Sleeping or waking, her head hurt as if there were constriction around it.
She continued to hear a voice.
Offer yourself to the kingdom.
That voice was hopelessly sweet and had a power that made her want to abandon herself to it. A number of times, Kriemhild came to her senses and caught herself with a longsword borne from the Power of God in hand and heading off to the royal villa. Every time, she struggled against the pain in her head and returned to the castle.
She very quickly became haggard and worn. An ordinary human certainly would have given in to the crown. Kriemhild was only able to resist it due to her love for her sister.
But even so, she could not avoid the mental fatigue. When she was completely exhausted and zoned out, Warren came to speak with her.
“It’s not as if we’re seeking to kill Princess Brunhild out of some petty malice.”
Kriemhild looked at the old chief vassal with hollow eyes.
“We are aware this is an inhuman act. I’m sure that after death, we will not be invited to the Kingdom of Eternity. But there are wounds that will be healed by our inhumanity, lives that will be saved.”
Warren’s hand pointed out the window of the castle. Below the window, they could see the flourishing kingdom.
“We cannot allow the perfect kingdom the First created to end in our generation.”
It had to be because she was mentally weakened at this point. She found herself thinking, Yes, that’s right.
Even Kriemhild didn’t want the Miracle to disappear from the kingdom. It was a medicine that eradicated all disease. She could imagine just what great damage would occur if it were gone. There were even cases in foreign countries of 40 percent of the population being lost due to infectious disease.
“I…believe you are all inhuman. But…I don’t believe that act was born from ill will.”
“So then…”
“Even so, I will not kill my sister. My current wish is that my life end as soon as possible.”
Kriemhild held up her hand. When she did, a dagger of light appeared in it. Upon turning thirteen, Kriemhild had become able to make a sword with the Power of God. She swung it down into her own heart.
“Ngh…”
But the knife would not reach her heart. Her hand stopped halfway.
Just as the crown prevented attacks against it, it also prevented attacks against her own body.
The crown tortured her head, punishing her for her suicide attempt. When the knife made from the Power of God left Kriemhild’s hand, it melted away and vanished.
“How dare you…make such a cursed tool…,” Kriemhild said resentfully.
Warren said to her, “Though it may be a cursed tool to you, to me, it is a holy relic.”
Kriemhild thought that was true, since he could admonish the queen with this crown…
A few days passed after that. Or so she thought they had. Her sense of the passage of time had grown unstable.
Seeing Kriemhild become practically an invalid, Warren said, “I never thought you would be this stubborn. You have a strong heart.”
She moved just her eyes to glare at him. “Warren…the healing sword you brought me was not a gift from our mother either, was it?” Warren had said the previous queen had died one year ago.
“It was a gift not from the previous queen but from myself. However, my desire that you live a long life is no lie. I would like you to live as long as possible, as the queen ruling this country.”
“Don’t you mean as your puppet…?”
Kriemhild thought he was a truly evil person.
He had tried to make her bear the Healing Blade, so he could use her as a puppet as long as possible. She could infer that all the queens since the Second had been puppets to Warren.
Before she knew it, Warren was gone from the room. These past few days, Kriemhild had suddenly fallen unconscious sometimes. It seemed that had happened just now, too.
Her thoughts were unclear. The never-ending pain made her struggle to think.
She lay vacantly in her bed in her room. She continued to hear the voice like a hallucination, on and on, and her head ached. Her body had long since reached its limits, and all she wished for was to be rid of the pain.
…I’m sure Mother struggled against the crown at first, too.
But in the end, she had given in.
There was no surprise there. She couldn’t blame her at all—if she had been constantly beset by this torture.
…I’ll just sleep.
Sleep was Kriemhild’s only salvation.
While she was sleeping, she could hear no voices and feel no pain.
Not for the sake of resting her body, but to escape, Kriemhild slept.
She had a dream.
Before she knew it, she was before the royal villa. She bore the sword of light in her hand.
Ahh, I’m having a dream of killing my sister again.
Kriemhild had often been beset by such nightmares lately. Her exhausted mind and body showed her such things. She couldn’t avoid having dreams like this, since killing her sister would free her from her pain. At first, she had blamed herself for dreaming of killing her, but she no longer had the willpower for that.
Kriemhild headed to her sister. She killed the soldiers who got in her way.
It was just a dream anyway.
When she burned down the great hall, Brunhild came, bringing a dragon.
Brunhild put her utmost effort into trying to talk to her. But there was no point in talking.
Since it was a dream anyway.
Kriemhild heard a nasty voice in her head.
Offer yourself to the kingdom.
She was sick of it.
Finally, she was hearing the First’s voice even in her dreams. She wished she could be left alone in dreams, at least.
If they wanted her sister’s corpse that badly, she would give it to them—the sister in her dreams.
Obeying the voice of the crown, Kriemhild stepped forward to cut down her sister. When she obeyed the voice, for some reason, strength welled within her, and she was able to move more quickly than usual.
Her sister spurted blood as she fell. Even if it was in a dream, it was a sorrowful sight.
In the end, she wasn’t able to obtain her corpse, since the dragon took her sister’s body in his mouth and fled.
After letting her sister get away, Kriemhild sat down in the great hall.