Lady To Queen Chapter 56

Chapter 56 – Ten Years Ago, The Day She Died

TN: Continued content warning for abuse and suicidal thoughts. Please skip this chapter if you do not wish to read it.

It was a cruel idea, but he could do it. Continuous assault broke down a person's sense of right and wrong, and when one's body was being beaten, morality was useless in saving them.

For the boy at the time, the idea was his defense mechanism. He believed he really might die if Alisa beat him any longer.

“Your Majesty…sp-spare me,” he managed to strangle from his bruised lips.

The caning stopped immediately. That didn't mean his body didn't hurt like hell, and pain often came belatedly.

Blood trickled from the boy's wounds, and Alisa smiled sweetly. “Shall I stop?”

“Spare me, Your Majesty…please spare me…”

“So will you kill for me?”

She placed a long sword in his hand. He almost dropped it, but he didn't want to know what kind of punishment she would inflict on him if he did. He tightened his hand on the sword's grip.

Queen Alisa leaned in and crooned in a honeyed voice. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Heug…yes, Your Majesty. Please,” the boy begged, but Alisa acted like she didn't care what he said.

“Then kill.”

“You have one minute to take away that woman's breath.”

“Ah…” The boy looked at his mother in despair, but she looked completely composed, as if she hadn't just done something insane and ordered her child to murder someone. The boy's heart sank as he considered his options. If he didn't kill the woman, the beating would surely start again, and perhaps he really would die. He didn't want to suffer that terrible pain anymore.

“Eu-heuheuheug.”

He slowly lifted the blade from the ground, a sound tore from his throat that sounded neither human nor beast. His legs trembled violently in pain, and he wondered if a bone was fractured.

The boy's cheeks were stained with tears and blood as he approached the woman bound to the chair. She was covered by the white cloth, but she also seemed to know the impending death before her. The white cloth was wet where her eyes would be.

“I'm sorry,” the boy said. He wanted to live. He wanted to live. He was sorry. He couldn't ever forgive himself for killing her. Never…

Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab.

He lost count of how many times he ran his sword through the woman's body. He blinked as blood splattered on his face. It wasn't until the white cloth was drenched in red did he finally stop, then he dropped the sword with a blank look on his face. The blade fell and splattered blood on the ground. Blood also stained the boy's legs, face and body.

He turned his eyes up to Alisa, his mouth hanging open like a stunned fool.

She was smiling. The boy felt like he had gone out of his mind. He thought that Alisa must be insane too.

The woman was dead. He had killed her after Alisa ordered him to. Though Alisa neither cried nor laughed, she had a wide smile on her face. Was she happy that a person just died?

The boy spoke in a cracked voice. “Now…”

“Spare me…”

“Lucio.” Alisa gave a tinkling laugh and approached him.

The boy had no extra strength in his limbs anymore. If she decided to hit him now, he really felt as if he would die. Or perhaps he wanted to. He stared at Alisa with hollowed eyes as she advanced towards him. Her smile was terrifyingly beautiful.

“Congratulations. You've finally taken someone's life.”

She was celebrating something that a mother should never celebrate with their child. At her words, the boy began sob. Alisa frowned as if she found the noise irritating. She waited patiently, however, and when his crying died down, she spoke again.

“Lucio.”

“Will you take off the cloth covering her?”

“Quickly now.”

That was the last thing the boy wanted to do. However, he had already killed a person, and there was nothing worse that could happen at this point. He stretched out his trembling fingers, and pulled away the blood-stained sheet.

The corpse had sightless eyes and tears streaked on her cheeks. The other ladies-in-waiting around them looked sickened at the sight, but the boy, who was responsible for this woman's murder, did not feel a thing. His mind had already been completely overwhelmed, and all that was left was emptiness.

“She's dead,” he said numbly.

“Yes, she's dead,” Alisa echoed with a smile. “Lucio,” she said in a friendly voice.

“Lucio.”

“…Yes.”

“Do you know who this person is?”

At the question, the boy studied the dead woman for the first time. She looked about the same age as Alisa. Her face was beautiful, and her plain, cream-colored dress indicated that she was possibly a lady-in-waiting.

