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Chapter 03
“Ugh….”
Astrid slowly opened her eyes.
Her vision was blurry. Beneath her back she could feel the cold, damp stone floor. Both of her wrists were tied.
She somehow managed to brace herself against the floor and push her upper body upright, but the moment she did, her head rang painfully. A wave of dizziness crashed over her, as if she were a piece of candy being shaken around inside a paper bag by a child.
Astrid lowered her head between her knees and waited for the dizziness to pass.
After several minutes, the headache weakened enough to endure. Worried the dizziness might return, she slowly raised her head and looked around at the space she had been thrown into.
Three walls were solid stone, while the front wall facing the corridor was lined with iron bars. It was a textbook prison cell.
The last thing she remembered was the butt of a gun slamming down toward her from above, so this had to be a navy prison.
‘This is insane….’
Using her bound hands, Astrid searched through her pockets and over her body.
The whistle that had been in her pocket and the dagger she had clung to until the very end were both gone. It seemed all her belongings had been confiscated.
A sudden sense of anxiety struck her, and she quickly felt around her chest.
The amethyst necklace from her father, the one that should have been there, was gone.
Astrid’s father had been an extraordinarily lucky man. If he dug where he stumbled, treasure would appear. Even in monster-infested straits, he always managed to escape aboard his ship by catching a perfectly timed change in the wind.
The amethyst necklace had been a gift from him before they parted ways.
Something given by a man with such luck was practically a good-luck charm. To have it taken away felt, to Astrid, like a death sentence.
Earlier it had been her head; now her stomach churned. She couldn’t tell whether it was anxiety or land sickness.
‘Probably both.’
Astrid curled herself up as tightly as possible, like a child, and leaned into the corner. Her entire body trembled violently.
No tears came.
Whether it was the nausea or the trembling, she just wanted one of them to stop. She repeatedly inhaled and exhaled rough, uneven breaths.
Then she heard voices from a short distance away. Even while her stomach twisted as though she might vomit, Astrid strained her ears toward the sound. It seemed to be soldiers standing guard beside her cell, or perhaps the one next to it.
“Those bastards have guts, I’ll give them that. Pirating this close to Rosada Port.”
“They probably knew the navy doesn’t bother sending patrol ships out anymore.”
“Yeah, but if nobody’s even patrolling, how’d they know a merchant ship was getting attacked?”
Right. Patrols. It was the faint question Astrid herself had been wondering about.
Luz Rosada was a city with a naval base. Ever since the base had been completed several years ago, piracy in the surrounding waters had dropped sharply. The naval base itself served as a deterrent. Of course, the navy also slaughtered pirates in huge numbers.
Since then, no idiot had dared raid ships near Rosada Port, and after peace settled in, the navy stopped bothering with regular patrols unless something special happened.
That was exactly what Astrid’s companions had been counting on.
“It was the Ortega Merchant Company. They had supplies meant for the naval base and the imperial family. When they were running late, somebody figured something was wrong and went out looking for them.”
“Lucky bastards.”
‘We thought we’d hooked a big catch!’
In the end, they had been the ones caught.
The only difference was that Astrid wasn’t even a big fish herself, just a tiny minnow. She hadn’t known the Ortegas supplied goods to the imperial family.
Astrid let out a small sigh, careful not to let the soldiers hear.
“But why’d they transfer her here? Summary execution’s the rule, isn’t it?”
“Oh, the redhead?”
Now Astrid herself had become the topic of discussion. She listened closely, hoping to catch some useful clue.
“You know… what was his name again? Anyway, that lieutenant, the second child of the former admiral. Apparently he was bothered by the fact that she’s a woman.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“No idea. Said what if she’s just some civilian forced to cooperate after pirates threatened her.”
“She was holding a hostage. The merchant crew all saw it.”
“Yeah, exactly my point. That’s why she got thrown in here in the end. Execution’s tomorrow.”
There wasn’t much useful information in the conversation.
Still curled up, Astrid let out another faint sigh. She needed to organize her thoughts.
