Chapter 25 Misplaced Hatred: Heinrich Has Turned Dark

Heinrich took off his hood and rushed forward to hug his younger brother tightly. The cold rain soaked his cloak and hair, and his hands were covered in William's blood.

"What happened to you? Are you badly injured? Who tried to hurt you?" Heinrich looked at Wilhelm, who was covered in wounds, in disbelief. Since leaving his hometown, he had almost never spoken German again, and even hearing his own pronunciation sounded unfamiliar.

William was slightly shorter than him; the two brothers shared similar blond hair and blue eyes. But William's features were softer, lacking Heinrich's sharp and serious expression, and he usually wore a warm and genuine smile. Even his own brother rarely saw him with such a pained expression.

"I'm fine, just some minor injuries that don't really matter," William said, forcing a wry smile despite the pain.

Did you receive the letters I sent you?

“A letter? What letter? I didn’t receive a letter. I left for Venice a month ago. Brother, things are too complicated to explain in a few words.”

Heinrich glanced warily back at Lilith's small building, then quickly grabbed William's shoulder and pulled him into a nearby dark alley.

“I’ll take you to a safe place, and we can sit down and talk it over.”

Heinrich led his brother through several alleyways to a Bavarian tavern. The tavern wasn't crowded on this rainy night, and the warm yellow light bathed the wooden-decorated room in a cozy atmosphere. Heinrich asked the tavern owner for a room so his brother could settle in temporarily.

He hung their soaking wet cloaks by the fireplace to dry, then immediately began examining William's wounds. He had a sprained right ankle and a severe abrasion on his forehead, seemingly from something rough and hard, leaving it bleeding profusely. There was a knife wound on his left forearm, fortunately shallow and already bandaged; it seemed to be nothing serious. Heinrich asked the tavern owner for clean gauze and some brandy, and used a damp towel soaked in hot water to wipe the blood off William.

Under the lamplight, William noticed the gruesome scar on his brother's brow bone. Considering that Heinrich hadn't taken him home but instead brought him to the tavern, he could roughly guess that his brother's situation in Venice wasn't much better.

"Brother, how are you getting along with Miss Knarro... and sister-in-law?"

Heinrich sighed, somewhat speechless, and poured brandy onto William's arm wounds to disinfect them: "Let's talk about your matter first. What happened to these wounds?"

"That's alright. I'm new here and don't know the way. I was kidnapped by robbers, but they let me go after I paid them money. Ouch—that hurts..."

"If that's not important, then what is? So why did you come to Venice?"

“I…” William hesitated, his smile fading from his face. “It seems you haven’t received the news yet.”

"News? What news? What happened?" Heinrich recalled the letter Lilith received from Helmut, and a bad feeling crept into his heart.

“A family tragedy struck. Two months after you left for Venice… around the beginning of March this year, our father… passed away. Uncle Helmut… temporarily took over the position of head of the family.”

Heinrich's eyes widened, as if a boulder had crashed into his heart, crushing all his remaining hope to dust.

"How...did Father pass away?"

"The doctor said he died of illness. But my father has always been healthy and virtuous. He was looking forward to you marrying Miss Knarro. How could he have died of illness for no reason at this time? I thought about paying for another doctor to take a look myself, but my mother stopped me from doing so."

“Mother is right. If you have evidence to refute him, you will surely die.” Heinrich frowned, veins bulging on his forehead, trying his best to remain calm. “Anyone with eyes can see it. He murdered our father and seized the family property while his only adult son was away. If you dare to resist or question him, you will be the next to suffer.”

"So... my mother told me to pack my bags and come to Venice to seek refuge with you, and also to persuade you not to go back for the time being."

Heinrich pondered the timeline. He had left home at the beginning of January, the start of the new year, arrived in Venice in February and became a slave, and was bought by Lilith in early March—at that time, his father had died, and William had embarked on his journey to Venice, so he hadn't received a single letter. He hadn't even heard about the "death" of Heinrich sent by the Knarro family in early March.

In other words, he knew nothing about Heinrich's current situation.

"Fortunately... now that you've married a young lady from the Knarro family, we can at least seek their help..."

“No. The Knarro family can’t help us.” Heinrich interrupted William’s reverie. “I am not married to her. I am now her servant.”

"What did you say?! How is this possible?"

Heinrich recounted his ordeal in detail: being robbed, becoming a slave, and then being bought by his fiancée, who had hired someone to kill him, without his knowledge. Apart from his unspoken love-hate relationship with Lilith, he told William almost without reservation his story of what had happened there.

The two brothers fell into a long silence.

“I feel like something’s not right.” Heinrich thought of that letter again, the one whose contents he didn’t know, the one his father’s killer sent to Lilith. “Why did Helmut choose to make his move two months after I left? Logically speaking, the journey from home to Venice takes a month. If I had followed the original plan and gone straight home without stopping in Venice, I would probably have been almost home by then.”

"Unless he already knows that you will never actually set foot on the return journey..."

“The Knarro family only publicly announced my obituary in March. There was only one person who knew about my ‘death’ in early February and passed the news out.”

“You mean… Liliana Knaror…”

“That’s right, Liliana Knarro, ‘Lilith the Moneylender.’ This marriage was a complete and utter deception. Helmut conspired with her to lure the only adult son to Venice to be murdered, so that he could seize power under the guise of ‘temporary management’ once I was dead and there were no other adult males in the family to inherit the business. A month later, after learning of my ‘death,’ he could then conveniently replace my father. And that letter was, of course, Helmut’s way of sending his accomplice the good news of his success.”

William looked at Heinrich with despair, his eyes filled with hopelessness, fear, and confusion.

"So... what should we do now?"

