I Became The Wife Of The Cursed Grand Duke Chapter 69

They had never explained it to her, but she already knew.

 

What happens when a human enters the Dark Curtain without the Lord’s permission.

 

The uninvited are killed instantly after a certain amount of time, and the fog makes visibility extremely unstable.

 

In addition, the veil is lurking with magical circles and objects that target them, as well as an infinite number of shadow demons.

 

She knows this from experience in her previous life. Of course, she didn’t experience it, but she witnessed it.

 

Near the Dark Curtain is a town called the Back Alley.

 

There were often wagers made there, with the goal of surviving the Dark Curtain.

 

The stakes were high for this annual event, but no one ever came away with the money.

 

Nevertheless, the recklessness of exploring the unknown never ceased.

 

Evelyn thought back to the past, to the devastation she had seen.

 

A dozen or so mercenaries had stumbled into the tents, their faces pale and dying.

 

“Kaaaah! Help me!”

 

The shadows beneath their feet swallowed them up in an instant, and their grotesque screams echoed in all directions.

 

That made it even harder to understand.

 

In her previous life, she had come and gone from this place without a care in the world.

 

‘What could be the reason? I’m surely a pet approved by the master of the North.’

 

Shoot!

 

Even as she spoke, the curtain, which was as big as a house, opened its gaping mouth and devoured the earth.

 

If she were to see the end of the world one day, she wondered if it would look like this.

 

Overwhelmed by the sight before her, Evelyn stared straight ahead, forgetting to close her mouth.

 

But her admiration was short-lived.

 

She couldn’t meet the oncoming shroud helplessly.

 

She ran a sporadic stream of magic through her fingertips, thinking. She looked back at Kalian and was about to ask him what he meant.

 

“Ugh!”

 

A strong force was applied to her abdomen, and then her body was grabbed by something unknown and pulled backward as if she were being whisked away.

 

The aura on her fingertips shattered into fragments and scattered into thin air.

 

Without a chance to resist, her back slammed into a rock-hard chest.

 

“Ouch!”

 

A sharp pain shot through her, followed by an eerily low voice from above her head.

 

“Dangerous.”

 

He whispered in a tone that sounded strangely familiar.

 

Fighting the sinking sensation in her heart, she slowly turned her head.

 

Then she saw the shadow around her waist being sucked into a large palm. Kalian had unleashed his dark power and grabbed her.

 

“This is not your place.”

 

She could hear the rustle, the frosty rasp of scales.

 

A series of harsh, animal-like breaths pierced her back, sending a chill down her spine.

 

“Ka-Kalian?”

 

Surely, she wasn’t about to lose her mind here?

 

But as if to betray her disbelief, he crouched over her and held her with his weight as if in bondage.

 

The immense force of his back pressed against her entire body, making it difficult to breathe.

 

“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, huh!”

 

A gust of wind whipped her hair into a mess. Her vision was going white, and her mind was becoming increasingly fuzzy.

 

On the verge of passing out.

 

“Kalian!”

 

Reaching out, she grasped his hand urgently, enveloped in a black aura.

 

Then, with the last of her strength, she whispered.

 

“Please, wake up! Please!”

 

Just as she thought it was over, the grip on her abdomen loosened.

 

“Huh!”

 

Evelyn’s breath came in sharply, and a trickle of blood spurted from her nose and mouth.

 

“Oh, shit! Evelyn!”

 

She lurched forward, and Kalian caught her urgently.

 

She couldn’t see his face, so she couldn’t tell the color of his eyes, but he seemed mildly surprised by the situation, and not in a rage.

 

Perhaps he, too, had been momentarily distracted by some unknown force.

 

As if to reinforce her suspicions, the backs of Kalian’s hands stiffened as he cradled her sagging body.

 

“Are you okay? I don’t know what I did…”

 

He reached up and crudely wiped the blood from her face.

 

His panic was palpable, and he couldn’t control the strength of his grip, which worried him more than her.

 

Covering her bleeding mouth, Evelyn raised her other hand to signal that she was okay.

 

Whirling-!

 

The wind was still howling.

 

“Your Majesty, you must depart.”

 

By now, the knights in full formation surrounded them like an iron cordon, and Kalian scooped her up into his arms.

 

She felt safe with him, knowing he would protect her.

 

She’d be lying if she said this didn’t scare her, but it didn’t.

 

Swallowing hard against the back of her throat, Evelyn tightened her arms around his neck a little more.

 

The smell of death grew closer.

 

Then time seemed to slow to a crawl, and only the thumping, frantic beating of his heart rang in his ears.

 

“It’s okay, don’t be scared, close your eyes.”

