Chapter 18
Chapter 18
The Executioner of Rondor (5)
Two knights dragged a condemned prisoner before me.
I suppressed the violent pounding of my heart.
The approaching knights looked directly at my face.
Perhaps because of my earlier words, the adults openly failed to hide their disgust while staring down at me.
I tried not to care.
Part of it was a reaction I was already used to.
So in response to their hostility, I jerked my chin toward the execution block.
The knights forced the man to kneel before it.
“...Hoo...”
Looking down at the prisoner collapsed before me, I quietly exhaled through parted lips where no one could hear.
Then I removed the sack covering the prisoner’s head.
Breathing heavily in panic, the prisoner had a cloth gag stuffed in his mouth.
It was the reaction of someone who realized death was approaching.
That vivid fear made my hands go numb.
Without realizing it, I swallowed dryly and looked around.
Every person of Rondor was watching my every move.
As though waiting to see whether I would lose my nerve or not.
There was no longer any path back.
From afar, Scholar Krellyn approached and showed me a document.
An execution order.
The prisoner’s name and crimes were written there.
At the bottom was Rondor’s crest.
The crest Vivian must have stamped herself.
“...”
Seeing the document cleared my confused thoughts slightly.
Vivian had already fulfilled her role.
I still remembered her trembling at the mere thought of killing someone.
I had even held her thin arm because I couldn’t stand watching her like that.
So I couldn’t stop now.
I set the document down on the ground.
Then I gripped the greatsword tightly with both hands.
Drawing in a breath, I loudly proclaimed,
“This criminal abandoned all human decency and committed crimes against three women. Through assault, rape, and violence, he disrupted the community and spread fear among its people. Therefore, under the name of Vivian Rondor, lord of Roktana and head of House Rondor, Kylo Allen, eldest son of House Allen, hereby sentences you to death.”
This excessive formality was the best attempt I could make to lessen my guilt.
Listening to his crimes, I understood he deserved death.
But was it truly alright for me to judge him?
I had no connection to this man.
I felt nothing toward him.
I did not hate him enough to cut off his head.
That was why this execution felt so difficult.
But still, I couldn’t stop.
-Slide.
I removed the cloth gag from his mouth.
Drooling like an animal, the man looked up at me.
I asked him,
“...Condemned prisoner Derian. Any final words?”
“I-I’ll never do it again. P-Please, mercy...”
“...”
The sight of the trembling man.
I clenched my teeth and looked up toward Vivian.
“...”
She was swallowing even more fear than I was.
Though we couldn’t speak to each other, we both understood.
No one else here carried responsibility for this man’s life.
Only Vivian and I did.
Vivian too was forcing out her own courage.
I could tell just from the way her wandering eyes kept turning toward me.
Her trembling hands gripped the arms of her chair tightly.
But even that wasn’t enough.
...Don’t look away.
I mouthed the words to her.
It was something I said for my own sake.
I felt like I could only do this if she kept watching me.
I saw Vivian’s eyes widen slightly.
“Hoo...!”
With a short exhale, I steeled myself.
I pushed aside my emotions for the moment.
I focused only on what needed to be done.
Then I raised the greatsword high.
“Hup!”
And swung it down.
“Next!”
The execution grounds grew quieter and quieter.
Before the executions began, the crowd had boiled with excitement from Kylo Allen’s provocations.
Now, however, seeing what he was actually doing left them cold and speechless.
Anyone would react that way.
Watching a fifteen-year-old boy, barely entering adolescence, mercilessly cut off human heads made it difficult to speak through the sheer wrongness of it.
Baellor felt the same.
At first he felt irritation and faint anger toward Kylo Allen.
Now he no longer did.
Instead, he watched the boy with complicated eyes.
Even Todd, his vice-commander, seemed affected.
Normally loud and constantly talking, Todd now remained silent.
Not a single person in the courtyard mocked Kylo Allen anymore.
Baellor originally thought Kylo might manage to execute one prisoner at most.
No matter how much a fifteen-year-old bragged, it was still just bravado. A child who had never killed before could never execute twenty people.
Most of the knights probably thought the same.
Baellor expected Kylo to understand reality after just one execution.
Necks did not sever as easily as people imagined, and the feeling of the blade biting through flesh was horrifying.
And if you failed to kill them in one strike, the screams of the condemned were far more horrifying than expected.
Baellor thought Kylo Allen would realize all this, take back his words, and abandon the executions.
He expected at least vomiting after seeing severed necks and smelling death itself.
He had been looking forward to seeing Kylo break down pathetically.
