Inside the Mutual Death Prison (5)

“……Why?”

Serina lowered her head, but couldn’t hide the tears streaming down her face. Mirabilis rose from the chair and approached Serina, but she didn’t even notice, twisting her body with her head bowed. The creaking of the iron shackles embedded in the wall grated on her ears.

“……Why? Didn’t you say you would possess me, that you wanted to have me?”

Serina nodded, but couldn’t explain properly, hesitating for a long time.

“Because I’m… your Older Sister-nim.”

Mirabilis gasped at the unexpected answer and couldn’t say anything. Serina forced herself to suppress the lump in her throat and tried to calm down. Mirabilis also silently watched the woman hanging in front of her, calmly waiting for the next words.

“I truly wanted to have you. Beyond being a Princess or Hwangnyeo, I wanted all of ‘Mirabilis’ as a human being, body and soul, all the joys and sorrows. For that, I vowed, again and again, that I would endure even if I was trampled by people and my body became a reddish-blue mass of blood.”

Transparent liquid slowly flowed from Serina’s wounds. Unable to wipe away the droplets flowing from her body, Serina entrusted her entire weight to the shackles fixing her arms, and continued to speak, sobbing.

“But it was an impossible desire. Even if I tried to have you now… I’m just a wounded, cracked, half-piece. It was impossible to have the complete you. Only when the result was imminent… only after seeing you suffer… did I realize.”

Serina’s voice gradually became tearful. It was a lament released by a person whose mind and body were about to be shattered by regret and emptiness, after giving up what she had so desperately desired at the end of her longing.

“I wanted all of you. I liked you as a cute younger sister who followed me, but I absolutely didn’t want to lose you as the Princess-nim who acted indifferent in front of me. So, I couldn’t bear to see another younger sister, someone I liked, die in front of my eyes. If someone had to sacrifice, it should be the Older Sister, the karma of my sins… I should pay for it.”

Serina, agitated as if crying blood, shook her chained limbs. The fixed bolts embedded in the stone faintly creaked, and the muscles and joints in her arms and legs conveyed a scream-like pain, but Serina ignored all the signals her body was sending and thrashed around, hanging as if wailing.

“In the end, despite my previous vows, I’ve come this far, doing this because I wanted to have you, but I gave up at the last moment because I liked you. Serina, you stupid bitch, you pathetic bitch…!”

Serina raised her arms to the sky and tried to wail. But because her right shoulder wouldn’t move, and trying to move it only felt like being branded with fire, she only raised her left arm and trembled. Exhausted, she bent her knees, but didn’t reach the ground. Her torn body, like a frozen hen, was fixed to two chains and hung limply.

“Now, all that’s left for me is this miserable body, like a piece of meat hanging on a butcher’s wall. I beg for death, Princess of Villandia, I beg for death…”

Listening to Serina’s last words, Mirabilis quietly closed her eyes and hesitated for a long time before letting out a deep sigh. The young lady’s breath was very low, but it shook the cold air with a lonely and desolate resonance.

If you put sand in a dish on the riverbank and slowly let it flow into the flowing water, all the other particles are swept away by the waves, and only gold dust remains at the end. Mirabilis, now completely free from hypnosis, carefully reflected on her own heart and savored the roots of her emotions. Looking at Serina’s appearance, the young lady felt a bitter pain as if the poison of Changwei was seeping into her chest.

She took one step at a time towards Serina, grabbed his shoulders with both hands, and lifted him up, then grabbed his head.

“Look at my face.”

Mirabilis spoke, but Serina only lowered her head and trembled. The Princess grabbed her face with both hands and forcibly turned it around. Serina tried to resist, but with her meat-like body, she couldn’t shake off Mirabilis’s strength. The shackles rattled.

Serina tightly closed her eyes. As if her heart, not her body, was being seared, as if her flesh was being forcibly peeled off with tongs, seeing Mirabilis’s face again would cause the pain of her struggles to stab her heart again. But the young lady didn’t allow it.

“Open your eyes.”

At the firm tone that didn’t allow for rebuttal, Serina slightly lifted her eyelids. Mirabilis’s eyes were bloodshot and red, and her skin, which had always sparkled brilliantly, had faded and become haggard, but even that appearance was pathetically pure. She tried to turn her eyes away, finding it even more painful to look at, but the young lady put more strength into her hands, which fixed her bound face, forcing her to look at herself.

