Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The Curse (1)
The moment I passed through the gates of Roktana, my hell unfolded before me.
“Die!!”
“You son of a demon!! You deserve to die!!”
“Give my son back...! Hngh!! Give me back my baby!!”
“Die, you bastard Allen!”
The beautiful scenery outside the castle walls vanished, and the crowd swarming like a colony of ants lifted their heads as though they were one living creature.
The name of that creature was hatred.
-Thud!
A stone came flying from somewhere and struck my forehead.
“Ugh!”
I clutched my forehead at the sharp pain, and dark red blood streamed down my hand.
As if it had become a signal, a barrage of stones poured down afterward.
So many stones rained from the sky that it darkened for an instant.
Had I personally earned enough resentment from them to deserve this?
No. More accurately, my family had. And I was the eldest son of that family.
Our family and House Rondor, the rulers of this Roktana, were sworn enemies.
One of the Rondor knights who had dragged me all the way to Roktana approached my side and whispered.
“Look well, Kylo Allen.”
As he slowly raised his arm, another heavy stone struck his gauntlet and bounced away.
“Look carefully with your own eyes at the resentment your family has piled up. And never forget it. The fury of Roktana... is no different from the fury of House Rondor.”
Old people shedding tears of blood.
Children throwing stones with resentment-filled eyes.
Kids around my age rushing at me like they wanted to kill me, only to be shoved down and trampled by the adults.
Parents who had lost children, and children who had lost parents, all poured their rage onto me.
If someone witnessed a scene like this even once, they would never forget it, even if no one told them to remember.
It was horrifying.
There was no better way to describe it.
Just trying to understand the countless emotions twisting together inside me was overwhelming enough.
“...”
But I bundled all those feelings together and ignored them.
They were emotions I did not need to understand.
I had to remember one thing.
This was Rondor territory. Roktana.
The land of my enemy family.
There was only one thing that was certain.
Just as my father had done, just as my father’s soldiers had done, I too had to fight.
This was my battlefield.
If you lowered your sword and shield because you were afraid of your opponent, the only thing waiting for you was death.
If you showed weakness, you would be crushed.
My father always said that if you got hit, you had to hit back.
So I roughly wiped away the blood, swallowed my fear, and shouted.
“...Were we the only ones who killed people?”
My voice grew louder and louder.
“Are we the only demons? Do you even know how many of our people you killed too?! We were just stronger! You’re all the same as us!!”
For the past five years, there had been a war between the Kingdom of East and the Kingdom of Dellum.
Our House Allen belonged to the Kingdom of East.
Under the banner of the Kingdom of East, my father elevated the prestige of House Allen and fought against countless noble families of the Kingdom of Dellum.
And among those families, there was one that could be called our greatest rival.
A family whose territory and military power matched ours evenly.
House Rondor.
House Rondor was the first family to stop my father, who had earned the title of the Unbeaten Knight. During the war, they were also the family we killed the most, and the family that killed the most of us.
The fact that House Rondor stood directly south of the cold northern land where House Allen resided was probably another reason the two families became so deeply entangled.
We fought viciously. And the hatred between us deepened just as much.
Then, around last year, our family pushed House Rondor to the brink of destruction, effectively ending the rivalry between our houses with our victory...
But no single family could win a war alone.
The war between kingdoms ended with the defeat of the Kingdom of East, the kingdom we belonged to.
A peace treaty was signed, but as the defeated nation, we had to provide collateral for negotiations.
And so the children of countless noble families of the Kingdom of East were sent to the Kingdom of Dellum as hostages.
Not every family’s children were taken... but I was included. No, I was essential.
Considering my father’s achievements in the war, there was no way House Allen could escape the fury of the Kingdom of Dellum.
And naturally, there was only one place I would be sent.
A family that had devoted itself to the Kingdom of Dellum during the war, only to be ruined and fall into decline because of us.
Our greatest enemy and rival.
I had to come to Roktana, the territory of House Rondor.
I was insane.
Pressing my torn forehead with my palm, I thought to myself.
I definitely had a choice too.
Before being dragged away as a hostage, my father had looked at us brothers and sisters with a grief-stricken face and asked.
Which one of you will go to Roktana? Who will sacrifice themselves for House Allen?
...Honestly, I didn’t want to.
Thinking about the relationship between us and House Rondor, there was no way I wanted to come here.
We killed countless Rondor soldiers. In other words, countless people of Roktana.
And that wasn’t all.
The Duke of Rondor had also died after the injuries he received fighting my father worsened.
Their eldest son too... though the story was complicated, could also be said to have died by our hands.
So what remained in Roktana now?
Countless people grieving for husbands and sons they had lost.
The Duchess of Rondor and her daughter, who must have felt the same pain.
And immense fury.
All of that rage would now be directed at the hostage dragged here as a target for their anger.
