”It’s not your fault, Your Majesty,” I[1] said.

”You don’t need to comfort me. There was nothing we could do,” Charlotte told me.

”No. It’s not a matter of justifying it as being inevitable. There could have been many other ways. We should have looked for other ways. Yes, we should have done that,” I expressed.

”The decision was made for the people. The innocent citizens were killed by my hands because of those people,” she said.

“More people would’ve died if we didn’t do that. The knights and soldiers who are protecting the empire and the many innocent people who look up to you would have all died. That plague—” I paused.

“I know. I know it very well. We need to take care of it before the symptoms start to show. We didn’t have any other choice because it was airborne, and there was no other way to save the contaminated land. But Count Kim, they haven’t turned into the Undead yet. I’m certain they were still humans. Their painful cries weren’t the cries the Undead makes. It sounded like the cries of children, I’m certain of it,” she explained.

”What are you…”

“I heard them talking to me. The citizens who died because they had been betrayed by a stupid empress like me, they were criticizing me,” she added.

“You seem exhausted, Your Majesty.” I pointed...