Even the deeply shining green eyes, which she had always thought were beautiful, were swollen red, but her own appearance reflected in the still clear crystalline lens was like an even more shabby shell. A piece of meat that had lost its contents, been thrown on the floor, and trampled on. Serina was very distressed and gasped, as if the raw, dark, and damp flesh of her obsessive attachment, which she had exposed raw in front of Mirabilis, was being forcibly squeezed out.

Mirabilis touched the wound she had made. Clear water was slowly seeping out of the two streaks of marks that stretched from her chest to her neck, where blood had flowed and stopped.

Mirabilis traced the dark red lines that were slowly hardening on Serina’s skin with her fingers. The lines stuck to her fingers, but she didn’t care and put them in her mouth. The hardening bloodstains mixed with bodily fluids had a musty and fishy smell on her tongue and slowly passed into her esophagus. As if she was going to wipe away the blood with her hands, the Princess repeated the same action over and over again.

“Who… who the hell are you?”

Serina threw out the question. She couldn’t figure out why she was doing this, or ‘what’ Mirabilis in front of her was. But, hearing the question, the young lady slowly shook her head.

“I am me.”

Mirabilis approached Serina, wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, and stroked her face. It was a warm and soft touch, just like when Serina had touched Mirabilis’s cheeks and neck in the past.

“Even when I held a knife to you, I wanted to save you in my heart. I couldn’t really hate you. I still like you. To me, you are still my maid, my friend, and my Old…”

Mirabilis was startled for a moment and covered her mouth with her right hand, then changed her words.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of person you are. Anyway, I want to save you.”

Serina looked at the young lady in front of her with bewildered eyes, but Mirabilis didn’t care and stroked her face and hair with both hands. Serina flinched as Mirabilis touched the wound on her neck with her fingertips.

“You couldn’t sacrifice your younger sister as an Older Sister? I won’t let you go like this either. You were willing to endure even if your body was trampled by people and became a mass of blood? I’ll take it on. In return, you also accept my pain. You wanted to have everything about me as a human being? Then I’ll give it to you. In return, you also give me all of you.”

Mirabilis stood straight in front of Serina and met her gaze again.

“Serina of Rantallum.”

It was the first time Mirabilis had called Serina including her family name. In the past, Mirabilis could barely remember Serina’s name, let alone her family name. But now it was different. She knew and remembered what her family name was, what kind of people her family was, and what she did before entering the palace.

“Serina, my beloved maid. Serina, my dear friend. Serina, my beloved…”

Mirabilis couldn’t bring herself to say ‘Older Sister-nim’ and swallowed the word along with her saliva. Feeling his gaze directed at her face, the Princess continued to speak as if vomiting.

“Are the feelings I have for you now truly mine, or are they traces left by your magic? I want to believe it’s true, I’ll believe it’s true. The only clear fact now is that I still like you and I still want to save you. So… I want to make a new contract here.”

“……Contract?”

Mirabilis took the question that Serina asked back, not understanding, and nodded in response.

“A sister’s contract… You gave up on me, but I can’t abandon you. A master-servant contract? I’ll give you that as a bonus, if you acknowledge me as your younger sister and friend and love me to the end.”

“Mirabilis…”

Mirabilis hugged Serina tightly. She didn’t care at all that the blood and bodily fluids flowing from Serina’s body were staining her clothes. She just wanted to get closer to the woman clinging to her like this now, hugging her tightly and trying to feel her body temperature and the sensation of her skin.

“Don’t leave me. Can’t we continue to be with each other in a relationship where we think about each other, get to know each other, and save each other?”

“I…”

But Mirabilis shook her head before Serina could finish speaking.

“Your intentions don’t matter. I’ll decide whether you’re qualified or not. I want to accept you as my Older Sister-nim and as my friend. You’re not qualified? I’ll give it to you. I’ll pay for the karma of my sins with this. So… accept me too. No, it’s an order from the human Mirabilis, accept it.”

Mirabilis hugged Serina without looking at her face, only feeling the vibrations that were felt throughout her body whenever she spoke, and said firmly. Serina nodded weakly. Then the young lady spoke again in ancient language.

“Gnascosne me sororem weram tuam? Iowesasne amari me oinite?”

(Will you acknowledge me as your true younger sister? Will you swear to love me consistently?)

When Serina hesitated to answer, Mirabilis put strength into her arms, which were hugging him, and urged her.

“……Ita, ita semper.”

(Yes, I will, forever.)

Mirabilis, as if unable to bear it, hugged the ‘Older Sister-nim’ who was trapped between her arms even tighter and stroked her back with her hands. Serina felt as if she was burning up from Mirabilis’s body temperature, and she gasped, forgetting even the pain.

“Med quoque, swesor genoina corposesque anamas meas.”

