“Don’t just stand there watching! Come back here!” a maid whispered loudly to Elena, who was frozen at the entrance of the kitchen. “If Princess Lydia catches you watching, you’ll be thrown into that mess, too! Come on!”
However, Elena couldn’t hear what the maid was saying. Her attention was fixed on her sisters.
“Just kill us instead if you’re going to do this, you witch! No, you’re worse than a witch! You’re the devil!” Rowena spat out harsh words as she hugged Marina, who looked pale as if she had lost consciousness. Meanwhile, Lydia’s maids continued to tear clothes off the two girls.
“Don’t touch my sister! You will all be damned for doing this!” Rowena shrieked again. At that moment, one of Lydia’s maids grabbed Rowena by the hair and threw her on the floor. The soldiers then stepped up and grabbed Marina’s limp body from the floor. They pushed her skirt up and spread her legs, regardless of her condition. It seemed as if they had gone insane.
“Marina! Marina! Stop, you demons!” Rowena yelled.
Elena clenched her fists tightly. ‘What… what am I supposed to do?’ she began to think, then she saw the soldiers suddenly start rubbing their eyes. Elena quickly scanned the soldiers; strangely, the soldiers who had been grabbing Marina dropped her. They then began to punch their faces and heads, and some even started vomiting.
“What’s gotten into you guys? Ugh, how disgusting,” Lydia spat out insultingly at the unforeseen changes in the soldiers.
Elena turned her eyes to Lydia again. Still in her seat, the woman watched the scene as if it were a charade. Elena observed the haughty, arrogant expression on Lydia’s face; it seemed that the woman thought she was the best and the most cunning woman in this world. Elena immediately turned around and searched the kitchen for some wine. Shaking off the maids who tried to dissuade her, she went out alone.
Trembling, Lenoa was still on the floor when she saw Elena. ‘What… what is she going to do…’
Lydia twisted her mouth into a frown when she saw the dirty maid, Elena, pour wine into her empty glass.
“Don’t go back in. I’ll make the same thing happen to you if this tastes bad,” she threatened. As Lydia placed her lips on the glass, her hair was suddenly yanked back. She would have yelled from the terrible pain, but a sharp, cold metal touched her neck.
Frightened to death and unable to believe what was happening, Lydia automatically froze in place.
“You’ve been waiting for me, haven’t you?” Elena asked as she dug the dagger that Gareth had sharpened for her deeper, causing crimson liquid to seep out from Lydia’s pale neck. Lydia naturally screamed in pain, and the soldiers turned their tired eyes toward her.
“Tell them to stop what they’re doing right now, or I’ll cut your neck off,” Elena menaced, grabbing Lydia’s hair even tighter to tilt her head back and driving the dagger further into her neck.
Everyone froze from the unforeseen situation, and Lydia held her mouth agape in dismay. ‘How did… How did she even get into the castle? How?!’ she thought desperately, still unable to say anything because she was afraid that she might die.
Elena continued to push the dagger deeper into Lydia, who could not even let out a scream. “Everyone, step back. I’ll slit Lydia’s throat if you don’t!” she shouted with her usual soft voice, no sign of mercy in her voice. The tip of the dagger made its way deep into Lydia’s white neck, causing blood to trickle down.
Rowena and Marina blankly stared at Elena, unable to make sense of the situation. They wondered if the woman threatening Lydia was indeed their older sister. Lenoa, who had finally got up from the floor, grabbed them.
“Come on, this way,” she hurriedly led the girls away from the soldiers.
The soldiers, who had been resisting the hallucinogenic effect of the fly mushrooms by rubbing their eyes, suddenly pulled out their swords in unison.
“Oh, how sad. It seems like no one wants to let you live, Lydia,” Elena mocked coldheartedly. She then ended up turning her attention to her younger siblings running away to the kitchen with Lenoa.
Realizing that Elena let her guard down, Lydia cried out in response as if to make a frantic last-ditch effort. “You can’t kill me, Elena! If you do, we’ll all die!”