But Kylo Allen showed none of the reactions anyone expected.
Maybe only at the beginning.
Now he looked no different from a human butcher.
No matter how desperately the prisoners begged for mercy or struggled, he swung the sword coldly.
He severed the heads of strangers without hesitation.
Even drenched in blood, even while dead prisoners emptied their bowels and bladders, he never gagged once.
Baellor watched Kylo Allen.
Watched him rest the blood-soaked greatsword upon his shoulder.
The twelfth headless corpse was dragged out of the execution grounds.
Kylo Allen looked toward Baellor and said,
“Next.”
“...”
Baellor swallowed hard.
A faint chill crawled along his arms.
This was grotesque.
There was no other word for it.
People’s nature never changed.
That was Baellor’s belief.
...And watching Kylo Allen now felt like standing before a young dragon.
The knights of the First Order dragged out the next prisoner.
Kylo Allen turned once more and prepared for the next execution.
Todd whispered beside Baellor,
“Isn’t that bastard insane?”
“...”
“...Is this really his first time killing people?”
Baellor himself first killed a person at twenty-three.
Though it happened fifteen years ago, he still remembered it clearly.
It was during a minor skirmish with the Kingdom of East.
The person he killed had merely been an enemy soldier, yet the guilt from taking a life left Baellor unable to properly hold a sword for days afterward.
Now he was used to killing, but back then it had definitely shaken him.
So what exactly was that boy?
Instead of stopping after one execution as expected, he looked ready to execute all twenty prisoners in a single day.
He didn’t even seem afraid.
Cold eyes.
Firm posture.
Movements without hesitation.
Baellor could not begin to imagine what kind of monster House Allen had been raising.
He had heard rumors once.
That the eldest son of House Allen possessed extraordinary talent with the sword.
That the retainers of House Allen constantly praised him.
That he was perhaps a talent equal to Royce Rondor.
...But now Baellor understood.
Kylo Allen was something even beyond Royce Rondor.
What would happen once such a monster fully matured?
Northerners grew enormous.
Even now, that not-yet-grown boy was already like this.
Someday perhaps... he might become even more renowned than the Unbeaten Knight, Jade Allen himself.
Kylo Allen was different.
Strong.
His nature showed through.
Though he was the hateful son of the Unbeaten Knight, there were moments Baellor almost found him admirable.
Baellor’s feelings grew more complicated.
He could not take his eyes off Kylo Allen for even a moment.
.
.
.
Vivian silently watched Kylo Allen as well.
Each time he cut down another head, blood sprayed across his face and arms, staining him red.
It was because of her choice that he became executioner.
And he was doing exactly what he promised.
“I can kill if it’s something that has to be done.”
He was doing what had to be done.
Without hesitation.
Without trembling.
“I told you I’d prove you really are weak. If we carry the same burden, then later you won’t be able to make excuses.”
And the more he continued, the more overwhelming his strength felt.
It was obvious through actions alone who was truly strong and who was weak.
Even the retainers who once subtly looked down on Vivian were now visibly shocked by Kylo Allen.
Behind Vivian, Treasurer Brinden whispered to Intelligence Officer Nestor,
“...At first he seemed hesitant... perhaps I imagined it.”
Nestor was a tall man in his early thirties.
With narrow eyes and a love for uncovering others’ secrets, he was a man avoided by everyone.
Nestor nodded at Brinden’s words.
“...Judging by his actions, no one would believe today is the first time he’s killed someone.”
Lady Linne whispered from behind them too.
“...Savage nature never changes.”
“Savagery alone does not fully explain this sight,” Nestor answered.
And he was right.
The single word savage could not explain Kylo’s actions.
If anything, formally announcing each prisoner’s crimes and listening to their final words before executing them looked far removed from barbarity.
Still, stroking his chin with long fingers, Nestor spoke as though he understood everything.
“I’ve seen many people in my life, and that boy seems mentally defective.”
“What do you mean?” Lady Linne asked with interest.
“There are some people incapable of empathizing with others at all. Such people feel no guilt over murder and possess no hesitation. Perhaps you could call them devil worshippers.”
Nestor’s voice dripped with disgust, as though discussing something filthy.
“That’s why his movements are so clean and efficient. Think about it. Doesn’t it make no sense? A fifteen-year-old child severing heads without hesitation.”
“...It certainly doesn’t.”
“He clearly has no resistance toward killing. He probably enjoyed brutally killing animals since childhood.”
“I see. So that’s simply how northerners are?”
