Chapter 75: The Curse of Love [3]

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"Instead of explaining for a long time, should I just tell you a story?" I returned to my chair after stopping the fight between Killian and Alfred.

It was challenging to do without hurting either of them, given Alfred's tight grip on Killian, but I managed to do it successfully in the end.

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Killian's eyes were filled with terror as he looked at Alfred. Although Alfred wasn't even awakened and his weak strikes barely affected Killian, he didn't stop biting him.

After what had just happened, Killian decided never to speak ill of Cassian in the presence of this terrifying servant. 'His loyalty surpasses mine,' he thought with some shame.

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I looked at the two of them exchanging glances, as if they weren't interested in my story.

'For the sake of the dramatic scene,' I thought and began narrating the story regardless of their opinions.

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Many years ago, before my father - Maximus StarHold - sat on the throne.

When he and his two brothers were still young, not fully experienced or grown. The king at the time, as usual, wasn't even in the west. He was spending time with peers at the center of the human realm.

He mingled with people like the Morning Sword Pirren, Bruce the Grand Master, and others.

Far from all these grand royal matters, a twenty-year-old woman stumbled upon a strange place in the western forests. By coincidence or some sort of luck, she managed to find a legendary item: {Necklace of the starry heart}.

An item capable of manipulating any target, no matter how strong, even if the user is at rank G while the target is at rank SS. There were no limits. But in return, the user had to meet several conditions.

However, as an innocent girl, young Kathryn didn't want to use that item directly. She found it by chance and was still lost in the western forests, a very difficult situation.

All she wanted was to escape from this forest, and maybe sell this pendant to make some money. Unfortunately for her, she ended up in the path of a violent monster wave.

All kinds of monsters imaginable were present, weak dogs, giant lions, tigers, eagles, hawks, ghost statues, and even some legendary creatures.

At the brink of death, a legendary human appeared before her.

At just twenty-one years old, ranked S-, Maximus StarHold stood before her.

His body was made of various legendary and powerful beasts. Just one look at him was enough to make Kathryn feel safe forever.

A lion's head, goat's legs, a dragon's tail, arms like a human but with the strength of tigers. Despite the extreme diversity of his parts, they were all unified in a red color.

By merely exhaling flames from his mouth, he could temporarily change the path of the monster wave and immediately extract Kathryn from there. He was returning with his squad from the annual western lands' monster cleansing, and luckily for her, he found her before any incidents.

At that time, Kathryn fell in love with Maximus StarHold. She accompanied him to the palace, pretending she had lost her memory, making a thousand excuses not to leave him.

She stayed there, communicated with him whenever she could, even got to know his younger brothers: Octavius and Lionel. Maximus loved his younger brothers very much and never missed any opportunity to accompany them when he wasn't training.

Octavius shared the sentiment, and they were the true embodiment of brotherhood. Despite Lionel still wanting to inherit the throne and hold an inheritance trial, it didn't prevent them from loving each other as brothers.

Six months passed, and Kathryn's ways to stay in the palace were running out. The royal palace wasn't a joke, and if Maximus hadn't allowed her entry from the start, she would have been expelled already.

She tempted him a lot, tried to make him fall in love with her every day, but she failed. That muscle head only cared about two things: strength and his brothers. She couldn't do anything about the first.

In the end, she looked at the {Necklace of the starry heart} she had obtained long ago, and her humanity intertwined with her beastly nature. Her intense love turned into poison, and soon she began searching for a way to put him under her spell.

The conditions for activating the pendant were complex and hard to achieve:

1- Obtain a sample from the target's body.

2- Both the user and the target must have positive memories of each other.

3- The user must possess the most important thing to the target.

4- The user must love the target to the fullest extent and not let their feelings be tainted throughout the week-long process.

Regardless of how difficult it was to meet the conditions, Kathryn never gave up and kept trying to get closer to Maximus. She managed to get a strand of his hair without drawing his attention, and she certainly planted some positive memories about her in him.

The last condition was the first to be achieved, as her love for Maximus had been there since the first day and hadn't wavered for a second. But the problem was the third condition, the most important things to Maximus…

As mentioned earlier, the most important things to Maximus were: his brothers and strength.

Strength was an intangible concept, and even if she could somehow possess Maximus's strength, it was beyond her reach. As for his brothers, how was she supposed to accomplish that?

The first thought that came to her mind was diabolical, filthy, vile, inhuman, and unreasonable. All the things humans shouldn't do, even requiring her to abandon all her honor.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but even Loana had more honor than this woman. She was literally going to control one of Maximus's brothers with the pendant and then return to him to activate it.

Obviously, that wasn't going to happen easily… as she had been trying to get close to Maximus for six months without catching him, his brothers couldn't be different from him.

No matter how smart she was, the plan seemed impossible, but she still proceeded with it. Love in her mind had turned into madness by then, perhaps even poison.

I wouldn't be surprised if she had turned into a demon at that moment. The one she loved most after Maximus was undoubtedly Octavius.

Not only was he a smaller version of Maximus, but he was also strong, and the things he cared about were few. But unlike Maximus, he had actual things he cared about, not just concepts.

The king at the time and father of the three brothers. At the birth of each son, he used to give them unique items to keep for their entire lives.

He gave Maximus a dagger to protect the family at the forefront without any barriers between him and the enemy.

Octavius received a one-handed axe for direct combat if Maximus was bypassed.

Finally, Lionel received a long golden spear for fighting and supporting the family from behind in any situation, a deadly and unexpected weapon.

Although Maximus kept the dagger as if it were a treasure and didn't show it to anyone, Kathryn knew well why it was valuable to him.

For Octavius, the dagger was important because it connected him to his brothers and as the only gift from his father.

Again, it came back to the point of family. But unlike Maximus, Octavius and Lionel considered these weapons their most valuable possessions…

They weren't as simple as Maximus; they actually cared about things. Octavius, no matter how similar he was to his older brother, was still different.

But unfortunately for Kathryn, Octavius wasn't different enough for her plans.

Although he wasn't Maximus, he avoided love, especially during important events. He knew he could achieve those things later. And he had noticed Kathryn's endless attempts to get close to Maximus. Since he respected him a lot, he was careful to keep his distance from her.

It was like a thorn she had planted herself, as she ensured everyone thought she was seriously with Maximus, even if it was a lie.

There was no chance of getting even a strand of his hair, let alone the axe he considered his most precious possession. After two months of fruitless attempts and temptations, things hadn't progressed between her and Octavius at all.

It even got much worse, changing the palace workers' perception of her. Rumors spread, and the possibility of her being expelled became her reality, especially since Octavius began to harbor hatred towards her.

She annoyed him at all times, making him disgusted by her behavior. He even began to pity his older brother for enduring her all this time.

She finally gave up and decided to turn to the third and youngest brother, Lionel.

The kind blond who had just stopped being a teenager a few months ago, but still carried the pure blood of StarHold and was one of the most important people to Maximus - her ultimate target.

Out of desperation due to the lack of time, she made a very reckless move to attract Lionel, one that would make anyone else question her honor and sincerity as a woman.

But the inexperienced and narrow-minded Lionel didn't realize this. In his mind, the woman before him was Maximus's. Despite loving his older brother, he felt jealous of him.

He had noticed her getting close to Maximus and Octavius before him and couldn't help but love the idea of getting what they hadn't. And after that night, Kathryn obtained three things, even if she lost her honor.