Chapter 49
“Have you come, Mother?”
Late at night, when all had fallen asleep, Brunhilde slipped into Franz’s chambers. She removed the thin shawl draped over her shoulders; her clothing, light for the warm season, was sheer enough to reveal what lay beneath.
As she locked the door, Franz embraced her from behind, burying his face in her black hair. His lips trailed down slowly, grazing her ear as he murmured,
“You’re dressed rather lightly tonight.”
“So… you don’t like it?”
“As if. I mean I do.”
His rough fingertips loosened her waistband and slipped beneath the thin fabric. Brunhilde offered no resistance, she leaned back against him and tilted her neck.
His hand glided up her smooth skin and found her bare b****t, kneading it slow. Breathing shallowly, she reached up and traced his jaw, running her fingers over the stubble beginning to shadow his chin.
Franz, savoring her touch, spoke.
“What’s with all this tenderness?”
“Tenderness?”
“Yes. You almost never touch me first, Princess.”
He covered her hand with his and smiled languidly. His dark eyes looked down into hers as he asked:
“So what wind has blown you all the way to my room today?”
Their relationship had always been one-sided. Franz came to her. And she reluctantly opened her body to his will.
Every night, she writhed and moaned, lost in pleasure, yet the noble princess of Shelburg rarely came to him first. Instead, she endured alone, letting her body that had been so accustomed to a man’s touch, cool down by itself.
“Carl comes of age in a few days.”
“I know. It’s already that time.”
“And the promise you made—to hand over the position of head of the family without any schemes—was that the truth?”
“Ah, so that’s why our noble stepmother has come all the way to my room. In the end, it’s about Carl’s succession, isn’t it?”
His tone turned mocking as he lifted a hand. He caught a strand of her black hair, which fell like a veil beside her face, and continued,
“If that’s what you’re worried about, you can relax. You seem to keep forgetting, Carl may be the princess’s son, but he’s my son too.”
“But… once you pass the title to Carl, you’ll have to give up everything you’ve built.”
“That kind of power? Having held it, I can tell you that it’s nothing special.”
The way he dismissed it so lightly felt strangely unfamiliar. Brunhilde studied him with a newfound sense of unease.
Meeting her gaze steadily, he spoke as if concluding the matter.
“In any case, a promise sworn before the eyes of a great god isn’t something I can break. On the day Carl comes of age, I’ll hand over all authority of the house to him, just as I vowed.”
“Then… what comes after that? You truly won’t do anything?”
“Brunhilde.”
Franz’s heavy voice called her name.
She flinched in surprise. It was so rare for him to say her name—not ‘princess,’ not ‘mother,’ but her name.
“How long do you intend to remain here as a puppet mistress of this house?”
“…What do you mean?”
“I’ve learned why you threw the orb into the lake in the Black Forest seventeen years ago.”
“…!”
The words were completely unexpected. Brunhilde’s violet eyes widened in shock.
Franz continued calmly,
“That golden orb of the princess had been bothering me for some time, so I did a bit of digging. You’re not the only one who knows foreign sorcery, are you? My mother was a foreigner too.”
“…Ah.”
“And the rumor that a curse runs through your distinguished family is hardly a secret anymore. It’s an old story.”
Her heart pounded wildly at his unexpected words. Without realizing it, Brunhilde’s hand drifted to the heavy necklace resting against her chest. Franz released her hair and brushed it behind her ear as he went on.
“After I realized you had tried to escape your fate, I started looking, little by little, into ways to break the family curse. Then, not long ago, I managed to capture a wandering foreign mystic of great power and learned the price demanded by the curse that flows through Brandt.”
“…What kind of price?”
“I can’t tell you. The condition for hearing it was that I would never speak it aloud.”
Lowering his dark eyes, he cupped her cheek. His gaze, deep and intense, did not match the coldness of his face.
“But I can tell you how to avoid the curse.”
“What… is that method?”
“Brunhilde. Leave Brandt with me.”
“…What?”
“If the two of us disappear, the family’s curse will pass Carl by.”
To her, who had already guessed the nature of the curse flowing through Brandt, it was a deeply bewildering suggestion.
Both of them have to disappear? Not just him?
Still clouded with doubt, she looked up at him. He pulled her into his arms and spoke in a low voice.
“We leave Brandt together, for good—never to return. If we never see Carl again for the rest of our lives, the god’s curse will have nowhere to go.”
“…But I love Carl. I don’t want to leave him.”
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