“That too perhaps, but Kylo Allen is likely a monster even among northerners. Just look at everyone here. Their faces are filled with shock.”
Vivian looked around the courtyard after hearing those words.
Some maids had turned pale.
Others grimaced completely.
Some cursed openly, while others looked frightened by Kylo Allen’s actions.
It really was the expression people wore when staring at a monster.
And to some extent, Vivian understood.
Arguing against over a hundred people deep in enemy territory and cutting off heads as casually as slicing fruit was not normal.
Vivian looked back toward Kylo Allen.
Drenched in blood, steadying his breathing.
...A person incapable of understanding others’ emotions?
...Someone who felt no guilt over killing?
...A monster?
“...”
Vivian remembered Kylo Allen holding her trembling arm.
She remembered him honestly admitting he was afraid of performing executions.
Vivian hated Kylo Allen.
But she wasn’t blind enough to believe Nestor’s words.
The person she personally faced was not the monster everyone described.
He was simply another human being who felt fear when killing people.
He merely possessed enough resolve and courage to fool the adults around him.
He said that even if you were afraid, you still had to act or adults would look down on you.
...And just as he said, no one dared look down on Kylo Allen anymore.
Every time he executed someone, he looked up at her afterward.
That alone made it obvious he was no different from anyone else.
Though she didn’t know why, those glances toward her felt like the way Kylo gathered courage for himself.
As though he was forcing himself to keep killing because he refused to lose to her.
Because he promised to prove she was weak.
Because of that, an invisible exchange of emotions connected the two of them in a way no one else in the courtyard could see.
Vivian even began thinking there was no one here who understood Kylo’s true feelings better than she did.
He was afraid.
He didn’t want to do this.
And yet he still continued.
Each execution took away half the burden resting upon Vivian’s heart.
Though he claimed he only did it to defeat her, she could no longer deny that he was helping her.
Vivian still hated Kylo.
She still wished endless suffering upon him.
...But at least today, she felt he had already suffered enough.
Now she wanted to send him away.
Watching him continue fighting became painful.
“Haa... haa...”
I looked down at my hands.
After severing nineteen heads, I had been drenched in far too much blood.
The dried blood had hardened enough that my hands nearly stuck to the sword’s hilt.
But it was finally almost over.
Only one person remained.
The knights dragged out the final prisoner.
Immediately, I noticed the prisoner’s small frame.
The last prisoner was not a man.
It was a woman.
-Thud!
The knights forced her to kneel as well.
Unlike the men before her, restraining her against the execution block looked effortless.
“A knight must protect women and children.”
Father’s voice echoed in my mind.
“...”
But this was the last one.
If I killed just one more person, it would finally end.
I could carry Vivian Rondor’s burden for her to the very end.
Once I heard this woman’s crimes, executing her would become easier.
I checked the document Scholar Krellyn brought me.
Crime.
Witchcraft.
“...”
For a moment, my heart seemed to stop.
-Rip!
While I froze, the knights removed the sack covering the final prisoner’s head.
And I saw a face I could never forget.
“...Ah.”
It was the old woman who cursed me the day I arrived in Roktana.
The one who said I would die young.
That I would never have children, or if I did, they would be deformed.
And...
“You will fall in love with someone you must never love.”
She was the one who said those words.
As I froze, confused murmurs spread through the crowd.
Their gazes urged me onward.
“...This criminal is a witch.”
The words left me almost mechanically.
“Therefore, under the name of Vivian Rondor, lord of Roktana and head of House Rondor, Kylo Allen, eldest son of House Allen, hereby sentences you to death.”
With noticeably slower movements, I untied the cloth gag from her mouth.
Lying against the blood-soaked execution block, the old woman smiled at me.
“It’s been a while, Kylo Allen.”
“...”
Her mouth smiled, but hatred still burned vividly in her eyes.
The old woman whispered,
“Seeing your surroundings now, and seeing your face this closely... I no longer have any wishes left. You’re already living in hell.”
I swallowed hard.
Though I tightened my grip properly, the greatsword kept slipping in my hands.
Her crime was witchcraft.
She said it herself when she cursed me.
“I was never truly a witch... but if I really possessed such power... if I truly were the witch these people claimed...”
Someone who admitted herself to be a witch could never escape execution.
In the end, she was dying like this merely to leave behind a tiny fragment of discomfort inside me.
Without realizing it, I asked,
“...Were you truly a witch?”
The old woman only smiled.
“You should hope so.”
I realized there was nothing more to say between us.
Straightening my posture, I gripped the sword.
