A Barbaric Proposal Chapter 125
- Oct 24, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: Jan 4
※Out of Sync※
Bang!
[King] "What in the heavens are you doing that those rats haven't been caught yet!"
The King had lost all semblance of reason. His rage reached its peak, leaving no room for logic or calm.
He had been humiliated twice in rapid succession. The Tiwakan treated the Sharka Palace as if it had no threshold, drifting in and out at will, stirring up chaos before vanishing.
A pile of Royal Guard corpses sat in the backyard, yet not a single body belonging to the enemy could be found. To make matters worse, the King had injured his back.
When he fell at the Separate Palace, someone dared to step on him. It was undoubtedly one of the guards; a clear boot heel mark was still etched onto his face.
His current tantrum was, in part, a redirection of his fury toward his own incompetent guards.
[Knight] "We are blocking all routes to the border, even the off-road paths. We will catch their trail soon. Please, do not let your anger consume you, Your Majesty."
[King] "What? Do you have any idea who is responsible for my fury? How dare you speak to me like that!"
Thud! Thud!
He stomped his feet in a frenzy, only to grit his teeth as a sharp pain shot through his back.
[Knight] "Furthermore... we are severely undermanned, Your Majesty. We are doing our best, but the Royal Guard alone cannot blockade the entire border. We need the army."
[King] "You useless lot!"
Unable to stomp his feet further due to the pain, he slammed his hand onto the armrest of the throne. He immediately regretted it as a stinging pain radiated through his palm.
[Knight] "We need the army, Your Majesty."
The knight repeated, bowing his head lower.
[Knight] "Please, muster the troops as quickly as possible."
[King] "Silence! Get out of my sight!"
The King bellowed as he rose from his seat.
It was undeniable that he needed the army, especially with rumors of the enemy gathering at the southern border. However, the nobility’s response had been tepid at best.
With no other choice, he summoned the heads of the eight houses who commanded significant private militias.
Unfortunately, the Queen had been one step ahead. She had already sent personal letters to every family she was allied with, exactly as she had promised Princess Liene.
[Vassal] "The House of Rill and the House of Hen have agreed to send their knights to the southern border."
Queen Dileras greeted the messenger from her own family with a face etched with exhaustion.
The King had sought refuge in her Separate Palace the previous night, and his incessant irritability had kept everyone from sleeping.
Witnessing his pathetic state had extinguished whatever lingering affection she might have had for him.
She worried that if the King were to be beheaded on a battlefield tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to squeeze out a single genuine tear.
[Queen] "Is that so? How many?"
[Vassal] "The numbers are quite small. Each house has offered only twenty men."
[Queen] "And did the King accept that?"
[Vassal] "He was livid, of course. While knights are of higher quality than infantry, forty men is a pathetic number to offer a King. Those families have essentially offered up their knights only to earn his royal ire."
[Queen] "That is the kind of man he is. What about the others? I heard eight houses were summoned."
[Vassal] "They are all making various excuses. Most claim they will mobilize only after the war officially begins. Since the southern border hasn't technically been breached yet, they are biding their time."
[Queen] "Waiting to see which way the wind blows, I see. Since the King’s brothers have yet to make a move."
[Vassal] "Precisely. The Fifth Prince will never side with the King so long as his son’s release remains an issue. The other Princes fear that lending their private armies will shift the balance of power against them."
[Queen] "Indeed. The first to step forward is often the first to fall."
She felt a sense of grim satisfaction. She had confirmed that the influence of the House of Ren was still potent enough to check the King’s power. He would pay the price for ignoring her son’s death and exiling her to the Separate Palace.
[Vassal] "But, Your Majesty... what happens if the border is breached under these circumstances?"
She had certainly considered the possibility of betrayal. Princess Liene could be deceiving her with sweet talk of "solving a common problem" only to sabotage the army and force the border open herself.
[Queen] "The King will have to take responsibility. Even if their numbers were thinned last night, the Sharka Royal Guard is still the largest force in the kingdom."
But even then, she didn't care. The King was the one who started this war. It was his burden to bear. As she had decided, he had to pay for what he did to her and her son.
[Queen] "Good work. Find out what the families the King hasn't summoned yet are thinking."
[Vassal] "Yes, Your Majesty."
Thanks to the Queen’s interference, the King’s attempts to gather an army continued to stall.
[Blini] "There...?"
Blini furrowed her brow as she looked at the castle nestled at the entrance of the canyon. To call it a "castle" was an overstatement; it was a pathetic, unremarkable place.
The King claimed it was often used as a hunting lodge, but there were no signs of such prestige. Moss and weeds sprouted from the walls and the single lonely tower.
[Blini] "He has surprisingly humble tastes."
She closed the carriage window as if there were nothing more worth seeing.
Clack!
She impatiently tapped her shoe, which she had kicked off and left dangling from her toes. She was in a foul mood.
[Blini] "......I see."
She agreed that she needed to lie low for a while. However, she couldn't understand his choice of such a remote location.
[Blini] "This feels less like a refuge and more like an exile."
Her maids bowed their heads, terrified of becoming the target of her brewing temper.
She instinctively went to rub her ring, only to realize it was no longer on her finger. She grimaced.
The King had nearly had a seizure at the sight of that ring, making it impossible for her to wear it. She had practically coughed up blood just to get it back, but now, under his watchful, paranoid eye, it remained hidden.
[Blini] "......How annoying."
When she thought about it, everything she had done—from killing her husband to her current schemes—was for the sake of drawing Black to her side. Yet, no matter what she did, the results were always unexpected.
