Red Labyrinth - chapter 10

Enjoying the languid afternoon in tranquility, Icaryl turned her ankle with a playful meaningless gesture. The grudgingly dead tattoo was now nothing more than a pattern, but it sometimes had been poking like an old scar. The pain imprinted on the flesh had not yet disappeared. Words, in which the old priests constantly whispered, kept bruising over the flesh of a crying little girl.

– You were born a woman of God, Princess.
– Your body is not yours.
– It’ll be an honor to live an eternal life. If this pleases God, it should also be enjoyable for you.
– God did not allow you to open yourself to any man. If you do, you’ll be punished with eternal pain until death reaches you.

Raising her eyes, she opened her yellowish lips and grinned. It was as gross as a shadow monster. A sticky murmur still clung to her tender ear.

– Don’t try to find happiness, Princess. It will be more painful for you.

“Don’t let your eyes see things that will attract you. If you do, it’ll be ruined. If you put your lips on it, you will burn from there. If you reach out and touch them, your hands will turn to ashes. The more you laugh, the more pain you’ll suffer from.”

“Always remember it, Princess. Our God is a man of great speculation.”

~Our beautiful Princess– those large eyes that are full of tears. Don’t cry. Don’t cry, Princess. If you cry now, how would you face the future? –Our beautiful Princess. Don’t cry.~

The harsh sound of the song, which was more like a prayer for the heathen, still echoed in her mind. Shadows resembling the superstition of the original scene stretched out long and hovered around her.

~Our beautiful Princess. Where do you go with your slender feet like the crescent moon? Don’t cry. Don’t cry.~

A dreary echo had crept up through the cave-like wall of the temple.

The young Icaryl had shuddered at the loss of herself.

“No. No. I don’t want to disappear! I don’t want to die! Stop it! Stop bothering me! I’m the daughter of your King! So why do I have to live like this?!”

She crammed up, holding her skinny knees close to her. Tears resembling blood fell from her poisonous red eyes.

‘Rather,
I wish they were all dead.’

“Yes, Leave me alone! I’m not the one who’s going to die!”

“Ah…I remember.”

The strange moonlit night when no one spoke after her.

On the night when the moon had a strange red glow on itself, she prayed for the destruction of all.

And….

According to them, God, who terribly loved her, was the only one to listen to that prayer among the tens of thousands of prayers of hers.

The sunlight poked in like a needle through her slightly opened eyelids. Icaryl yawned, rubbing her sore eyes. The distant childhood past was now washed away like a tidal wave, leaving her mind and body in a mess. At least the weather was warm. In the midst of her sweat, Icaryl smelled the scent that she had become accustomed to. Perhaps because she felt very tired, her heart sank halfway up.

“You seem to be in pain every time I see you.”

Said Carl. Icaryl leaned her head as if she were lying on a chair in the garden of her palace and stared at the boy who swept his finger over her sweaty hair. She wondered why this person kept appearing before her eyes. Perhaps it’s just the sun God who came in the form of a human. She didn’t know why she did but she said,

“You can’t come in here.”
“I’m aware of that.”

The boy was coolly positive. But then, he added.

“But it’s fine.”
“Why?”
“Alex said we wouldn’t get punished to death unless it was the palace of the Emperor or the Empress.”

It was an overly dichotomous and simple distinction. This time, for some unknown reason, Icaryl’s place was almost deserted.

“Who’s Alex, brother?”

“My brother. He’s different, but he’s still my brother.”

The word “brother” came to her lips sooner than she thought. She kept thinking about what to say next. She was half asleep. Watching over the gentle movement of his blonde hair and smiling eyes, she smiled curiously.

As if her heart had begun to race to see a boy as bright as the sun. He looked up and glanced at her, dramatically tilting his head sideways. Then, someone whispered through the shadows behind her.

– Don’t try to find happiness, Princess. It will be more painful for you.

“You’re a little different, you know. I kept thinking of you, so I came to meet you. Do you want to spend time with me?”

The fear she had never felt in her life engulfed her as he curiously stepped closer to her. This was probably her first challenge after spending those months in peace and getting blindly intoxicated with comfort. She hesitated to hold his stretched out palm. She wondered if she could do it. Suddenly, the afterimage of the horribly scary man, Lucien, captured her. Her fingers flinched. But the sun boy did not wait for her any longer.

When he grasped her wrist, she couldn’t shake it off.

“Do you know there’s an old palace on one side of the garden of Maria? It’s my hideout, but I’ll let you know of it.”

They ran together, stitched up with jabbering and cheerful laughter. Icaryl’s heart made thumping sounds like a small drum. For a second, she thought nobody cared about her anymore anyway. So, what’s the big deal about hanging out with children of her age?

Argonia was already gone.

Icaryl laughed like a small lamb who wasn’t aware of the blade of a sword behind its neck.

*

That evening, the Emperor was struck once again, and the Duke of Inkart and three imperial servants stormed into the palace of Carmulen. The Duke killed the Emperor in his quarters and framed the Empress’ cousin, Brande, who was in charge of taking care of the Emperor.

The maids, unable to sleep due to the hysteria of the Empress until dawn, kept rushing to the stable for two days to send a message to the battlefield holding their skirts. Even before the afternoon tea time, the crown prince’s silver teaspoon had been blackened, and the thirteen aristocrats and commoners fled, saving their necks. People bet on when Marquis Esperis would find out.

Of course, Icaryl, who was sitting alone in her garden, was unaware of all of this.

2. The hero trapped in a maze

Once upon a time, when the moon and the stars of the night sky were not far from the earth…

The prince, whose fate was pointed out by his own country, came in with a valiant sword and shield like a giant when he heard rumors that a beautiful maiden was trapped where no one could escape.

The virgin was the sister of the king. The prince asked the king about his palace, but the king laughed at him.

“You want to take my sister? Then, you need to rescue her from that labyrinth before dawn falls.”

The prince agreed and made a pact. And then, he bravely dived into the dark red maze.

However, there was a monster lurking in there that he didn’t even know about……

<arognia’s founding=”””” myths=”””” —=”””” the=”””” story=”””” of=”””” hero=”””” maze=””””>
Chapter 1, Section 2</arognia’s>

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The Countess, who visited Icaryl after a long time, looked quite distant and nervous.

However, her deep-seated dignity demanded the maids to bring out tea while she sat facing Icaryl. Icaryl had never seen someone conceal her contempt and disgust before. The noble priests and her relatives, who had raised her, were never disorderly to conceal.

Icaryl opened her lips coldly.

“I wonder what may be on your mind.”

She avoided looking at those dreamy red orbs of Icaryl, while Icaryl only stared at her. Beatrice twitched the tip of her nose as if something irritating had touched her nose.

“Why aren’t you afraid of spending time with the royal lion?”
“What do you mean?”

Icaryl frowned, surprised at the unexpected words of the Countess. This was very rare. However, Beatrice wasn’t interested in her reaction.

“Carl…..I mean, His Highness, Carl.”