Though dressed in prison clothes, Leopold stood with a composed bearing, and the marks left by shackles still showed clearly on his wrists, yet his dignified and upright posture, unlike his state in the prison, remained unbroken.

The flimsy evidence produced through t*rture was nothing more than a tool to arrive at a predetermined conclusion. No one cared whether the evidence was sound.

Following procedure, just before the verdict was read aloud, the judge gave Leopold the opportunity for a final statement. The voice that came from Leopold’s parched, dry lips carried no trembling, and it was clear.

“Whatever judgment the law sees fit to render, I will accept it humbly. I hope that this verdict against me will lead Krauben in a better direction.”

“……”

A brief silence passed, and the judge slowly unfolded the verdict.

“The defendant Leopold participated in acts of treason that threaten the existence of the state, and through contact with foreign forces, illegally leaked state secrets. Therefore, the charge of insurrection against the defendant, who attempted to restore the monarchy, is recognized.”

The judge’s voice was dry. No emotion, no emphasis. He kept his eyes on the paper, reading the sentences the way one reads lines rehearsed many times over.

“Accordingly, this court applies the charge of treason against the state to the defendant Leopold, and pursuant to Article ○ of the current law, sentences him to death.”

The courtroom stirred.

Some people clapped, and some cheered with whistles. Leopold neither bowed his head at the death sentence, nor did he show anything like despair, resignation, or hostility.

He simply stared straight ahead, seemingly knowing the predetermined end in advance. His green eyes were so still it was impossible to tell whether the death sentence had even reached him.

“The method of execution shall be death by firing squad……”

The judge paused briefly, the way one catches their breath between sentences.

“Two days from now, at five in the morning, to be carried out in private at the Third Barracks of the Military Inspectorate.”

The judge’s solemn final words, that the law of the nation makes no exceptions for anyone, never made it to the end. The courtroom erupted at the verdict of a private execution.

“What? Private? You call that a verdict! Did you pocket dirty money too?”

A group in the gallery hurled insults and threw chairs.

“None of that nonsense, give us a public execution!”

“Drag the royal family’s dog out to the plaza!”

Inhumane and brutal methods of execution had disappeared centuries ago, yet the agitated crowd wanted to see blood with their own eyes.

“That man plotted to restore the monarchy!”

A man who had vaulted over the gallery railing and was throwing punches toward the judge’s bench was subdued by the security forces, but the people’s fury remained razor-sharp.

“Drag him out right now! Finish it here!”

Chairs toppled, and screams tangled with a stream of curses. It was pure chaos. Every person present leaned forward and pointed at the defendant’s dock.

“Hang him!”

“Firing squad, nothing! Just beat him to death in the plaza! I want to watch that bastard die with my own eyes!”

Everyone raised their voices, saying a traitor who sold out his country deserved no dignity, but the judge brought the gavel down again with a stern face.

“Order!”

But the judge’s warning was still swallowed up.

“Execute him right now! Don’t let him breathe for two more days!”

“Bullets are wasted on the likes of him, finish it here and now!”

In the end, all the forces on standby moved at once. They rushed toward the gallery to stop the commotion, but the situation had already crossed the line of control.

It was no longer only Leopold’s name being called out. Voices demanding the execution of anyone who carried royal blood, without exception, began to fly.

“Filthy blood. Exterminate the Rosenthals!”

The courtroom, where control had collapsed, was not a place for rendering verdicts but a scene of chaos awash in rage. They truly looked ready to tear Leopold apart with their bare hands.

“Tear them all to pieces! Hang them!”

Someone was watching this chaos from the shadows of a deserted corner on the second floor. It was Adeline.

Unable to reveal her identity, Adeline looked down from beyond the second-floor railing at only Leopold, standing in the defendant’s dock.

Her eyes stung. She felt that the moment she blinked, something would fall.

Adeline knew too. Setting aside whether the treason charges were true, he was born of royal blood, and so he was innocent yet never truly innocent.

Because he could no longer endure his uncle’s pressure. Because of the child that had taken root in his wife’s womb.

