Lucas wanted to scream. He wanted to shout to kill that woman right now. But the guard knights were nowhere to be seen, and Elise was just trembling while holding Lucas’s arm.

‘Yes, Elise.’

It’s because of this woman.

Throwing the Franche family into the well, branding Roxiana as a slave, it was all Elise’s doing.

“It wasn’t me! It was all this woman’s doing!”

Lucas’s finger pointed at Elise. Lucas shook off Elise, who was still clinging to him in annoyance, and Elise, who had fallen down, looked up at Lucas in disbelief.

“It was this woman’s doing!”

Floyd laughed loudly.

“She alone managed to kill the entire Franche royal family, throw them in a well, and brand the princess as a slave? Just how much power does that woman have to do all that by herself?”

“That’s…!”

“Oh my, Crown Prince. That’s cheating. Trying to pin all the blame on a powerless woman like that. It’s too pathetic to do such a thing. Of course, you’re already overflowing with patheticness.”

Floyd laughed again, but no one laughed along.

Because this situation wasn’t funny at all. Even the nobles of Gania were swallowing dry heaves at the atrocious acts committed by their crown prince.

One country swallowing another could happen, but killing an entire royal family, even children, and throwing them in a well should never happen. On top of that, selling a woman who was once his fiancée as a slave. It was something even barbarians wouldn’t do.

Even if the Franche royal family had done the terrible things rumors suggested, they shouldn’t have been treated that way.

“Trying to cover up the fact that you threw corpses into a well by fabricating non-existent stories to tarnish the Franche royal family’s honor, and now trying to pin the blame on a powerless woman. No, no. That’s too ridiculous.”

“You bastard!”

Lucas clenched his fist and rushed at Floyd, but Kirshan blocked his way.

“Step back.”

“You dog of trash!”

“I’m a sick dog, so if I bite you, you might get rabies.”

Kirshan’s eyes gleamed dangerously. Only then did Lucas accept that he couldn’t reach Floyd.

Lucas looked around helplessly.

Accusing gazes pierced Lucas. Gazes of blame and contempt poured only on Lucas, not on Elise.

Lucas realized that no matter what he said now, he couldn’t make this situation seem like nothing was wrong.

“It wasn’t my doing! It seems none of you believe me, but I, who am innocent, don’t need to try to clear up your misunderstandings. The price for not believing those you should believe and believing those you shouldn’t will be great!”

After blurting out whatever came to mind without knowing what he was saying, Lucas fled the scene. Roxiana calmly watched as Elise hurriedly got up and followed Lucas.

Roxiana deliberately pinned all the blame on Lucas. She guided it so that only Lucas would receive criticism.

Lucas would hate Floyd and curse Roxiana, but he would resent Elise even more. To somehow restore their crumbling relationship, Elise would become even more reckless.

Roxiana slowly closed her eyes.

Murmuring sounds could be heard from here and there. Poor thing, how, terrible, pitiful, is it true, is this really happening, such words poured out simultaneously.

‘Yes, that’s right. I am pitiful. It’s terrible. I wish this wasn’t real.’

She wished that when she closed her eyes and opened them again, everything would be a dream. She desperately hoped that the sight before her eyes would be the familiar ceiling and the familiar scent would be wafting around.

“Well then.”

Casar’s voice rang out.

“We should go in now. Shouldn’t we give the princess time to bid farewell to her family?”

People wanted to stay longer to see the truth of this matter and its conclusion, but since it wasn’t noble etiquette to openly display such curiosity, everyone obediently followed Casar’s words.

As the surroundings quieted down, Roxiana slowly opened her eyes. And she walked towards her family members who were making strange sounds: woo-woo, woo-woo.

No trace of their beloved appearance could be found in her family members anymore. Cracked and hoarse voices, cloudy eyes, rotting and tattered flesh, dirty clothes, no longer affectionate gazes.

Though these things clawed at Roxiana’s heart, she gazed at her family without crying. She took in their last moments one by one with her eyes.

“Father.”

Her father’s headless body.

“Mother.”

Her motionless mother.

“Elder brother Ekion. Elder brother Ian. Elder brother Naufried.”

Her elder brothers.

