Richard begged everyone to save his mother's life, but no one listened to the little boy. His mother was killed and buried soon after.

Richard didn't even get to see his mother's body. He was confined to a shabby warehouse in a remote mountain, and only after it was confirmed that he had not contracted "Tancinol" was he allowed to return home.

No one welcomed Richard when he came back after half a year.

Richard went to the library, ignoring the people's gossip and stares.

He read books about 'Tancinol'.

The Roums were the first to catch 'Tancinol'. The disease was characterized by a high rate of infection and death. Black spots would appear on the victim's entire body and they'd have bloodshot eyes.

It was also called the second curse of the Goddess because it looked similar to Blake's curse. Like the Heir to the Curse in the Imperial family, the Goddess of Light lowered the status of the Roums to punish them and cursed them with this sickness

Richard found out why his mother couldn't show that she was sick and why she stopped him when he offered to call a doctor for her. If someone heard that a Roum person was sick, they'd kill them instantly even with the slightest suspicion that they had 'Tancinol'. That was why she had to endure it.

The little Richard gritted his teeth.

He believed that his mother had died because of him. But instead of grieving, Richard vowed to take revenge.

Richard devoured all the books about 'Tancinol' in the library, and became convinced of one fact. His mother was not sick because of 'Tancinol'. His mother's symptoms were completely different from the symptoms of Tancinol.

She didn't have any black spots, there was no change in appearance, and no vomiting of blood either. But the Duke of Cassil killed his mother without even confirming that.

The Duke of Cassil did not tell him where he buried his mother. Richard didn't ask him again either. He bribed and threatened the servants to find the place himself. His mother was buried on a desolate field. Richard planted his mother's favorite red camellia flowers instead of a tombstone at her burial spot.

He promised to avenge his mom, to take everything from the Cassils and kill them.

The Duke of Cassil was after the throne.

Richard smiled inwardly, pretending to follow the Duke's will.

'The throne will be my possession. I will sit on the highest position in the Empire, and all the enemies who despised me will be on their knees under my feet.'

From then on Richard became completely different. The innocent boy, who only wished to get rid of his mother's slave status, became a man with great ambitions and was stained with obsession.

***

I looked at Richard as he stood there. The author said that every time he visited his mother's grave, he'd pledge to take revenge against the Duke.

Was he still like that?

I didn't know Richard's thoughts, but I didn't feel any seething hatred or ambition from him when I saw him. He was just a lonely boy. Even the wound on his neck was because he tried to save his mother from being dragged out.

Richard opened his eyes and our eyes met.

Richard would normally smile arrogantly and make cheesy remarks as soon as he saw me, but now he turned his head the other way as if he hadn't seen me.

He looked rather lonely with such an appearance, so I couldn't just leave him.

"Melissa, I'll be back after I greet Sir Cassil."

"Let's go together."

"It's alright. I won't be long."

I walked alone towards Richard. He felt me approaching and turned around again.

"Long time no see, Sir Cassil."

"I didn't know I'd meet you here, but I guess I was lucky."

Richard flashed his signature smile and acted as if he had never avoided my gaze.

But in contrast to his relaxed smile, his eyes had hardened.

"The flowers are beautiful."

"It is a memorial. There's a woman of Roum blood buried here."

I was surprised. I didn't think Richard would say it himself.

It was a secret that Richard's mother was of the Roums. The Duke of Cassil hid it for his family's honor, and Richard even hid it from his beloved Diana.

He never confided it to anybody.

Of course, I knew it was a secret, but I was taken aback when he mentioned it so directly.

"So you'd better step back," added Richard.

Perhaps he had taken my silence as contempt. He didn't sound surprised in the least, as if he already knew that I'd react like this.

"Was it someone you knew?"

"No, I only happened to hear of it. The woman died of Tancinol."

I was surprised for a moment, but I didn't think he'd reveal his past fully.

I gave a silent salute and tied a handkerchief to the Camellia branch.

"What are you doing?"

"I've heard that this is the Roums' funeral etiquette."

The Roums had been despised for a thousand years already now. The language used by the Zelcan Empire disappeared and became an ancient language, and a new language took its place in the new Empire.

Nevertheless, the people's anger was not resolved and they did not allow their language to be used by the Roums. When a Roum died, they would not get a tombstone. Instead of offering flowers to tombstones, they tied handkerchiefs to trees or planted new flowers over the grave.

"....you're doing this for a Roum?"

"Is there any reason I can't?"

It wasn't because she was Richard's mother. She had been persecuted all her life for being a Roum and died miserably in the end, so I wanted to offer a little consolation to her soul.

"Don't you know what Tancinol is?"

He snapped cynically. The artificial gentleness that was always in Richard's voice had completely disappeared.

"I know."

"You lack awareness."

"How would we know if it was really Tancinol or not? I heard that there were many instances when the Roums were killed just out of suspicion that they had Tancinol. Even if it was really Tancinol, there aren't any remnants of it left here."

"The Curses of the Goddess could still spread."

"I don't believe that."

A strong wind blew past and the handkerchief nearly came loose. When I went to tighten the handkerchief that had come loose, Richard grabbed my hand.

"Are you drunk or do you think you're a saint for embracing monsters?!"

He lost his temper and shouted.

He wasn't mad at me. It was just the anger and guilt that he had been suppressing since his mother died. The anger that had no place to go.

The Richard in 'The Beast and the Lady' was six years older than Blake and Diana who had just become adults. He was very experienced and mature.

Always cold and calculating, never disorganized.

I thought that the Richard now had a similar personality.

But that was not it.

He was still an immature boy that was hiding many wounds.

"Well, I've never thought of me as being particularly nice. I just don't like baseless fears."

"Baseless fears?"

When I lived in Korea, I had a big scar on my calf. It was from a car accident when I was young. The accident left my parents dead so I went to live in my grandmother's house in the countryside.

I didn't care about the scar much when I wore long pants every day. But then, I became a middle school student and had to wear a knee-length skirt as part of my uniform.

"What is that? So gross."

"Is it a skin disease?"

On the day of my middle school entrance ceremony, the children screamed at the sight of my scar, and then suddenly, I was at the center of everyone's attention.

The kids hated me and avoided me until the end of the semester.

I thought it was because the scar looked ugly. So I told the school about the situation and got permission to wear pants. But even though they couldn't see the scar, they still avoided me.

When I went to them, they'd become either angry or scared, as if the ugly wound would be transmitted to them. That day, I realized.

They didn't hate me. Rather, they were afraid. They treated me like I was a germ because of that baseless fear.

It was ridiculous.

It might look gross, but it had already been there since a long time ago and it wasn't an infectious skin disease.

But logical persuasion was useless in the face of baseless fears that had already taken root in their minds.

The people of this world speak ill of 'the Heir to the Curse' and call them monsters, and despise the Roums as the people abandoned by the Goddess. In the end, I accepted that such feelings were borne out of their baseless fears.

When the 'the Heir to the Curse' died, the curse would be passed to another member of the Imperial family. And the curse had never transferred to anyone other than a member of the Imperial family.

Nevertheless, people still trembled with fear at the sight of it. Even though the curse had no precedent of being transmitted to another person in the past thousand years.

"The curse has been passed on to the heir's servant."

"I heard that a lady made eye contact with the heir for a while, and then died of a sudden illness."

Such unconfirmed rumors spread, and at some point, it became a fact for them.