Chapter 33. Staff of Curses

"Let's set that aside and talk about the serious matters." Dimitri slipped his gloves back on. He placed away the boxes of face powder, and tucked them into a heavily-secured drawer. "You should know that I—a Crown Prince—didn't invite you over only to discuss about my... hobbies."

Lucilline listened attentively. He tucked a strand of wavy black hair behind a pearly white ear, and his expression gradually turned serious.

"Recently, the news of S Academy being destroyed by a demon invasion... has spread throughout the streets." Dimitri sighed. "The common and noble folk are all restless now, thinking that they might be invaded by demons at any time. After all, we still haven't figured out how the demons managed to sneak into Lydia Kingdom without notice."

For once, the Crown Prince looked a tad bit tired. His eyes fell, languidly.

"Why exactly are you telling me this, Your Highness?" Lucilline asked. He shifted to the edge of his seat, and his back lifted from the backrest.

Lucilline was just the third son of Duke Rubius. He barely took part in politics or business. After all, he was merely fifteen-years-old, and was attending school until a day ago. He also wasn't the heir to the Grand Duke position. His older brother is the heir—so Lucilline could just set back and relax.

Why would the Crown Prince confide such news to him?

"You may not think this, but you're actually quite involved in this mess." Dimitri sighed. "After all, you have something that I need."

Lucilline: ???

He was exasperated, "But I don't have anything...?" He has money, but he knows the Crown Prince has plenty of that. He also has jewelry, but he's confident that the Crown Prince wouldn't find him just to grab a few pounds of jewelry.

What does he have that the Crown Prince needs?

"Silly." Dimitri's lips curved upwards in amusement. "Why don't you think harder?"

Lucilline, "..." He felt kind of insulted. Taking deep breaths, Lucilline winded his head and memories. However, no matter how he thought, he could not figure it out.

Dimitri recognized his look of loss.

He rested his chin on his palm, tilting his head at an angle while watching the black-haired nobleman. "Did you forget? Since the Royal family has the Sword of Gravity—an artifact—the other Grand Duke Houses would naturally have one as well."

"Oh." Lucilline's lips blurted out an 'o', but he was still baffled.

"But Your Highness, I don't have an artifact. It's my father—Duke Rubius who keeps the artifact." His eyebrows furrowed like a child, whose candy was just stolen from him.

After the Rubius, Delta, and Leinhart Houses were deemed as Grand Dukes, the Royal family handed down an ancient artifact to each of them. These ancient artifacts were especially special and destructive. It could not be handled by normal mortals. There was no way Lucilline could keep such a thing at his dispense.

"That doesn't matter." Dimitri did not care. "You're the only Rubius member who I've communicated to. I've tried contacting Duke Rubius, but he doesn't even respond to my messages."

Lucilline: ...of course he wouldn't respond. My old man's sick in bed and hasn't seen the sun for ages.

"I cannot contact your older sister... she's supposedly training in the military. Your older brother is busy roaming around the borders of Lydia Kingdom and managing business in the commoners' land. Therefore, you're the only Rubius member who I've contacted so far." Dimitri listed out all the reasons.

A ray of sunlight shone unto the Crown Prince's hair, making it shine a glisten of soft golden glow.

The sunlight had softened his facial expression, lightening his contours and making him appear more gentle than before. His sharp chin mellowed out the shadows underneath, revealing the handsome and bewitching collarbones, with the smooth wheat skin.

"Therefore, I can only ask you to get the artifact from Duke Rubius." Dimitri smiled.

Lucilline's eyes narrowed, with his golden irises shining a curious light.

The Royal family has the Sword of Gravity. It granted its beholder the power to crush anything in front of its sword by manipulating the gravity. But not everyone have the capability to wield such a powerful weapon. The Leinhart House has the Snowflake of Immortality. This artifact have the ability to grant immortality, but only if its wielder can withstand the harsh cold of the snow.

If its wielder could not withstand the harsh cold, then they would just immediately die instead of gaining immortality. It was said that a maiden had once wanted her husband to use this artifact—to become immortal. Instead, her husband couldn't stand the cold and passed away.

The maiden was heartbroken and jumped off a building. Since then, nobody dared to underestimate the Snowflake of Immortality.

The Delta House has the Book of Revelation. This artifact took shape in a book of blank pages. It can answer any questions asked of it, but its wielder must sacrifice something extremely important to them. Often, nobody would sacrifice something important just to get an answer to their question.

Lastly, the Rubius House has the Staff of Curses. This is a staff capable of implementing curses or eliminating curses. In other words, it can bring harm but also erase them. It was exactly this staff that Duke Rubius used to cast the Sequence Contract on Willow and Lucilline.

"What do you want the Staff of Curses for?" Lucilline frowned, his light coral red lips pouted.