First, that officer was either an old-fashioned fool who thought a woman couldn’t possibly be a pirate even while holding a knife to a hostage’s throat, or he was simply crazy about women.
Second, his deduction was about thirty percent correct. Astrid had only been traveling with those pirates for a few days.
She had no money to her name. What other ship besides a pirate vessel would take aboard a penniless woman and even give her work? They weren’t comrades she would die for. Their relationship had been distant at best.
Third.
Astrid was going to die tomorrow.
‘I’m going to die tomorrow….’
The nausea she had forgotten while concentrating on the conversation suddenly came rushing back all at once. The headache she thought had improved began creeping back as well, clouding her thoughts.
Of course, how many people could think rationally while facing imminent death? Her body shook, her stomach churned, and her head felt ready to split apart.
Astrid was going to die tomorrow.
Ah, if only she still had her father’s necklace at a time like this.
Would she have felt a little better if she could at least hold it and pray?
It was a meaningless thought.
Astrid was going to die tomorrow.
How much time had passed?
Ever since realizing death was approaching, Astrid’s sense of time had completely broken down. The soldiers gave neither bread nor water to someone about to die.
Even if they had, Astrid doubted she could have forced herself to swallow any of it. And even if she had, it surely would have come right back up.
With a heavy, grating sound, the iron door slowly opened. Astrid was slumped weakly against the wall like someone who had given up on everything.
“Time’s up. Drag her out.”
Two soldiers entered, hauled Astrid to her feet, and dragged her out of the cell. She stumbled along before finally forcing herself to walk.
Outside, it was midday. The scorching April sun announced the beginning of summer.
The prison stood in a desolate area. Or rather, perhaps “desolate” wasn’t enough to describe it. There wasn’t a single large tree to cast shade, only a tall-walled structure standing alone in a dry grassland.
The soldiers positioned Astrid between them and walked along a broad riverside path.
The blazing sunlight felt like it would scorch her scalp, while the small stones beneath her bare feet felt unbearably sharp.
She wanted to leap into the river and wash away the salt clinging to her entire body.
The sweat pouring over her afterward was unbearably sticky and uncomfortable, but the moment she remembered she was truly going to die soon, Astrid stopped caring. In the face of death, every other sensation lost the right to speak.
After walking for around ten minutes, they arrived where the river met the sea.
Astrid instinctively understood.
This was the boundary between freshwater and seawater.
The symbolic beginning of the navy’s domain, and the place where countless pirates captured by the navy had been executed.
Though honestly, instinct wasn’t necessary. Anyone would understand upon seeing the gallows erected abruptly upon the barren land.
A soldier shoved Astrid roughly from behind.
Instinctively, she moved her feet to keep from falling. A bitter laugh escaped her lips. Even she found it ridiculous.
‘As if it matters whether I fall when I’m about to die anyway….’
The soldier shoved her again toward the stairs, and Astrid, her body trembling and breath hitching in spasms, obediently climbed.
She failed to step onto the wooden stool under her own power. Her legs were too weak to lift her up in one motion.
In the end, two soldiers grabbed her arms and hoisted her onto the stool.
Other than the sound of waves quietly advancing over the shore and retreating, and the occasional cries of crows circling overhead, there was no sound at all. It would have been nice if someone had sung a song for her. A noose was slipped around her neck.
Would my era end before it even began?
Astrid closed her eyes in resignation.
The sound of someone climbing the stairs. Probably the executioner.
The sound of crashing waves. She had imagined the sound of waves would be the last thing she heard in life, but not like this, and not this soon.
The rustling sound of the executioner crouching down, probably to kick away the stool.
And then, hoofbeats.
…Hoofbeats?
It was not a sound that belonged here.
But then again, Astrid was about to die, so what did it matter?
“Stop! Stop the execution at once!”
Correction. It mattered very much to Astrid.
Her eyes snapped open. The hoofbeats thundered closer, pounding powerfully against the earth. A lavishly decorated banner fluttered in the air.
The rider shouted once more in desperation.
“Stop the execution immediately! This is the Emperor’s command!”
