The Crack
The seizures continued for days after Karina was brought down from the guillotine.
At first she suffered from a violent fever that racked her entire body. Once the fever broke, she began to faint and convulse in turns, as though her mind had completely left her.
Eating was out of the question. Even drinking water was a small mercy, and she only managed it after forcing every maid to taste it first, screaming that they were trying to poison her.
Whether her eyes were closed or open, hallucinations tormented her. No matter how tightly she covered her ears, the auditory hallucinations persisted. The countless pairs of eyes that had stared at her from the crowd as she stood before the guillotine. The jeers that had poured down on her the moment someone shouted that she had insulted Ishtel Regentra.
No. I suffered more. I hurt more. So why are they cursing me? All I did was humiliate that woman a little. Is that really something worth condemning? Something that deserves to have my head cut off on the guillotine?
Where the intense terror had passed, only incomprehensible questions remained.
Why was no one taking her side? Why had the very people who once called her the hope of the commoners turned on her so coldly?
With nothing left but resentment and despair, Karina clutched at her aching chest, buried her face in the pillow, and screamed at the top of her lungs.
“M-My lady. The Countess of Bladin has arrived.”
At the trembling maid’s report, Karina violently threw off the blanket she had pulled over her head.
“Bring her in at once!”
At Karina’s roar, the maid fled without looking back and quickly returned with Ebony Bladin.
Ebony took one look at Karina and clicked her tongue loudly enough to be heard. The woman’s silver hair was a tangled mess, her eyes bloodshot and wild. Her clothes were thrown on haphazardly and her body had grown painfully thin. It was obvious at a glance that she had been living like a madwoman for days.
“How pitiful. She’s gone completely insane. Well, after what she went through, I suppose it’s only natural.”
Karina climbed down from the bed and shuffled over to stand before Ebony, who was gazing at her with open contempt. Then she snatched up the glass of water on the table.
Splash—
In the blink of an eye, cold water flew into Ebony’s face. The elegant hairstyle she had carefully arranged collapsed, drenched and limp.
“Ha……”
A stunned sigh escaped Ebony’s frozen lips. Water streamed down her hair and dripped from her chin. The purple eyes that usually held an air of lazy amusement flashed with murderous intent.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You crazy bitch!”
Karina shrieked and raised her hand. This time, Ebony did not simply take the blow. She shot out her own hand and caught Karina’s wrist mid-air. The slender wrist was trapped in Ebony’s iron grip, halted in place.
“You really are out of your mind! Otherwise you wouldn’t have stood there laughing at me!”
Karina remembered the way Ebony had smiled at her that day. Even in her nightmares, that chilling expression haunted her.
While she stood on the guillotine platform being jeered at by the crowd, she had spotted a familiar face in the distance. It was Ebony Bladin, standing among the people and watching her.
Countess, why are you there? You’re supposed to help me! Why are you just watching?!
With the gag in her mouth, she had desperately tried to speak. She had screamed with her eyes, never blinking once.
But Ebony had simply smiled back at her. A cruel, delighted smile that said she was thoroughly enjoying the show.
“You were the one who told her, weren’t you? You told the Marchioness of Lilche to kill me! How did you even know?! You damn—”
She should have realized the moment Ebony mentioned that she was from a family that had been purged. It wasn’t something to simply brush off. She should have found out how and where Ebony had heard it, then taken measures.
“This is rather unfair, don’t you think? Why are you so certain it was me? The person who knew that fact from the beginning wasn’t me—it was Ishtel Regentra.”
“She would never have done that!”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I saw it. When I was being dragged out of the imperial palace, I saw the look on her face. It wasn’t her.”
When Karina muttered in a dazed voice, Ebony burst into loud laughter.
“My, what a magnificent mind reader we have here. You can tell just by looking at someone’s face? Goodness, I can’t even begin to comprehend the absurdity.”
“If it wasn’t you, then why were you just standing there watching while my neck was about to be cut off? You were laughing like you were having the time of your life!”
Another furious scream tore from Karina. Ebony quickly raised both hands and covered her ears.
“Yes, that’s right. It was me. So shut your mouth and be quiet. My head hurts!”
Raising her voice louder than ever before, Ebony grabbed Karina by the shoulders and shoved her roughly into the nearby chair. When Karina tried to stand, Ebony seized her arm and pushed her deeper into the seat.
“You should have done exactly as I told you! You should have run to His Majesty, thrown yourself at his feet, cried and screamed and threatened to die unless he made you empress! Because you hesitated, we ended up with that ridiculous amnesty as an extra variable!”
Karina was shocked by Ebony’s unusually fierce reaction. She bit her lip and glared, eyes wide.
“The Marchioness of Lilche—that damned old hag Bellona Regentra—was the one who put on that whole show to obtain the amnesty in the first place, damn it! Even without you acting out, I feel like I’m going insane, so please, for the love of God, stop making things worse and stay still!”
