Sleeping Beauty Wants The Throne
21. The Curse of a Dozens of Years Ago

The Marchioness looked up as they reached the foot of the stairs leading to the temple at the top of the hill North of Sormenia. A thick fog covered part of the mountain, but the huge building was still within reach of the eyes.

The Marchioness rubbed her protruding stomach. Will he be able to climb the stairs one by one?

"Come on," Marquis Thompsville took Selene de Cera, his wife from the Monswill family, up.

Selene nodded. He turned around, looked at little Athene and bowed. "Mother go for a while, please wait here it might not be long. Understood?"

Athene looks reluctant. "Mother, don't leave me ...."

"Servants are here with you. Athene will not be alone" persuaded the mother and smiled warmly. "It's for your sister. Athene's gonna budge, right?"

Athene nodded slowly. "Be careful. The ladder is very long, don't let your sister get scattered."

Selene and Alfonso laughed lightly when they heard Athene's curse. "Okay, little girl. I'll take care of her, see you."

They began to step one by one the steps were built sloping like the side of the Pyramid. Only the Marquis and the Marchioness alone, without more troops or escorts because they would come to the Elder. It is not a good thing to carry weapons and bodyguards when coming to her place of asceticism for decades.

The temple building is made with carved statues lined around the room. Brownish yellow and white color more dominating, at first glance looks like a color of sand carved neatly but still sturdy.

"That's right here."

The Marquis nodded as someone he knew as the Elder's servant let them in. In contrast to the light shades outside, in the room the elder was actually made dark by exaggerating black and dark purple. Various talismans were tacked on every corner to the point that the Marchioness frowned. His hand was eager to pluck the amulets to the point of being unceremonious. For him, the strange paper only reduces the aesthetic value of a room.

"Sit down."

The Marquis and the Marchioness sat side by side. According to family tradition, they should come here when the wife is pregnant. The marquis smiled happily as he rubbed his wife's stomach.

"My wife is pregnant. Can you predict how it will go?"

The elder nodded. He read through the spell while monitoring the Marchioness using his hands then observed something from behind the cauldron.

"Your son has a curse. A kind of curse that comes from an earlier family."

Tub was struck by lightning in broad daylight, Marquis was surprised not to play.

"That's because the first Crystal Lady ever killed one of the sacred twins at the border of Sormenia during the war. He did not do penance, and it just so happened that your son would bear it."

Marquis Thompsville knew which Crystal Lady the Elder meant. She was the same woman as the originator of the title itself, the King's favorite woman even though they were not meant to be together.

The title Crystal Lady implies the highest level of respect for women in their family. But there is also an impact behind it. Another child who was a victim.

"B-but why should our child?" ask the Marchioness who is ready to shed tears.

"That's because your child will be born twins." The news that her children were born twins was quite encouraging, but that soon only the wind of trouble hit them again. "This curse has happened a century ago, but it is very rare. The noble healers named this curse as the twinster curse. But don't worry because the curse only works for one person from one of the twins. After nineteen years, when you're sure which child bears the curse, then don't let him stay alive."

"You mean we have to kill him?!" Marquis Thompsville was almost overwhelmed with emotion but quickly the Marchioness touched her hand to calm down.

What kind of inequality is this, the Marquis thought.

"Is there no other way to remove the curse, Elder?" Selene was almost desperate. "We will try our best."

"The curse can be removed only with the Crystal Lady in question." The elder shook his head faintly, "Sorry, sin is still sin."

The Marchioness felt her life was unfair. Why should his son who experienced something as bitter as this, why. Why not someone else, why not him. He cursed, in fact the family de Cera that he glorified since long ago is not as perfect as his mind. Now, it is his descendants who are threatened.

"What happens if we break it?"

"The child brings misfortune, then all assets and possessions will be wasted. The surname will vanish, you will return to ground zero" replied the Elder according to what he saw. "I know, you guys definitely don't want to fall poor, do you?"

Since that day, the atmosphere of the originally warm Thompsville manor house has slowly changed. The Marchioness often confined herself in separate rooms with her husband. Every mealtime, he would rather stay in the room than go down and eat with the others at the dinner table. Marquis Thompsville always tried to persuade him, but the Marchioness' welcome always ended in a rage.

And the peak happened one night. Athene was alone, waiting for her parents at the dinner table while occasionally looking towards the door. When they eat, he thinks confused. Curiosity slowed him down, rather than waiting for Athene to seek them out and take dinner together.

"It's all because of your family! One of my poor kids should have some disgusting curse you're carrying. Say, Alf, say. What should I do now?!"

Athene was sculpting when she heard the Marchioness rampage from behind the door. His body trembled in fear and one thing poisoned his mind; the cause of the trouble that had strained his parents' relationship was caused by one of his future unborn sisters. Curse child. Trouble carrier. Everything's destroyer. That's what he thinks.

Athene's tiny hands clutched tightly on the sides of her dress until there were faint tangled lines. He hates the shitty carrier's sister.

"If you don't want to kill him, then do it. But I'm warning you, if the time has come don't try to stop me from getting him out of our family once in a while." Marquis Thompsville hugged his chaotic wife. His eyes were swollen, not to mention the enlarged eye bags and his body that was also getting thinner. The Marchioness really took a hit. "We could have sacrificed one child, but if we had given up de Cera's assets .. then we have wasted hundreds of drops of ancestral blood fighting for our well-being. It's not worth it."

Marchioness's sigh filled the room. "You gave up your own flesh and blood, did you?" He smiled bitterly.

"For our family, Selene." The marquis hugged his wife's frail body again. "For the sake of Athene, and our other child-to-be."

The Marchioness could say nothing but cry and tightly embrace her husband's body.

The Marchioness is determined inwardly. Although it felt like walking on thorns, he should be able to hate the cursed child. That way, this kind of suffering will not be experienced again when the departure of the child. He must hate him .. for the sake of de Cera, his sons, and the Marquis. Her feelings as a mother revolted, but she could do nothing.

"For a while let him stay here."

Marquis frowned. "Why?"

"Let me see it grow. At least we give him enough facilities until he's old enough to live alone." Marchioness. "About .. the twinster curse is so unfair to her."

"Yes, do it if it makes you happy." The marquis rubbed Selene's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. There is nothing more painful than being separated from your baby.

After that Athene walks into her room, forgets about dinner and sleeps faster. His closed personality makes people do not know, what is on his mind even Marchioness who in fact the closest people to Athene did not understand his mind. He harbors a strong hatred for the cursed child and vows to get rid of the child as soon as possible so that the de Cera family is warm as ever.

Poor little Athene, grew up in an innocent mind that trapped her until she grew up.