I Became The Monster Duke’s Second Wife - Chapter 64

Meanwhile, Grace, who had a peaceful morning, finished breakfast with Arthur and Leon.

Afterwards, Grace, who handed Leon over to Sir Oliver for lessons with the tutor, went with Arthur to the East Tower. Because she wanted to take a look at the documents that Arthur had investigated which he mentioned in the last night’s conversation about the curse he was entangled in.

Grace stood side by side with Arthur in front of the front porch of the East Tower. Arthur said, placing a bundle of keys he was holding on to Grace’s hand.

“The door to the basement is at the end of the hallway, which you can see around the right corner from here. It should be locked now, and the biggest key here is the key to the closed door. And this little one here is the key to the second door you see when you go down the stairs. And the smallest and most exquisitely shaped one is the key to the innermost stone chamber of the basement.”

“All right. Thank you.”

“To prevent damage to the books and documents, it is kept out of light, and there will be a lot of dust because it has not been maintained for a long time. Please be careful.”

“Don’t worry. I’m used to dark and dusty places. That’s what my bedroom was like at Duke Alberton’s place.”

To Arthur’s concerns, Grace responded bravely, saying “Don’t worry”.

After that, Arthur’s eyes filled with sorrow just like a mother’s eyes watching the child. Arthur said as he swept Grace’s drooping hair, who was deliberately dressed in simple attire, to explore the basement of the East Tower.

“You don’t have to get used to that from now on. You are more precious to me than anyone else in the world and you deserve to be treated well, my wife. So from now on, if you have any inconveniences or deficiencies, please feel free to let me know.”

“Okay. I will.”

Grace smiled softly at Arthur’s kind words and kissed the corner of his mouth that was exposed under the mask.

Then, shyly, he swept his finger down the part where Grace’s lips touched while smiling while she spoke affectionately to Arthur.

“Now you go up. I’ll go down to the basement.”

“All right. My wife. Please be careful. I’ll pick up you in three hours.”

Arthur gently kissed the back of Grace’s gloved hand to see her off, and soon took a step back and headed for the office.

Grace looked at him until she couldn’t see his back, and when he was no longer in sight, she turned around the right corner of the ground floor.

And as she walked down the long hallway, she saw a door with a big lock at the end of the hallway, as Arthur said. Grace went straight to the door, inserted the first key into the lock, and unlocked it.

Soon, with the sound of rusty iron sliding, the closed-door opened, revealing a dark space.

Grace took off the small glass lamp on the wall at the beginning of the stairs, held it in her hand, and stepped down the stairs. Of course, she didn’t forget to close the door she had opened from inside, just in case.

She, relying on the small glass lamp, went down a long flight of stairs.

There was nothing around the stairs, and every time Grace’s shoes hit the hard stone stairs, there was a *thud, thud, thud, thud* sound. Grace, who was a little frightened by the slightly gloomy atmosphere, accelerated her steps.

At last, when she had come down all the stairs, she saw the second door in front of her, as Arthur had said.

Unlike the first door on the first floor, which was all made of wood except for the part with the lock, Grace pushed the second key into the lock of the door, which was entirely made of iron.

After that, the lock was unlocked with a click sound. Grace whimpered and pushed the door, which had rusted hinges because of not getting opened for a long time.

Squeak—

It didn’t open even when she pushed it with her hands, so she pushed the door with her shoulders, and the door finally barely opened.

Grace quickly entered the door and locked it from inside just in case. Grace then lifted the lamp high, confirming that the door was locked tightly inside.

“…….Oh my goodness.”

Soon the light of the glass lamp shone on the hidden basement scene, and Grace was briefly impressed to see it.

Last night, as Arthur said he had collected enough relevant documents to fill the basement. So Grace had vaguely imagined a place like his father’s study, where there were frantic piles of parchment and various books.

But it was different from Grace’s imagination. The long bookshelves filled within the large stone chamber, which seemed to fit two or three bedrooms together, and the books and documents placed it, like a huge library. Grace was half mesmerized by the vast amount of data that made it hard to know where to start.

‘What should I do? Should I go around lightly first?’

Grace, who had been contemplating for a moment, took a quick look around and then decided to open the last third key to confirm it, and then went on.

