The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 226

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 73

Reflecting the angry crowd’s roar, crack! crack! The sound of fierce whips tearing Raju’s back pierced deep into the air.

The bright sky that had painfully blazed down had long since grown cloudy.

Drip, drip, rain began to fall.

The wet stone floor mixed with dark red blood, taking on a sticky sheen.

“Guh, gaahhh…”

Each time the whip struck Raju’s back, his body bounced forward.

As sharp thorns tore his skin and blood droplets splattered, screams turned to agonized cries.

Agonized cries impossible to distinguish whether they came from the criminal being executed or those watching.

“Ahhhhh! No! No more!”

Then, Catherine rushed onto the platform, wailing.

She paid no heed even to the crowd’s fury that glared as if to devour her.

Mother…!”

Samon reached out a step too late, but Catherine’s hem slipped away.

Catherine, wildly swinging her arms and pushing aside even the guards blocking her way, climbed onto the execution platform in one breath.

And she threw herself down to shield Raju’s back.

Crack!

Unable to stop in time due to her sudden action, the whip struck Catherine’s back hard.

“Ahhh!”

“Ca, guh, Cat, go back…”

His lover’s scream awakened his clouded mind. With his bloodied face, Raju shook his head.

Catherine, his love, should be far away, safe.

“No. I won’t leave you alone anymore!”

Catherine shook her head firmly and grasped Raju’s bound hands.

Then she glared hatefully at Kazen’s emissary and the executioners.

“Kill me too! You filthy dogs of the Empire! Do you think you can punish me with mere whips! What more filth could I fear, having birthed a beast and even killed my husband!”

The desperate cry of the half-mad woman echoed through the square.

No one could stop her.

“What shall we do?”

The executioner spoke to Kazen’s emissary with difficulty.

The emissary snapped irritably.

“If she wants to die together so badly, grant her wish! Execute them quickly!”

The emissary had no interest in such vulgar scandals as Raju’s hidden daughter being revealed.

“No. All of you take up whips. We must complete all 500 lashes today. Time is urgent and we have no leisure to dawdle over such pathetic things!”

For he had an imperial command left by Perdickas II that was several times more important than Raju’s execution.

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

“Mother! You can’t, gah!”

Samon dragged his injured body to rush up the platform and tried to pull his mother away.

But he was struck in the solar plexus by the executioner’s rough hand and thrown down mercilessly.

Kazen’s emissary had no intention of letting the execution be stopped twice.

Crack!

The whips in the executioners’ hands struck Catherine’s back without hesitation.

“Ah, no more… uhhhhhhh”

In Catherine’s arms, Raju made beast-like crying sounds.

But in the festival of whips crossing and pouring down like rain, he could neither escape nor save his lover.

Catherine gripped Raju’s hand tightly as if she was fine.

Her face was mixed with pain, despair, and love.

The whipping poured down in intervals, striking the execution platform.

The two people embraced each other and closed their eyes.

Blood-mixed rainwater spread thickly across the stone floor. Red droplets seeped into the cold stone cracks.

The rain grew heavier.

During the breathless moment that passed.

“…They’re dead.”

The executioners put down their whips and stepped back.

“What shall we do? There are still lashes remaining…”

Their gazes fell upon the cold bodies of the two people who no longer moved.

The two lovers who died embracing seemed to want to remain as the century’s love that shared even death.

“Ugh. What is all this about? Do they think they had some immortal love or something?”

“Pretending to be touching, putting on airs until death.”

In people’s eyes, it was merely a shocking and disgusting execution scene.

The emissary spat.

“Enough. Just end it here. Do you think we can spend more time on criminals who deceived the imperial family? We must hurry to the palace, so prepare quickly!”

“Wait, the palace? Is there another reason for Kazen to visit our Imperial Palace?”

Then, a Valdina Knight who heard the emissary’s words asked him.

The emissary recognized the Valdina Imperial Court emblem carved on the knight’s chest.

“Ahem. Ahem.”

The emissary cleared his throat and tapped the red rose emblem carved on his robe unnecessarily.

