Quietly, Leah looked down on her from above. She was dressed so elegantly, anyone who saw her would have known her for royalty. The barbarian king stood beside her, leaning casually against the throne. He wore an expression of disinterest, but when he looked at Cerdina, he smiled.

Before she flew into a rage at his contemptuous attitude, Cerdina suddenly looked down at herself.

Not only was she not dressed properly, she wasn’t even washed.

Gone was the beauty that she had always been so proud of. Her face had aged, as if all her years had fallen on her at once. Cerdina smiled bitterly. Only now did she realize how far she had fallen.

Looking up at Leah was like looking up from the bottom of an abyss. It was miserable to see the woman who had stolen away everything she had ever wanted, and there was nothing of her pride left. It had shattered into fragments, and pierced her heart like shards of glass.

Cerdina decided she had had enough.

She sank her teeth into her tongue.

Determined to die, and they would not even let her do that. Her suicide attempt was stopped immediately, Kurkans rushing over to her and forcing her mouth open. Cerdina screamed as blood spurted from her mouth.

“Kill me! I’d rather die!!!”

It would be better to die than to continue this humiliation. She wanted to die. Above her, she saw Leah suddenly bite her lip, and for a moment, Cerdina felt a faint hope that it might have been out of pity.

It was a useless fantasy.

Leah was remembering another day like this, the day Cerdina had brought her back from the desert. Cerdina looking down on her, filled with arrogance. Leah had fought to the end, even begged to be killed, but Cerdina had not hesitated to force a potion down her throat and cast her spell.

Now it was Cerdina begging to die. Their fortunes had reversed. Kneeling, Cerdina felt her legs go numb, and with her humiliation complete, she could do nothing but look at the person who controlled her fate.

Leah’s beautiful purple eyes shone like jewels. In spite of all the torment Cerdina had visited on her, those eyes had not lost their luster. If anything, that glow had only sharpened, like iron forged into steel. Those were eyes that no evil words, no spells, no malignant powers had been able to destroy.

A thrill of fear went through Cerdina.

It was an emotion she had never felt before. Fear of the person that she had held in her hands all her life, and suddenly she was filled with indescribable shame.

Leah looked at her calmly.

“Why should I be so merciful?” She asked, with perfect composure. “You never offered it to me.”

“……”

Cerdina’s lips moved silently, searching for something to say, but in the end she could only close her mouth. There was nothing she could say.

The new Queen of Estia pronounced her sentence.

“You will die. Painfully.”

That was the end.

Many Kurkans had been waiting quietly in the shadows, and now they moved forward, laughing. They approached Cerdina with smiles and expressions of utter delight. The sight of dozens of savages converging on her at once made Cerdina’s eyes go round with terror. Like prey, scenting the hunters.

A woman with an expressionless face caught Cerdina by the waist.

“I’ll take Leah away,” said Ishakan, speaking for the first time. He smiled, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Cerdina. “Save a bit for me, Genin.”

***

After taking Leah back to her room, Ishakan had told her to go ahead and go to bed, but Leah couldn’t sleep. Sitting back against the back of the bed, she drew back the curtain to look out the window. On the thin branches outside, new buds were growing.

Slowly, the royal palace was greening again. The spell that had covered it had been broken.

With Cerdina’s power weakened, the Kurkan sorcerers, led by Morga, had finally been able to break the spell. But instantly, chaos had erupted.

Leah had led the bewildered nobles in restoring the ruined Estia. And confused though they were, they naturally followed her.