The Duke gazed at the siblings with a strangely subdued look. Then he tilted his head slightly to the lower left. The movement was barely perceptible, but Garder, standing behind the Duke, immediately noticed the ruler’s intention. He obeyed the command. He took a step back, attempting to block the entrance.

“Uh, the young lady….”

There was a sound of Griselda, unaware of the situation inside, anxiously stumbling over her words and approaching Garder. Garder silently gestured with his chin. It meant to keep quiet and step back. Ah. Griselda immediately lowered her eyes. Clunk. The door closed.

“Fa, Father… Father….”

Giovinetta, standing in the corner of the bedroom, let out a small gasp. Her face, paler than white paper, was painted red with blood like that of Johannes. Her repeated attempts to take a step seemed to indicate a desire to rush to the Duke at any moment. However, blocked by her bed and Johannes, she was at a loss for where to go.

Like a completely deranged madman.

Johannes’ gaze, which had been fixed on his father, now slowly turned back to his sister. The Duke’s appearance held no meaning for him at this moment. Even the breeze brushing his cheek or the gaze of a stray dog walking down the street would give him more of a stimulus. Just Giovinetta. Giovinetta….

“I did… wrong…. I….”

He suddenly dropped his head. He could no longer stand upright due to the sensation of wings lurking between his bones and organs, finally trying to break through his back. At last, he fell to his knees, clutching his stomach. His shoulders trembled as he suppressed the pain. He lay his head sideways near the edge of the bed, his sweaty nape pressing against it.

Through his red-soaked bangs, he could see his sister’s figure. Somehow unable to focus properly, the image of his sister cornered over there split in two and merged back into one repeatedly. Giovinetta. Giovinetta. Giovinetta….

“Are you drunk?”

The Duke’s chilling voice, which had approached unnoticed, settled on one of Johannes’ shoulders. What… did he mean by asking if he was drunk? Johannes, who had been gasping for breath like a hunted animal, merely glanced up and threw a look at the Duke. That pitifully confused gaze collided with a cruelly gloomy one.

After a few seconds of silence, the Duke shook his head almost imperceptibly. He then turned and stood in front of Giovinetta. Giovinetta, who had been standing against the wall until then, tried to cling to the Duke’s waist as if startled. No, she tried to.

“What did you see?”

The Duke’s low question first stopped her in her tracks. Giovinetta, who had frozen her entire body at the question, raised her bewildered face.

“Pardon?”

“This night, what did you see?”

That voice asking again was cold. Giovinetta seemed very perplexed as she couldn’t sense any appropriate emotion – joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure – suitable for the situation. Her tear-filled eyes trembled. She glanced at Johannes, who had collapsed a short distance away. But she quickly averted her gaze. She tried to calm her uncontrollably trembling breath by taking a deep breath. And finally, she spoke.

“Johannes….”

“……”

“Killed my husband….”

“……”

“And threatened me….”

Despite her hands clasped together over her chest as if in some kind of resolve, the sister couldn’t finish her words. Slap! A sound like flesh tearing split the air.

Johannes’ eyes widened. His sister’s frail body was thrown to the floor. She fell headfirst. Giovinetta raised her upper body as if bouncing up. It wasn’t with any particular intention, but merely a reflexive movement. Her bewildered eyes were proof of this. She gingerly touched her left cheek, which had swollen instantly. She looked up at her father with an expression that seemed to ask what had just happened. In the meantime, a rough hand grabbed her under one armpit and lifted her straight up. The Duke asked again.

“This time, you will give the correct answer.”

“……”

“What did you see?”

Giovinetta’s eyes, unable to stand properly, turned white. Her expression, which had been momentarily unable to grasp the situation, blankly opened her lips. She must have understood her father’s intention. However, she seemed unable to accept the reason for it. Why… are you doing this to me? Her frightened pupils asked her father. Barely holding back thick tears, she carefully opened her trembling jaw.

“Johannes. My husband….”

Slap! However, a noise of exactly the same intensity as before echoed through the inner chamber. Her still immature head and slender shoulders were slammed under the table. Without time to catch her breath, she was lifted up like a sack by the Duke’s hand.

“Answer again.”

“Uh, ah…?”

“Answer again.”

“Jo… hannes….”

Her cheek catches fire.

“Again.”

“……”

“Answer.”

“Johannes… did….”

The same fire ignites on her pitifully foolish cheek repeatedly.

