Bloodline is a Cheat Code - Chapter 86

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 86
“So Cruide Den was a sleeper agent all along.”
“Yeah.”
The first method to living life at ease: unconditionally agree even when I don’t understand what Minabell is saying.
Minabell had rushed to the Mansion in complete excitement upon learning that Serpina Rosena had brought the last male lead from the original story.
After that, I heard news about my curse, stories about Lucian Advein, the Emperor’s condition, and nearly fell backward.
“And the Emperor is a zombie, and the official beside him is a dark sorcerer controlling him?”
“What’s a zombie?”
“Well, it’s a state where someone moves their body without reason or consciousness?”
Minabell bent her arms at strange angles as if demonstrating, creaking them back and forth.
“Donbi.”
The child beside her found Minabell’s movements amusing and began creaking their own limbs in imitation.
“Not donbi—zombie. Zo-om-bi.”
“Do-om-bi.”
“Close enough. Oh my, looks like it’s time for your baby teeth to fall out.”
Minabell giggled upon spotting the gap where a tooth had fallen out in the child’s mouth.
After Cruide Den mentioned the curse and revealed that the child could become a target, Elian had given up on keeping the child hidden away in their room.
‘Simply holding them close and protecting them wouldn’t solve this. If that’s the case, I’ll fight alongside them.’
‘Elian, if you ever meet the Crown Prince and, by some miracle, the two of you develop a special relationship, you’ll be cursed before the child is.’
‘What mother would use her child as a shield against a curse? I certainly wouldn’t. At least this way, I can buy time for the child. And….’
‘And?’
I recalled how Elian, who had been throwing herself forward without hesitation, had hesitated in answering for the first time.
Haeston, standing beside her, had bluntly cut in.
‘The Crown Prince has already been fighting the curse for a long time, and you want to share that pain with him, don’t you? Something like that?’
Elian’s face had turned completely red, struck by those words.
When Lucian Advein openly embarrassed her afterward and she scolded him, Haeston’s sulky response had been the final blow.
‘Since you might become the Crown Princess soon and have to speak formally, I figured I’d mess around while I still could.’
‘Why Crown Princess and not Crown Prince’s wife?’
‘If that guy’s going to stay Crown Prince forever, why are we even doing this? We might as well just lie in bed and lazily wait for the approaching destruction. On top of that, dealing with that superior’s terrible personality is killing me—ahem, Your Highness, please take the throne.’
Haeston really does seem to undermine all his abilities with his mouth.
“Bel, my real worry is whether I can completely trust Cruide Den.”
“Huh? He’s the man your sister chose. Sure, he’s been around for a hundred years and isn’t even human, so he does seem suspicious.”
“You really do talk about things people would normally keep secret so casually.”
“It’s a setting that appears from the beginning of the original story, so it’s not a secret to me.”
Cruide Den—an elf who is known to have betrayed his own race by choosing dark magic.
Unlike typical elves, his ears look human, but that’s because he gradually altered his appearance to resemble humans over the long centuries he’s lived.
He spent most of his time absorbed in dark magic research and occasionally ventured out of his cave, only to find the world had transformed each time—emperors changed, creatures he once knew had died—a long-lived being who witnessed all manner of upheaval.
Then he fell in love with a vengeful spirit woman who wouldn’t live long, and he abandoned dark magic and everything else, following her around, snapping his convictions like a twig, cursing freely as he lived….
“What do you mean by snapping like a twig, Minabell?”
“It’s a metaphor.”
“That metaphor was far too cruel.”
“Just let it go.”
In any case, that was how the previous timeline unfolded.
And this time, though Serpina Rosena hadn’t explained it in detail, she apparently stormed directly into where he was conducting his research.
With so many protective spells layered upon the place, she said that without the knowledge from the first cycle, she would have become a corpse before ever arriving.
“However suspicious he may appear, his loyalty toward your sister is genuine, and his hatred for the previous Emperor remains just as sincere now as it was then.”
