Chapter 493
Curtis’s hand froze in mid-air. He turned his head sharply and saw the dagger in Athena’s hand against Frieda’s neck.
To say the sight didn’t pain him would be a lie. After all, this was his daughter. He could control Frieda’s life and death, but no one else could. And Athena’s action was an insult to him.
“If you dare touch a single hair on her head, try it!” Curtis’s voice was instantly hoarse, and the madness in his eyes was replaced by ferocity.
All his life, he had been decisive, ruthless. No one had ever dared threaten him using a member of the Blumenfeld family's life.
Athena’s eyes were cold as she pressed her wrist forward slightly, the dagger sinking another half inch. “Tell me, Curtis, which is faster? The fuse of your cannons, or my blade?”
She deliberately slowed her words, her gaze stabbing into him like an ice awl. “Cease fire. Release the people in this courtyard, or I kill her right here and now.”
The dagger nicked the skin, and the pain made Frieda cry out. “Elijah, why did you lie to me?”
A flicker of sorrow crossed Athena’s eyes, but faced with the current situation, she had no other choice.
She said, “Didn’t you always want to know your place in your father’s heart? Why don’t we gamble? Let’s see which matters more to him: you, or his great cause.”
Frieda stopped struggling. She hesitated a little. Would her father really make a compromise for her?
She looked at Curtis in the firelight and made a decision in her heart.
She wanted to bet.
“Father! I’m scared!” Frieda’s crying was trembling, and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Promise her! I don’t want to die!”
Curtis looked into his daughter’s terrified eyes, his chest feeling as though it was crushed beneath a boulder.
He staggered half a step back, his gaze flickering madly between the cannons and his daughter.
Frieda didn’t miss a single change in his expression. She saw Curtis struggling and making a choice. He was weighing the situation.
After a moment, Curtis looked up at Athena and issued an order to the guards behind him. “Release the arrows and kill her.”
Frieda’s eyes suddenly widened.
She looked at Curtis in disbelief, a self-deprecating smile escaping her lips. “I knew it. In his heart, I will always just be an object. If I have value, I am your daughter. If I don’t have value, I will be discarded.”
“Father…” Frieda shouted at Curtis, “Do you really not want your daughter?”
Curtis’s face was as cold as ice. He snorted coldly, “No matter when or where, my family will not be threatened. Frieda, rest assured. After your death, I will definitely avenge you and mince this brat into meat paste.”
Frieda laughed loudly, but tears kept flowing. “Back then, you also abandoned my mother as a pawn. Now you want to abandon me too, don’t you?”
Curtis’s face instantly turned ugly.
He stared intently at Frieda, a trace of embarrassment flashing across his eyes. “Your mother died of illness. Stop talking nonsense.”
“Did she die of illness, or was she driven to her death by your ambition?” Frieda’s emotions suddenly became agitated.
She looked at Curtis, her eyes full of disappointment and resentment.
Frieda said, “When you first came to Aeridon, your power base was shaky. In order to secure a foothold, you married the daughter of one of the Four Great Merchant Guilds. Mother married you and helped you consolidate power.”
She continued, “But you—your ambition was too great. You even used the iron mine to exchange silver with the enemy country.”
She added, “Mother warned you this was too risky, but you dismissed her as a foolish woman. She couldn’t bear to watch you ruin the Blumenfeld family, so she wanted to take me and my brothers and leave. And what did you do?”
Frieda’s words were as sharp as a blade, dragging all of Curtis’s darkest deeds into the open.
Curtis’s face turned ashen, and he looked at her with a gloomy gaze, “Shut up, you rebellious wretch! You’re just like your mother, unable to tell right from wrong. Raising you was no better than raising a dog. Who put you up to this? Who made you defy your own father?”
Frieda chuckled. “Mother kept records of everything—your shipment of iron ore, your secret dealings with the enemy. You feared she would expose you, so you poisoned her slowly, then told the world she died of consumption!”
The soldiers around them were stunned, their weapons falling slack in their hands.
All these years, Curtis had cultivated an image of a grieving, devoted husband. Every year on her death anniversary, he would personally visit her tomb to mourn. They didn’t expect him to be this cruel.
“Nonsense!” Curtis was furious.
He grabbed a long knife from the ground and slashed at Frieda, “I will kill you, slanderous wretch!”
But before he could reach her, a young officer stepped in and forced him back with a swing of his blade.
That person looked at Curtis with cold eyes, his eyes full of disbelief. “Your Highness, is what Lady Frieda said true? Was it you who killed the Princess Consort, our lady?”
Most of the elite troops in this courtyard had belonged to the Princess Consort. Their loyalty to Curtis had stemmed from his supposed devotion to her.
However, Frieda’s words tore apart Curtis’s disguise. Naturally, they wanted justice for the Princess Consort.
Curtis looked at the soldiers around him and then at the young man in front of him, and said in a rough voice, “Raihan, Frieda is caught in Elijah’s trap and has long been delirious! Her words are not to be trusted.”
Raihan Rowland had been one of the Princess Consort’s men. Indeed, she had personally formed the Northwend Army.
Back then, he had followed her across the land and even hunted pirates at sea. Those were glorious days.
But ever since she married Curtis, her smile had grown rarer and rarer.
Raihan had once thought she was simply sacrificing for the greater good.
He never imagined she had been suffering under Curtis’s oppression, that even her death might be tied to him.
Raihan’s grip on his saber tightened, his face grim. “I only know that the Princess Consort would have risked her life to protect Lady Frieda. She would never have treated her life with such disregard as you have.”
He pointed the knife at Curtis. “Tell me, how did she die?”
“How dare you! How dare you speak to me like this? Are you tired of living?” Curtis never expected that these men would remain so loyal to the Princess Consort after many years.
“I only want an answer!” Raihan shouted, refusing to back down. “Tell me, how did she die?” He roared like an enraged lion.
Behind him, the entire Northwend Army raised their weapons as one, echoing his cry. “Tell us the truth! Tell us the truth!”
The momentum was earth-shattering. Even the calm Curtis couldn’t bear it any longer.
He looked in horror at the approaching Northwend Army, muttering, “How dare you! How dare you point your knives at me? Do you not want to live?”
“Father,” Frieda screamed, “You killed Mother. It was your fault…”
Frieda looked at Curtis’s panicked face, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Before Mother died, she said she didn’t hate you for plotting for power, only that you treated people’s hearts as pawns.”
She continued, “She said that the children of the Blumenfeld family, even if they only had simple meals, should live with integrity. She also told me not to hate you, but how did you treat her?”