Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The Curse (2)
After leaving the plaza and arriving at Rondor Castle, the knights handed me over to a man.
“Well then, try your best to survive, Kylo Allen.”
“Don’t die too quickly. It won’t be any fun if you do.”
The knights each offered me their own version of farewell blessings before leaving.
“...”
As I watched the departing knights, the man standing before me spoke.
“Please call me Pippin. I am the head butler of House Rondor.”
“...”
The butler called Pippin stared at my bloodied appearance for quite a while.
Perhaps because someone was looking at me, my wounds throbbed and burned even more.
The words asking for bandages rose to the tip of my tongue, but my pathetic pride kept me from saying anything.
Pippin looked at me for a moment before speaking simply.
“...Lady Vivian is waiting.”
Apparently, he had no intention of treating me either.
I let out a shallow sigh and followed behind him as he took the lead.
As I followed him, one question came to mind.
The butler had mentioned the name “Vivian.”
As far as I knew, the Duchess’s name was not Vivian.
If someone spoke of a Vivian from House Rondor, there was only one person it could be.
Vivian Rondor.
The eldest daughter of House Rondor, and their last remaining child, one year younger than me.
“...”
...Why had she been mentioned before the Duchess?
It puzzled me.
To begin with, I had not paid much attention to Vivian Rondor.
The person I was far more wary of was the Duchess of Rondor.
Thinking back to the scream my mother let out when we parted, the Duchess of Rondor, who had lost her husband and son to us, was surely preparing a hell for me as well.
Above all, it was said that the person who had strongly demanded a hostage from our family was the Duchess herself.
So it was the Duchess I feared, not her daughter.
But those earlier words stimulated my dark imagination.
What kind of condition was she in that the butler mentioned Vivian Rondor first?
Could she possibly be even angrier than the Duchess?
Or perhaps her temperament was even worse?
I had never heard such rumors, though.
“...Ha.”
Still, there was no need for me to think too deeply about it.
I would learn the answer soon enough.
So instead, I awkwardly wiped the blood streaming down my face with the sleeve of the clothes my parents had carefully dressed me in, saying they would be my last.
I would soon meet the people of House Rondor.
The thought of showing them such a miserable appearance during our first meeting was deeply humiliating.
Perhaps that was why the butler led me onward without offering any treatment.
The southern castle was decorated in a completely different style from the castles of the north.
While House Allen’s castle was rather dull and somber, everything in Rondor Castle was extravagant and colorful.
Curtains hanging from every window. Vases filled with vibrant flowers. The red sun emblem of Rondor engraved everywhere. And the stuffed heads of monsters mounted upon the walls.
“...”
Then, in the middle of it all, I froze upon seeing one particular stuffed animal mounted on the wall.
Pippin stopped as well and followed my gaze.
It was the head of a white bear.
The white bear was the animal symbolizing House Allen.
“...”
Even after seeing the white bear’s head, the butler offered no excuses. Rather, he simply remained silent, as though telling me to slowly understand my position.
There would have been little chance to even see a white bear in the south. Had they specially hunted one down?
The hatred toward House Allen could be felt even in something this small.
“Let us go.”
When I could not tear my gaze away, the butler spoke quietly.
We arrived before an enormous door.
The massive door was covered in elaborate craftsmanship.
Rondor’s crest, the red sun.
The faces of griffins and dragons.
Golden handles.
Four soldiers guarding the entrance, and more than twelve maids standing nearby.
Not a single one of them looked at me without hostility.
A few even seemed to be mocking my appearance.
The butler who had escorted me there nodded toward the soldiers behind me.
-Swish!
At the same moment, a sack was pulled over my head.
“What are you—”
I shouted in shock, but a hand landed on my shoulder. Pippin spoke.
“My apologies for this brief discourtesy.”
Grinding my teeth, I replied,
“...You clearly know I came here as a guest.”
“You surely know as well, Lord Kylo Allen, that this is not the truth.”
“...”
The heartbeat I had finally managed to calm began pounding once again.
Soon afterward, the soldiers behind me seized my arms, treating me like a dangerous criminal.
It was their attempt to humiliate me further.
I tried to pull free, but there was no way I could overpower two grown men.
Feeling their hostility, I was once again dragged back to reality.
I realized once more where exactly I stood.
“Rondor are beasts, so you must never believe a single word they say.”
My uncle’s voice.
“If you show weakness, they’ll devour you... sob... never show them weakness.”
My mother’s voice.
“...If you are the eldest son of House Allen, fight until the very end. Never submit to Rondor.”
Even my father’s voice echoed in my mind.
-Knock knock.
At the same time, a servant announced beyond the door.
“The eldest son of House Allen of the Kingdom of East, son of the Unbeaten Knight Jade Allen, Lord Kylo Allen, has arrived.”
