Chapter 223: Chapter 223. Self-destruction, Part III
Translator: Khan
Editor Group: Liber Reverie
Despite the number of sinners, there was only one guillotine installed in the square a few days before the execution and rumors were saying that Isis was being executed alone. Isis had not slept yet after hearing it somewhere, and her look was getting haggard as days went by.
“Come out. Move.”
“…?”
Dozens of knights, who had come in without a word, opened the door of the prison and pulled the sinners out. The sinners were all dragged out of fear because they did not tell them what punishment they would have.
In the meantime, the meals had not been provided in time and the heating facility was not installed even in the middle of winter, so they were not good as well as Isis. There were a lot of people who were sick of the harsh environment they had never experienced before, or who were unable to walk properly due to frostbite, and that was also true of Mielle.
“My head hurts so much… My feet, too…Sob…”
Cain rushed to support Mielle, who was stumbling. It was an unacceptable act because they were moving in a line, but it was not stopped because it was clear that Mielle would fall and become more annoying if they left it.
“Just hold on, Mielle. We will be back in the house soon.”
“Brother…”
Cain was convinced because he believed in his lawyer and Aria. He didn’t know that Aria was the starting point of this incident.
All of the prisoners were taken to the square by wagons made of iron that they had ridden when they had been first taken to prison. Whether the fact that today was the day of execution had spread throughout the capital, there were plenty of spectators on the way to the plaza.
“You bastards!”
“You are the shame of the empire!
“All the goodwill you’ve enjoyed so far is from selling the empire!”
The onlookers threw stones or cursed at the traitors who had lost their titles, and the carriage moved slowly as if to fan the flames. The sinners were not even able to refute, so they waited quietly for the carriage to stop.
“Get out.”
Then in the square, a huge crowd was waiting for them. It was like everyone in the capital gathered there. They had not made any other space to block the spectators, so as they got out of the wagon and moved, hands that stretched out somewhere tormented them and grabbed their hair.
“Yaaah!”
Isis was pushed to the ground by someone’s hand. She glared at the person who pushed her with her malicious eyes. No matter how haggard she was as a sinner, she had been living as the supreme noblewoman in the empire for nearly twenty years. The person who met her eyes quickly lowered his head and avoided her gaze.
“Brother!
Mielle, who had felt such strong hostility for the first time, was terrified by Cain’s arms, and Cain followed the man in front of him, protecting his sister as much as he could. They moved for a moment and was able to reach the execution hall in the square.
“All sinners, stand in line.”
The high-ranking nobleman, who had stood on the side of the royal family for a long time and had been confronted with the nobles of the Aristocratic Party, ordered. The sinners with hostility hesitated and did not move, and eventually, the knights who were waiting around used force.
Some of the nobles who fell under the strong power of the knights cried out that their arms were hurt. But then they closed their mouths again, looking at a knight that came up with a harsh expression and went back to their place in a hurry.
“You still think you’re a nobleman, and if you know what punishment you’re going to get, you’ll faint with surprise,” the nobleman said as if he was so pleased to punish the sinners.
‘What kind of punishment would it be?’
The nobleman had been always anxious to kill them, and if he wanted to, the punishment would come close to execution. And the sinners, who believed that there was a chance to get out of this incident, began to tremble in fear, and Lohan intervened to mediate that he should stop harassing them.
“I fully understand why the Count is happy, but I have something more important to do than this, so I hope you’ll get it done quickly.”
Everybody’s eyes turned to Lohan as he said that there was something more important than the lives of dozens of people, but he looked bored by the troubles of another country.
“Mr. Lohan, don’t say that because it’s important to someone.” Aria, who was next to him, scolded him, and their gaze moved naturally to her.
Aria laughed slightly as if she was laughing at those who had accused her of being a prostitute’s daughter, and now she was laughing at Isis, who was about to face the same fate as her miserable past. At her smile, which she deliberately provoked, Isis gritted her teeth.
“… How dare you, you woman of vulgar origin…”
So, as Isis, who had not overcome her anger, as usual, accused Aria, and Lohan rose from his seat, wondering how she told such thoughtless words even as a sinner.
“You’re still saying that.”
He seemed quite annoying to hear that because Aria was now the star of Croa, not of the empire.
“Lohan.”
He would rather have a knight shut up than deal with such an ugly woman. As he stepped out of his seat and approached Isis, Asher gave him a small warning, but he did not stop; he went quickly to Isis, looking rather glad.
“Look straight, Isis, the one beside Lady Aria, who you always laughed at because of her humble origin.”
He went nearby and ridiculed, pointing quietly to Aria’s seat in a voice that only Isis could hear.
“…!”
Isis, who had been shriveling as if she thought he was going to hit her, suddenly moved her eyes in the direction he pointed. She was a bit relieved that she could move her eyes somewhere else.
There was a very unexpected figure there. A nobleman who had suddenly disappeared when Lohan had visited the Duke’s mansion, saying that he had a business to do.
The nobleman who looked very much like Aria, who she had asked for an answer from Mielle but who had made her feel uneasy because Mielle had said that she did not know… He looked more like Aria than he had been away from her, like a family.
“… No way!”
“Yes, you’re right. Now you are downgraded as a commoner, so don’t you dare say that she is vulgar.”
As if she had recognized Chloe’s relationship with Aria, she shivered so much that she couldn’t control herself. It meant that the only flaw in Aria was no longer a flaw.
“Don’t be surprised yet. Do you know which family and Lady Aria are connected to? You’ve met, too. It is Marquis Piast. And Chloe, who is next to Aria, is the only son of the Marquis, and at the same time, the son of Violet, who was once a royal family, and you should know this before you die. How much you’ve been making fun of your tongue wrong!”
‘Is that man the son of Violet and the Marquis of Piast, who had been royal in the past…?’ Isis was able to recall the rumors about Chloe; it was a very old story, and she could not think of it properly, but she remembered that a woman from the Kingdom of Croa had a child, who had an extramarital affair. So she was banished from the empire with her child.
Isis blinked her trembling eyelashes and put her mind together. ‘… So, Violet, who had been married to the imperial royal family in the past, had an affair with the Marquis of Croa, Piast, and the child they had was Aria’s father, Chloe… and he is a nobleman?’
If that was true, Aria, who was a commoner because the Roscent family had disappeared due to treason… was not married yet, and would follow her father’s blood to become the lady of the Marquis of Piast, unlike herself, who had been moving nonstop as the eldest daughter of the Duke family, but had fallen into hell because of the Crown Prince…
Boom! Isis’s heart sank at once. But at the same time, she wondered. ‘Why? How could he say that she was the blood of the Marquis of Piast?’ By all means, Aria’s mother was a humble prostitute. A vulgar woman who had spent her nights with a lot of men. She was not a woman who continued to have a sexual relationship with one man.
“How do you check the blood of a prostitute…?”