With the capture of Verandi Farley and several high-ranking Trossach members, the British wizarding world has finally caught a break. The rate of rogue werewolf attacks have started dropping at a steady rate and, hopefully, things will stay that way. The Ministry is starting to loosen some restrictions, like not arresting werewolves standing on the street for loitering, however there’s still an obvious power imbalance between wizardfolk and werewolves.
The Cotswolds pack are continuing to advocate for the rights of werewolves and petitioning to change the legislation that has been set in motion by the current Minister for Magic, whilst the remaining Trossachs members are trying to stay out of the spotlight and keep a low profile… for now.
Whilst the British wizarding world seems to have calmed down, the same cannot be said for over in Northern Europe where a rebellion of magical creatures has risen. The state of things has gotten so bad that the European Ministry has enacted protocols to protect those under eighteen whilst their adult witches and wizards fight to keep control of their countries.
Students from Durmstrang have been sent to Hogwarts to keep them safe and those not old enough to attend school have been sent to live with relatives or designated British Ministry officials outside of Europe for the time being.
Will the low rates of werewolf attacks in Britain continue? How long will Durmstrang students stay at Hogwarts? Will the creatures usurp the wizardfolk in Northern Europe? Only time will tell.
SEPTEMBER 2019 It's been a very long, eventful summer in the wizarding world. A baby was stolen, several high ranking Trossach members were imprisoned, and werewolf attacks have drastically dropped as a result. What will happen now school has returned?
MAY 2019 An attempt to capture the beta of the Trossachs has been launched. Were the Aurors successful in their mission? Go read more here!
Ludwig considered himself a calm, collected person, able of being professional and not let something so unpredictable and volatile as emotions get in the way of whatever he was doing. But this time he had no patience to rein himself in. He had no more patience for this wild goose chase he'd been sent on by Wolfgang's gaggle of girlfriends.
He had tried to make it easier on his brother. Approached quietly, through his friends, rather than having Wolfgang be called to the professors office, causing rumors that he'd gotten into trouble. But no, Wolfgang couldn't act like a grown-up and just come and, for once, talk to Ludwig. No, he had obviously told everyone he knew to make a fool out of Ludwig, to have him feel embarrassed in front of a bunch of students who burst out in laughter when he'd said that he was looking for prankster Wolfgang.
They'd told him quite a few things about his brother. He was a Ravenclaw, a Quidditch player, and that he walked around in suits, with his hair straight and gelled.
Still, he couldn't spot him at the tables in the Great Hall during mealtimes. Not even once. Was he avoiding Ludwig so bad that he had someone bringing him food up to the tower?
He would get to the bottom of this, and he knew exactly with whom to start. Miss Linwood, who'd lied right to his face. He'd waited an entire week until he'd managed to get her alone. This time it wasn't in the Library, but, rather, outside, in the courtyard, right after lunch. He'd spotted her leaving as he was heading back from his own meal and had decided to follow her, to see if he could confront her. Lucky for him, she stopped in the courtyard, sitting down on one of the stone benches while younger students were pouring back inside.
"Miss Linwood?" he approached her, his words formal, but no pleasantness in his voice at all, "I believe we have a conversation overdue. If there is one thing I despise in this world, it is a liar. Even more so when this liar wastes my time."
all i really want is to be wonderful/people in this town, they can be so cruel
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Post by ISOBEL LINWOOD on Jul 4, 2020 15:58:34 GMT
the state of dreaming
Isobel didn't have a class this hour; it was the benefit of being in the older years that they didn't have to try for every subject at N.E.W.T. level, but so often the extra time would be consumed by studying. It was still September, though, and so there was still the chance to take free time during the day, especially before the weather got cold--just like it had been during the Southern Hemisphere winter Isobel had just gotten back from.
But just after she sat down on a bench, the air grew cold in a different way, her name spoken formally, but full of ice. Ludwig was approaching her yet again, after she'd made it what she thought was abundantly clear that she did not want to speak to him, and she looked up from opening her bag, eyebrows raised, heart pounding in the same way it had been when she had gone to attack Mia-Rose's attacker--half fear, half adrenaline.
