CH 62

Emily was a herbalist and the real doctor of the clinic. Rosen learned a lot from Emily and helped her often. It was safe to say that selecting and storing herbs was her job. Emily taught Rosen that some herbs could save sick people, while others could harm healthy people, so she had to be careful.

For example, the leaves of the Maeria tree look similar to the leaves of Lyria that grow in bushes. Maeria leaves have pointed tips, while Lyria leaves do not. It was a difference you could only see by looking closely. However, the effects of the two herbs were completely different.

Maeria leaves are harmless except for special cases and are widely used in various medicines, but Lyria leaves are poisonous. If you eat a little, your limbs will be paralyzed, and if you eat more, you will die.

The night after Hindley locked Emily away, Rosen made soup and set it in front of Hindley. He came in very late because he was gambling that day too. He opened his mouth wide with a gruff face, put the soup in his mouth and swallowed it.

Unlike usual, when Rosen sneaked out of the kitchen as soon as he started eating, she pulled out the chair across from Hindley and sat down. She asked, staring at Hindley with her chin resting on her palm.

“You know, Hindley. Haven’t you had weird thoughts while running the clinic?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I think people die really easily.”

“I said that I hate noisy kids. I told you not to talk nonsense with me.”

He slumped his head over the bowl of soup and replied dryly. Rosen watched him eat the soup with a spoon.

“Well, stabbing will kill you, and even being hit with a blunt weapon will kill you, but… You don’t necessarily have to die with that kind of physical force.”

“…?”

“If you get sick, you die, and if you eat poison, don’t you die?”

“What are you talking about?”

He frowned and looked at her. 

Rosen continued talking with an expressionless face.

“Hindley used to say that I’m a good kid unlike Emily, so I’m not in danger.”

“You’re saying something strange. You can’t kill me. What, are you going to use magic to secretly kill me?”

“Emily is a witch, and I am not.”

“…”

“But if you chose me over Emily for that reason alone, then Hindley was mistaken.”

Rosen didn’t know what criteria Hindley used to choose her as his bride out of the many orphanage girls. Since he was an infinitely shallow human being, he probably liked her appearance or that she was small, like a child. Anyway, she could bet on the fact that he hadn’t looked at her orphanage records.

If he had seen those, he wouldn’t have said she was a good kid. Maybe he wouldn’t have chosen her.

Well, she forgot about it for a long time after she came to this house.

Rosen wasn’t a good kid. It had never been like that.

She was a child who always gave back what she received.

“Hindley Haworth, you chose the wrong wife.”

“You are crazy…”

At that moment, Hindley put his spoon down with a hardened face. His complexion turned pale. He immediately grabbed his neck. He seemed to notice something was wrong, so he stuck his finger down his throat and tried to spit up the food. Rosen laughed. Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The muscles in Hindley’s face twisted grotesquely. He could no longer move his limbs. It was probably because the Lyria leaves had paralyzed his muscles, but it was probably also because of the burning pain in his intestines. The soup bowl hit the floor and shattered. He screamed and fell stiff as a block of wood from his chair.

Rosen had pondered in front of the soup bowl that evening. It was not about whether or not to put Lyria leaves, but the amount. 

Should she put less? 

Should she put more? 

If she put too much, Hindley would die quickly and easily, and if she added too little, it would be painful, but he wouldn’t die right away.

She thought a quick and easy death was too much of a luxury for him. 

He had to be in pain.

Even so, it wouldn’t even touch the amount of pain both Emily and she had suffered, but she wanted to give him the most pain she could.

So, it was fair.

It was right.

Rosen got up from her seat.

“I don’t need magic, Hindley.”

Hindley stiffened, looking up at her with bloodshot eyes.

She picked up a cleaver from the counter. It was sufficient. Rosen stood in the huge shadow she cast. At that moment, she felt completely unafraid of the tyrant who always controlled their life. He was very frail, and smaller than she thought.

“I don’t need anything that great to kill you.”

“Ro- Rosen.”

“Don’t call me by my name. It’s disgusting. It’s not a name you have any right to call.”

“…”

“What did you say? What magic were you talking about? If I want to kill, I can kill. Why didn’t I know this until now?”

Rosen stared at him with a twisted smile as Hindley’s body twisted in pain. She carefully watched him tremble as he looked at her without saying anything.

