The square became breathlessly quiet.
The smile on Raju's lips suddenly disappeared, and his face remained frozen.
"You have committed such a heinous murder in a foreign land, tarnished the honor of me and your great lord, and caused strife between our two countries. This is by no means a light crime. I hereby order you to be flogged 500 times and executed immediately."
"What, what did you say? No, that can't be true!"
Raju was astonished and shouted loudly.
It was a time of thick confusion and fear.
"Execution? Aren't you taking me to Katzen?"
The crowd also doubted their ears. But soon they cheered.
"Wow, wow!"
"Execution! Execution! Justice! Justice!"
Laughter, cheers, and gasps of surprise mingled in the crowd.
"No! Something is wrong!"
The messenger looked down at Raju coldly and sent his gaze down the platform.
Two burly executioners, whips drawn, came up onto the stage.
The thick leather whip had scary protrusions.
"No! His Majesty would never abandon me! You are driving me crazy with your assumptions! This is a false accusation!"
Raju shouted with a mixture of despair and impatience.
He backed away from the executioners who were walking towards him, holding whips that looked murderous just by looking at them.
But the heavy chains around his ankles and the crowd filling the space below the platform made it impossible for him to escape this narrow space.
"This is wrong! He promised to send me back! He promised..."
As the bailiff approached, Raju suddenly leaped towards the messenger and raised his bound hands.
"Ah...l..."
But before he could reach the messenger, he was kicked and rolled on the ground.
And then, bang!
The bailiff's whip swung without mercy and swept across his back.
"Ahhh...!"
Raju screamed in excruciating pain as if his flesh was being torn apart.
A scream of agony shook the square.
"You have not reflected a bit, Roberto Raju. You have not only disrupted the diplomacy of the country, but you have also committed the great sin of concealing the will of the former Emperor and embezzling his inheritance for personal use."
The messenger spat contemptuously and raised his voice.
Slam!
"Ugh...!"
"How dare you deceive His Majesty and still hope to survive? How bold."
In particular, the messenger added that the Emperor was very angry that Raju had embezzled the enormous profits he had made from the sale of salt in the southern territories, more than the subsidy he had received from the secret agreement with the Anspiras lords.
"Uh, ugh, how did you...."
Anspiras. Salt of the South...
Raju was taken aback when he heard a word that the Emperor could never have known.
'I only said in the letter that there was a report from the late Emperor. How on earth did they find out about that?!'
The exact details of the legacy left by the former Emperor are recorded only in one place, the original ledger.
The ledger is deep in a room that only he visits.
It is also in a safe with a recognition spell that only my blood can open.
So how did the Emperor of a foreign land know about it and get his hands on it?
'Absolutely not. No one can open it...'
At that moment, a light went off in his head.
That's why he realized there was only one possibility to open the safe.
The only blood relative in this world who shares his blood.
"Birna, where are you going at this hour? Your mother will be worried."
"Let's do this. How about going to this old man's house? Stay there for as long as you want and then come back."
No way...
He turned his head and saw Birna, staring at him from among the crowd.
The corners of his lovely daughter's mouth, who had been bowing her head the whole time, were split open.
"Ah..."
Raju's pale eyes trembled in shock.
A sigh escaped from the parted lips.
"Birnaaaa! How dare you!"
His terrible scream echoed through the descending whiplash.
***
"The crime of tarnishing Katzen's honor and causing strife between our two countries is by no means whipped 500 times and executed immediately."
When the messenger's words fell, Catherine's face turned pale with shock.
"Wow, that's ridiculous..."
Not repatriation, but execution! Execution!
500 lashes. No able-bodied man could endure that many.
This meant that the Emperor had absolutely no intention of letting Raju live.
As if it had been a half-day dream, Catherine's pink world, which had been full of hope until just a moment ago, was shattered.
'Why on earth, why...'
Before she could even comprehend the situation, a brutal whip struck Raju's body.
Slam...!
"Ugh...!"
Thud! Thud...!
"Ahhhh! No!"
Catherine reached out to the stage, clutching her head as her lover's screams burst out.
"This can't be happening! This can't be happening! Something is wrong!"
"Get out of here. Unless you want to die with me. His Majesty has specifically ordered that the punishment be carried out without mercy."
The messenger winked at his guards.
Catherine was pushed away, unable to move, with her arms and legs held by them.
“No, no..."
Catherine sobbed harshly, her beautiful face soaked with tears and pain.
I'm finally starting to get to you.
After wasting so many years, now something is finally beginning to bear fruit!
She couldn't bear to watch her beloved Raju's flesh bursting open from the harsh treatment.
At that time.
"Birnaaaa! How dare you!"
Raju's scream-like cries echoed for a long time.
Catherine paused.
Suddenly she realized.
That it's too quiet next to her.
Amid the crowd expressing shock at the sudden change of heart of Emperor Katzen and the painful whipping of Raju, her daughter remained silent as if it were her own nature.
As if she knew this would happen.
No way.
Catherine turned to her daughter.
Shock, doubt, and a growing sense of anxiety crossed Catherine's face...
Her head felt dizzy as if she was trapped in a vacuum. All noises seemed distant.
She cringed at the cold as if someone had poured ice water on her head.
"Rain, rain..."
A voice without a destination.
The daughter's eyes were still fixed on the stage where Raju was.
“Ahaha.”
She thought she heard a faint laugh.
No, she misheard.
That can't be. Birna, our daughter, of all people...
Catherine reached out, her trembling hands gripping her daughter's shoulder.
"Oh, no?"
Birna turned around.
"What is it?"
It was an overly calm voice. The ending sounded somewhat cheerful.
"You, you, you reported him."
Hehe.
A sneer escaped from the corners of Birna's lips, which were long and droopy.
"Why, are you sad, Mom? Because your affair partner died?"
"What?"
'What are you...'
"I'm dying from filth. How long have you been doing that?"
Birna stared at Catherine with disgust.
"The maid said that a few days ago, she heard a woman moaning in
that man's room. It's dirty and disgusting. What on earth are you doing in our house? Mom, why is your face like that?"
"It's disgusting and contemptible. No matter what Mom chooses, she has no shame in giving birth to such a lowly brat."
Memories of the past, when she didn't know about their dirty relationship, flashed through her mind.
"I don't know."
Birna sneered as if she had no intention of hiding the contempt that was welling up from the depths of her heart.
"But your husband was a Prince, so at least you should have met his standards."
Her father's swollen last face was superimposed on her mother's beautiful face.
It was such an incongruous ending, thought Birna.
Her father died a tragic death, putting to shame the noble blood flowing through her body.
The mother who instigated the death even tries to pour filth on this death.
I will make a man like Raju my father!
"What?"
"Why are you looking at me like that? That's right. I stabbed him. That's why he's yelling like that now."
Birna snapped back, her lips twisted in a spiteful manner.
"That idiot showed me everything just to try to win my favor. So I stabbed Emperor Katzen in the ledger I found there. He had embezzled a lot of the former Emperor's money. He used the stolen money to show off his power, so the Emperor must have lost his mind!"
"Ahhhhhh-! Birnaaaaa!"
Catherine tried to run towards her daughter with a scream that was tearing her heart out.
"Don't touch me with your dirty hands!"
But she ended up collapsing on the floor because her daughter pushed her away so viciously.
Looking down at her like that, Birna snorted.
It was an eye that burned with the flames of betrayal.
"Then, do you think I would just send the murderer who killed my father back?"
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