Some time after the flock of bird left, I got a chance to examine the arm on the pole in details. The arm was badly decayed and it was eaten by the birds to the point the bones were exposed. Because of that, I could not be sure if it was Laslo's arm.

“No.”

This could not be his arm. Agnes trembled and clasped her hands.

Please. Please. Please.

When the last bird left,

“Aa, no, a, aa!”

It led to a half severed wrist with a tattoo of vines entwining crows on its inside. It was Arpad's crest that she has seen a lot of times. The only thing that could engrave this on your body was from leather.

– Please be in good health.

“Aa!”

Without a voice Agnes shouted with her whole body.

I felt keenly what it meant to broke down in despair. My feet went out, my breath stopped.

– My wife

“Heok, heok, aa! No!”

At times in his eyes there was a fearful look. Every time he looked at her and sighed, she felt so uncomfortable that remembering it back made her felt ill.

– Be in good health.

Agnes grasped her chest and knelt down in front of the pole.

Why didn't you turn me over to the King? I have dreamed of Zoltan's eyes losing its light everyday since that day.

There were times when Agnes wanted to keep going all the way south and put everything down.

But when I opened my eyes in the morning, I drank cold water and ate ripped dry jerky. Somehow I was still trying to live. The will to survive was due to guilt rather than the desire to live.

Tears spilled down to her palms. With her hands she clenched the dry gra.s.s then collapsed on the ground. A huge wave of grief swept over her.

“Aa, aaaa!”

Her chest felt as if it was pounded by someone from front and back. Every word that came out of her mouth was shattered apart.

I didn't do anything for you. But because of me, your limbs were ripped apart.

The translation is brought to you by smsm.

Suddenly she saw her bandaged left hand. She untied the wrap like a madman who lost her mind.

“This, if it hadn't been for this, heuk, this…..”

It was a magical crest that appeared only in the body of a royal family that has the right to succeed the throne. Agnes has been proud of this crest since she was born and was able to recognize it. As to prove her n.o.ble lineage, she used to deliberately not wearing gloves.

Without hesitation, she picked up a stone next to her and hit her hand.

“Uheuk. If it wasn't for this, if it, if it wasn't for this, euu, aa!”

She keep hitting the back of her hand until it was covered in blood.

I could not count how many times I have hit it. I kept at it until the bloodied crest could not been seen.

“Aa, aaa, aaak!”

My blood soared upside down as the torn off flesh and the disgraceful murder of Laslo kept coming to my mind.

‘Zebastian!'

I won't forgive you. Never. I thought of my brother-in-law who always smiled happily. I didn't realized that I was so powerless.

She crawled under the pole. In tears of blood, she dug out the pole from the ground with her bare hands. The closer she was to the half severed right arm, the more it stenched. Still Agnes did not care.

Rather, I came down the hill while embracing it being wrapped around my cloak.

“Duke Arpad.”

I went to a spot where the stars were well lit, knelt down and dug on the ground.

And then she lowered his arm into the ground.

“Please never forgive me.”

She shed a few drops of hot tears over the small grave and set off on the road.

It was not South where my mind plan to head to.

* * *

“Does it make sense that you still haven't caught the princess?”

Anton, the king's most faithful knight, could not hide his irritation. 

His men bowed their head.

“We are sorry.”

“Huh. So where's the princess now?”

“She's in Kishkun.”

“Kishkun? Is she going to that dragon forest?”

It is a huge forest with an old belief of sleeping dragon which was so complex that it was not easy to escape once you entered it.

The princess, who kept pus.h.i.+ng southward on her horse, changed her course and began heading west.

Anton grabbed on to his throbbing head.

“His Highness is getting worse and worse.”

“You don't have to bring her back alive. Hurry up.”

“Yes.”

* * *

“Heok, heoheok, heok”

“Jabba! Ben! Get over there!”

I could hear the pursuer's cry right next to me. Right after that, the sound of an arrow cutting through the air grazed my ear.

