The Witch and the Playwright (2)
The cage was crudely fashioned, as if someone had simply wanted to transport a beast. Thick wooden bars, a floor strewn with straw—and inside it, she sat. My Karin, with those jewel-like, beautiful red eyes.
The soldiers escorting the sturdy cage moved with agonizing slowness for men transporting a criminal whose face was plastered on wanted posters across the entire Imperial Capital. It was as though they were deliberately dragging their feet, lowering their pace as much as possible. They didn’t even bother to stop the likes of me from clinging to the bars.
Watching them, I suddenly understood their intent.
This was a public humiliation.
The Empire was a nation where the emperor was chosen by electors—noble houses with vast territories and ancient lineages that had existed since the Empire’s founding, along with powerful lords who commanded strong private armies. No matter how exalted the title of emperor might sound, one could not rule properly while hated by those influential nobles. In truth, one could not even survive for long.
In such an Empire, an entire ducal house—one that held electoral rights and still wielded considerable power—had been utterly destroyed. Whether the accusation was true or a false charge, the one named as the culprit was Karin. The emperor could not let that stand. Regardless of the actual truth, once a perpetrator had been identified, a show of severe punishment was necessary. For the other nobles who could interfere with imperial authority. For the emperor himself. And to prevent the country from tearing itself apart.
Therefore, the miserable state of the condemned had to be displayed for all to see. To convince the electors, and to set an example for the common people—who had always formed the foundation of governance in every era. To make it known that daring to strike at the heart of power would lead to this fate: being dragged through the streets in utter disgrace.
I stared for a long time at Karin as she wore shackles connected to an iron ball that looked heavier than her own body, gazing with a dazed expression at the jeering crowd.
Then something caught my eye.
“…Ugh.”
Her wrists. Where her hands should have been, there was nothing. The stumps were wrapped in bandages so neatly it was almost beautiful; they must have used proper medical techniques and spent a great deal of money on the amputation. After all, the end of someone who had touched a great noble needed to be displayed as pathetically as possible.
Her mouth was not gagged, her eyes were not covered, yet she simply stared blankly at the spectators who hurled humiliating insults at her. She said nothing. She did not even cry.
While I stood there, torn between fear that Karin might look my way and an inability to tear my gaze from her, a heavy hand settled on my shoulder.
“…Iskil.”
Wolf called my name in a low, sunken voice.
“End it here for today.”
“Pardon?”
“…This will be the last day you can see Kaira… no, your Karin. Why don’t you follow the cart?”
“But……”
I clenched my teeth. The grinding sound must have reached Wolf as well.
“I… I can’t do something like that, like those spectators…… Even though Karin is already being so pitifully humiliated, I can’t add to her shame……”
“That’s not what this is.”
Wolf’s powerful grip tightened on my body and forcibly turned me to face him.
“You still love that girl, don’t you? And you believe she still harbors feelings for you. If that’s what both of you think, then you’re not merely a spectator. You’re just……”
Wolf clasped both hands over my right one, holding it tightly. The large street performer, wearing an unexpectedly wistful expression that didn’t suit his massive frame, looked up at the clouds rising beyond the buildings at the edge of the street and continued.
“You’ve simply come to watch her final journey.”
Even as he spoke, the cart continued to crawl along at a snail’s pace, still within our sight. I gave Wolf a slight bow in gratitude for his insight, then ran.
“Karin!!”
When I reached her cage in a clamor and called out her false name, those two red eyes finally turned toward me.
“Sir Iskil……”
Emotion had seemed to have vanished from her face, but now an expression returned. Her eyes, which had begun to swell with tears, squeezed shut. Tears traced down her bruised and torn cheeks.
I followed the cage in which Karin was imprisoned all day long. Wolf, who had closed up shop and packed away all his tools, eventually followed me as well.
As Wolf had said, today was truly the last day I could see her. After circling the Imperial Capital, Karin’s cart would leave through the gates and she was scheduled to be burned outside the city.
We called each other’s names only once, then said nothing more. We simply exchanged glances from time to time. Because I believed it would be cruel to leave her with lingering attachments that might prevent her from leaving this world in peace.
Beyond the northern gate, where the towering imperial palace loomed in view, stood the execution ground. It was said that wicked mages and cultists were burned alive there as purification by fire, but I had heard that in recent years the punishment was considered too cruel and had not been carried out. The nearly abandoned execution site was nevertheless packed today with spectators who had trailed the cage all the way here to witness the witch’s end. I hoped this cursed ground would never again be filled with people like this.
There must have been a separate reason to revive this long-forgotten punishment for Karin… for the hero Kaira. The massacre she had committed was a grave crime, and the symbolic weight of the title “hero” was simply too great.
