Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 84

I felt incredibly dejected, recognizing my own lack of talent.

I couldn’t do anything.

Absolutely nothing.

Lord Michael was singing.

With a sweet, melting soprano, sensual and delightful.

He proclaimed loudly that this was to be his final song.

In this incident, my assigned role was that of an observer to see this case to its resolution.

Lord Polydoro had commanded:

“Ensure that Lord Michael does not take his own life until I grant permission. Keep watching him sing until the very end.”

This was firmly instructed to me.

Thus, all I could do was continue listening to Lord Michael’s song.

“Holy, holy, holy,”

Lord Michael sang as if he was going mad.

“The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,”

He kept singing relentlessly.

“Grant them eternal rest.”

This could be considered my punishment.

A punishment for being utterly ineffectual in this incident.

A punishment for the Wesperman family, unable to reach the profound contemplation and ingenuity of Lord Polydoro.

Watching Lord Michael as he approached death,

I was merely waiting for this incident to end.

Eventually — quietly.

Yet clearly enough for Lord Michael to notice,

Queen Liesenlotte and Lord Polydoro appeared in the Rose Garden where Lord Michael was singing.

“Michael, do you intend to die?”

“It appears so. I am relieved to see that you have regained your composure, Queen Liesenlotte.”

With that, everything came to an end.

Lord Michael watched the queen regain her peace and, convinced of her tranquility, greeted her final smile.

With that, Lord Michael’s decision to end his life was sealed.

By now, the nomadic chieftain must have taken her own life.

It’s a matter of little consequence now.

“Are you truly intending to die, Michael?”

“That is my intention. Farewell, Queen Liesenlotte.”

“Then, before you go, let me tell you one last thing about something Robert-sama once muttered.”

Nonchalantly,

Without any concern for the desiring death Michael,

Queen Liesenlotte casually mentioned a story concerning Robert-sama.

“I once asked Robert if he wanted a third child.”

“Indeed?”

It seemed to slightly pique Lord Michael’s interest.

Anything about Robert-sama was of interest to him.

“He said he no longer needed one.”

Queen Liesenlotte, with a slightly emaciated figure filled with an ethereal and passive beauty, murmured audibly enough for all to hear,

“I wanted another son, but with Michael here, he said no more were needed.”

“—”

Lord Michael slightly shrugged his shoulders in response,

And with a somewhat anticlimactic expression, he replied.

“Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

Why would she speak of such things to someone about to embrace death?

At that moment, Lord Michael seemed to harbor such doubts.

But it seemed of no great importance.

“Is that truly all there is to the story?”

“That’s all there is. I’ve known for a while that you wished to die. If you wish to die, then so be it. Farewell, Michael.”

The queen plainly spoke of Lord Michael’s death with a stark indifference.

She seemed terribly cold.

That was the feeling at the time.

“If that’s all, then farewell. Lady Liesenlotte, Lord Polydoro, and Lord Wesperman.”

In response, Lord Michael answered just as coldly, I believe.

Lord Polydoro’s face was deeply marred by distress.

It seemed he couldn’t foresee what would happen next.

Lord Polydoro is impulsive, capable of profoundly stirring people’s hearts at times.

Yet, that same disposition is ill-suited for schemes.

Such was his nature.

But it was likely that which Lord Michael had admired.

“Farewell, Lord Polydoro. It has been my happiness to meet you at the end,” Lord Michael said with a smile.

Lord Polydoro nodded slightly in response, bidding farewell.

Then, Lord Michael attempted to plunge a knife into his own heart—a knife given to him in his childhood by Robert-sama, the same knife with which he had tragically killed his own mother. However,

I had learned a little about the nuances of the situation through this incident. Lord Michael…

“…”

…could no longer drive the knife through his own heart.

“Why?”

Ah, yes. He is cursed. Queen Liesenlotte has cursed him.

“Grant me thy mercy and save me!”

It was like a scream—a requiem that Lord Michael sang. His voice was no longer a soprano but a mixture of both male and female voices, a scream of all humanity.

“Lord, hear my prayer!”

Lord Michael did not believe in any god. He had only superficial faith, not in a god that allowed ethnic discrimination and persecution, but he believed in something entirely different.

“With a heart shattered like ashes, I humbly beg before thee.”

There was just one being who could save him, who affirmed all that he was. One existence.

“Ah, reckon my end!”

Queen Liesenlotte had cursed Lord Michael with the existence of Robert-sama.

“…”

The curse was that he would not be allowed to die. Despite repeatedly invoking prayers and attempting to stab his own heart with the knife,

Lord Michael could not plunge it into his heart.

A scream rose, neither male nor female, yet disturbing the hearts of all.

Instead of his own heart, Lord Michael turned the blade of the knife towards Queen Liesenlotte.

“You! You, as a person!”

Queen Liesenlotte responded with silence, her expression impassive. She had merely whispered a single sentence earlier.

Queen Liesenlotte had cursed him. She would not allow the wishes of Robert-sama to be rejected.

Lord Michael, the beloved son of Robert-sama, was supposed to find happiness in his future life, not to take his own life.

“Even if you are the queen, even if you were loved by that Robert-sama, there are things that are forgivable and things that are not! Why did you whisper such words! That I, that I am the son of that Robert-sama—”

“It’s ironic, Michael. There are things I cannot forgive, too. Even if heaven and earth were turned upside down. Ignoring the prayers of that Robert, going to Robert without understanding, without knowing anything about your love for him…”

Once he knew, suicide was impossible for Lord Michael.

Queen Liesenlotte had quietly whispered the curse.

“You are the beloved son of the Robert-sama you loved.”

