MHHC Chapter 74

Joachim

"Even if you grovel now, do you expect me to forget that you conspired with the Young Duke to attack Margaret and me?"

"My thinking was shallow. If I'd known Your Grace wasn't 'that thing,' I would never—even unto death... Ah, yes..."

The man who'd been looking down at her suddenly dropped to his knees on the filthy ground with a heavy thud. When Adelheid moved to help him up in alarm, he caught her wrist instead.

"Please... Consider it an act of mercy, saving a life..."

"..."

"If you'll only tell me how Your Grace overcame the curse, I'll do anything... truly anything for Your Grace..."

Even to Adelheid, who knew the full truth, Joachim appeared like someone trapped in delusion or hallucination.

The particular desperation of those who believe absurdities as gospel truth made him seem all the more unhinged.

His behavior swung wildly—from murderous rage to sudden pleading and supplication. The dramatic reversal carried an almost theatrical quality.

'He acts like a madman.'

Adelheid blinked with feigned bewilderment while her mind worked with cold calculation.

'It's better to keep denying everything. He has no proof.'

She studied Joachim's features carefully.

His usually immaculate appearance now disheveled, his expression vacant as if his soul had fled, and in the bright light she noticed even his pupils were dilated unnaturally.

Such symptoms typically appeared only in those who'd consumed psychoactive substances for extended periods.

'He truly doesn't seem in his right mind. He wasn't like this just days ago... What happened in the past few days?'

If she left him like this, no one would believe his claims anyway.

Perhaps rumors might spread that he'd gone mad and dared to slander the Grand Duchess. But the content itself—accusing a perfectly normal person of being a monster.

'After all, even I thought Greta was spouting nonsense when she suspected Valentin of being the Dragon of Bitzleben.'

Her thoughts continued their careful march.

'I should at least learn how he came to suspect me, and if he's certain, why he became so convinced. That way I can avoid repeating the same mistakes...'

In the past, if someone discovered her secret, she could simply flee. But now all of Ansgar stood on the precipice of persecution. She couldn't create such a situation, nor could she be swept away by it.

'And if I can just stall a bit longer, Sir Donovan should return...'

Adelheid glanced at the collapsed Margaret. Her chest rose and fell shallowly—fortunately, she appeared merely unconscious without serious injury.

Adelheid organized her thoughts with deliberate calm and removed Joachim's hands from her person.

"First, calm yourself. Whatever you're curious about, if I know the answer, I'll tell you. But in return, Sir Joachim, you must speak honestly to me as well, hiding nothing."

At her words, life returned to Joachim's eyes by degrees.

He looked like a man finding a rope to cling to at the edge of a cliff. He moistened his dry lips with his tongue and spoke rapidly.

"Ask me anything."

"What exactly did you suspect me of being?"

"Someone whose magic was awakened by a monster, or someone who plants magic in others."

"Someone who plants magic?"

"The source of magical power. The awakener."

The planter of magic's source, and the awakener of magic. Without much thought, this clearly meant Valentin.

Valentin had awakened her magic, and he'd proclaimed that all magic existing in this world originated from his power.

The problem was how Joachim had discovered that 'that being' was the Dragon of Bitzleben.

She decided to approach this question cautiously.

"Why are you searching for this being?"

"Because it's my sister's enemy, and my life's adversary..."

The more Joachim spoke, the stranger his condition became.

He clutched his forehead, grimacing as he hunched over. His entire body trembled, and pained groans spilled between his lips.

"Sir. Are you all right?"

Adelheid touched his shoulder in alarm. Heat radiated through the fabric—his entire body burned with fever.

Joachim nodded weakly despite his shallow moans.

"I'm fine, fine. Please continue."

"Your body is burning up... What—"

"I'm... fine..."

His bloodshot eyes suggested he was anything but fine, yet if she stopped now, he seemed liable to cause even more trouble. Besides—

'His sister's enemy. Did Valentin harm Joachim's sister? Or at least, does Joachim believe so...'

