The End of Your Arrogance - Chapter 1.1

The Ajauntice estate finally broke out of its long silence. This was solely because the Black Forest Knights had returned after a grand victory on their expedition.

The front gate was crowded with residents of the estate who flocked to greet the new Archduke. The guards raised their shield as the castle gate swung open. The residents yelled out the name of the young hero in harmony with the swords clanging on the shields. 

“Our hero who smashed Tatar!”

“All hail Archduke Ajauntice.”

“All hail Black Forest Knights!”

Evelyn, who stood inside the castle, closed her eyes at the racket. She thought she could see all of it even without looking. The ground strewn with flowers that rained down from the sky. The celebration. People smiling. Almost akin to the day she had arrived to be wed from the North.

The sounds of the horses’ gallops got closer. The clanking of the knights’ armors sounded nearer. The Black Forest Knights who were a little further away on the flat road in front of the castle finally arrived at the main castle door.

People rushed out in droves from the castle to greet the new Archduke. Evelyn was among them. She stood at the front holding her baby and staring at her husband.

It was their first reunion in the entirety of two years.   

The man, clad in black armor, strolled to a stop in front of her. Evelyn stared at him with no sense of reality. At last, she tried to utter the words she had practiced hundreds of times, praying for her voice to not shake.

“I am ever so happy you’ve returned unharmed.”

He stared at her without uttering a word, nor acknowledging her. Evelyn bowed her head as she felt daunted by his intense gaze. Ilya’s eyes lowered at her movement and rested on the boy she held in her arms: black-haired and asleep.

It was his child, born while he was away on the battlefield. He didn’t say a word to her or the child. 

His silence felt brutal. Evelyn tightened her arms around her child as though to protect him from the hostile gaze of his father as well as the crowd. She trembled in fear of someone snatching the baby away from her.

Ilya turned to the chamberlain as though he had lost all interest in them. “Where is my older brother?”

There was one more thing to resolve. The funeral of the late Archduke Ajauntice before him. 

“The body is enshrined at the chapel, Your Highness.”

The chamberlain used the honorifics while addressing Ilya already. He hadn’t gotten the title yet. At least, not officially. The former Archduke had been unmarried and without an heir. There was only his younger brother Ilya to inherit his title. 

Besides, now that he was a hero, if he wasn’t given a title, he would surely take it one way or another. 

“We must have the funeral one day earlier.”

“Your Highness… I think you should visit the chapel at once,” said the chamberlain awkwardly. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a white handkerchief. The corners of Evelyn’s mouth twitched as she watched him react that way.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, Your Highness, not a problem. But—”

Ilya strode towards the chapel before the chamberlain could finish his words. The chamberlain held back the people trying to trail him. A few knights followed Ilya inside. 

The knights pushed open the large chapel door. They were confused at the scent of fresh flowers wafting outside. It smelled like spring. 

The former Archduke was encased in a glass coffin at the altar. They walked towards the podium. Everyone gasped as Ilya pulled back the flag with the family’s crest that was draped over the coffin.

“The body hasn’t decomposed at all!”

“What in the hell is going on here!?”

The handsome, white-haired man lay inside the coffin looking as though he was only sleeping. His sculpted face looked holy. The knights, too familiar with gruesome deaths on the battlefield, stared in confusion at the dead body’s unnatural state.

Ilya laughed sarcastically. “The gods must love my precious brother to no end.” He gritted his jaws. 

***

It rained relentlessly that night. Ilya couldn’t sleep. He slumped on the sofa alone drinking wine. “Even the sky must be sad that my brother is gone,” he mumbled as he watched the raindrops pattering against the window pane. 

His brother had been blessed with a fine lineage and even finer appearance. You were nice enough to laugh at a beast like me while I chased and coveted your position, thought Ilya. 

Ilya couldn’t decide whether he was happy or sad at the situation. He set the wine glass down on the table and stood up. He walked to the chapel where his brother’s body was. The falling rain wet his hair and dripped down his face. The knights were surprised at his behavior and followed him to the chapel.