“Oh, my goodness.”
Letina sighed. Enoch saw the despair that briefly crossed her face.
He thought he had a fatal disease.
Later, when reflecting on that day, he would sarcastically think to himself, ‘I’m finally going to die..’
But the reality was the opposite.
He had taken his first step towards escaping death, far from it.
Until that moment, despite his family’s prestigious name, Enoch had no special powers. But that day, his latent magical abilities, inherited through his bloodline, were revealed.
His heart had simply hardened to contain the magic within. The fever he experienced was also tied to this—it wouldn’t have occurred without the magic.
That day, Letina shared with him, for the first time, the story of their bloodline. It was an old, burdensome tale, and she was clearly reluctant to tell it, but in the end, she explained everything.
The story went something like this:
A long time ago, during the age of dragons and heroes, there was a beautiful and wealthy prince.
He believed he had the entire world at his feet, but one day he realized there was something he lacked.
That thing was magic. Though the prince possessed gold, green lands, mountains, and rivers, he was, in the end, just an ordinary human.
Once he realized what he couldn’t attain, his heart burned with desire. But magic belonged solely to dragons and a select few humans who had been chosen.
Unable to quell the fiery desire within him, the prince did something he never should have done.
He seduced a young dragon with his beauty and gold. The dragon, naive to the ways of the human heart, was easily swayed by his whispered affections.
Having earned the dragon’s trust, the prince took advantage of one night when the dragon was asleep, cutting open its chest and successfully stealing its heart.
As the dragon lay dying, realizing it had been betrayed by its lover, it cursed him in a fiery rage.
You betrayed love, and thus you shall never grasp love again.
Nevertheless, you will always crave love, but your love will become a fever that kills you, a noose that strangles you, and a blade that cuts into your chest.
The dragon’s curse would linger longer and deeper than any magic, but the prince, blinded by the heart in his hand, ignored its cry.
It wasn’t until much later, when he met a woman living by a small river, that the prince understood the true meaning of the curse.
The woman, who made a living by selling fish, was very poor, but the prince desired her the moment he saw her.
He laid treasures at her feet, saying, ‘You are like the sun to me, so won’t you stay by my side?’
But the woman did not love him. Whether it was due to the dragon’s curse or simply cruel fate, no one knew.
Regardless, she didn’t want him. Her heart could not be won with gold or fragrant flowers.
Had the prince realized this and given up on her, perhaps the curse would have ended there.
But the prince was a man of great greed, and the fire of desire had already ignited within him.
Unable to distinguish whether it was love or the curse that burned inside him, the flames eventually consumed his sanity. The prince took the woman by force, and only then did the fire, which had felt like it would burn him alive, finally die out.
After that, everything fell apart. The woman bore the prince’s children but never loved him. In her endless misery, she threw herself into the river. Unable to survive the heat without her, the prince followed her.
Neither of them ever resurfaced, and the dragon’s curse passed to the prince’s children. As the old saying goes, “The sins of the father fall upon the firstborn.” The prince’s eldest son inherited both the magic and the fever that accompanied it.
After telling the story, Letina spoke again, saying, ‘The prince’s name was Inovis.’
‘That is why we are destined to suffer eternally. The sins of the father fall upon the firstborn, after all.’
Of course, Enoch did not intend to take the story at face value. He did not believe in legends easily. But he also didn’t deny that there was some truth in the story that resonated with reality.
It was clear that the tale was strangely intertwined with the present. Even though he had no idea what fate awaited him, Enoch could sense it.
Letina blinked her striking blue eyes and continued. To fulfill the dragon’s curse, the firstborns of Inovis still have a dream on a certain day in their teens.
In those dreams, they meet the person fated to be with them. It’s like watching an arrow that’s already been shot. The firstborn must find that person. There’s no set deadline, but it’s better to find them as soon as possible. Until they meet that person in real life, they suffer from recurring fevers, and those fevers worsen over time.
Enoch furrowed his brow at the nonsensical words. However, Letina did not give him time to process.
She quickly continued speaking.
