His voice implied something ominous, so Siervian couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean by the ‘Curse of the Elverdottes’?”

“Heh. Hahahaha!”

At her cautious question, the Duke burst into what seemed like hysterical laughter. As if he had given up, he released the anti-magic necklace he had been holding and looked at Siervian. Then, in a voice hoarse with emotion, he said, “Of course, the Pacour dukedom has power that is second only to the emperor.”

“Yes, so…”

“In such a great dukedom, don’t you think it’s strange that there hasn’t been a single mage until now?”

Siervian’s eyes widened at the unexpected fact. The Northern Empire was known as a magical powerhouse. However, that didn’t mean the absolute number of mages was large. In the first place, the aptitude to manifest magic beyond simple mana affinity was very rare.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a real Pacour mage.’

Siervian had studied history books countless times yet couldn’t recall any mage with the Pacour surname. That fact suddenly felt very strange.

‘No matter how rare the aptitude, how could that be possible?’

The Pacour dukedom had been a prestigious family since the time of the first emperor. It was because they were the family of the meritorious subject who had helped the first emperor establish the empire. Naturally, the dukedom had often engaged in political marriages with archmages and mages, so this was definitely strange.

‘Of course, our empire’s mages have a wider range of abilities than other kingdoms.’

Other kingdoms held relatively many lower-level mages of noble origin. This was because nobles often married into the mage class. However, the empire did not follow that practice. There were overwhelmingly fewer lower-level mages compared to other kingdoms; in fact there was a saying that one could not be called a mage of the north with mediocre abilities.

“That is the Curse of the Elverdottes.”

[Hannibel Pacour]
Mood: Deep hatred
Thoughts: Damn this bastard…!

It didn’t seem he was lying to escape the crisis. As a sudden truth was about to be revealed, Siervian responded calmly.

“Mages originally have a rare aptitude, so it’s possible that the dukedom simply didn’t have the blessing of mana.”

“Ha! No, this is a curse that the first emperor afflicted on our Pacour family. That damn harmin grass was actually a shackle in disguise!”

Siervian’s expression hardened as soon as harmin grass was mentioned.

“That harmin grass that disrupts mana instead of replenishing it, is that what you mean?”

Siervian deliberately hit the nail on the head, hoping that the dukedom’s plot to switch the real harmin and karmin that the first emperor had arranged would be revealed.

“Heh heh, you already knew. Yes, our family was chosen because of the nature of that damn harmin. The first duke was a piece of trash with no mana affinity.”

‘What…?’

However, only a shocking tale issued from his mouth.

“Over generations, this kind of bloodline could have improved! However, the first emperor cursed us! So that all who inherit the name Pacour would never receive the blessing of mana!”

“What kind of…”

Siervian was shocked, but Hannibel muttered like a madman about the shackles of this bloodline that had tormented him his entire life.

“We married archmages for generations, but it always stayed the same. Despite all those unions with mages, we only managed to gain a little mana affinity!”

At that moment, Siervian reflexively recalled Hannibel from before. He couldn’t even properly activate the powerful mental magic resistance necklace.

“You’re saying that you didn’t originally switch the harmin grass?”

“Ha, is that the reason for this dukedom’s purge? Heh, you’ve got it all figured out.”

[Hannibel Pacour]
Thoughts: It seems the first emperor’s records aren’t properly kept in the treasury either? Haha. The truth will be buried forever.

She didn’t know about the other meritorious dukedoms, but the reason for this Pacour dukedom’s purge was clear. It was because they had committed heinous crimes. She was sick of Hannibel trying to blame everything on the first emperor.

“Even if everything you’ve said so far is true, it doesn’t justify the crimes you’ve committed. What was lacking in the dukedom, other than the fact that no mages could be born?”

The dukedom had vast funds and power and kept many mages under its command. Even if the rare aptitude was not allowed in the dukedom, it meant that they could utilize the power and usefulness of magic better than any other nobles in the empire.

“That’s something we barely achieved with the harmin tea! You Elverdottes monopolized magic power, sitting on the throne for generations. But why should we, who established the empire together, continue to be incompetent?”

The more he listened, the more Siervian couldn’t stop the anger rising in her chest.

‘How could anyone think like this?’

