"By the power vested upon me as the Pope of Basilica, i announce the verdict of the sinner Dallyce Blythe Kallego, guilty of attempted murder of her own father, the Duke of Kallego by using witchcraft and dark magic."
An old man in a white robe said with a sinister look on his face. The pope has an authority a bit higher than the crown prince with partial authority since the emperor is away for international affair. And Basilica is the only one who could persecute witchcraft and dark magic aside from the emperor.
The sinner, Dallyce looked at the old man smugly without a hint of guilt or despair.
(Shout) "Look at her. How is she not asking for forgiveness?"
(Shout) "What a viscious woman."
(Shout) "To think she could do that to her own father."
(Shout) "Such a demon!"
(Shout) "Burn her! Burn her!"
The people on the crowd said as if they were the ones who got wronged to.
'Haah! To think they'd really do this to me. Making fake evidence just to get rid of me huh.' Dallyce said inwardly smirking. 'Witchcraft? Dark magic? The hell with that? I don't even have an ounce of mana in my body. Stupid idiots.'
Witchcraft was known to be related to dark magic. Use this practice and you'll be charged of treason against the empire or blasphemy against Basilica (church). The punishment? Well it's not much. They'll just burn you on the stake in the middle of the public square here in the capital. The most shameful death of all, a public execution.
"Tie the sinner on the stake." Ordered the crown prince to the royal guards on stand by.
"I'm scared your highness." A pitiful woman named Vanessa said with a tearful eyes as she grabs the crown prince's arm.
Alexander, the crown prince hugged the woman as if protecting her in harms way. "Don't be. It'll be over soon. No one will get in the way of our love anymore."
Hearing that, despite being tied at the stake, Dallyce can no longer stop her laugh. "Pffftt! Hahahahaha!"
Alexander and Vanessa as well as the people on the crowd looked at her unbelievably.
"You really had gone crazy, aren't you?" Alexander coldly said.
"Thank you for your concern but i'm still perfectly sane your highness."
'These two are funny. How could they involve me with their love when i'm not interested in him in the first place? He's still that delusional bastard afterall. They best suit each other.'
"I see that you're still bold even though your at the end of the rope now. You're a devil to the core."
"That's one of my charms. Thank you for the compliment your highness." She said with a smile on her face. 'I'll never let you see me in despair. Over my dead body.'
"Tsk! You're so shameless. No wonder your brother abandoned you at times like this."
At the word 'brother', she felt a pang on her chest but still managed to put on a blunt face.
'It's a good thing that brother isn't here. THEY are not here.' She sighed inwardly. 'I can't imagine how will these idiots face the aftermath of my death. I'll bring them down together with me.'
"Any last words?" Alexander said coldly. But before Dallyce could answer, the woman beside the crown prince speaks.
"Y-your highness, if it's alright with you, can i speak to her one last time?" She says with an adorably worried look on her face that the idiot crown prince couldn't resist.
"I'll give you a minute then."
Vanessa beamed at him and walked towards me. Slowly, she bent her waist to level my kneeling stance. Alexander isn't worried since my hands are tied up so i couldn't slap the shit out of this bitch. She whispered to me.
"How is it? Didn't i warned you before that the future is already set? You can never change it. I'll be the crown princess while you die." She then smirked as if mocking the pitiful state of Dallyce.
But before she could turn around, Dallyce smiled and said, "Rejoice all you want. It won't be for too long."
Dallyce felt delighted at the sight of the frozen and dumbfounded face of Vanessa. "What do you mean by that?"
"You're pretty but that's all you've got. Try using your brain once in a while." Said Dallyce mockingly, enjoying the distorted face of Vanessa.
"Shut it! You're good as dead anyway." She then smiled as if the distorted face not long ago was a lie.
"You think all of this is over once i die? It's really lucky that you found the book of prophecy regarding your life but with that unfinished book, are you really confident?"
Vanessa was stunned by what she heard. No one knows that the book of prophecy was unfinished except for her but still she's convinced that she'll be able to live happily.
That's what the book had shown her even if it's unfinished, there's no way that the continuation will be of her destruction. No matter how she think about it, the route of her life is towards a flowery path. Even if some minor diversions happened before, it will still lead to what was written in the book. She's confident.
Vanessa pretended not to hear what Dallyce said. She fixed her facial expression and went back to the arms of the crown prince.
"Are you okay? What did she tell you?" Alexander asked worriedly.
"Nothing important your highness, but to think she's unapologetic. I felt bad 'cause even me can't save her." she said with tears on her eyes. She burried her face on Alexander's chest and he hugged her.
Alexander looked at Dallyce with a grim face. He's furious and blamed Dallyce for Vanessa's outburst of tears.
'What a bunch of clowns.' scoofed Dallyce inwardly.
"Let's not delay this anymore. Any last words Dallyce?"
Hearing this, Dallyce smiled sadly at Alexander and said, "Just make sure i'll be dead this time."
Alexander froze and felt pain on his chest. It was an unspoken secret but he knew how many times Dallyce got assassinated for being the crown princess before. He had put Dallyce in harm and now that he's done using her, he abandoned her just like this.
