Chapter 494

"Shut up!" Curtis completely broke down and tried to rush forward to shut her mouth like a madman.

But he was forced back by the spears of the Northwend Army.

He looked at the guards who used to bow down to him, but now they were all looking at him with contempt.

Suddenly, he collapsed to the ground, muttering to himself, "I’m not wrong. I just wanted to make the Blumenfeld family stronger. They just don’t understand me."

"But Mother was still thinking of you, even on her deathbed. Why didn’t you go see her?" Remembering her mother’s appearance before her death, Frieda completely broke down.

She screamed at Curtis, "Mother loved you her whole life, yet you married a new wife to replace her just two months after her death. You don’t deserve her devotion. You have let her down."

She added, "All these years, I never rebelled against you because Mother made me promise on her deathbed not to hate you. But what did you do?"

Frieda patted her chest and cried her heart out, "All your so-called devotion was just an act for outsiders. You pretended to mourn her, but you wouldn’t even allow her belongings to remain in your chambers.

"You had everything she owned thrown out and burned. I risked my life to pull her pendant from the fire…"

Curtis’s eyelids twitched violently, and he tried his best to deny it. "No, that wasn’t me. It was Tamzin, she did it all!"

Frieda laughed mockingly. "If you didn’t instruct her, how would she dare to touch Mother’s things? You are a complete bastard, a hypocrite!"

"Shut up! I command you to shut up!" Curtis’s hands waved wildly, as if he wanted to tear Frieda apart. "Guards! Kill this wretch!"

But none of the soldiers behind him moved. They were all Princess Consort’s people and had received her favor.

At that moment, they looked at Curtis with hatred in their eyes.

"Your Highness, you killed Princess Consort, so you must pay for her life." As soon as Raihan finished speaking, he pounced on Curtis.

The Northwend Army behind him also joined in. In an instant, the courtyard became a scene of chaos.

Athena watched all of this in a daze. She slowly put down the dagger and said to Frieda, "You can go."

Frieda’s eyes lost their vitality, and she looked at the scene before her, weeping bitterly.

She gave Athena a poignant smile. "Elijah, I don’t hate you at all. This manor should have collapsed long ago. All these years, there hasn’t been a single day I didn’t want to escape. Now I finally have. I have no regrets."

She retreated slowly towards Athena, a look of determination in her eyes.

Athena saw a broken knife stuck in the ground behind her.

Knowing what Frieda was about to do, she hurriedly shouted, "Frieda, don’t!"

Athena lunged forward frantically, her fingertips only brushing Frieda’s sleeve.

The next second, the muffled sound of the broken knife piercing flesh echoed, Frieda’s body shuddered violently, and then she collapsed softly into a pool of blood.

Athena knelt beside her, trembling as she reached out to cover the wound that was gushing blood.

But the blood gushed out madly from between her fingers, staining her palm red, staining the bluestone slab beneath her.

"Why did you do this?" Her voice trembled, tears falling on Frieda’s pale face, "You could have lived!"

Frieda looked at her, a faint smile still lingering on her lips. But that smile was quickly swallowed up by the gushing blood.

"Live?" With difficulty, Frieda turned her eyes, watching the royal residence being engulfed by the raging fire. Her eyes gradually dimmed. "This…hasn’t been my home for a long time."

She said, "Elijah, I miss…I miss my mother."

Her fingers curled slightly, as if trying to grasp something, but ultimately fell weakly. "Mother said we must live with dignity. But I was trapped in this cage, denied even the right to choose my own fate…"

Bloody foam kept overflowing from the corner of her mouth, and every word she spoke exhausted her strength.

Frieda said, "Elijah, thank you for letting me…make one last choice…"

Athena’s throat was blocked as if something was stuck in it, and she could only tightly hold her gradually cooling hand.

Only then did she notice many shallow old scars on Frieda’s wrist.

One after another, a shocking sight.

Frieda’s voice grew softer and softer, her eyes gradually losing focus. "Mother, mother, are you here to pick me up?"

Her gaze drifted into the distance, and she smiled. "Mother is here, here to pick me up…"

As the last word fell, Frieda’s hand also dropped.

Heavy footsteps thundered, and someone shouted in surprise, "Look, it’s Prince Regent, he’s brought the Nexalasia army to save us."

Although Curtis was trapped, his martial prowess was not weak.

At his feet lay a ground full of corpses.

He gripped his long saber and looked in Xander’s direction with a dark gaze.

When he saw Xander’s face, his gaze suddenly tightened. "Seventeen, it’s actually you. I planned and schemed, but I didn’t anticipate this."

He never imagined that the real Prince Regent had infiltrated his mansion long ago, right under his nose.

Xander stood at the forefront of the military formation, dressed in soft armor embroidered with silver thread, a gold belt tied straight around his waist.

He glanced at Athena, seeing that she was not injured.

He coldly looked at Curtis. "Curtis, why don’t you surrender?"

"I refuse! I refuse!" Curtis was disheveled, shouting like a madman.

He looked at Frieda’s corpse, with not a trace of pity in his eyes.

There was only hatred and anger. "You and your useless mother are the same. If you had been on my side, would I have treated you with indifference? Now, you are helping outsiders to scheme against me. Why didn’t you die sooner?"

These shocking remarks made Raihan’s eyes turn red. "She was your daughter. How can you have no pity for her? How can you face Princess Consort in the afterlife?"

Raihan was covered in blood. He braced himself and confronted Curtis.

Curtis laughed heartily. "How could they understand my great cause? If it weren’t for the two of them holding me back, I would have already had Aeridon in my hands."

With that, he pointed at Xander with his long saber, "As long as the cannons are mounted on the walls, none of you can do anything to me. You court lackeys. All of you will die!"

He coughed as he spoke, blood constantly flowing from his mouth.

"Unfortunately, you used your intelligence in the wrong place," Xander’s words were extremely harsh. "In the end, you were defeated."

Curtis shook his head madly, "No, I am not defeated. I am not defeated."

At that moment, a person came out from behind Xander.

It was Deaglan, the second master of the Blumenfeld family.

He said, "Curtis, admit defeat."

Seeing Deaglan, Curtis’s eyes filled with resentment, "You coward! You actually defected to the imperial court. I should have killed you when I had the chance."

He was severely injured, and blood kept bubbling from his lungs as he coughed repeatedly.

Looking at Curtis’s crazed appearance, Deaglan sighed. "Back then, your wife begged you not to court disaster by consorting with wolves. But you thought her a hindrance and poisoned her. I also urged you to be cautious, but you had me imprisoned, nearly killed me."

He spread his arms wide, forcing his brother to look at what was left of the palace. "Look around you. This estate is in ruins. The Blumenfeld family’s scions are dead, scattered, or captured."