BXBX NOVEL Chapter 216 You haven't changed at all
Prison was just like Rihannan remembered. Dark, humid and cold. A place where you’d put the people the world’s has thrown to the trash.
Rihannan trembled for a second while remembering her last time in this place but quickly got back on her feet. She wouldn’t allow herself to be consumed by nightmares from her past anymore. After all, what she went through in this place, theoretically, never actually happened.
Leticia was sitting in a corner of her dark room burrowed into a ball. Her face was buried between her knees. As soon as she heard noises from the outside, she quickly lifter her face and looked straight into Rihannan’s direction. When she recognized her, flames burned in her eyes.
“You!” Leticia immediately sprang towards her cell bars. She reached out her hands between the iron bars trying to reach her. “It was you, wasn’t it? You did this to me, right? You are the one…”
The red hair that everyone once hailed for its immaculate beauty was now tangled up, and her once hypnotic face was now contorted and wrinkled like that of a demon.
Rihannan looked at the Leticia in front of her. She thought that once she saw Leticia she’d feel fear, like last time, or that at least she’d feel angry at her. However, contrary to her own expectations, she didn’t feel anything towards her half-sister. She just thought it was quite ironic that their positions had switched so much between this life and the past.
“Look at me now… this is all your fault!”
“It isn’t my fault, Leticia. You’ve earned it yourself with everything you’ve done.”
Hearing Rihannan’s calm voice, Leticia’s bloodshot eyes opened wide, inflamed with fury.
“Shut up! If you hadn’t thrown me out in the first place…”
“You might not remember, but I did let you in in the past.”
“You let me in? What do you mean, ‘you let me in’? The first day I went to that house you threw me out!”
“No. In the beginning I most definitely accepted you and let you in. Of course, I didn’t really want to, but since you were my sister, I thought I should treat you with kindness.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“Leticia, six years ago you killed me in this prison after I drank the poison you gave me.”
Leticia’s lips remained closed for a while. She looked at Rihannan, confused, then let out an incredulous laugh. “You’ve gone mad! You say you died after drinking the poison I gave you? Are you listening to yourself?”
“When I drank the poison you gave me and died, I woke up again as I was at twelve years old. I went back in time to the same day you came to my house.”
“You’ve been saying these crazy stories like a madwoman for a while. Just tell me the truth. You came here to laugh at me! You came here to make fun of how low I’ve fallen!”
“Whether you believe me or not doesn’t matter. I just wanted to say that, that you were given one chance to change your life.” Rihannan’s face turned somber. “Even in the past you’ve always been greedy of anything I had. You wanted to replace me as Queen and to keep my husband to yourself. When things didn’t end up the way you wanted, you gave me poison. In this life, you definitely had the chance to change, to be better… but you wasted your one chance and now you are trapped in this cell, awaiting your own death.”
“Does the King know you’ve gone crazy? Hahaha, the things I would do just to see his reaction once he finds out!”
Rihannan didn’t answer back. She simply looked at the laughing Leticia. Just when Leticia was about to scream at Rihannan again, a human figure emerged from the darkest corner of the room. As soon as he walked under the light, Leticia realized who he was and immediately calmed down.
“Your Majesty…” Leticia suddenly remembered her last moments with him and automatically backed away from the cell bars. She was shaking with fear, but nonetheless she gathered the little strength she had to yell. “Did you hear her? The crazy story that she spewed out her mouth? That she’d died and come back to life. What do you think of that? Did you already know that she’d gone mad?”
Leticia thought that since Igor had heard himself the craziness Rihannan had just said, he’d show some sort of emotion, at least. She definitely thought that Igor would look at Rihannan as though she was a madwoman, just like she’d done. However, unlike what she’d anticipated, he only focused his icy purple gaze on Leticia herself.
“Didn’t you hear her? This woman is completely mad! She said she’d died and come back to life!”
Instead of worrying about the Queen going crazy, the King simply stood beside his Queen. He gently pulled Rihannan to his side by placing his arm around her shoulders. Regardless of how you’d look at it, it definitely looked as though he was protecting his Queen.
Leticia realized that something was off. No way. Did he actually… believe her? How could he buy such nonsense…?
Then, Leticia remembered something Igor himself had told her. The words he’d said to her that she did not understand back then.
You’ve really haven’t changed at all! You are still as vile and repugnant! Your tendency of lusting after other people’s belongings hasn’t changed at all. Had I known six years ago that you’d still be like this, I would have killed you right away!”
“Six years ago…”
Leticia mustered to herself with a trembling voice. He’d definitely said that. He’d said he’d have killed her six years ago.
That meant there could only be two possibilities. One, they are both crazy or, two, they are telling the truth.
Leticia felt her strength leave her body and collapsed on the floor. While her mind was still filled with confusion, Rihannan slowly approached her.
“The only difference between you and us is that we both still retain the memories of our past lives.”
Leticia bit her lips and violently shook her head. Tears were flowing out her eyes. “Then this is unfair. If what you are saying is true, then of course you’d both have an advantage since you still have your memories.”