There was no way that Isobel could pretend she hadn't lied, but there was no need to. She knew full well what she'd done, and she didn't regret it. "You can't possibly tell me that you've never lied to protect someone," she said, straightening up. "I told you not to pry. You're the one who wouldn't listen to me when I said he doesn't want to talk to you."
"Protect someone?" he asked, standing right in front of the girl and staring her down, hands curling into fists, yet his voice was steady and formal, the emotions he wanted to express only visible in his words, not his face. "He has no need to be protected from me! He never has! "
"Never have I once raised my hand against him," Ludwig continued, his voice becoming a fraction quieter -- his own words were reminding him of the abuse he suffered from their father, and, even though there didn't seem to be anyone else in the courtyard, the walls had ears, and he didn't need rumors being spread about Wolfgang.
"I've never done anything to hurt him, I want him to finally see that, and yet all he does is cower behind the backs of people such as you and that Hufflepuff girl. Tell me, is this a common theme for Wolfgang? To hide behind the backs of women instead of sorting out his issues by himself? Has he grown up to be a spineless rag?"
If that was the truth, then the situation was terrible. Ludwig had long since suspected that Johann would never amount to anything, being a squib and mommy's little boy, but Wolfgang... He'd been so inquisitive when they were younger, always asking questions or reading books, and if all of that had been compromised by the events surrounding their father... It would be a goddamn shame.
Ludwig just wanted to know it wasn't the truth. That there was something to be salvaged of this family. And yet, Wolfgang was resisting.
all i really want is to be wonderful/people in this town, they can be so cruel
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Post by ISOBEL LINWOOD on Jul 4, 2020 16:44:46 GMT
the state of dreaming
"Excuse me?" There were quite a few excessively traditional families at Hogwarts--even Isobel's own could be like that on occasion, especially if either set of grandparents were brought into the picture. But for her whole life she had been an ambitious girl, and was now an ambitious woman--the thought that Ludwig would actually try to insult her and Wolfgang with her own gender cut deep. Yes, she was feminine, she was wearing a skirt under her robes, pink lipstick, long nails, but she could protect Wolfgang, she had, and she would.
"If that's the way you think of women it's no wonder why we've been so cold to you. He isn't hiding behind me. I'm protecting him." Isobel's hand curled around the strap of her bag, nails digging into her palm. "You can tell me all you want that you've done nothing to him, but I know him better than you. Even Grace knows him better than you." And Isobel would have expected Grace to throw Wolfgang to the wolves at the first opportunity--yet she'd warned Isobel to help anyway.
Ludwig was dangerous.
"And if you had a spine, perhaps you'd have protected him, too. But you didn't. Not even your own brother. What was it that was more important? Money? Power?" Isobel's voice dropped in pitch, each word pronounced carefully.
Miss Linwood was going off about Ludwig's views on women -- which left him a little confused, because what did that have to do with anything? He had stated a simple fact -- Wolfgang was hiding behind them, rather than resolving the situation like a real man. But her feminist rant was forgotten as soon as she accused Ludwig of being spineless.
Something inside his brain broke, his eyes narrowing and his hand shooting out to grab the girl by her wrist, pulling her up from her seat as Ludwig's face got closer to hers, his voice growing louder and more frustrated.
"Me? Spineless? You have no idea what you're talking about, girl," he said, his knuckles turning white around her wrist,"I didn't have to protect him! He had it the easiest of all of us! Rather than being beaten, he was simply ignored, and he should be thankful for that!" Ludwig had never heard that Wolfgang had ever been the victim of his father's outbursts of anger, it was only ever him -- Ludwig, the expected heir, who was never enough, or Johann, the waste of space, as he'd come to know him.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," he repeated, this time hissing right into her ear, "And stop pretending that you do. Where the hell is my brother? What has he been telling you? Answer me! Now!"
all i really want is to be wonderful/people in this town, they can be so cruel
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Post by ISOBEL LINWOOD on Jul 10, 2020 16:04:50 GMT
the state of dreaming
"You--let go of me!" Isobel's eyes flashed with anger as she yanked back her arm, trying to pull it free of Ludwig's tight grip. She gritted her teeth, tugging harder, sending her bag off the side of the bench with her elbow, parchment spilling onto the ground. "What do you think you're doing?" Her voice was near shrieking, shocked that someone, that Ludwig would just grab her like that. "Let go!" Her wand was in her bag, now on the ground, and though she tried to lean toward it, Ludwig's grip was strong. She needed to do something--and so with her free hand, she slapped him hard in the cheek, trying to make him lose his composure.
"You might know about your father, but you don't know anything about Wolfgang, not like I do. Maybe you should have asked him long ago how he'd been hurt. But I did instead." That wasn't exactly how it had gone down, not at all--but that was another thing Ludwig didn't need to know. "He's here at Hogwarts. Probably in Ravenclaw Tower. That's all you'll get from me, and if you don't let go of me, I'm sure you'll get something more from the Headmistress."
Good Lord, this girl is annoying, Ludwig thought, as Linwood was trying to get out of his grip, her attempt rather meek and panicked, shrieking and tossing around like cattle that's just caught the smell of a corpse. Pathetic, pathetic is what she was. If she could have reached her back, she'd probably start swatting Ludwig with it -- and that would be no use, just as the slap that went across his face. Sure, it stung, and the crack of skin against skin rang loud and clear, but the man didn't even flinch. It was nothing compared to the punches he'd taken during sparring practice back at Durmstrang, or the heavy hand of his father.
"Would you shut your mouth," he growled, grabbing her other hand by the wrist, "Your headmistress won't do shit to me, because by the time I'm done with you and your lying mouth, you--"
Ludwig didn't get to finish his warning, as he was yanked backwards both by his waist and by his hair, letting go of the girl's wrists by surprise, tumbling backwards. The hand around his waist vanished, someones fingernails digging into the back of his head, and then--
Post by WOLFGANG KALLENBACH on Jul 11, 2020 16:01:42 GMT
twist the knife
After his conversation with Vinda, Wolfgang had gotten himself together to a certain degree -- he'd stopped skipping classes, met up with Isobel to have a heart to heart and explain himself, just to find out that Ludwig was already looking for him, and that he hadn't just spoken to Isobel, but to Grace Longbottom of all people -- and the latter hadn't given his brother anything useful, opting to warn Isobel instead.
This information had caused Wolfgang a few restless evenings, rethinking the events of the previous year, and the guilt he'd felt back then, when he was leading Grace on for... For what? He could scarcely even remember why he'd done something so stupid. And as much as he didn't want to do it, deep down he knew he owed the Hufflepuff an apology. But he couldn't even think about an apology when walking through the halls of the castle made him jump at his own shadow.
Every time he thought of Ludwig, his body went into fits, making him think he was going to die right there, on the stone tiles of Hogwarts, frothing at the mouth, a pile of cramped limbs. He didn't know how long he could continue living like this, and he only knew two ways out of it -- dying or getting rid of Ludwig. The first option didn't align with his plans with the future, and the second, although extremely tempting, would land him in Isobel's blacklist permanently. And that would destroy Wolfgang utterly and completely.
There was no other choice to just continue pushing through, just how he'd pushed through for those two weeks when him and Isobel weren't on speaking terms. Last week had been filled by liquor and the company of a certain new dorm mate, but it made him look like a disaster, and, frankly, attracted much more attention to his persona than he wanted.
Thanks to Vinda, Wolfgang now knew when Ludwig was supposed to be working at the library, and when he had time off. He had use the chance to go in and get a few books the previous day, but the fact that he didn't have a clue where Ludwig spent his free time left him on edge. But he couldn't ask Vinda to spy on Ludwig all the bloody time -- Selywn had much more important things to attend to. He just had to live and hope that their paths wouldn't cross.
And that is why Wolfgang was heading out to the courtyard after lunch to meet up for a study date with Isobel. It was her attempt to bring some sense of normalcy into Wolfgang's life... But as soon as he opened the heavy door, he realized that today would be anything but normal.
The first thing that reached his ears as the door opened with a creak was the high pitched shriek of no one else than Isobel, followed by angry demands to be let go and the unmistakable sound of someone being slapped right across the face.
He froze in place, staring across the courtyard. There was someone leaning over Isobel, someone taller than them both, someone with a head of curly black hair.
Him.
His shoulders slumped and he wanted to run away, wanted to disappear into thin air, wanted the earth to open and swallow him whole, to be anywhere but here, to be anyone but himself--
But then there was Isobel's screaming, and he couldn't just leave, he couldn't just run, he had to do something, anything--
This wasn't a werewolf without a name or a face that he could put to it, this was Ludwig Kallenbach, his brother, his boggart--
Run away! Get rid of him! Make a decision!
His legs carried him as if they weren't his own, right across the courtyard, right hand wrapping around Ludwig's waist, the other digging into the hair on the back of his head, pulling the older man backwards without any mercy, turning him around, his right hand curling into a fist and flying right into Ludwig's face, sending the librarian stumbling backwards.
"Get away from her!" Wolfgang choked out, his voice half an octave higher than usual, sounding like an invisible hand was strangling him at the same time.
Ludwig was blinking rapidly as blood gushed from his nose, which was bent at a wrong angle in the middle. It took a few seconds for Wolfgang to understand that his own fist was aching like hell, but he didn't have time to pay attention to it. Ludwig was getting up from the ground, dark eyes staring right at Wolfgang.
"Ah, Wolfgang," Ludwig said, wiping off his nose, his voice muffled. His nose was most certainly broken.
"Don't call me that," Wolfgang spat out. Most days he could forget that he hated his birth name, he could even admit that it sounded good when Isobel was whispering it in his ear, completely breathless, but when Ludwig said it... His voice was too much like their father's.
"What am I supposed to call you then?" Ludwig asked, eyebrows furrowing as he stepped closer, making Wolfgang take a step back.
"Nothing. I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to see you, I thought you had understood that by now," Wolfgang replied, his hands fists curling and uncurling, trying to deal with the sensation of his hands cramping up.
"But why? Explain to me, for once, rather than leaving my letters unanswered, Wolfgang," Ludwig demanded, stepping forward once more.
"I don't owe you an explanation!"
"Oh, yes, yes you do. You owe me a lot, little brother,"
"I am not your brother! You're a traitor, that's what you are! I owe you nothing!"
"A traitor?" Ludwig repeated his words, closing his eyes for a moment, "What did I ever do to you?"
"Oh, look at you, Daddy's Golden Boy!" Wolfgang sneered, "You knew what he did before anyone else, you knew he was sleeping around, and you didn't think to say a word, did you? You just watched him beat Johann and mother, pretending like it didn't concern you, like we didn't concern you, and now you call me brother?" His hands had stopped twitching, firmly curled up into fists now. "Look at you, you're just like him! As soon as you don't like something, you resort to battering people!"
A foreign, yet familiar voice rang out in the September air moments before Ludwig lost all sense of space and time. But only for a mere few moments. He blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus as his nose felt just like the flashing of a red siren light on a muggle police car. Blood was running down his face, he could taste it as it dripped into his slightly open mouth, as he stared right at Wolfgang.
Wolfgang, who he hadn't seen since his brother had been 13. Wolfgang, who had grown taller and more broad shouldered, Wolfgang, with gelled hair and scars on the side of his face. There were four of them that Ludwig could see -- was this the work of their father? When?
The pang of longing that he had felt for the past few years was quickly transformed into a sharp ache of confusion and emotional pain -- Wolfgang was recoiling as if Ludwig was something akin to an inferi, or something else just as foul. Wolfgang was blaming him for...For what? For not telling off on his father, who bedded other women in his own bedroom, when Ludwig knew full well that the punishment for it would leave him disfigured?
Wolfgang seemed to think that he was father's favorite. Was he completely oblivious to the pain Ludwig had gone through? Or, did he know, yet was playing the victim, and had all these girls believing him? Ludwig didn't want to think the second option was the truth, but seeing how Wolfgang avoided him... It didn't seem so unlikely.
And that angered Ludwig.
He leaped forward, their arms interlocking, fingers digging into the fabric of their sweaters, Ludwig pushing Wolfgang right into the wall that surrounded the courtyard, watching as his brother's head hit against the cold stone, wiping the sneer off his face.
"Look who's talking," he yelled right into his brother's face, "Broke my nose before saying a thing. Just like father would."
"You think I had it so easy, Wolfgang? You think I don't know what father was capable of? I've got scars from him! Plenty! Golden boy? You're the golden boy, always left alone, for whatever twisted reason he had! No, if I so much as breathed wrong, I got punished, while he pretended you simply don't exist and let you be!"
Wolfgang stared right at him, his brown eyes darting around Ludwig's face as he struggled to get out of his grip. Ludwig didn't let him, grabbing his arms even tighter and pushing him against the wall every time Wolfgang managed to move even an inch.
"You're not going anywhere until you hear what I have to say, Wolfgang," he continued, "If anything, I had it the hardest out of all of us. Johann was just his punching bag, but I? Every single thing I did had to be up to his standards, and you can't even begin to imagine what happened if it wasn't. I could tell you, but, from what I know about you and the way you hide behind others, you're too much of a coward to face the truth,"
Wolfgang began to thrash around like a fish out of water, and, frankly, it was a pathetic sight. So pathetic, that Ludwig decided to smash Wolfgang against the wall one more time, for good measure.
"At least father made me have a backbone, which you seem to lack," he hissed, listening to Wolfgang groan in pain like he was a kid, "Tell me, do you cling onto girl's skirts for protection because mother was too busy coddling Johann? Did you ever learn to be your own person? Because the way you avoid having a simple conversation with me makes me think you never grew out of--"
And then Wolfgang did something that Ludwig didn't expect. He stopped struggling. He just... Stared right at him.
"I didn't know he hit you." His voice was eerily calm, not at all like it had been mere moments ago.
Post by WOLFGANG KALLENBACH on Jul 11, 2020 17:13:24 GMT
twist the knife
This was all far too much to handle. The adrenaline, the panic, the pain, being tossed around like a sack of flour, Wolfgang could scarcely think. But one thing he understood loud and clear -- Ludwig had suffered, too.
If he had mentioned it in his letters even once, if he had ever implied such a thing, then it wouldn't come down to this -- two brothers turning each other into bloody pulp, years of frustration and anger pouring out like a waterfall. Under any other circumstances, Wolfgang would have felt bad for Ludwig, would have felt sympathy, would have wanted to apologize for thinking bad of him all these years, for calling him a traitor when his brother was just looking out for his own life, just how Wolfgang would have done.
But the moment Ludwig raised a hand against Isobel, when Wolfgang's back smashed into the cold stone wall-- any chance of fixing things had flown right out the window.
Wolfgang would never again worry about becoming like his father. Ludwig had already become that, using his fists rather than his brain to get what he want, eliciting fear to get his way.
One could argue that Wolfgang wasn't any better, what with the werewolves and the premeditated murder done by someone else's hand, or jaw, in this case. But he had had a good reason to have his father killed. Ludwig? Ludwig didn't have even a shred of a good reason for laying his hands on Isobel.
When he realized that there was no point trying to overpower his brother, Wolfgang decided to change his strategy. It took all his willpower, but he steadied his breathing and stopped struggling. The abuse Ludwig was spewing at him made it hard, but Wolfgang calmed himself with the thought that, if everything went according to plan, soon it wouldn't matter.
"I didn't know he hit you," he admitted, "And I can't blame you for not resisting when things were the worst. But what I can blame you is never doing anything to stop it." He was sure of his words -- if Ludwig had attempted something and it had failed, he wouldn't be here right now.
"For the final time, Ludwig, I have no interest in trying to reconnect or rebuild our family, and it isn't my fault that you couldn't figure that out from my silence," he continued, "And here, today, by acting just like father would, you put the last nail in the coffin. If you want to reconnect -- go reconnect with mother and Johann, I won't bother telling them about what happened here. They aren't my family anymore. You aren't my family."
By now Ludwig had released his grip, both brother's staring each other down. This was his chance. If he could just hit Ludwig the right way, maybe he could make him pass out and then he could wipe his memory, or even kill him right then and there -- and Isobel couldn't blame him, because it would be self defense (this was a terrible idea, but the only one Wolfgang's brain could produce).
"Stop dwelling on the past, Ludwig. Leave me," Wolfgang inhaled sharply, dashing forward and hitting his forehead right against Ludwig's nose, making both of them groan out in pain, Ludwig's noise indecipherable, and Wolfgang's -- a drawn out 'alone'.