Dimitri found his expression amusing. "Do not worry, Young Master Rubius." His face was cheery, making quite a contrast to Lucilline's cautious one. "I will not use the Staff for evil. I can promise that."

The tension in the air could almost become visible.

Lucilline still did not trust the Crown Prince. "The Staff of Curses can either curse somebody or remove their curse. Are you telling me that you want to remove someone's curse?"

"Well," Dimitri prolonged his tone, "It's not guaranteed that I'll need the Staff."

He saw the distrustful look on the black-haired nobleman's face. It was especially entertaining to the Crown Prince, he couldn't help but linger his gaze on those cherry red lips.

Slowly, he peeled his gaze away.

"Do you know who is in charge of protecting Lydia Kingdom from the demons?" Dimitri asked.

Lucilline nodded. "The Holy Church Organization." After the war between demons and Lydia Kingdom, the Holy Church Organization rose in power. They were an association created to prevent any demons from invading and making trouble.

What made Lucilline hesitate though was—he remembered Augustine's words.

"You will stalk the heroine. You will beat up all the male leads until they end up in the hospital. You will kill and massacre an entire organization, then lead an army of demons to attack Lydia Kingdom." Lucilline knew that the "entire organization" meant the Holy Church Organization.

In the novel, he had massacred the Holy Church, which led to the demons overrunning Lydia Kingdom.

Lucilline wondered what made him massacre the association. Had he just gone mad? Or was there a reason...?

"After the demons' invasion on S Academy, the citizens began to complain about the Holy Church." Dimitri informed, "In their words, apparently, the Holy Church isn't diligent enough and caused such a destruction to occur. Therefore, the Holy Church is going to conduct much more expeditions, and have a higher security."

November and the other demons still haven't been caught. They may still be lurking in Lydia Kingdom, for what they know. If demons like November managed to infiltrate into Lydia Kingdom, then there is the possibility of many other demons infiltrating.

This made the citizens' skin crawl. They panicked, and demanded for the Holy Church Organization to be better at their job. Now, the Holy Church patrol guards could be seen wandering everywhere on the streets.

"What does this have to do with the Staff of Curses?" Lucilline was sceptical.

Dimitri arched an eyebrow. He smirked, "I have a premonition that the Holy Church is using curses."

The two boys sat still, unmoving. They stared at one another, with their gazes clashing like oil against water. The atmosphere was heavy, and the pressure pressed against their shoulders.

Finally, Lucilline broke the silence.

"Why?" His eyes glimmered like a sly cat.

Dimitri leaned backwards lazily, completely abandoning his gentlemanly demeanour. He was like a predator—resembling a handsome lion, waiting impatiently and growling to scare its prey. Easily, he crossed a leg over another, wrinkling his white trousers and suit.

"It is just a suspicion." Dimitri smiled, revealing a tiger tooth at the top right corner.

Lucilline's eyebrows furrowed. He examined the Crown Prince, looking for a trace that might betray what was on his mind. There was none.

His chest heaved, as he laid back in his chair.

Lucilline brushed many strands of black hair behind his ear, "I'll ask father—I mean, Duke Rubius for permission. Considering that you are the Crown Prince after all... However, please don't have high expectations. There's an extremely low chance that Duke Rubius will borrow you the Staff of Curses."

"...how low?" Dimitri was curious.

Lucilline huffed, "As low as the Snowflake of Immortality's temperature."

Dimitri, "..." That was extremely low.

The Snowflake of Immortality could freeze mortals to their death in an instant. Just how low was the chance of Duke Rubius complying...?

"Then I'll look forward to good news." Dimitri did not feel down. He merely gave a smile, lacking the intimidation from earlier.

In the end, Lucilline had left. He had to drag Augustine away from the palace servants, for the latter were caught up in dressing the poor butler up, and messed around for majority of the time. Most of the palace servants were elderly women/grandmothers, who longed to dress up their sons—thus finding the handsome Augustine as their perfect substitute.

For some odd reason, Augustine couldn't find himself refusing the elderly. He was wrung up in their conversation and shenanigans.

When Lucilline finally came downstairs to drag him away, the butler felt like he'd been shoved a mouthful of fresh air. Thank goodness it's over.

(P.S. Augustine, when he saw the box of face powder in Lucilline's hand: ???)

*****

They arrived before the gates of Duke Rubius' manor.

Lucilline meant to unlock the gate—only to realize that it was already unlocked! He felt the hairs on his arm raising, as if something uncanny was crawling through his skin. "Something isn't right." His Adam's apple bobbed, and his throat tingled.

Augustine also sensed that something was wrong.

They quickly rushed past the gate—only to find the land of over 500,000 traps were all overturned...! Lucilline felt cold all over.

He rushed forward—only to be pulled back by an unknown force.