Though he had been pushed out by a series of difficult circumstances, it had been Leopold’s choice and his will. Unless he were a child of three, Leopold had turned his back on the country, and he bore the obligation to take responsibility for the consequences that followed.

Even Adeline had known well before she slipped into this courtroom that Leopold could not escape death.

At Leopold’s unwavering composure, his expression composed even in the face of a death sentence and humiliating condemnation, Adeline curled her cold fingertips into her palms.

“……”

She felt it in her chest, that Leopold, as the one who had been crown prince of the Rosenthals, as the one who stood as the representative of a falling royal family, was trying to accept his death with humility. And because she felt the same way, she held her breath.

She was barely managing to press a hand over her mouth, but the truth was that Adeline wanted to scream.

Adeline Rosenthal von Krauben is right here. Come and take me too.

She wanted to cry out that she wanted to share in her brother’s guilt.

But she knew well that her brother did not want that. So even though she felt she might go mad, she kept pressing down the sound to the very end, and she strained her wide-open eyes so as not to miss a single moment of Leopold standing his ground.

But the charge that he had colluded with the fugitive king, William, was mortifying and wretched beyond all else. How could Leopold have joined hands with that man? With someone so monstrous as to have possibly harmed their own father.

Adeline’s cheeks trembled finely as she bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood.

* * *

On the day before an execution, the condemned is permitted a final visit. Regardless of what act of treason the prisoner has committed.

Having finally obtained the chance to face Leopold as family, only at this last moment, Adeline prepared to set out early.

〈Does it look like I’m asking for your permission right now?〉

Of course, Kailen refused, the way he always did. Scraping at her insides with cold indifference as she told him she would go whether he permitted it or not.

〈You and your sibling really do have the nerve to drag me into things right up to the very last moment. How much more loss am I supposed to endure and put up with here?〉

Those words, at least, Adeline agreed with deeply. Kailen had, in the most literal sense, done more than enough for her in material terms.

And so Adeline had tried to let whatever he said pass without answering, quietly and without reaction. But the human heart…… doesn’t work the way one plans. It was almost strange how completely her head and her body refused to cooperate.

〈Is that so? The truth is, you’re only keeping me around because you can still manage it, aren’t you? Well, even if it’s too much to bear now, I don’t want to care anymore. Just like you said, I was born of shameless blood.〉

Watching his face crumple, she smiled pointedly, telling him she was no longer forcing herself on him, that all she wanted was a clean divorce.

〈Kailen, it’s not too late even now. Step away from me. You’re good at that sort of thing.〉

Hadn’t he weighed long enough whether keeping this marriage going would be a gain or a loss. If he didn’t want to fall alongside her, please just sign the divorce papers.

Adeline demanded a divorce, over and over, every time she saw his face, the way she always had. She told him that going to see my brother’s final moments would clearly cause you significant damage, so please divorce me.

But this time too, Kailen left without bringing this drawn-out exchange to an end. And out of habit, Adeline left another copy of the divorce papers for Kailen once more.

If you’re afraid of being entangled with me, sign it. Whether I end up stoned to death after this, or sent to a camp, I will never hold you responsible. These divorce papers will serve as your absolution.

Adeline took out a cross necklace, one of her mother’s keepsakes she had kept in a box of valuables, and put it in her handbag. On her way out, she glanced briefly down at the paper sitting on the tea table, then looked away again.

Whether his tiresome calculations still hadn’t reached their end, the blank space on the divorce papers remained intact, mocking her.

Something that would be over with just one or two strokes of a pen, and yet he kept dragging it out like this.

How foolish……

She couldn’t understand why a man sharper than anyone else was being so unbearably slow about this.

It wasn’t as though he were the only husband in the world to cast aside a ruined wife, a wife who had outlived her usefulness, a wife who would only become a liability.

In times as turbulent as these, it was not uncommon to see not only husbands and wives abandoning each other, but parents abandoning their children as well. Misfortunes had become so commonplace they practically tripped over your feet at every step.

What was so great about a man’s pride, of all things.

A businessman with a name for brilliance, and yet he couldn’t exercise the most basic judgment. Or perhaps, she thought, he simply couldn’t give up that strange, twisted habit of tormenting her.