Now, she was reduced to a state where she had to carefully choose her clothes every morning just to appease an old, senile King.
[Blini] "Should I just go back to the Duchy?"
The thought of staying in this cramped, dilapidated castle like a dead woman gave her a headache. She wanted to return to the Grand Duchy of Alito, but she doubted the Royal Guard would obey her so easily.
Everything was displeasing. She pressed her fingers to her throbbing temples and fell silent.
She hoped the war would break out as soon as possible. She hoped the King would die, that Sharka would be torn apart, and that the supposedly dying Princess of Nauk would go as well.
Creak... Thud.
As she indulged in thoughts of the entire world perishing, the carriage rolled into the castle courtyard.
[Guard] "We have arrived, Your—"
The guard’s announcement cut off abruptly. The hand that should have politely opened the carriage door never appeared.
[Blini] "......?"
Blini gestured to her maid to open the door. But before the maid could move, the door swung open on its own.
Bang!
The man who opened the door was not a member of the Royal Guard. He was draped in coarse pilgrim’s robes.
[Randall] "Welcome to Gereum Castle. We’ve been waiting a long time. Aren't you a bit slow?"
[Blini] "......? You are......"
She remembered that rough, gravelly voice, thick with a mix of continental accents.
The man threw back the large hood covering his head. Eyes filled with a mixture of annoyance, contempt, and a strange playfulness laughed at her.
[Randall] "It seems you remember me. I’m honored... You mad, Princess."
Her face went pale.
Randall. His name was Randall.
The ten Royal Guards were dead in an instant.
Blini watched, frozen, as the bodies collapsed like discarded toys. She couldn't believe this was happening before her eyes—that this was happening to her.
The courtyard of the small castle she had loathed at first sight was now piled with the corpses of her guards. Figures in unsightly robes surrounded her and her maids, using the bodies as a backdrop.
One of those figures was the man who had haunted her dreams until last night. He had come for her looking like that.
She had imagined their meeting tens of thousands of times, but never like this. Not while she sat powerless on the ground, surrounded by corpses, looking as though she were the one who had committed a crime.
She hated everything about this.
[Liene] "So, this is how we meet... Blini Vasheyd."
[Blini] "......"
Blini hated the woman speaking to her most of all. She noticed the deep golden hair. It was messy and unkempt. The woman looked as though she hadn't even washed her face, and her pilgrim’s robes gave off a musty odor.
This must be the Princess of Nauk.
She stared at Liene as if she were looking at a species of creature she had never seen before.
It was bizarre. The Princess of Nauk was standing before her, dressed exactly like that man.
[Blini] "......You should be dead."
Her lips trembled.
[Blini] "Was it all a lie?"
Before Liene could respond, Black wrapped his arm around her shoulder from behind, drawing her back to maintain a safe distance.
[Black] "Do not go near her. There is no telling what she might do."
[Blini] "......"
Blini’s lips twisted.
It was only after a long moment that she realized a distorted, dry, and eerie laughter was escaping her.
[Blini] "They said she was dead. That she was dying."
Laughter bubbled through her words.
[Blini] "If she died, weren't you supposed to reclaim your past?"
When Blini had heard that the man who rejected her had proposed to the Princess of Nauk, she had believed one thing:
Black needed to reclaim his past, and the person who had stolen that past was the Princess of Nauk. The proposal had to be a means to an end. It had to be.
Black was a man who didn't harbor feelings for anyone. He was a man who didn't know how. Just as he couldn't hold her in his heart, he was the same toward everything else. There was no reason for the Princess of Nauk to be special. There shouldn't have been.
[Blini] "You married her to kill her. Otherwise, you never would have gone through with a wedding."
[Black] "The ring."
He didn't listen to a word Blini said. He acted as if there were no reason to even hear her voice.
[Black] "I know you have it on you. Return it, and I will let you live."
Blini’s eyes twitched as she stared at him.
[Blini] "Kill the Princess. Then I’ll give it back."
[Black] "......You’ve lost your—"
[Liene] "Wait a moment."
The Princess of Nauk tugged on Black’s arm. His body, which Blini knew to be the sturdiest and heaviest in existence, was pulled along easily.
[Liene] "You promised. You said you’d leave this to me."
The Princess of Nauk spoke with an air of exasperation, yet Black actually offered her a grin.
[Black] "I am leaving it to you."
[Liene] "No, you aren't. You keep talking to her. I told you I didn't like that."
Blini couldn't understand why he was smiling while hearing her words.
[Black] "I can’t exactly let you stand here and listen to such nonsense, can I?"
[Liene] "Still, don't speak to her. Even being near her makes me feel unpleasant. You know my face is unwashed right now, don't you?"
[Black] "I know. Why does that matter?"
[Liene] "My clothes are a mess, and they even smell."
[Black] "Mine do, too."
[Liene] "No, what I mean is, this isn't fair. Unlike me, she is... very pristine."
Black reached out and tenderly brushed her dirty golden hair.
[Black] "You’re right. It isn't fair. Because you’re the kind of person who suddenly becomes adorable the moment you put on smelly pilgrim’s robes."
[Liene] "No! You aren't supposed to say things like that!"
The Princess of Nauk turned and covered Black’s mouth with her hand. He was significantly taller than her, yet he allowed his mouth to be covered without a fight.
[Liene] "We have to get the ring back...... Just keep your mouth shut."
[Black] "......"
Black remained silent and nodded.
To Blini’s eyes, the entire scene looked like a puppet show where all the gears were grinding and out of sync.
It made no sense. None of it.
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