Chapter 39
“Apologize! Because of you, our daughter got worse! She went to see the saint, and now her tuberculosis has worsened!”
“Murderer! You even came to our lands! Didn’t you kill the villagers too?”
Thwack! An egg flew from somewhere and hit my forehead. The yolk and egg white from the cracked shell dripped wetly across my face.
“This empire is in ruins because of that woman. That witch betrayed God and served demons, and that’s why all this happened!”
I didn’t dodge the flying egg. It’s my role to take the citizens’ anger, so I might as well do my duty properly.
The citizens, whose lives had been ruined, needed someone to blame. The rulers had conveniently found a scapegoat.
A witch who pretended to be a saint and deceived people. A murderer who let sick patients die. Public opinion was shaped to direct the empire’s condemnation at me.
Even if I realized it later, there was nothing I could do.
As I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, the shouts of the agitated crowd grew louder.
“Execute the murderer!”
“Execute her! Execute her!”
Being pushed and jostled by the crowd, I staggered. A few officers couldn’t control the excited masses.
While making my way through the crowd, one officer looked around frantically.
“Where’s the transport carriage?”
“Well… there are too many people, so they parked it near the execution site.”
“You should’ve said that earlier! Let’s go that way!”
With an annoyed retort, the direction abruptly changed. Passing the courthouse, the path had been sparse, but as we approached the execution site, it was crowded again.
The closer we got to the high execution platform, the faster my heart raced, and my palms grew sweaty. The strange tension almost made me lose my mind.
Help me.
I couldn’t tell whether the heat I felt came from the crowd or from my own body.
In the confusion, I was pushed by someone and fell. Officers reached to grab me, but I slipped between the human wall and they missed me.
Please… save me.
I stumbled to my feet and looked ahead. My steps carried me forward as if I were in a trance.
“Hey! Can’t you come back immediately?”
“Where are you going? The carriage is this way!”
I pretended not to hear and kept moving forward. A foreboding instinct seemed to pull me.
I wasn’t sure if the faint, sad voice murmuring in my head was real or imagined.
At the center of the crowd was the execution platform. And on it, a woman stood upright, reflected in my eyes.
A middle-aged woman with long black hair, streaked with gray, letting me guess the hardships she had endured.
Her black eyes seemed empty, void of anything. Suddenly, her unfocused gaze seemed to meet mine.
Her eyes, as if trying to convey something, were quickly covered.
“Look, they’re about to execute her.”
A noose was placed over her head, a coarse sack covering her face.
I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from her.
Finally, with a clank, her body was hoisted high into the air.
Biiiii-
My ears rang, and I heard a high-pitched ringing.
My vision blurred, and the approaching ground was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness.
And then, I passed out.
When I opened my eyes again, Kyle was looking down at me. Despite his yellow eyes, they held an unexpectedly warm light. Worried for me, perhaps?
Ridiculous.
I let out a small laugh. Kyle asked,
“Why are you laughing?”
“Just… it’s funny.”
“Absurd. You didn’t lose your mind from the shock, did you?”
“You’re the one who lost their mind.”
I coldly dismissed him and staggered to my feet. Kyle extended a hand to support me.
I looked around. The last thing I remembered was the dirt ground—how did I end up at the carriage?
“What happened?”
“The officers brought you from the execution site when you collapsed. We’re now riding the transport carriage back to Fortress Prison.”
“I see.”
I responded flatly, as if listening to someone else’s story. Kyle frowned at my lack of reaction.
“Why did you go there in the first place?”
“I just got swept up in the crowd.”
“Fine. The officers who lost you were at fault from the start. I’ll officially protest so they get disciplined.”
“Okay.”
Kyle looked puzzled at my indifferent answer. I realized he was observing me carefully.
Ridiculous. I let out a small laugh, and Kyle frowned. I felt like no matter what I said to provoke him, he couldn’t get angry now.
Half to tease Kyle, half out of curiosity, I asked,
“Why? Are you worried I got shocked watching the execution?”
“I was worried because you collapsed, but now it seems it was pointless.”
I should have been angry. I should have raged at him, sarcastically saying, Are you satisfied now that you got your execution? Is this your true love—killing someone you can’t have?
Strangely, I wasn’t angry. Everything felt meaningless, hollow.
“You have no energy. Are you sick?”
“What? Should we turn the carriage around and get examined…?”
“No, it’s not that bad.”
Kyle, who had lifted his hips as if to stand, sat back down. I turned my head away, annoyed by his behavior.
Honestly, I couldn’t face him right now.
“Why did you get on the transport carriage when you’re not even a prisoner?”
“I just wanted to see you wake up before leaving.”
Kyle noticed my mood and signaled the carriage to stop. I didn’t look at him until he got down.
He hesitated like he had lingering thoughts, then closed the carriage door.
“You fainted because you were tired from going out. Rest.”
After he got back on, the carriage moved again. I finally sat alone, lost in thought.
Was witnessing another prisoner’s execution so shocking?
Apparently. Even if a person is already dead, seeing someone dying is different.
But it wasn’t just that. In her image, I saw a reflection of my near future—if I couldn’t escape before my execution, I’d end up like her.
In a voice so small it might disappear, I murmured,
Did I really do something so wrong that I deserve to die? What did I do wrong?
Finally, a dull sadness washed over me. Only alone in the carriage, after the chaos, did I sniffle quietly.
Now, only the execution remained. Was it better than being condemned as a witch by the religious court?
I hadn’t anticipated the feeling of receiving a death sentence.
Tears pooled on the back of my hand and fell.
Suddenly, I missed Richard. If he knew what happened, if he saw me now, how would he react?
He’d probably fuss and try to comfort me anxiously.
“Ah… Richard isn’t here anymore, is he?”
Thinking he wouldn’t be in the opposite cell in the underground prison made me depress rapidly. If I asked Kyle now, he might even let Richard return.
I was about to speak and leaned out of the carriage when suddenly…
Clunk! The carriage tilted, slipping off the path. My instincts screamed something was wrong.
“The carriage! What’s happening?!”
The guards and horses had started to drift away. The transport carriage, ascending the hill, had become unhitched from the horses.
By the time the guards realized and turned around, the carriage was already rolling uncontrollably downhill.
Naturally, there was no way to stop it. On a slope, the carriage accelerated and hurtled toward a cliff.
I leaned out the window, looking ahead and behind. The hill curved downwards. At this rate… it was going to overturn.
