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Chapter 09
After fleeing in a daze, Walter hesitated when another summons was issued just one day later, then arrived in front of the Eterna Tower.
The stench of blood made him frown. They had only cleared away the bodies; the horrific traces of yesterday still remained everywhere.
Blood would probably be spilled again today. After all that chaos, it would be stranger if things passed without incident. Even for Walter, who had lived long enough to see plenty of horrors, what had happened in front of the Eterna Tower yesterday had been dreadful.
Security was tighter than the day before. Soldiers stood between the gathered citizens of the kingdom, preventing them from talking among themselves.
Walter looked around. When the summons came down, he had planned to go with Rosia, but when he stopped by her painting studio, there was no sign that she had even returned yesterday.
The image of the girl struggling alone rose vividly in his mind.
Come to think of it, at some point yesterday Rosia, who had been by his side, had disappeared. She must have managed to escape.
Thinking of the fragile girl, Walter swallowed, his throat dry.
“Oh my…”
“Gasp…”
Sighs broke out here and there. The area in front of the Eterna Tower was sometimes used as an execution ground for the kingdom’s people. Today was no exception. A criminal was being dragged out by soldiers, limping along.
Long golden hair reaching down to her waist swayed limply. It was a woman in a prisoner’s uniform.
Walter’s eyes, standing among the circle of people surrounding the execution ground, shook violently.
The murmuring grew louder.
People were shocked that they could clearly see the criminal’s face—and that she was walking on her own two legs. Then they were shocked once more when they realized she was someone they had never expected.
“A prisoner’s walking?”
“She is…”
“No, that’s not the important part right now—”
“Sister Rosia…”
“Rosia.”
Walter furrowed his brow, trying to confirm whether the person being dragged out was truly the one he was thinking of. Even after recognizing her for certain, he stared at that familiar figure for a long time, unable to believe it.
The Rosia he knew could never be a masked insurgent. She couldn’t even open a tightly sealed jar of jam, and she was careful not to cut herself when using a kitchen knife. Even as a war orphan living in an orphanage, she had never hated the Trahafut Empire that had started the war. She was a girl who tried to cherish each day of her life.
And yet that girl was captured and standing there.
A sigh escaped Walter on its own, and he unconsciously lifted his head to look at the sky. The morning sunlight wrapped around the cold winter.
Had anyone ever left this execution ground alive?
As Walter searched his memory, he eventually gave up. The memories stained by fifteen years of oppression only became more painful the more he dug into them.
The girl, held captive with a small scrape on her face, seemed to be struggling to slip out of the wooden manacles pressing down on her wrists. A kick soon flew toward her. The soldier guarding her had no intention of letting it pass.
Unable to support herself with her hands bound, she collapsed to the side. Her body, clad in nothing but a thin prisoner’s uniform in this freezing winter, trembled violently.
“Ah…”
Another sigh rippled through the crowd. The imperial soldiers patrolling among them to prevent a repeat of yesterday’s chaos all wore sneers on their faces.
The governor and his aides appeared on the platform. The execution was beginning.
“What is your crime?”
The soldier who had forced Vivian to her knees shouted the question. The people surrounding the execution ground and the governor on the platform all waited for Vivian’s lips to part.
But under countless gazes, Vivian did not open her mouth even after a long time. Her tightly pressed, pale lips trembled.
“I asked what your crime is!”
When she remained silent, the soldier barked at her. The murmuring of the crowd grew louder.
“Your Excellency, didn’t I tell you? These wretches only understand rough treatment.”
The soldier shifted the rifle slung over his shoulder forward as he spoke toward the governor on the platform. Judging by her wide, unblinking eyes, it was clear she wouldn’t speak easily. Her golden eyes flickered with resolute determination.
“Just carry out the execution.”
At the official’s suggestion, the governor, seated in a lavish chair on the platform, tilted his head slightly, resting his chin on his hand.
“Wouldn’t that leave people unconvinced?”
“Unconvinced?”
“We need to show them that this woman is dying for a reason they can accept.”
The governor spoke as if lecturing a foolish subordinate. The epaulettes on his deep-blue uniform glinted in the sunlight.
Vivian sat like a stone statue, uttering not a word. Once a convincing reason was revealed, the execution would be justified.
“You wretched bitch!”
A dull pain struck the back of Vivian’s head, and she pitched forward.
“How dare you stare at His Excellency like that.”
Only then did Vivian realize she had been staring straight at the black-clad man atop the pristine white platform. He was smiling with his head tilted.
“That’s enough.”
The man, who had been meeting Vivian’s unblinking gaze, suddenly stood up.
“Your Excellency?”
The aides at his side looked at him in confusion, clearly unprepared for this action.
“If she won’t speak, then I’ll speak for her.”
