“Brother, are you really going to kill Lord Tristan like this? I heard he had nothing to do with the rebellion.”
“Even if he is not directly involved, the fact that he is the son of a traitor does not change.”
“But it’s a waste to kill someone like that.”
Tristan, dressed in dusty, ragged clothes, looked more like a vagabond knight in high ascension than a sinner. There was a reason why the knight, who spent much longer time on the battlefield than he stayed in the capital, became a model of a company and admired by lots of ladies.
“Not to mention the art and manners of the Duke of Rowenthal, he has a nice body, and he has great military exploits. It would be nice if we could see.”
Aurest, who looked a little offended by the praise of Tristan, suddenly pulled me around the waist.
“Don’t you always have this brother next to you? You don’t think you like him more than your brother?”
“But you’re my brother. No matter how nice my brother is, wouldn’t it not be necessary to consider our blood relationship?”
Aurest pulled up the tip of his lips.
“What can’t be done? It wasn’t unusual for a family to get married in the old imperial family.”1
Oh, my God. When was the last time a blood marriage was banned? I laid my eyes shaking with contempt.
“But you can’t use family as a servant right?” Don’t get mad at me for saying something weird all of a sudden and listen carefully. “Did you know that it’s fashionable to have a plaything among young ladies these days?”
“Why would a young lady and not an old lady? I can’t quite understand the trend these days.”
“It’s like a pet cat or a pet dog. It’s kind of expensive jewelry. Anyway, listen to it, brother.” Aurest looked sullen as if he didn’t know, but he stayed still for now. “You know Lady Cathleen, the Marquis of Bloomlodrin, don’t you?
“As I know. The daughter of that filthy army god.”
“I saw Lady Cathleen’s new start a while ago. Well, he’s good-looking–“
“More than me?”
Oh c’mon!
“Of course, it’s not more than my brother, but his appearance is outstanding and his manners are perfect. What’s that? That’s it? He have a deep mastery in art and excellent horseback riding skills. That’s why I’m so jealous.”
Then he glanced again at Tristan, who was waiting for time to die under the gallows.
“But no matter how good the slave is, he’s just a well-educated commoner. Isn’t that right? How can you compare his birth to a nobleman?”
Aurest, who had been staring at Tristan for a long time, suddenly burst into laughter. Musicians and maids around him watched Aurest with their heads down. Aurest, who stopped short of laughter, asked, rubbing tears in his eyes.
“Erin. You’re my clever sister. You want Tristan Rowenthal to be your plaything?”
“Oh, why do you speak so loudly, embarrassing!” I folded the fan and tapped his nose slightly. “If I became the master of that ‘blue knight,’ Lady Cathleen wouldn’t dare to brag about her good slave in front of me.”
Aurest said worriedly, with a wry look on his face.
“But isn’t Tristan too old to drive be your plaything? How old was hr? I think he was a couple years older than you.”
“But it’s okay because his still young. If I get tired of it, I can use it as a decent worker.”
The first clung to the rope while we were talking. The executioner asked the second child who was standing in front of the rope for his will.
“Uhm…”
Aurest’s gaze at the balcony instead of the answer was clearly in the hope of my impatience. I stamped my foot.
“Come on, brother! Please! He can’t die like this, you’re not going to get me anything better than that!”
“I can’t help it if you want it that much.”
Aurest sighed exaggeratedly.
“But I am worried that the Emperor will be angry at how I can save the son of a traitor. Of course, I can endure it for my beloved sister. Don’t you think I should have a price too?”
I don’t even have a snort.
Did he think I didn’t know that he is the one who advocated to hang Tristan to our father, who was contemplating whether he should be saved or killed?
It’s obvious you’re trying to show-off.
The fingertips slowly move away from the bone that connects the neck bone to the spine. The hairs on the back of the neck stood on edge. Before I knew it, even Rowenthal’s second child clung to the rope. It was Tristan’s turn now.
“Erin. You know better what you can give me. So you have to think about it.”
He whispered in a laughable voice and flew away while touching the railing. Aurest laid the floor gently, as if the height of the second floor was nothing.
As the crown prince climbed up to the gallows, the executioner hurriedly bowed his head. Aurest hung his own rope around Tristan’s neck. It was such a kind hand gesture that it seemed to hang a necklace on the loved one.
“My faithful knight. What do you want to leave behind?”
Tristan answered unsympatheticly.
“None.”
“That’s great. I have a lot of days left to live, but it’s embarrassing to say something serious.”