Lord Michael…

Lord Michael could not deny himself, who had been affirmed and loved in his entirety by Robert-sama.

He could not plunge the knife into his heart, recognizing that Robert-sama would never wish for his beloved son’s death.

Lord Michael had come to understand that.

“You are lying! It cannot be that Robert-sama ever said such a thing! You fabricated this selfish judgment just to stop me from dying!”

The screams continued.

Lord Michael’s cries, cursing everything, persisted.

Tears naturally spilled down my cheeks.

What had Lord Michael done to deserve this?

I think he should be allowed to die.

Even Lord Polydoro, who had arranged this scene, I believe, could not say anything to Queen Liesenlotte.

Had Lord Michael done anything wrong?

Had he committed any sin against the world?

Born a discriminated nomad, castrated to earn money for his nomadic tribe, possessing an ambiguously sweet, sensual voice neither clearly male nor female.

Just for “that much,” his life was taken away.

Robert-sama had allowed his revenge, affirmed his life ahead, and yet he lost it all within less than two years, by the hand of his own people.

Isn’t that hell?

Lord Michael, who had lived through this earthly hell, should be allowed to die.

Not by Queen Liesenlotte, certainly not by someone like me who couldn’t understand the logic or the air of this world.

Not even by the kind Lord Polydoro, or certainly not by the people of Anhalt who thought all nomads might as well be dead.

Anyone who knew everything would surely grant the same mercy.

That was the very phrase Lord Michael had just uttered.

“…reckon my end.”

The very scream itself, a plea to a god he did not believe in.

Let him die.

That’s what I thought.

No, that’s what I wished.

A tear streamed down my cheek.

I, Marina von Wesperman, the second daughter of the Wesperman family who had never once considered Lord Michael’s heart.

No, even Sabine, once the eldest daughter, who seemed mad, would beg the queen.

Just let him die.

“I am not lying.”

“Lies! Even you, you just want someone to accompany you because you no longer want to live in this world!”

“I already have Lord Polydoro.”

It was a confession.

A confession of love for Lord Polydoro.

I felt it, but I also understood.

Even that, Queen Liesenlotte was trying to use as a curse to prevent Lord Michael’s death, trying to provoke the deep emotions slumbering within him.

“I will say it as many times as needed. I have Lord Polydoro.”

“Robert-sama!”

It was a voice filled with anger.

While uttering this, Lord Michael tried to approach the queen.

But he couldn’t.

Far too…

“In the depths of my heart, Robert has always been there. He will be until I die. Whether I go to heaven or fall to hell, it will remain this way. I have harbored feelings for Faust, for Faust von Polydoro, yet I have never forgotten Robert. My lust and love are intertwined.”

Queen Liesenlotte had confessed everything.

The voice with which she spoke was understood by all to be utterly sincere.

“Because I loved Robert, I curse you with these words. I must do so. Did you love Robert?”

“What do you know!”

“I loved him. I will say it again and again. It has always been this way. Everything has always been this way. In my youth, filled with melancholy, when I met Robert, he could not fit in with the other pages. And if he thought he was disliked, that wasn’t the case. If one thought to mock his tall, muscular physique, finding someone to seriously agree with that mockery would cause those who had been mocking him to become furiously angry.”

He was an existence beyond reason.

If asked, my mother, even now, I hardly understand, but he was a wonderful person.

I could make fun of his appearance with affection, but if others did, it was infuriating.

That was the type of personality he had.

“He was a man hard to understand. A man filled with human charm. Ah, yes. I thought Robert and Faust were similar, but they are not. No, they are different. Each has their good points, but they are different people.”

“—Your Majesty”

“I have decided to love both. My past life and my future, everything, I have decided to do so. Well, I’m not telling you to do the same.”

The narrative.

Queen Liesenlotte spoke of her philosophy, her true feelings, lies, her love for Robert, her love for Lord Polydoro.

Everything intertwined in her narrative.

“I won’t say it. But you should know. Robert would never wish for your death, no matter what.”

“I’m already tired of everything—”

“Be happy. There’s only one thing Robert wishes for in heaven.”

The blessing that was not a blessing by any wizard, yet which no wizard could hope to match.

The entirety of her being as the elector of the Holy Gusten Empire, the queen of Anhalt, infused with all her compassion.

It

 was just one curse narrative.

“May Michael be blessed.”

To Lord Michael, who wished to die, to Robert, to the man who had tied his entire life to him.

To the man who had lost everything.

“Robert would only wish for that.”

“There’s nothing left…”

The scream.

The words of blessing, the curse, what could they connect to?

A scream about what could be gained from living on.

“What remains for me—”

“I have made one resolution. There’s one thing I want to tell you alone, later. I won’t speak of it here. Listen to that one resolution.”

Queen Liesenlotte and Lord Polydoro.

While looking at them, Queen Liesenlotte smiled.

A gentle smile I had never seen before.

“Everything. This one thing, I feel, could save everything. Well. No one might understand it, but I’m looking forward to it.”

She said she looked at both of us, but in truth, she gave me only a brief glance, fixing her gaze mostly on Lord Polydoro.

A thoroughly refreshed smile.

Well, the conclusion.

Queen Liesenlotte had dominated the scene.

The thing Lord Polydoro might have secretly wished for, saving Lord Michael’s life.

Removing Lord Michael’s plea for death for the moment.

The true resolution of this incident, which I, a member of the Wesperman family, desired as a witness.

At least for now, Queen Liesenlotte had accomplished it.

Therefore, I, as a witness, am not permitted to say anything.

Just this, may Lord Michael be blessed.

As Marina von Wesperman, who had come to understand the air a little, that was all I wished for.