CHAPTER 108
Creak. Creak.
The sound of the mattress and frame misaligning echoed through the dark room.
Not long after, as the large shadow lifted, a woman lay beneath, looking like a broken ball-jointed doll.
The man’s body, covered in thick copper-colored skin, was entirely muscular, giving off an intimidating presence.
With prominent veins on his long arms, he grabbed the robe from the chair and draped it over his body.
His dark eyebrows furrowed as the headache that had started this morning showed no signs of subsiding.
As the man swept his black hair back from his forehead with his fingers, his sharp gaze was revealed, glinting fiercely.
His fierce and sensitive eyes resembled those of a wild wolf.
His sand-like, rough, yellow eyes still looked down at the woman who lay unmoving on the bed.
His cold gaze lingered briefly on her naked body, which made no move to cover itself with the blanket, before dropping away.
“It seems this act no longer has any effect. To think you can’t even take away a simple headache. It’s infuriating to think I lost both my older brother and younger sister because of a useless thing like you.”
He closed his eyes and spewed harsh words at the woman lying as if dead.
“You’d better do well when you go to the Helterde Empire. This time, I will bring back the true Lumen Savior, not a fake like you, even if I have to kidnap her.”
As he crossed the bedroom and stood by the door, it opened from the outside.
“Your Majesty, the bath is ready.”
As the door closed, the voice of the royal physician who followed him could be heard.
In the bedroom, he had left behind,
“Ki, ki, ki.”
A small laugh echoed.
The woman on the bed curled her body, hugging her knees, and began to laugh out loud.
Marks of being roughly handled and discarded by the king covered her pale, thin body.
“Kuk… Kuk… Kuk…”
It was hard to tell if she was laughing or crying as strange sounds poured from her throat.
The idea that he killed his siblings for the sake of obtaining a Lumen Savior, only to act as if he had sacrificed for a beloved woman, was laughable.
There had been a time when even a fleeting touch from his golden, indifferent eyes would have made her heart flutter and caused sleepless nights.
But now…
Her dark hazel eyes burned with hatred.
‘Do you want to kill him?’
Her thoughts seemed to tempt her from somewhere.
Her large eyes, devoid of life, stared intently at the extinguished fireplace.
‘I will kill him for you. Tear him apart limb from limb. Make him more miserable than you are now.’
From the dark fireplace, a thick, long rope slithered out.
In the dim light, the rope revealed itself to be a silver snake.
The snake, longer than her height, flicked its tongue and approached the bed.
Tristini showed no sign of surprise at the talking snake.
Though fake, she sometimes could understand animals. The problem was that only evil and vile creatures communicated with her.
The silver snake slithered up the bed leg and onto the mattress. It crawled across the wrinkled sheets and coiled around her thin ankle.
Its triangular head lifted, and it met her dark brown eyes.
“Tristini.”
Her brows furrowed slightly at the sound of her name.
It felt unfamiliar because it had been so long since anyone called her by it.
How long had it been since her name was last spoken?
She couldn’t even remember the last time the king’s lips had uttered her name.
As if knowing her thoughts, the snake flicked its tongue again.
‘Tristini, the pitiful woman whose fate has been altered.’
“Kuk, I must have been a princess or something, huh? And now I live this wretched life because my identity was switched with someone else’s?”
No, she was not living but begging. Her swollen lips trembled with self-loathing.
Tristini closed her eyes as if dealing with the snake was too bothersome.
“Silver-scaled snakes are known to beguile people. What should I do? I have nothing to offer you.”
‘You were not a princess, but if it hadn’t been for your mother and aunt, you would be standing beside the Emperor of the Helterde Empire. You also possess the noble light of the Lumen Savior.’
The snake’s sticky voice slithered into her ears and spread through her veins.
When Tristini opened her eyes, the snake’s glass-like transparent eyes filled her vision.
“You’re mistaken. I’m not a Lumen Savior. If I were, I would have lifted his curse, and I wouldn’t be treated this way.”
Lumen Savior, the savior of light. Just the name made her want to retch.
Tristini’s mother, a pure-blooded Lumen Savior, was captured by the Lycanor king and used as a tool to lift his curse, leading to her death.
Lycanor, the land of wolves, was an island nation in the south of the continent dominated by the Helterde Empire.
It was founded by the descendants of the Velkenheim Kingdom, one of the three kingdoms that participated in the extermination of the Lumen Savior race thousands of years ago.
Like the descendants of Helterde, the descendants of Velkenheim were also cursed and possessed the blood of wolves.
Velkenheim was the first of the three kingdoms to fall, leaving not even a dot in history.
However, thousands of years later, the descendants of Velkenheim had become the rulers of the island nation of Lycanor.
The curse, which manifested as a black wolf, was believed to have ended with the fall of Velkenheim.
However due to the ambitions of Bargon’s father, who opened up Lycanor by building military strength and breaking the isolationist policy that restricted trade and commerce with other nations, the curse re-emerged.
Unlike the Helterde Empire, the royal family of Lycanor was well aware of the curse that began to manifest in the king and his three princes.
