May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 14.2
Thus, the royal capital Elmaril was filled with a strange sense of tension and excitement. The executions that had seemed endless were finally nearing their end, yet everyone remained sharp and irritable, and the shouting continued together.
In the midst of this, only the separate palace remained quiet and peaceful, as if it belonged to another world.
A woman carefully opened a door guarded by knights and stepped inside.
On the large bed, a boy who looked about five years old was sound asleep.
The elderly wet nurse Margerida, who had been dozing off in the chair beside the bed, jolted awake and noticed Hilda.
“Hilda.”
Hilda looked around the room as if searching for someone and asked,
“Where is Lady Priscilla?”
Hilda had been Priscilla’s attendant ever since Priscilla married Prince Cassian and entered the royal palace.
“She seems to have gone to the tower.”
“Again?”
Turning her worried face toward the window, Hilda stared outside for a moment, then lowered her gaze to the child who was sleeping without a care in the world.
The first thing that stood out was his sparkling platinum blond hair.
The late Prince Cassian had inherited his mother’s black hair. Because of that, when his son Lucian was born after his death, a monstrous rumor spread throughout the palace.
The rumor claimed that Lucian was not Prince Cassian’s child at all, but rather the child of his wife Priscilla and his half-brother Elizer.
Naturally, the Dazbel Ducal Family, which was the former queen’s family, did not sit quietly.
There were countless assassination attempts targeting the newborn child.
Their long and exhausting life on the run finally ended only when the young King Elizer returned from the war and offered them a place in the deepest part of Elmaril’s separate palace.
The separate palace, guarded layer upon layer by the king’s knights in blue cloaks, felt like a paradise. Even though nearly half a year had passed since they moved there, Hilda still sometimes found this peace unbelievable.
Perhaps that was why, even though the duke had finally been executed and the Dazbel Ducal Family had collapsed, she felt as if it was not truly over.
Her mistress Priscilla seemed to feel the same. She left the separate palace every day to stare at the severed head of Duke Leonard of Dazbel displayed on the castle wall.
Hilda worried over how often Priscilla wandered outside the separate palace, but she pretended not to notice her mistress’s restless movements.
However, because the message she carried today was important, she finally made up her mind and began climbing the tall tower.
“…Lady Priscilla.”
As expected, Priscilla stood at the top of the tower that directly overlooked the castle wall, gazing upon the heads of the Dazbel retainers.
Hilda unconsciously followed her gaze. At that moment, the guards were moving to take several of the heads down. Even in the cold weather that slowed decay, they could not remain on the wall forever.
Hilda watched Priscilla quietly. She wondered whether their deaths had eased Priscilla’s suffering even a little.
It was then that Priscilla suddenly muttered to herself.
“Strangely, it does not feel satisfying at all.”
“…”
“I thought I would feel better once all of them were dead, but I do not. Is that not strange, Hilda?”
Priscilla’s voice was completely calm, and Hilda’s expression twisted with unpreventable sorrow.
“Perhaps it is only natural. Their deaths do not erase what happened that day, and they do not bring Cassian back.”
Hilda did not know how she could possibly comfort her. Yet she knew one thing for certain.
“But it was something you had to do, my lady.”
Priscilla had survived that day, and those who survived were obligated to avenge the dead.
Priscilla remained silent for a moment, lost in thought, before she finally turned to her.
“Yes. You are right.”
Seeing the faint smile on Priscilla’s lips, Hilda felt a small sense of relief.
Priscilla began to step away from the tower as if she intended to leave, then asked Hilda,
“So what brought you all the way up here? You could have waited below.”
The smile Hilda had unconsciously mirrored fell away at once, replaced by seriousness.
“…It is bad news.”
Priscilla slowed her steps without realizing it at Hilda’s ominous tone.
“What is it?”
“That is… it seems Leonard’s daughter has conceived.”
And the moment Hilda whispered this after much hesitation, Priscilla stopped walking completely.
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