The governor stepped down from the platform, clicking the cylinder of his revolver. A collective gasp escaped the kingdom’s people who had been watching in held breath. Vivian swallowed dryly.
‘Aaaah! Aaaah!’
Amid the prisoners screaming horribly in the underground dungeon, Vivian alone had passed the night unharmed. Why? Judging by the wardens and soldiers who seemed eager to beat her to death, it felt as though an order had come down from the governor.
Bang!
The governor fired a shot into the sky. A sharp, acrid smell spread through the air.
Startled by the loud sound, Vivian flinched and frowned as the smell of gunpowder followed.
“This tight-lipped criminal took advantage of yesterday’s chaos and stormed into the governor’s office. The audacity.”
Once more, the revolver’s cylinder turned, and he pressed the warm barrel—still hot from firing—against the side of Vivian’s head.
Her hair, which had looked bluish in the moonlight last night, now gleamed golden in the sunlight. Was the slight curve of his lips just her imagination? He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this situation.
“She tried to steal my property.”
Bang!
Just before pulling the trigger, he turned the gun aside, and the second bullet grazed past Vivian and lodged itself in a pillar of the Eterna Tower.
The governor grabbed Vivian’s trembling chin with one hand and lifted her face. Pulled by that inconsiderate grip, Vivian let out a small groan as she opened the eyes she hadn’t realized she’d shut. Her swollen ankle scraped against the paved ground.
“How dare you.”
She wanted to clutch her ankle at the sharp pain, but Vivian was helplessly dragged along by the governor. With her hands bound in wooden cuffs, she grabbed at his hand.
“Were times really that hard for you?”
“……”
“To the point that you’d dare sneak into my domain and steal my precious belongings?”
Vivian froze, thinking for a moment.
‘Steal?’
It was true that she had snuck into the governor’s office, but she hadn’t tried to steal anything.
The situation was taking a strange turn.
Yet the governor shamelessly spun lies in front of the crowd.
“To the point you’d rather be shot to death than starve?”
“……”
“Fine. If that’s what you want, I’ll grant it.”
“No.”
Pressed relentlessly, Vivian blurted out the words without thinking.
“No?”
The governor’s eyebrow twitched.
“You were caught red-handed trying to steal several valuables and some priceless paintings?”
“No, I only went to see if I could find my younger sibling…”
At those words, both the kingdom’s people, who had been sighing nonstop, and the imperial soldiers watching with smirks fell silent.
“I swear, I had no intention of stealing Your Excellency’s belongings…”
Realizing something had gone wrong, Vivian’s voice gradually trailed off. By saying this, she had effectively confessed to sneaking into the governor’s office.
“You swear? And what does a worthless oath like yours amount to?”
The governor sneered crookedly right in front of her nose, now that she had admitted her crime.
“Truly, I just wanted to find my sibling… that’s all.”
She had been swept up in the governor’s performance. If she had kept her mouth shut, she might not have been branded with the stigma of ‘deserving to die.’ But it was too late to realize that now. The execution by the governor’s office had already gained a legitimate pretext.
Afraid she might ‘change,’ Vivian tried to rein in her wildly pounding heart. If the phenomenon symbolizing the royal blood of Rosetea appeared, she might suffer something even worse.
Tears ran down Vivian’s cheeks and reached the governor’s hand. Only then did he release her chin.
“If it weren’t for you people, I wouldn’t have had to go in there at all.”
When the hand pulling her up withdrew, Vivian collapsed to her knees on the spot.
It had been something she said to escape the situation, but before she knew it, genuine feelings had mixed in.
“If it weren’t for you people, my mother and father wouldn’t have died, and I wouldn’t have had to live through such a miserable day.”
Sitting there blankly, Vivian lowered her head. Drip, drip—as if rain were falling only where she sat, the dry ground gradually grew wet.
“That damn bitch!”
“Kill her right now!”
At Vivian’s small words, the imperial soldiers erupted in rage. Werner, who had appeared alongside the governor, shouted at the top of his lungs from the platform.
“Lieutenant Colonel! Your Excellency! There’s nothing more to see! That crazy woman must be killed!”
In contrast, among the kingdom’s people who had been forcibly dragged here to witness the execution, sobs spread quietly.
That gentle girl had really snuck into the governor’s office—and ended up like this.
Everyone was thinking the same thing.
They couldn’t believe it.
The shouts of the imperial soldiers and the sobbing of the kingdom’s people mingled together. Gradually, the noise faded, and silence fell.
The governor looked down at Vivian’s intermittently trembling shoulders. Her golden hair, still unable to lift her head, swayed as the bitter winter wind pleased.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for Vivian’s fate.
At last, the governor moved.
Bang—!
