Interlude: Shina Mariposa
I don't know how many years have passed since that day—the day I was "liberated" from the hellish life in the northwest. Maybe five years? Or seven? Perhaps even nine. I'm not sure. Time never flows straight for people like me.
All I know is this: I've never truly changed. Still the same fragile girl… with power overflowing, as if the world never figured out where to place it.
People often say I'm beautiful. Sometimes they offer the words like a compliment. But only a few know how much blood has touched this skin. How many lives I erased before I even learned how to write my own name.
It's been over five years since I became one of the Empire's "dogs"—that's what some warriors call us. Loyal hounds barking on command from the palace. But I don't care.
I'll do it. I'll do whatever it takes… to keep this false peace intact.
Even if it means guarding the backsides of those golden-throned bastards.
A corrupt ruler is better than a power vacuum.
That's not a slogan. It's a principle.
A principle born from seven years of hell. And I will never forget it.
If I must kill my own heart—freeze it until it no longer feels—so that innocent children never taste war as I once did…
Then that's a cheap price to pay.
I don't need forgiveness. I don't need recognition.
All I want… is a world a little quieter than the one I grew up in. A world with fewer screams.
And if I have to carry that weight alone, then so be it.
Let me stand on this frozen line.
With a weapon I never held with pride…
—but one I've always drawn without hesitation.
{Chapter 24 end}