137.

“You are the most well-versed in the necrosis happening in this fortress, young master.”

“Necrosis? Me?”

Griselda had no answer. She stared intently into Johannes’ eyes. Johannes also looked directly at her, but she didn’t seem to be meeting his gaze. Rather, she was scrutinizing his pupils as if trying to fish out something. Then suddenly, she averted her eyes from Johannes.

“I… thought I knew you better than anyone else.”

“……”

“I don’t know anymore.”

A strange expression she had never shown before was seeping into her downcast eyes and the bridge of her nose. It wasn’t her usual stone-like indifference, but confusion. She quickly turned her gaze back to Johannes and asked, as if pouring out pent-up feelings:

“What on earth did you two siblings do that afternoon? Why is the princess avoiding you now? When she’s been longing for you so much. And you. What exactly are you scheming?”

The unclear last words didn’t even reach his ears. Only the first question about the siblings’ private experience stuck in Johannes’ mind like a nail. In an instant, from his nape to his forehead, he flushed bright red as if set ablaze.

The sensations of that day. The cold flavor of the ice candy he had tasted on his sister’s tongue filled his throat, making him feel like he would choke at any moment. He pressed his hand to his forehead as if to hide his urgent feelings.

“You’re being far too presumptuous…”

And then.

A sensation as if his spine was breaking.

“You… devil’s parasite!”

“Die before you grow any further…!”

“Die…!”

The princess’s scream suddenly rang in Johannes’ ears. The voice was so realistic that Johannes startled with his eyes wide open.

The scenery that had been brilliant daylight suddenly reversed. An abrupt darkness. In this nightmare where the scene had changed as if flipping a board, Johannes was lying spread-eagled. The princess, falling from a dizzying height, landed on his body. She began to strangle him.

Johannes unknowingly strangled the princess’s neck in return. Only his right hand seemed monstrous on his body. He saw his bronze-colored hand, which seemed more likely to produce a metallic friction sound than tear skin if struck with a sword, gripping the princess’s throat. Dagger-like nails dug into the princess’s Adam’s apple.

“How dare you harbor lust for my daughter…!”

“Sir Johannes?”

His stomach churned. Johannes, who had unknowingly widened his eyes, slowly felt his own neck. He gripped only his right hand as he felt it. Fortunately, the sensation of skin touching his neck was normal, but he couldn’t bring himself to look down to confirm. With difficulty, fumbling, he lowered his gaze. Hand. It was no different in form from others.

It was just a hallucination. Just a hallucination.

“Sir Johannes.”

Johannes unexpectedly met Griselda’s eyes and flinched, his shoulders jerking. Suddenly, it was reality. He habitually tried to calm his racing heart. He belatedly recognized the shadow full of worry, uncharacteristic for a nursemaid.

“…Poor young lady.”

Suddenly, Griselda shook her head. She no longer seemed to be paying attention to him. With her arms crossed as if hugging her upper body and her shoulders hunched, she appeared lost in her own thoughts. Johannes took a few slow steps backward while taking several deep breaths.

It wasn’t a gesture to avoid the nursemaid. He was just trying to grasp the situation to the point where his brain felt feverish. So now. It was time to set aside his own condition or any guilt. He had to somehow resolve the immediate situation.

He quickly judged that as long as he kept quiet about his mother trying to strangle him, there would be no harm to her safety. He turned around and headed for the library. The duke, who had finished the morning assembly, would be there.

However, the duke. He was a family head almost thoroughly indifferent to family matters. It was uncertain whether such a father would even pretend to listen to his son’s request. Facing his ever-stern father was no small burden, but what was truly daunting was the aftermath of being rejected.

The despair of facing the reality that there truly was no way. I can’t even imagine what will become of me when I realize I can never get you back.

But now he could no longer just stand by and watch this utterly unjust treatment.

Moreover, this thirst. A thirst as if his throat was cracking. His back hurt again.

He didn’t know exactly why his body was suddenly aching so severely. Johannes took a deep breath as if to collect himself. At times when emotions ran high like this, he must not lose his composure. Only then could he somehow bring his sister back to his side. He ran.

***

“…I have committed a great wrong against my sister.”

“A wrong?”

“Yes.”

“You, what did you do?”

Johannes clenched his jaw with his gaze lowered. To dare to confess in front of his father, his cheeks burned and his mouth felt parched. The duke’s face, who had been staring intently at his eldest son unable to answer, briefly flashed with disappointment.

“Who are you?”

“…Pardon?”

It was an unexpected question. Johannes raised his eyes.

“I asked how you view yourself.”

“……”

“You are the crown prince of the West.”

Crown prince.

“My only legitimate son, that is.”

Only.

