But the unease in my heart turned out to be a premonition come true.
A rebellion broke out on the border. Orion, along with members of his maternal family, submitted a joint petition, requesting that Rowan be sent to the
front lines.
On the surface, it was framed as a way to help the future king build his reputation. But clearly, their intentions were far from noble.
I couldn’t rest easy, so I decided to go with the army.
Rowan, distressed for my safety, arranged a comfortable tent for me and assigned ten elite guards to protect me around the clock.
Still, I wanted to contribute. So I volunteered at the infirmary, tending to wounded soldiers.
The days were hard, but they were fulfilling.
Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. With the journey back to Asteria drawing near and everything seemingly calm, I finally allowed myself to relax. One day, just after I had finished bandaging the last soldier, a familiar figure burst into my tent.
“Claire, I finally found you.”
I froze in shock. In just six months, how had Orion become so haggard?
What was he doing here?
His clothes were tattered, no better than a beggar’s. His face was unshaven, dark circles marked his eyes, and bruises bloomed beneath them.
His voice was hoarse.
“Claire… after you left, I had a dream–a long dream…”
“In it, you wore a crown and married me. You became my wife. But I…”
He trailed off, unable to finish. Then he slapped himself across the face with brutal force.
I was too stunned to speak. How did he know what had happened in our past life?
Then I saw it–the rune on the back of his neck. It was an Asterian curse sigil.
And it all made sense.
He has been cursed by one of the Asterians.
He recounted his experiences from the past half–year, face etched with torment.
Since I left, he had locked himself away in his chambers, drowning himself in alcohol. He ignored palace affairs. The king scolded him publicly as a useless disgrace. The entire court turned its back on him.
Waverly Serena, still his wife in name, had been abandoned in his indifference. Even the maids dared to trample on her. Eventually, she lost the child she was carrying.
She never understood why the man who once loved her deeply now refused to even look at her.
She blamed it all on me, spreading rumors that I had cursed Orion, clouded his mind, made him pine for me day and night-
But over time, even her slanders couldn’t soothe the growing bitterness and loneliness in her heart. She finally took a reckless step–having an affair. A night servant caught her in the act.
The royal family couldn’t tolerate such disgrace. They fed her poison and announced to the public that she had died of complications from a miscarriage. Orion remained trapped in his dreamlike stupor. By the time he stumbled to me, he was already a dying man.
A few days later, he passed away quietly in his sleep.
Only then did the rune on his neck begin to fade.
“Father, aren’t you going to come out?”
Thad already recognized the curse–it was my father’s work.
In this life, he and Orion had no personal feud. For him to resort to such a ruthless spell, there could only be one explanation: Father had been reborn too