He was afraid of her now.

“Sa-save me.”

“You are not in danger.”

Weird, why didn’t she think of that? 

It was such a simple thing. It was enough to take this knife she had held every day and rip open his mouth for screaming at Emily, take a hammer and crush his leg for kicking her, and get a rope from the shed and choke Hindley while he was sleeping.

Then he would have been so ugly, like a b*stard, lying under her feet and begging her to save him.

-Please save me…

Just like she did.

He soon knelt down in front of her and began muttering something in a low-pitched voice. He seemed to be admitting his mistakes.

But it was already too late. Rosen wasn’t a compassionate person like Emily. The belated apology didn’t work on her.

She approached him, climbed on top of him as he rolled across the floor and spat out vomit, and whispered as she thrust the knife into his carotid artery.

“If you didn’t want this to happen, you should have killed me first. Did you really think I couldn’t kill you? You screamed that you would kill us every day.”

“Sa-save me…”

“But look, you are a coward after all. You are a despicable person who doesn’t have the courage to kill anyone. After all, we are the only ones who serve calmly under you. Screaming that you would kill us every day, that was bullsh!t. You needed us, after all.”

“…”

“So you broke Emily. Not letting her run away or die. You pulled out her teeth and ripped out her nails. But I’m different. I’m not broken yet. I don’t need you. Besides, I’m desperate. I want to kill you desperately. In exchange for my whole life, if I can send you to hell, I’m willing to fall into a more terrible hell.”

“Me… If you kill- me… ”

‘D*mn.’

Hindley threatened her until his last breath. But she already knew what was to come after that. 

If so, did she really need to hear it through Hindley’s mouth?

No, not at all. 

He had been talking too much during that time. Now she must shut his mouth.

Rosen swung a chair at him, who was motionless and spewing foam. There was the sound of something breaking. Either his leg bone or his arm bone must have broken. Well, it wasn’t her business. If he couldn’t move at all, that was enough.

Better if it hurt like hell.

She raised the knife high and plunged it into his neck. It didn’t go in as well as she thought. Bone and muscle blocked the blade. The blade pushed back and cut her hand. She gave more strength to her arms regardless. She squeezed his throat one last time, which was gasping for breath. The blood from his arteries mixed with the blood on her hands.

“You, you will be tried… For killing me… y- going to hell. You will be burned at stake.”

“That’s okay. Because you will die first.”

Rosen continued to brandish the knife expressionlessly. Hindley could not speak anymore.

‘I won’t die.’

“Why would I die if you were the one who did something wrong?’

‘It was a fight that wouldn’t end until either of us died.’

‘Then I’ll win.’

‘I don’t like losing.’

‘And maybe you’re right.’

‘If I kill you, I’ll go to jail.’

‘I might be framed as a witch and burned in the square or hanged in the gallows. No, I’ll be thrown into battle before I even stand in court.’

‘You said I would live a life worse than death there and be miserably trampled on.’

‘You covered my mouth, tied my hands, and cut off my feet.’

‘It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m not afraid. Because you won’t be there. I’d rather choose hell without you than heaven with you.’

‘I would rather defeat you and fall into hell than become a good girl and go to heaven.’

‘Hindley, I won.’

‘I beat you.’

It didn’t take long. The blade ended up avoiding muscles and ligaments and puncturing blood vessels. Blood gushed out like a fountain and soaked her whole body. 

The life in Hindley’s eyes disappeared.

One day, a soldier walking around town gathered people together and talked about how it felt when he killed a person for the first time. Rosen thought he would brag, like other soldiers, about how many noses and ears he had cut off on the battlefield.

But he said it was a very scary and miserable feeling. 

-Do you know how terrible it feels to stop being human?

But she found out when she tried it herself.

It was all lies. 

Neither guilt nor fear had a hold on her. 

Murder was thrilling. 

At least, that was the case with killing Hindley Haworth. 

If this was giving up being human, she could do it.

She laughed out loud, covered in blood.

Sitting in the blood-soaked living room, staring at Hindley, who no longer breathed, Rosen crouched down and thought of one thing.

Not breathing, he was just a huge lump of flesh.

‘Just what were you?’

‘Why was I afraid of you for so long?’

‘You were this small, after all.’