run the most fashionable dress shop in the capital—only to be pushed to the far, outdated North.

‘All because I failed to satisfy a single noble lady.’

Everything began when Lamondria was assigned to design the debutante dress of Ladriel, the second daughter of the Marquis of Freis.