Chapter 91: Ruins [Erik]
[Erik''s Perspective of the Past]
At the gates outside of the fortress, I alerted that Garett''s head along with the rest of the hostages were
ced gruesomely on tall wooden poles the next day.
I could not believe that The Balik Empire would just kill off a member of the Royal Family within less
than a few days of captivity, or did Garett refuse to reveal his identity to stop any possible exchanges
from happening?
More importantly, I felt a deep sadness from losing my cousin who was also my friend...
I had asked that everyone stop Arielle from seeing the scene, but it was all toote when I heard her
wailing cries.
Arielle was approaching the heads posted on the wooden poles. Several people tried to stop her from
approaching the scene.
It was forbidden for the Queen of Arundel to touch the dead as it spelled the curse for a miserable
death for her in the future.
She kept pressing forward until her two feet were in front of Garett''s head. At that point, it was already
toote. No one could say anything even when she removed Garett''s head from the marker and held
his head close her chest. The blood stained hervender dress from head to toe. She fell to her knees
and cried for a long time.
Even though she did not cry at her mother''s funeral, she cried for him...
It was then that I understood Arielle''s feelings for the very first time. She held a deep ce for Garett in
her heart, and I was the person who sent him to his death.
Later, Arielle closed herself in her room without any contact to the outside world for three days. In the
meantime, I gathered the people behind her kidnapping and the ones responsible for handing Garett
over to enemy territory. I brought them into the holding cells for questioning. It was the least that I could
do for Arielle who was mourning.
As I was leaving the holding cell after getting a few good punches in at Marquis Pir''s son, I was
suddenly approached by Arielle''s Maid.
"Lady Arielle has gone missing from her room!" her Maid screamed.
I immediately called for all of the Guards to begin a search party for Arielle. I ran around desperately
looking for Arielle like a madman as well. She seemed nowhere to be found as if she had disappeared
in thin air.
I suddenly had a bad feeling and followed it back to the dungeon that happened to be unguarded and
open for some reason.
What if something happened to Arielle?
I went down and heard screaming from the cell of Marquis Pir''s son. When I approached it, I saw
Arielle standing in front of Marquis Pir''s son who was still hung up on a stake as I had left him. Arielle
turned slightly towards me and revealed her figure sshed in blood all over her white nightgown.
"Are you hurt?" I asked as I turned her towards me.
"I am fine, Erik," she said with a smile.
How long has it been since Ist saw her smile?
I soon gasped when I saw that there was a bloody dagger in her hands.
"Arielle, what did you..."
"If you do not mind, I am in the middle of something," she said as she turned back to the prisoner.
She grabbed his tongue with some pliers and cruelly sliced it off with the dagger in her other hand. It
was then that I realized Marquis Pir''s son was missing all of his fingers and his left ear.
"...Did you do this?"
Such a horrible scene...
"The ear is just skin attaches to the temporals. If you pull it from behind, it is easy to rip off. However, I
did use the dagger to cut off his tongue and fingers," Arielle said with the brightest smile on her face.
Arielle soon lost her smile. Her eyes began leaking tears. She dropped the dagger by her side and fell
to her knees as she continued holding her face in her hands.
I kneeled beside her as I brought her to my chest and hugged her.
"Arielle, why did you do such a thing?" I asked.
"...I thought that I would feel better after getting revenge and making him feel everything Garett felt, but
I still feel just as awful as I did before," Arielle said as she clutched my clothes and cried into my chest.
I do not deserve to hold you either. I was the one who refused to go with the exchange and sent Garett
away in the first ce. If anyone, I am the person Arielle should me the most, but I will continue
taking care of you because I love you and because I promised Garett that I would.
After that incident, many things changed. Arielle became active war campaigns, purging corrupt Nobles
in Arundel, and closed off her heart.
As the days went by, Arielle and I saw each other less and less. The number of times we met in a week
could be counted on one hand. Even most of those meetings consisted of signing off on important
documents and not evensting a minute longer. It was almost as if we had lost all intimacy in our
rtionship and became just colleagues.
Some Nobles unsatisfied with Arielle''s demands, gathered and tried toin that she was not doing
her duties. I knew that she had well overdone her duties if anything. Still, I tried to inquire about what
she had not been doing. All they could say was that she had not dutifully given me an heir.
It was a ridiculous demand seeing as though these were unsteady times of war. I believed that Arielle
and I would rather not bring a child into the world during these difficult times. However, my Advisors
said that they would force a political bride on me if I were to refuse. If that were not all, the past Nobles
from when the rumors of Garett came from started making up terrible rumors about Arielle as well.
The most irritating rumors were about Arielle refusing my affections because she was in love with
Garett. I could not be angrier that those pesky Nobles chose to bring up a dead man''s name just to
besmirch Arielle''s reputation. I could not punish those people specifically because it would only further
damage Arielle''s image if I were to do so.
When a document arrived on my desk about the enlistment officers, I saw Arielle''s name on the sheet.
Bringing her to war was thest thing I wanted to do. I knew just how stubborn she was, so I knew she
would refuse if I asked her. The fact that we were slowly growing distant from each other was not
helping either. It was finally to the point where she did not want to consultrge decisions with me
anymore.
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Our rtionship was dying...but I did not want to ept it and forced myself on her. Even if she hated
me at the moment, we could still share some sort of connection together. I was that desperate to keep
Arielle with me.
After a few days, Arielle seemingly returned to her normal self, but that was a lie as well. She had
partially closed off her own memories of Garett''s death and the dark days that proceeded afterwards. I
could not dare bring up old wounds, so I let her be for a while.
A few weekster, I received news that Arielle had be pregnant with my child. I was so ted that
I went to find her immediately. I remembered her schedule and assumed that she went to the meeting
hall to meet Dolton.
Instead of Dolton, I saw Kaya Ouchi threatening Arielle with a knife. She soon threw herself at Arielle. I
used my body to protect Arielle and identally got stabbed myself.
I was bleeding out and on the verge of dying. All I could was touch Arielle''s soft cheeks. She looked so
distressed and unhappy. I wanted to hold her tightly in my arms but was slowly losing my strength and
dying.
"I cannot do this anymore. Everyone I love keeps dying...Mother, Garett, and now you!"
She remembered Garett now? Was my death a trigger for her returning memories?
"If I cannot be with you in life, then we can all be together in death," she said as she picked up the
de and held it towards her heart.
Stop! Stop!
I tried screaming with all of my might, but it was all toote.
"I am sorry, Our Child..."
All I could do wasment as I watched Arielle stabbed herself in her heart and die by my side.
Everything...Everything is Garett''s fault...
You made a mess out of her heart and left. If I could redo things, I would rather kick you out of her
heart and just leave me inside.
All I need is for God to give me another chance to make things right again...