Chapter – 16.
Brand Me
Josephine finally pushed against the man’s shoulders, driven by the sense of crisis that had just slammed into her.
But it was futile. The beast’s rock-solid body didn’t budge an inch.
“L-Let go of this…!”
The man who had captured his prey swiftly rose, clinging to Josephine as he got up.
Soon, a warm, soft heat flowed into Josephine’s defenselessly open mouth.
‘He’s never done this before.’
Josephine gave up resisting and sank into thought, quietly receiving his kiss.
The man didn’t know how to kiss. His lips merely moved, seeking what he lacked from her.
Like a beast, dying of long thirst, frantically gulping from a puddle of water it had finally found.
But it didn’t take long for her to realize this was yet another trap he had set.
‘Huh?’
Taking advantage of the moment her body went weak, Siegfried instantly shoved something into Josephine’s mouth.
It happened in a flash.
Josephine swallowed it before she even knew what she was doing.
That thing, which felt almost like a living creature, squirmed restlessly, burning like a tiny sun.
‘I’m done for.’
She intuitively thought so.
The thing the man had forced into her mouth had already scraped down her throat and settled in her stomach.
Slap!
Finally unable to bear it any longer, Josephine struck Siegfried’s cheek hard.
In response, Siegfried collapsed easily, as if his ferocious behavior moments ago had been a lie.
“Ugh… Ugh.”
The moment she was free from his restraint, Josephine leaned over the side of the bed and kept retching. Tears welled up from the physiological disgust.
She could clearly feel the something that had settled in her stomach churning her insides even now.
Strangely, she also kept feeling angrier and angrier, and a surge of unfamiliar energy rose within her. Her body felt as if something was fundamentally wrong.
“What… what did you do to me?”
Josephine glared at Siegfried, who was leaning against the bedhead, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, and asked with clear, sharp eyes.
“What did you make me swallow?”
“A reward for saving my life.”
Siegfried’s sharp, clear voice echoed resonantly through every empty space in the room for the first time.
“What?”
“The power for you to live without dying.”
Siegfried smiled innocently, wiping his thoroughly bruised cheek with the back of his hand.
“And probably what you desire most right now.”
What kind of nonsense was this? After she risked her life to save him, he had the audacity to force something strange down her throat and now he was saying this?
“Speak properly. Before I kill you.”
“A curse.”
He said without batting an eye. Right in front of her, he stuck out his tongue and licked his lips stained with Josephine’s blood.
“A… what?”
“Vidar’s Curse.”
What was that? His incredibly bold attitude made Josephine momentarily forget that what he had given her was a curse.
“You said earlier you gave it as a reward for saving you?”
“That is the reward. My curse only works on those reborn with a desire for vengeance.”
Josephine was speechless, her anger giving way to utter absurdity.
She didn’t regret her decision to save him, even now.
But upon reflection, she did feel some regret.
“I should have just let you die.”
If she had known he would be this ungrateful and even go for her lips, she wouldn’t have tried so hard to save him.
After saving him, he acted like nothing but a beast.
“Isn’t it usually the opposite? Where does someone who received a favor give a curse instead of thanks?”
Looking at him now, Siegfried seemed perfectly fine, belying his earlier agony.
Putting aside his deathly pale skin that seemed devoid of any healthy color, his large eyes gleaming with a red light and his relatively soft voice were full of energy.
“I wanted to see you live without dying anymore.”
“You… wanted to see me live?”
“So I helped you get your revenge. On Henrieus and Elisabeth.”
Siegfried opened his mouth and answered brightly.
“I thought you, living for revenge, would be incredibly beautiful.”
His meaningful smile sent a chill down her spine.
“I gave you a reason to live. Aren’t you happy?”
He pointed near Josephine’s heart.
“See, you’re perfectly fine even though you’re now carrying the same curse as me. It means your desire for revenge against those two has grown strong enough to accept my curse now.”
The ghastly red roof of his mouth, visible every time he opened it to explain, was terrifying.
“……Aren’t you happy?”
Happy about what? Having to endure the pain of this life again? None of the man’s words made sense to Josephine.
“You actually knew, didn’t you? That Henrieus and Elisabeth had betrayed you long ago.”
His clear voice gained intensity toward the end.
“You knew, but you pretended not to and endured it all. That’s why you saved me this time, out of defiance toward them. Am I wrong?”
“Shut up.”
Unable to listen any longer, Josephine roughly grabbed him by the collar.
Of course, it was only possible because Siegfried willingly allowed it, but regardless, Josephine felt an unprecedented power blazing through her veins.
“Why are you angry?”
“I said shut up.”
Josephine’s eyes grew bloodshot. Belatedly, transparent tears welled up in them.
“What do you know? Who are you to make me want to live?”
Despite grabbing his collar with force, it was the tips of Josephine’s fingers that trembled pathetically.
Josephine gritted her teeth over his bitten lips and finally held back the tears.
“You don’t know a thing about how I’ve lived. Why are you trying to make me live? Are you God?”
Josephine knew too. The resentment she was pouring on Siegfried had no target, no direction.
She just resented the God who only told her to live, who gifted her with new life each time as if offering a proverb.
Without giving any plan, without offering any hope.
Everything that forced her to live and breathe felt like an enemy. It was despair.
“You don’t know how painful it is to have to live when you don’t want to anymore. Why are you trying to save me? Who do you think you are?!”
“Then give it to me.”
The smile vanished from Siegfried’s lips in an instant.
“That life you want to discard. Let me have it.”
He reached out his finger and gently stroked Josephine’s small chin.
“I want to live fiercely, even for a day, a single minute or second, just once, like you are today.”
His words weren’t a mockery. Siegfried’s eyes, gazing at her, were vivid and brilliant like crystals formed from hardened lifeblood.
Josephine finally let go of his collar.
His words, as if he knew she was someone who had traveled a long road, felt somehow unsettling.
“What… do you mean?”
And it was strange, him talking like he would soon die while being so alive.
He, who seemed as healthy as the red blood swirling in his eyes, had he just foreseen his own death?
But for that, he was too young. He was at a promising age with many days of life ahead.
Even though Josephine, thinking this, was only twenty-four herself.
“Don’t die. You are worth it. Empress.”
Siegfried called her Empress.
It meant he had known from the beginning who Josephine was, someone he had never met before.
“So live. Then, that life you want to discard, I’ll take it for you.”
He grabbed both of Josephine’s arms and clung to her with genuine desperation.
“Even after you’ve taken all your revenge, if you still want to die, then I’ll live that life for you instead.”
It was preposterous now. The life she was desperately trying to discard, someone else desperately desired it to the point of death.
Josephine didn’t utter any affirmation or denial to him.
She didn’t want to harbor hope anymore. She didn’t want to burn with any fuel anymore. She didn’t want to live fiercely.
“Why should I have to?”
So she wanted to ask. Even if it was to this man who wanted to steal her life away.
The reason she had to.
“Because you saved me.”
Siegfried answered brightly, smiling as if he had been waiting for the question.
Perhaps because of his pale skin, devoid of healthy color, and his jet-black hair, even his innocent smile felt eerily chilling.
“Because you are the most valuable thing I can take from Henrieus.”
As he answered, a momentary strength entered the man’s grip.
She should have realized before that transformed into obsession.
The real reason he was so intent on saving her.
“So, brand yourself with me. So I can completely take you from that bastard.”
