May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 14.1
When Reyna opened her eyes the day after, she was alone.
Blinking blankly for a while as though dazed, she rubbed her forehead without thinking. The fever that had burned so fiercely was completely gone. Her head felt lighter than it had in days, with no trace of the headaches that had tormented her.
The memory of last night, before she lost consciousness, remained exactly as it was.
The exhausted look on his face.
The weary voice that had asked whether she wanted to live.
And then.
“You will carry the king’s child and avoid execution.”
It was absurd.
“…Was it a dream?”
But for something to be a dream, the sensation of him softly pressing his lips against hers felt far too vivid.
After hesitating for a moment, Reyna slowly sat up and loosened her gown. Contrary to what she expected, her skin was completely clean, without a single mark. There was no stickiness or pain between her legs either.
“…Then was it also a dream that he came to see me last night?”
Reyna was sinking deeper into confusion when it happened.
Creak. The bedroom door opened carefully, and her lady-in-waiting entered quietly. It was Aellin, who had been tending to Reyna’s illness in place of heavily pregnant Karla.
Aellin, who had been about to set down the washbasin, gasped when she saw Reyna sitting blankly on the bed.
“Oh, you are awake. Here is your wash water…”
As Aellin bowed her head in a fluster, Reyna abruptly asked,
“Did His Majesty come yesterday?”
“Ah…”
Aellin was startled only for a moment. Then she quickly grasped the situation and answered calmly.
“Yes, Your Majesty the Queen. He returned before sunrise.”
But her answer only deepened Reyna’s confusion.
“…He came?”
Setting the washbasin on the table, Aellin glanced at her cautiously and spoke.
“Your Majesty the Queen.”
“…”
“That is, Sir Lyman will be guarding you from now on. He is right outside…”
“Sir Lyman?”
“His Majesty ordered Sir Lyman to guard the Queen’s Palace. And he sent crates full of rare medicinal herbs. Your Majesty?”
Once again, it made no sense.
Lyman was the knight Elizer valued most. He was always standing just behind the king like a shadow. Why would such a man guard the Queen’s Palace, and the daughter of the traitor Leonard?
Reyna hurriedly stepped out of bed, but her body, weakened from days of fever, did not move as she wished.
“Your Majesty the Queen!”
If Aellin had not rushed to her side, Reyna would have collapsed miserably.
“You must not overdo it. The scholar said that…”
But Reyna only insisted stubbornly.
“Help me stand.”
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
With Aellin supporting her, Reyna left the room. The moment she stepped outside, she stopped in place when she saw Lyman and his subordinates bowing their heads toward her.
“…”
Even after seeing him, Reyna stared blankly as if she could not believe it. Suddenly, she turned her body and moved forward on unsteady legs.
Just as Aellin had said, crates of rare medicinal herbs and jewelry boxes were piled up in front of the Queen’s Palace.
“What is all this…”
But that was not the end.
Even after her fever broke, the scholar sent personally by the king examined her every day. He was so meticulous that Reyna began to wonder if she truly might be pregnant.
Which meant that Elizer visiting her bedroom in secret the previous night had not been a dream created by her desperation.
***
A young servant child darted quickly down the royal palace corridor early in the morning. Slipping deftly between the adults’ sides, the child quietly entered the separate palace.
The separate palace looked peaceful at a glance, but it was the most heavily guarded place in the entire palace.
Yet no one paid attention to the movements of a child. The whole castle had been in disarray ever since the rebellion of the Dazbel Ducal Family ended in failure.
Without a moment of hesitation, the child crossed the corridor and stopped when he found someone’s back. He tugged at the hem of her skirt.
The woman, dressed neatly like an attendant of a noble lady, turned around. When she bent slightly and said, “Speak,” the child whispered something into her ear.
“…I see.”
The woman’s once-composed eyebrows faintly furrowed.
Even after the child left, she stood there for a while as if lost in thought. Then she quickly began walking somewhere with purpose. This woman is an unnamed noblewoman of the separate palace.
The sharp winter wind carried the cold scent of dried blood.
It had been nearly two months since Leonard Dazbel’s head had been severed. Yet the executions connected to him were still continuing.
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