Again. Johannes did. Again. Johannes did…! It was when this merciless assault had been repeated exactly six times. Giovinetta, who had fallen this time as well, stood up abruptly as if she couldn’t bear it anymore. A blue flash seemed to streak across her eyes. She clutched her father’s clothes and sobbed as if shuddering.

“You can’t do this to me. How, how could you…? Why are you si, silencing me…? Even after seeing that child’s state, you blame me…? Fa, Father, if you have eyes, look… Here, here…! This is the nightgown that child left behind. I, I kept it. Is there any clearer evidence than this? But wh, why only to me…!”

At that moment, Giovinetta drew in a breath.

“Shut.”

“……”

“Your mouth.”

Because the Duke’s hand had covered her face. Johannes watched with a crumbling heart as the man’s fingers, spread like a trap, seemed to crush her forehead and cheekbones.

With his back to Johannes, the Duke’s massive shadow, peering at his daughter with hunched shoulders, looked like a devil with folded wings. That vicious blackness was crushing his sister. Her completely slack pupils were losing their senses moment by moment between the fingers holding her face.

That sight was Johannes’ hell. As the blood drained from his entire body, his flesh, unable to move even a single cold finger, was the punishment he was receiving in hell. No… No…. With his focus constantly drifting away, Johannes couldn’t even call out to Giovinetta once.

Tak.

The Duke spread his hand as if pushing away his daughter’s face.

Thud.

Giovinetta, who had been standing on her tiptoes, stood straight as if falling. Looking at his daughter who was staring at her own eyes like a deranged child, the Duke clicked his tongue.

“I wonder who she takes after to be so stubborn.”

The Duke seized Johannes’ clothes that Giovinetta was holding. He threw them into the fireplace and lit a fire. The flames spreading red with crackling sounds devoured Giovinetta’s gaze. At some point. The back of her hands, neatly folded over her stomach, was as lifeless as a still life.

“…Was he such a pathetic fellow?”

The Duke, who had been staring at the burning clothes for a while, suddenly cast a glance at Johannes. Johannes, who was barely breathing in a semi-unconscious state, could only listen.

“If you truly intended to take your sister, you should have done so within your own authority. It would have been enough to ignore your sharp-nerved mother’s interference, and there was no need to seek my permission. Yet, you showed patience where it wasn’t necessary, and exploded in an external situation that was practically hostile… Such a foolish act was committed by the eldest son of Valdemar. Even though I didn’t teach you that way….”

“……”

“What on earth were you holding back for?”

The eldest son, losing consciousness, couldn’t answer. The Duke, who let out a low sigh, gestured towards Giovinetta. After standing silently for a while, the sister finally managed to take a step towards the Duke at the very last moment, as if tearing her own body apart. The Duke, who couldn’t wait any longer, grabbed her arm.

“This night, you slept more deeply than usual.”

“Yes.”

“You saw nothing and heard nothing.”

“Yes.”

“So you must keep your mouth shut for the rest of your life.”

“……”

Had she answered?

Johannes didn’t hear. He closed his eyes as if he was about to breathe his last. Darkness.

***

Several days passed like a war.

Of the days spent in the royal castle, there were more days that Johannes couldn’t remember than those he could remember clearly. Standing on the familiar parade ground of the crumbling wooden fortress, when he opened his eyes at some point, he was in the milky white corridor of the central court. Even while exchanging sweet nothings with his lover who had become suddenly cruel and cowardly but more honest with him, when he came to his senses at some time, he was alone with his silent sister in a quiet carriage.

He had to check where he was standing dozens of times a day. He had to ask himself what his name was, sweating profusely day and night. Thus, it was not just a gap in time and space. For Johannes, it was a gap of the soul. His mind was clearly breaking down, to the point where even his body couldn’t endure it.

“Still… it’s fortunate for me that your body wasn’t greatly harmed.”

Because he was out of his mind trying to suppress the murderous ghost trying to break out of his body every second, he said something he shouldn’t have dared to say. His sister, who had strangely lost her words around that time, finally showed something like an expression in her eyes for the first time in a very long time. Fear.

The fear of the day when she stared endlessly at the burning evidence. That blue and red energy.

“Giovinetta.”

However, even that was erased at the next call.

Johannes thought Giovinetta’s lack of response was temporary. In fact, it would be more correct to say that he didn’t have the energy to think deeply. So on this night, or the next night. On nights like nightmares that he couldn’t bear alone, he stopped several times on his way to find her sleeping campsite. If I can endure just this night. If I can endure just this day. If I can endure just this moment.

This moment that feels like a lifetime.