#36. The Wolf Wants Her
“What is this? That’s not my face — it’s a wolf!”
I couldn’t help but shout.
On the canvas there wasn’t a femme fatale who ruled the social scene, but a wolf with fur as red as flame.
Franz grinned and poked at the painting with his finger.
“Look at those fierce black eyes and that terrifying mouth — isn’t it exactly like Elisabeth?”
“What?”
“Look at the bright red fur. Doesn’t it look like you staring into a mirror?”
“Try getting bitten by a red wolf!”
I grabbed Franz’s waist with both hands.
He squirmed and I even bit his wrist.
It must have hurt — but Franz rolled to the side and laughed, tinkling like a bell.
He seemed to find the whole thing a delightful prank.
‘When we first met he was like a fighting rooster. The picture I tore up back then was a wolf too, wasn’t it? He really likes wolves. Kids and their tastes…’
Franz was changing bit by bit.
The wounds on his hands had almost healed.
The boy who had once been always on edge, distrusting everything, now wore a noticeably softer expression.
I stared at his eyes — both childlike purity and a cool sharpness at once — then looked away.
I kept finding traces of Nikolai in Franz, and that made me uneasy.
“Let’s stop. It’s stupid for me to be fighting with a kid.”
I smoothed the hair that had fallen over my face and slumped into a chair.
It wasn’t a portrait, but it was an excellent painting.
The red wolf seemed ready to burst through the canvas at any moment.
‘I can’t believe a ten-year-old painted this. He must’ve drawn each strand of fur — there’s a lifelike quality even photos can’t capture. The wolf’s freedom and savage beauty…’
If this was his self-taught work, what could he do under a proper teacher?
The thought alone made my chest swell.
I imagined the artist I wanted to invite as Franz’s art instructor, and the excitement grew.
Just then Franz asked.
“Elisabeth, when’s the art professor coming?”
“You said if I throw myself into art my reputation as crown princess will suffer, didn’t you?”
“I’m such an obedient student, right? You believed the master who claimed he’d fix that problem for you.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
I ruffled Franz’s blond hair.
He seemed to think my reply was witty; he laughed with a little tinkle.
“Please wait a little longer. He’s not an ordinary professor — he’s hard to summon.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Have you heard of Owen Black?”
“Owen of the Black count house? The god-given painter, Owen?”
Franz repeated that as if he’d forgotten to breathe.
It wasn’t surprising he was excited.
Owen had been a prodigy from his early teens, the kind of genius that appears once in a century.
He was famous for lifelike, precise depictions and dreamlike color that felt like peeking into a garden from a dream.
“Owen’s paintings sold for the price of a mansion. Nobles who wanted portraits asked him like stars filled the sky.”
“He wouldn’t paint just anyone.”
“You know him well, Elisabeth? If the model didn’t please him, he even refused royal commissions. Seems he earned some enemies.”
“He’d need that kind of nerve to teach my little one!”
Franz sighed as if telling me to stop talking nonsense.
“Sigh… Owen was exiled seven years ago for treason. The entire House Black fell!”
“Do you know why he was accused of treason?”
“No matter how clever I am, I don’t remember being three.”
“Everyone’s hush-hush about it, but it’s because he refused to paint the former empress’s portrait.”
“Ah — Penelope again! The woman His Majesty exiled.”
Franz frowned as if the memory itself made him uneasy.
I remembered the imperial annals that Kares had given me as a gift.
Nikolai’s mother, Brigida, died of illness sixteen years ago at age thirty-two.
As soon as the late empress passed, the former emperor took Penelope, who was twenty at the time, as the new empress.
‘Nikolai was only twelve back then. It must’ve been hard to face such a young stepmother. Judging from her later deposition and exile, their relationship must’ve been very bad.’
The deposed Empress Penelope had become the mistress of Warden.
To be exiled and then become the queen of a rival nation — remarkable cunning and decisive action.
‘Claudia stationed troops in the Inted islands to check Warden. Warden was also the reason cited for the revolution. In the original story, Nikolai was infatuated with Elisabeth’s skirt hem and didn’t care whether Warden invaded or not.’
To prevent a revolution, Nikolai had to show he would actively defend the border.
But that wasn’t something a mere education officer like me could meddle in.
Nikolai’s mind was unpredictable.
He could be sweet and dreamy one moment and ice-cold the next.
Just when I thought we’d drawn a hand’s breadth closer, he would step back several paces.
He messed up my heart and then retreated beyond a fortified wall.
I was left standing alone outside the door.
Soon Claudia would come for Nikolai’s head.
I couldn’t guarantee my life either.
Nikolai knew nothing.
And I could not tell him.
All I could do was fret, picturing a pair of guillotines — and a man who would die at the same time as me.
‘A commoner worrying about the emperor, losing sleep, meddling in military matters — if a dog didn’t laugh at me, it’d be a mercy.’
I swallowed the sour taste.
Franz muttered coldly.
“If it’s Penelope, she’d have no problem framing an innocent artist for treason. She’s why Warden covets Hartman.”
“You seem to hold a grudge.”
“One never forgets an enemy.”