“They say to let him in.”
-Thud.
I heard the doors open.
The soldiers gripping my arms stepped forward.
I walked ahead while calming my quickened breathing.
With the hood over my head, my heartbeat sounded even louder.
And because of that, I could finally be honest with myself.
I was afraid. Truly, unbearably afraid. I missed my mother’s embrace.
This place was filled with hostility, and everything here was far too overwhelming for me.
If I had been a little older, would I have been braver?
It was my first time standing alone, and everything had happened so suddenly that it was difficult to adapt.
The Duchess and her daughter would be ahead of me.
I could almost feel their gazes, as though they wanted to devour me alive.
“...Sob... hic...”
“...?”
At that moment, I heard faint sniffling.
A youthful sound, like the tiny whimper of a small animal.
A sound completely different from what I had expected.
The closer I walked, the louder it became.
For a moment, I wondered if my own desire to cry was making me hear things.
-Thud!
“Ugh!”
The soldiers kicked the backs of my knees, forcing me to kneel.
They grabbed the back of my head and slammed me against the floor.
-Bang!
A burning pain spread from my torn forehead.
But even amidst the pain and humiliation, I put on a bluff to show that my spirit had not been broken.
“So this is how Rondor treats its guests? Even goblins would show better hospitality.”
But no response came.
“...”
Complete silence.
The kind of silence that made even the one who spoke grow anxious.
Finally, a small voice asked,
“...I-Is this K-Kylo A-Allen...?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hic... sob...”
It was not the voice of an adult. It was absolutely not the Duchess’s voice.
The owner of the voice continued sniffling for quite some time before whispering in a barely audible tone.
“...M-Mother, t-the enemy y-you longed for so much... o-our enemy has arrived.”
She stuttered.
“Y-You’ve b-been waiting for him. Y-You definitely have...”
At some point, I too had fallen silent, focusing entirely on that young voice.
“...S-So please... p-please wake up...”
Wake up?
-Swish!
Just as my confusion deepened, my upper body was pulled upright and the sack was removed.
Bright light struck my eyes.
Frowning, I blinked several times.
A large bed. Upon it lay a frail woman, sleeping motionlessly.
And kneeling beside the bed, crying as she faced away from me, was a young girl.
Red hair. A small body. Trembling shoulders.
I realized at once who they were.
The Duchess of Rondor, and Vivian Rondor.
“.........”
The wariness I had sharpened so carefully crumbled at the sight before my eyes.
Only one thought filled my head.
...They looked far too pitiful.
I had prepared myself completely. I had been ready to fight.
But the Duchess was asleep, and her daughter looked unbearably fragile.
The gap between my expectations and reality left me frozen.
My enemy was not a mother consumed by rage after losing her husband and son.
It was a single little girl who had lost her entire family.
“...”
I continued watching the sniffling Vivian Rondor.
She stroked her mother’s cheek, held her hand and shook it weakly. She clutched at her clothes and cried.
Even from behind, I could feel just how frightened and lonely she was.
“...Mother, p-please... p-please don’t l-leave me alone... hic...”
After entering Roktana, I had felt nothing but fear.
For the first time, I felt something different.
It was difficult to fear someone who looked so obviously weaker than myself.
And in the place where fear disappeared, a new emotion slowly filled the void.
...A strange sense of pity. A strange sympathy.
This was bad. I was already beginning to lose my fighting spirit.
“...If you have any conscience at all, Kylo Allen...”
At that moment, the voice of someone who had once made a certain request of me years ago suddenly resurfaced in my mind.
“Hic... sob...”
When the Duchess failed to wake, Vivian Rondor slowly turned her head.
...And for a moment, my breath stopped at a beauty beyond anything I had imagined.
“...”
Large eyes. Clear brows. A delicate nose. Small lips.
As I looked at her, I felt my heartbeat quicken.
Vivian’s face was soaked in tears and her hair was disheveled, yet even in such a mess, it was difficult to look away from her.
Then, those crimson eyes, red like the sun itself, stared directly at me.
And the moment our gazes intertwined—
“You will fall in love with someone you must never love.”
-Bang!
I slammed my forehead into the ground.
Get a grip. I scolded myself.
Why the hell was I thinking about such nonsense now?
Just because my attention had been briefly stolen by her pitiful appearance, even I found it ridiculous that my thoughts had immediately wandered somewhere strange.
If my father saw me like this, he would probably let out a dumbfounded laugh.
I pulled myself together and raised my head.
Vivian Rondor looked as though she had much to say about my bizarre behavior, but in the end, she simply let it pass.
“...K-Kylo Allen.”
She spoke in a voice utterly devoid of strength or emotion.
I opened my mouth as well, but no words came out.
“I’ve... been waiting for you.”
That was our first meeting.