Forget My Husband, I’ll Go Make Money: Chapter 341

Episode 39: The other side of the mirror (5)

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With the screeching sound of metal, the door swung open.

The queen, who had been huddled inside, raised her head.

To anyone else, it would have been an irritating sound but to her, it was sweeter than heavenly music.

Because it signified the only time she could be relieved from this darkness where even her own body was hard to see.

However, the opening of the door was different from usual. Because not only were the iron gates opened, but the iron bars were also unlocked.

The queen blinked and hurriedly crawled to the door.

Her infinite arrogance was nowhere to be found and with her dignity long gone, she didn’t realize that she was acting like a street vagrant.

All three doors beyond the iron bars were opened.

Expectation began to rise in the queen’s chest.

A soldier looked down at the queen with contempt in his gaze and opened his mouth.

“Come out.”

The queen was so happy to be able to leave that the soldier’s arrogance didn’t even register.

Step by step, she walked away from that horrible space.

At first, she couldn’t believe it was real, but as her surroundings slowly brightened, she realized this was really happening. And then, her thoughts shifted.

‘Right, the plan has succeeded!’

Her heart swelled with confidence.

That impudent wench had finally met her fate.

Just thinking about it made me feel refreshed. She wished she could run out right now and spit on her corpse.

‘But this is quite fast.’

The simultaneous deaths of Aristine and her brother, who was governing Silvanus’ affairs, was bound to cause great turmoil.

Neither country would be able to respond properly, causing a vacuum of power.

The plan was to take advantage of that to overthrow the reigning powers, which would naturally lead to her reinstatement.

No, it would be more than a reinstatement. She would gain absolute power, far more than she had in the past.

‘But for it to happen so fast…’

Did her father and the Silvanians prepare that thoroughly?

‘Then again, I’m sure it was easier since their guard was down after winning everything.’

Either way, it was a good thing since she wanted to get out of that horrendous place as quickly as possible because it was making her lose her mind.

The soldier who was escorting the queen ground his teeth as he saw her looking gleeful, unable to hide her joy.

“Look how happy she is after devouring her own son…”

His low, sneering voice sounded crystal clear in the queen’s ears.

“…What?”

However, the soldier did not answer the queen. He just turned away as if he couldn’t be bothered to talk to her.

The queen’s eyes trembled.

‘I devoured my son? What sort of…’

Her heart began to thump uneasily.

‘It can’t be…no. It can’t.’

The queen harshly bit her cold lips.

Soon, she was past the three doors and out of the tower.

The evening sky was bathed in a deep blue glow and the nearby tree branches were bare, stripped of their leaves.

The surroundings of the Ice Shadow Tower painted an extremely desolate picture.

However, a shiver ran through the queen’s body and her eyes reddened.

After being locked in an endless void with nothing else in existence, she had finally stepped out.
The sky, the earth, the trees, the wind. Everything was here.

At this moment, even her unease disappeared.

She took in a deep breath and the unique smell of midwinter rushed into her chest.

Right then, a carriage pulled up in front of her. The queen frowned.

The ragged carriage looked like an animal’s cart or the convoy of a convicted criminal.

“Are you asking me to ride something like this?!”

Hearing the queen’s bellow, the soldier’s face distorted.

“You should be thankful for His Majesty’s mercy.”

“What?”

“In his consideration, he has allowed you one last look at your son.”

What do you…

The queen’s face went blank.

She couldn’t accept the soldier’s words. No, she refused to accept it.

While she froze, a soldier roughly grabbed her arm and shoved her into the carriage.

The queen curled up and bit her fingernails, which were already bloody from repeated bites.

‘No, no, no, no. No!’

Hamill was dead.

The queen did not believe it.

“You are trying to deceive me! How dare you try to deceive me!”

As she was dragged away with both arms held captive, the queen screamed and fought crazily.

“You think I’d fall for such nonsense…!”

But the moment she passed through the corridor and entered the great hall, her rampage stopped.

Nephther’s hardened expression. Yenikarina’s sobs, the somber expression of the royals.

And most of all, the corpse lying there, covered in white cloth.

Her heart sank with a thud.

A crack began to open in her heart which she had tried to hard to keep closed. And through that crack, anxiety, fear, and dread creeped in.

“Ah, ah…”

The Queen gasped for breath and shook her head. Her strength gave out and her knees buckled.
The only reason she didn’t fall was the soldiers who were holding her arms.

As much as she wanted to run over and pull away the cloth to verify, she wished she could stay in ignorance forever.

But her legs were moving on their own.

In fact, she was barely able to walk on her own, but she managed to get in front of the corpse.

At Nephther’s gaze, the soldiers removed their hold on the queen’s arm.

The queen wobbled once, but managed to hold onto the bed for support and stand on her own.

Her trembling hands touched the cloth.

She hesitated for a moment, then resolutely pulled back the cloth.

The now revealed body was mangled beyond recognition.

Burns could be found all over the body and even the unburned areas were not intact. The severe disfiguration made it hard to even see the stab wound through his stomach.

But the worst part was his face.

Most of it was charred beyond recognition.

Yenikarina’s cries grew so loud that they threatened to deafen her ears.

Seeing her son look more hideous than she could have ever imagined, the Queen’s soul seemed to escape from her body.

“No, no… this is impossible, it can’t…”

It’s not Hamill.

How could it be Hamill when his handsome face was ruined beyond recognition?

But even though she wanted to deny it, irrefutable evidence was spread out before her eyes.

Platinum-blonde hair, a color rarely seen in Irugo. The pale-hue of his hair told her the truth.

The Queen clutched his pale hair, which glistened in the light like a piece of the moon.

“Hamill, my son…!”

The queen’s voice did not sound human. It sounded more like the gnashing of bones.

“Agh, uh, ah…”

The queen hugged her son’s body.

This couldn’t be happening.

This shouldn’t be happening.

Her world was crumbling and scattering like grains of sand.

Everything was falling apart.

It wasn’t just her son that she had lost.

Her position of queen, her power and wealth, her title as mother of the next great king… with the loss of the most powerful card in her hands, everything had collapsed.

*.*.*

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