Tyranny of Steel
chapter-428

It was a typical summer's day within the Kingdom of Austria. Deep within the Austrian Alps lies the city of Kufstein, and within this city was the Royal Palace, which acted as the primary residence of the King of Austria and his family.

At the moment, the Princess of Austria, Henrietta von Kufstein, was lying on her bed beneath her silk covers as she grasped ahold of her knees and clenched them tightly to her chest. She was currently in a state of depression as she worried about her future.

While sending her brother off to war, she had confessed her taboo feelings for him in front of his wives. This had caused a rift between her and the three women she had come to think of as her friends and her family over the years.

Linde had outright barred the young princess from seeing her niece and nephew which she had grown exceptionally fond of over the years. Henrietta believed that the red-headed vixen who had stolen her big brother was being utterly unfair by doing this, but there was nothing she could do.

Because of this, Henrietta has been stuck alone within her room for most of the day, struggling to deal with the conflicted emotions inside of her heart. She knew her feelings for Berengar were wrong; after all, they were siblings related by blood, and such a thing was beyond a simple taboo. Yet, she could not deny that she could no longer see any other man as a potential suitor. After everything he had accomplished, what man could compare to her precious big brother?

The young princess sighed heavily as she began to think about her kind-hearted brother, who had always looked after her and continued to do so. He was not only her big brother; these last few years he had even been her father figure. Seeing how her mother and father had abandoned her and retired to the countryside, she could not help but see her brother as her caretaker and provider.

Yet despite this, she knew that it would not be easy to convince Berengar to break a massive taboo by taking her as his mistress. After all, though he was a bit of a pervert, and a playboy, there was no way that he thought of her in the same way she did him. This very concern caused her to rub her pretty forehead in a state of distress in an attempt to calm her growing headache.

Ultimately she could sit still no longer; she needed something to calm her heart, and since Berengar was gone, there was only one thing that could make her feel a sense of relief. With this in mind, the young princess rose to her feet and crept out of her room. She carefully walked down the hallways, making sure not to run into any of her brother's wives who would surely make life difficult for her. After all, they were currently in a state of rivalry.

Before long, she found her way to the penthouse which Berengar had commonly referred to as the "Harem Room," after creeping through its entrance, she walked over to the Hookah which lie in the center of the room on a small round table. This device had remained unused since her brother had left, thus Henrietta began to place a mixture of hashish and herbal shisha within its bowl.

Henrietta sucked on one of the mouthpieces that she knew contained her big brother's dry saliva making sure to gobble up every last drop. Afterward, the young princess took a long puff before licking her lips as she leaned back and relaxed on the pillows that surrounded the device. If Berengar's wives knew she was in this room smoking hash by herself, they would probably drag her out by the ear and spank her.

As the young princess's mind began to drift off into space, she noticed something interesting in the corner of her eye. Stashed away behind one of the sofa's cushions was a pair of shorts that she knew belonged to only one person. How the maids had missed such an item during their cleanup of the area after Berengar's departure, she had no idea.

The young princess gazed at her brother's used shorts with a longing expression before shifting her gaze back to the door, making sure that nobody could see her. After careful deliberation, she rushed towards the sofa. Where she grabbed ahold of the shorts, which contained her brother's body odor, before pressing them against her nose and taking a deep inhale.

The moment she did so, the door to the room opened, and one of the maids witnessed her perverted gesture. Henrietta did not notice her presence until after she heard the sound of the wooden hamper clang against the floor. She gazed over in shock upon hearing this to see the maid staring at her with a flustered expression.

The young princess's cheeks immediately began to flush in embarrassment as she realized she was caught in the act of sniffing her brother's used shorts. She immediately stashed the shorts behind her back in a poor attempt to hide the evidence as she began to make an excuse to the maid.

"This is not what it looks like!"

However, the maid refused to listen and shut the door behind her as she left Henrietta by her lonesome. Immediately the young princess was overwhelmed with dread and embarrassment because of her actions. She could not believe she had done something so scandalous and had been caught in the act.

She collapsed against the sofa, losing all hope in life, this maid was bound to spread what she had seen, and her reputation as the Princess of Austria would be ruined forever. Henrietta thus broke out into tears as she cried into the pair of sweaty shorts.

As for the maid, she had not gotten far before she rested against the wall; she could hardly believe what she had seen. The princess was sniffing her brother's shorts with such enthusiasm. What kind of scandal was this?

She was smart enough to realize that if she spread rumors about this incident, she was liable to lose her head. As such, she calmed her heart before resolving herself never to speak about this affair to anyone, not even the Queens.

Having made this commitment, she immediately slapped her face a few times to clear her head before getting back to work. As for Henrietta, she eventually recovered and hurried off back to her room with Berngar's shorts bunched up in her dainty hands. As long as she hid the evidence, nobody would believe that foolish maid.

She quickly got to work building a secret area in her desk to contain the sacred article of clothing that her brother had once worn. Nobody would ever know that she was hiding these shorts within her room. Thus the princess of Austria had gained a treasure to help her cope with the stress she felt over her taboo feelings.

As for Berengar's wives, they would be blissfully ignorant of this incident, as the maid had lived up to her vow of silence over this matter. Thus things continued within the Royal Palace of Kufstein as they usually did. The only difference was that Henrietta would frequently retrieve her hidden treasure and sniff it whenever she felt the need to feel comforted by her absent big brother.