It landed right in front of her foot. She kept moving on her feet away from the arrow.

“Don't let her go! You may kill her!”

Agnes ran to the point of gasping from her wide open mouth. Her sides hurt as if it was going to shred apart and her heart felt like it was about to burst from beating so fast.

The horse was struck dead by the pursuer's arrow at the entrance of the forest. By mistake I fell on my arm at the time when I fell from the horse. It didn't move but it was more important to survive than that.

She held on to her badly swollen left hand and tried in some way to reach to the center of the forest.

Just right then. I felt an intense pain coming from my back.

“Aak”

With an arrow stuck at her back Agnes could not run. She could not make it just to a few feet so she bucked forward. The men who were following behind her swooped around and surrounded Agnes.

“We got her!”

No.

I am not afraid to die.

As Agnes was born and raised in the palace she had face myriad of deaths.

I had seen one of my brothers die and I saw the other one being crippled off. It was not scary to die at the hands of Zebastian.

“Aak!”

However it was heartbreaking and painful to die without taking a revenge. My life has been saved while his limbs were torn apart but he could not die in vain. I have come all the way to Kishkun. Just go a little bit further. Just a little bit.

“Release this!”

Lying on the ground with my broken arm was terribly painful but I held it in by gritting my teeth.

“Ben! Get the rope and come here!”

“Let go of me!”

Agnes writhed violently and the man who secured her arms. .h.i.t her head mercilessly. At that moment her vision turned white.

“Koeoek!”

The translation is brought to you by smsm.

“Be quiet. I have suffered for a few days because of you.”

“Captain, the King said we could kill her.”

The man's voice was filled with faint indignation. His serious tone was recalling the long hard time of struggle because of Agnes.

“Still it would be better to take her alive.”

He began to tie up the princess's body tightly with the rope he received from his subordinates.

Agnes resisted with her remaining strength but any rebellion was meaningless now that she was caught by several men.

Duke Arpad.

She repeated his name as her face got buried in dirty soil.

“You'd better knock her out and take her.”

The man stood up and said from above her body. His tightly bind was painful as no blood could flow to her arms.

Duke Arpad.

– Please be healthy.

Agnes shed the tears she had endured. Not simply because of the pain.

I kept crying whenever I thought of the last time I saw that man face.

She was suffocated by the sensation of someone cutting and tearing her chest apart with a knife.

“Laslo……”

Agnes muttered a name she had never called before in her life. A heavy blow landed on her head with a dull thud. Her memory ended there.

Chap 2. Beginning

– Don't be.

Said a voice.

– You belong to me now.

“…seems to be enough.”

I felt like I had woken up from a long enchantment.

Agnes blinked. The bending of his hands were surprisingly unfamiliar.

My head was blank and I could not easily think of where this place was.

She looked up. A familiar man stand before her eyes.

“What?”

He told her again as he thought she did not catch it.

“The t.i.tle is enough for a princess.”

It was Laslo. Agnes could not believe it when she saw the man who was alive and talking.

“What?”

She asked again with unchanging face from before.

“Are you going to make me repeat the same thing three times?”

He frowned his eyebrows and folded his arms.

“Wait. Is this a dream?”

I still remembered the feel of the ground I dug to bury his arm. The stench of his right arm which had only about half its flesh remaining was still hovering in her nose.

Agnes was dumbfounded and pinched her own cheek. Surprisingly it hurt.

“Dream? What does that mean?”

Laslo asked with a puzzled look.

“Laslo? Is it really you?”

Agnes clasped and unfolded his left hand then leapt out of the bed and approached him.

I still could not believe the reality before my eyes.

“I haven't permitted you to use my given name yet.”

Laslo muttered with a tender expression. Agnes took a step closer without hearing him.

“Don't tell me it's real?”

Perhaps it was a fantasy that will disappear when touched. It could be a dream of the king being led away like a dog in the king court.