All eyes were stuck on Agnette, filled with a flaring gaze of hostility shooting at her.
"What is she doing here?!"
Zev spoke as she broke the silence, glaring before rolling her eyes in dismay.
"She's a captive."
"A what?!"
They all gasped, drawing an unpainted picture on all of their faces.
"Are you out of your mind?! I thought you had a better plan to execute the nemesis, so this is the plan?!"
Amidst the shock, Zev has confronted Khalid about his one-sided decision.
"Taking a hostage that was already abandoned, what the hell do you think it will benefit us?!"
She furiously shouted in rage, where others couldn't help but agree.
"My temper would never—Argh!"
She hardly slammed the table, looking at them both with furrowed brows and flaring nostrils before walking out of the scene with her feet stomping like a barbarian.
"This time I agree with reptile..."
Dal paused.
"You can't just make reckless decisions without informing us, Milord."
His comment made Erwin sigh.
"Milord, keeping her might put us in danger."
Despite their continuous disapproval, Khalid opposed them blandly, calmly stating words from his mouth as if everything had already been planned.
"We'll keep her, and that was already decided."
They stare at each other in distress, leaving Reinhardt, who was quietly listening earlier, to put his hand on his forehead, deliberately speaking as he opens up a much more serious matter regarding the saintess.
"I'm afraid to inform you, milord, that if we took the saintess as our hostage, then it would be hard for us to leave."
Their eyes widen.
Hearing it, Agnette's fists tremble after seeing their violent reaction.
"What?!"
"Then are we just going to rot in this land?!"
Erwin, who was calmly sitting earlier, surprisingly stood up, overreacting as if he were a criminal who would be rotting in jail.
"It was still unsure, but since the saint was involved in criminal activities, the emperor already made a declaration of her manhunt, and if the citizens were to find out that we were involved, that would take a serious turn, especially that-
Agnette, who was gritting furiously, erupted, hearing the word emperor coming out from Reinhardt.
"That damn old hag!"
They all looked at her as if they didn't expect the way she reacted.
"After using me to cover his evil deeds, he will just simply throw me away like trash!"
Khalid grinned while Agnette paused in surprise after the words that weren't supposed to be known from anyone came out of her mouth, looking cautiously at them with an anxious look in her eyes paired with the pale look on her face.
She then clenched her fist.
'Who cares if his fraudulent act were to be exposed? My image was already shattered. It is what he gets for abandoning me! '
Being aware that Agnette herself has become a puppet with tangled strings, a mere scapegoat of the emperor, she can't ignore the fact that she was the one taking all the blame.
"He was the one who made me commit all those crimes! Why am I the only one suffering?!"
The corner of her eyes had turned red as if she were about to shed tears.
'Why?....'
And to make things worse for her, like feeling abandoned was not enough. When the word came from Erwin's mouth, it left her shocked with trembling eyes while the others nodded, staring at her in disgust and hatred.
"Isn't it a better option to just surrender her to the citizen?"
'What?!'
Agnette crumbles like a mess. Thinking that everything that had happened to her must have been karma chasing after her lies and misdeeds.
"That would be lovely."
When he heard Khalid agree, her soul almost left her body.
"Wa-wait!What?!"
Feeling betrayed that he didn't take his oath seriously and knowing that she would be also executed and face a painful death from the citizen, Agnette began to ramble.
"You bastard! You've promised that you'll ensure my safety.
She paused with trembling hands, looking at their apathetic expression.
'Ha-
'In the end, I'm still a puppet and a mere laughing stock. You're so gullible, Agnette...'
Khalid then snatched Erwin's sword, pointing it towards her neck.
Agnette was left frozen; she didn't know what to do; she was just trembling on the spot, biting her lips that were about to bleed with petrified trembling eyes that were looking at the sharply pointed sword below her chin.
"Isn't it much better if we were the ones who executed her?"
Agnette watches how Khalid swings the sword while all of them watch, maybe cursing her in their minds or wondering whether she'll end up in hell.
Despite doing all the bad deeds she had done, what Agnette regretted the most was the fact that Khalid himself, who swore to protect her, was the one who ended up killing her.
'So it was just a word after all.'
*SLASH-*