“Revenge. Of course, revenge,” Heinrich said through gritted teeth. “What do you plan to do?”

“I’m going to devise a plan to use Lilith’s power to reclaim the Schmidl family’s assets and make Helmut pay for his crimes.” Heinrich’s gaze shifted to the fire burning in the fireplace, unconsciously stroking the ring Lilith had given him. “And Lilith… she too will have to pay for her sins, but dealing with her will be much simpler.”

"Why?"

"She is actually a very simple person, simply driven by self-interest and utterly wicked. She is capable of all sorts of heinous acts to accumulate wealth, digging her own grave. As long as I stay by her side and gather evidence of her crimes, I can easily bring her down. It's like in the game between Lucifer and God, where the demon in the form of a serpent only needs to lead Eve to the forbidden fruit, and she will willingly pluck and eat it herself."

William nodded thoughtfully. His brother seemed quite different after only a few months. If it were the old Heinrich, upon learning of their father's death, he would probably have been eager to grab his greatsword and challenge Helmut to a righteous duel between knights against his usurping uncle. He couldn't help but wonder what Heinrich had experienced in Venice that made him so calculating, like a seasoned businessman, weighing the pros and cons.

"Most importantly... I must take action and stop hesitating for some inexplicable reason."

After saying this, Heinrich took out his wallet and left almost all of his recently received salary to his younger brother, which was enough to cover William's food, clothing, and lodging in Venice for the next month. Now he had to leave, and he had to get back before anyone found out, so as not to arouse Lilith's suspicion. They agreed to meet at the same time a week later downstairs at the tavern, and Heinrich was prepared to bring a draft of his revenge plan.

The rain outside the window still hadn't stopped. He put on the cloak that had been dried by the fire and disappeared into the black, rainy night.

/

Lilith had a very, very long dream.

In her dreams, it was a raging inferno, Mauro devouring her flesh like a beast, Maria smiling as she pried open her mouth and poisoned it. Her trusted maids, like her, were mutilated. Meanwhile, Bruno, Massimo, and other male elders she didn't recognize were laughing and chatting with three headless prostitutes. They drank red wine drawn from Lilith's veins and ate cakes decorated with her fingernails. Pain made her scream in agony, humiliation made her tears dry.

Just when she thought she was going to die, the gates of purgatory slowly opened, and everyone who had been gathered around Lilith disappeared, leaving only Heinrich walking slowly towards her. He was wearing a black cloak, and his face was indistinct. She almost mistook him for the Heinrich she knew, but as he drew closer, Lilith saw a pair of eyes filled with hatred.

"Heinrich..."

Her fiancé gently pinched Lilith's throat with his fingers and carefully fastened jewel-encrusted shackles around her neck. Her dress instantly turned snow-white, dazzlingly white like a wedding gown.

"You are my wife, you can never betray me, you can never leave me."

"No! Heinrich! No!"

Lilith was jolted awake from her sleep to find Heinrich standing beside her with a candlestick in his hand.

"What are you doing here!" Lilith exclaimed in surprise, clutching tightly the Dutch rabbit doll Heinrich had given her.

“You keep calling my name in your sleep,” Heinrich said soothingly in a gentle voice. “Are you having a nightmare?”

“Hmm.” Lilith sat up straight and reached out to touch Heinrich’s hand. The warmth from another person finally made her distinguish between dream and reality. “I dreamt of my fiancé. I was calling his name.”

Did you dream that he came to haunt you and demand your life?

“It’s much more terrifying than that. I dreamt that he wanted to marry me. I’ve harmed so many people, and I’ve always known that I would go to hell after I die, so I’m not afraid of death at all. More than death, I’m afraid of being trapped, more afraid of losing my freedom, more afraid of living like livestock, dependent on others, and being manipulated by others, like those obedient women who get married and have children. That’s why I have to kill Heinrich, and I have to kill anyone who threatens me.”

"..."

“Father, brother, husband, no one can be relied on, I can only rely on myself. I will never let myself live a tragic life like Maria. I don’t have Sofia’s wealthy family background and noble birth, nor Aunt Elena’s unique opportunities and strong physique, but I have things I can do. My bank will open soon, and I will definitely manage it well… and make it better and better.”

“I will.” Heinrich looked expressionlessly at Lilith, who was shivering under the covers, when a brilliant revenge plan suddenly came to mind. “I will do everything I can to help you, and you will get what you want.”

“Heinrich,” Lilith looked up, her pitiful green eyes seemingly brimming with tears, “you stay here with me, and leave after I fall asleep.”

“Okay.” Heinrich placed the candlestick on the bedside table and moved a chair to sit beside Lilith’s bed. He noticed a book on the bedside table, Boccaccio’s Decameron.

“I want to hear a story,” Lilith said to him in a childlike, pleading tone.

Where should we begin reading?

"Let's start from the beginning. Skip the backstory and start with the first story."

“Alright,” Heinrich opened the book, and by the candlelight he saw that the old parchment pages were full of creases from being read so many times. “The story I’m about to tell is about a heinous moneylender who became a saint after his death.”

"This is one of Lilith's favorite stories."

Lilith hugged the doll tightly, closed her eyes, and smiled contentedly. Soon, she drifted off to sleep again as Heinrich read aloud softly.

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Author's Note: Volume 1 is finished! [Let me see!] Volume 2 will be updated on Wednesday. Heinrich will officially begin his revenge-seeking scheming man version, and Lilith will face more challenges, as well as more cute, exciting, and satisfying ambiguous tug-of-war! [Let me see!][Let me see!] Please look forward to it! The entire story consists of three volumes, with Volume 2 being a bit longer than Volume 1.