Aya Ran Away - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 23
Not long ago, Aya had come to believe that even “it” could die, yet she harbored no illusions that such a death would be ordinary.
“You, lacking one thing—do you imagine your end will differ from the King’s? The entire Royal Family will meet a death much like his.”
Soldiers dragged her away while hurling insults.
As if she could move anyway—they’d drag her along without fuss.
Pointless words, all of them.
Aya held those arrogant creatures in contempt.
She could discern her own fate as easily as they could.
Aya was mute, not a fool.
If the New Dynasty rose to power, every bloodline of the Old Dynasty would become nothing but a source of trouble.
They all met their ends that way, as a rule.
‘I wish I could see his face one last time.’
In any case, she too was of royal blood—likely she would serve as an example for the Royal Family.
Perhaps she would even be exposed for public display in the Square.
She might see Nahal at the execution.
‘I hope he doesn’t take joy in my death.’
Aya harbored that thought, and she believed it would be so.
He was too tender-hearted to kill her and take pleasure in it.
Perhaps he would even pity her.
Aya was hauled away like baggage through soldiers’ hands and cast into the frigid Underground Dungeon beneath the Main Palace.
“Aaaaugh!”
“Get me out of here at once!”
Chipor’s wailing filled the Underground Dungeon to its very walls.
She must have grown up without ever raising her voice, yet her lungs were truly magnificent.
As Aya gazed in silent admiration, her eyes met those of one of the guards.
The guards were watching them.
Their unwavering stare made her skin crawl.
One guard swept his gaze up and down their forms, then murmured something to another guard while looking at Chipor.
Aya quickly raised her hands to check that her head covering and veil were secure.
They had shifted, but not come loose.
Except when she slept, she wore them always—and now they felt as reassuring as a soldier’s armor.
Aya curled herself into a corner of the cell and sat.
She tugged at Chipor’s sleeve, pulling her down to sit beside her.
Chipor, thinking Aya was being petulant, glared with annoyance.
Then, becoming aware of the guards’ attention, she slipped quietly over and sat at Aya’s side.
In the Underground Dungeon, lit by barely a single torch, time became unmeasurable—knowable only by the changing of the guard.
She heard Chipor murmuring in her sleep beside her.
Aya remained hunched, unable to sleep, her gaze fixed on the burning torch.
The princess’s pale gray eyes gleamed with clarity.
‘It seems a waste to die like this.’
Sitting on the cold, damp floor, Aya found herself thinking.
It wasn’t that her life had been unhappy and she wished to end it.
‘I want to see Nahal.’
She prayed with desperation, as though this were her last chance.
She made a wish.
* * *
“You must render judgment on the Deposed King’s daughters.”
Snua spoke to Nahal.
Nahal said nothing in reply.
It had been ten days since he had deposed the Royal Family and, unable to resist the urging of those around him, assumed the Throne temporarily.
Everyone bowed before him now, and their manner toward him was more deferential than ever before.
He had expected fierce resistance from the nobility, but it had been quieter than anticipated.
All of them treated him as though he were the rightful master of this seat.
Nahal found all of it profoundly alien.
He pressed his temples against the weight of exhaustion.
“If you will not show mercy, then execute them.”
Snua from the House of Ater, standing at his side, spoke with firm resolve.
Execute them?
Suddenly, the eyes he had last encountered before departing surfaced in his mind.
Though obscured by the veil, it was not difficult to recall eyes he already knew so well.
Nahal touched the Ring hanging around his neck.
Now that he thought about it, he’d been wearing it all this time, though he was supposed to return it.
“There is room for discord, my lord. It would be cleaner—and wiser—to settle the matter decisively.”
His subordinates spoke of killing the frail, innocent thing with a casualness that disturbed him.
Nahal found their indifference strange, and his jaw tightened.
But no—it wasn’t strange at all.
The world he and his men inhabited had been built on such things.
What had changed was not them, but Nahal himself.
He groaned, caught between two thoughts.
A wedding or a funeral.
Either way, would the princess welcome a decision made against her will?
He held her in his mind for a moment.
Yet thinking of her did nothing to help him understand her heart.
There was no other course that would satisfy everyone.
He closed his eyes deeply, then opened them, and spoke.
“I will accept her.”
Living was better than dying.
That was what he told himself.
If the princess resented his decision, there was nothing to be done for it.
* * *
“…God, have mercy on me. Strike down the wicked and deliver me from this place, I beseech thee.”
Aya heard the voice of her half-sister, muttering words that were neither quite prayer nor curse, kneading her knees as she went.
Though she’d eaten almost nothing, she wept and raged and murmured much as she had done when first imprisoned.
‘She still has her strength.’
Aya envied her even as she thought it—envied that she could still voice her prayers aloud.
“…Sweep away all those who have mocked me…”
The prayer had taken a strange turn when Aya noticed an Evil Spirit creeping in from somewhere, clinging to Chipor’s legs.
‘The Deposed King still lives.’
Which meant Nahal remained in danger.
But Aya had no means to warn him.
‘Can I tell him before I die?’
As that thought came to her, a loud sound suddenly crashed from above.
Bang!
The thick door of the dungeon was wrenched open roughly.
Aya lifted her head slowly and saw a flickering crimson light wavering in the darkness.
Through the wooden bars, large men could be seen descending.
‘So this is the day.’
Aya exhaled a long breath at the thought.
She had known, had prepared herself, and yet fear seized her.
She bit her lip against the trembling, rubbing her shaking shoulders with her hands, when a group of palace attendants came into view.
‘What?’
She could understand men being brought to escort the condemned to the Execution Ground, but why would servants come all the way here?
‘Surely they don’t mean to dress her up for the final journey?’
That, in its own way, was horrible.
Aya frowned and remained motionless in the corner until they opened the dungeon door.
The door opened, and several attendants approached, extending their hands to both Chipor and Aya.
“No! Stay away from me!”
Chipor shrieked and struggled, her voice shrill with panic.
She refused to take the hands the attendants offered, thrashing against them.
But Aya sensed something different in the bearing of these attendants.
“Allow us to assist you. Please, rise.”
The hands that lifted her were gentler than before.
‘Are they taking pity on us, knowing we are to die?’
Aya leaned on the hands holding her arms and stumbled to her feet.
She had held the same position for so long that her stiff legs would not straighten properly, and it took a considerable time to stand.
Yet despite the bother, the attendants showed no sign of impatience as they tended to her.
She felt sweat beginning to bead on her brow.
Click.
Someone’s tongue made a soft dismissive sound, and Aya slowly lifted her head.
The woman facing her still regarded her as an inferior—someone beneath contempt.
Aya narrowed her eyes, fixing the woman with a hard stare.
‘I won’t lift the evil spirit from your back.’
She was turning over thoughts of such vengeance when a rough male voice suddenly cut through from behind her.
“It seems the princesses are not feeling well.”
A tall man emerged from the shadows, surveying the attendants before singling out two of them with a command.
“You two—carry the princesses.”
The woman, who had made no effort to hide her displeasure all this time, swallowed a sigh and knelt before Aya.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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