I Don’t Want the Obsession of a Twisted Archduke

“No, it wasn’t as much as I thought. As Geppel said, there were stories about dragons’ lifestyles and birthplace.”

I said it as lightly as possible. I didn’t want to add anything more. It was because I thought it would look too much.

“Really?”

Geppel answered my question in a cordial manner. Interest seemed to have fallen, perhaps it wasn’t the answer I expected.

‘... is this how it goes.’

I was relieved inside, but to my shame, Geppel opened his mouth again.

“But if you don’t mind, can you read the details of what’s written?”

“What?”

“It will be too long to read everything. Why don’t you just read the entry about the blue dragon?”

Geppel’s tone was a request, but what should I say? Geppel was full of confidence that I would read.

I was in a bind.

‘Why do you want me to read a book out of the blue? Only the part about the blue dragon.’

Was he trying to compare it with his own translation? Or…

‘Is it because I want to help break Kyle's curse?’

I didn’t know what his intentions were, but I couldn’t say no. If I were to refuse for no reason, it might bring unnecessary suspicion.

“Okay, I’ll read it for you.”

I accepted for now. In fact, it was a bit of a surprise in many ways. Geppel was such an expert in translation. Either way, it was probably a way to judge if my translation was a mistranslation. Or he thought I wouldn’t offer a translation in the first place.

‘Is it because you think I’m special because of regression power?’

He was, too, but there was a big problem here.

‘At any rate, Geppel is fluent in all sorts of languages.’

The languages he discovered or translated were countless. I was sure that this book had been translated to some extent. So he wouldn’t have to interpret the sentence and words to a certain extent.

The problem was if I did a perfect translation. There was a risk of correctly interpreting the curse part based on that.

‘Then how the hell should I interpret it?’

After a moment of contemplation, I decided.

‘All right, let’s do it.’

*** Erenthal ***

“Newly-appointed library priest.”

At that time, outside the library, Kyle kept asking Erenthal. At the same interval of 10 seconds, the same as before.

Kyle had already asked hundreds of times and seemed intent on asking again.

“Yes, your Highness, it’s been 40 minutes and 40 seconds, so I think you’ll get out of here.”

Erenthal replied with a haggard face. How exhausted he was with the continuing question.

His always neat hair and attire were all messed up, and his eyes were half closed. Even the threads of gold embroidery on his clothes were visible. His clothes also seemed to be worn out.

There, Sejan was still spinning the dagger.

“Oh, I’m bored to death, really. Your Grace, how long do we have to wait?”

“If I knew that, why would I be asking that priest?”

Sigh, I was still trying to talk about that.

But why?

“That’s not true, is it?”

Sejan’s eyes suddenly turned sharp in response.

“Now that the throwing game is boring, I’m going to have to change it to another one. Come to think of it, I like throwing daggers at people these days.”

Sejan muttered to himself.

He was smiling, staring exactly at Erenthal. Of course, his eyes were not smiling.

And…

At that moment Erenthal felt the greatest crisis of his life. At this rate, it was clear that his body would be targeted and mutilated.

‘No, no, no!’

Erenthal quickly rolled his brain to survive.

“I’ll go and see if there’s anything uncomfortable with her Highness. Would you like to go inside yourself?”

While speaking, facing Kyle’s cold eyes head-on, Erenthal instinctively changed the course of the conversation.

‘Oh my gosh. Allowing outsiders to enter the Second Library?’

What nonsense was that? Erenthal belatedly realized that he had made a big mistake, but the water was already spilled. He thought, emptying his mind and heart that was constantly fluctuating.

‘Yeah, well, it’s never supposed to be...’

Shouldn’t he be able to live too? Besides, the two of them were worried about her Highness who had just recovered.

‘Isn’t it the right thing to do as a priest to help people in need?’

Moreover, Erenthal was trying to rationalize his intentions. And Kyle gave a different answer for the first time to Erenthal’s surprise remarks.

