14. Flashback (7)

While Lizzy bites her fingertip, Killian leads the knights to find Edith, and Cliff also increases the number of knights to find Edith. She was sure that Edith would be caught sooner or later.

'So the only thing i can count on now is the 3rd exception condition?'

Even at her last-ditch plan, Lizzy still unable to kill Edith. In that the case, she has to force Edith to beg Killian to save her life until the end.

Lizzy was getting thinner day by day until the day of Riegelhoff's family execution.

'What. . . .If the 3rd stage condition are met? what will happen then?'

It wasn't like Lizzy going to die or any great disaster coming. However the future she know would be disappeared and time kept going by and an unknown future is coming, also getting older and ugly was a disaster for Lizzy.

'I hate that! What should I do?'

For the first time in her life as Lizzy, she felt helpless, like a helpless soldiers standing at the execution ground.

"Edith Riegelhoff has been captured!"

"She's being taken at this way now!"

Fortunately or unfortunately, Edith was caught first by Cliff's knight, not Killian.

'Please keep faithing when you got caught and begging for a mercy while you're heading here. . .please. . .'

Lizzy wanted Edith make her last fight. Like she always did since she possessed Edith-13th. Her wish wouldn't be granted.

The expression on Edith's face as she walked behind the knights didn't show any slightest of will to live. Lizzy who saw that urgently ran towards Edith.

"Edith! Why-why did you do that?"

"What do you mean?"

Edith looked truly puzzled.

"Please begging for forgiveness Edith! Say it's just a mistake and you sincerely regret it! Killian is a man with deep heart person, so there's no way he would ignored Edith!"

Lizzy has never made such a sincere appeal before. She desperately prayed that Edith would rebel against her death punishment even just a little bit. But Edith shook her head.

Edith, who ignoring Lizzy appeals to explain the misunderstanding, eventually revealed her white and slender neck to Killian, who had obtained the right of her punishments.

'No! No way!'

The moment Lizzy screamed inside, the voice of the system was heard.

[The 3rd exception conditions have been met. An exception occurred and the original author's authority was completely lost. The 3rd exception conditions will be extinguished.]

Lizzy froze in place.

"All those Riegelhoffs, deserve to be punished to death, not only for their treason but also for the heinous crimes they committed."

Killian, who opened his mouth as if he were about to cut Edith's throat, added a word with a faint smile on his face.

"By the way my wife name has been Edith Ludwig ever since she married me. So if someone calls her Edith Riegelhoff, isn't that an insult to Duke Ludwig family?"

Lizzy was in dazed by the 'exception' situation that caused by the fulfillment of the 3rd exception conditions.

'I can't believe Killian saved Edith, when everyone wanted to kill her.'

The last 12 Edith have lost their lives here, under Killian's sword. There was not a single exception before. This was the first time Lizzy had seen such an unusual situation.

'No, everything about this 13th Edith was something i had never experienced before.'

When the execution of the Rigelhoff family taking place, Lizzy went outside and paced back and forth nervously, biting her lip.

'I can't believe i lose, It's ridiculous!"

That means the existence of this world will disappear. Because this is a world where Lizzy Sinclair should be the main female character. At that moment, a knight near her approached her and calmed her down.

"Ms. Lizzy is a soft-hearted person, so it might be a bit difficult for you to hear such a scream. However, that is the law that has been formed in this world, it must be done even in a radical way."

Hearing that, Lizzy mind seemed to be bright.

'Yeah, we have to use radical methods to keep the oder.'

She still couldn't admit that she was lost.

'Only the 3rd exception conditions has been met. As long as Edith dies, Lizzy's narrative can be saved!'

When Edith dies, the stories divided into Edith's narratives would disappear, and the things that will interfere Lizzy will be gone. Even if Lizzy doesn't have control over the characters, it was a life she had lived many times before, and she was able to adequately control the changes within the allowed range.

'Edith must die as a villain, right here.'

Lizzy thanked the knight who gave her advice and rushed to the mansion to get some hot pot and she also bring sharp dagger with her.

"Lizzy, there's nothing good to see here."

Cliff stopped Lizzy, who came in into the execution room.

"I won't see the execution punishment. . . . I just here to gave this hot pot to Edith."

"Lizzy. . . ."

"It's going to be cold and hasn't it already decided that Edith execute has been excluded. So Cliff, please allow me just for this."

The soldiers nearby also seemed to be touched by Lizzy's warm heart. In the end, Cliff sighed and nodded his head. Then, Lizzy went down to the prison where Edith was imprisoned, holding tightly the hot pot and dagger in her arms. She had to hurry because she didn't know when Killian would disturb her plans.

