In an instant, as she reached out to touch her stomach, Mariyu swallowed a gasp at the piercing pain that lanced through her mind.
“Ugh—!”
Cold skin. An eerie emptiness within her womb. Following the pain, a sinister intuition, more intense than the physical agony, seized her.
She reached out and grabbed the middle-aged woman’s arm.
“My baby, my baby was right here. Please, save the child. Please, the baby…!”
“……It was too late. The medicine was too strong. It’s a miracle you even survived, young lady.”
The middle-aged woman shook her head.
“You’re still young, so don't be too heartbroken. You can always have another child.”
But those words provided no comfort to Mariyu.
“Aaaagh! No! It’s a lie!”
Mariyu shrieked.
“My baby! My child isn't dead! You’re lying! I don't believe you! I won't believe it!”
She grabbed whatever she could reach and hurled it, tearing at the sheets in a fit of madness.
“No. I barely managed to save you when you were at death's door; why are you taking your anger out on the wrong people?!”
“Seriously, what do you expect us to do about a child that's already gone?”
The people shook their heads as if looking at a madwoman and left the room.
“Tsk, what a pity for someone so young. Young lady, call us once you’ve regained your senses.”
Even so, the kind-hearted woman held Mariyu’s hand once before departing. She seemed to think Mariyu was simply distraught from the shock of losing her child.
“Aargh! Aaaaagh!”
Mariyu tore at her hair in desperation.
It felt as if the child, already gone from her womb, was screaming. No matter how much she tried to deny it, she knew the truth better than anyone.
*“What are you talking about? They're the ones who sent us to kill you.”*
The assailant’s mocking laughter was still vivid in her ears. Tears streamed down her face.
“Samon! How could you do this! How could you do this to me! Like discarding a pair of worn-out shoes—”
A sharp scream spread.
Betrayal and despair seeped through her ragged breaths.
“Boo! There they go! Look at them!”
“Ugh, you filthy scoundrel!”
Just then, the outside grew noisy.
The sound of jeering and loud curses reached Mariyu through the open window.
“Young Duke Claudio—that traitor is marrying the 4th Imperial Princess of Kazen, you say?”
“Yes! I heard he even escaped execution because of how he played his cards! It’s infuriating that he’s getting away like this! A traitor who tried to overthrow the country should face nothing but death!”
“Does the 4th Imperial Princess have knots for eyes? How could she marry such a shameless man?!”
The voices of the people drifted in through the wide-open window.
“To think we have to watch those traitors be sent away alive and well because of those Kazen wretches! Ptu! Filthy Empire bastards!”
Mariyu’s mouth fell open.
Forgetting her pain, she bolted upright and rushed out the door.
Then, she grabbed the first passerby she saw.
“Wh-Who? Who is the Young Duke Claudio marrying?”
“Wha—What?”
“Young lady, are you alright?”
The passerby was startled when a woman, pale as a ghost with disheveled hair, suddenly appeared and grabbed his arm.
“Tell me quickly! Tell me!”
At her paroxysmal shout, the passerby frowned but answered kindly nonetheless.
“Who else but the 4th Imperial Princess of Kazen. That woman who came with the Imperial delegation.”
“Ha, hahaha……”
The strength left the hand gripping the passerby as Mariyu slid to the ground.
Now she understood everything.
The reason Samon’s face had distorted when he learned of the pregnancy.
“You killed them just so you could live……”
You killed the child. You chased me down in a hurry, terrified that the 4th Imperial Princess would find out and the marriage would be canceled.
You finally eliminated us, your own bloodline. As a father, you got rid of your own child with your own hands.
That precious child who hadn't even seen the light of day—you, Samon, killed them in the end.
“Aaaagh!”
Mariyu shrieked, clawing at her cheeks. She didn't care that her sharp nails were digging into her flesh and leaving gashes.
It felt as if her heart were being slowly torn apart by a rusted sword.
She had truly given him everything. She had offered her body and soul to Samon.
She had run here and there, even standing against the Princess, just to try and save him somehow.
But what returned to Mariyu was a heart-wrenching betrayal.
All she had left now was an empty womb and a hatred so vivid she could practically grasp it.
A bone-chilling sense of loss seeped deep into her lungs.
