Chapter 4 Part 4

Startled, she looked up at Alexander. Contrary to her expectations, his smile didn’t fade.

“I’m sure my brother is very satisfied as well.”

Franz would think Alexander was being humiliated as his brother carried on an affair in his office. He would release his pent-up jealousy and inferiority complex. Disgusting, Alexander thought. But it was so excessively vile and vulgar that it oddly satisfied him. That’s what the Bergritz family should be like. That’s why he was pleased—except for Melissa.

Not only had she obediently entered the same room with Franz, but she was also waiting like a good girl while her betrothed was busy with someone else, softly calling out “Franz,” with her sweet voice. It was absurd to watch.

“Aren’t I kind? I couldn’t bear to only care for my brother.”

Alexander tilted his head.

“I came here to give you back exactly what your fiancé did. Sister-in-law.”

Like exchanging kisses, he rubbed his nose against hers in multiple directions, like affectionate beasts nuzzling each other. He whispered.

“Don’t you… want to kiss me?”

His breath was hot, his lips occasionally brushing against hers. The solid weight of his body pressing against hers, the broad chest brushing against her as they breathed together—it was overwhelming. Melissa couldn’t think straight. She summoned all her willpower to turn her head to the side. But instead, Alexander buried his face in the curve of her neck, continuing without pause.

“You were always watching me, weren’t you?”

It almost sounded like a plea.

“I remember the gaze sister-in-law had toward me.”

He bit the nape of her neck. Huut, Melissa moaned as he exhaled a deep breath and licked from the bite mark up to her jawline with his long tongue. Her trembling gaze, soaked and directed at him, was filled with helplessness. She pushed weakly against his chest with her frail hands—a futile attempt. He stared at her bent fingers and asked.

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m afraid of losing what I need to protect.”

Alexander sneered inwardly. Was she referring to that grandfather who had never once sent her a kind letter? Or to the family that abandoned her? Or perhaps, was she talking about protecting herself?

“Have you ever considered that I might be able to protect you?”

Melissa faintly smiled and shook her head. Even with Bright, she could at least exchange minimal glances of rivalry, but with Alexander, that wasn’t possible. The difference in both power and emotional weight was too great. He overwhelmed her in every way.

“Alexander, you are the master of Bergritz, and I’m just a hostage. No matter what power I may have, if you let go of my hand, I’ll be discarded just like that.”

“I won’t leave you.”

Alexander caressed her cheek repeatedly. It was because of her incessant tears.

“No. I’m sure it will happen. Because I was nothing to you, I was able to indulge my fantasies about you. That was enough for me…”

Her hand, which was resting on his chest, shrank back.

“If I recklessly held your hand and ended up ruining everything… if I couldn’t even hold onto the memories… if it all just became days passing by… it would be truly heartbreaking.”

She spoke while gasping for air, as if unwilling to voice her thoughts. And she was smiling more brightly than ever.

“I think it’s best to just live as I was meant to. I, as a hostage, stay in my place, and you, as the master, in yours.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. Moonlight seeped into the skin where they touched. Alexander cupped her cheek and locked eyes with her. This wasn’t what he had originally planned. He was simply going to seduce her with his body to repay his brother and take their first night together, ending everything.

But now, facing her, he was certain that even if they shared their bodies in that way, nothing would change.

This wall—this wall had to be broken first.

“Is that how you plan to live?” His voice, rather than chiding, sounded faintly tender, almost coaxing.

“Without ever having me?”

“……”

“Just a hostage, a flame in the corridor that only shines when someone lights it, unable to do anything, living like that forever?”

He remembered young Melissa.

“You wanted to be a bird.”

He whispered, as if by capturing him, she could become that bird.

Melissa widened her eyes as if pinned by an arrow and spoke in a trembling voice.

“How can you say that so easily?”

Her hand, which had hovered around his chest, slowly rose. Almost as if she had lost her reason, she fearlessly touched his cheek.

As if handling a perfect statue.

“You were my dream and my ideal. Having you would be like having the world itself.”

Hearing her heart in words, not just felt through glances, looks, or actions, Alexander felt something within himself expanding.

“That’s why I kept it locked away. I couldn’t take it out. It was too unreal.”

His animal-like instincts stirred. They screamed that now was the time to seize her. Now he could have her.

“Please, don’t tempt me.”

No, Melissa. You’re the one tempting me.

He thought that as he tilted his chin and parted his lips. He couldn’t understand why she kept saying he was sweet when it was her who kept uttering sweet words.

