Chapter 68

Three months later, the Crown Prince visited the room.

No—this wasn’t the Crown Prince.

His face was noticeably haggard, his skin darkened, and deep shadows under his eyes ran down to the tip of his nose, making him look like a sick man.

He wasn’t wearing the Crown Prince’s robes with red patterns but rather the Emperor’s robes adorned with gold.

He looked at me, feigning composure.

“It’s been a while.”

“Yes, it has.”

After exchanging greetings, he approached and sat on the bed next to me, crossing his legs.

“Why are you still sane?

I thought your pupils would be blank, drooling uncontrollably. Did those black bastards fail to do their job properly?”

As he spoke, the Emperor started poking my stomach—specifically, the area where my womb was—with his fingers.

“Should I have made sure you were impregnated with some black bastard’s spawn? If I had unleashed them without restraint, they’d have gone at you relentlessly. Idiots as they are, at least those males have impressively large reproductive organs, like beasts.”

“Did you think that would make any difference? No matter what those filthy beasts did to me, I wouldn’t care. What could such wretched creatures possibly do to me? I wouldn’t yield, and I wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.”

I tried to push the Emperor away as he continued to poke my stomach, but he didn’t seem to hear me.

He gazed at me, lost in thought, as though seeing someone else overlaid on my image.

I said I wouldn’t break, but the truth was, I was reaching my limit.

Clinging to the baseless hope that Evan would come to save me, imagining a future that had yet to materialize—it was its own form of torture.

Being beaten until my bones broke, having my teeth ripped out by the filthy hands of the black-skinned men, and still being trapped here—it was unbearable.

If I were pregnant with some beast’s child, I might have ripped it out of myself.

I knew that with enough force, even my own hands could pierce my skin and pull something out. I had learned that lesson while enduring endless beatings.

Yes, I was hit so much that parts of my flesh caved in. Once, an organ protruded through the gap.

One of those black bastards, who seemed to hate me with a passion, ate it right in front of me.

He ate me.

He chewed my flesh and bit into my organs.

The more I screamed in pain, the more they laughed, enjoying themselves as they poured filth over me.

I gritted my teeth until my jaw nearly shattered, tears streaming down my face as I struggled to endure.

In this room, unlike the soft one, even smashing my head against the wall didn’t accomplish anything—I healed instantly.

If I tried hanging myself from one of the ceiling’s hooks, those bastards would come and toss me to the floor before I could die.

It takes at least six minutes to die from hanging, after all.

Still, the fact that the Crown Prince—no, the Emperor—had come to see me made me wonder: was Evan searching for me?

Maybe he wasn’t like Vivian, maybe he hadn’t abandoned me. Maybe he was truly doing something to save me, genuinely caring about me.

It was hard to believe.

Thinking back on Evan’s actions and behavior toward me thus far, it felt almost impossible to trust.

But there was nothing else for me to cling to.

If it was just a madwoman’s delusion, that would be pitifully unfortunate. But it wasn’t. 

It couldn’t be.

Otherwise, what would all the time I spent holding onto my sanity amount to?

It would all have been meaningless—a pointless struggle.

“Anyway, I’m delighted that the time has finally come to put you to use. I was seriously considering handing you over to that damned dark sorcerer, but on second thought, why not use you as bait to kill him instead? That dark sorcerer might even get aroused and come running at the sight of a broken doll like you without a right eye. Though I find one-eyed people repulsive.”

As he muttered, he seemed unaware that I could hear him, his face slightly dazed.

“Half the people of Strelitz… all those generations dead—just because of this useless girl.”

“Whatever they want, I’ll give it to them! It’s all mine anyway; the Empire belongs to me. Someday, I can just gather my strength and kill them. But first, I need to teach them a lesson about what happens when they covet what’s mine. She’s pretty, but I don’t care if she becomes a doll—I won’t be using her anyway.”

This time, instead of shoving a gag into my mouth, he stuffed a piece of white cloth into it. Then he produced a menacing axe and something burning in mid-air.

He laid me on the bed and brought the blade down.

As I writhed in pain, teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, he paused and remarked, “Ah, people often die from pain, don’t they?”

He poured a vial of liquid into my nostrils and removed the cloth from my mouth.

I spat instinctively, but he dodged it with practiced ease.

Was he just too accustomed to this?

“You’re insane.

I told you before, the Empire will meet its end because of you.

I’ll make sure of it. You’ll go down in history as a damned tyrant.

You pathetic fool, too cowardly to even kill a single woman—”

He ripped out my tongue and cauterized the wound with fire.

Then, as if to erase my final defiance, he gouged out my left eye, leaving me completely blind.

“Ah, I thought taking the helm would make a difference, but perhaps ruling isn’t my calling. The one thing I was good at—breaking things—turned out to be my own Empire.”

I could no longer feel my limbs moving. It was likely due to the potion.

When I noticed that I couldn’t sense my arms or legs, it became clear: they had been severed, cauterized, and then healed with magic.

A doll, he said.

Once knocked over, it wouldn’t even be able to stand back up.

A legless, armless doll at that.

How could someone who couldn’t even string together proper sentences become Emperor? Ha!

Rather than scream in despair, I decided to laugh.

If I took this situation seriously, I might truly lose my mind.

“I hope that dark sorcerer sees this and comes running. But will they even recognize you like this? Take her to that damned heretic immediately. If they can’t catch him, so be it. This is nothing more than a taunting gift.”

Someone took me, much like a bag being handed over.

Unlike the Emperor, who had grabbed me by the hair, this person carried me more politely.

I was transported like cargo, thrown into a compartment that smelled of manure and dust. 

Despite the journey, they continued to shove slop into my mouth on the Emperor’s orders.

I didn’t cry.

I’m a humorous, cheerful person, after all.

I didn’t cry.

Crying would only remind me of my reality, making it all the more painful.

I didn’t cry.

Even if I wanted to bite my tongue and die, I had no tongue left.

Even if I wanted to smash my head against a wall, I’d be restrained too tightly to move.

I couldn’t cry.

At some point, the ability to cry seemed to have left me entirely.

Eventually, I was brought to a place reeking of blood and decaying corpses.

A man with a loud, obnoxious voice tied me to a pole and raised me up.

At least they dressed me. If I had been naked, it would’ve been unbearably cold.

“You damned heretic! Cursed dark sorcerer! The Emperor has granted you the woman you so desired! Tailored precisely to your vile and heretical tastes!”

Suddenly, an explosion rang out.

The person holding the pole I was tied to must have died, as I began falling to the ground.

The next sounds were screams, shrieks, and wails.

Words of pleading, terror, and despair followed.

I heard countless people clashing—shouts of combat mixed with the stench of blood.

Minutes, hours, or perhaps a day passed.

I was hungry. My body reeked of pus from my wounds.

I tried crawling, but I couldn’t see where to go, so I simply lay there, waiting to wither away.

Amidst the fading sounds of battle, footsteps approached me.

The voice was different, but I recognized it instantly.

“Erica.”

The man brought his forehead to mine.

Tears began falling onto my face.

“I know things will reset if you die. I’ll come find you next time.”

I couldn’t respond.

I had no tongue.

Nor could I cry.

Perhaps my tears had already dried up.

“This won’t happen again. You won’t go through this again. I’ll protect you.”

As those words ended, I heard the sound of another explosion.

Suddenly, I was pouring tea into a teacup.

Tears streamed down my face.

I wept uncontrollably.

But no sound escaped my lips.

The merciless mirror reflected a blank-faced girl with nothing but tears flowing from her eyes.