I found Carla in the third room I checked. Our eyes met the moment I opened the door.
She’d no doubt heard the sounds of fighting in the corridor. She was here alone, staring at the door and waiting.
She wore a pure white dress with painstakingly embroidered frills and a glittering necklace adorned with an extravagant set of beautiful jewels. It was an outfit fit for a queen, but she was far from majestic.
I looked around as I stepped into the room to check we were alone. There was no one here besides Carla. Everyone must’ve deserted her. The attendants that should’ve been by her side were gone.
“Carla’s in here,” I told a knight outside. “Stand watch and make sure we’re not disturbed.”
“Yes, sir.”
I closed the door.
“Yuri...” Carla watched me fearfully, like a prisoner waiting to be sentenced to execution.
“Carla.” I took a seat as I said her name.
I could’ve killed her right away, but I felt like talking a little first.
“Thing is, you know, I didn’t do it on purpose... They gave me an antidote. How could I have known it was fake?”
“Carla—”
She went on talking before I could tell her to stop. “Oh, I should say sorry first, shouldn’t I...? I’m sorry. I hope you understand that I’m not lying to you. You know I’d never try to kill you, don’t you? When I put it into the wine, I was planning on giving you the antidote... So, you see, it wasn’t on purpose.”
She wasn’t making any sense. It didn’t even matter what she’d intended to do, or what anyone had told her. The fact was, she’d done it.
Rook and Suzuya died coughing up blood, and Carol’s still sick in bed right now. How do you think she feels? Don’t you understand the enormity of what you’ve done? I wanted to say all of this to her, but I held my tongue. Nothing was going to get through.
“So, well, I’m sorry. I know I can’t undo what I’ve done. But even so, I want you to know. I really do love you, so—”
“Stop!”
Overcome with rage, I slammed my fist down on a tea table. With a great cracking sound, it splintered into two and collapsed to the floor. It had only been a delicate little folding thing. The collection of pots on it, which had contained tea powder, shattered and stained the crumpled tablecloth with their contents.
Carla cowered in fear. “I’m s-sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Everyone had things they could and couldn’t do. Surely there was someone out there, probably a woman, who could understand how Carla’s mind worked—down to the most subtle details. Maybe there was even someone who could reason with Carla and get her to understand. But that someone wasn’t me. I’d never get through to her. I’d never make her feel remorse. It was partly because I wasn’t patient or accepting enough. I didn’t want to draw out this meeting with her.
I doubted I could even convince Carla that it was already too late for her. She’d killed the queen by her own hand. She’d live for as long as the witches governed the kingdom, but once Carol took control, Carla would have to be executed. No matter what she did now, she had to die for what she’d done.
Her crimes would normally be cause for some horrific form of execution. There was still a chance for her to avoid that fate, but she’d be executed nonetheless. After a week living in a comfortable cell, she might be dragged out before spectators, a rope placed around her neck as she wailed and wept, and hanged.
But she was still Carol’s little sister. News of her execution would leave Carol distraught and add to her suffering.
If Carla wanted to take responsibility, then suicide was her best option. It was a far more honorable way for her to die than whatever execution was in store for her, and it would lessen the pain her death caused Carol.
“I’m only angry at my own lack of compassion,” I said. “I’m sorry too. I made light of your feelings and said things I shouldn’t have.”
“Huh? Um, what...?”
“After losing so much, it made me stop to think about how I really felt about you.”
Carla’s eyes lit up as I spoke. “You mean it?!”
“What happened between me and Carol was an accident. Once she was pregnant, the queen pressured me into marriage. I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you back then.”
“Really? That’s what happened?! Well, you really took your time, but...now that we both know how we feel about each other...”
She was proving herself a genuine psychopath.
I never said anything about loving you. You killed my parents in such a horrible way. Can’t you guess how I feel about you?
Since Carla had hated her mother and lost her father at a very young age, the concept of love for one’s parents might’ve been alien to her.
“What did the witches tell you?” I asked.
