Chapter 10: Castle
LORD Siegfried’s mood was at its best. Humming—an act rarely committed by individuals of high rank—echoed from him in chipper tones as he stroll merrily through the corridors. Fires burned throughout the castle, lighting the way for servants shuffling in every direction like chickens with their heads cut off. Inspectors’ bellows echo about as they scold servants for whatever blunders may have occurred.
“You there! That doesn’t go there! Bring it here, halfwit! Hurry, carry it!”
Furrowing his brow, Lord Designs twists his beard. For the devil’s sake, they’re all useless. It’s almost as if they don’t understand their orders or what must be carried out. They’d ditch their work if they could weasel out of it… Some even go as far as faking illness.
“For crying out loud, they’re all slackers. Ignorant fools presuming upon my benevolence.”
Ignorant fools—such a title is perfect for them.
“Go on! Hop to it! Move! Move already! What? You feel like you’re gonna die? Then die! There are millions of replacements from where you come from!”
Lord Designs had the wedding attire prepared over a year ago. The wedding dress was crafted extravagantly using luxurious amounts of silk, pearls, lace, and gold. Right about now, the maids are frantically retailoring the dress to fit Princess Lala Lilia. They’re hard at work, not stopping to drink, eat, or sleep. Naturally, as it’s the sole purpose of their existences.
“…Oh?” Lord Designs suddenly stops and scrunches his nose. “Smells like some kind of meat is being burned. Did they burn the meat for the banquet?”
“No, they did not, Father.”
When did she get here? Did his humming distract from the sound of her swishing skirts, of her light footsteps? Or were they drowned out by the bellows? Either way, Lady Megan is now silently standing at her father’s side.
“That is the smell of burnt children,” his daughter informs him in a neutral voice.
“Wh…at?”
Lord Designs doesn’t immediately comprehend what she said or what it meant. Or to be precise, he does not want to comprehend it. He freezes, his eyes rounding, and blinks twice, then thrice.
“Megan, Megan, my precious pearl. Did you say children? Or did I mishear you?”
“No, Father, you have not misheard me. That is the smell of burning children.” Her frosty voice doesn’t waver, nor do her words contain any hesitation. “I locked them in the enclosure and lit it on fire to ensure they will burn to death without a single survivor. Those things are no longer needed now that we have obtained the princess. Taking the time to get rid of them in the forest is a waste… Is it not, Father?”
Lord Siegfried’s hands and legs tremble. His teeth chatter. Unconcerned, Lady Megan lifts both of her white hands and shows them to him.
“Honestly, those soldiers are all useless deadbeats. Every last one of them simply chickens out, freezing when they see the children. Hence why the fire was set with these hands. I accidentally burnt several of the incompetent soldiers as well, but I believe it to be a trifling loss.”
“Terrifying child!” Lord Designs cries out, his twitching cheeks turning blue. “You are cursed after all. Aaah, what a nightmare. All because I went and made a deal with the Devil of the Abyss!”
“No, Father, there was no deal.”
The daughter’s ruthless words pierce her father’s chest, wrenching it open to reach in and crush his choked, fearful heart between her bare fingers.
“There was no…deal?” he asks in a dead voice.
“Exactly, Father. I was born without a soul. This is the real me.” Lady Megan stares directly into her father’s eyes and gracefully raises her right hand. She lifts her index finger and thrusts it at him. “Rejoice, for you have accomplished everything you desired with your own power. From the mother who birthed me, to His Majesty the King, and the queen, and to…”
Her lips twist slightly.
“Adorable Megan, you are the greatest treasure in this world.”
Those had been the words of the sole person in the entire world who had accepted Lady Megan as she was. For learning the truth about her stepdaughter only made her wrap the child in even more selfless love. Her stepmother was the one and only person who had hugged Lady Megan with her warm arms and kissed her lovingly on the cheek.
“…And to the stepmother who gifted me with the status of noblewoman, you killed them all with your own hands!”
“Oooh! Oooh! STOP! STOP IT!”
Lord Designs had always closed his eyes to the truth. He looked away from his deeds, from the piles of corpses left in his wake. He never felt even a twinge of guilt for killing hundreds of thousands of inferior, ignorant commoners.
He wrote it off as a necessary expenditure, telling himself, “There’s a limit to how ridiculous people can be, you can’t kick up a fuss over every little murder.”
But people change their tune when it endangers nobles and royalty. He had his excuses prepared for those murders too. “This is happening because I pleaded with the Devil. I’ll get my hands on the kingship in return for selling my daughter’s soul. You’ll see. Everything is the Devil’s work for the price of my daughter’s soul.”
That was the justification he had clung to until this moment. But now, the wall shielding his heart from his own cruelties is mercilessly smashed to smithereens. Everything was just an illusion. What he told himself was a valid justification hadn’t existed from the very beginning. And it’s none other than his own daughter who delivered the news.
“DON’T SAY IT! Don’t say it! I don’t want to hear it!” He covers his ears as he runs away.
But an icy voice is hot on his heels, saying, “You no longer have anywhere to run. Go on, marry Princess Lala Lilia just as you have always desired.”
Lord Designs flees. He keeps running, blind to how he must look, tearing at his ears as he shrieks down the corridors. In no time, he turns the corridor corner and disappears.
Watching him go, Lady Megan finally lowers her hand and mutters, “And then please die immediately after.”
Long golden hair without a single stray hair hangs smoothly down her back. Lady Megan calmly looks up at the throne room spilling out dazzling light from the illuminating lamps inside.
“It is only then that I shall take my seat on this kingdom’s throne as the Blessed Queen.”
She had decided everything seven years ago. Ever since the day her father killed the only person in the world who loved her. She still had the option to imitate the mother who raised her, to live life peacefully as a kindhearted princess. However—
There’s no reason to be a good girl now that Stepmother is gone. I’ll live the way I want to, pursuing my desires.
Now there were only two paths before the soulless princess: to become an Evil Witch or to become an Evil Queen.
“In which case, I choose to become Queen.”
White fingertips brush over the sapphire skull resting on her right hand—that moments ago started the blaze that consumed hundreds of living girls.
“I’ll eliminate everyone who gets in my way. Yes, everyone.”