Trigger warning
This chapter contains material which some readers may find distressing, including depictions of physical violence, blood, and gore. Reader discretion is advised.
——
Roberta’s hostility and Sylvia’s screams were emulsified into a mess and echoed in the sky of the hunting ground. If they shouted this loudly, someone would likely come, though no one had arrived yet, presumably because the hunting ground was so vast.
My hands, wearing the rough leather gloves, didn’t tremble at all.
‘Shoot.’
Swish—
The bow that Raniero had given me shot the arrow sharply.
The poisoned arrow fell very close to the two and landed in the grass. The next moment, the arrowheads caused the grass to rot black. I could see that Roberta had momentarily hardened even from here. She slowly turned her head.
Although I was on top of a tall structure, I could see her enraged expression clearly. Without a word, I put the arrow back on the bow.
This time, I was determined to hit her head.
“This… this damn b*tch!”
Roberta came running towards me as if she was foaming out of the mouth.
Swish!
Once again, the arrow flew.
As Sylvia fell down, hanging on Roberta’s waist when she was running this way, the arrow missed. The two fell, tangled up on the floor.
“Mo, mother!”
“I can’t let you go!”
“If you say you want to kill me because you want to live, then what about me! Huh? What about me?!”
Sylvia’s beautiful face was distorted as she continued to scream.
“I want to live, too!”
As though foretelling this situation, there was a stone block of suitable size within reach of her hand. Sylvia reached out her hand and picked it up right away before striking Roberta in the back of the head.
—Puk!
I could hear the wretched sound all the way from here.
A shrill cry.
Then, again—Puk.
“I want to live. I want to live. I want to live. I’ll survive… I’ll make a place to stand with my feet!”
Haha. I laughed.
Raniero would regret not seeing this scene later.
As I thought so, I quickly drew my dagger and strode down the stairs. Sylvia was holding the bloody stone and holding her breath with her hair disheveled while Roberta groaned in agony and crawled on the floor. And when I came before them, Sylvia exhaled her breath and loosened her knife.
The knife cut Roberta’s ankle.
With the tendon in her ankle cut, Roberta was merely spewing strange sounds, spitting curses against Sylvia and me. The fact that she was not dead yet must be because of her great vitality.
“Your, Your Majesty…”
Seeing me, Sylvia quickly fell to her knees and offered her blade to me. She was terrified.
Oh, terrified humans are amusing.
“This prey is for Your Majesty. Please… Please, Your Majesty, take the prey.”
I smiled broadly. It was truly remarkable. Sylvia was about to yield the most interesting moment to me. Pulling the bowstring, I drew the poisoned arrowhead from the quiver.
This time, I didn’t give her time to protest.
Puk.
“Aaaaaccck!“
The poisonous arrow was stuck in the back of the prey. As the venom had penetrated into the veins and left a trail along the way, black nets were engraved on her exposed neck and cheeks. Her veins were also blackened and Roberta struggled with her last extremities.
It wasn’t fun to drag on too much. I suddenly became bored of all this and thrust a dagger into her neck. The prey was so desperate.
As Roberta’s blood spattered on my cheek, I wiped the blood with my glove. My heart was pounding. More amplified sensations than before came rushing in like a tidal wave. Even the sound of the wind rustling the leaves and the sound of birds smashing through the branches were so clearly distinguished that I was distracted.
The next moment, the heavy footsteps of a man could be heard in the distance.
It was not Raniero Actilus. He wouldn’t make such dull footsteps. Slowly abandoning the knife, I drew another arrow from the quiver before knocking the arrow onto the bowstring.
“Your, Your Majesty…”
“It’s your brother.”
My voice, falling from my mouth, was colder than usual. I could feel Sylvia’s breathing tremble though I didn’t even give her a glance. As a large man’s shadow appeared through the trees, the battle axe held tightly in his hands looked menacing.
I smiled faintly.
In an instant, an arrow aimed at him flew, cutting through the stinging wind. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit his head, but it tore his clothes and grazed his shoulders.
‘Tsk.’
Even though the medicine Raniero gave me made me a completely different person, it didn’t transform me into a weapon like him. Still, I was satisfied with just grazing him. Henry Jacques’ shoulder began to swell in an instant as if stung by a wasp.
I fired an arrow once again.
Meanwhile, Sylvia trembled beside me and collapsed.
Henry, who was roaring while rubbing his shoulder, glanced towards us. His dead mother, his fallen sister, and me with Roberta’s blood on my face and hands, aiming an arrow at him. Slowly, his eyes became bloodshot and turned inside out.
“Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!“
He began to sprint towards me.
At that moment, pain suddenly erupted all over my body.
The grip of my hand that was holding the bow loosened, and the weapon slid down. Suddenly, the smell of blood rushed into my nose. I was feeling nauseated everywhere as the sky abruptly turned yellow. Trees seemed to be pouring down this way, and Henry’s cries grew farther and closer alternately.
The next moment, the force that besieged me broke.
A sense of reality flooded my head.
It seemed that the effect of the medicine suddenly disappeared in an instant. The muscles in my limbs, which were used beyond their original abilities, complained of pain. They screamed that they could no longer hold the weapon. I could feel the blow falling down towards my body the moment I couldn’t come to my senses by shaking my head at the onslaught of pain.
As Henry struck me in the side with an axe, I was flung away with a cough.
“Unngh, ah…”
I crawled on the floor just like Roberta did a while ago. What was I doing? What the hell was I thinking when I was doing this until just now…?
A rough hand turned me upside down.
A shadow fell over my body. With his back to the sun, Henry raised his axe. I was crying and yelling at him. In that brief moment, I shivered and searched around for the quiver that had fallen to the floor. I gripped the arrow with an immobile hand. The fear that the red wine had taken away rushed over me in an instant.
“Uh, heuk…”
The axe was swung wide, and I shut my eyes tight. I was prepared for my head to split in two. There was no strength left to dilute the fear by deliberately thinking lightly.
“Huek—”
In conclusion, my head wasn’t split in two.
Instead, something hot poured down on me. I couldn’t even open my eyes, trembling and holding onto the arrow. Then, something heavy fell down slowly as if it were overtaking me. The arrow pierced through something before it got caught on something hard and broke.
“Heuu, ah, ugnn…”
I quivered and let out a weeping groan. The next moment, someone lifted the man’s body that was covering me, who was still trembling.
“I told you.”
It was a soft and beautiful voice.
The day when the sun rises the longest was suitable for the summer solstice. The sweat that came out due to the scorching sun and the cold sweat that had gushed out from fear interlaced. The owner of the voice removed the broken arrow from my hand.
Finally, I opened my eyes gradually.
I didn’t know, but I was crying. I was weeping and wailing. As Raniero came closer to my chest, which went up and down in a terribly irregular way, I could feel his weight on my body.
He folded his eyes gracefully and smiled.
“I told you, my Empress.”
Intertwining our hands together, he kissed my cheek. He didn’t seem to care at all that my body was tainted with blood. His hunting shirt, which had been pure white until then as if it hadn’t been stained with any dirt, began to turn scarlet slowly.
“You’re not going to die.”
The intense pain that rushed through my body was still severe. I couldn’t think of anything rational as the pain seemed to make me lose my mind at any moment.
“Aheuk, heuu…”
“Does it hurt? Oh, right… It’s that kind of medicine. Yes.”
Raniero kissed my forehead slowly as if to appease a complaining child.
“It’s such a drug. It transcends the limits of the physical abilities given at birth, increases the sense of elevation, and dissipates fear. Right, you were like that for a while. That’s what I gave you last night.”
While I was feeling sick, as though I was going to die soon, Raniero seemed relaxed. His cold lips slowly descended from my forehead to my eyelids, to my cheekbones, and then to my cheeks.
“You became me for a while. However, if the body is overloaded, the pain will come, and the medicine will lose its effect in an instant. Therefore, it couldn’t be commercialized for the knight service to use. Besides, it’s very addictive and makes you lethargic for a while…”
Opening his mouth wide, he bit my cheek lightly as though playing with a child. He then raised his upper body up and pulled out a small vial from under his sleeve.
Medicine, medicine again…
I gazed up at him in horror. Now, I didn’t want to take the medicine he gave me.
“You don’t have to look at me like that.”
Raniero mumbled very sweetly.
“It’s just a pain reliever.”
As though to prove it, he poured the medicine into his mouth first before kissing me.
As if to bless Actilla’s godson, the sunlight was pouring down on his back, who was comforting me. The bitter powdery medicine entered my mouth at once, and I coughed a little. After a while, the pain started to subside. I took a long breath and exhaled, and only then could I properly look up at his beautiful face. Raniero ruffled my hair and laughed pleasantly.
“Thanks to you, I had a good time. Well, look at the things you’ve hunted yourself.”
Sylvia was still lying on the floor, with the bodies of Henry and Roberta stacked next to her. It felt like blood was draining from my body. However, Raniero seemed to be enjoying himself.
“Now, you are also the people of Actilus. Tonight’s banquet will be for you, who have been reborn…”