Chapter 38
Things were going badly. I could tell just by looking at my lawyer’s expression that the situation was turning against me.
The lawyer tilted his head toward me and asked if I knew. His eyes were filled with reproach, silently asking why I had hidden such an important fact. I shook my head in denial.
“I will refute this!”
The lawyer raised his hand, and the judge nodded.
“The defendant had no knowledge of this. During her stay at the Gluck estate, Veronica was only tasked with praying for Prince Georg. If the witness’s statement is accurate, there would have been no need to pretend she was a saint. Did you consult the defendant regarding your plan?”
“No…”
The lord answered reluctantly. The lawyer pressed on with sharp questioning.
“When did you realize that the defendant was not a true saint? You wouldn’t have known from the very beginning, right?”
“…Not from the beginning, but shortly after I brought her into the castle.”
“You must have been furious to discover that the woman you brought in to heal your son, thinking she was a real saint, was actually a fraud. So you attempted to force your son to commit an immoral act with her, but before you could carry it out, your son suddenly died. You are now directing your anger and resentment at the defendant.”
The prosecutor immediately objected.
“Your Honor, the defense is slandering the witness with baseless speculation!”
The gallery was confused, unable to follow the increasingly complicated situation. Realizing that I had been tossed about by circumstances beyond my control, a wave of helplessness and anxiety washed over me.
I wiped my sweating palms on my prison uniform.
After striking the gavel once, the judge fairly allowed the defense to continue.
“Proceed.”
“The Lord of Gluck concealed this fact, fearing punishment if his plan was exposed. When a reinvestigation threatened to reveal the defendant’s innocence, he confessed. This is a deliberate attempt to obstruct the judgment and hold a grudge against the defendant.”
Through my lawyer’s words, I became nothing more than a clueless pawn, a victim of lies. A hint of sympathy emerged. I quietly turned to gauge the gallery’s mood.
A faint glimmer of hope returned.
Please… please, just pity me a little. I did wrong, but it wasn’t that horrible, was it? Surely not punishable by death?
I clasped my hands tightly in a selfish prayer. At that moment, the judge felt like a god. My life hung on the gavel he wielded.
But, as always, the world was not on my side.
“There is a witness who will testify that the defendant knew of the lord’s plan.”
Another witness? I jumped as I saw someone new appear, instead of the lord returning to the gallery.
‘Why is that person here?’
Unbelievably, the witness was Kyle—the warden of Fortress, Kyle Kaysness.
‘You… why…’
I couldn’t process the betrayal, my frozen gaze fixed on him. Even as he solemnly took the oath, I held onto a flicker of belief. Surely he wouldn’t…
But the way he avoided my eyes gave a foreboding feeling.
No… it can’t be… you!
“I stayed at the lord’s castle for three days and encountered a woman pretending to be a saint. She tempted me under the guise of hearing confessions and begged me to save her by revealing the lord’s plan.”
Kyle stared straight ahead, unwavering, as if revealing nothing but the truth. I couldn’t utter a sound, my lower lip slightly parted as I stared at him.
“…That witch!”
“She must be executed!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of the gavel struck my eardrums.
Futilely, the trial ended quickly. I was sentenced to death.
My life was over—all because of the man who pretended to be my savior.
‘That bastard… even if I die, I’ll kill him first before being executed!’
After the trial, my mind was consumed by nothing but that thought.
I wanted to smash Kyle’s head with a hammer bigger and heavier than the judge’s gavel. He had acted so smugly, yet he was clearly an idiot.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have framed me for murder under the pretense of saving me—or had some intricate plan to kill me for real.
Two things became clear.
First, Kyle Kaysness is a lunatic.
Second, I am about to be executed.
Damn it! I wanted to strike anything and everything with my handcuffed hands.
If I kicked the desk or threw a chair here, could I be charged with contempt of court and executed on the spot? Waiting for the execution day felt like they were deliberately trying to suffocate me.
Meanwhile, my lawyer, wiping the sweat from his forehead, tried to console me in his way.
“Phew, this is the limit of what I could do. Unfortunately.”
“….”
I wanted to thank him for his effort, but the words wouldn’t come out. I bit my lips tightly to hold back an outburst of rage.
“It’s hard to accept that the victim was killed by a curse. There was room to contest the method of the crime, but a guilty verdict was delivered. Considering the circumstances, you must admit your luck was bad.”
I coldly turned to look at my lawyer.
“Circumstances?”
“You should have read the newspapers. The political situation is chaotic, isn’t it? To divert the public’s attention, nothing works better than a witch or an atrocious criminal.”
Like a splash of cold water, my scattered thoughts slowly returned.
“She’s a famous swindler reported in the media, and it seems there was internal power struggle within the security forces—a tightrope between the Crown Prince faction and the Second Prince. Under these conditions, it’s no wonder she ended up being labeled a murderer.”
So my innocence never really mattered.
The lawyer, claiming his defense was excellent, patted me on the shoulder as he left. I stared blankly after him as he exited the courtroom in a hurry.
After the trial, the Lord of Gluck approached with a satisfied expression and shook Kyle’s hand. Seeing the lord’s greasy smile made me feel disgusted.
Kyle gave a dismissive shake of his hand. His entanglement with the lord was over.
“You were right. If you hadn’t confessed that you intended to use her as a breeding tool, it would have been difficult to get a death sentence. You were humiliated, but it was the right choice.”
“You no longer need to concern yourself with Veronica.”
“Yes. Watching her receive punishment is satisfying. Thank you for testifying in court.”
“I didn’t come for the lord’s thanks.”
Kyle’s mouth was bitter. Everything went according to his plan, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at Veronica’s despairing face.
She must have been devastated—or terrified. Perhaps even on the verge of tears.
Even leaving the courtroom, all he could think about was Veronica.
He felt anxious, as though he needed to see her with his own eyes to feel at ease, clenching his empty hands.
Only after leaving the courthouse did I realize the truth in my lawyer’s words about public attention. When I entered the building, the crowd was sparse. Now, the area in front of the courthouse was packed.
“All these people came to see me?”
The officer responded in a bored tone, as if this were routine.
“This happens every week, so no need to be surprised. Still, there are more people than usual today.”
I couldn’t even imagine pushing through the crowd to reach the carriage. Would I die crushed by them before reaching the execution platform?
No, I might actually get trampled to death.
Luckily, the officers grabbed my arms and led me out. They were experienced in handling such events.
Outside, the crowd stared at me in silence. They seemed shocked that I didn’t look like the illustrations they had seen.
But the silence didn’t last. The moment I took a step, a raucous jeer deafened me.
“The witch of Fortress! The witch is out!”