Orest slapped Tristan on the cheek and kicked him in the leg. Tristan’s knees collapsed and his body clung to the rope, the rope tightened.
I know you didn’t break your neck bone, but, uh, it must hurt a lot.
His brows were wrinkled. Aurest trampled on Tristan’s back as he tried to pull himself up. He pulled out the sword from his waist and cut off the top of the tight rope of the gallows.
Tristan was breathing heavily on the floor of the gallows. Aurest grasped and pulled the end of the rope as if it were a dog’s neckline. Tristan, whose wrists were tied behind his back, could not raise his body properly, and he waited with his knees and plunged his head to the floor.
Aurest glanced his back, snarled and laughed.
“Oh, it’s the son of a dog who can’t even walk on his two feet.”
It was miserable to see a nobleman once called a blue knight being dragged around like a dog. The nobles who supported the Crown Prince laughed with a pat on the knee. Some nobles turned their heads or groaned.
Laius was the only one who watched the situation with an indifferent look.
No one will know what the current emperor is thinking about when he sees the humiliation of Tristan, which closely resembles the dead Vathorlia. The only thing that was clear was that Laius would not intervene no matter what Aurest did to Tristan.
Aurest finally walked under the balcony.
He shouted with a bright smile.
“Erin! Erin! My dear sister!”
It was clearly an audience-conscious line. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on me.
Tristan, who was leaning on the floor with his face red with his neck tied to the rope, looked at me. It was hard to face the despair, resentment, sadness and shame of the black eyes.
I avoided Tristan’s gaze.
“This is yours now!”
I put down my face-covering fan. And I smiled brightly at Aurest as if I had become the happiest person in the world.
That was the best I could do now.
* * *
“Come on, dog collar.”
Aurest extended the end of the rope to me. The rope used for hanging even wrapped a handkerchief, saying that the surface of the rope was rough.
How sweet of you.
“Isn’t it a little dirty?”
Tristan, who still had a rope noose around his neck, was boiling his knee with his shoulders and back of his head crushed by knights.
“It’s a lot dirty, not a little bit. Yeah, that’s fine. It’ll look good if you wash it and treat it.”
It was almost as if blood could be seen through the clothes that were too worn out due to the rolling on the floor.
“I’ll call a servant. Hey! You, ···”
“Wait. Erin, before that.” Aurest, who stopped me, looked down at Tristan and said… “Hey, Lord Tristan. Do you know why you, a son of a high-handed sinner, have so far survived the honor of speaking with me?”
A cracked voice came from Tristan’s burst lips.
“I don’t know. I don’t notice much. Yeah. Well, good. I haven’t noticed and lived so it’s okay.”
Aurest, who was confused whether he was talking about Tristan or himself, shook his head.
“Hey, you there, let him raise his head.”
The knight grabbed Tristan’s dark blue hair and let her stare at the Aurest. Then Aurest pointed me with his chin and said.
“Because my sister wants you.”
A quick-witted knight turned Tristan’s head and forced him to look up at me. The eyes met again with Tristan. The black glass-like eyes were filled with forced feelings.
“My sister said she needed a plaything for herself. So I’m going to give you the honor of having this beautiful, noble lady as my master.”
Aurest grinned as he showed his teeth.
“Your family is all set up, and you’re going crazy thinking about playing and being cute by yourself, right?” Tristan’s mouth was tightly sealed by apparent ridicule. The tightly knitted knight’s shoulders wriggled.
At that moment, a knight holding Tristan’s head bent was hit on the chin and fell off. It happened almost at the same time that the driver, who was weighing on Tristan’s shoulder, was kicked in the stomach and collapsed. The room rope, which tied Tristan’s hands, was cut off before I knew it. Tristan knocked down the other knights and ran towards me.
Aurest pulled the sword from his waist and distorted his face.
“You crazy bastard!”
He intend to kill Tristan.
No!
I screamed at Orest.
“Don’t kill him!”
A royal assassin or an attempted assassin can be executed. So Tristan Rowenthal is now attempting suicide.
You’re the one who chooses to die with honor rather than to survive in the face of your head?
It’s not that surprising.
Tristan’s grip is just around the corner. Unlike the tightness of the head, the body was as stiff as a salt column. I closed my eyes tightly. A moment’s pain was bearable. I just hope you don’t get too sick.
Puck!
Puck?
×××
Note: Honestly, I think Erin here is acting like a loving lover than an affectionate sister 👀 and sometimes, she’s like Aurest’s doll… Living doll.