Chapter 146
“This… is this the Queen’s?”
“Queen? What’s a Queen?”
“Siren Wilkeron! That witch’s hair, I’m asking if it’s hers!”
It looked like she had yanked out only a few strands, but they were long and glossy—it seemed likely.
And most tellingly, beneath her nails… it looked as if she had ripped it straight from the scalp.
The count was convinced.
His daughter had done it!
She had killed the witch!
“Well done, well done. Now we can proclaim you as the Saintess!”
A daughter taken by the South was worthless. But a Saintess who had returned from the South and slain the witch?
That was something to boast about.
“How did you do it? Did you push her into the well as I instructed? And the King? What about the King?”
“Ahaha, ahahahaha!”
“Answer me properly! What happened?”
“A red sky, a blue moon! The stars are shining. Kyaa!”
Smack!
Thinking she might be feigning madness, he slapped her across the face, but even as she collapsed to the floor, she continued to laugh sorrowfully.
Muttering strange songs under her breath.
“Tsk.”
Well, she had killed someone. It was only natural.
Anyway, it seemed the Queen was dead. Even if the King was alive, he was surely not in his right mind.
The love between them was deep—by now, he might have already lost his sanity.
It was then.
Deng—deng—deng—!
A somber bell, heavy with foreboding, echoed through the capital.
“Count! Isn’t that the toll of death?”
“The bell that rings when the King or Queen dies!”
“This could be our chance!”
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
His heart pounded rapidly.
Faces filled with anticipation turned solely toward him.
‘Ah, so this is power!’
The one who commands. The one who gives orders. The one who overwhelms.
Standing in that position, Count Brienne, pitifully enough, found himself so exhilarated that his head spun.
Logically, he knew he needed to confirm things once more, but his thin lips kept twitching.
He wanted to deliver a grand command here and now.
“Haha, ahaha, hahaha!”
And Nicoletta, her face buried in her hands, sobbed as she laughed.
She had never known it was possible to cackle with a distorted face—yet here she was, doing exactly that.
‘How foolish. To think such a fool was my father!’
She wanted to stop her father from walking straight into the execution grounds.
It wasn’t as if she held no affection for him as family.
But…
Was she not the very one who had inherited his blood?
Tormenting Siren Wilkeron, fawning over Angelique—all of it was because she had inherited her cunning father’s nature.
‘I don’t want to die, Father. I’m sorry… but I’m not sorry. Because they promised to let Mother live.’
Their entire family couldn’t die.
Someone had to survive.
Nicoletta remained motionless on the floor, ensuring her expression wouldn’t be seen.
Her father had already abandoned her.
Even today, he had struck her and left her behind. She had no lingering attachment anymore.
She only hoped that, at the very least, his end would not be too miserable.
“Very well. We strike now. That would be best.”
Human greed knows no end, and no one can save a man from his own foolish choices.
In the end, he was marching toward hell with his own two feet.
Nicoletta clutched her burning cheek and waited until her father and his men had completely left the estate.
Then, she slowly stood up.
“Mother! Mother, the gates! We have to close them immediately!”
She rushed into the master bedroom and grabbed the hands of the Countess, who stood pale and trembling, not knowing what to do.
A mother raised like a delicate flower in a greenhouse. A mother who had neither the means to stop her husband nor the strength to interfere.
She had no way of handling this situation.
“Nicole… what should we do? What do we do?”
“Just trust me. They promised to spare us.”
But Nicoletta was different.
She had crossed the desert.
She had survived among the infected.
She had endured, no matter what.
Her sense of self had once been utterly shattered. She had thrown her pride to the ground.
That was how she had survived.
There was no need to say that such experiences had hardened her.
“…And as for the head of House Brienne—that will be me. They said they would preserve the family. I’ll take responsibility.”
That was the condition the King and Queen of the desert had offered her.
And Nicoletta had accepted without hesitation.
As she held her mother tightly, she gazed out the window.
What was happening out there now—was no longer in her hands.
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