The Sand Bride - Chapter 66

Left alone, Esther huddled tightly, her anxious eyes scanning her surroundings. The cell was dark and empty, with no light except for a small oil lamp on the wall. There wasn’t even a bed or anything similar that could be used as a sleeping place.

The fact that the cell was empty despite being a prison perhaps meant that the people in this cell didn’t need to be kept alive. Esther, having made a deduction close to the truth, felt a chill run down her spine at her own thought.

The sound of footsteps began to echo in Esther’s ears again, her teeth chattering in fear. Esther snapped her head up. Being left alone was terrifying, but the sound of another person didn’t reassure her. Is it Karzhen? It must be, right? Esther desperately prayed that Karzhen would bring an executioner, or that an executioner wouldn’t come alone. She did so even though she no longer believed in God. Such was the overwhelming terror that gripped her.

With a grating creak, Karzhen opened the cell door and stepped inside. Behind him, there was no terrifying executioner from Esther’s imagination. But something was clutched in his hand. It was dark, and Esther didn’t know what it was at first.

However, even in the darkness, she could see something like a rough hank of thread and something dripping onto the floor. Esther stealthily cowered and backed away, pressing herself against the wall. Karzhen was approaching without a word. That made it even more ominous.

Reaching just below the oil lamp, Esther felt a chill on her nape. Karzhen was coming towards the only circle of light cast by the lamp.

Every step he took closer, her instincts blared red, warning of danger. Esther cowered tightly, watching him nervously, and finally, when Karzhen stepped into the circle of lamplight, she foolishly gaped.

Esther’s first thought was, what is that?

In the lamplight, its form was undeniably clear, more so than she could have ever imagined. No, it was something she had never seen in real life, nor had she ever expected to see so close. That is, what Karzhen held in his hand was…….

A human head.

“…….”

The moment she knew, Esther was speechless. Beyond words, her mind turned blank, unable to think of anything.

The hair on the head Karzhen held was disheveled, and given how recently it had been severed, semi-clotted, viscous blood dripped onto the floor from the cut surface. The face was vividly painted with terror, as if it had died without even realizing its own demise.

Esther wanted to look away, but the shock was greater than the fear, preventing her from doing so. And so, she learned something she wished she hadn’t.

Esther knew that the head was not merely a head, but once belonged to a living person. She recognized the owner of the disfigured, severed face. It was the head of someone she knew. One of the people who had escaped with her from the merchant caravan.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Aren’t you glad to see him, hm?”

As soon as Esther recognized the head, Karzhen chuckled and thrust the head right in front of Esther’s face.

“Ha, ugh… ngh, uh…….”

Meeting the cloudy, lifeless pupils of the dead head, Esther closed her eyes and covered her ears with both hands. Karzhen forcefully straightened her body, which was crumpled and stiff with shock and terror, and made her meet the head’s eyes again.

He only tossed the head into a corner of the cell after Esther screamed and repeatedly muttered apologies like a madwoman.

With a dull thud, the head rolled across the floor, then caught on her nose and swayed before coming to rest at an angle. Karzhen now stared at her completely terror-stricken teal eyes and widely dilated pupils, and growled viciously.

“Normally, I would have thrown you in here from the beginning. Do you understand?”

“…Hrk, hu… Ah…….”

“No, no need to go that far. I could have just had some fun with you in that desert and then killed you right there.”

Esther was half-dazed, just staring blankly at Karzhen. Karzhen looked like a monster crawling out of the darkness.

The words spilling from his mouth sounded like a monster’s growl, and the white teeth that showed whenever he raged and shouted seemed ready to bite her neck off at any moment. The monster I saw that day on the gallows, wouldn’t it look like that if it wore human skin? No. Esther realized blankly. That monster was Karzhen all along. He had never not been a monster. The monster was his country, and it was him.

Esther felt like she was about to vomit. Perhaps if she were a little less scared, she actually would have.

A kind of line, which she had desperately maintained, vanished weakly and shattered. Then, fear quickly drove her to a dead end. To Karzhen, it was nothing significant, but to Esther, it was something irreversible…….

“You should be grateful I kept you in your room, with all your limbs intact, instead of throwing you into a place like this. How dare you lie to me?”

Karzhen menacingly gripped Esther’s neck. Her slender neck was encircled by his large hand. Blue veins popped out on her thin skin from terror.

Pressing down on her pulse, which thumped faintly against his palm, Karzhen met Esther’s eyes with his menacing gaze. Then, as if to make sure she never forgot, he said,

“Try pulling that kind of s**t again. Next time, I’ll cripple you and lock you up here for life.”