Chapter 119: Father and Daughter

**Thelma Zane’s POV** Master Mary’s expression was unreadable as she stared at the southern Duke. With a deep sigh, she chose to say nothing and instead turned her attention to the task at hand. She cast a spell that incinerated the hair strand into ashes, blending it with a small drop of blood she had extracted from the southern Duke’s fingertip. With the mixture, she carefully drew a hexagram on Adele’s forehead. Moments later, Adele’s erratic behavior subsided. She slumped in the chair, her body limp, resembling a lifeless doll. “You’ve been cursed,” the southern Duke said, his voice dry and heavy with meaning. “Your master, the night magus Kafka, must have forced you to swear on your parents’ blood to protect his identity, didn’t he?” Adele coughed weakly but then broke into a sharp, unsettling laugh. Her eyes glimmered with defiance. “Yes and no,” she replied cryptically. “I did take an oath upon my bloodline, but no one forced me. I accepted the curse of kinship wi