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Earl Timoti and I stood in front of my father’s private tent while waiting for Sebastian to bring good news.

Accompanied by the winter wind that had not yet changed seasons, I felt the cold wind comforting me in this silent atmosphere with Earl Timoti.

We were not close emotionally and close as a friends, we were only close because Zoe had cursed all of her bloodline descendants to remain under the command of the Marquess Rommel family.

Earl Timoti’s loyalty was the cursed fruit of Zoe, which rolled over the entire Earl Timoti family.

I don’t want to remember the day when one of her sons insulted me along with the other children and ended up receiving the curse cast by Zoe. In addition to them reaping the fruits of their bad karma, I also seemed a little excessive at that time because I expected someone to receive Zoe’s curse.

My curiosity about the curse of my butterfly spirit has paid off, as the noble family received Zoe’s curse.

"Lily-sama, have you thought of some plans to kill the Golden King Bear that has become the Calamity Disaster?" without any opening sentence to fill this silence, Earl Timoti asked me while looking me gently in the eyes.

My eyes which were covered by the shadow of my military cap only saw the bottom of his mouth that smiled gently at me. Looking at the situation, it seemed that Earl Timoti wanted to do something related to himself.

"There is no special plan, there is only a change of plan where the stealth slime will lose their fighting spirit when they find out that the King and Queen Slime have died. There is only a loss that will be obtained before they find out the fact that the forty-seventh stealth slime is hiding the bad news for them," I answered while pulling my military cap down to avoid his gentle gaze that was directed at my face.

For some reason, I could feel that Earl Timoti was looking at me with a sparkling gaze that was covered by shining stars in his eyes.

That gaze looked like he was amazed by my actions.

I don’t know what I have done to him either!

At least... please don’t look at me with that kind of gaze!

I wanted to scream about this, but our condition which was in front of my father’s private tent had blocked my way to scream like that.

"Losing the morale of the troops after their leader was killed. It was a good idea to prevent them from knowing what had happened. Their burning passion for killing the Golden King Bear herd that was patrolling inside their cave would be extinguished if they knew."

"Yes, I also think so. Even in the military tactics book that my father often gave me. It would be easier to destroy the soldiers’ mentality on the battlefield by beheading their leader than facing his troops."

"That only applies if the troops brought have a low level of intelligence, Lily-sama. In the recent case of our neighboring kingdom’s civil war, they fought to the last drop of blood. If no one survived, then the war would end in an absolute victory."

"Ugh, what kind of war is that? Doesn’t it look very barbaric and inhumane?" Hearing Earl Timoti’s words, my brain immediately played that horrifying scene.

"What kind of war is it where only one person survives as the winner?" I asked Earl Timoti and observed his face which was still smiling gently at me.

"As I said before, a civil war… to fight for the next throne as the sole Crown Prince or the sole Crown Princess."

"Ughh… how barbaric! Is that a natural thing to become the next throne holder?"

"Haahaha, I know that Lily-sama sees this as an inhumane act, right? But it is necessary because the entire royal family is under a strange curse from their ancestors," Earl Timoti’s tone suddenly weakened and he held his face.

"Compared to my face being made to bow down to one of the noble families in the Aurora Kingdom, it is much better than only having a life expectancy of fifty years before dying from a curse, isn’t it?" Earl Timoti continued.

My ears felt hot when I heard this.

A curse that limits life expectancy to fifty years, is there such a curse?

To confirm what Earl Timoti said, I immediately called Zoe who was inhabiting the spirit realm created by her and her butterfly sister.

"Zoe, can you hear me?" I said while calling Zoe.

Swirl…

Poommm…

"Master! It’s been a long time since you called me, I thought you’d forgotten your lonely spirit. Is there something that requires my curse or is my Master planning to curse a kingdom?"

Zoe suddenly appeared while saying something terrifying. Hearing from her perspective, Zoe looked very happy when she was called by me after being busy developing her personal spirit realm for so long.

"Your words are as terrifying as ever. If people don’t know you’re joking, they’ll take your words seriously, Zoe," I commented on Zoe’s terrifying joke as much as possible to direct Zoe’s curse to something positive rather than negative.

"Eeh, didn’t the last curse I cast earlier improve the economy of the Aurora Kingdom? What’s wrong with forcing them to work hard under the control of a curse that improves their attitude patterns?" because Zoe physically used a human body appearance that was similar to mine, I could see myself who seemed indifferent to the legal views and rights with obligations of the kingdom’s citizens.

