Chapter 138
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 138
Have you ever been held in the arms of someone you just met today (a total hunk, for the record) without a word?
And when you asked what the hell they were doing, did that person (an incredible hunk, regardless) turn even redder in the face and shove you away?
“Ow!”
The one who caught me just as I was about to sprawl onto the floor was Klaus himself—the very man who had just thrown me.
Is this guy mentally unstable?
It wasn't unreasonable for me to harbor such doubts and anxieties. And Klaus Rocheva seemed to read the look in my eyes perfectly.
“Don’t look at me like that! It’s not like I’m doing this because I want to!”
“…What?”
“Haah. This damn submission…”
“Submission?”
Klaus Rocheva wiped his face with both hands. Left utterly bewildered, I asked, “I mean, why are you suddenly hugging me, then throwing me, then catching me again?”
“…You really are as thick-skinned as they come.”
I was the one who asked the question, yet I was the one getting insulted. This was a bizarre phenomenon.
Deciding that Klaus wasn't in his right mind, I simply looked at his subordinates. They were all holding their breath in unison.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Then, one of the subordinates spoke up cautiously.
“Um, excuse me, Savior.”
“Call me Lady Tulia.”
“Yes, my lady. By any chance, are you not fully aware of the ‘Wolf’s Submission’?”
“…Wolf’s Submission?”
Huh?
In an instant, a memory that had been so forgotten it had practically eroded away resurfaced.
[System] Wolf’s Submission
A unique oath that only members of the Lupinus royalty can use.
A magic where one swears eternal submission to a single target.
It can only be used once in a lifetime, and naturally, the target is usually one’s partner.
Right… that was the setting.
Like a series of waves, scenes I had seen while playing The Milk Bread flashed through my mind.
[Klaus]: If only my eyes were intact, I would have offered you the Wolf’s Submission.
[Corico]: It’s alright. I just wish you would let go of your hatred for the Frezier family. They’re all good people, so…
That’s right.
I had decided back then that I couldn't raise Klaus’s favorability any further after that scene. So, I chose the option to sneak in at night and set him free.
I remember. I remember now.
Wow, why did I only just remember this?
I must have forgotten because, during the playthrough where Klaus appeared, I was busy pursuing the most hardcore ending of all: the Harem Ending.
But more importantly, there was a more fundamental question.
“So, you offered that submission to me? Okay, fine. I get that you offered it. But Klaus?”
“…Yeah.”
“Why did you suddenly give it to me? Are you that grateful I saved your life?”
Is that why he just handed over a royal secret technique that can only be given to one person in a lifetime? I was starting to think he was a bit of a pushover, but…
“Are you actually insane?!”
Suddenly, Klaus Rocheva’s face turned a shade of red so deep it looked ready to explode, and he shouted in a rage so intense the veins in his neck bulged.
“You ‘took’ the Wolf’s Submission from me however you pleased!”
“Huh? Me?”
When?
* * *
It went like this.
Klaus Rocheva was clearly aware of the fact that he had died.
He knew he had died, and he was equally aware of the fact that he had been brought back to life.
The former was caused by the heretics.
The latter was caused by a woman with eyes like leaves, whose name he didn't even know.
In this godforsaken, unfamiliar space reeking of heretics, blood, and the fading lives of his subordinates.
The woman, covered in sweat, blood, and dust, had suddenly reached for his eyes.
The descendants of the Great Wolf King, the royalty of Lupinus who carried the blood of beasts, could only hand the leash of ‘Wolf’s Submission’ to one person in their entire lives.
Loyalty. Affection. Devotion. Trust. Love.
When such sensuality and abundance gathered and swelled until it made even the breathing of the royal difficult.
When it felt as if it would burst through the chest and spill out at any moment.
That was when the Lupinus royalty offered their ‘Wolf’s Submission.’
There were countless royals who died still clutching that submission in their hearts, having never met a worthy recipient.
But this woman.
She had just reached out and touched his eyes.
Because the Wolf’s Submission was such a strict and solemn ritual, the Lupinus Kingdom placed powerful protective magic on the eyes of every child as soon as they were born.
Damnably, whatever the heretics had done to his corpse had stripped those spells away completely.
As if she had no idea, the woman had confused him with a look of pure shock, then placed both hands over his eyes before he could even stop her.
And then, she had the audacity to turn her back on him and try to walk away.
Now, she was making his blood boil with insane questions like why he had offered it so recklessly.
Grinding his teeth, Klaus Rocheva asked like a wolf itching to bite into a small animal named Tulia.
“You… are you a mage?”
* * *
“No?”
“You’re not?”
Klaus gave a low, mocking laugh, looking at me as if I were a swindler steeped in deception and lies.
“Then how could you take my submission from me as you pleased?”
This has Kim Ddong-byul written all over it.
How was I supposed to know what would happen when I put my hands on Klaus’s eyes? There was just a red light like a crosshair over his eyes, and time was ticking away, so I just covered them in a hurry.
“I don’t know, but just calm down for a second. I’ll give it back.”
“…What? Give it back?”
At my words, the atmosphere around Klaus shifted drastically. The eyes that had been glaring at me with icy blue intensity sank into a darkness like a torrential downpour.
It happened in a heartbeat.
“Ugh!”
“Are you actually out of your mind?”
Klaus had grabbed me by the collar and hoisted me up.
“P-Prince!”
“She is our savior! Please, calm down for a moment…! Argh!”
His subordinates tried to intervene, but Klaus seemed to have lost all reason. Kicking away a subordinate who was clinging to him, Klaus brought my face level with his, his eyes filled with a chilling frost.
“I shouldn't even call you women of the barbaric continent. Seeing how you toy with me, you’re worse than those wicked mages. Ah.”
Klaus let out a low, mocking sneer.
“Perhaps you’re the master of those heretics?”
“What?”
Dumbfounded, I immediately rolled up my sleeve. My arm was marked with a bright red gash from a sharp weapon.
“What kind of master gets hurt like this while doing something so horrific? And all just to kidnap you?”
“If not that, then what?”
“‘If not that’? Did you seriously just say ‘if not that’?”
“I did.”
I, Tulia Frezier, am a person with a very low threshold for anger.
“Hey.”
To put it simply, I suffer from what people call ‘Intermittent Explosive Disorder’—or as we call it, a short fuse.
“Who do you think you are?”
“What?”
“Oh, right. I get that Lupinus royalty is valuable as a sacrifice. That’s why they put you on the altar all by yourself.”
But if I were the leader of the heretics, I wouldn't have chosen a guy who looks this insanely strong. A lunatic who could crush a person’s face like a tomato with nothing but his grip strength.
Instead.
“You have younger siblings, don’t you?”
“…”
Perhaps finding the sudden shift in conversation suspicious, Klaus glared at me without answering. Fine, it didn't really matter if he kept his mouth shut.
After all, I was the one who had seen it all in the game—how many royals were in the Lupinus Kingdom and what barbaric methods they used to fight for the throne.
“Why don’t you use that head of yours and think? If it were you, would you sacrifice a foul-tempered, strong guy like yourself instead of a young, weak royal?”
“You…”
“Do I look like an idiot? And I’m sorry, Klaus Rocheva, you damn brat of a prince.”
It was starting again. Tulia’s true nature—the one that spat out incredibly rude words without a care for consequences when enraged.
I spoke through gritted teeth.
“I am the owner of this territory, and the only direct granddaughter of the only Grand Ducal House, Frezier, which belongs to the only empire on this Spring Continent, Brillant.”
“…”
“I have zero interest in someone like you. Do you understand?”