Ebony took a deep breath, as if trying to calm her rage.
“You saw it too, didn’t you? How utterly worthless your life is. What was it they called you? The pride of the commoners? Their hope? Don’t make me laugh. No matter how hard you struggle or squirm, the moment you touched Ishtel Regentra, you became nothing.”
“What did you say?”
“Everyone pitied you when they thought you were being executed simply because you were a descendant of Fabiel Regentra. But the instant they heard you had insulted Ishtel Regentra, they turned their backs on you. That’s exactly how much you’re worth. Do you understand?”
Ebony regretted provoking the Marchioness of Lilche so hastily.
She had been certain the emperor would not abandon Karina. That was why she had set everything in motion. She had believed that once Karina stood on the guillotine and tasted her own powerlessness, she would desperately move to become empress.
But the result had been disastrous. In the end, she had practically handed the amnesty to the Regentra family on a silver platter. She had only succeeded in broadcasting Ishtel’s mercy before the entire empire—how graciously she had taken in the descendant of a traitor.
“We underestimated Ishtel Regentra far too much. To think she would save you again after all that.”
Ebony remembered the cheers and roars the crowd in the plaza had sent toward Ishtel that day.
The sole daughter of the ducal house that would produce the next crown princess. A young woman who had lost both parents in childhood and then lost her fiancé, yet still devoted herself to caring for the imperial family.
She was the bridge connecting the imperial family and the Regentra ducal house, the two powers that divided the empire. The people’s belief that her existence brought peace between the two families and prevented war was incredibly firm.
Ebony herself had been inwardly surprised. She had not realized Ishtel Regentra was loved to such an extent. And because of that, the situation felt all the more hollow.
“Isn’t it hilarious? In the beginning, you hadn’t done anything wrong. You were simply… born as the descendant of a traitor. Saving one pitiful girl like that—how is that such a grand act that she receives thunderous applause while you become the villain of the world and get cursed at……”
As Ebony slowly lifted her head, her eyes met her own reflection in the mirror across the room. The long scar beside her left eye stood out clearly.
The words she had spoken to Karina sounded exactly like something she would say to herself.
I didn’t… want to be born this way either……
For a brief moment, Ebony sank into sentimentality, then shook her head and pulled herself out of the emotional mire. She quickly curved her lips into her usual smile.
“Still, it was a clear lesson, wasn’t it? As long as you are not standing in a position higher than Ishtel Regentra, you could be dragged back up onto that platform at any time. To be executed amid the people’s jeers, without a single shred of sympathy.”
Ebony raised a finger and drew it across her own throat in a slicing motion. Then she finally released Karina’s shoulders.
She swept back her still-damp bangs.
“I’ll overlook today’s rudeness. Even I have to admit I deserved at least one slap. But there won’t be a second time. So from now on, pull yourself together and start thinking about how to obtain the position of Duchess of Rockfelt, Karina Regentra.”
At the sound of her real name spoken in Ebony’s gentle voice, Karina let out a loud, mocking laugh.
“Are you sure that’s all right? Even if I become empress?”
Karina rose from the chair, stepped close to Ebony, and whispered.
“Once I become empress and then empress dowager, the first person I’ll kill is you.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Even at Karina’s provocation, Ebony didn’t bat an eye. Instead, she looked down at her with an amused chuckle.
“If I live long enough for you to become empress dowager, I suppose I’m fated to enjoy a very long life. Do as you please. Whether you set me up in the plaza and cut off my head, or drag my corpse out of its coffin for a posthumous execution—it’s entirely up to you.”
With an almost affectionate gesture, Ebony adjusted the shawl that had slipped from Karina’s shoulder.
“Take good care of your health. You’ll need to live longer than me if you want to kill me or spare me, after all.”
Leaving behind an unpleasant smile, Ebony walked out of the room with steady footsteps.
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”
Left alone, Karina paced back and forth across the room, biting her lip until it bled.
The fact that everything that cunning woman Ebony Bladin had said was true cut her to the bone.
She never wanted to be dragged to the guillotine again. She never wanted to stand before the people and be condemned and jeered at again.
「Descendant of a traitor, never forget the Duchess’s mercy!」
The voices of the people shouting at her echoed in her mind.
Absurdly, what that day’s events had left her with was not gratitude toward the duchess. As Ebony had said, it was a firm resolution to rise to a position higher than the duchess so that such a day would never repeat itself.
Karina grabbed the water glass that had rolled across the table. With a scream full of rage, she hurled it violently. The glass shattered against the wall into a thousand pieces.
“Ha…… How did I…… end up like this……”
With a self-mocking laugh, tears began to fall.
She wanted to live. She had struggled so desperately to survive, yet the harder she fought, the more it felt as though an inescapable fate was tightening around her throat.
The fact that she had to continue living on the emperor’s interest and the people’s pity filled her with despair.
She could not deny what Ebony had said. To survive on her own, she needed a power stronger than what she possessed now.