32. The Shocking Finale
“Uuu… Please… Someone, get me out of here…”
Once the invincible Princess Knight Charlotte now lay on the cold floor of the underground prison, forced into seiza and made to bow her head toward the ground. She could not lift her face even if she wanted to. Her neck collar and both wrist cuffs were locked at the lowest position on the guillotine platform.
No matter how she thrashed, the collar never loosened. When she was not being raped or tortured, she spent her days hanging upside down or forced into this humiliating submission pose.
“Look, Your Highness. Feeding time.”
The iron door creaked open, and Spica, the former black slave maid, entered. With her rare pitch-black hair and skin in the northern nation, she had been treated as Charlotte’s plaything from childhood. Now she burned with the desire to avenge her past and intensified her depravity toward her former princess. In front of her lay a dog’s food bowl containing coarse barley porridge.
“You want me to eat dog food like this?”
Charlotte glared at Spica with killing intent.
“I’ve been eating this ‘dog food’ for years. Barley porridge is the staple of slaves. While you sat on your pure white tablecloth eating freshly baked white bread and juicy thick steaks, I was eating cold barley porridge in the next room. Now it’s your turn.”
Spica grabbed Charlotte’s golden head and forced her face into the bowl.
“Come on, eat it. A flesh slave must have the stamina to endure training…”
“Ow!”
When Spica bit her finger, Charlotte yanked her hand back.
“You dare do that? I won’t forgive you.”
Spica snatched up the riding whip.
“You rebellious horse needs to be properly broken in.”
“Hmph. You can only hit someone you can’t fight back. How lowly of you.”
“Wh-What…?”
Spica’s voice trembled, but she raised the whip without answering.
“If you want to be beaten, be beaten. But don’t think you can crush my spirit with a whip!”
From beneath the collar, Charlotte stared into her amber eyes with unyielding strength and declared:
“What a girl she is. Even now, she has not lost her courage and pride as a Princess Knight.”
After silently glaring at Charlotte for a while, Spica finally tossed the whip aside, unlocked the collar and cuffs, and freed her.
“Eh!?”
Charlotte’s body regained its freedom. Rubbing her wrists, she stared in confusion at the sudden change. Spica sat on a nearby chair and spoke.
“I’ve released you. Come at me. I’ll teach you a lesson on your place.”
“Wh-What?”
“Even if you were the Empire’s undefeated Princess Knight, losing your status makes you no different from a lowly slave. I’ll show you.”
Spica stripped off her short tunic. Her jet-black, smooth body was now completely exposed, like a sleek panther.
“Look, this is what you look like now. Still unhappy?”
Spica took a fighting stance. It resembled capoeira, the martial art she had learned from the world’s fighters. Charlotte glanced at the prison keys lying on the chair. No guards were visible outside.
She could do it. If she knocked Spica out, escaped the prison, and gathered the scattered imperial knights, she would rebuild the Princess Knight Order and exterminate every last revolutionary soldier.
“Spica, I will make you pay for your previous insolence toward your master with your own body.”
Even while completely naked, Charlotte took a sabat stance. Her whole body radiated fighting aura. Spica assumed a capoeira ginga pose—lowering her hips and swaying her body like a samba step, the street-fighting technique of capoeira.
The dazzling white skin of Charlotte contrasted beautifully with Spica’s smooth black body—white and black in perfect harmony.
“Hyaaa!”
With a roar, Charlotte launched a roundhouse kick. It was a fast strike aimed at the temple, based on the Empire’s practical combat techniques she had learned from the royal martial arts master. The kick was her strongest weapon. The full-power roundhouse cut the air with a sharp hyun and struck toward the black slave.
But…
“Hmph.”
Spica stepped back half a pace and dodged effortlessly.
“My kick… was dodged? That’s impossible…”
Charlotte was stunned. Spica’s black body moved like a bullet—after evading the kick, she immediately closed in and slammed a fist into Charlotte’s side.
“Guu—!!”
The impact stole her breath.
And just like that, Charlotte lost her balance and fell on her butt. Looking down with a smug expression, Spica mocked her.
“Oh my, Charlotte-sama, you were taken down so easily. You boasted so much, but you’re not that impressive.”
Her contemptuous tone made Charlotte’s blood boil. She rose to her feet and assumed a fighting stance.
“Damn black slave… You only got lucky with that first hit. If you think you won, you’re mistaken.”
“…Charlotte, you called me a black slave. I will make you regret it.”
Spica’s voice was calm. But the insane hatred in her words made Charlotte instinctively step back.