Blood, and the Empire - 11
Sierty smiled faintly as she hid her hands behind her back.
Click.
She gently pressed the lock with her thumb and gripped the dagger tightly.
Carten glared at her with irritation, still unaware of what was happening after her sudden entrance.
Even beneath his furious gaze, Sierty simply lowered her head in silence.
He finally lost his patience and exploded.
“Now you don’t even know your place? You barge in without knocking?!”
“I apologize. There is an urgent matter.”
Sierty bowed at the waist.
Carten, seething with rage, strode over and planted himself in front of her.
Then.
Slap—!
He struck her cheek again while panting. Her expressionless head snapped to the side.
Carten pinched her reddened cheek and thrust his excited face close.
“Hey, you bastard. Forgotten my temper, have you? Huh?”
“....”
Sierty met his eyes with an emotionless stare.
Those bloodshot eyes that had once terrified her so much. Now, they felt… how to describe it.
“Ha.”
She could not hold back the hollow laugh.
It could not be helped.
Whenever Carten dragged up her younger sister and her, threatening to cut them loose or toss them as pig feed, he always wore exactly that look.
Carten twisted his face in disgust.
Perhaps his pride had been scratched.
“You’re laughing? This bastard is laughing? Want to die for real today?”
“...I’m sorry.”
“Ha… fuck. I should have drowned you together with your sister somewhere….”
Carten gave her cheek another light slap as he jeered.
Sierty bit her lip hard.
Not to endure some petty resentment.
She was biting back laughter because it was simply too funny.
“Kheup… keup.”
Yet the laughter still burst free.
When Carten frowned and stared at her as if she were bizarre, it only grew.
“Puhahahahat! Kruh… kuhahahahat!”
Sierty cackled wildly.
‘All this time, I was taking orders from a piece of filth like this?’
What had Carten ever done?
He possessed no exceptional talent; he had simply held their weaknesses hostage and blackmailed them.
This was ridicule. Scorn directed at Sierty herself.
“This bastard’s gone insane.”
Carten seized her collar and growled like a threat.
At the sight of his face warped with rage, a smile rose to her lips.
It looked exactly like a mutt yelping.
If he had possessed even a shred of sense, he would have realized she was hiding a dagger.
“Shall we make a scene today?”
“As you command. I… kruh, I’m sorry.”
Sierty spoke between giggles.
Carten must have begun sensing something wrong; he studied her face with a bewildered expression.
Sierty lowered her head and muttered.
“He still thinks he’s the king… that pig.”
“Pig? Me? Let’s really die today!”
Carten slammed her against the wall.
Breathing raggedly with heightened emotion, he clenched her collar with all his strength.
Sierty sneered at the sight of his eyes—eyes containing nothing but ignorant, misplaced fury.
“A pig… yes. This is slaughter. Killing a person brings guilt. Killing a pig is simply a livelihood, isn’t it?”
“You, don’t tell me….”
Squelch.
A short, wet tearing sound. The sensation of the blade piercing flesh traveled up her hand.
Carten’s face went slack.
For a moment, as if he could not comprehend the situation, he looked down with trembling eyes.
A knife was buried in his stomach.
Carten’s face twisted in agony.
The hand gripping her collar naturally lost strength, so Sierty slipped free with ease.
“Huaaack! Huaaaaack!”
Carten screamed, clutching the wound that spurted blood in heavy pulses.
He rolled across the floor, squealing in a disgraceful manner.
Sierty watched in silence with an emotionless expression.
His pathetic figure reflected clearly in her blue eyes.
“Did you know? They speak of reaping what you sow….”
“You… you bastard…! Did the Imperial Palace order this?!”
“I believed it once, when I was young. These days my thoughts differ. What is ‘good rewarded and evil punished’? It is simply punishing evil. From my perspective, if it is evil, that is enough.”
Squelch.
Sierty muttered indifferently and drove the blade into Carten’s back.
Squelch.
Once more.
The screams were so sweet she could not resist.
Though she tried to remain calm, her eyes flashed with wild glee.
An ecstasy she could not suppress.
“You are a target for punishment. Do you understand? No matter how I reflect on it, I am no saint. I will fall into hell.”
“E-even now, if you stop… I’ll overlook the crime….”
“President. You expect me to believe that?”
Sierty tilted her head and gazed at him with curious eyes.
Carten glared at her with bulging eyes, teeth clenched against the pain. Tears streamed down his face.
How fortunate.
“Do you know how I climbed this high?! A bastard like you!”
