22
“……Ha.”
Eliza let out an empty laugh. The contents of the printed words poured into her mind, which had stopped thinking.
Magnus had publicly accused the Hagen family at an emergency council of nobles and immediately launched a search operation.
The King turned a blind eye to his actions. Every member of the Hagen family was detained, and countless atrocities whose means of concealment were unknown came to light.
The number of identified victims alone was enough to amount to an entire village, so the verdict was decided with unprecedented speed.
It was a capital punishment with no room for a reduced sentence.
“What day is it today?”
Eliza stepped out of bed to check the calendar on the bedside table. And the moment she lowered her head to check the date, her eyes widened.
“Ah.”
Tomorrow was the execution of the Marquis of Hagen’s family.
All the strength drained from Eliza’s body, and she hurriedly grasped the bedside table. However, to no avail, as Eliza’s staggering knees buckled as though collapsing.
Kneeling on the floor and leaning over the bed, she remained motionless for a moment.
Her thin shoulders and back rose and fell. Soon, a sound escaped that was impossible to tell whether it was laughter or sobbing.
“Heh-heh, hhhh……”
From the bed sheet where she had buried her head came the fresh scent of clean fabric, dried thoroughly in the sunlight.
Relief and base joy, and beyond them, some damp emotion clung to a corner of her heart.
She had succeeded. At last, she had been able to survive.
After betraying her only friend…… and destroying that girl’s family.
‘What happened to Leopold, Leopold?’
With trembling hands, Eliza pulled the newspaper toward her again and searched through it.
And then she found what she had been looking for.
「The former Marquis’s son, Leopold, has been stripped of his position in recognition of his service as a member of the Royal Knights and ordered to be exiled to the front lines. Regarding the Crown Prince’s generous judgment…….」
‘The Crown Prince kept his promise.’
Leopold had survived. Eliza covered her face with the newspaper and breathed heavily.
Her body was still trembling, but only now did she feel as though she could finally breathe.
***
“Traitors-!”
“Kaak- Ptoo! You filthy bastards!”
“Are you even human?! Aaah! Give me back my brother! Give him back!”
“Kill them! Kill them!”
All the way to the square, jeers poured forth. People hurled whatever they could get their hands on, including eggs, stones, tomatoes, and clumps of dirt.
The soldiers transporting the criminals did not stop them. They only forced back a woman who was screaming and rushing toward the cart, warning her that it was dangerous.
‘Vermin…….’
Ricardo tightly closed his eyes and endured the insults. Ricardo and Vanessa, who were no longer nobles, were loaded onto a cart without even bars.
They were gagged so they could not chant spells, and their hands were bound with their fingers interlocked.
Then they were tightly wrapped in iron chains and thrown down, looking more like objects being transported than human beings.
“Hey! Get up!”
When the soldiers arrived at the central square, they dragged the criminals down and kicked their calves repeatedly, making them climb the stairs.
The central square, where the guillotine had been set up, was swarming with people as though a festival were taking place.
Ricardo climbed up while keeping his back as straight as possible and putting on a pitiful expression. As he did so, he muttered inwardly.
‘As long as Leopold is alive, you are nothing. Just you wait.’
After climbing onto the platform, Ricardo quickly rolled his eyes.
Leopold was bound behind the judge, who was clearing his throat on the platform. The judge unfurled a long scroll and began reading the verdict.
The punishment of stripping Leopold of his rank as deputy commander of the knights and exiling him to the front lines was announced.
Some whispered that for someone born a noble, being forced to crawl through lowly places might perhaps be a punishment more terrible than execution itself.
But now, Leopold was Hagen’s only hope. Throughout the reading of the verdict, Ricardo desperately signaled to Leopold with his eyes.
‘Get up right now, break free, and tear them all apart. Aren’t you the masterpiece we devoted our hearts and souls to?’
These ignorant fools did not know how His power worked. Unless it was a very special means, nothing could bind that child’s power.
Therefore, Leopold could break free of his restraints and unleash his power at any moment.
But why was it that, even after seeing his father’s desperate expression, Leopold remained motionless in that kneeling position?