“…Is she a lady-in-waiting?” the boy asked in an emotionless voice.

“Similar to that. What could it be?”

The boy wasn't curious at all, to be honest, and he just wanted to quickly clean the blood off himself and go to bed. No, maybe he just wanted to die. He just wanted to escape from this situation, even for a moment.

The rain strengthened into a deluge, and lightning streaked against the sky. The accompanying ladies-in-waiting shifted their feet as if they wanted to leave, but there was nothing they could do without Queen Alisa's permission.

The rain was a dull roar in the boy's ear, and Alisa leaned in with a smile and whispered to him.

“Since it's your birthday today, do you want me to tell you a funny story?”

“I didn't actually give birth to you, sweet child.”

Sweet child. The boy realized that such a pet name did not fit well between her and himself.

He smiled at the stunning revelation that Alisa was not his biological mother. Yes, that had to be right. It would be more shocking if she was. He was almost relieved.

However, Alisa's next words forced his expression to harden.

“Your mother is alive.”

“No, she was alive.”

It was in the past tense. The boy began to tremble at the nauseating truth creeping up on him. No, it couldn't be. It didn't make sense.

“You killed her.”

Did he…?

“Well done.”

At that moment, an emotion that the boy never felt before swallowed his body whole. Such an emotion was rarely felt by other people even once in their lives. But if there was one way to express it—

“…Aaaaahhhh!”

The boy fell to his knees and struck the stone-paved ground with his soft fists. Blood dripped from his hands as hot tears flooded his eyes. Thunder and lightning rumbled and cracked in the dark sky above him. All the while, Alisa watched the scene with a pleased look on her face.

“Aagh…aaaagh!”

His face smeared with blood, he crawled up to his dead mother—his real mother—where evidence of stab wounds remained intact on her body. An inhuman cry left his mouth.

“Eu…eueueg.”

The residual warmth from Janet's body began to fade in the cooling air of the rain. The tears, blood, and rain began to mix together.

Every possible negative emotion that a human could feel rushed in the boy's body. The shock of it drove him crazy. He had killed a person, and in face of the truth that the person was his mother, what man could remain sane?

“Eugh…euhaaag!”

He clutched at Janet's corpse and wailed. He looked like a boy possessed by a demon, and he screamed so loud that it felt as if his throat were about to tear.

His mournful cries echoed on the palace grounds for a long time. Finally, he passed out from sheer exhaustion, and Alisa held her hand to her mouth and began to laugh bizarrely.

“Oh, aha. Ahahaha!” She was laughing so hard that tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. After a while, the laughter became a strange combination of both mirth and crying. Her expression was inexplicable as she stared at the fallen mother and son.

The rain did not cease its downpour, and the thunder and lightning continued.

“The previous emperor…” Lucio said in a trembling voice. “He returned to the Imperial Palace after his victory.”

“And then he learned the whole story. The Queen was dethroned, of course.” His voice no longer trembled, but it was icy cold. “I keep re-visiting the day I killed my mother with this wicked hand. And I have nightmares. Nightmares where I kill my mother again. Then my mother is smiling. And the Queen is laughing next to her. Then I go crazy.”

Lucio's face looked detached from emotion as he continued. “A few days ago, it was the anniversary of my mother's death. The one I killed…my biological mother…”

Lucio wore the face of a man whose world had fallen apart. As soon as he finished his story, he glanced back at Patrizia for the first time. He was scared. Maybe she would blame him, and say that everything that happened to him was justified. May he really was a selfish and dirty child.

He gave a bitter chuckle. “A day like that…you wouldn't understand.”

Then he met her eyes. Patrizia was…

“Oh…”

She had a blank look on her face, as if she were shocked.

“You blame me…” Lucio muttered.

“…Ah.”

“It's natural. I'm not a person, I—” he swallowed dryly, “—I'm a monster.”

Patrizia said nothing. Instead she was…

“Queen?” Lucio said.

“You…why are you…”

She was crying.

Chapter end