“Why?”
“Because he restricted magic to such a limited domain. That’s why dark magic became confined solely to the realm of curses.”
Cruide Den had apparently lamented how, while he used curses for Serpina Rosena’s sake, the general application of dark magic in that era became a tool for tormenting others.
He questioned whether this was truly the right path.
“But then, how could someone so versed in dark magic—versed enough to recognize what curse Lucian bore at a glance—have remained ignorant until the very end?”
“Well, there was no need to know?”
“Hm?”
Minabell regarded me with an expression of deep concern.
It seemed to ask, ‘Did you eat something bad?’ Had I really said something so nonsensical?
It didn’t seem quite that absurd, but the moment my eyes blinked blankly, Minabell sighed.
“Your sister’s goal is to destroy the Empire. Why would she need to know what curse afflicts people who willingly walk the path to ruin?”
“Ah.”
Right. I keep forgetting that my sister’s purpose back then differed fundamentally from mine.
Serpina Rosena, the vengeful specter—I know it in my mind, yet the words continue to feel foreign on my tongue.
Even if I were to read the text that Minabell mentioned, I doubt I could accept it with genuine conviction.
Though I witnessed fragments of what Serpina Rosena endured and committed in her past life, I felt pity before I felt cruelty.
“Still, my sister’s memories from that time have been incredibly helpful.”
“That’s true. Lepina’s memory really is remarkable. Well, to summarize my answer: you can trust him. He won’t betray you. As for when we’ll find a way to break the curse, I’m not entirely sure. Should we cooperate with Asteron, the Magic Tower Master?”
“They did seem to know each other.”
“One curses the other as a damned thieving bastard, while the other complains that the first only eats years and harasses the Council of Elders. That’s the kind of relationship they have.”
What wonderful friends.
I hope they cooperate and save Lucian and me quickly.
If possible, I’d also like them to save Vincent before Elian makes some irreversible decision.
“But Aden Prince wasn’t cursed?”
“Right. He was born brimming with holy power, so dark magic couldn’t take root in him. Pertona Empress had weaker holy power for someone from the Holy Kingdom, so dark magic could suppress her. But apparently that didn’t work on Aden.”
I wondered how Melissa would react upon learning this fact.
‘Then shall we test if this holy power can handle it as well?’
The image of her appearing directly and grinding Lai to dust with her immense holy power came to mind first.
…That doesn’t sound so bad. Why couldn’t we just end it that way?
“Hup.”
Minabell glanced above my head and suddenly wore a startled expression.
Hmm, so my thought was absurd. The idea of crushing dark magic with holy power isn’t natural?
“Tiae, if I provide you with one advisory item, will you confirm the engagement ceremony event for the next development?”
“So you’re saying if you give advice, you can confirm the engagement ceremony? Fine.”
“If you don’t lift the curse and simply force the caster to death, all the curses will manifest the moment they die. That’s why you have to lift it first.”
The more time passed, the more I coveted that status window.
Minabell seemed to despise it, but….
“How much for that status window?”
“Huh?”
“I’m asking how much. Don’t mess with me. What’s impossible about it? I’ll buy it with money.”
“That’s certainly a statement worthy of Han Dedeok’s work…. How much can I… give you? I really need points. I genuinely need a lot of points.”
“I said I’d buy it with money. I don’t know how to accumulate points myself. Can’t you exchange it or something?”
* * *
Since I was already cursed anyway, I decided to push forward with the engagement. Father eventually rose from his seat.
He said it was truly shameful that someone as strong-boned as himself had fallen to poison.
‘Do you know how worried I was!’
‘I’m sorry.’
I nearly fainted again from being tormented by Mother’s tearful pleas for quite some time.
But we decided instead to hold the engagement more grandly and quickly.
We even sent an invitation to Vincent Crown Prince. That way Lai would come.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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