She couldn't be certain of anything. It felt wrong to suspect Valentin based solely on Joachim's claims.

More precisely, her emotions whispered 'how dare you doubt him' with vehement insistence.

"Why did you mistake me for 'that being'?"

Joachim spoke between labored breaths, each word precise despite his suffering.

"I clearly sensed traces of magic usage in Your Grace's body, but days later, no magic could be detected at all... I thought only one being in this world could conceal magic so completely."

"Traces of magic usage... You can sense such things? Are there many who can?"

Valentin had assured her it would be difficult to distinguish. Adelheid barely swallowed the question that nearly escaped.

Joachim detected nothing unusual in her response and continued calmly.

"I believe it's because I have an unusual constitution. Nursing my sister through her suffering from monstrous power made me naturally sensitive. Particularly from you—not sacred power, but some... peculiar energy flows."

"..."

"That's why I thought you'd even revived the Grand Duke. I sensed nothing from His Grace, so he must be human..."

Fortunate and unfortunate in equal measure.

No matter how events unfolded, if 'Valentin' remained uninvolved, even if her magic use came to light, it would be treated as her personal transgression. 'Ansgar' would remain safe.

The misfortune lay in not knowing how many others like Joachim might emerge—sensitive to magic.

Was he truly the only one with such peculiar perception? Or would anyone repeatedly exposed to magic develop awareness...

Why couldn't Joachim sense anything from Valentin, when Valentin had been the one to give her magic in the first place?

"Now you must answer my questions."

His voice emerged broken and thin.

His lips, bitten raw from suppressing pain, glistened with blood—a terrible sight.

Adelheid swallowed her prickling guilt and nodded. Joachim's grip on her sleeve tightened desperately.

"How did you overcome the curse?"

"By curse, do you mean... 'magic'?"

"Yes. My sister was cursed by that monster before she was even born. When she was still in the womb, 'it' came and whispered cursed words into our mother's ear."

Adelheid tried to imagine Valentin cursing someone.

But the harder she tried, the more a strange resistance rose within her. The claim felt so impossible that she laughed emptily.

"That's absurd."

"Don't speak so lightly."

Joachim's voice, which had been limp with exhaustion, sharpened instantly.

"My sister has been treated as half-mad and confined to our family's tower. Whenever those with sacred power approach, she convulses and writhes. The seizures began on the day of her first baptism at the Grand Cathedral."

"..."

"Until she was about fifteen, she retained her sanity for longer periods. She was gentle and kind. But now..."

Joachim's voice gradually dissolved into tears.

"I no longer remember what my sister truly was..."

"..."

"So please tell me. How did you overcome it? How... how could the magic vanish so cleanly, as if it had never existed from the beginning?"

Facing that desperate expression, Adelheid forgot he'd threatened her and felt only pity.

She nearly confessed everything about her secret.

What stopped her was Margaret, still lying unconscious on the cold ground beside them.

No matter how pitiful or wretched he was, the fact remained that he'd attacked both Margaret and herself.

Adelheid unconsciously gestured toward her left bracelet as she shook her head.

"I... didn't overcome it, exactly. It just disappeared one day, suddenly."

"That's impossible. It can't..."

Joachim's eyes trembled finely with shock. He seemed to accept it at first, but gradually suspicion spread across his features.

He ground his teeth together and spat out accusingly.

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying."

"Can you swear it? Before Morig himself?"

Ah. Her lips trembled slightly.

But Adelheid erased that instant of wavering before he could notice and nodded firmly.

"I swear it."

Joachim studied her with eyes narrowed in deep suspicion, then covered his face with trembling hands.

His muttered words reached her clearly.

"If that's not it, then the one who placed the curse must have removed it..."

"..."

"To place and remove a curse would require close proximity both times. Do you have any idea who it might be?"

"No. None at all..."

Joachim's face fell with obvious disappointment.

"Then answer me one last thing. Recently, have you suddenly felt affection for someone?"