“Who says I won’t do that?” Elsa answered, and in the blink of an eye, before anyone could react, the kukri in her hand moved—a single swift pull, with absolute precision, slicing open Merope’s abdomen.
Blood splattered onto the residence floor, and Merope collapsed instantly, her eyes still wide open in shock that couldn’t fully register, her intestines visible from the gaping wound before her lifeless body dropped completely.
“Merope!” Felt screamed, her voice cracking, stepping forward without thinking, tears already pooling in the corners of her eyes before she realized it.
Reinhard remained slightly panicked even though he knew what would happen next—two weeks wasn’t a long time since finding the girl in the middle of the forest, but it was long enough to have witnessed the exact same power firsthand on their very first day meeting.
That knowledge couldn’t fully ease his choked chest seeing Merope lying covered in blood on his own home’s floor.
Elsa stood still, her eyes never leaving the body she had just torn open, waiting with the composure of a hunter long familiar with various deaths—and precisely because of that, sensitive enough to feel that this one felt different.
Several seconds passed in gripping silence, filled only by Felt’s suppressed sobbing, before a light breath was heard from behind Elsa’s back.
“Elsa,” that voice appeared out of nowhere, cheerful as usual, as if nothing had just happened, “you didn’t lie about wanting to be my knight, right?”
Merope stood right there, right behind Elsa, her body completely intact without a single scar, her white cloth even clean of the blood stains that should have soaked her seconds ago—as if what had just happened was an illusion that vanished the moment she breathed.
For a second, Elsa’s usually perfectly calm face looked genuinely startled, her eyes widening for a moment before she regained control, putting on her blank expression once more.
“…Yeah,” she answered finally, “I didn’t lie.”
“Then I’ve made up my mind, Felt! Reinhard!” Merope exclaimed, turning to face her two friends who were still frozen in place, Felt’s face wet with undried tears, disbelievingly watching the person she had just mourned standing right back in front of her as if nothing had occurred. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“I still want Elsa to be my knight.”
Merope floated up slightly, high enough to match Elsa’s height, both hands rising to gently hold the woman’s cheeks, looking straight into her eyes without a trace of the hatred or fear normally expected from someone just murdered.
“I will definitely turn you into a good person,” she said sincerely, her smile so genuine it felt almost painful to look at amidst such a bizarre situation.
“Merope, you—” Felt finally found her voice, stumbling forward, a mix of relief and turbulent anger, “you just died! You literally died! Why do you still want to—still want to make her your knight?”
“Because she’s honest,” Merope answered simply, not letting go of her hands on Elsa’s cheeks.
“She said she wasn’t lying about wanting to be my knight, and she really wasn’t lying. Someone honest about something that difficult, I believe she can change.”
Elsa stared at the girl before her, rare confusion mixing with something deeper and harder to explain to herself—how could someone she had just killed with her own hands, without hesitation, still look at her like this, without hatred, without a grudge, only pure, weird, unreasonable conviction.
“Reinhard!” Felt turned back, her voice rising again, full of unstoppable protest.
“You have to forbid this! She just killed Merope right in front of us! We can’t just let this slide!”
Reinhard, standing tense though his chest slowly calmed, sighed heavily, shifting his gaze from Merope floating with an innocent smile to Elsa, who looked shakier than he had ever seen throughout their history as enemies.
“Merope,” he said finally, heavy-toned, choosing his words carefully.
“I cannot and will not forbid you from choosing who you trust as your knight—that is entirely your right. But I want you to truly understand the risk. Elsa Granhiert is not just someone with a dark past. She kills because it’s her own pleasure, not out of desperation.”
“I know,” Merope nodded softly, lowering herself back to the floor, releasing her hands from Elsa’s cheeks.
“I heard everything earlier. But you guys also can’t stop me from believing people can change, right?.”
The room fell into a brief silence, those simple words carrying much heavier weight than intended, hanging in the air among three people looking at each other with drastically different feelings—Reinhard’s worry, Felt’s fading anger, and something far more complex beginning to grow inside Elsa Granhiert’s chest for the first time in a long while.
…..
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