“Winiel, Prisin. Benji.”

Her nephews.

“Edith, Elizabeth.”

Her elder brothers’ wives.

Roxiana stroked them one by one. Rotten bodily fluids stuck stickily to her palms, but even that was welcome.

My family. The family I longed to see. The family I loved dearly and will love forever. The family I will miss for a lifetime.

Wishing they could be by her side even in this state, wishing they could be by her side even in this terrible condition, Roxiana kept stroking her family members, unable to utter the words she needed to say.

Time continued to pass, but no one rushed Roxiana. Everyone stood quietly, waiting for her to bid farewell to her family.

Only after a long while did Roxiana remove her hands from her family and calmly say,

“I will surely avenge you. So please rest in peace. Don’t watch me become like an evil spirit, don’t be saddened by how I change, please close your eyes and ears quietly in God’s arms and rest comfortably.”

Roxiana took a step back and looked up at Floyd. Floyd was about to say it would be better not to watch, but he closed his mouth and nodded to the knight captains.

The knight captains took out daggers engraved with Adelia flowers from their chests. They stood in front of Roxiana’s family members they were each assigned to, placed their right fists on their left chests in respect, then raised their swords.

Roxiana watched without blinking as the sword tips pierced her family members’ hearts. She calmly observed as her family members, stabbed by Adelia’s weapons, stopped moving and slowly collapsed.

She took in every detail of the process as her family members, who had been wandering unable to return to God’s embrace, finally entered into rest.

Without crying or sobbing, she stood straight until her father finally fell.

But that was her limit.

When even her father collapsed, Roxiana crumbled, no longer able to bear the sorrow. The one who supported Roxiana’s body as she staggered and fell was.

“Princess!”

It was Robert.

Into Roxiana’s darkening vision, a middle-aged knight rushed in. Her eyes that were about to close widened and her closed lips parted.

“Robert……”

“Princess……”

His voice was hoarse beyond recognition, but his kind gaze hadn’t changed at all from back then.

My knight who had been by my side since I was a thoughtless tomboy princess. My knight whom I thought had died.

The moment she saw him, something she had been barely holding onto snapped, and tears overflowed.

“Robert, Robert. Ah, Robert. My family… my family is all dead, Robert. My family is all… Aah. Aaaah!”

No one dared to comfort Roxiana as she clung to her knight’s clothes and wailed pitifully like a child. Roxiana, in the arms of the knight who remembered every moment of her and her family, revealed all the sorrow she had never shown anyone before.

+++

Robert looked down at Roxiana, who had fainted from crying too much, with sunken eyes.

He never dreamed that Roxiana would be alive.

‘I didn’t know anything. I knew nothing at all.’

He also didn’t know that the entire Franche royal family had died and been thrown into a well. When they were retrieved one by one from the well, when he recognized who they were, Robert barely managed to hold back his screams.

The moment Roxiana appeared, Robert held back his wails but couldn’t stop his tears from flowing.

Even this chest was so tattered, but thinking about how Roxiana must have felt living until now while knowing all these facts made his heart ache. Imagining the devastating pain that bright and cheerful princess must have endured to reach this point tore his heart apart.

Floyd’s knights were carefully placing the bodies of the Franche royal family into Adelia’s coffins they had prepared, one by one. Floyd watched the knights for a while before approaching Robert.

“I’ll take the princess.”

Robert looked up at the giant man.

“Did you protect the princess?”

“I didn’t do much.”

“Thank you.”

Floyd shrugged.

“Where will they be taken?”

“Wherever the princess wishes.”

Hearing his calm answer, Robert felt that Floyd cared for Roxiana. Perhaps Floyd’s help had been crucial in Roxiana’s journey to this point.

“Please take good care of the princess.”

Floyd nodded slightly and crouched down to receive Roxiana. His touch was so careful as he gently lifted her that Robert felt reassured.

Standing up, Floyd asked Robert,

“What’s your name?”

“Robert Chenare.”

“Ah, Robert. The princess mentioned you sometimes. You were her guard knight, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you lead the rebel forces?”

“……”

Floyd smirked.

“Don’t think about going anywhere and stay by my side. When the princess wakes up, I think she’ll want to see you first.”