Ch.133Chapter 133. The Fate of Cursed Karrun

Ganal was running alone through the palace corridor.

She had long since discarded her high heels and was sprinting barefoot across the marble floor.

When Airan and Rainfold were facing off, Ganal had seized the opportunity amid the confusion to dash into the palace.

This was only possible because of the absurd situation where Lowellina’s elite soldiers had all poured out of the palace, and even the guards who had been stationed there rushed toward Rainfold.

“Linasien!”

Ganal called out desperately for her sister.

Though they weren’t particularly close—in fact, Ganal had even been disliked by her—now that the Zramun Archipelago had fallen and the Emperor was dead, she didn’t want to lose her only blood relative.

Despite her passive nature, the kind-hearted Ganal had always been concerned about Linasien’s well-being after she was assaulted by Rainfold and then disappeared without a trace.

Right now, she had the chance to rescue her and escape.

“Linasien!!”

After running and searching through the vast palace for a long time, Ganal finally found Linasien in front of the imperial treasure vault.

Linasien was desperately trying to open the door, pounding it with her fists and kicking it with all her might.

“Sister! Let’s escape quickly. This is our chance!”

“Let go of me!”

Ganal tried to grab Linasien and pull her away, but the former crown princess shook off her hand, irritably pounding on the door and eventually throwing her body against it.

Seeing that all her fingernails were torn off and her hands covered in blood, Ganal tried to tear her dress to make bandages, but Linasien pushed her away again.

“The answer is in here… I must get inside…”

“Sister, please!”

Ganal grabbed Linasien and pushed her against the wall.

Her back hit with a thud, but Linasien didn’t even flinch.

As if she couldn’t feel any pain at all.

“Snap out of it! This is no time to be coveting treasures!”

“I’m perfectly fine. Stop interfering.”

Surprisingly, Linasien answered calmly.

But her eyes, staring clearly at Ganal without blinking, gave off an eerie atmosphere.

“We need to escape.”

“To where? Out there? Rainfold the traitor is out there. He must be in the middle of battle with Airan, right?”

“…How do you know that?”

Linasien didn’t answer.

She pushed away the frightened Ganal and approached the vault door again, rattling the handle.

“I need to get inside. I need to get weapons from inside to subdue him.”

“How can we do that when we’re not even fighters? We should leave the battle outside to the hero’s party and Duke Dekarrun, and protect ourselves until this is over!”

“They’re far from enough. And aren’t they all just vixens after Lin? I need more power. To save Lin from those women, from the demon god, and make him mine, I need more power…”

Clatter-clatter-clatter

Though her tone was calm and composed, her actions were anything but.

“Now I understand. I never wanted the throne.”

Like someone possessed, she was rapidly shaking and pulling the door handle over and over.

“I needed someone who would stand by me forever. Someone who would look at me forever, someone who would comfort me forever, someone who would stay by my side forever.”

When the door wouldn’t open despite her rattling the handle, Linasien began banging her head against it.

“The reason I wanted a high position was because it would give me more opportunities to meet such a person. It’s instinct. It’s a woman’s instinct to seek positions where she can be loved.”

Bang! Bang!

Blood splattered.

Linasien’s blood stained the door engraved with the imperial crest, but it still wouldn’t budge.

“But I don’t need to do that anymore. I’ve already found him. I’d already found him, but I was too immature to recognize it.”

Suddenly, she stopped moving.

Linasien looked at Ganal and pointed at the door with her finger.

She wanted Ganal to open it with her imperial seal ring.

Though frightened, Ganal still had her wits about her and desperately shook her head.

At this gesture, Linasien smiled until her mouth seemed to tear, then resumed banging her head against the door.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”

“Sister! Stop it!”

“Stop what? Those bastards out there made Lin so angry that my Lin even snapped at me! I have to kill them all!”

She battered the door with everything she had—fists, head, feet, knees—using every part of her body.

Her entire body was covered in blood.

Yet Linasien, still smiling, looked utterly grotesque.

“Yes, I’ll kill them all and flay their skin to show Lin. I’ll show him that I’ve punished everyone who troubled him, so he can let go of his anger. Then I’ll tell him to serve me again like before. Lin belongs to me, so it’s only natural. Lin takes care of me, and I embrace Lin—isn’t that perfect?”

“Porter Lin already holds a deep grudge against you for destroying the Sewage Alley with Rainfold. Please come to your senses. You can beg for his forgiveness after we save our lives. I’ll kneel with you. Right now, you and I need to rely on each other!”

