The Cursed Beast Caught My Leash - Chapter 43

“Show me Estella’s letter again,” Maurice demanded as he barged into the queen’s chamber early in the morning.

The queen of Largo, Aliana, turned pale as she quickly rose from her seat at the vanity. The maids helping with her morning preparations were so startled that their shoulders shook.

Though they were all equally startled, they quickly bowed their heads to the king, who was already impatient.

“Hurry up!” he barked.

The queen handed over the letter, which had been sitting on a nearby table. Maurice, who had practically memorized its contents from reading it over and over, still read it again.

The letter, written in neat handwriting, simply stated that Estella was unexpectedly staying in Calis but would return safely. The letter, delivered one day by a raven, seemed almost absurd to him.

“I can’t believe this. Are you sure this letter is from the princess?”

“It’s her handwriting.”

“Is she really in Calis? Is she still alive?”

“That, I don’t know….”

Maurice cursed under his breath and tossed the letter onto the desk. A strange expression flickered across the queen’s face.

“From the moment Estella was sent to the villa, her safety was entirely the responsibility of Pantege.”

“And so what? As you know, Prince Hendrick said they were attacked. Barbarians raided the villa, looting all the gems and taking all the women.”

That was what Hendrick had reported.

The delegation from Largo, which had accompanied Estella to the villa, had been summarily executed by Maurice in a fit of rage.

Regret would do no good now. The only ones left to question were those on the Pantege side, so he had no choice but to believe Hendrick’s account.

“Then we must do whatever it takes to bring Estella back! Oh no… if they’ve defiled her… I can’t bear the thought. That must never happen. Never!”

Aliana clutched her head as if recalling a terrible memory.

Maurice gave her a cold look, as if gauging whether she had hidden their daughter to prevent her from being sent to Pantege. But he quickly dismissed the thought. His wife, who had once been his brother’s wife, and now his own, was too weak of spirit to have orchestrated such a scheme.

In fact, Aliana had been just as eager as Maurice to marry their daughter off to a powerful empire. She couldn’t have been involved in the kidnapping.

Reluctantly, Maurice let go of his suspicion.

“Prince Hendrick is already doing his best. He sent a letter demanding that Calis release the princess, so we should wait and see.”

“My God… he wouldn’t even let me send a single letter!” Aliana shrieked. “It’s been a month already! Sending scraps of paper means nothing now.”

“Watch your tongue!”

“Pantege must take full responsibility for this. What power do we have…!”

“Silence! Prince Hendrick and I have already discussed this. He plans to lead a delegation to visit Largo himself, so keep calm and stay in your chamber.”

“You worthless—! Ever since you took the throne, nothing has gone right!”

Smack! The sharp sound of a slap echoed through the room. None of the maids dared to lift their heads at the sight of the queen being struck, as they had witnessed it many times before.

“I told you, stay calm and keep quiet.”

With a harsh command, Maurice turned and left the chamber without hesitation.

For a long while, Aliana kept her hand pressed against her reddened cheek. Then, she quietly dismissed the maids. Once she was finally alone, she retrieved a letter hidden deep inside a drawer.

Coincidentally, it had arrived on the same day as Stella’s letter.

Both letters had been delivered by specially trained carrier birds. Rather than using the royal aviary, these birds had pecked directly at the window of the recipient’s chamber to deliver the letters.

While the letter from Estella had been delivered by a large raven, this one had arrived with a pure white dove.

Aliana had shared Estella’s letter with Maurice. But this letter, she had kept hidden. With tears in her eyes, the queen gently stroked the envelope.

There was no sender’s name, but as soon as she read the short note inside, she knew exactly who had written it.

I apologize for not being able to write more at this time.

I wanted to send a brief message to reassure you before I return.

We can discuss everything in detail when I arrive at the palace.

From Haverport.

“Alexio… my son.”

The letter was from Alexio, Stella’s older brother, whom she had been forced to send to the western coast at the age of eleven.

Largo was a peaceful nation, but it had one persistent problem: the pirates who occasionally raided the western shores. The military was so small that they had to station a third of their forces along the coast to keep the pirates at bay.

Sending Alexio to the coast had been one of the first orders Maurice had given after becoming king.

Maurice believed that the heir to Largo must be strong, a pillar to support the nation and its future. He argued that rather than going through ceremonial knight training in the comfort of the court, Alexio needed real experience defending the kingdom.

To the grieving queen, still mourning her late husband, it had sounded like a way to make their son strong enough to support the future of Largo.

‘I wasn’t in my right mind… my precious son.’

So, Aliana had reluctantly agreed to let Alexio go for field training. Maurice had sent his former vassals to serve as the prince’s guards.

And then they had all disappeared without a trace. The prevailing theory was that they had been attacked by bandits, but Aliana couldn’t believe it.

No meaningful word had come from the western defense line, and as the years passed, Alexio’s fate remained uncertain. After losing her husband, Aliana’s obsessive attachment to her remaining child, Stella, had only intensified.

But now, she had lost Stella as well. Instead of sinking into despair as usual, Aliana’s mind sharpened as she assessed the situation.

Since taking the throne, Maurice had grown stronger with Pantege’s support. He had accepted some of Pantege’s forces into Largo, and their soldiers now moved freely throughout the kingdom, even in the court.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the armor bearing the lion emblem of Pantege was seen more frequently than that of Largo’s own soldiers, whose armor bore the symbol of light.

And then there was her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack, and her son being sent to the frontlines.

Looking back, there were too many suspicious things about Maurice’s rise to power. Aliana had come to the conclusion that neither Maurice nor Pantege could be trusted.

Alexio’s letter had been sent from Haverport, located on the western coast—where the defense line was.

Alexio hadn’t gone missing. The heir to the Largo throne had remained there for the past eight years.

And now Alexio was planning to return to the palace. The letter was brief, but Aliana could guess what her son had in mind.

‘Alexio… could it be…?’

Her son had a stronger claim to the throne than Maurice. He wouldn’t return unarmed or alone.

The frail queen closed her eyes tightly for a moment, but when she opened them, she did not reach for the wine she usually drank when feeling overwhelmed.

Aliana knew that for now, rescuing Stella from Calis was more urgent than her son’s return. The prince’s army had to march to Calis, not the palace.

This was the only way to save her daughter. It might put her son in danger, but it was the only solution that her desperate heart could think of.

After locking the door firmly, Aliana picked up a pen. The letter she was about to write wasn’t addressed to Stella.

***

Mid-January. As time slipped away, Calis welcomed the new year.

Stella had almost grown accustomed to life in the Ice Castle, and during that time, she had learned a few things.

First, she realized that her ability, the Mind’s Eye, often acted on its own, outside of her control.

One morning, when Dora appeared with the breakfast trolley as usual, Stella could clearly see the food under the silver dome cover, even though she wasn’t experiencing a headache.

The dish was cream soup with sea bream, sautéed vegetables, and freshly squeezed juice made from winter fruits.

‘I don’t want to waste my ability on something so trivial…’

It would be nice if she could control the Mind’s Eye, but not only could she not yet do that, it seemed to manifest randomly.

Second, she was growing more and more certain that the ancient gem wasn’t in the basement.