The door gently opened as though Luna had returned; but, I opened my eyes to see Alice, who was covered in blood, instead. She had the key in between her fingers and looked at me with a cold look.. In that moment, I realised what she was after.
‘I best not resist now. I don’t know her reasons, but I’m aware that I can’t defeat Alice in this state.’
I weakly reached for the necklace on the bedside cupboard. I felt that I had to call for Vyvyan now.
My sixth sense was telling me I would seriously die this time.
“Your Majesty, if I were you, I wouldn’t touch that.” A dagger flew through the air with a whistling sound and stabbed through the back of my hand, pinning it to the bedhead. The pain radiated throughout my entire body.
“Aaargh!!”
I felt numbed just hearing my own shriek of pain. The pain caused me to curl my body up. I tightly gripped the dagger on my left hand that pinned my hand to the bedhead with my right hand. I was sure I would rip my flesh out if I pulled the dagger out. If I’m going to die from blood loss, I might as well leave it there.
Alice stood before me with an eerie smile. She gently moved the dagger on my hand around and said, “Your Majesty, you won’t need to suffer if you obey me… I was going to say that you wouldn’t suffer any pain if you just obediently obeyed me, but I need to take you away first.”
“I can go with you…” I took in a breath of cold air. I fought off the pain on my left hand and struggled to continue, “I’ll do anything. I won’t resist.”
“Good to hear.”
I looked at her body covered in blood. I fought the pain and asked, “But tell me, where’s Luna? Where did Luna go?”
“Your Majesty…” Alice revealed a very spooky smile, and then pulled out something small from behind her. I blankly looked at what she was holding. It was a dark red thing that was wet with blood. Alice looked at me. She laughed loudly and exclaimed, “You never thought so either, right, Your Majesty?! This is your first time seeing one, right?! This is an elf’s heart! This is the heart of a filthy elf just like the rest of them! You never thought so, huh? I’m amazed those dirty creatures have the same heart as us. I can’t believe it’s the same as Her Majesty’s. How amusing…”
“I’ll murder you!!!”
‘Sometimes, anger can override all of one’s other emotions.’
‘I believe that.’
After I heard Alice’s response, all of my blood rushed to my head. My vision became red. All other thoughts vanished from my mind. Fear, rationality, pain, everything… everything vanished. Every single one of my cells roared. My enter body roared!
‘I’m going to fucking murder her!!’
‘I’m going to murder this woman that killed my Luna! I’ll show her no mercy! I’ll kill her even if I end up dead with Luna! I’ve had enough! I was powerless to protect Mera, and now I failed to protect Luna, too! I failed to protect Luna! I’m going to avenge her at the very least!!’
I violently ripped out the dagger stabbed into my hand, and my blood sprayed onto my face. I didn’t hesitate or shout. I slashed at Alice right away. She clearly froze for a moment, which was evident from the way she looked at me feeling a little shocked. However, she then subconsciously dodged my slash and kicked me aside. Before I could get up, Alice rushed toward me and booted my head.
The world blacked out for me in that moment. My vision went dark and my ears rang. I couldn’t move after that instant. It was as though my brain was shattered and couldn’t send signals to get my body to move.
“So, Your Majesty, if you don’t resist, you won’t have to suffer. Also, I am your senior at the end of the day. Are you really going to attack your senior? You can’t do that, Your Majesty. For my safety’s sake, I’m going to put some safety measures in place.”
Alice walked around behind me. She lightly raised my wrists up, and then I felt a painful sensation, causing me to instinctively cry out as if I was trying to destroy my vocal chords. Alice released my hands that were now floppy as a noodle. She clapped her hands then pinched my chin and with a smile, said, “I said that I wouldn’t kill you, but never said I’d send you there intact. Final warning, Your Majesty, if you act stubborn, it’ll be your arms that I rip off next! It won’t just be a mere dislocation.”
“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you even if it costs me my life!! I swear it!! Alice! I’ll definitely kill you!!”
I roared at Alice, who was in front of me. I no longer knew if I was even shouting in humanity’s language anymore. I just wanted to shout.
‘I want to rip the woman in front of me to shreds! I want to, personally, dig her heart out! I want to tear her head off her shoulders and place it before Luna’s heart.’
‘I’m going to kill her! I’ll kill her no matter what!’
“I know, I know.”
Alice was already getting sick of listening to me. She grabbed my sleeve and dragged me outside. I was dragged along similarly to a dog crawling through the remains of the furniture, puddles of blood and past Luna’s corpse. I looked at Luna’s corpse that looked as though it got vandalised and screamed. I struggled to break free, but nonetheless, I didn’t even get to take another look at Luna.
‘Just how powerless am I? Why is it that I can’t do a single thing…?’
‘I want to kill this woman! I’ll kill her for sure! I have to! I’ll kill her if it’s the only thing I can do in this lifetime!!’
My tears and blood ran down into my mouth. The bitter taste was so bitter that I virtually couldn’t open my eyes. All that I could taste was more and more bitterness entering my mouth. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t stop the pain.
“I’ve brought him here, so I can kill him now, right?”
I don’t know how long I was dragged along for, but then I got thrown onto the ground. I struggled to raise my head. I saw the silhouette of a fat person, as well as the silhouette of a woman. I recognised them.
‘He’s the finance minister and she’s the regent of Castor.’
The finance minister looked at Alice and responded, “No. I want to exchange him with Her Majesty for something. My son wants Nier. I want to exchange him for his wife. Alice, I’m very grateful for your help, but perhaps you don’t know the saying, ‘the oriole is lurking behind’.”
“That’s right. We’ve discussed it. We’re going to exchange him for Castor’s independence and safety. That’s what we need most.”
Castor’s regent walked over. She grabbed my hair gently then looked at me with a cold smile and mocked me, “Your Majesty, I wonder if you ever imagined this day would come when you were acting stuck up in front of us.”
“Sure, I never thought there’d come a day when I’d want to murder you lot.”
I shouted in her face and head butted her on her chin.
“You’re quite the tough one. But you’ll be joining your most beloved mom soon,” Castor’s regent tossed me onto the ground as she rubbed her chin and snickered.
She waved her hands, and then armed soldiers slowly approached from every direction. They then aimed their spears at Alice.
Alice looked at them with a cold look. She ignored the guards around and indifferently remarked, “It appears that you intend to revolt against Her Majesty, as well.”
“We’ve never been loyal to her before! You forced us to submit! Castor will never submit! You should’ve expected this when you were scheming against us! Castor will never be your slave!!”
Castor’s regent ruthlessly waved her hand and loudly commanded, “Kill this woman!!”
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