Albel

**Albel** is the deceased husband of Griselda and the half-brother of Duchess Valdemar. He accompanied the duchess as a part of her retinue when she married into the Valdemar family, and began working as a soldier at Gustave castle. Although he does not share the same family name as the duchess, he is he is also a descendant of the house of Ducommun.

## Appearance

Albel has black hair, light skin, and brown eyes. Griselda describes him as having a small frame and sharp features, which made him seem aloof.

## Personality

Despite his aloof appearance, he can be quite romantic, shown when he gifted Griselda a bouquet of wild flowers when he proposed to her some time after the twins were born. After his wife miscarriage, he comforts her with that they will have another chance, and that what's most important is her safety. After having a nightmarish vision of Griselda being burned on a pyre for strangling a babe, he swears to protect her no matter what.

## Biography

Albel was born to the house of Ducommun as Duchess Valdemar's illegitimate half-brother. When the duchess leaves to marry Duke Valdemar, he accompanies her as a part of her retinue. At Gustave, he begins courting Griselda. Soon after the twins birth, he proposes with a bouquet of wild flowers, and after Griselda becomes pregnant, they get married. Unfortunately they lose the child when Griselda miscarriages. He consoles his wife that they will always have more chances, as long as she is safe and healthy, and that she should therefore not grieve too much. He proposes that she should treat the twins as her own until then.

After the duchess makes her second wish to Kretschmann, Albel begins suffering from chronic nightmares. In these visions, he lacks corporality and is unable to interfere in the events presented to him. In the first dream he tells to Griselda, he sees the Devil on a rainy night, before it turns into Griselda's shadow which is looming over the body of a newborn babe. She reaches out to strangle the helpless thing, and is subsequently burnt at the stake. Although Griselda tries comforting him that it was merely a dream, his health and mental condition continues to deteroriate. Straddling the border between madness and reality, he swears to protect her no matter what. When Griselda becomes pregnant for the second time, Albel snaps and burns down the storehouse, claiming he was trying to finish off the devil there.

The couple is bound and dragged to a tribunal. Albel pleads for his wife's innocence, but when he mentions the devil, people think him mad. Then, the duchess appears and proposes he should be punished as an example to everyone else who attempts something similar. After all, arson is a serious crime no matter the circumstance, and they cannot be sure his sanity won't prevent him from burning anything else next. He begs for mercy, since he did not do it out of malice nor ill-intent. He even tries to appeal to her affection for her own kin, although he is illegitimate. Pitying her husband, Griselda emphatically appeals to the duchess' sense of guilt by referring to the wish she made upon the coffins. This drives the nail in the coffin, and Albel is burned at a makeshift pyre, with Griselda watching in horror. Even then he still screams out to people about his visions of the devil.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 32 (Webtoon)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 35 (Webtoon)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 34 (Webtoon)
4. ↑ Chapter 33 (Webtoon)