(Me too. My body and soul’s true Older Sister-nim.)

Even though Mirabilis’s hypnosis had been lifted, she was acknowledging the contents of the ‘blood-changing’ suggestion that Serina had made before. So Serina faintly recognized that the word corposes (of the body) was included.

The Princess took a breath and quickly put the next words on the tip of her tongue. Each word was so thick with Mirabilis’s red blood that Serina felt like she was melting into the resonance of the words.

“Scalpe, tu es mea, ego esom tua, semper.”

(Remember, you are mine, I am yours, forever.)

“You…!”

Serina was so surprised that she momentarily forgot to even answer in ancient language and raised her voice. The phrase “tu es mea, ego esom tua, semper.” (you are mine, I am yours, forever.) that Mirabilis had just said was a standardized phrase customarily used in a place where men and women publicly engaged, with only the personal pronouns unified in the feminine form. There was no way Mirabilis didn’t know what that meant.

Mirabilis didn’t answer Serina’s question, and slowly placed her lips on top of her ‘Older Sister-nim’s’ lips. The Princess’s tongue licked the weak woman’s lips and dug inside, enjoying the warm sensation inside. The ‘Older Sister-nim’ couldn’t resist and quietly accepted as the ‘younger sister’ wanted. For a long time, the ‘sisters’ kissed each other as if time had stopped before separating.

“Serina, Swesor amata epo sorori Mirabilid.”

(Serina, Older Sister-nim beloved by younger sister Mirabilis.)

Mirabilis called her Older Sister in ancient language. Serina was bewildered by this situation, which she was being swept away by as Mirabilis led, and she was also stunned because she hadn’t expected this reaction. And then she demanded with a silent gaze that Serina call her.

“Mirabilis, soror duena amata epo swesri Serinad.”

(Mirabilis, good younger sister beloved by Older Sister Serina.)

She had only returned the title that Mirabilis had called her with one more adjective attached, but the Princess nodded as if she was convinced. Then the young lady calmly knelt down in front of Serina and put both hands on the floor.

“My Older Sister-nim.”

She felt the painful coldness of the stone floor, the gritty sand, and the ash-covered dust, but she didn’t care and bowed her flowing head.

“My master-nim.”

The young lady of the Rose Palace carefully kissed the maid’s instep. Her golden hair, which had always shone beautifully, scattered on the floor and fell among the sand and dust. Serina’s feet were cold and almost numb, but Mirabilis’s red lips felt as hot and clear as if they were branding her with an iron. Serina couldn’t cry or laugh, and she gasped and twisted her body.

Mirabilis got up from the floor and hugged Serina tightly again, then whispered softly into her ear.

“It’s because of you. I did this because you cried out so much that you wanted to have everything about me. So Serina, open up everything about you to me too.”

Serina’s mind turned completely white and she couldn’t think of anything. She was just overwhelmed by the feeling that someone had entered her mind and was hammering it, and the deep part of her head was throbbing, so she opened her mouth and groaned. Mirabilis’s voice was truly calm and warm, but on the contrary, it seemed to seep even deeper into Serina’s soul.

“It’s because of you, because your strange magic made me trust and rely on you so much. Don’t avoid responsibility by saying you’ve released the magic, and stay as Mirabilis’s Older Sister-nim forever. Then I promise to remain Serina’s younger sister to the end.”

Serina struggled while being held by the Princess. A deep passion welled up inside her, writhing so much that she couldn’t bear it. She wanted to break the shackles that bound her limbs and hug Mirabilis right away. But it was difficult to even control her body, which had been starved, suffered, and abused, as she pleased.

Serina struggled to lift her head and looked at the narrow window above the wall. Before she knew it, the snowy weather beyond the square sky had stopped and the sky was slowly revealing its flesh. It was a dazzlingly bright blue light.

Serina leaned her head on Mirabilis’s shoulder and murmured, “I’m sorry.” The sense of liberation from being forgiven, the joy of being loved, and the bitterness of the intense longing that she had burst out in front of Mirabilis were all mixed together, and she trembled, sobbing without tears as if laughing and crying.

Mirabilis gently kissed Serina’s forehead. And then, for a long time, she hugged the person who was her Older Sister-nim tightly, and quietly stroked her head, just as Serina had done for her ‘younger sister’ in the past.

Sunlight slowly seeped in through the window. The rays pouring down from the sky collided with the stone wall and broke like white bubbles, dyeing the cold, dark, and dry space with a dim light. The torch that the guard had hung flickered and went out, but the inside of the prison was no longer dark.