Chapter 187:
Chapter 187 Judgment
Aurora drifted in the swamp of nightmares.
Her mother and father tried to manipulate her like a puppet, tying her with spiderweb-like threads.
She struggled to break free from the bondage.
“Ugh…!”
Suddenly, her feet sank into the ground.
When she came to her senses, she realized she was in an underground dungeon where no light existed.
From the blocked vision, numerous voices started to echo.
They all had a neutral tone that made it impossible to tell their gender or age.
“Just do as you’re told.”
“You’re nothing special.”
“Monster.”
After floundering for a while, she finally woke up from her sleep. Aurora gasped for air as she fell off the bed.
It was the time when the waning moon was slanting in the sky.
Despite the moderately cool weather, Aurora felt a strong chill. She couldn’t pinpoint the reason, but a bad feeling crept up on her.
“Dream….”
Aurora muttered as she covered her face. She had escaped from the nightmare, but that was not a relief.
A much more dismal reality surrounded her.
Flan.
He was Aurora’s hope, like a thread of silk.
What if that only hope was unjustly taken away from her?
No, what if the possibility of reunion was completely erased?
There was a true abyss below the abyss. It would be more despairing than anything she had ever experienced.
Aurora didn’t want to look into that depth.
The princess left her residence as if she was going to face the wind.
The outside was quiet as it was the gap between night and dawn.
The people in the Fritz territory looked like dots in the distance, and only a few attendants guarded the entrance of the residence.
“Excuse me, Your Highness.”
One of the attendants cautiously handed her something. Aurora examined the item under the moonlight.
It was a thing delivered from the royal palace.
The corners were shining gold, so there was no doubt. However, as soon as she recognized that fact, anxiety engulfed her body.
She felt something beyond common sense or simple understanding. It was the sense that people often called intuition.
The fact that they sent a box instead of a letter meant that they dealt with a very important matter, so Aurora opened the box with a tense face.
The content was only a thin sheet of paper. The princess’s eyes quickly read the high-quality paper that had a hint of gold.
There were many polite expressions typical of the royal palace, but the writer was clear.
The writer seemed to be Yushia, and the conclusion was even clearer.
‘We have identified your whereabouts. We will not disclose this fact to the public, but please refrain from interfering with the affairs of the royal palace.’
The paper in her hand fell to the ground powerlessly.
Aurora’s legs trembled.
The faint vibration soon spread throughout her body.
“….”
Her face, which was already pale from the moonlight, turned even paler.
She picked up the fallen paper and looked at it again, then dropped it once more.
“Ah….”
Now she had nowhere to go.
I had no freedom to roam around Fritz’s territory, and even the royal palace was no longer a safe haven for me.
Where should I go?
I looked around blankly.
I repeated that motion for a while, then gently touched my face, neck, arms, and so on. Soon, a bitter smile curled up my lips and I let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha… hahaha…”
When I had everything in my hands, I couldn’t bear to lose even one thing. But when I lost everything, I felt strangely relieved.
The laughter that escaped me soon turned into madness.
“Hahahaha─!”
I bent over and covered my face with my hands, but the laughter wouldn’t stop. But what was seeping through my fingers were tears. It was a cry disguised as laughter.
What should I do from now on?
It was a futile question.
There was nothing I could think of that I could put into action.
After that thought crossed my mind, complex emotions welled up. Being powerless despite having so much to do meant, in other words, that there was no chance of forgiveness.
I hated to accept that fact.
It was a fact that tore my brain apart. It was a pain that ripped my heart out. I couldn’t stand it and ended up pulling my hair.
The first sincerity I ever encountered was warm.
Because it was the first time, I didn’t want to let it go. It was natural to have the instinct to hold it for a long time.
It was a selfish thought, but I wished for one more chance.
I could endure any punishment for that. Literally, any punishment.
But the truly cruel thing was, there was no one who wanted to punish me now.
The reality that kept pushing me into a corner started to tear my reason apart.
“Ha, hahaha, hahaha…”
I snickered and headed inside the residence.
Thud─!
I almost lost my balance and fell, but I barely managed to support myself by grabbing the side table.
Due to the shaking, a notebook on top of it fell to the floor.
It was a trivia.
I picked it up and opened it.
[Did you hear the truth? Flan did nothing wrong.]
[No matter how royal they are, this is too much.]
The second princess, Aurora.
She was the one who had everything she wanted without leaving the throne of the royal family. But the public opinion reflected in the print media had no trace of that glory.
[There’s nothing to misunderstand.]
[How are they going to make up for the damage they’ve done?]
[It seems too late to deal with it now…]
Even as Aurora was looking at it, vivid voices were coming up in real time.
Most of the students at Merhen Academy were nobles.
They were spewing out resentful voices one after another, so it was obvious what kind of stories were circulating outside the academy.
“…”
Aurora closed the trivia without a word.
It wasn’t hard to make a decision.
There was a way even if no one punished me.
I had no choice but to judge and punish myself.
?
Bang─!
A loud noise rang out from the inside of the princess’s residence.
The attendants who were fighting with sleep hurriedly woke up and headed inside the building.
It was taboo to enter the space where the princess stayed, but they had no choice because the noise was so fierce.
One of them opened the door of the residence with a loud sound.
“…!”
It didn’t take long for shock to spread across the faces of the attendants.
The dining table was overturned.
Food and broken plates were scattered all over the floor, and Aurora was in the center of it, cutting her wrists with a knife.
The number of wounds was unbelievable.
“…!”
Everyone was frozen, unable to utter a word.
The shock was too immense.
The floor was soaked with blood, so much that it was hard to believe it came from one human body.
Aurora, submerged in a pool of blood, slowly turned her head. Her eyes, which should have reflected the moon, were filled with nothing but abyss.
Only despair that could not be measured.
Tears of blood streamed down from Aurora’s eyes.
“Yo-your Highness…”
“It was true.”
A single word, buried in emptiness.
“I am not human…”
The attendants were petrified, unable to do anything. It was a scene that no one could bear to witness.
The princess looked neither alive nor dead.
Aurora ignored the gazes around her and started to walk shakily. It was a miracle that she could still walk with that much blood loss, but no one dared to question it.
“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I’m such a…”
“Your Highness?”
“It’s all because of me. So I have to…”
As if brainwashed, Aurora repeated the same words and headed somewhere.
An attendant who came to his senses tried to stop the princess.
“Your Highness, please…”
“Get out of my way─!”
But everyone was startled and backed off by her thunderous roar.
No one had the courage to stand in front of Aurora, who had veins popping on her forehead. Especially when she was covered in blood.
“I have to beg for forgiveness…”
She muttered words that no one could understand and left in a hurry. Her blood dripped along her footsteps, leaving a clear trail.
“So…”
In the cold dawn, only Aurora knew her destination.
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