Siervian herself had been born into royalty and had been unable to use magic. There had definitely been a time when she had considered herself useless and wallowed in self-pity.

‘But even so, I never resented other people like this!’

She had never thought to threaten everyone’s lives out of resentment.

“Eiyem Pacour was renowned as an outstanding botanist. The ‘108 Flora of the Empire’ he left behind is still used as a required textbook among botanists.”

“What are you talking about now…”

“Gallia Pacour was an outstanding head of diplomatic relations and contributed to the development of magical formulas. Bofo Pacour was a duke and a saint who practiced medicine in the slums!”

“……”

“The bad bloodline you mentioned that didn’t receive the blessing of mana! They all contributed to this empire and lived for the people!”

Siervian had in her head all the famous figures recorded in history books.

However, Hannibel was taken aback as the accomplishments of his ancestors flowed smoothly from Siervian’s mouth.

“They may not have been mages, but they tried! What have you done in comparison?”

Hannibel’s face flushed at the young princess’ rebuke. His face contorted in anger, and he could endure no more.

Finally, Siervian could no longer contain her anger and exclaimed,

“And Damian! My brother, a splendid crown prince and mage, is of the legitimate ducal lineage!”

At this, the duke, whose face had been flushed as if he’d been struck, suddenly broke into a grin.

“Yes… Damian was born.”

His cruel smile startled Siervian.

‘What?’

As a precaution, Siervian opened her eyes wide as she instinctively cast an attack spell.

She didn’t want to miss a single one of Hannibel’s vile thoughts.

“Yes, Damian is the… breakthrough of this filthy lineage.”

[Hannibel Pacour]
Thought: Although he ended up more closely resembling the emperor because of the use of magical conception, he is still of the Pacour lineage.
It was worth breaking the taboo, heheh.

Witnessing his shocking inner thoughts, Siervian pressed him, almost screaming.

“You broke the taboo? What did you do to my brother?!”

Hannibel continued to answer as if he had read her mind.

“The taboo, heheh, you know? The taboo that has been passed down through generations, forbidding political marriage between the ducal family and the imperial family.”

Hannibel’s coughs had become more frequent. It seemed that his mind was clouding as the bleeding in his abdomen continued.

‘I don’t want to save him. I don’t want to heal such an evil person!’

Strangely, she didn’t feel like continuing the healing spell.

If he were to faint without revealing the information, then there would be no choice.

“But when that girl Cybelle, heheh, said she wanted to marry the crown prince, I suddenly realized. Maybe the first emperor used the taboo as a way to… cough, shackle us.”

So Hannibel pushed for the political marriage between Cybelle and Alderuan, despite the opposition of the previous duke.

The previous emperor, like Pacour, had great pride in his lineage. That’s why he had welcomed the marriage with the ducal family.

“That’s how Damian was born.”

Although he was not conceived naturally due to Alderuan’s refusal, but through magical conception, it was still a union of the imperial and ducal families.

“I didn’t like the idea of washing away the traces of the curse of Elverdotte with… heh, the blood of Elverdotte.”

“….”

“But it couldn’t be helped. It’s true that, heheh, Pacour is part of its composition.”

Siervian frowned at Hannibel’s objectification of Damian.

His attitude of treating others as mere tools filled her with physiological disgust.

“Don’t speak of my brother like that!”

Now she could understand why the empress couldn’t understand why only Siervian herself, not Damian, was called the ‘proper child.’

The secret that surrounded Damian was whether it was acceptable to break the taboo and whether he was born as an experiment in magical conception.

“If Damian is the only imperial descendant left… the blood of the empire will be forever tainted with Pacour… cough, I should have… cough, terminated you in the cradle.”

Hannibel’s body began to tilt. Even speaking seemed to become more difficult.

‘Why on earth?’

[Hannibel Pacour]
Thought: I also wanted to become a mage… the frustration of desiring an ability I could never have, the imperial family could never understand!
How I resent my father for proudly declaring the truth.

Hannibel gazed into the distance, lost in thought. Siervian understood that frustration better than anyone and didn’t ask.

He was not worthy of anyone’s understanding.

‘Let’s just end this.’

Instead, Siervian had kept her lips pursed and finally decided to simply extract the information quickly.

“Where have you hidden the evidence of your crimes?”

—