When she was completely captivated by him, that was when he had to seize her. The more she got to know him, the more that intense emotion would likely fade like smoke. Their lips were just about to meet. Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the doorway. Melissa, awakened from the magical moment, struggled.

“It must be Franz. Please let me go. Alexander, please.”

“Even better.”

As she moved to evade him, her cheek brushed his lips. Just as he bit his lip in frustration and leaned in to reclaim her lips—

Thump, thump. Urgent knocking echoed from the door.

Alexander hadn’t locked it. Yet, they knocked…

“My lord, you should come out,” said an elderly woman’s voice from beyond the door. It was the housekeeper.

As Alexander’s body momentarily lost its grip, Melissa slipped from his embrace. He didn’t bother to hold her back, merely gazed at her briefly, then strode to the door, roughly seizing the handle to open it.

There stood the housekeeper with a troubled expression. Behind her, Boris and the flustered-looking head steward were visible.

Alexander waited impassively for their explanation.

They exchanged glances, nudging Boris forward. He sighed heavily and spoke.

“A guest has arrived… You should meet them.”

***

Franz lay sprawled on the floor, having thoroughly enjoyed a tryst with his lover. It was a room with no sense of restraint—like a museum, filled with furnishings and ornaments that seemed impossible to procure.

Looking up at the high ceiling, his jealousy burned like fire.

“Your lord truly is impressive. I’ve never seen a man like that,” the woman beside him whispered, tossing her long hair back.

His expression twisted in frustration.

“Well, if your aim was to make me angry, you’ve succeeded.”

“Oh my, how did you know?”

“Today, I’ll let it slide.”

Leaving his furrowed brows as they were, he grinned widely and pulled his n*ked lover close by the shoulder.

“The gift for my brother should have arrived by now.”

***

Alexander Bergritz’s biological father, Leopold Bergritz, arrived at Tavalon.

More precisely, he was a man who had once been known as Leopold Bergritz.

He had abandoned his family name and adopted the name Leopold Gaiardro, following that of a fallen noblewoman who had once been a maid in the household.

Leopold Gaiardro’s visit was enough to put the staff of Tavalon Castle on edge and provided ample gossip for the local residents.

At dawn, Leopold was granted permission to enter the castle, and his appearance was far from that of a man who had once been the heir to the Bergritz family.

Even though he was middle-aged, he still possessed a reasonably good-looking face. However, his patchy beard, sunburnt scars on his skin, worn-out tunic, the portable equipment at his waist, and the distinctive metallic smell that clung to him all spoke of a man shaped into an ordinary blacksmith by time.

Alexander greeted his father while sitting at an angle on the high chair of the central hall.

The sight of a son sitting in the highest place of Tavalon’s hall and a father standing at the lowest was like that of a king and a beggar.

There was no sense of familiarity between them.

“…….”

“…….”

Alexander left his father standing silently for a good hour or two.

It was the custom that a subordinate could not open their mouth until the superior spoke first.

And when that superior was the marquess ruling the south, the rule was even more absolute.

Alexander finally opened his mouth when the sunlight streaming through the tall windows began to touch his father’s cheek.

“Do you need anything?”

It was as if he implied that, if not, there was no reason for him to come here.

His grown son had finally spoken.

Leopold bowed his head, intending to pay his respects, but Alexander stopped him.

“I asked if you needed anything.”

His tone was so neutral it seemed he harbored no resentment towards his father.

To some, it might have even sounded friendly.

Alexander looked down at his father, who couldn’t even meet his eyes.

Leopold reluctantly opened his mouth.

“I came to pay my respects first.”

“I already said that’s not necessary.”

Standing amid the lined-up guards and escort soldiers, Leopold appeared small. His black hair was graying, and the fierce glint in his eyes had faded, replaced only by restlessness.

Leopold finally let out a faint sigh and said, “Lord. Your mother… is very ill. I came here because we don’t have money for her medicine.”

By “mother,” Leopold was referring to Alexander’s birth mother.

Upon the direct mention, the surrounding retainers and servants glanced at Alexander to read his expression, but their master’s face showed no change.

“How amusing,” Alexander said and gestured to the butler.

The butler brought a cigar. Alexander clipped it, lit it, and took a long drag. It took quite some time for the thick smoke to fill his lungs and slowly drift out.

“No matter how I think about it, I have only one mother, so I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Pale, Leopold glanced at Alexander and barely opened his chapped lips.

“My wife is very ill.”

From “your mother,” the title shifted to “my wife.”

“If you wouldn’t mind… I traveled a long way hoping to borrow money for her medicine from you, my lord.”