It was Augustine, dragging him back by the wrist.

"...what are you doing?" Lucilline hissed. A part of him was telling him to rush forwards. Someone had managed to invade inside Duke Rubius' manor... past all 500,000 traps! What if it were the demons? Or the reincarnators? His father was ill and bedridden. What if something bad happened to him...!

Augustine's face had darkened.

It took a while, but he still urged himself to say it, "I have good memory." Augustine's grip on the black-haired nobleman's wrist was tight. "I can get you to Duke Rubius' manor without activating a single trap. Do you believe me?"

Lucilline was stunned.

For a second, he thought that the butler was trying to stop him from advancing. It turned out that Augustine was just preventing him from hurting himself.

"I'll carry you across." Augustine deadpanned. It didn't sound like he was negotiating.

It was an order.

If Lucilline hadn't known any better, he would've thought that Willow's spirit had merged with the butler's. After all, they are both servants that like to threaten their master.

"Ohh," Lucilline felt like cowering before the butler's strong command. He just nodded lightly.

Having gained the black-haired nobleman's permission, Augustine no longer hesitated. He swept Lucilline into a princess carry, mercilessly handling the latter.

Lucilline felt his eyes almost bulging out from his sockets. He desperately clung onto the butler's forearms, with the thick black fabric scrunched up in his palms. Now he understood how Percival felt—the sensation of having to clutch on something, or else they'd be blown away.

"Hold on." Augustine said with his low baritone-like voice.

In an instant, Lucilline felt a cool breeze sweep him off his feet. Augustine was effortlessly sprinting past the traps, despite the black-haired nobleman in his arms.

Lucilline's gaze lingered on the place where they touched—his back and legs. It felt like he was being burned there... while his torso leaned into the butler's arms. The wind cut his cheeks, with a scalding pain scorching his fair pale skin. They were racing past the land and trees... as if they'd been lifted onto clouds. Such a fleeting moment made his heart hammer against his chest.

"Almost there." Augustine was stunned, when he found the great villain curling up in his arms. He pursed his lips into a thin line.

He will make sure to go as fast as possible.

The two figures—one muscular and the other slender, embraced in the former's arms—had nimbly passed several traps. It felt like not even the heaviest winds could blow them away.

In an instant, Lucilline was plopped back down on the ground. "We've arrived."

Indeed, before them was the manor.

Lucilline gratefully looked at the butler, before turning away to the manor, hurrying to open the doors. Meanwhile, Augustine secretly glanced at his hands. The tips of his thickly calloused fingers had begun to burn crimson red.

The double doors had a slit left open.

Lucilline quickly pushed it open.

He and his butler was greeted by the sounds of glass crashing, and metal clashing at one against. Sparks rained throughout the entrance, and particles of glass shards showered throughout the air, landing sullenly onto the flooring.

Two spears crashed against one another, and metallic sparks ignited during every contact.

Mahogany red hair flung in the air, seemingly to have grown wings and fly away like a pair of doves. A young woman skidded on the ground. She was in a flashy white top, with long and lily white adorned sleeves, and a dark chocolate black dress. Her black heels clicked on the ground softly, barely grazing a sound. The young woman dodged the incoming spear, ducking her head effortlessly.

A crazed smile overcame her cherry red lips.

"I can't believe you!" She swung her own spear, with a sultry sound coming out from her voice. "Arguing against me just like when you were a kid! I thought you'd grown up?"

Her opponent was a lean young man, also with the same mahogany red hair. It was shoulder-length, yet still bounced in the riled up winds. He wore a casual white shirt, but with a black suit overlapped on top. His black tailcoat dangled off his jacket, as he blocked the incoming spear. His eyes were silvery grey, and squinted as the two spears clashed against one another.

Another round of metallic sparks rained.

"You're a fucking liar!" He swore. "You told me that you'd come back at Winter!"

"I did indeed." The young woman pressed against her weapon.

The young man was irked, "Well, where's the shitty snow? How come it's so warm and not cold? Even more, you dared to come back home on the same day as me! I wanted to give Lucy a surprise!"

"You said that you'd come back during Winter too!" The young woman argued. Her skirt swished past the spear, as she kicked upwards, knocking the young man's weapon out from his grasp.

However, the young man did not fear.

He just jumped, grabbing his weapon again.

The young woman stabbed her spear forwards, aiming for a vital spot. "You have no chance!" The young man smirked, blocking the blow. They battled in the air, then both landed on the dining table. A large crack seethed through the wooden table.

The two fellows did not care.

Lucilline slapped a hand on his face. "Sister... brother..."

Author's Note:

Guysss this is the last draft I have left! (;'༎ຶД༎ຶ') After publishing this, I will have to work on more... and maybe stash up on more chapters. Sorry if I update slow! I want to catch on the drafts, and that might take some time.