“Of course I know. I know perfectly well, you pig bastard.”
Sierty made an effort to smile as gently as possible.
Like a merchant conducting business.
It was the moment Carten’s eyes began to fill with terror.
“Let us approach this as businesslike as possible.”
“...Business?”
Carten wore a vacant, stupid expression.
“What would I gain by saving you, President? Nothing. No matter how I consider it, there is nothing. You would kill us anyway. Therefore, make your offer first. This is work. Work.”
“...M-my entire fortune!”
“Where is it? The safe password?”
“T-that’s…!”
Sierty had been speaking softly but suddenly twisted her face at his words.
She raised the dagger high.
Squelch!
The instant Carten’s face filled with horror, she drove the blade through the back of his hand.
It reached the floor, so it had pierced straight through.
“Huaaack! Huaaaa!”
“...Your life is on the line right now. It is work. Work. Do you understand? Speak quickly.”
“I-I’ll give you all the money you want! Hic!”
Carten trembled across his entire body as he begged.
Sierty knelt to meet his eye level.
Smiling faintly, she stroked his head.
“I am still a novice at killing… so please understand? Responding emotionally will only make it hurt more. B-u-s-i-n-e-s-s. This is a job.”
“Huuuu… I-I’ll talk if you spare me!”
“Hey, you bastard.”
Sierty let out a deep sigh, stood, and kicked his head.
Thud!
Meeting her contempt-filled eyes, Carten finally realized and let out a small groan.
“Ah….”
“Speak properly while I am still asking nicely.”
“...1884.”
“Is that the truth? No matter how I look at it, this seems like a lie.”
Sierty tilted her head and pulled the dagger free from his hand.
She seized his jaw with a crushing grip. Carten, terrified beyond measure, could not even meet her gaze.
“Huu… hiiik….”
“From now on you will live for me. Understand? But I need you. Therefore, tell me the safe code quickly.”
“1984, it’s 1984!”
“...Really? Look straight into my eyes, bastard.”
Sierty stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes. She wrenched his jaw forcefully to make him meet her gaze.
His pupils shook erratically.
‘...It is not a lie.’
To cling to the money even when cornered this far—he deserved recognition for that.
“You know? I did intend to spare you. The person from the Imperial Palace said they would kill you and seat me as owner. They already knew about your treason, didn’t they?”
“...You… fucking…!”
“But I have some entanglements of my own… you know. I also took bribes. Right? There is a way for both of us to live together amicably. Get up.”
Sierty smiled brightly and pulled at his mangled hand.
“Huaaack!”
“Get up. If you wish to live.”
Carten somehow rose to his feet.
Even while staggering, the single-minded glare that said he would kill her remained.
She almost wanted to applaud. She meant it. How could he be so naïvely foolish?
“Send the messenger bird. Tell them you have been discovered.”
“....”
With his one remaining, trembling hand, Carten quickly found paper and began to write.
‘Ha.’
A smile spread across her lips.
It was obvious. The words the letter would contain were all too predictable.
Sierty quietly moved behind him while he focused on the letter. Bloodstained dagger still in one hand.
“...Sierty has betrayed. Please help me. Something like that.”
“Hik! Hiiik!”
Carten flinched violently at her whisper.
“I see. At last I can receive a truly refreshing answer….”
Sierty flicked the dagger free and hurled it.
Squelch.
A heavy, dull tearing sound. The blade embedded precisely in the center of his forehead.
She let out a small, appreciative “Ah.”
“You… fuck….”
Carten fell backward with a hollow laugh.
“...I never planned to spare you from the beginning. Yet you continued like this until the very end. Quite admirable.”
“....”
“Isn’t that right, Carten? Ah, of course. Dead men tell no tales. This… truly… I should not have killed with emotion.”
Sierty cleared the paper aside and composed a new letter.
The reason she had made Carten write was to summon the delivery bird.
Carten is dead.
Sierty tried her utmost to remain calm.
The corners of her mouth kept twitching upward, but she had to endure.
“From now on… I am the owner of the merchant guild. Let us not think emotionally.”
Silence settled.
“Ah, but that man Haim still pleases me so much… hssss….”
Sierty hummed a little tune as she pulled the dagger from Carten’s forehead.
“Now I must live for myself, for my own desires.”
To take what she wanted, to seize every goal.
“Yes. From now on, it is for me.”
Sierty murmured.
“Solely.”
She slipped the dagger into her bosom.
“For me, for Sierty.”