“It’s not a grudge… he’s just a little… upset. Yes, I admit I went too far. But… so what? I’m allowed to do that, aren’t I? Lin was neglectful of me back then too. That’s why I was distracted by a pathetic fool like Rainfold. If he had just… taken better care of me and made sure I wanted for nothing, would I have done that?”

Linasien stopped pounding on the door and turned to face Ganal.

It was fortunate that she had stopped her mad behavior, but Ganal felt like her knees would give out at any moment.

“Besides, in the end, Lin grew stronger and appeared before me. That’s what matters… Can you understand, stupid sister? He came back to me in the end. Coming back to me and showing his resentment means he wants me to understand. I can tell. It’s cute, really. His body has grown, but he still longs for my embrace, you know?”

“You’re insane…”

“Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!”

Suddenly, Linasien burst into laughter.

She threw her head back and let out a boisterous laugh, lacking both the seductiveness and dignity of her crown princess days.

The former crown princess, her shoulders shaking, flashed her eyes through her long, disheveled hair.

“Only I… can hurt Lin… Only I! Only I can comfort him! But those vermin dared to lay hands on my Lin, making him even angrier, and now he’s treating me like this!”

Linasien staggered toward Ganal, reaching out her hands.

With each step she took forward, Ganal retreated one step back.

The beauty that had once captivated even Lin at first sight was nowhere to be seen; instead, there stood an ugly woman in a state worse than a beaten corpse, wearing only a ghostly smile.

“Open it.”

Linasien’s gaze was fixed on Ganal’s hand.

More precisely, on the imperial seal ring she was wearing.

“Sister dear, open it now. I need to go save my beloved.”

“Absolutely not. I cannot open the imperial vault for someone who might do anything!”

At this, Linasien’s face twisted hideously.

“You’re after Lin too, aren’t you? You damned woman! First you seduced Rainfold, and now you’re trying to get your hands on my true love!”

“Let go of me, aagh!”

“You said we should escape, but you’re trying to ditch me and steal the power for yourself to impress Lin!”

It happened in an instant.

Screaming wildly, Linasien lunged at Ganal, grabbed her hair, and struck her with her fist.

“Not a chance! Not a chance! That person is all I have left in this world!!!!!”

Ganal didn’t just take the beating passively.

Gritting her teeth, she tackled Linasien back, and they both fell to the floor.

They rolled back and forth, engaged in a fierce struggle.

The fight between the two women, neither trained soldiers, was both ridiculous and desperate.

Crunch!

“Aaaaargh-!!!”

Ganal’s scream echoed through the palace corridor.

Linasien had bitten Ganal’s finger with her teeth.

She even chewed on it as if intending to bite it off completely, but a mere woman’s jaw strength wasn’t enough.

When her gums started bleeding and her teeth loosened, she spat out the finger, straddled Ganal, and began raining down punches.

“Die! Die!”

Completely terrified, Ganal could do nothing but cover her face with her arms.

Snarling at the persistently resisting Ganal, Linasien stopped punching her face and body and began strangling her instead.

“Kuhk…! Kek…!”

As her breath was cut off, Ganal’s survival instinct made her thrash her limbs.

Despite being hit in the face and sides from the desperate resistance, Linasien put all her weight into choking Ganal.

“Si… sis…ter…!”

“Who’s your sister! You fox bitch!”

“Kheok…! Keuuh…!”

Ganal, who had been nothing more than an innocent country noblewoman, couldn’t escape the cursed fate of the Karrun family and met a painful end.

Only after Ganal’s arms, which had been trembling with the whites of her eyes showing and drool flowing from her mouth, fell lifelessly to the floor did Linasien get off what had once been Ganal.

“Huff… huff…!”

Covered in blood, she removed the imperial seal ring from Ganal’s tattered finger.

She deliberately put the ring on the ring finger of her right hand.

I’ll leave my left hand.

I need to leave it for Lin who has suffered so much.

Damn, what is this?

How dare Lin, of all people, make me suffer like this.

When I get him back, I’ll torment him until my sulking heart is satisfied.

Loving him comes after that.

With her broken mind, she grasped the handle of the treasure vault.

Click.

It opened with ridiculous ease after all her struggles.

[Well done. Your efforts to not lose what is yours were truly impressive. I would like to show it to my foolish past self.]

A voice guides her.

[Come here. I will help you possess him. I will lend you power. Power to take revenge on everyone in this world. On those who took you lightly, on those who crossed you.]

Linasien walked slowly toward “it” as if entranced.

[Even if the demon god and goddess stand in your way, before us, they are nothing but large insects.]

Before Linasien, with her blood-covered body and disheveled hair, lay a sacred coffin emanating malicious magical energy of resentment.