Chapter 34: Hopeless Moment
The nobles' gazes were full of hatred. They seemed like looking at a filth that was not worth looking at. Edna felt increasingly inferior and frightened. She wanted to cry, but she knew that if she cried, it would only make the people there loathe her even more.
Many people looked at her and all of them only watched.
"Was she one of the criminal gang members who escaped at that time?" someone asked.
"No, it said she's part of a group of spies from another kingdom."
"Oh my… a child that young…"
"Isn't this a case directly under the care of the Prince? One of the victims was a priest, wasn't it?'
"Right, that one…".
Edna shook her head. She begged them, asking for forgiveness. However, they all quickly threw their faces away and pretended not to see. They tightly shut their mouths.
A loud knock sounded. In front of her sat a man who looked at her sharply.
"Miss Edna with another name of Eden, you have been proven to be one of the members of the serial killer who has disturbed the peace in this kingdom. You are part of a group of serial killers, as well as spies from another kingdom. You have attempted murder of Lord Jonathan Westfall.
"Then implicated in the murder of Priest Malcolm and was seen with suspicious men several times. On top of that, the man was the one intruded into the Westfall family residence. And you've been working for the Westfall family.
"One of the witnesses also found you sneaking into the Westfall residence and trying to steal their valuables."
Edna opened her mouth in disbelief at what she heard. She tried to say no several times, but a guard came and gagged her mouth with a piece of cloth.
"Can you tell the whereabouts of your leader? If you manage to show the whereabouts of your leader, then your sentence will be commuted."
Edna shook her head. She didn't have any leader, and she wasn't involved in the killing spree! It was right that she tried to kill Jonathan, but she wasn't complicit in the robbery or whatever they were accusing her of.
"You refuse to convey it? Then, in order to teach the criminal group a lesson, the court hereby gives you a death penalty in the middle of the square, so they won't play with the laws that apply in this kingdom."
Edna saw the Prince, who was once dragged here, standing beside the judge. What had she done? How did it get this dire?
It seemed that death was the only destiny for her. Even if she didn't die here, she would most likely die at the hands of Marchioness Westfall and Jonathan who had planned to squeeze her blood dry.
Edna just gave up when she was dragged away.
In the end, it was the consequence of her action that she ended like this. Edna wanted to cry, but she didn't want to look weak. The girl bit her lip. She had promised her master to return in four days.
She regretted that she could not keep that promise. She also regretted not being able to thank Marquess Westfall in person. Even though the man was not her biological father, he had been taking care of her ever since she was left on the ship.
Edna was increasingly aware that her master told her the truth. Humans were indeed disgusting. She could now understand the hatred her master harboured for humans.
Things never went the way Edna wanted them to. The girl could only mourn her fate when she was put in an iron carriage and paraded along the street to receive her punishment.
Edna became a spectacle. Her self-esteem had been shattered to smithereens. The cheers of people who insulted her along the way made her cry silently. She no longer had her long hair to cover her face.
TUCK!
"Ack-"
Edna winced when a small pebble thrown at her hit her cheek. The pebble managed to cut her cheek and drew blood. The hurling then invited the others to throw more stones at her.
She was humiliated so terribly. Being thrown by stones was no longer a punishment, but an entertainment for those people. The farther the carriage was driven, the more people who didn't know what crime Edna had committed, but they still threw stones at her.
The girl could only raise her chained hands and shielded her head from the rock that kept coming to her.
The journey to the capital's square was excruciatingly painful.
Edna dragged herself all the way to the corner of the carriage, so she could get away from the endless screams and the throwing stones. Hunger, thirst, and stress worsened her condition, and she fainted in the middle of the trip.
After arriving at the square, a bigger podium had been prepared. Not only Edna, two men, as well as one other woman, had been waiting there with their heads down. They almost had the same wounds as Edna.
Edna knew them. They were her master's coachmen, as well as the woman from the brothel brought by Luca. Edna managed to heal the woman with her blood!
They also seemed to suffer the same fate. The woman was crying out loud, trying to explain that she was not involved at all. However, people only mocked the woman and threw more stones at her.
The four of them were set forth in the middle of the square under the scorching sun. The stones kept coming and hurting them. Another one hit Edna's temple. No matter how best Enda tried to protect her face and head, it was in vain.
The feeling of hopelessness made Edna want to die more quickly. No one would come to help her.
Not even her master. It seemed four days had passed now and… perhaps Maximillian thought that Edna had run away. She didn't know… She could never understand what was in the man's head.
Her master helped Luca because Luca was a member of his dragon tribe while Edna... was just a human who would always be hated by hin. No matter what she had given him, her master would never think of helping her.
Edna started to cry. Not because of the impact of the throwing stones, but because she realized how weak and fragile a human being was, exactly as described by her master.
"Sir… help me…" muttered Edna in a trembling voice.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone