Kaiser's response was immediate. No pause to admire. No pause to concede. Just a clean cut through Ludwig's satisfaction.
Ludwig's mouth tightened, the irritation shifting into something colder. The books didn't become useless because they were translations, but the idea that something deeper existed, and was being held elsewhere, dug into him.
Ludwig frowned, "I know they're banned, but still, isn't a translation just the same as the original?" Ludwig asked.
He asked it like someone who already knew the answer would be unpleasant. The room remained cold, the ice coffin beside them shedding a faint mist that crawled along the floor before thinning out.
Ludwig's breath came steady, but he could feel the small tension in his shoulders, as if his body expected an argument to turn into violence.