“They said that if I became queen I could make you mine. They told me to make you promise before I let you have the antidote. I had no idea they’d tricked me... And I was going to let your parents have the antidote too, of course! You believe me, don’t you?!”
She was repeating herself. We were going round in circles. I really couldn’t stand conversations like this.
“Yeah, I get it. They’re awful people. We’ll punish them for it. They have to pay for manipulating you into doing something so terrible. Then we’ll arrest anyone who spreads awful rumors about you.”
“You mean it?! Please promise me!”
“I won’t let anyone else hurt you. I’ll call off the marriage with Carol.”
“And the baby?! Can you make my sister abort the baby?!”
For a moment, my anger was so strong that I couldn’t think. I’d gone beyond seething with rage—this was more like an explosion.
“Just between you and me, Carol isn’t going to make it. Don’t worry, she’ll never have that baby anyway.”
I was impressed at my own ability to keep a straight face and feed her lies while rage consumed me so utterly. I felt like I’d lost my sanity. Is this the sort of man I am?
“Really?! Then you’ll marry me instead?!”
“Of course. To be honest, I always liked you better than Carol.”
“I’m so happy!”
Carla put both hands to her mouth and began to weep, looking genuinely overwhelmed with joy. For a while, she just looked at my face, but then she seemed to tire of that and spent several minutes looking at the floor. She was overcome with emotion the whole time.
Once she’d calmed down a little, she lifted her tearful face. “Will you hold me?” she asked while spreading her arms wide, ready to embrace me.
Carla was much shorter than Carol, and she looked much lighter too. Perhaps it was because of the difference in their upbringing.
I reached out and lifted her up as I held her. As Carla wrapped her arms around my neck, my face came to rest next to hers, and we held each other tight.
“Yuri, I love you.”
I detected no hint of dishonesty. It sounded like the truth. I didn’t doubt her.
While holding Carla with my left arm, I drew the dagger at my waist with my right.
“I love you too.”
I turned the blade sideways and drove it into a gap between her ribs, just above her abdomen. I aimed the dagger upward so it would graze her lungs and most likely reach her heart.
“Ugh, kgh...”
The freshly sharpened blade avoided ribs, sliding into her with barely any resistance.
Carla didn’t struggle, nor did she shake much. She simply continued to hold me at my neck, keeping her body close to mine, as if savoring my warmth.
“I know you’re lying, but I’m still happy. Thank you.”
After whispering her final words into my ear, Carla twitched, then ceased to move at all. The strength went out of her arms around my neck, and I felt her body grow heavy in my left arm.
After lying her down on the bed, I looked at the dagger that was still embedded in her rib cage. Blood was pouring from the wound, staining her white dress a deep crimson.
I’d hoped that leaving the dagger in place would lessen the bleeding from her pierced heart. Perhaps the excessive bleeding was because I’d stabbed her from the side and punctured her lungs, allowing air to escape.
No one would mistake this for suicide.
Carla’s final words had made an impression on me. Before I’d entered the room, my plan had been to stab her, then throw her body outside. Since this was the sixth floor, no one would ever know whether she’d died by a stabbing or by deliberately jumping to her death. I still had that option, but it just didn’t feel right.
I covered her body with the bed’s blanket, then left the room.
“Your Excellency! Did all go well?” a soldier who’d been waiting outside asked.
“Carla killed herself,” I lied as I closed the door behind me.
Not that it would cause any great problems for me if the world knew I’d killed her. She’d killed my parents. People wouldn’t blame me—they’d sympathize. Although I didn’t have to worry about people learning the truth, calling it a suicide made matters more convenient for now.
“I’d like her to be treated with respect. Let a woman handle her body.”
I walked slowly along the corridor, back to where Bronx lay dead, and picked up one of his axes. It was heavy. The thick handle also made it difficult to hold.
I went back to the door, gripped the axe in both hands, and swung it downward to destroy the doorknob.
“Stand guard here. Don’t leave until a woman comes.”
The royal swords would arrive soon after the second order surrendered.