I took the package from her and carefully opened it.
It was fine-quality parchment, scraped clean until it was thinner than Ho paper. It was the sort generally used in books that needed a lot of thin pages. Letters and contracts, on the other hand, used thicker parchment for the sake of robustness. The inner surface was wax-coated and held some minute granules. An extremely fine powder like this was ideal for throwing into someone’s eyes.
As I examined the substance, Tillet tied Jula’s arms behind her back.
“What are you doing?! If you’re going to kill me, then get it over with, you savages!”
She really was energetic. After losing everything and having the other witches turn against her, it was like she’d returned to her old self. It made me realize that some people never changed deep down, no matter what they went through. That only made it easier for me.
I sprinkled a little of the powder onto the wound in Jula’s leg.
“What are yo—Aaarrrgghh!” Jula screamed as pain shot through her. “It’s hot! It hurts! Ah, aaaarrrrgh!”
As she screamed, she went half mad, desperately throwing her body from side to side as she tried to endure the pain. It was worse than a little salt in the wound—it had to be some powerful acid or alkali. I had to wonder how it was made.
“Stop! Get it off me! Get it off!”
“Talk.”
“I will, but get it off me!”
How’s she expect me to get the powder out of her wound anyhow?
“Fine, I’ll put it in your eyes next.”
I moved behind Jula and wrapped my left arm around her head to hold it firmly in place. With my right index finger, I forced her eye open while holding the parchment close.
“Stop! I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
Don’t tell me she cracked already?
“Then talk fast.”
“A man named Luke Moretto on the seventh block! An exile!”
“Liar.” I poured the powder into Jula’s eye.
“Ngh! Graaaarrrrgghh!”
The agony became too much for her, and she used her whole body to thrash around. Her reaction was so extreme that I thought she might’ve clawed out her own eye if her hands weren’t bound. The pain must’ve gone way beyond what she’d felt when I’d put it on her leg, because she was stomping her feet despite the extra damage it was doing to the stab wound—she’d forgotten about her leg entirely.
“It hurts! It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts!!!”
Tillet’s grip on the back of the chair was enough to stop it from falling over, but even that wasn’t enough to stop the chair’s legs from rising off the ground.
After about five minutes, Jula stopped thrashing around and sat there, exhausted. The tears streaming from her eye must’ve finally washed away the powder.
“Now for the other eye.”
“Eeeek!” Jula looked at me, terrified. Her right eye was so red that there was no hint of white left. “Stop! I told you! I said it already!”
“You lied to me.”
“I wasn’t lying! It’s the truth!”
I held Jula’s head firmly.
She resisted much more fiercely than she had earlier. “Stooooooop! Stooooop!” she cried in desperation.
“Then give me the real answer.” I slowly tipped the parchment.
Strangely, Jula didn’t attempt to close her eyes this time. Instead, she kept them wide open as she watched my hand. Either she was in panic, or the idea of losing sight of me scared her more.
“I’m not lying! I’m not lying! I’m not lying! I didn’t lie! Stop!”
I released Jula’s head just as the powder was about to spill from the parchment. It sounded like she’d been honest.
“Ah... Ha... Ha ha...” When I let her go, Jula laughed dryly, like she’d lost her mind. The tension she’d felt, followed by a sudden release, must’ve been too much for her to process.
Stupid woman.
“What was it you said?” I asked her. “There’s no point in talking if I’m going to kill you anyway? You could’ve avoided this if you’d talked when I first asked.”
Though the truth was, if she’d talked too easily, I’d have wanted to confirm it anyway.
“You should...go to hell,” Jula said.
That’s a funny thought.
I stared at Jula’s face again. She looked terrible.
“Sure. I’ll be right along after you. Wait for me.”
Jula responded by spitting at me. It hit my cheek.
“Heh.” She grinned now she’d finally gotten one over on me.
“Haaah...” She never changes, does she?
I made my right hand completely flat, then thrust it into Jula’s mouth.
“Ahguh?!”
Before she could bite down, I thrust in my other hand to pull her jaw open further. There was a sort of clunk, and then her resistance disappeared as her jaw dislocated. Her mouth was left hanging impossibly wide open, but I kept applying force. As I wrenched her jaw downward, I heard her bones crack as the joints gave way. That was when I finally took my hand away.
“No more talk from you.”
Jula made a few incomprehensible noises before realizing that she’d never be capable of speech again. She might not keep her mouth shut, but she’d keep quiet, at least.
✧✧✧
“Yuri...your hand,” Myalo said.
I examined the back of my right fingers and noticed blood dripping from wounds where they’d scraped Jula’s teeth. The adrenaline had stopped me from noticing. The injuries seemed likely to get infected unless I cleaned them with alcohol.
“It can wait. Right now, I’ll need you to step outside, Myalo.”
“Why?”
Because I’m about to kill Luida Gudinveil. “Reasons.”
A rifle with a match cord was already in the room, leaning against the wall.
But the old woman had something to say before she died. “Spare us your nonsense. What a stupid thing to say. Myalo, you’re going to pull the trigger.”
Her suggestion caught me completely off guard. “Have you gone mad, old hag?”
“Myalo, you have to do it. It’s an ideal opportunity for you to kill someone.”
Unless this was some sort of Spartan training that Gudinveils went through, her reasoning made no sense at all.
“Yuri, please let me do it.”
For some reason, Myalo was all for it.
“No way.”
“Please.” Myalo lowered her head. “We have to settle this as family.”
“As family”...? I wasn’t totally convinced, but I began to think it might be for the best.
“Are you sure? You won’t regret it?”
“I won’t. Please. For me, it’s like a trial I have to overcome to surpass my grandmother.” Myalo still had her head lowered, like this request meant everything to her.