“Since this is unlike you, I’ll forgive you today.”

Johannes chewed on the words that stood out first from the duke’s declaration, which was vaguely unclear in meaning. His father was not the type to make verbal mistakes. Because the meaning was clear, it was all the more unbelievable, arrogant, and even cruel to some.

“A wrong….”

The duke slowly snorted. And slowly, like a crouching dragon rising, he stood up from his seat. After briefly looking down, he grabbed the scribe standing nearby by the collar and struck his face with his iron-like fist. What followed was a hellish scene not particularly unfamiliar to Johannes. Johannes’s eyes darkened.

The duke’s fist cut through the air several times. There wasn’t even a single short groan. It was such a sudden and powerful blow. And it didn’t end with just one strike. The slender body, which looked like a single snake in front of the duke with his mountain-like build, floated in the air, writhing and jerking.

Thud, thud. With dull impact sounds, the duke’s fists splattered blood that wasn’t his own in all directions. The iron-like smell of blood, for which he couldn’t find a proper reason, spread to Johannes’s nostrils. The priest who had been reciting poetry next to the duke was trembling like an aspen tree as he watched the scribe who had been standing right next to him turn into a bloody mess.

And then, thump. The scribe was thrown to one side. His pitiful entire body trembled and convulsed. The duke’s guard, who had been observing the situation with cold eyes as emotionless and ruthless as his master, finally stepped forward, pulled out the hem of his clothes, and wiped his master’s fists without a moment’s hesitation. The duke plopped down in his chair with his hand still outstretched and let out a long breath.

“You must remember.”

Johannes immediately lowered his eyelids as he stared at the fallen scribe.

“Wrongs or vices are dishonors only possible for those who are not rulers, so a ruler can neither be evil nor good. The same applies to you who have already earned the qualification of the next ruler. Subjugating even evil deeds as part of dignity. That’s what true domination is, and only those capable of that can be called true rulers.”

“……”

“A ruler must be unrestrained in his actions. So do not question your judgment.”

Johannes finally understood the disappointment the duke had shown earlier. But it was something he could never comprehend.

“Gaader.”

The duke called his guard. Gaader, who had meticulously wiped between his lord’s fingers with rough hands ill-suited for such delicate work, straightened his upper body.

“Yes.”

“What do you think?”

“The question is pointless. A dog does not think, as you know.”

“Correct.”

The duke’s face, affirming as if cutting off abruptly, looked as bored as ever, which made it all the more severe. Soon, Gaader called the guard at the entrance. The fallen scribe was carried out of the library on the guards’ shoulders like a rag. The duke’s indifferent voice was thrown at their backs.

“He sacrificed himself for the education of an emperor, so if he dies, give him a grand funeral.”

“Yes.”

Gaader, who accepted the order with a brief salute, left the library.

Johannes squeezed his eyes shut. The cruel situation was already familiar, so it didn’t affect his emotions. But the pain that had been continuing since earlier. It felt like he would go blind from it. It was as if his spine was distorting segment by segment, making it seem like his whole body would twist at any moment. He struggled to anchor his mind to reality and barely parted his lips.

“I… understand well, Father. But this time, it doesn’t seem Mother will readily withdraw her order… So… this punishment, I’ll take it.”

“Is there anyone in this fortress qualified to punish you?”

The duke seemed to intend to dismiss Johannes’s assertion with that retort.

“Father, please punish me in Mother’s stead.”

“……”

“If this request displeases you, I would at least like you to lift my sister’s confinement.”

But Johannes couldn’t back down. Though he knew it would irritate his father, he pleaded again. There was no other way. The duke, who had been tilting his head in a leisurely posture, finally furrowed his brow.

“…You’re being particularly troublesome today.”

“……”

“Rather than rejecting the queen’s will and inviting unnecessary discord, I’d rather not pay attention to it in the first place.”

“But Father.”

Johannes lifted his head abruptly.

“Don’t you feel sorry for my sister’s situation? It’s already been well over two weeks. You may not know, or rather, you may not need to consider, but Giovinetta is usually as lively as a horse. Such a long confinement is not a punishment her nature can possibly endure. If you leave her like this, she’ll break before she can reflect. Such a thing… can hardly be called punishment, can it?”

“However, for a woman to be lively is also a serious vice.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s rather fortunate that the queen is taking the trouble to discipline her. We’ve been spared the effort of bringing in a teacher.”

I made a mistake.

Sweat formed inside Johannes’s clenched fist as he grew urgent.

“But, Fath-”

“She’s a child to be sent to the royal family before long. If we correct her from an early age, she won’t cause scandals or bring troublesome complaints in the future.”

It was a tone that would not tolerate any further objection.