And, unlike when he had been irritably scolding his subordinates just moments before, he answered with surprising kindness.

“Yes, there is a very great undertaking that His Majesty commanded me to convey.”

He proudly pulled out another scroll from his bosom.

It was different from Raju’s execution order he had unrolled earlier – stiff, antique paper with gold engravings.

“This is a special letter from His Majesty of Kazen to the Princess of Valdina, containing deep regret for the misunderstandings and unfortunate incidents. His Majesty has expressed his noble will to welcome Princess as an honorable family member of our Kazen Imperial Court and to serve as her guardian.”

The emissary turned slightly toward the crowd and raised his voice.

“What this means is, ahem!”

He cleared his throat once unnecessarily and paused for a moment, fixing his gaze in the air.

“It means Princess has now become the most precious person not only in this country but across the entire continent. As royalty of both Kazen and Valdina empires, she has gained new dignity and authority.”

And he recited the contents of the special letter so it would ring out clearly.

As if for the people gathered in the square to hear, not just the knight.

“Moreover, this special letter grants Princess immunity privileges to not be punished for any crime committed anywhere in Kazen, and special treatment to not kneel before His Majesty the Emperor.”

This was to capture public opinion in advance, in case the Valdina Imperial Court saw through the hollow honor of this special letter and rejected it.

“This is truly a great decision unprecedented in Kazen’s history. Princess will now be accompanied by Kazen’s protection wherever she goes on the continent.”

“Ooh!”

At the emissary’s passionate cry, the fierce crowd’s momentum changed to curiosity and admiration.

Separate from their antipathy toward Kazen, the contents of the special letter conveyed by the emissary’s voice stirred their pride.

“So, so that arrogant imperial emperor is now bowing and scraping to ask to be our Princess’s guardian?”

Though it was somewhat off from the message the emissary had intended.

“Of course! Looking at all those conditions attached, he must be desperate to get our Majesty out of the border as quickly as possible!”

“If Princess accepts this, certainly none of those Kazen bastards will be able to hold their heads up before our Majesty. How can they act arrogant when their own emperor has to protect our Majesty!”

At the words that their Princess was now recognized as the most noble being on the continent, the people’s hearts stirred with strange excitement and pride.

The Valdinians, who had been oppressed by the tyranny of the great power Kazen, were feeling a kind of vengeful pleasure in this reversed situation.

“So, so that’s why they came in such a magnificent carriage. To make a good impression on our Majesty!”

Even the carriage’s splendor, which had been an eyesore, looked different when they thought it was courtesy shown to their Princess.

The emissary felt momentary displeasure at the public’s reaction, which somewhat deviated from his master the Emperor’s intentions.

But in terms of raising the crowd’s enthusiasm and drawing attention, it was certainly successful.

After all, the most important thing was creating an atmosphere where the Valdina Imperial Court could not refuse to accept the special letter.

“So please forgive me for leaving first, as I have received the imperial command to convey this news as quickly as possible.”

Kazen’s carriage departed from the execution scene magnificently, just as it had when it first brought the emissary.

“Hooray!”

“Long live Valdina! Long live our Princess!”

“All you Kazen bastards, kneel down!”

Despite the dampness of the drizzling rain, the square heated up intensely.

Except for one place—where the Claudio Family stood.

Virna stared blankly at the platform.

She was dazed, as if the lion’s roar had entered one ear and exited the other.

She stumbled backward, staring at the red mass tangled like chunks of meat.

Her pupils trembled, and her lips had turned pale white.

A man standing there in a daze came into her view.

Gray hair. Murky blue eyes. So familiar—her brother.

“S-Samon…”

She reached out her hand.

Unable to bear the situation before her eyes, she needed the support of her only remaining family.

But the moment she reached out to Samon.

Smack—!

A burning pain flared up as if she’d been burned.

“Let go, you filthy thing.”

Samon looked at Virna with contempt.

To think he had cared for a lowly commoner girl his whole life, believing she was his blood sister.

The thought made him feel as if a thousand fires were burning inside him.

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