But his guilt was just for a while because Vanessa cried once more on his chest distracting the crown prince attention from Dallyce. Seeing the pitiful state of Vanessa, he sighed inwardly and brushed off Dallyce's existence.
'That's right. The one i should protect this time is Vanessa.'
Alexander got mad once again and ordered the executioner. "Light it now!"
The man with a torch, light up the hay around Dallyce burning the woods on her feet. It didn't took long for the fire to get bigger and higher. Inhaling black smoke is the worst torture in fire accidents. Dallyce coughed but just kneeled there steadily in resignation.
'It's bad if i move unnecessarily. I might inhale more smoke if i do so. If only it was lit through fire magic, i could've negate it and made my way out.'
The fire is getting closer and eventually burned her left arm. She drowned herself in her thoughts.
'Is this really my end? To think i've cheated death many times. I guess my luck is already over now. Too bad i couldn't get to see their downfall.'
It was not long ago since the fire was lit up but it felt like eternity for Dallyce. The fire continued to burn her flesh. Her skin melted and stuck to each other. It was painful but she didn't scream nor cry, she grunted silently instead.
"Uughh!"
'Is this really it? Am i going to die again? It's painful. So painful. Save me! Someone please save me.!'
It was said that when you're dying, you'll plead for your life involuntarily. Her face already melted causing her mouth to shut close. She could only think of her unspoken pleadings unheard by anyone.
2 Days After Dallyce's Execution
The emperor was back after personally fixing the international dispute with the neighboring kingdom. It was originally Duke Kallego's role as the commander in chief and right hand man of the emperor but since he was sick in bed, the emperor went to the border himself and temporarily gave partial authority to the crown prince.
"What have you done?!" The emperor shouted and slammed his desk looking at Alexander furiously.
"Who do you think you are to lead the execution against Dallyce? You're just a crown prince! I only left you partial authority and this is how you use your power?!" He was red in anger while he pressed the bridge of his nose due to headache.
The dispute was not completely fixed and here he is fixing another trouble caused by Alexander, the saintess, and Basilica. 'It's all that girl's fault!'
The meeting was interrupted when he heard the news about Dallyce's charges led by Alexander and to his surprise, the representatives of the hostile kingdom rescheduled the peace treaty themselves after hearing an emergency news from his aide.
"But father, there are evidences that she practiced witchcraft and use dark magic. It's the right call to execute her before it's too late! Look what happened to Duke Kallego!" Alexander defended himself and justified blindly what he had done.
"Are you out of your mind! Dallyce doesn't have a room for mana on her body! You know that since childhood!"
"What does mana have to do with th--" as if realizing something, Alexander stopped talking. His eyes widened.
"Did you just thought about it now? How can she practice witchcraft with dark magic if she doesn't have the ability to use magic in the first place? Don't tell me, you didn't check the authenticity of the evidence and just go straight ahead with the execution? Seriously! What did 'that saintess' did to you for you to act like an idiot for her!?"
The moment 'that saintess' was mentioned, Alexander plopped down on his knees and said, "Please don't blame Vanessa for this. She hadn't done anything wrong. It was all my fault your majesty!"
The emperor looked at him disgustingly at his action. He knew that the false evidences against Dallyce were provided by Basilica and the saintess. The church didn't knew that Dallyce doesn't have any room for mana and can never use magic since we staged that Dallyce only have a weak magic and little mana when she entered the academy. The spies of church are fortunately incompetent. "How can we make amends with Duke Kallego now that you've ordered to kill his only daughter?!"
"But Duke Kallego doesn't care about Dallyce." Alexander wondered why will Duke Kallego be concerned of Dallyce when he had ignored her all her life.
"Hah! Do you think the Duke did that because he wants to? I don't know why did i ever conceived a child like you. You just made me reconsider too many things because of what you did!"
"Don't tell me--" Alexander can't muster the courage to continue his sentence.
"Pray all your might that everything will be fixed by mere material things. Although i doubt it since it's the Duke. I'm just worried about the future of this empire. Leave! I just can't bear to see your face now!"
After Alexander left, the emperor called for his aide.
"Any news about the child?"
"There's no news about the child Your Majesty. It's hard to find any trace since we don't know the child's gender. It will take a while if we investigate all the children of that age."
"Add more people and investigate discreetly. Find the child no matter what."
"Yes Your Majesty." Said the aide obediently. 'This is a serious situation. Tsk! Why do that bastard of a crown prince fell for such a saintess and make troubles he can't fix. So incompetent.' he complained inwardly.
Next Day
First thing in the morning, the emperor called for the crown prince in his office. Just right after he entered the room, the emperor threw documents straight on his face. He grabbed one of them on his feet and read.
"This!" The moment he read what's written on it, he already knew he's fucked up.
And that instant, a thunderous sound was heard from the outside causing the emperor's palace to shake in terror like there's an earthquake. Before they could process what had happened, they looked outside through the window and saw the crown prince's palace fell like a sand castle. It was destroyed with nothing left but smoke from the explosion.