Chapter 12: Annoyingly Pretty

Elana laughed out loud as if the woman were saying something naïve.

At the same time, she tightened her grip even more and yanked her harder.

Her white face, framed by luxuriant red hair, was pressed deeper into the bars.

“If he were ever given the chance, I believed that clever man would make good use of everything handed to him. After all, his mother was the dearly beloved youngest princess of Gladius. There’s no way he wouldn’t use that to his advantage.”

“Ah, it hurts. Please… please—”

Whether her skin had been scraped or not, blood began to trickle down Robellina’s cheek.

“Ha! Did you just say it hurts? Does it hurt as much as it did for the Duke of Ridges? As much as it did for Killian, dragged away without a shred of resistance? As much as the agony of having to live all these years, wrapped head to toe in fury?”

Elana ground her teeth, consumed entirely by rage.

She could never forgive Robellina for inflicting immeasurable pain on innocent people and then daring to speak of her own suffering.

And more than Robellina, the one Elana could never forgive was herself.

She had personally inflicted such pain on the innocent and destroyed her relationship with him with her own hands.

That was why, even though she had become the wife of the man she had dreamed of all her life, she was a sinner who had committed an unforgivable crime and could not truly remain by his side.

She was glad he was alive, yet could not fully show it.

She could not willingly accept the utterly bewildering appointment as empress.

All she could do was quietly be relieved for Calliod’s safety.

Even though she now walked through life with him, she could not be a complete wife to him.

That truth struck her like a dagger, piercing through her body and slicing her flesh with a pain so excruciating that words could not describe it.

“You will never be forgiven, even in death. Not with me.”

Smelling the metallic scent of blood, Elana spoke her final words before releasing Robellina’s collar as if shoving her away.

“Ugh—”

Robellina fell flat on her back without warning.

It was a pitiful, sorry sight.

Rolling gracelessly across the floor, she trembled with rage, forcing herself to stand as she denied reality and sneered.

“So full of yourself just because that man came back alive! You’ll be discarded anyway. You think what you did will just disappear?”

“Is this your way of showing you care about me out of some twisted fondness?”

“Don’t talk nonsense! You think I’ll just die like this?! You think I’ll sit here and take it?!”

“Do whatever you want. I can handle it as much as you like. It seems my work here is done. I’ll be going now.”

Elana shrugged with a nonchalant expression.

The reason she had come here was only one.

To make Robellina fully aware of Calliod’s existence.

She could not shamelessly slip away from that day’s events using excuses like mental instability.

Robellina needed to see him more clearly than anyone else alive, to answer all his questions, and to face her punishment.

‘At least she won’t faint when she sees him now.’

Elana gave the still-fuming Robellina a slow once-over.

Upon closer look, it seemed she had gained more than just her intended result.

‘This might have been quite the provocation.’

Simply appearing here seemed to have greatly provoked Robellina, and that would soon manifest in her behavior when she met Calliod.

The reaction was obvious without even having to see it.

‘Not that she would have anyway, but she’ll be even less likely to say anything that benefits me.’

Robellina would never speak of the deal struck that day to save Calliod.

If she did, it wouldn’t ruin Elana’s relationship with Calliod—it would only serve to strengthen it.

‘As if that already vicious woman would say anything pleasant when faced with such a provocation. All the more so if I become empress.’

At this moment, that was exactly what Elana needed, and so she was quite satisfied with her actions today.

‘That was enough. More than enough.’

“Go? Where do you think you’re going!! You’re going to die here too! Die with me!!”

“Why would I die? I’m about to become empress. You should be the one begging me. Who knows, maybe I’ll even speak up to have your life spared.”

“Arghhh! I’ll tell Killian everything! That you abandoned the Ridges family to save yourself even though you knew they were falsely accused! That you handed down that verdict! I won’t be the only one to die! Never!!”

Robellina slammed her palms against the bars in defiance.