That was why I did not want to come. I could very well die trying to endure all that hatred.
I didn’t want to die. There were still too many things I wanted to do, eat, and see.
...Then why was I here?
Because I was stupid.
There were five siblings in our family.
I was the eldest son, fourteen years old.
The second and third were girls aged thirteen and eleven.
If girls were dragged away as hostages, who knew what terrible things might happen to them, so they were excluded.
The fourth was six years old and still sucked his thumb like milk. The fifth was a two-year-old who still couldn’t even speak.
...They were both boys, but too young to even understand what hatred meant.
As the eldest son, as a man, as my father’s son, as an older brother, and as a member of House Allen, it was obvious who should be taken hostage.
That was why I was here.
Because I could not bear to send my younger siblings.
But now I regretted it.
Even if my conscience would have suffered for it, I should have refused to come until the very end.
At my words, the resentful screams only grew louder.
“That bastard!!”
“Kill him!! Kill him already!!”
“Knights, please move aside!! I’ll kill that bastard myself and gladly go to hell!!”
I shouted back without backing down. Thousands of people stood against me.
“Throw more! You thought this little bit would scare me?! Is this all you’ve got?! That’s why our House Allen crushed you!!”
At my shouting, the plaza descended into chaos.
The crowd shoved the knights back and forth. The rain of stones grew fiercer.
Those who ran out of stones grabbed dirt and weeds and hurled whatever they could.
I too cursed even more viciously. The more I surrendered myself to rage, the more my fear faded, if only briefly.
“If I ever make it back home alive!! I’ll return with an army and kill every last one of you!!”
“You think you’ll make it back alive?!”
“The Duchess will kill you!! House Rondor will kill you!!”
-Clang!
At that moment, the captain of the knights drew his sword with a thunderous shout.
“Enough!!”
The instant the captain drew his sword, the other knights followed suit.
The uproar froze in an instant, and the plaza fell silent.
The captain declared,
“This disturbance ends here!”
Afterward, he gave a long speech to calm the people, saying there would be plenty of time later, and that they at least needed to bring me before the Duchess first...
While he spoke, I pressed against the blood flowing from the torn skin near my eye and steadied my breathing.
At first, the people could not calm their excitement even after the captain’s speech, but little by little, they made way at the sight of the gleaming swords.
Eventually, seeing the road split open wide, the captain sheathed his sword, and the other knights followed him.
Then, ahead of us, I noticed someone.
While everyone else stepped aside, one figure remained standing in the middle of the road.
An old woman.
“...”
White hair. A face filled with wrinkles. Tears flowing down both cheeks.
Though her features were blurred with age, her eyes still shone sharply.
She too did not hide her hatred toward me.
“The eldest son of the Unbeaten Knight, Jade Allen. Kylo Allen.”
Her voice rang out through the now silent crowd.
In the stillness, whispers of “The witch...” spread.
Even the captain of the knights was overwhelmed by her presence and could not bring himself to tell her to move aside.
The old woman called a witch slowly opened her mouth.
“...You probably don’t care... but your father killed my son in the war.”
“...”
“And my son... comes to me every night in my dreams and begs me to take revenge on House Allen. He was always such a whiny child when he was young... really now... What could an old woman like me possibly do? Against the mighty northern family... how could someone like me possibly do anything...”
Then the old woman smiled through her tears.
It was a grotesque smile, enough to make everyone listening tremble in fear.
“But... I still have to try...”
Her wide-open eyes turned toward me.
“People called me a witch. I was never really a witch... but if I truly had such power... if I really were a witch as they all claimed...”
Drip, drip. Tears fell as the old woman whispered to me.
“I curse you.”
In a calm voice laced with bitterness, she continued.
“You will never have children, and you will die before reaching thirty. Ah, and even if you do have children, they will be unhealthy—”
The longer the old woman rambled on, the more the uneasy feeling I first had disappeared. She did not seem like a witch at all, just someone blurting out whatever came to mind.
So just as I was about to interrupt her—
“People of the North don’t believe in curses—”
“You will fall in love with someone you must never love.”
At the old woman’s final words, I froze without realizing it.
And not long after, that curse she uttered kept echoing through my head.
“Hic... sob...”
From the moment I met her, I began to wonder if the curse had truly been real.
Bright red hair. A small frame. Large crimson eyes. Beautiful features.
She, who should have been my enemy.
“...K-Kylo Allen.”
My heart pounded violently as I looked at her. I did not know whether it was from tension, or truly because of the curse.
It was the first time my heart had ever raced because of a girl, and even I was confused.
Maybe it was simply because she was beautiful. Or because she looked unbearably pitiful. Or perhaps because the situation unfolding before me was so different from what I had expected...
But one thing was certain.
I could not take my eyes off her.
She spoke.
“...I’ve... been waiting for you.”