Chapter 1
1. The Golden Orb and the Black Lake
The orb had been her mother’s keepsake.
Brunhilde stared at the surface of the lake that had swallowed it, her lips trembling faintly. The water was so dark that she couldn’t see the bottom at all, and doubt crept in. Had she truly done the right thing?
This was the Black Forest.
A magical place that none could enter unless they carried the blood of royalty or of a distinguished lineage.
If her mother’s final words were false, she would have to endure her father’s contempt just to retrieve that orb.
More than two hours had passed since it had slipped from her hands.
The sun hanging high overhead felt almost cruel. Enduring each passing minute with a sense of her blood drying in her veins, Brunhilde bit her lip and tried to push herself to her feet.
She would have, if not for the long shadow stretching over her.
“What a surprise. There’s actually someone in this forest.”
A voice fell over her from above, loud and unrestrained. Her breath hitched. Swallowing it down, Brunhilde slowly turned her head.
The man wore light armor.
His waist, wrapped in oiled leather, looked nearly twice as thick as hers, and the exposed arms were packed with dense muscle—enough to mark him unmistakably as a warrior.
Broad shoulders. A powerful neck lined with shifting muscle. Skin lightly bronzed by the sun. Hair as black as night, and eyes just as dark, swept over her as if searching.
It felt as though she had been stripped bare.
Tense as prey beneath a hunter’s gaze, Brunhilde opened her mouth slowly.
“This is the royal forest. Who are you to be here?”
“Judging by how you speak, you must be one of the king’s daughters.”
He muttered it as if it were nothing.
It was rude, but if he could enter this place, then his bloodline must be anything but ordinary. Instead of rebuking him, Brunhilde recalled her mother’s words.
Just as her thoughts began to deepen, the man spoke again.
“So, what brings a noble princess of Shelburg to this forest? And kneeling by the lakeside, no less?”
Should she tell him? She hesitated for a moment.
But once again, her mother’s final words pushed her forward. Even if things went wrong, all she stood to lose was the last scraps of her pride.
Summoning her courage, she answered.
“My thoughts were troubled, so I came here seeking solitude… and by mistake, I dropped my mother’s keepsake into the lake.”
“Oh?”
“This is a place where those without permission cannot enter. But the lake is too deep for me to dive in myself, so I’ve been trying to decide what to do.”
He glanced at the lake, a spark of interest flickering across his face.
“I see. Then what exactly is this keepsake you dropped?”
“A golden orb.”
“A golden orb, hm…”
He trailed off strangely, rubbing his chin as if calculating something. Then he asked:
“What will you give me if I retrieve that orb for you, Princess?”
The question sounded casual, yet strangely heavy. Perhaps it was the strange gleam in his pitch-black eyes, that seemed capable of swallowing even the light, that made it feel even more amplified.
“The price for getting me to move isn’t cheap.”
Her stomach tightened again, but Brunhilde forced herself to respond without delay.
“How much could a puppet of a princess, wandering the Black Forest without even a single maid, possibly offer?”
The man spoke with blatant rudeness, giving a grin at his lips. Then, lowering his gaze to meet her eyes, he enunciated each word with deliberate clarity.
“The Princess’ body.”
“……”
“Promise me you’ll spread your legs for me, and I’ll fetch the orb.”
“…!”
It was the kind of insult that would earn a slap from any ordinary woman.
The Brunhilde of a fortnight ago would have refused without hesitation.
But the Brunhilde of now—she was in such a wretched state that she could spread her legs for a man she had just met, if it meant escaping her circumstances.
Even if the method rested on uncertain foresight.
Once again, it was her mother’s last words that steadied her resolve. After swallowing down shallow breaths again and again, wrestling with herself, she finally nodded.
“Fine.”
“Oh?”
“Retrieve the orb. And I’ll give you what you want.”
For the first time, something different flickered in his dark eyes, which had been dancing with cruel amusement.
Narrowing them, he asked,
“Do you swear it in the name of the great God?”
“I swear it upon the One-Eyed Seer—truthfully.”
A satisfied smile curled at his lips.
With a proud tilt of his head, he strode past her. Stopping at the edge of the lake where the damp grass met the water, he glanced back at Brunhilde.
“Then I’ll be back.”
Without even removing his armor, the man stepped forward—one stride after another—walking straight into the lake as if it were solid ground.
Brunhilde couldn’t take her eyes off his back.
The water swallowed his chest, then his chin, and finally even the last strand of his black hair disappeared beneath the surface, as if he had never existed at all.
Time stretched endlessly.
Watching the ripples fade back into stillness, Brunhilde clenched her fists without realizing it.
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