They also knew that only the light of a Lumen Savior could lift the curse. Moreover, they discovered that the curse’s intensity and manifestation could be influenced by relations with a Lumen Savior.
The Lycanor king managed to capture the long-sought Lumen Savior mother and daughter, but forcibly trying to take the mother ended in failure.
Bargon, unlike his father, who tried to take the Lumen Savior by force only to be killed along with the light’s destruction, was different.
He became the savior of the ten-year-old girl, who had lost her mother before her eyes and nearly suffered at the hands of the crown prince.
He played the role of a kind and affectionate prince until she came of age, succeeding in becoming her entire universe.
The second prince killed his brother and sister and chose Tristini, the only daughter of the Lumen Savior, as his mate. On the night of Tristini’s lavish coming-of-age ceremony, Bargen performed the imprinting ceremony, making her his mate.
“Men of our family, who carry the blood of wolves, cannot take another mate until death once they’ve imprinted. We are forever bound to each other. People call it a curse, but having you is a blessing for me.”
On their first night, Bargen kissed her and whispered sweetly as they became one.
Their exceedingly happy honeymoon did not last long. Perhaps it was a punishment for willingly lying in the arms of the man who participated in her mother’s murder.
Tristini bit her lower lip, recalling the moment her happiness shattered.
***
It began less than a year after the imprinting ceremony.
The pain, temporarily alleviated by the imprinting with Tristini, resurfaced in Bargen and grew more severe as time passed.
Once a month, when the white moon was eclipsed by the black moon, Bargen’s body was ravaged, bursting into crimson blisters as if thrown into flames. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before he transformed into a black wolf.
No matter how much Tristini embraced him and tried to share her light, it was futile. She refused to give up, even when she was clawed by the wolf’s talons and knocked unconscious by its hind legs.
But as time went on, the bright light she once radiated faded and dimmed.
‘The reason His Majesty’s pain is worsening is because the Lumen Savior’s light the lady possesses is unstable. Her light is highly diluted with many impurities.’
The witch Vesilkia, who possessed the blood of elves and goblins found in the mountains of the continent, pointed at Tristini as she spoke.
‘What do you mean? My mate has the pure-blooded Lumen Savior as her mother. Even if her father’s blood is mixed in, I’ve heard her power is significant.’
Bargen tightened his grip on Tristini’s hand.
The witch, who tasted Tristini’s blood dropped into a crystal glass, smacked her lips, and spoke.
‘The blood is incomparably sweeter than that of humans, but the Lumen Savior’s blood is very minimal. It seems the lady has already given most of her Lumen Savior’s light to Your Majesty, so there isn’t much left.’
Tristini steadied her trembling voice and asked.
‘I’ve heard that giving all the light of the Lumen Savior can break the curse. If I do that... can I lift His Majesty’s curse?’
‘That means sacrificing your life and giving all your light. Are you willing to do that?’
Vesilkia’s yellow eyes widened in disbelief.
‘If it can lift His Majesty’s curse, I would do it right now. Can you help?’
Without a moment’s hesitation, Tristini answered, and Bargen turned his head to look at her.
‘Tristini…’
Tristini nodded with a smile, her eyes curved into crescents.
She was not afraid of falling into hell if it meant reducing His Majesty’s pain.
‘Tsk, even with a drop of Lumen Savior’s blood, you must truly be one. To see you willing to give everything for your beloved.’
The witch shook her head slightly in exasperation.
‘However, unfortunately… it will be of no use. Even if you sacrifice your life and give your light, the lady has no light left to give.’
Vesilkia bared her yellow teeth in a sly smile, seemingly enjoying the situation.
Bargen, who had been holding Tristini’s hand, appeared stiff at the end of her gaze.
His grip on her hand loosened.
She tried to console herself, thinking the coldness of his once warm hand was just her imagination.
Vesilkia looked back and forth between Bargen and Tristini before speaking.
‘The only one who can break Your Majesty’s curse is a pure-blooded Lumen Savior.’
‘I know that already. Isn’t that why I kept Tristini by my side? Do you have any idea how many years I’ve spent trying to break this damn curse?’
Bargen’s icy outburst made Tristini’s heart ache.
Bargen had always emphasized that he chose her as his mate because he loved her, insisting that it didn’t matter that she was a Lumen Savior.
But now, he stated that the reason he kept her by his side was precisely because she was a Lumen Savior.
Having already discerned Bargen’s true nature, Vesilkia’s lips twisted into a slight sneer.
‘I heard it was you who informed your father of the last Lumen Savior’s existence. Are you saying there are no pure-blooded Lumen Saviors left?’
Bargen’s urgent voice echoed through the audience chamber.
Vesilkia glanced at Tristini’s pale face before answering Bargen.
‘One remains. The one who can permanently lift Your Majesty’s curse with perfect light.’
‘Who is it?’
Bargen couldn’t hold back and sprang up from the throne.
After a moment of hesitation, Vesilkia answered in an overly dramatic voice.
“Arabelle Delsancur. But she is already in the hands of the Emperor of the Helterde Empire.”
Thud,
At that moment, Tristini’s frail hand fell limply.
Bargen had let go of Tristini’s hand.
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