Fabiana's trial concluded in the name of the Emperor. The punishment handed down to her was not the death penalty.
In a spire erected at the edge of the empire in the north, an isolated prison that no one visits—a place where cold winds raged all year round fiercely and where no fire could be lit even in the dead of winter—Fabiana was destined to be imprisoned there for the rest of her life.
The news of the crime she committed and the punishment that followed spread throughout the empire.
The people breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Fabiana was finally paying for her crimes, while the nobles exchanged wary glances and quietly began calculating the new dynamics of power.
However, strangely enough, a bitter aftertaste lingered in Odelia's heart.
The woman who was once an Empress, who stood at the pinnacle of the empire—her fate was to be forgotten by the world as a nameless prisoner.
Passing through a road filled with the cold of deep winter, Odelia stood before a huge spire built of black stone.
The tower stood tall as if piercing the sky, and a biting wind swirled at its summit. The sound of the wind seeping through the cracks in the walls was like a howl.
The iron gate slowly opened, and the guards guided her.
'Here it is.'
The soldier stopped in front of the innermost room. Odelia quietly nodded and slowly stepped into the prison.
Fabiana was sitting in a corner with a pale face. Her once-splendid clothes were now old and tattered, and her hair was disheveled, covering half of her face.
The woman who had become a sinner slowly raised her head. Soon, the gazes of the two women, whose positions had been completely reversed from just a moment ago, met.
"...Do not look at me with pity."
Fabiana's voice was cracking, having lost its former dignity. It was a voice resembling the dry wind seeping through the cracks in the wall. Odelia approached slowly, concealing her emotions.
A faint light coming through the iron bars brushed against her face.
"I've never felt sorry for you."
"Hmph, even using informal language."
"You're not the Empress or anything anymore, and come to think of it, I'm five years older than you."
Fabiana was speechless.
"...Do whatever you want.”
It contained a sense of resignation, wondering what use it all was now. Upon reading this, Odelia took another step closer.
"There is something I want to ask. Why did you hate me that much?"
Fabiana pressed her lips together tightly. A cold silence dragged on. After a long while, she opened her mouth with difficulty.
"Come to think of it now... I'm not really sure about that either."
The corners of her mouth twisted, and a bitter smile spread across her face.
"It was just... I didn't like it. Just, yeah, because you have things I've never had."
Odelia's expression hardened in an instant. She took a slow breath as if suppressing her rising emotions, then snapped in a low voice.
"My family... burned to death. Because they were branded as traitors, they were ridiculed even after their unjust deaths. Your father made it that way. Yet, as the price for trampling on my family, you have lived well as the Empress."
Following Fabiana's imprisonment, the disgrace of the Rubis family was cleared due to numerous pieces of evidence discovered inside the villa the Grand Duchess bequeathed to Odelia, but that was all.
It was certainly encouraging that the disgrace was cleared and the family name was restored, but even so, her family would not return.
Despite the situation being a victory for her, Odelia could not particularly feel the exhilarated emotions that usually accompany a winner, such as joy or pride.
Although she felt that she had done what she ought to have done when an opportunity arose in a situation where she couldn't even dream of revenge, it was because it had already been too long since she had been deprived of the everyday happiness of sharing daily life with someone precious.
Fabiana slowly raised her head. Her gaze pierced deep into Odelia.
"Does it look like that? Do I really... seem like I've lived such a good life?"
Then, a bizarre laugh suddenly burst from her lips. Hahaha. The pride of her days as Empress twisted and vanished in that laughter.
"You know what? I've never achieved anything and kept it for myself. Everything my father told me to have was taken, and in the end, let alone Calix's heart... haha, look at my state now."
Her voice was a mixture of despair and madness.
"But you... if you want something, you get it, you take it. People help you. So that you can do that. But I'm not like that. No matter how hard I struggled, no one held my hand."
Those words were neither regret nor remorse, but a final desperate struggle to ultimately justify herself.
Odelia looked at her in silence for a while, then quietly opened her mouth.
"I do not pity you. You were someone who held too much to deserve pity, and yet you continued to covet more; you prioritized your own greed even to the point of hurting and killing others."
Her voice was cold and calm.
"But... I do feel a little bit of pity for the life that led you to this point."
At least that life where there was no one to correct it and tell her it was wrong.
Fabiana's eyes wavered slightly. However, she neither nodded nor denied it; she simply looked up at Odelia with a silent gaze. After a moment of silence, Fabiana asked in a low voice.
"What happened... to Henry... and the child?"
Odelia answered briefly.
"They were deported. He was sent overseas with the child. At least he survived thanks to testifying in court."
After hearing those words, Fabiana pursed her lips but could not say anything.
Odelia could not tell what emotion had crossed her eyes. Was it regret, lingering attachment, or perhaps emptiness?
She simply turned her back and walked slowly toward the door, leaving not a single lingering regret behind, as if she had nothing more to say.
Only Fabiana remained motionless in that spot, listening to the fading footsteps until the very end.
***
Having finished preparing to go to Talamand, Odelia sat by the window in the room for a while, lost in thought.
It was the room Calix had given her a while ago, where Talamand could be seen in the distance.
Was Odelia's gaze directed toward the north? As the candlelight swayed gently in the breeze, casting a long, thin shadow on the wall, a cautious knock was heard from outside the door.
"...Please come in."
The door opened, and Calix appeared. As Odelia rose from her seat to greet him, Calix waved his hand as if telling her to sit comfortably and approached her side.
Likewise, Calix, sitting on the windowsill next to Odelia, gazed intently at her.
"They said you went to meet Fabiana."
"...Yes, I just went because I was curious."
"Are you curious?"
Calix raised his eyebrows slightly. Odelia turned her gaze out the window and continued speaking slowly.
"To me, she seemed like someone who had everything. At one point, I even envied her. But she actually said she envied me. I couldn't understand it, so I've been thinking a lot."
"Hmm... Fabiana lived her whole life in her father's grasp. So she probably didn't realize that what she passionately desired had blossomed. As for the way she obtained it, it is understandable that she would envy you in that respect. Because you fought, endured, and won it through your own choices."
Odelia let out a chuckle.
"Choice... huh?"
She turned her head toward Calix.
"She probably thinks that way because she has never crawled out of a dung heap. She doesn't know what path I have walked. or what I lost on that path... because that woman doesn't know."
"Hmm. In the end, you're the one standing at the end of that road. No one did it for you. You returned by your own strength, with your own two hands and feet."
"To think you're sugarcoating rolling in a dung heap like that. Thank you."
"Haha, do you think you were the only one rolling in that dung heap?"
For a moment, their eyes met.
After a brief silence, Odelia and Calix burst into laughter at the same time. Within the laughter was a strange mix of relief and comfort.
As the laughter slowly subsided, Calix quietly reached out his hand. His gaze turned toward Odelia's clothes, which were ready to head to the Talamand, and the well-organized room.
Calix, slightly furrowing his brow as if displeased with something, tightly wrapped his arms around Odelia's hand that was resting on the windowsill.
"You're going back to Talamand."
Calix's voice rang out low. Odelia nodded slightly.
"Yes. I plan to leave tonight."
“Tonight?”
He narrowed his eyes as if showing displeasure, slowly wrapped his arm around her wrist, and leaned closer.
"You should have stayed a little longer. You did that last time too. You always leave too quickly."
"...No.”
Odelia's lips trembled slightly.
"Why?"
"Because if I dawdle, I'll be even less inclined to go."
Her words had finished firmly, but her voice was trembling slightly. Calix chuckled.
"You can't do it. Then I guess I'll have to persuade you."
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