“Samon Claudio……”
Mariyu’s lips trembled. Her dark red eyes glinted with madness. Her bitten lip burst, and drops of blood trickled down.
“I will never…… forgive…… you.”
They say there is a thin line between love and hatred.
The affection that had deepened without limit had long since been submerged in an abyss, turning dark red like tears of blood.
***
Baldina Royal Palace, Princess’s Palace.
Under the sunlight streaming through the window, Medeia toyed with a small wooden doll.
Medeia took the dolls, shaped like dainty girls, out of the box one by one.
Then, she placed them on the nightstand beside the bed. So she could see them whenever she woke up.
In Medeia’s indifferent face as she looked down at the dolls, a rare warmth flickered in her eyes.
“Your Highness, Mariyu has regained consciousness. Her treatment is finished, and there shouldn't be any major aftereffects.”
Neril approached and reported.
The assassins Samon had sent through Raju Count had disposed of Mariyu and dumped her near a secluded wall of the Royal Capital.
The fact that she narrowly survived and woke up in a shack at the relief center, and that a kind middle-aged woman looked after her, were all the results of Medeia’s arrangements.
Hearing Neril’s report, Medeia slid open a table drawer. She took out a pouch of gold coins and held it out.
“Give this to Mariyu.”
Medeia neither pitied nor mocked Mariyu’s situation of being discarded after her devotion to Samon.
She was simply utilizing her.
On the chessboard atop the table, black and white pieces were laid out.
*Tak.* Medeia revived a white pawn that had been captured by a black knight.
The pawn returned to the chessboard.
However, the resurrected pawn soon hid its presence, slipping among the other actively moving pieces.
“Tell her to wait until the time comes for me to call her.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Until the optimal moment to attack Samon arrived, Mariyu would not reveal herself.
‘But I can't just let this opportunity pass by.’
Medeia moved a white bishop on the chessboard.
It was a substitute to drive Samon into a corner in Mariyu’s stead for the time being.
Her calm voice echoed.
“Is today the execution ceremony? I must get up now if I'm not to be late.”
The square in front of the Baldina Royal Palace, where the execution ceremony was being held.
People gathered.
The traitors were led out one after another, bound with ropes. The blade of the guillotine flashed in the sunlight, bright enough to sting the eyes.
“Aaaagh, save me. I don't want to die. I don't want to—!”
*Thud—!*
The square fell silent every time a death sentence was carried out and the screams of the prisoners at the brink of death were silenced.
The citizens felt a sense of satisfaction, yet at the same time, they felt terror at the King’s decisiveness in leaving no room for mercy for the traitors.
When the executions were about half-finished, the square grew noisy.
“You filthy scoundrel!”
It was because the Claudio family had appeared.
The Regent Duke couple and the Samon siblings all had pale and gaunt complexions, but unlike the other traitors in soiled prison uniforms, they wore clean clothes and were well-groomed.
Samon, in particular, was wearing a spotless white formal suit.
His gaunt face with sunken eyes didn't suit the flamboyant suit at all, however.
“Brother, it would be best to release my uncle’s family on the day of the execution ceremony. Samon’s betrothal should be held then as well.”
Following Medeia’s command, the four people were led by knights to the front of the square, forced to endure the blade-like gazes of the crowd.
The prisoners awaiting execution could also clearly see the Regent Duke’s family.
It was a moment when the blood on the execution grounds had not yet even been washed away.
Witnessing that only the Claudios were evading the guillotine’s blade, the eyes of the traitors facing death turned wild.
“Claudio! You were the one who drew us into this; how can only you wretches escape like this!”
They lunged toward the Regent Duke’s family as if to tear them apart. It was so violent that the ropes binding their bodies grew taut.
“You vermin! I will curse your family even in death! I will become an evil spirit and cling to you with pain and misfortune as long as you draw breath!”
The families of the prisoners also burned with hatred toward the Regent Duke’s family.
Samon distorted his face and stared at the Royal Family’s platform in the distance.
‘Peleus, Medeia—you wicked pair! You won't even let us depart in peace!’
By placing the Regent Duke’s family in this spot, they had deeply engraved hatred for them into the minds of the traitors and the crowd.
So that the Claudios could never make a comeback in this country again.
He clenched his fists.
Beneath the fluttering sleeves of his formal suit, his arms were covered in blue bruises, as if he had been beaten by someone.
