May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 19.1
It was full spring, yet a cold wind still swept through the garden. The clouds parted completely, and bright white moonlight fell directly over the two of them.
“Goodness. Your face is badly damaged.”
Priscilla spoke in a polite, composed manner.
A murderer, and acting like that.
Reyna felt her heart race with fury, heat rising sharply in her head.
“So it was you.”
Priscilla tilted her head as if she really did not understand.
“What are you talking about?”
“You killed Karla.”
“Karla?”
“You gave poison to my maid.”
Priscilla fell silent, wearing a faint, ambiguous smile.
Reyna felt certain.
“You killed her.”
Silence hung between them.
Reyna’s body shook as she glared at Priscilla. She could not tell if it was from cold or rage.
Priscilla remained still for a while, quietly meeting Reyna’s gaze.
“Me?”
Then she spoke, as if mocking the very idea.
Clearly it was a sneer. Reyna was momentarily struck dumb by how outrageous it was. Her hands and jaw trembled with anger so intense her mind went blank.
She wanted to strangle the woman in front of her.
She wanted to kill her.
Yet even with that deadly look in her eyes, Priscilla did not flinch in the slightest.
“Only the Queen would think such a thing in this palace.”
She stepped closer, her voice carrying an almost playful note.
“I do not know how your maid got her hands on the poison, but… I think I know why she swallowed it.”
“What do you mean?”
Reyna considered grabbing Priscilla by the hair, appalled by her shamelessness.
“When my husband Cassian was killed by Leonard Dazbel, I wanted to end my own life.”
Reyna froze as Priscilla continued to speak.
Elizer had become king. Both Prince Cassian, who competed for the throne, and Prince Tiberian were dead.
When Reyna first heard this story, she had felt relief that Elizer survived the chaos, and gratitude to God.
The princes’ deaths were tragic, but inevitable. If Prince Tiberian had not died, Prince Cassian would have, and if Prince Cassian had not died, Elizer would have.
“If you do not kill, you die. That is how the world works.”
Reyna had learned this harsh reality naturally from a very young age.
She knew the cruelty of her father and older brother. They had only allowed her to remain ignorant because they wished her to be so. That was how she survived.
“But there was a child in my womb. That is why I survived.”
Reyna could not hide her trembling eyes, while Priscilla spoke calmly, as if recounting an ancient story.
Priscilla stepped closer.
“And what about your maid?”
Reyna instinctively stepped back.
“She lost everything.”
She shook her head without realizing why. She could not even understand what she was denying.
Priscilla did not stop.
“Those who have lost everything cannot survive. Asking her to continue living is truly selfish.”
Reyna recalled the words she had whispered while holding Karla’s hand, urging her to hold on.
“You say I killed your maid? Impossible. She ended her own life.”
Karla had wanted to die. That fact was undeniable. Yet, and yet…
“If you had not given her that poison, at least she would not have died in such pain.”
Karla had died in extreme agony.
Reyna was not oblivious.
“You think I did not notice? You wanted to torment me, and made Karla die in such a horrific way.”
Priscilla shook her head slightly.
“No, Queen. Your maid died like that because of you.”
“How dare you… how can you say that? You gave her the poison. If not for you…”
“You could have sent your maid out of this vast prison, but you kept her by your side. You could not bear to be without her.”
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