 

He whispered softly.

 

“I’ll protect you this time.”

 

As she tried to close her eyes as he said, she could see a shadowy figure rising from the hard body of the man holding her.

 

It was a common precursor when he lost control of his emotions or power.

 

She could feel him trying to exert his power, and the anxiety that had faded returned with a vengeance.

 

“In case you don’t believe me, the Dark Curtain is a collection of my soul.”

 

As if to reassure her, Kalian stroked her tense back.

 

“It is only my power that can move the veil, and not even the gods dare to tamper with the dimensions created by fueling my soul.”

 

Suddenly, the rumors of the Dark Curtain came flooding back.

 

Rumors of a shield constructed from the souls of ancestors who had met their unfortunate end.

 

But the touch was so tender that Evelyn’s thoughts were interrupted by the gentle stroking of his hand, and she relaxed.

 

It was only a matter of moments before her tense shoulders sagged and her consciousness sank.

 

[My love, I will wait for you forever].

 

At the same time, an overlapping voice rings in her ears like a hallucination.

 

Shoot!

 

Through the blurring of her vision, a veil that soared overhead like a gigantic wave poured down.

 

 

* * *

 

 

As if rising to the surface from deep water, Evelyn suddenly awakened to consciousness.

 

“Huh!”

 

She opened her eyes and had only one thought.

 

“My head hurts so much. No, more than that, I’m so thirsty. My throat is tearing up. Some water, please.”

 

But there was no answer, not even a pretense of response.

 

Panicked, she lifted her head and looked around at her knights.

 

She stood alone in the darkness, with black waves roiling all around her.

 

‘Where had they all gone?’

 

“Ka, Kalian…?”

 

Her jaw trembled, and her limbs felt numb as if they were gone. She could have sworn she was limbless.

 

Evelyn jerked her gaze downward. She didn’t mean to check, but she could see her feet. ‘Should she be relieved?’

 

She looked down a little further, and the smell of blood stung her nose. As if to prove that what had happened earlier hadn’t been an illusion, the black blood had congealed into a pool.

 

“This is no time for this.”

 

Evelyn pushed herself to her feet, forcing her will to be weak, and looked around.

 

Fortunately, she spotted a door not far away, letting in a faint glow of light.

 

Without a moment’s hesitation, Evelyn approached and threw the door wide open.

 

“Kalian…?”

 

As she stepped through the door, she was greeted with the sight of a giant work of art, and she couldn’t help but stare.

 

The blizzard was nowhere to be seen. Instead, tiny snowflakes, like flowers in full bloom, were all she could see.

 

But she doesn’t have time to be sentimental.

 

She brushed a light dusting of snow off her shoulders, searching for any sign of Kalian.

 

[Halt, human].

 

Evelyn stopped in her tracks at the call, and her heart instantly froze.

 

Black hair, red eyes.

 

A man with an eerily familiar face greeted her, half lying on a large rock.

 

“Are you…”

 

[Why are you frightened? Well, of course you are, I am Aether, god of death and guardian of the netherworld].

 

The evil god, Kalian’s alter ego.

 

He inhabited Kalian’s right arm and inherited the power of the Black Aura but sealed his power with a rage.

 

This was said to be a safeguard against humans gaining power comparable to the gods.

 

Evil gods are gods.

 

It was the will of the Netherworld, and Evelyn had no choice but to comply, but the memory of Kalian’s suffering from the Runaway was not a pleasant one.

 

And a guardian of the Netherworld.

 

‘Does he still think of himself as omnipotent?’

 

Then, as if reading her thoughts, Aether chuckled lowly.

 

[Heh! That’s ridiculous. It was the master of this body who imprisoned me in his realm. He took my power to satisfy his selfish desires].

 

“Selfish desires?”

 

[Yes, the desire to save the woman he loved, though in the end, he failed to save anything].

 

He summoned an evil god for the woman he loved.

 

She heard that Kalian mastered the black aura before he was ten years old.

 

Evelyn shook her head in disbelief and glared at him fiercely.

 

“Whether Kalian made a selfish choice or not, that’s not the point. You have something you want, too, and you’re parasitized by a strong body, aren’t you?”

 

[You humans are a bunch of wretches, running your mouths about a subject like wild beasts in the rain!]

 

Evelyn’s shoulders twitched at his cold expression. But she didn’t want to appear weak.

 

It would be ridiculous to call it rebellion if she tried to fight her way out of it, much less let the evil god let her go.

 

It would be better to say what she wants to say without wanting to say it.

 

“I’m going to be an asshole, so don’t deal with me anymore, just send me back to where I belong.”