May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 11.2
***
From the red fortress of the Dazbel Ducal Family, the sound of beasts howling echoed from time to time. Terrified by those dreadful cries, young Reyna whined and burrowed into her nurse’s embrace.
“Do not cry, Reyna. That is only the sound of animals.”
Diegor would then tell his much younger sister to stop crying and soothe her.
The boy, perhaps feeling pity for the sister who had never known a mother’s warmth, often watched over her. Even when others teased him, saying people might think he was the one who had given birth to her.
“They can never hurt you.”
When her brother grinned like that and playfully tousled her curly hair, Reyna finally stopped crying.
Those terrifying screams and wails were nothing more than the cries of beasts.
When she was young, she believed her brother’s words exactly as he spoke them. Because of that, she truly thought the terrible sounds that sometimes echoed through the depths of the fortress were animal cries.
She had no idea that the nobles of Kaldirac released Dochioin people into the hunting grounds and enjoyed hunting them like a game.
Years passed, and once a noble visited the red fortress with a Dochioin slave. Slavery had long disappeared from the Kingdom of Eldamar, but Dochioin slaves still existed. Reyna, seeing the Dochioin she had only heard about, leaned over the balcony railing and watched the slave with curious eyes.
Then she realized something was strange.
As far as she knew, the Dochioin were not humans but beasts. Yet the slave was clearly human, only with slightly darker skin. He was thin as a plank of wood, with eyes hollowed out and empty, but human nonetheless.
Something felt wrong. When she told Diegor that the slave seemed pitiful, Diegor replied that slaves were nothing more than animals and she should not concern herself.
“But he was crying.”
He had not shed tears, but his face was unmistakably the face of someone who was crying.
“Good heavens, Reyna.”
At that, Diegor’s expression became unusually serious.
“You must never say anything like that in front of Father.”
He then spoke firmly in a hard tone.
“We are Dazbel.”
Reyna opened her mouth as if she intended to argue, but she immediately closed it again.
Her brother, the young Duke of Dazbel, was playful and affectionate toward his much younger sister, but he was cruel to others.
Her father, the Duke of Dazbel, did not want his daughter to know too much.
The quick witted girl instinctively learned to distinguish between what she should know and what she must never know. As long as she kept that distinction, she could enjoy many privileges and even behave a little willfully.
Reyna turned her gaze away from the Dochioin slave and stopped thinking deeply about him.
Thus, in the most prosperous fortress, the red citadel, Dochioin people died every day. Reyna forgot that truth.
“If you do not rule, you are ruled. If you do not kill, you are killed. That is how the world works.”
Remembering the words her father once spoke while gripping her brother’s shoulder, Reyna snapped her eyes open. She sat up urgently and anxiously looked around.
In the bluish darkness, the scenery was familiar. It was her bedchamber.
Yet even after realizing this, she could not calm down and turned her head several more times. She saw Karla sleeping quietly beside her. Karla’s face had grown gaunt in recent days, but fortunately she did not look unwell.
Only then could Reyna release a bit of the tension in her body.
A chill crept over her. Wiping her trembling, sweat soaked body with her arms, she suddenly shifted her gaze to the window.
Through the half opened curtains she could see the pitch dark night sky. Another day had passed safely.
Yet even if the night was deep, she could not let her guard down. Once the king gave an order, the guards could break through that door at any moment.
Reyna had been taken at the rusted gate that led to the docks and confined to her chamber.
Since then she had barely slept.
The king’s knights and guards surrounded the queen’s residence in multiple layers. No one could enter, and no one could leave.
It had already been a week.
Chapter 12.1
Reyna had no way of knowing what was happening outside.
She could not know anything about Ventari, who had been dragged away by the guards. She was afraid Karla might be taken in the same way. Because of that fear, Reyna kept Karla at her side and would not let her out of her sight for even a moment.
No one told her anything about the outside world, but there was one thing she could guess.
The Dazbel Ducal Family’s rebellion had failed. Reyna was certain, because she herself was still alive after choosing to remain beside Elizer.
If that was true, then what had become of the Duke of Dazbel, her father and older brother. What about the nobles of the Red Citadel, and the people of Kaldirac.
There was little hope for mercy from the king. Wars fought for the throne were always merciless.
Even inside the Queen’s Palace, faint shouts and screams could be heard. It felt as though the smell of rotting flesh and blood was filling the entire castle.
No one dared to say it aloud, but there was not a single person in the Queen’s Palace who failed to realize that the Dazbel were being killed.
Karla curled up around her steadily swelling belly and trembled with increasing fear. She wanted desperately to know what had happened to the family left behind in the Red Citadel. Her husband was a knight of the Ducal Family.
After much hesitation, Reyna pressed a handful of jewels into the palm of the laundry maid who slipped in and out of the Queen’s Palace. She asked her to find out what was happening outside.
The maid hesitated for a long time, then glanced nervously at the closed door and whispered in a small, quick voice.
“The Duke has been executed by beheading. It happened a week ago.”
His severed head was displayed on the castle wall, and from that point on, all the Dazbel were executed and were still being executed.
“What…”
It was not entirely unexpected, yet the more she tried to process it, the less real it felt.
Her father, her brother, all of them were dead. It was truly…
‘Unbelievable.’
“The Red Citadel was burned down, and no one survived.”
While Reyna was left speechless, Karla grabbed the maid’s arm with frantic hands.
“You mean all the nobles of the Red Citadel, every one of them is dead?”
“I am only telling you what I have heard.”
“Among the knights of the Ducal Family, is there no one who survived?”
“Those who survived the battle were beheaded, and their heads were hung on the wall.”
Karla’s hands, which had been gripping the maid’s arm in desperation, fell limply. She had held on with the hope that her family might still be alive, yet now she stepped backward, shaking her head as if denying reality. Her steps were unsteady, as though she might collapse at any moment, and her breathing sounded strange.
Reyna, still frozen in shock, happened to glance at Karla.
Karla had run to the locked door and was pounding on it, crying out with a sound that was somewhere between a wail and a scream.
She insisted it was all a lie and demanded that they open the door at once.
The servants of the Queen’s Palace rushed in to restrain her. Reyna could only stare at the scene with a hollow expression.
Everything felt so unreal, like a dream. She could not even cry.
Karla clawed at the door with her fingernails, shaking off the servants, until she suddenly grabbed her belly and collapsed to the floor.
Reyna’s lips parted in shock.
“Karla.”
“What, what should I do? What should I…”
Karla’s gaze unfocused and her breaths turned shallow. Reyna rushed to her in a panic. Something was terribly wrong. Her arms shook like trembling branches as she held Karla’s weakening body.
“Karla. Karla, look at me. You must stay awake.”
Karla only gasped weakly, unable to reply.
“Please…”
Reyna was struck with sudden terror. She still could not fully accept that the Red Citadel had burned, but she instinctively understood that if she lost Karla now, she would truly be left alone.
“Someone. Is no one there. Open the door at once. Bring the physician, fetch the physician immediately…”
But perhaps because she had already caused such a commotion while demanding the door be opened, no one responded to the queen’s voice.
If you do not rule, you are ruled, and if you do not kill, you will be killed. The world works that way.
“If we do not kill the king now, the Dazbel will die.”
‘If you do not kill, you will be killed.’
Her father’s voice and Ventari’s voice echoed harshly in her ears.
***
“She needs rest.”
After examining Karla, the court physician said those predictable words and left.
Reyna moved her rigid gaze to Karla’s exhausted face. The hand Reyna had been holding so tightly trembled helplessly.
Thankfully, both Karla and the child in her belly were safe.
However, it now felt as though the calls to execute the queen were reaching all the way here.
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