“The fever gradually takes away your senses. You may become unable to see or hear. In severe cases, it can even take your life. But don’t be too scared. If you find your destined partner before that happens, it’ll be fine. Once you find your fate, make a vow and keep them close; the fever and the dreams will disappear.”
There was something ambiguous about her words. Enoch asked his mother, who was pouring out phrases he had never heard before, a question.
“But how do I find this partner?”
He only knew the appearance of the girl from his dreams; he didn’t know where she lived or what language she spoke.
But Letina laughed, as if he were asking a truly strange question.
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. The firstborns’ feet will always lead them to their fates. However, arrows have never hit their predetermined targets, and the destinies of the firstborns do not move for their masters.”
So what you should worry about isn’t how to find your fate, but how not to be hated.
After saying this, Letina laughed bitterly.
Enoch realized that she was reminiscing about fragments of her past, but he had no idea what they were. There were too many moments in Letina’s life that he did not know.
That day, she sat by her son’s bedside like a kind mother, whispering about the future.
“Your arrow has already been shot. You haven’t told me anything, but I know. You must have dreamed as well, and in that dream, you saw a girl like the sun. I’ve been through it all, too.”
Letina opened her eyes slightly, as if she were dreaming.
“It’s like the midday sun, a flame of summer.”
Though she didn’t directly mention it, Enoch instantly realized that this description was about the Emperor. There could be no other person Letina would regard so beautifully.
Realizing this made a wave of nausea rise within him. Enoch suppressed it, but it was still noticeable. He wasn’t used to enduring such feelings yet.
However, Letina was so absorbed in muttering like an actor on stage, looking into space, oblivious to his discomfort.
“Oh, I couldn’t help but love him. I couldn’t help but yearn for him.”
Enoch wondered if he should try to stop her, seeing her in such an unhinged state. He still could not understand her feelings for the Emperor. It was only natural.
He didn’t truly love the girl in his dreams.
Of course, she was beautiful and had a smile worthy of praise. It was true that he tried to see her more often and reached out to touch her whenever he did.
But that was just mere interest.
Even so, Enoch asked his mother, “Do you think she’ll really hate me?”
Naturally, most of the people he had met thus far had not regarded him favorably.
However, the girl seemed younger than Bertina and appeared kinder.
But would she dislike him for no reason at all?
Enoch thought to himself. That would really be absurd. Even the countless flowers decorating the banquet hall today wouldn’t have bloomed so randomly without context.
Letina looked down at her son, who had inherited the family’s blue eyes.
“Why, do you want to be loved?”
She asked suddenly. Enoch reflexively shook his head.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You don’t have to hide it. It’s natural to want to be loved by her.”
See, you’re not listening to me again. Enoch felt frustrated and sighed. He didn’t even want to correct her anymore.
Of course, Letina didn’t pay attention to the expression on her son’s face.
In a voice filled with bitterness, she murmured, I felt the same way.
“But it’s not easy. We are too disgusting to be loved.”
It didn’t take long for him to realize that this was something the Emperor had told her countless times.
Letina leaned her head against her son’s shoulder and said, ‘If you still want to be loved, just keep one thing in mind.’
“Never, ever let it be known.”
That you dream of her, that you knew her before she knew you, and that you would die without her.
As she said that, what expression did she show? That was something he would never know.
That day, Letina let out a small sigh and spoke her final words.
“If you don’t let anything be known, who knows?”
Perhaps even someone like you could be loved.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
After their conversation ended, Enoch got out of bed to escort Letina.
Though he still felt feverish and in pain, he was definitely better than before. It was possible since it was a physical change rather than an illness.
Of course, he could have entrusted Letina to a servant, but he didn’t want to leave his mother, who seemed not quite herself, in someone else’s hands. Letina didn’t care about anyone other than the Emperor, but Enoch was quite conscious of the eyes of others.
Letina took her son’s hand, which showed only traces of the etiquette he had learned, without saying anything. So, they walked down the dimly lit corridor, one wearing a splendid dress made of blue silk and the other in a slightly wrinkled nightgown with an outer garment thrown over it.
