Chapter 52: Chapter 49: A Poisonous Woman (14)

Lucius suddenly felt something crawl up his throat. No longer able to hold it back, he spat out a mouthful of black blood. He leaned over panting, with one hand on his knee.

Startled, Aurora quickly finished dressing and ran to his side. She tried to help him keep his balance, but he raised a hand to stop her.

"I'm fine."

Her eyebrows scrunched in displeasure. "You're not fine."

He wiped the remaining black blood on his mouth with the back of his hand.

"It's only the remaining poison that was in my system."

Aurora wasn't convinced. She pointed at the spot in front of her. “Sit down so I can at least check on your wound.”

“No need. It’s already healed.”

Aurora pointed at the ground. “Sit.”

“…” Lucius decided to go along with her.

He sat in front of Aurora, with his back facing her.

“The engagement contract…what are your conditions?” Lucius asked in a quiet voice.

She began focusing her attention on undressing his bandages. "You haven't answered my question from earlier."

"I'll give you an answer after we discuss the contract."

Her hands paused for a few seconds, but then she started moving again. “Besides what I mentioned earlier, the engagement will last until you confirm my identity, and until then, I will do my best to help you suppress the curse.”

“Is that all?” He asked curiously.

"No."

Lucius waited for her to continue, but she didn't say anything.

The Corrupted Region that appeared a year after her death, if it was truly related to her and her mother, the sins she bore was even greater than she thought before.

"What is it?"

"The Corrupted Region. I want to learn more about it."

Lucius was taken aback, but he didn't let it show. "Why?" He asked her in a calm manner.

Aurora thought about if she should tell him or not.

If he knows, maybe he could provide the necessary information and assist her in finding the truth.

It was best to tell him.

“Looks like it healed up nicely.” Aurora saw that there was only a faint scar left from the arrow. The black lines from the poison and even the bleeding had all but stopped.

She carelessly traced the scar with her fingers, unaware that the flames in the Duke’s eyes were starting to heat up again.

“Don’t be reckless.” He turned around and quickly grabbed her wrist.

When she saw his expression, her eyes widened. “S-sorry.” She had almost awakened the beast inside him again without her knowing. Doing her best to change the awkward atmosphere between them, she told the Duke about how the appearance of the erosion could be related to her death.

"Oh?" Lucius placed his hand under his chin. "So, you believe that the cause of the erosion might have been due to you and your mother?"

She nodded her head.

"If so, then what?" He asked without a change in expression.

It was the same question he asked her when she revealed her identity to him.

"Do you think you need to take responsibility for it? Even if you two were the cause, you weren't here for it. Even if you were and knew about it, what could you have done to stop it?"

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Aurora glared at him fiercely, snatching her wrist away from his grasp. "It's not about taking responsibility, I just hate the idea of people I don't know dying or getting hurt because of me!"

At her words, Lucius wasn't able to respond.

"Don't get me wrong. I hate all the nobles and the Imperial Family. If I can, I want to find the graves of those who tore my family apart, revive them, and kill them again! Don't be surprised if I'm suddenly thrown in prison for killing a noble one day." She hissed at him, anger and revulsion clearly written all over her face.

That woman that took Aurora's mother's place. Those who supported her and her idea of making Witches slaves long before the incident caused by the Black Witch. The other nobles who condemned the mother and daughter pair. Those of the Imperial Family who wanted her head. And the companions who betrayed her in the end.

She hated them even now.

Every single one.

So, while she wouldn't kill their descendants, she wouldn't go out of her way of liking them.

"And I...certainly don't care about the Empire!" Aurora huffed out in vexation. "Still, the one thing I no longer want to see is other innocent people that had nothing to do with Witches or my family getting hurt because of something that might have been caused by me. In the past, I couldn't do anything. Even now, I don't know what I can do, but I'm tired. That's why I will no longer run away! Do you have a problem with that?!"

During the war between humans and the other races, she wasn't able to do anything.

And then while Witches were hunted and killed, she still wasn't able to do anything.

Will she let the same thing happen now?

No! Aurora refused to let fate and such control her, she'll be the one to control her life this time!

Lucius spaced out for a moment and then softly burst into a rare laughter. "Pfft...hahaha..."

"Eh?! What? What? Why are you laughing??" That childish laughter in his eyes caught her unexpected. It was a bit...charming.

"No, it's just once in a while you blurt out some amazing things even though you mostly have this aloof air about you."

Aurora pursed her lips. "Aren't you the same? Like that time when you suddenly told me about your tragic childhood the day after we spent the night together in bed." She mumbled while sulking.

Lucius pretended he didn't hear her and changed the subject. "I'll tell you everything I know about the Corrupted Region. Is that fine?"

"That's fine. Also, you need to provide for me the necessary resources to study Rune Magic, Familiars, and summoning."

"Rune Magic and Familiars I understand. But as for summoning, if it's about how you were summoned as my Familiar, there's no need. I already have someone trustworthy looking into it."

Aurora shook her head. "There's that, but there's also another reason. I want to look into the summoning ritual to see if I can call on spirit beasts for help by making a temporary contract."

She had a feeling that the summoning ritual from one thousand years ago was completely different from now. Maybe what she wasn't able to accomplish back then, she could do so now.

"What?"

"A thousand years ago, like now, humans can at most make only a single contract with a spirit beast. There are two reasons for this. One is because of the limited amount of mana one human can continuously feed to a spirit beast. Even low-level spirit beasts are greedy. And second, no one was able to create a summoning array capable of activating when one already had a contract with a spirit beast."

Lucius was left speechless. "You...you really are full of surprises."

"Is it strange?"

So, she tried making a contract with a spirit beast to protect her like her Father was able to. But for some reason, there wasn't a single spirit beast that answered her call. She didn't understand why since spirit beasts seemed to like her. She was close to her mother's cat spirit beast since she was little.

That's why Aurora refused to give up and decided to study summoning arrays, which is when she became obsessed with reading ancient books.

Aurora told the Duke about how she was unable to make a contract with a spirit beast and what motivated her into studying summoning arrays. "I thought the problem lied with me. That they thought I was too weak."

Because of her inability to use her affinity for fire properly, they believed her to be useless. At best she was only good at sensing mana and things like erasing her presence and protecting herself. It didn't matter that she was a Witch with a large amount of mana if she could only use basic spells.

"Then, what if I lured them with a large amount of mana, and promised to release them after a certain amount of time? Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete my theory before that incident occurred. I failed to create the necessary magic array that will allow me to connect to the Spirit Realm with these set conditions."

There has never been a single person who thought about making temporary contracts with spirit beasts. After all, why return the spirit beast their freedom when you can always use them? A Familiar is a lifetime companion. That's what everyone has been taught since young.

"If I succeed..." Aurora continued. "Then allow me to become your Knight as a summoner."

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