Meanwhile, Julian was thinking about the strange signal the black knight hiding in Bridget's shadow had sent him a few days ago, the day Isaac had come to visit.
'He was summoned.'
If the black night was summoned, he should have killed something unless Julian intervened and stopped him.
But that day the Shadow Knight returned without killing anything.
What did Bridget feel that day?
'You're not really controlling it?'
Julian looked out the window.
At the end of his gaze was Bridget.
It seemed like she had gone on a picnic with the maid candidates.
Behind the hedge of zelkova trees that formed the boundary between the central palace and the dormitory, the silhouettes of girls could be seen moving busily.
Bridget sat under an old oak tree that casts a huge shadow.
"The Count of Peyton went to see his father-in-law, the Duke of Linchester, to save his eldest son who was being tried for taking war orphans and murdering them. It seems there was a lot of friction. Many people saw the Count of Peyton come out in a huff."
Count Nicholas was reporting behind Julian.
"Even the Duke of Linchester will have a hard time-saving Count Peyton, as long as there is evidence that he murdered children."
Count Nicholas seemed pleased to see the power of Linchester gradually disintegrating.
Julian listened to the report with an indifferent face and then asked.
"Are you done?"
"Yes? There are still a few more..."
"Later."
He walked out of the office, past his secretary.
The footsteps led to where Bridget was.
Julian slowly approached Bridget.
Bridget was busy reading the royal records.
The first to spot him was girls picking flowers a short distance away.
He watched Julian approach with excited eyes and then greeted him quietly.
"Your Majesty, I greet you."
Then, as soon as Julian passed by, they exchanged glances and smiled shyly.
Julian's beauty has been the hottest topic among maid candidates these days.
They never would have thought that the tyrant known for his cruelty could be such a handsome man.
A slightly pale white face, dark eyes shadows, and a rebellious and spiteful look in the eyes, and the girls gave it the name of decadence.
The mischievous smile he sometimes showed in front of Bridget set the girls's hearts on fire.
The girls made it a habit to look around, hoping that Julian, who would appear out of nowhere, would show up next time.
Julian doesn't have a Queen yet.
This fact gave some girls hope.
That anticipation sometimes pushed the girls's backs and made them do something outrageous.
"Oh!"
As Julian approached, a girl stumbled and fell over.
'A gentleman wouldn't just pass it by.'
But Julian was no gentleman.
He didn't stop walking, just glanced at the girl who had fallen with an indifferent gaze.
'You definitely saw me!'
To pass it by without even thinking about it. The girl, who had never been treated like this before, was dumbfounded.
It felt like the world she knew was falling apart.
She was pretty and from a good family background, so she received a lot of attention from men wherever she went.
She doesn't know how many men she's been courted and proposed to every day.
Men never passed her by. Not once.
But that was worse treatment than a bug just now.
"How could you just pass by a fallen lady...!"
Leticia held her stomach and laughed out loud as she watched her mumbling and unable to get up from her seat.
The girl who fell, Avril, bit her lip with her face red from hurt pride.
'Just wait and see.'
She Jumped up and went somewhere else.
Meanwhile, Bridget had her nose buried in the record.
Then she realized that her surroundings had gotten a little darker and raised her head.
Julian was looking down at her with his arms crossed.
"Julian. When did you come?"
Julian shrugged.
"Did you find anything there?"
"I found something a little interesting."
Bridget tapped the seat next to her.
Julian sat down next to her.
"Often, people in the Blake royal family only had records of their births, but the time of their deaths was unknown. Even when there were records of their deaths, only the date was recorded, and the cause of death was not recorded. I wondered why that was..."
"If you volunteer, there aren't many records left."
"Yeah, that's it."
Taking one's own life is considered a dishonorable death.
The royal family was reluctant to record such deaths.
Bridget showed Julian the note she had written.
It was a slightly different lineage from the official lineage of the Blake royal family.
"The royal family completely erased the existence of such people and placed their children under someone else to continue the lineage. So I personally looked through the records and reorganized them based on only birth records."
Julian looked at the names of the people that Bridget had marked.
"There are quite a lot."
"It's not common for so many people in one family to take their own lives."
Bridget came to a cautious conclusion.
"It seems that there were many people in the Blake royal family who had the constitution to call forth magic, besides you."
Or perhaps the royal environment made them inseparable from the magic.
Julian laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Anyway, it's a gloomy bloodline."
He lay down next to Bridget, looking at the list she had made.
His expression even seemed excited.
"The noble bloodline of the Blake family, their dignified dignity and class, that's all bullshit."
He chuckled quietly.
Thanks to her, he now clearly knows where his rotten mind came from.
The efforts of Chancellor Langston to contact distant relatives of the Blake royal family to establish the next King was amusing.
Isn't it just like looking for someone as depressed as yourself to appease the elders who are looking for legitimacy?
"I caught something interesting, Bridget."
"Maybe we can figure out how the Shadow Curse is passed down. If we figure out how we might be able to destroy it."
Bridget returned to her notes and read on.
She's been feeling a bit uneasy about something for a while now, and it's been bothering her.
"Queen Beatrice has so many accomplishments but her records are so few. It seems like the records are empty..."
Julian, lying face down, rested his chin on his hand and stared blankly at her.
'The destruction of the curse...'
He snorted and shook his head.
Julian lay down again and looked at the sky.
In his shadow, the black knights were howling.
'Here we go again."
A cold sweat formed on Julian's forehead.
***
Ever since Avril entered the palace as a candidate for maid, she had been keeping a close eye on Julian and Bridget.
'It doesn't seem like they're as close as I thought.'
Julian didn't see Bridget much all day. They didn't even eat together.
Sometimes he would suddenly appear, blurt out a few words to Bridget, and then disappear.
She didn't know what it would be like when they were alone, but seeing as Bridget didn't show off her affection for Julian, she thought it would be similar to usual.
'The authority of the government comes from the King's favor, so it cannot help but flaunt it.'
Avril concluded.
'I can dig between the two.'
She came from a good family and had a lot of wealth to inherit. Above all, she was pretty.
Her parents, like others, did not want their daughter to be Bridget's loyal maid.
"Aim for the Queen's seat, Avril. If you catch the King's eye, your father will somehow make you Queen."
Normally, a Queen wouldn't be chosen that way, but Julian was no ordinary King. Laws and customs don't apply to him. So, she had no choice but to use another method.
Avril was confident.
She looked into the mirror and examined her appearance from side to side.
'He's a man. What can a man do when someone so pretty like me tempts him? I may have been humiliated during the day, but it would be different at night, right?'
Avril took off her dress, layer by layer until she was in her lightest attire.
It seemed like Julian had a lot to drink tonight.
It was an opportunity.
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