When she went down, she saw Edith shivering, her face turning pale from the cold. Lizzy was glad to see her like that because there was no way she would refuse the hotpot. The. Lizzy slowly approaching and called Edith with bright voice.

"Edith!"

"Oh? Lizzy. . . .!"

"It's cold, right? I brought you a hot pot to warm you up."

However, when Edith answers her, Lizzy unwittingly hardened her face without realizing it.

"Thank you Lizzy It was so cold that I thought I was going freeze to death."

Lizzy was dumbfounded to see this woman in front her, who arranged her hair and exposed her neck to make it easier her neck to be beheaded a while. But now she happily accepted the hot pot that Lizzy had prepared for her, thanked her and saying that she thought she was going to die because of the cold.

"If you didn't want to die that much, why didn't you say any word to Killian and begging him to save you earlier?"

Edith felt strange seeing Lizzy's attitude was quite different from her usual one. At the same time, she finds it amusing to answer Lizzy's frequent questions.

"But now do you want to live again?"

Edith's answer was simple. She gave up her hope because she didn't think anyone would believe her, and she was tired claiming her innocence but still being labeled as a liar.

"Because Killian believed in me."

Now Lizzy realizes where everything went wrong.

"Killian. . . . That right, Killian was the problem, always. . . ."

Meanwhile, she was only interested in Edith's behavior, so she ignored Killian's changes. That was the cause of all these failures.

'I should have held Killian tightly from the beginning. If i done that, it wouldn't come this far. . . .'

Disappointed with Killian, Lizzy took out the dagger she had brought with her, and cut her forearm deeply. The sharp dagger that cutting her skin felt unpleasant, but that small wound was a price she had to pay to get everything back.

"Kyaak!"

When Lizzy threw the dagger into the jail bars and screamed loudly, then Cliff and Killian came down immediately as if they had been waiting.

'Now it's done. It's all over!?'

Lizzy pretended to be scared and cried, but she was relieved inside. Because she thought that if she get hurt in a place where only the two of them there. She was really sure that they would think Edith was the culprit. Until Killian picked up the dagger and handed it back to Cliff, Lizzy hadn't doubt that Edith would be dragged away. However, the target of Killian's suspicions wasn't Edith but Lizzy.

"Brother. How is the dagger Isn't it too warm?"

"What?"

"When I grabbed it earlier, both the blade and the handle were so warm. More that human body temperature"

"Come to think of it. . . ."

At that moment, Lizzy realized her mistake. But it was an unexpected mistake, so she couldn't even think of any excuse. She had no choice so she had to say the same thing that what Edith said was not true, and she only came here hand over the hot pot. But Killian's eyes became colder.

"And there was one more important mistake, Lizzy."

He slipped his hand through the bars and wielded the dagger. It is impossible to make such a deep cut with the hand holding the dagger that could barely get through the iron bar.

"Lizzy. Why did you try to frame Edith?"

"Why don't you believe me, it was obvious that Edith tried to kill me?"

Lizzy, who had never been in such situation before, shouted because she felt so unfair. However, Killian scolded her even more, and he even blamed Cliff for wrapping Lizzy. It was Edith that calmed the anger Killian.

"Killian. . . . That's enough."

It's just a calm voice without anger, resentment, superiority, or anything else.

'What this! Why is that person acting more like the main character!'

As she watched Edith leave the prison in Killian's arms. Lizzy couldn't help but shed tears with full of hatred.

* * *

What happened after that was too horrible, even just think about it. Although Lizzy was reprimanded by Edith, she was unable to come up with an answer. Duke Ludwig, who had always been on her side before, turned away said he was greatly disappointed with her.

At the moment, when the Duke and Duchess give Edith a box of gold, fur, and a huge amount of jewelry because they feel sorry for her, Lizzy realize for the first time after a long time what it was like live as a normal person instead of being a main character. Seeing Edith smiling brightly under the spotlight in the middle of the stage, and herself standing outside the light, clapping her hands. . . .

Although her memories of her past life are already vague, she still remember the feeling when she abandoned the pen name K, forgotten by everyone and suddenly collapsed.

'I will never go back to that crappy life again.'

A life of being praised by everyone was addictive, and it is followed by a sense of deprivation for her if she stand one step away from it.

To escape that deprivation, and to reverse the reality of feeling like she was falling behind Edith, Lizzy decided to prepared a dazzlingly fancy wedding. Although, in the original, everything will happen by itself even Lizzy doesn't ask for it, but since her power as an original author disappeared, everything was provided only when she asked for it.