The soldiers guarding the cage opened the barred door and dragged out Karin, whose hands had been severed. She frowned slightly at the painful grip but offered no resistance as she was pulled free.
The officer who seemed to be in command looked her up and down. His expression was not hostile. If anything, it held a trace of sympathy.
After a long moment of hesitation, he drew his sword and tore a strip from the bottom of the ragged clothes she wore. I tensed, wondering if he meant to rape her before killing her, but instead he rolled the cloth into a bundle and held it out to her face.
“Being burned alive… is unimaginably painful. I don’t know how much this will help, but at least bite down on this. Grit your teeth and endure the pain even a little.”
Karin stared at the unexpected kindness with a dazed expression, then quietly answered and opened her mouth.
“Thank you.”
The officer looked at her with a complicated expression as she opened her mouth for the gag. Before placing it, he asked one final question.
“Do you have any last words?”
At those words, Karin’s face showed a flicker of emotion. She hesitated, then slowly looked around at the crowd that had gathered to watch her. And then our eyes met.
The face that had been empty, as if she had given up on the world, transformed. It became the warm smile she had shown me in bed—the smile like sunlight, like the hearth in winter.
Her lips moved silently while her gaze remained fixed on me. I poured every ounce of concentration I possessed into reading them.
…….
Immediately after, Karin spoke to the officer in a voice that sounded freed of all regret.
“I have said everything I needed to say.”
“Hm? But you didn’t……”
“…It’s all right. I truly have said everything I wanted to.”
The officer tilted his head with a pitying look, then carefully placed the torn rag between her teeth and secured it firmly.
“Mmph……”
Now I would never hear her voice again.
“…This is all I can do within my authority. I’m sorry, hero.”
After a long hesitation, he whispered softly.
“I lost my younger brother on the northern front during that war. Thank you for defeating the Demon King. Hero Kaira.”
From what I had heard while collecting wanted posters, very few people truly believed that the hero Kaira was the witch who had massacred a ducal house.
Most thought it was nothing more than propaganda to purge a hero who had become unnecessary in peacetime, that she was simply a victim of a power struggle. As a result, Karin received a great deal of sympathy.
It seemed this officer was one of those people.
Karin listened to his words with a calm expression, then was led by the soldiers toward a wooden post. Even though this was the site where people were burned to death, there was only the single pillar. There were no bundles of kindling or firewood to be seen.
While I paced anxiously in place, Karin was tightly bound to the post with chains. Her face……
“Ah……”
Even now, just as when she had left her last words moments ago, she was looking straight at me with clear eyes. I covered my face with both hands and bowed my head.
…No. I can’t do this……
Yes. I mustn’t try to run away like this. Karin was looking at me until the very end… and she had even left those final words for me. Get a hold of yourself, Iskil. Karin is……
No.
The hero Kaira is the person you loved.
Your eyes were right. The woman who captivated you was not some ordinary prostitute who sold her body for money. She was a great hero who had performed lowly acts utterly beneath her noble body, enduring such humiliation in order to hide her identity.
You had the discernment to recognize a tragic hero who had accomplished feats no one else could imitate, yet who had been dragged down by the very weight of those achievements and become prey for the powerful.
Therefore……
Witnessing the hero’s end was also my duty. I could not flee from the tragic conclusion of the one-sided love… no, the love that had perhaps never been one-sided. I had to bring it to a close.
As I waited anxiously for Karin’s final moments, a mage wearing a black robe appeared in my sight, approaching her. Though the robe was pitch black, even someone like me—who knew nothing of clothing or mages—could tell at a glance that it was made from luxurious fabric that ordinary people rarely even glimpsed, carefully tailored with great care.
The mage who had slowly approached Karin removed the hood of the robe. Beautiful golden hair, clearly shaped with meticulous effort over a long time, cascaded down past her shoulders like a waterfall. I stared at it blankly and thought how beautiful it was.
“Do you recognize me, Hero Kaira?”
A beautiful, refined voice rang out. Yet I could sense it. Beneath that voice were thorns of deep resentment embedded.
“Mmph… mmphhh!!!”
Karin, who had been calm as if accepting death, began to thrash wildly the moment she saw the mage’s face. As though she had seen something she must never see, something like a ghost that could not exist in this world.
The officer who had gagged Karin hurried over to the mage with an obsequious expression.
“Forgive my rudeness, but the execution time set by His Majesty is now.”
The beautiful golden-haired mage glanced at the officer and said,
“Yes. If we don’t begin now, you will be in trouble. Shall we begin, then?”
As she spoke, the mage summoned a blindingly fierce flame above her palm, and
“Thank you for your consideration toward someone like me,”
the officer knelt before her with utmost politeness.
“Duchess von Mittenburg.”