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"Your Majesty's supporters were not political aristocrats, but knights who wielded swords on the battlefield As long as he survives and gets out of here, he'll come back with those knights!"
Sienna could not get the image of the emperor sobbing as if he had lost his own life with Bluebell's death.
"The cause lies not with you, the queen who revolted, but with the emperor."
"Oh, I see, " Arya nodded with an exaggerated expression on her face, as if she had suddenly come to realize the truth."If that is so, then Carl died here."
"What are you talking about?! Didn't Your Majesty see the emperor's image leaving this banquet hall?!"
Queen Arya smiled at her remark and approached Sienna, "Empress Sienna, no matter how hard it is, you have to wake up."
Sienna looked at Arya anxiously. Queen Arya held Sienna's chin up. Then, she wiped her face with the handkerchief she was holding. The dried-up blood didn't come off easily.
Arya, who gave up cleaning the blood off of Sienna's face when it did not come out, threw her handkerchief on the floor and turned Sienna's chin to make her look at the banquet hall. Arya pointed her finger at the middle of the hall and said, "There it is, isn't it? Carl's dead body."
"What..."
"Can't you see it? The body of His Majesty lying on the floor with its pierced?"
She was sure she had seen Carl walk out of the banquet hall with her own eyes. It occurred to her that Queen Arya was out of her mind. Does one become crazy when one tastes blood when blinded by greed?
Arya rose from her seat and walked down the stairs one step at a time. That walk was no different from what the musicians had previously seen in the banquet hall, where the music had played and the colorful chandeliers had lit up the room. Her straight waist, straightened shoulders, and her dazzling, soundless walk seemed to have a way to make one feel pleasant.
It was the type of walk that Sienna had always envied, but now, Arya's demeanor seemed unlike that of a decent woman, but like that of a cruel conqueror instead. Sienna trembled with fear.
Queen Arya stopped in front of a body under the throne. If Sienna's memory was correct, it had belonged to an aristocrat with a title of his own composition.
"Isn't it here?"
Arya patted the body as she said so. It was certainly not Carl who was at her feet.
"Empress Sienna is saying that the owner of this body, Carl, is alive?"
She didn't wait for Sienna's answer. Instead, she was handed a blade by the knight standing next to her. Her upper body staggered, indicating that the sword was heavy. Arya straightened her posture with the tip of the blade against the floor.
"Then, I'll check it out. I don't know if Carl's alive..."
Arya raised the sword and stabbed the body in the chest. Her slender arms were having difficulty wielding the sword that she had placed on top of the darkened chest. Then, the knight next to her helped her cut the body's throat. She praised her retainer and turned to Sienna.
"You're not saying he's alive with his head rolling around like this, are you?"
"It's not Your Majesty there!"
Queen Arya asked the knight who had given her the sword without batting an eye, "Whose body is this?"
"Emperor Carl's."
She also asked the knights standing in a line behind the other.
"Emperor Carl's, " they answered in unison.
She looked back at Sienna with a satisfied smile.
"If I say Carl's dead, then Carl's dead. Even if he comes back alive, the emperor died here, and if anyone comes to the capital saying that he is the emperor, he will be treated as a lunatic. And he's going to get caught and have his head cut off. None of those who favored the emperor should be alive in the capital by now."
Arya looked around the banquet hall and smiled. It was only she who stood firm on both legs at that moment. Those who followed Carl were lying on the floor, bleeding.
"As of this moment, if I see a rat in the palace but call it a dragon, there'll still be people around me who'll trust me. If I say that corpse over there is Carl, then it is Carl."
"What's that... ?"
When did she plant so many of her people in the palace? Sienna couldn't understand. Carl was definitely in control of the army, but now, Sienna was wondering how many of those retainers had been under Arya's employ...
"And now that the emperor is dead, I will declare martial law in the capital under the pretext of catching the remnants of the rebellion. Even if Carl were to lead an army along the border, he wouldn't easily cross the capital to enter the palace unless there was a big enough hole for his soldiers to cross through to get that many of them in."
Sienna felt dimmed by her words.
No matter how much Carl was called the God of War, he was at a complete disadvantage. If news of a civil war spread through Laifsden, the borders of other countries would be closed. Meanwhile, if he took charge of the troops along the border, he wouldn't be able to avoid war with the other countries. The plan had been perfected to make him give up the Laifsden Empire.
Like Arya had said, it was as if Carl had died there. He will not be able to find a place as the emperor again.
Arya shouted to the standing knights and at her nobles, "The Peer Family tried to revolt, and the emperor died by the sword of Count Peer, the head of the rebellion. The loyal Black Eagle Knights cut Count Peer's head off and tried to capture his daughter, Bluebell Fair, but inevitably killed her when she resisted.
"Now that everyone here has confirmed the death of His Majesty, Prince Joseph, his only offspring, will be annointed emperor."
She raised her voice again.
"Now that we have confirmed the death of the emperor, those who claim to be Emperor Carl in the future are to be executed for treason. Make a summary of this as soon as possible. Impersonating the emperor will never be taken as a light charge."
Arya blamed the Peer Family for all the sins she had committed and made it impossible for Carl to return to the capital.
"After seeing the tragedy caused by the evil Peer Family, the empress unfortunately seems to have lost her senses. You must need medical attention because you don't recognize your own husband, the emperor. Take her to the tower!" she said and took Joseph from Sienna's arms.
So, the revolt by Queen Arya ended in her victory, leaving many casualties behind.
*
After climbing a small flight of meandering stairs, a small room with a bathroom revealed itself. It was all that was there. It was no different from a prison, and the soldiers at the door always watched her every move.
Sienna prayed every day that the memories of that terrible day turned to dreams, but neither the day nor the memories ever did.
The warm blood that had splashed on her face from when the tall, dark knight cut Bluebell's belly seemed to haunt her continuously. Sienna rubbed her face with a handkerchief.
'It won't rub off... '
Even though her dry skin had turned red and started peeling off, the feeling of the indelible blood was worse than the bitterness of her skin. The sounds of fighting and the screaming and the smell of blood that had filled the banquet hall, Joseph's cries, Bluebell's miserable end, and Carl's face when he saw it all, all of those things haunted her.
Worse than that was Arya. She had come up to Sienna, who had been going mad in the prison, and whispered in her ear, "Empress Sienna, this was what you wanted. Killing Carl and Bluebell and making Joseph emperor!"
Sienna suddenly screamed and punched the flood. She would feel like she was going crazy if she didn't let things out like that.
"Arya!" Sienna hissed seethingly."God! If there is a God, it won't work out the way that wretch wants it to. With your bloodsoaked hands, the curses of those who have disappeared will not leave your years intact! Your blood will soak the earth! And it'll be a luxury if you live for four years. You won't lie comfortably on the ground! You'll be burned to oblivion so that even your ashes don't reach the ground!"
Sienna cursed Arya with all her might. Having taken Joseph away from her and cornered Carl like Queen Arya had done, Sienna did what she could. She hurled the most terrible curse she could imagine at Arya.
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