“Well, that’s a good suggestion.”

“I like it too. Come on.”

Kyle had no facial expression, Sejan kept spinning his dagger, while Erenthal’s expression was full of conscience.

And the three of them walked into the library.

***

I added a brief explanation to Geppel before reading the book.

“This book is written like a fairy tale.”

“Fairy tales?”

Geppel tilted his head. I didn’t think that was a word.

“Yes, fairy tales written in a way that tells a story to someone. Listen to it, you will understand.”

Having said that, I began to read books without a hitch.

“So, once upon a time, there lived five dragons.”

“... Once upon a time?”

Geppel had a slightly absurd look, but he didn’t interfere.

“Among them, the blue dragon was very famous for its bad temper, and he liked all kinds of bad things, so he liked alcohol, gambling and sex.”

I recited, pointing to the pictures of alcohol, gambling scenes, and heart-marked images of men and women, and Geppel shook his head.

“It’s rubbish to have three things, isn’t it?”

What was it? Geppel’s response was better than I thought. He seemed to have no doubt that it was real.

‘I’m getting a guilty conscience.’

But this was that and that was it.

I continued the story with a straight face. The story I created was roughly told like so. The Blue Dragon lived a life of debauchery and began to curse humans because of its nasty temper. And then, in the end, he was defeated by a warrior.

‘The basic human rights of fairy tales.’

Anyway, looking this far, the fairy tale was consistent with the content of the book. Except for the defeat at the last minute.

Then, it finally came out. A very problematic part.

“Wait, what’s this picture?”

Sure enough. Before I could explain, Geppel pointed to the book and asked. Of course Geppel was asking, pointing to the problematic picture of the cursed man.

‘He’s sharp, too.’

At least I was expecting it to some extent. I replied with a face that really didn’t matter.

“Oh, this one? This picture means that a person cursed by a dragon willdie someday.”

Which really meant, “Those cursed by Dragons must be killed quickly.”

“Hmm...”

Was there something that stuck out in my explanation? Geppel, who had been listening all along, tilted his head for the first time.

Geppel thought something through and soon asked again.

“That’s what this picture means?” It was a voice mixed with questions.

‘If you grow more suspicious, we’ll have to go into psychological warfare.’

“Yes, that’s right.”

I answered without any hesitation.

There was no change in facial expression to make him believe like a rock.

“Hmmm.”

Despite the neat answer, Geppel tilted his head with an unsatisfactory look. His eyes were still staring at the painting.

Geppel, who had been agonizing for a while, finally opened his mouth.

“I have a question.”

“Yes, ask me anything.”

I smiled broadly with an open mind. I would answer anything and add some lies.

“How do you know these letters? Is this also in your dream?”

“That’s right, these are all in my dreams.”

At this point, I felt like I would have a hard time dreaming. I couldn’t even help it because it worked the best. Did I even feel sorry for those lies?

Geppel stared at me this time with a complex face. He seemed to pick his words for a while and then opened his mouth.

“Riddel Spencer. I won’t doubt exactly what you say, but I don’t think this painting is that… light.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of bad energy on it .It’s so dark and sinister that I feel reluctant about it.”

Geppel, looking down at the book, had a pretty serious look on his face. There was also a strong displeasure towards the painting.

‘Is it possible to feel these details because the divine power is extraordinarily higher than others?’

As expected, Geppel was a formidable opponent.

“By the way, Riddel. Do you happen to know what these letters are called?”

“Well, I don’t know, I’m not sure about that either.”

Geppel’s sudden surprise question that popped up in the middle of thinking. I shook my head because I couldn’t bring myself to say it was a Korean alphabet called Hangul.

Geppel had a slightly disappointed look on his face.

“What, you don’t know?”

“Of course not. Dreams are not all knowing. Isn’t Geppel the same?”

His strength was not omnipotent, so he asked again.

‘I wrote my dream like a cheat key and now I'm out of my mind.’