Chapter 3 - Konrad Falwell

"Your holiness, will my son be all right?"

Lady Lyudmila Falwell, the lady of House Falwell asked the priest about her stepson.

"Yes my Lady, the child doesn't seem to be sick, however his body… I fear that the poor child would never be able to become a knight. May Uzrasil (God of health, life, and fertility) watch over this poor child."

The woman quietly sobbed in her palms as the priest excused himself from the room, not wanting to witness the weakness of a noble lady.

As soon as the priest left the room, Matthew Falwell stopped the man from going anywhere before he learns what was wrong with his son.

"Tell me, Brother Pavel, what happened to Konrad?"

"My lord, the child is alive, unfortunately, his body was weakened to such a state that would make his recovery a wet dream for any healer. I'm truly sorry for what happened to the poor boy, but I and all of my brothers lack the power to heal such curses."

Matthew let out a tired sigh before he took out of his pocket a small bag before gave it to the priest.

"Nevertheless, brother Pavel, you did everything in your power. Thank you."

"No my lord, I can't accept it."

"I insist. It's just a small gesture from my house to the church."

"Then, I'll gladly accept it, my lord. Once again, I am truly sorry for being powerless and I hope that the boy would recover."

Not wasting any more time, the priest excused himself for the second time before leaving the manor, leaving the lord at the door of his bastard son as he listen to his wife's cries. Matthew gathers his courage before entering the room, only to be greeted by a death stare from his wife.

The woman looked at him ready to cut his face off his head if he dares to say something. However, Matthew still walked beside her and gently wrap her in his arms, hugging his wife while looking at his son.

"I'm sorry dear, I shouldn't have let Konrad alone."

Not hearing a response from her, Matthew decided to continue. "Whatever curse befalls him, I swear to god that I would do everything in my power to find a way to heal my son."

Between sobs, Lyudmila found the strength to speak for the first time since Matthew entered his son's room.

"You…better do it… or else…"

"Shh, not here dear. Let's let the boy rest. We all need to rest anyways."

He knew why his wife was so devastated when the boy that his late concubine gave birth to was about to die. Konrad's mother was a one-night thing that led to the birth of the boy when Lord Falwell spent a month in the capital. His wife hasn't said anything, knowing very well how hard it was for a man to be far away from his loving wife and when the boy was born she took it upon herself to rise him to the best of her abilities. Two years ago, their first son, Andre Falwell had fallen in battle against the barbarians as a hero, that day Lyudmila lost a piece of her soul and from that day she doted on Konrad and Lily, her youngest child like there was no tomorrow.

Just like that half a year passed while the boy barely got up from his bed, not because he didn't want but because he simply couldn't move his body at all. In the begging the pain was unbearable, but as the days passed by, Konrad slowly got used to the pain, and with the help of his mother and some handmaidens, he managed to move for a little bit every now and then, albeit feeling the hell manifesting through his body.

One day, when he tried to move by himself, Konrad made it to the door only to hear the voice of his father talking with another man.

"So brother have you decided whether to accept Lord Maisel's marriage proposal?"

"The boy is what eight or nine years old and yet his father wants to betroth my daughter to him? Brother, while I'm not a priest or a scribe, I can definitely smell the plots from kilometers away. That old cunt wants to get his hands on my lands one way or another."

"Matthew, I may be younger than you, but you know as well as I do that Lord Maisel could and by the gods would have taken your lands if he so desired and the king would have just laughed. I know that you still hold a grudge over Andre's death but there's no way Sir Maisel the young could have known that a troll would make its appearance on the battlefield. "

"Nikolaus, until that day, our kingdom hadn't even seen a troll, not even the Barbarian King, the Mad troll looks like one, but here we stand two years after the bloody war started and yet not even one troll was killed by our army. Instead, the number of dead soldiers keeps increasing every time we tried to kill one of those bloody things."

"So what do you suggest brother? Engage the boy with my lovely daughter who's not even three years old?"

"If that's what it takes to keep the northern lords united then by the gods, I suggest you do it. Then again it's your daughter and as much as I love you, Matthew, I don't want you to be killed in your sleep by Lyudy."

"Niko, I'll talk with my wife about this betrothal, it's not like the old man is leaving this world anytime soon anyways. If my wife accepts, then my house and Lord Maisel's house would be united by marriage."

"You do you brother, now…father wants something from you."

When Matthew heard his brother's words, he froze not expecting his father, who he had not contacted for over a decade would ask something from him so suddenly. When it hit him, his son Konrad was not the heir of the family, not being the son of Lyudmila, by the law, he can't become the heir. Instead, if he's adopted by another family, then by the law he would become the son of that house.

"He can't move, why would that man want my son? Tell me Nikolaus or I swear I'll beat you."

"Calm down brother, it's not what you imagine, at least I hope not. Father wants to make little Konrad the heir of Von Braun. You know me, I'm a knight, but I'd rather fool around with women and booze that write and read papers every day and since my nephew is the only boy in our family, father wants him to inherit his legacy."

It took a few minutes for Matthew to process what his younger brother had just said to him, but rather than being sad that his son would have to leave, despite what his wife would say or do, Matthew knew that his son would leave one way or another and maybe it would be better for the poor child to be as far away from this game of politics. The only problem would be that Lily would have to grow up without knowing the love of a brother…

"Promise me, something brother."

"Anything."

"If by any chance Konrad recovers from whatever plagues his body, I beg you to train my son into a knight worthy of leading our father's legacy."

"Oh my foolish brother, father has already sent for people all over the kingdom to check on the boy. If there's a cure then our old man would do anything to transform our pup into a wolf ready to devour everything. You just have to let the boy into the old wolf den, everything else would work by itself."

"That's what I fear, brother. Our father wasn't exactly the best father we could have had, but even though he didn't show us the love we would have loved to receive from him, he did raise us into the men we are today. I became a noble using my own hands while you became a knight due to your actions. "

"His actions were questionable that's true, even mom said that, but you know that she would have killed him in his sleep if what he put us through were only his crazy ideas. I for one believe that my nephew would benefit more from the old man than here under Lyudy's safe roof. Before you say anything, remember that you also kept Andre from doing anything stupid until he left and became a squire under Lord Maisel's son."

"I still can't forgive myself for that. If not for my stubbornness, my son wouldn't have died on the battlefield. He could have stayed away from that damn patrol mission and maybe just maybe he would have been alive now."

Nikolaus let his brother mourn in silence while he took a quick look to his left only to see the door to his nephew's room slightly open, just enough for someone to eardrop and not enough to be noticed. He smiled realizing that his nephew had heard the whole conversation and more importantly that the boy moved by himself after so long. Not many people knew this, but Konrad had used every bit of willpower when he even moved into his bed, not to mention walking from his bed to the door. Still, he didn't want to scare the poor boy by calling out his name, instead, Nikolaus turned to face his brother before he caught his attention. Matthew came back to his senses when he heard his name being whispered by his brother. Nikolaus nodded with his head in the direction where Konrad was listening to the two men, only for his father to almost burst into tears of joy when he noticed the door.

Not long after that, Matthew got on his feet and walked towards his son's room, but not before making his intention known to the young boy, not bearing to see him struggling anymore to hide what he had just done.

"Konrad, please don't hide, wait for daddy to help you."

To his father's complete horror, the young boy walked out of the room by himself and made it to the stairs only for his uncle to stop him from walking down by himself.

"Now, now nephew, you don't have to show us how much have you progressed."

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