While repeating what he had said earlier, Alexander’s cheek hollowed as he drew on the cigar.

His eyes narrowed through the smoke.

“Are you still in Sanz?”

Sanz was a region northwest of Tavalon, unlike the south, with its perpetual autumn-like climate.

When Leopold nodded, Alexander smiled.

So… you’re still living there.

The place with the beautiful wheat fields.

“Leopold, why should I lend you money for medicine? I’m not even your master.”

Smiling faintly, he dropped the barely smoked cigar onto the floor and crushed it underfoot.

The acrid smoke made Leopold cough and choke, but Alexander only gazed at him dispassionately while propping his chin on his hand.

“I thought you had come to proudly claim something that was rightfully yours.”

“…Your Excellency, the Marquess.”

“Is there anything else you need? How about a dragon? If you ask, I could give you one. You are the legitimate owner, after all.”

Leopold finally dropped to his knees. Unable to hold back, he bowed his forehead to the floor and pleaded.

“Please, I beg you. The only thing we have left is debt, so I came here because there was nowhere else to borrow money.”

“That’s what I don’t understand. Who do you think we are?”

Alexander furrowed his brow as if in a dilemma.

“Do you even have any collateral to offer?”

The wealth gained from sending Alexander as an adopted son had long since been spent.

Even if his wife recovered, they would have to endure several more years of hardship just to avoid starving.

Leopold remained silent without raising his head.

It was the same as saying he had nothing to offer as collateral.

In front of him, Alexander personally descended and bent one knee.

Leopold still did not lift his head.

“Are you planning to become a tenant farmer? Do you at least have any skills?”

“If needed…”

Alexander chuckled softly.

He bent down and brought his face to the same level as his father’s, who was prostrated on the floor.

Leopold met his son’s gaze.

The black irises, inherited from his mother, had darkened to a beast-like golden hue.

Leopold inhaled sharply.

“Have you already spent all the money you got for selling me?”

Alexander whispered, his voice low enough for only them to hear, without blinking and with no trace of emotion on his face.

“Didn’t Franz offer you money on the condition that you come here?”

He had pinpointed it exactly.

But it wasn’t nearly enough to cover his wife’s medical expenses.

Leopold could only stare at his son, unable to breathe.

The last time they parted, the boy had been in his early teens, slender, but obedient.

Now, there was no trace of that former self.

“You’re quite greedy,” Alexander said with a snort.

He stood and passed by Leopold, exiting the central hall.

Someone moved to follow Alexander, but he raised a hand to stop them.

“Leopold, of all people.”

Alone, Alexander climbed the stairs of the castle wall, muttering irritably.

It was just like Franz to pull such a stunt.

It was as if he was determined to proclaim to the world the origins of his dear younger brother.

In truth, Leopold could easily be dealt with by giving him some money and sending him away.

The locals would whisper about it for a while, but he was a good lord.

After all, in his domain, there were no tenant farmers—everyone was an independent farmer.

He might even gain sympathy rather than become the target of scorn.

Yet he could not suppress the shallow wave of shame that flickered within him.

Normally, he wouldn’t care what anyone said, but Melissa was here.

He was in a situation where he needed to win her favor.

The image of the young girl, once excited by the idea of being fellow bastards, came to mind.

But that was a story from long ago.

Melissa had grown up, learned to calculate, and understood her own circumstances perfectly.

Still, if needless rumors spread and made her wary of him…

Shhh—

As he climbed to the top of the wall, the sea beyond it spread out before him.

He had not yet conquered that sea.

He had not even completely subdued Tavalon’s former territory.

He wanted to possess that vast sea and the fertile southern lands.

To do so, he needed a dragon, and to get a dragon, he needed Melissa.

But Melissa, even with those eyes that seemed utterly infatuated, did not choose him easily.

Leopold was the easier option.

He wondered if he should just kill them all—his father, Franz…

“…Alexander.”

Amidst his sharpened nerves, a gentle voice slipped in.

Alexander slowly turned his head in the direction of the sound.

Melissa stood a few steps away.

She must have been in the central hall as well, judging by her conflicted expression.

His gaze lowered to her throat.

Melissa was wearing the clothes he had chosen for her.

A dress the same emerald hue as her shallow, sea-colored eyes, leaving her round arms completely bare.

His eyes landed on her arms.

Her white skin, I thought it would tan nicely in the southern sun, but it only turns red. Probably, a caretaker would need to be called regularly to apply ointment. In many ways, she was a woman who did not fit the south. She was a woman who didn’t match me at all, from one to ten. He looked at her and spoke.

“My biological father.”