"That’s a positive thing, but that’s not what made me call you, Zoe."

"Hmm? Then about what?" Zoe’s gaze now looked from the tips of my hair to my chest.

"Master, you don’t need to worry. You’ve become a beautiful girl with breasts that are quite large for a girl your age!" with that said, Zoe gave a thumbs up.

"Not that either, from the start I already realized that my breasts are a bit bigger than the breasts of girls my age. Putting aside my beauty, it’s useless if some people still look down on humans who have light brown skin like me."

"If not that either? Is there another problem? I can see my Master bonding with other pets besides the Linked Ritual?"

"Uhh... Well... Something did happen. What I want to ask is is there a curse that can limit a person’s lifespan?"

"Uh, Wooow! I didn’t think the time would come for me to use a curse spell like that. When are we going to do it?" Zoe’s eyes suddenly shone brightly and changed her body into her butterfly spirit then flew towards me until it stuck to my cheek.

"Ooohh… My Master… who is the fool that you want to limit his lifespan?" as Zoe’s butterfly spirit body pressed against my cheek, words filled with threats and killing intent from Zoe were heard.

Boosshh…

Whhoosshh…

Just from the killing intent emitted by Zoe’s butterfly spirit form, I could see Earl Timoti who was sweating coldly.

"Calm yourself, Zoe. Can’t you see that there’s someone beside me?" I tried to calm Zoe who was excited when it came to the curse chant that was her specialty magic.

Zoe’s burst of killing intent slowly subsided and Earl Timoti calmed down again with his cold sweat already reduced on his face.

Earl Timoti wiped the sweat off his face and looked at me.

"It’s been a long time since I felt such pure killing intent like this," Earl Timoti praised Zoe.

"It’s been a long time since we met, Zoe-sama. Thanks to the curse you cast on my family, I am now the sword and shield of the Marquess Rommel family," continued Earl Timoti while bowing respectfully to Zoe like a civilized noble.

"If I’m not mistaken, you are the head of the family who was cursed to remain under the command of the Marquess Rommel family, right? I can see that the butterfly wing marks I gave you have grown rapidly into a new power for all of your flesh and blood descendants. Do you understand the blessing of the curse I gave you?"

A curse blessing?

There is a curse blessing?

Wait! Why did I just find out about this?

What has happened over the years to Earl Timoti’s family?

Why did the curse become a curse blessing for Earl Timoti’s family?

My head was suddenly filled with various questions about Zoe and the curse cast on Earl Timoti’s family some time ago.

Compared to the family that suffered from the curse, Earl Timoti seemed to have lived side by side with the curse cast by Zoe.

"How does it feel to live with the cursed blessing to remain loyal to the Marquess Rommel family?" Zoe asked, flapping her butterfly wings.

"That’s a wonderful life, Zoe-sama. Some mental attacks and mind control no longer work on my entire bloodline. Even in the hunt for a black wizard who can control his victims’ minds, my entire family was unaffected by his mind control spells!" Earl Timoti shouted excitedly to Zoe.

"That makes it easy for us to kill him like a puppy being bitten by a dragon!" Earl Timoti exclaimed even louder after telling the story of his curse blessing that made all of his flesh and blood descendants proud.

Eh? Wait! What happened?

Why do Zoe and Earl Timoti seem so close by a blessing of curse?

Has the curse given by Zoe turned into a curse blessing that makes all of his flesh and blood immune to mind control spells?

"Oh, speaking of a curse that limits lifespan. It exists, my Master," replied Zoe who had finished chatting with Earl Timoti.

"A life-limiting curse is easy to break if you know the method of the curse given. For example, limiting someone’s life like the magic energy in their body explodes because it is blocked by a curse that blocks the flow of magic energy throughout their body. Based on the method of the curse used, there will be different ways to remove the life-limiting curse," Zoe said to explain the curse that limits someone’s life.

"It’s just that it will take a lot of time to identify the curse given to limit someone’s life," Zoe continued while flapping her butterfly wings.

Hearing Zoe’s words, I remembered again the future of my twin step-sisters from the words of the Goddess, my twin step-sisters would die if they could not control the magical energy in their bodies.

Could it be... that curse and what my twin step-sister experienced were the same thing?

If it was the same thing, it could be destroyed like the fate of my twin step-sisters?

While I was daydreaming about cursed, Sebastian came out of my father’s tent and brought good news for next military operations using stealth slime herd.