‘Exactly what I wanted. That way, he won’t hesitate to use me and throw me away. For once, she’s actually useful.’

Elana smiled at her in a way so beautifully irritating that it felt like mockery.

Just like the day when Robellina had once kept young Elana captive and boasted,

“The woman who bore you will be abandoned in the end. The queen’s seat will be mine. And since you’re a girl, you’ll never be king. My son will be king.”

And just like Robellina’s own smug, triumphant self back then, Elana turned her back with an air so lofty and elegant it seemed unshakable.

“If you don’t like it, so be it. Farewell, then. Let’s never see each other again.”

“Don’t you walk away! Get back here! You—ahhhh! I’ll make you as miserable as I can before I die! Even in death I’ll cling to you and curse you! I swear it!!”

Robellina screamed for Elana’s death and hurled curses after her.

But Elana walked through the dim, winding passages of the prison without sparing her the slightest concern, as if the curses trailing behind her were nothing more than sweet music.

***

Elana, walking at an unhurried pace, only let out a suppressed cough after she had put some distance between herself and where Robellina was imprisoned.

“Cough, cough. I need to get out quickly…”

The unventilated air was damp and stifling.

Coughing, she walked calmly through the repetitive layout, but as she began to hasten her steps, she suddenly froze.

“Ah.”

She slowly turned her head—only for a pitch-black darkness to open its maw and swallow her whole.

From head to toe, that clammy, leech-like darkness bound her body and gripped her very heart.

Her breath caught in her throat, and an even stronger dizziness than she’d felt at the entrance washed over her.

And then, in that moment—

“Master!”

A much younger Elana came running, her head lowered beneath a deep hood.

The moment she had dreamt as a nightmare countless times seized her now with vivid, inescapable clarity.

The Ridges Duke, drenched in blood.

The moment he told her to give up on herself.

The words that condemned those she cherished to hell.

These very hands that had handed over poison.

‘No. That’s not it. There might have been a better way—there must have been a better way! Why are you giving up?! Why would you do this?! You should have said you’d find another way! You should have, Elana!!’

Elana, bound tight in the darkness and unable to move, screamed at her younger self.

But her cry never made it past her lips, circling endlessly inside her mouth.

No matter how desperately she tried to free herself from the darkness that held her, it only swallowed her further.

One by one, the scenes of that day—etched with every detail—became sharp awls, stabbing into every part of her body.

The dampness, the smell, the temperature of that day—none of it had faded, clinging to her as if embedded in her skin.

“Haa… haa…”

Elana breathed harshly as she stared at her younger self growing more and more distant.

Cold sweat dripped down her face, and her clenched palms dug deep with the bite of her own nails.

She stood frozen, trembling violently, her breath sometimes catching until it wouldn’t come at all.

“…Lana. Elana!!”

“Ah!”

A firm hand yanked her out of the clinging mire that was pulling her down into an inescapable swamp.

The sticky darkness that had bound her so tightly vanished in an instant.

“What are you doing here?”

The voice came down on her like a sharp blow.

Elana tried to respond, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Haa… haa… you… tied… my feet… haa… ah… uh… haa…”

Though she had escaped the memory she often relived in nightmares, her ragged, panicked breathing would not return to normal.

She was in complete disarray—her eyes flushed red, tears spilling down to streak her cheeks, her body swaying unsteadily, arms flailing without control.

At that moment, Calliod pulled her by the waist against him and covered her small face with his hand.

“Mm—”

The sudden, overwhelming weight of his large hand made Elana stiffen instinctively.

Then, just as quickly, she struggled to push him away.

But there was no way a woman’s strength could pry off a man as solid as he was.

Calliod gripped her firmly, his voice low, heavy, and rough as he spoke.

“Slowly. Breathe as you normally do. This won’t kill you.”

Though he spoke to her respectfully, the hand covering her face was anything but gentle—

as if he might just as easily smother her to death like this.