“What did Penelope do to you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
A mature menace flickered in the pale green of Franz’s eyes.
That murderous intent — so like Nikolai. Blood doesn’t lie.
“Owen Black was spared the gallows but was dragged off to the northern mines. No one knows if he lived or died.” Franz grumbled.
He sounded as if resenting me for raising his hopes for nothing.
But it was too soon to despair.
If there was a mentor who knew the original story inside out, things could be different.
“If I make Owen Black your art teacher — what will you do for me?”
Not every master asked for a price, but Franz needed to learn that nothing in this world was free.
“Do you know how hard it is to reinstate a traitor? The House of Peers will make a terrible scene.”
“You think I care about that?”
“You don’t care at all — that’s the problem. Do you know what people think of Elisabeth these days?”
“I told you I don’t care. I’ll do anything for our Crown Prince.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie.
Protecting the royal family was also protecting Franz’s future, after all.
‘If I secure Boritz and then Owen, I’ll have taken two of Claudia’s allies. Even if they try to spark a revolution, it won’t be as easy as in the original!’
I smiled with a plan.
Franz folded his hands and looked up to his would-be mentor as though ready to brave anything for him.
At that moment, someone knocked.
“His Majesty the Emperor commands that this letter be delivered.”
A servant presented a gold envelope the size of a palm.
Purple wax bore the Emperor’s sigil: three swords and a heart.
I tried to appear calm, but my hand trembled as I broke the seal.
It was Nikolai’s first time sending me a letter.
Thick beads of sweat stung Nikolai’s eyes.
His black hair and his training tunic were soaked through.
Every time his sword threatened to fly from his slippery grip, he gritted his teeth.
He wanted to pour everything out with the sweat.
If he didn’t, he felt he couldn’t bear it.
“Let’s go, Blackwing.”
He soothed the black horse he had fed by hand since childhood.
Blackwing had been enduring hours of training without complaint.
Though he could’ve kicked and resisted, he seemed to understand his master’s troubled mind and obeyed silently.
“Hah!”
With a loud shout, Nikolai swung his sword.
A wooden training dummy in armor split in two.
Apprentice knights ran forward to clear away the debris and set up a new dummy.
It was already the twentieth, thirtieth one.
The Emperor’s mounted training showed no sign of stopping.
“Is there no knight who wants to spar?”
Nikolai glared at the commander of the knights, dissatisfied with wooden dummies.
The war-worn old knight, nearing sixty, looked at the young emperor’s ardor with both fear and pity.
“You fought with bare hands, you sparred with swords, and yet you still wish to do mounted drills?”
“I’ll be focusing on mounted training for the time being.”
“The knights and Blackwing are all exhausted. Your Majesty must rest.”
It was sound advice.
But he couldn’t stop.
The moment he put down his sword, he’d run to Elisabeth.
Being with her would make him lose reason in an instant.
He would be intoxicated by her sweet scent and unable to hide the boiling desire.
Then, taking advantage of his weakened will, the wolf would whisper again.
“Good, Niki. Let’s quickly quench this thirst.”
The wolf whispered just as he was about to kiss her.
A dizzying vertigo and a sense of despair washed over him.
“It’s time; Elisabeth is waiting, isn’t she?”
It had been the same the day he fell into the lake.
The wolf wanted to savor her scent through Nikolai.
It barged into the cracks of his control and popped up whenever it pleased, interfering with his feelings.
“Kiss her, Niki. She wants it too!”
He wanted to stop the wolf.
He had to use any means.
Cowardly as it was, he fled into the water.
He didn’t expect Elisabeth to jump in to save him.
‘Elisabeth… I want to monopolize you. I want to possess all of you alone.’
He bit the soft inside of his cheek until it bled.
This feeling must be his alone.
He could no longer tolerate the wanton, rude wolf.
He forgot the late emperor’s last words the moment he began to stalk her.
He abandoned his duties as emperor and his authority.
He liked Elisabeth — he wanted her.
He didn’t want to subject Elisabeth to the humiliation he’d had to endure whenever he borrowed the wolf’s power.
What was the way to break free from this tiresome wolf?
To hand both the throne and Franz over to it.
A hundred blades seemed to stab his heart.
He vowed to Laila to protect Franz.
He swore to raise this child to the highest place.
Was that truly the choice for Franz?
A dazzling crown was nothing but a luxurious shell.
The high throne was no different from shackles that crushed the heart.
To endure alone in a palace of schemes and strife and be tossed by a goddess’s wolf — if he passed on that cursed fate, Franz would be miserable.
After learning that Franz painted, his resolve hardened.
The commander of the knights broke his train of thought.
“Your Majesty, there is a petition for an audience. How shall we respond?”
The gloom that had shadowed Nikolai’s face lifted in an instant.
The weight pressing his heart lightened like the newly risen sun.
‘Elisabeth accepted my invitation…!’
I had asked her in my invitation to come to the training grounds.
But I hadn’t expected her to actually come.
I turned my face away from her lips.
I had disappointed her again.
Yet Elisabeth was offering me a new chance.
Nikolai ordered in a stern voice.
“What are you doing? Clear away these dangerous things at once!”