As Arthur said, Grace stood in front of the last door, at the innermost corner of the stone chamber. She was crouching for no reason against the old dust scattered around and spider webs are seen in the corner of the wall, which seemed to have been collected since the place wasn’t managed at all.

It was the innermost secret place, with a fine lock hanging, quite different from the two doors Grace had opened so far. The key, unlike anything else, had an exquisite pattern, and Grace had to struggle with the lock hole while holding the key in front of it.

“Open!”

After a struggle of her own, Grace, who had even opened the previous door, opened this closed door and went inside.

She only opened three doors and came inside, but she felt like she had a very big adventure. So Grace looked around the stone chamber in the innermost part of the basement with a somewhat proud feeling.

“……This place is a mess.”

Grace murmured, picking up pieces of parchment and books scattered on the floor.

Even though it had been out of reach for a long time, the outside of the stone chamber was like a somewhat organised library. But, this place was like an alchemist’s laboratory that didn’t know how to organise.

In the seemingly chaotic landscape of the stone chamber, Grace was convinced that there must be a book or letter in it that hid the important secrets related to Duke Felix’s curse.

‘Shall I take a look at what I have in my hands first?’

As Grace was looking for a place to sit to look at the pieces of parchment and books she was holding in her hand, an old sofa and table located in the corner came into view.

Grace sat down, carefully placing a glass lamp on the old, unbalanced table, then rummaging through the old sofa with her hands. Then, at the sudden smell of dust, Grace shrugged and looked at the parchment paper she was holding in the light of the lamp.

“Well, it’s all in the magical language. I can’t read any of them.”

The yellowish part is parchment, and the black part is writing. Grace sighed deeply as she looked at the parchment, which was filled with magical language drawn like a winding painting.

From the moment her father, Duke Alberton, realised that she was not born with magical abilities unlike her older sister Marianne, he had excluded her from all education related to magic. For that reason, Grace had only a level of knowledge that could vaguely distinguish whether this was a document in the Imperial language or a magical language.

‘I guess  I can see why Arthur couldn’t find out about the secret.’

She wondered if she could find out the secret Arthur hadn’t found out at that time, but it wasn’t easy for her too. Grace sighed in frustration and fiddled with the parchment in vain regret.

At that time, she should have been stubborn and learned the magical language with Marianne. Or, when she hid in the study of her father a few days ago, Duke Alberton, she should have looked not only for records but also for textbooks to learn the magical language.

With such regret, Grace stared at the parchment, which she could never interpret.

‘Why don’t I have magical powers? It would have been nice if I had the strength at times like this.’

Then she could have relieved Arthur and Leon of their burden.

Grace, who had been thinking about it, immediately shook her head with a bitter smile. If that had been the case, she would not have been with Duke Felix but had a rivalry with his older sister Marianne for the crown prince. Or she would have married a powerful family in another capital city.

That was the time when Grace comforted herself that it was better to have no magical abilities.

“Oh my god!”

Suddenly, a faint blue light came out from the letters on the parchment in Grace’s hand.

[T/N: Is it the same faint blue light that saved Grace once in the past? Or is it something else…. (+_+)?]

Soon after that, the magical language that had been completely unreadable until a moment ago changed its form as it danced strangely in front of Grace.

The wriggling, moving like a living creature, changing its arrangement, soon turned into the ‘imperial language’ and created a sentence in front of Grace.

[God hates those who have strong power.]

When something magical happened right before her eyes, Grace was startled and dropped the piece of parchment she was holding.

She wondered if this was an illusion created by her own earnestness. However, the letters in the piece of parchment that fell on the floor constantly moved like a living creature in front of Grace’s eyes, transforming the magical language written on it into the ‘imperial language’.

[Those who dares to obtain power comparable to that of a God will be punished by a curse.]

[The curse will run from blood to blood. He who has inherited the blood of the curse the most. The mother who gave birth to him will suffer from a difficult childbirth, and the father will suffer from endless greed. He, too, will live his short life with pain and suffering.]

[You should be especially careful of those who have different colours in their eyes. They are the ones who have the most power against the will of God.]

[If he who uses his power, he who uses that, the price will be paid by the annihilation of his soul.]

[So don’t try to connect the blood. Don’t try to have that power. His blood is the blood of the one whom God hates most, and his power bears the curse of God.]

The letters that danced on the parchment, like insects crawling, stopped only after the magical language written on the parchment was all changed to the imperial language.