“If you had your past life memories, would you have done things differently? would you have changed?”
“Of course! If I had known everything that was about to happen, I would have acted differently!”
“Leticia, what do you think you would have done if you had kept your memories?”
“Well, of course I’d…”
“You’d get rid of any obstacle in your path. A human being or whatever, you’d have gotten rid of anything that stood in your path.” Rihannan smiled bitterly. “How would that be different from your current life?”
Leticia realized that Rihannan was right. If she went back in time with her memories intact, she’d have definitely lead a similar life. She knew that better than anyone else.
“If you had known what the future had in store, you’d have killed both father and I much sooner. However, even if you did that, the final outcome wouldn’t have changed much. You yourself hasn’t changed, so it would be no different if you lived again.”
“Who are you to talk and talk, as if you knew everything!” Leticia screamed while she cried. Even if Rihannan pretended to stand on a higher moral ground, she was born as the daughter of a respectable noble family. Rihannan even lived in double the luxury as soon as she became Queen. On the other hand… what about herself? What type of life did she live? She’s been through hell ever since she was born because of her illegitimacy. Everything was Rihannan’s mother’s fault!
“You’ve never experienced any humiliation nor disdain from anybody in your whole life! You’ve never known what it’s like to be poor! Can you even imagine what it’s like to live with a father that’s gone mad because of gambling?”
“Is that why you killed father with poison?”
“It’s true, I did kill him, but I had no choice!”
“No, Leticia. You definitely had a choice. Not everybody solves their problems with murder. You simply didn’t bother trying to find another way. You’ve just given poor excuses for your crimes.”
Rihannan continued bluntly reprimanding Leticia with her icy voice.
“It’s also silly of you to be mad at me for kicking you out of my house. You ruined your own life yourself, but you’ll probably never admit it. Yes, I know that what I’m saying makes no sense to you.” Rihannan looked at Leticia intently for a while, then continued. “Tomorrow you’ll be sentenced to death by beheading.”
Leticia’s face, which was filled with malice and hatred, suddenly became pale, void of any emotion.
“Beheading?”
“I heard that the evidence against your attempts of murdering me were so conclusive that the verdict was proclaimed quite quickly.”
Leticia looked at Rihannan with fear in her eyes. Nobody could hide their fears in the face of imminent death.
“I’ll give you a choice.”
Igor, who was standing by Rihannan’s side, frowned but kept his mouth shut. He didn’t really like Rihannan’s decision.
Rihannan took out a crystal bottle from her pocket. It was the same bottle Danil had given her.
“You’re still my sister, after all. Even if you hate me to the extreme, I do not wish for things to end in a sour way. That’s why, for my sake, and for the sake of the child inside me, I want to give you my condolences.”
Leticia’s gaze shifted to Rihannan’s belly. As she saw her caressing her belly with tenderness and care, her hatred was ignited once more.
“Are you pregnant?”
“Yes. I once lost this child in my past life because of you, but he’s growing strong now.”
“…”
“In my past life, the poison you gave me caused me unimaginable pain before I finally died. However, I do not wish to do the same to you. This is a different kind of poison. I can’t guarantee you won’t feel pain, but at least it will be better than being beheaded.”
“Why are you saying all these? According to you, I did awful things to you in the past.”
“…do you know the last thing I said to you after you gave me the poison?”
“How could I possibly know!”
“I said I was thankful.”
Leticia’s eyes widened. “What?”
“I felt thankful since I was able to die on my own in this place rather than going through the shame of being executed in front of a large crowd. Of course, you didn’t quite say it that way, but in any case, you gave me a choice and I was truly grateful for it. I also thought that you didn’t wish for my dead to be an amusement for a large crowd.”
Rihannan opened her hand and showed her the crystal bottle.
“The choice is yours. What will you do?”
Leticia’s eyes, which were burning with fury, suddenly turned calm and cold. In the blink of an eye, a deep bitterness took hold of her face.
“Thank you, sister.” Leticia slowly got back on her feet. She dried her eyes and approached Rihannan. “Thank you for offering me your compassion after all the things I’ve done to you. Even if I die, I will not forget the kindness you’ve shown me.”
Leticia reached out both hands through the iron bars. Rihannan stepped closer to her so she could hand over the bottle of poison while Igor watched worriedly. Then, when Leticia grabbed the bottle with one hand, she crashed it with all her might against the cell bars while grabbing Rihannan by the neck with her free hand.
Fragments of glass shattered on the floor, but the largest shard remained firmly grasped in Leticia’s hand.
“Die!”
Just when the bloodied glass shard was about to stab Rihannan’s neck, Igor quickly reacted and pulled her body backwards into his arms.
“Rihannan!”
Igor barely managed to snatch Rihannan out of Leticia’s grasp on time. As soon as he held her, he looked at her neck, making sure she had no injury. Once he saw with his own eyes that she was alright, he let out a relieved sigh.
If he hadn’t been on his toes the whole time, he might have been too slow and the sharp glass blade would have caused a fatal injury on Rihannan’s neck.
Igor’s enraged eyes immediately shifted towards Leticia.
“You…”