“……The scale of the revealed victims is immense, and the viciousness of their methods is beyond description! Having committed the grave crime of shaking the very foundations of a kingdom blessed by the divine, the following verdict is hereby pronounced!”
The verdict eventually reached its conclusion. Ricardo, whose eyes met Leopold’s, widened his eyes.
“The criminals Ricardo and Vanessa are sentenced to death!”
With blue eyes exactly like his father’s, Leopold was smiling.
“Waaah! Kill them!”
“Behead them!”
“Death! Death!”
Amid the pronounced verdict, the people fell into a frenzy of excitement.
Such a large-scale execution was a rare spectacle. Moreover, the sight of the lofty noble couple who had once stood above them being dragged down beneath their feet intoxicated the masses with a base sense of satisfaction.
Hidden among the crowd, Eliza was trembling faintly. She bit down hard on her lip, trying to regain her composure.
‘I have to watch.’
Even until this morning, she had been debating whether or not she should come here.
But since she was the one who had brought them to that place, Eliza had an obligation to witness the end.
Ricardo, being dragged toward his final destination, finally began to struggle desperately. But it was of little use, and he reached the blade.
Since it was the final mercy of God to allow even the worst criminal to leave behind last words, the gags on Ricardo and Vanessa were removed.
“Leopold! How dare you betray your parents!”
At the resounding name, Eliza tried not to turn her eyes toward the platform.
Ricardo muttered curses at the motionless Leopold.
“We will all die! Beneath His descent…… Cough!”
Since there was nothing more worth hearing, the executioners pressed down on Ricardo’s neck and cut him off.
Next was Vanessa’s turn. Unlike her husband, she appeared composed as she looked around at the crowd.
“All of you who have come to this place.”
Despite it being her final moment, the sight of her calm demeanor caused murmurs to spread through the crowd.
Vanessa even drew a gentle smile across her face as she uttered her final words.
“I curse you so that you will never obtain what you desire in the end.”
A sudden chill ran through her entire body, and Eliza hugged her arms.
With Vanessa’s curse, all the procedures were complete. The two had their necks placed into the stocks, and the final moment came inevitably.
“Execute the sentence!”
The moment the enormous blade fell seemed strangely slow. At the eerie sensation as though her own flesh were being cut, Eliza drew a sharp breath.
Buried beneath the people’s voices, she could almost hear the blade slicing through the air with a hiss, though that was impossible.
As the blade struck, the lives of the two fell with a thud.
“Waaaaaaaaah―!”
The cheers shaking the surroundings announced the end of the threat that had been foretold to her.
Eliza, who had unknowingly held her breath, exhaled heavily.
Now she was safe. Not only that, but this kingdom would probably be safer as well.
‘But…….’
The moment she could no longer stop herself from thinking, Eliza ended up looking toward the platform.
There was no way Leopold could recognize her among the crowd from this distance, so the feeling that their eyes had met must have been an illusion.
However, she felt as though eyes bluer than the clear winter sky were piercing down at her like punishment.
The breeze that suddenly brushed past was so sharp that it felt as though it might cut into her heart.
***
“Ugh! Ugh……”
Eliza clung to the desk and continued to retch. Though a basin had been placed there just in case, there was already nothing left for her to bring up.
When the exhausted Eliza staggered, Nancy hurriedly supported her.
“Miss, are you all right? Oh, what should I do? You haven’t even eaten anything, and you’re already so weak……”
“I’m fine, ah. Ugh……”
A stabbing dizziness surged through her head, and Eliza squeezed her eyes shut.
Nancy somehow managed to seat her staggering figure in a chair. Then she wiped the corners of her mouth with a damp cloth and placed the back of her hand against her forehead.
She was a little warm, but it was not enough to be considered a fever. Nancy did not know what to do with how pitiful Eliza looked.
“You’re not all right. Sob.”
For several days, Eliza had repeatedly vomited everything she ate bef
ore collapsing as though losing consciousness.
Nancy knew when her young lady had started acting that way. It was ever since she had returned from the execution of the Marquis and Marchioness of Hagen.