“...Any final words?”
“I hope my curse comes true.”
Maybe because this was the final execution, or maybe because my strength was fading, but I couldn’t lift the greatsword properly.
No matter how I steadied my breathing, it remained the same.
Slowly, hesitantly, I turned my head toward Vivian.
“...”
“...”
She was watching me.
While everyone else focused only on the prisoners and how their heads would fall...
...Vivian alone was watching me.
Only me.
I looked back down at the old woman.
...This time, I could raise the sword.
“Hup!”
-THUD!
The final head fell.
.
.
.
Once the executions ended, I stood silently before the execution block while catching my breath.
I had taken twenty lives.
Killed twenty people in a single day.
The feeling was numb and unreal.
Why was I even doing this?
What reason had I killed twenty people for?
As the crowd dispersed and everyone returned to their duties, I simply remained standing there.
Some called me a monster as they left.
Others cursed me as a savage northerner.
At the moment, none of it truly reached my ears.
There was a far more complicated battle raging inside me.
Then someone slowly walked toward me.
The sight of fluttering red hair pulled me back to reality.
“...”
Vivian Rondor.
For some reason, I immediately avoided her gaze.
I didn’t want to see her expression.
Instead, I clearly saw the disgusted expressions of the retainers behind her.
“You should stay away from monsters.”
The man behind Vivian advised her.
It was Rondor’s intelligence officer, Nestor.
Lady Linne fanned herself lightly.
“...The smell of blood is overwhelming.”
Treasurer Brinden shook his head while clicking his tongue at me.
“A northerner really is a northerner.”
...For some reason, those words hurt more than usual today.
Maybe because I had killed people, my emotions were more unstable.
It felt like they were condemning everything I had done.
“...”
And at moments like this, I still missed the comfort of my parents.
No matter how hard I tried, I suppose I was still far from becoming an adult.
What would Mother say if she saw me now as a murderer?
Would she still love me as her dependable eldest son?
Or would she ask how I could kill people for the sake of our enemies?
Suddenly everything I’d done felt foolish.
Maybe I really had gone insane.
Maybe the curse truly worked.
Why was I doing all this for Vivian?
The question overwhelmed me.
I felt pathetic enough that tears nearly rose.
I didn’t want Vivian seeing me like this.
Crying in front of her would be more humiliating than anything else.
After constantly telling her not to cry, there was no way I could cry before her now.
So I brushed off my arms and prepared to leave.
If I returned to my bed and lay there for a while, perhaps I’d feel better.
Besides, if Vivian looked at me with the same disgust as her retainers...
...Normally I might endure it, but right now, if even she looked at me like that... I felt like it would truly destroy me.
-Tap.
But before I realized it, Vivian stepped closer and grabbed my arm.
Startled, I immediately pulled away.
Sticky blood smeared across her hand.
“...What?”
Still frightened, I refused to look directly at her face.
I merely waited for her answer.
But even after a long time, she said nothing.
I couldn’t understand why she stopped me only to remain silent.
I had no room to spare anymore.
The more exhausted I became, the more irritation rose too.
I had already done enough for her.
I just wanted to leave.
At least right now, I didn’t have the strength left to fight with Vivian.
So I was about to tell her to let me go.
“...A-Are... you okay...?”
...Until she finally whispered.
I froze instantly at her voice.
Only then did I truly see her face.
It wasn’t the angry expression she usually wore toward me.
Nor was it her crying face.
It was something slightly dazed... with eyes softer and lower than usual...
An expression that almost looked worried.
Just for a fleeting moment, she revealed an emotion I never expected.
At the very least, it wasn’t the expression of someone looking at a monster.
“.......”
Had I ever imagined that when everyone else viewed me as a monster, she alone wouldn’t?
Wanting to hear her whispered words again, I simply stood there silently.
Perhaps realizing I hadn’t heard properly, Vivian’s lips moved again.
But instead, she merely turned away.
As though she couldn’t ask again.
Lady Linne, Brinden, and Nestor, who also seemed unable to hear what Vivian said, followed after her with puzzled expressions.
I looked down at my arm.
At the place Vivian briefly held.
...Did she really ask whether I was alright?
Vivian?
“...Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped my lips while I stood there stunned.
It was absurd.
Not Vivian’s actions.
My own state.
The fists I’d kept clenched finally loosened.
Strength drained from my legs.
The tension disappeared.
The crushing guilt pressing against my chest lightened.
Vivian’s brief touch and one worried question... had eased my pain.
Enough that I finally understood why I had done all this.