MADE BY VEL OF GS, WW + ADOX 2.0
1.75m (5'9")| Open relationship with ISOBEL LINWOOD | Bisexual | English
all i really want is to be wonderful/people in this town, they can be so cruel
143 posts
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Post by ISOBEL LINWOOD on Jul 12, 2020 2:44:11 GMT
the state of dreaming
Rubbing her wrist, where Ludwig's grip had left red marks on the skin, Isobel stumbled back onto the bench, eyes wide. Ludwig tumbled to the ground, blood dripping onto the stones, and Isobel's hands curled nervously around the side of the bench, nails digging into the cold, hard surface.
"Wolfgang," she called, but her boyfriend seemed too absorbed in the conflict to even acknowledge if he had heard her. "Wolfgang, don't--" He was going to get himself expelled, wasn't he? She needed to stop them, needed to do something--her hand reached down, wrapping around her wand, but her brain froze before she could speak a spell into existence. It was like the werewolf all over again, except somehow more terrifying--she had never intended to get violent at Hogwarts, but then again, she had never had anyone attack her, save the Winter Ball.
Swallowing hard, she rose to her feet, the brothers locked in anger still ignoring her presence, as if Ludwig hadn't just been threatening her. They spat words at each other, even as blood poured from Ludwig's nose, as Wolfgang's fists curled.
For the past few months, she hadn't pried further into the story of the Kallenbachs. She had known, from what Wolfgang had admitted to her in moments of painful emotion, that their father had been a cruel man, favoring some sons over others, causing them pain both physically and emotionally. She couldn't say whether she would have taken the same action Wolfgang did--she hadn't been there; she would have to take his word that it was justified.
And then there was what Ludwig was saying, even as he pressed Wolfgang harder and harder against the wall, that grip familiar to Isobel from what couldn't have been more than a minute or so ago. And yet...
"I didn't know he hit you."
Isobel hadn't known that either, and half of her heart wanted to hurt for Ludwig, for what had been done to him, while the other half was still screaming that he had tried to hurt her and he was still hurting Wolfgang. Her heartbeat swished in her ears as she willed herself to do something, anything, to fix the situation that was so very out of her control.
And then Wolfgang's head slammed into Ludwig's face, and blood poured as the two young men stumbled. "Stop!" Isobel cried once more, her legs springing into action without thought. She shoved a hand in between the brothers, pushing them apart, far easier when they both looked dazed. Wolfgang was muttering something unintelligible while Ludwig clasped a hand to his now-crooked nose, and Isobel stood between them, wand raised at the ready if either decided to make a move.
"You're both going to get yourselves kicked out of here if you keep going," she said, her voice sounding higher than she wanted it to be, and she swallowed again, steadying herself. "If you're going to yell, you should be directing it at the one whose fault it is. Your father." She wasn't sure if either of them were registering her words, pained noises coming from both brothers.
Ludwig wasn't certain that his nose would ever regain its original shape even with the help of magic, not after the last blow. It hadn't been a carefully aimed hit, that much he could tell -- if it had, the older Kallenbach would have passed out on the spot, but instead he was treated to a dizzy spell and little lights twinkling in front of his eyes. He was only half hearing what the damn girl was saying -- his head hurt too much.
Both of the brothers were laying on the stone pavement, Wolfgang curled up, covering his face with his hands, his breathing loud and ragged, while Ludwig was sprawled out, trying to prop himself up with his arms. To his great dismay, his limbs felt like algae, no strength to them whatsoever.
He decided to stop struggling and laid his head down against the cool stones, closing his eyes and trying to sort out through his feelings. Pain, anger, frustration, disappointment, it all was mixing together with an overwhelming amount of grief.
It was true. There was no fixing things with Wolfgang, not anymore. His brother was obviously stubborn and wasn't willing to look at things from Ludwig's perspective, too set in his own ways. And that last hit... It was obvious that Wolfgang didn't know a single thing about fighting -- the punch that broke Ludwig's nose didn't break Wolfgang's own fingers by sheer luck, and this second one felt like a desperate attempt to get rid of Ludwig for once and all... And something told him that, if the two of them got to blows once more, one of them might not make it out alive.
After laying on the ground for a few minutes, listening to Linwood fuss over Wolfgang, telling him to calm down or something of the sort, Ludwig made a decision.
He was done here. If Wolfgang didn't want his family, then Ludwig won't force him. He slowly got up, brushed off his clothes and, without saying a single word, stumbled away, back into the castle.