Villainess Of Hearts

Trigger Warning: Mentions of self-harm and suicide

Did he actually know anything? Was the King of Hearts arrogant enough to think that he'd be able to save Lord Warth Duke's life? Alexander didn't know a thing, except for the fact that he would do his best to save the man's life.

He did not know his way around poison.

One couldn't even say that he had managed to graduate from his studies at all, but because someone needed help and there was a code and an oath—he would do it. At least, let him save this man's life in exchange for all the others that had died because of him.

This was his only plea in this world.

If he could even do this, even just once, then he wouldn't ask for anything else. He wouldn't even wish to get back home and remember everything that had begun to fade away in his mind, memories he was now desperately clinging on to.

. . .

It wasn't fair, but life was never that way.

Someone might have said that those who were evil were like blades of grass—well, weeds that would keep on growing back no matter how much you tried to cut them down. In this instance, it rang true. Perhaps in someone else's eyes, they would agree once again if they were aware of Rosalyn's circumstances.

An evil queen that kept returning death after death, after death to obtain a life that she wanted.

A terrible thought had clung to her mind, grasping it desperately in a twisted manner that she wanted to believe that it was the only option to clear her thoughts and gain ahold of her circumstances once again.

The Queen of Hearts must die.

If she died, then it meant that time would rewind once more again, didn't it? In that time, she would no longer have killed Mallory with her own hands. She would have not witnessed other people's loved ones dying and without her knowing a thing.

Maybe in her next time—she would be able to capture and know who was the one behind this incident. Rosalyn Lockhart couldn't pace in the throne room when the King had gone down to visit the Lord Warth Duke's chambers with only some men.

The rest were in this throne room alongside her, and only the presence of Gine allowed her to the sanctuary of her thoughts. A sanctuary of madness. Because what if she didn't get a chance to return to the past and start all over again?

He… the Time Man claimed that they had already been through this countless times, moreover, but all she could remember was the way that Gine's sword had cleaved through her neck and betrayed her.

Well, the memory wasn't even fully clear enough to make that assumption.

And yet it beckoned to her like a sweet and forbidden drink. All she had to do was die and it might wash away her sins and bring her back to far easier times… she could do this all over again, couldn't she?

Rosalyn Lockhart's gaze landed on Julius, and then she suddenly found Mary Ann amongst the crowd. Her frantic heart was relieved at the sight of the bewildered and spooked maiden, because regardless of her fears, she was still alive. She tried to find her brother and couldn't quickly find him, but she knew he was here.

Their relationship had become mended because of this time, and she would throw it away.

For a friend.

Mallory.

Her eyes stung. The pain and sting of getting attacked by them still made her nerves spark. But now the woman was gone, and it was all her fault… so wasn't it right that she made a choice to go back and rewind? Restart all over again and ensure that Mallory would survive.

And so she would have to drop everything here.

All the memories and friendships formed, and the breakthrough in certain relationships. She would once again start from nothing and she would have to chase the Hatter down the street again—if she did everything right again, that hypothetical time again. The hard work and time spent here would be rendered meaningless.

Everything was meaningless.

Rosalyn Lockhart stopped herself from seizing her head and curling down into a ball in her very own throne. There were so many people around here that she didn't and couldn't bear the thought of showing weakness even when it screamed at the very bottom of her heart.

Selflessness.

Could Rosalyn Lockhart even muster up enough of it to do the deed of… ending herself? The previous times that the Time Man mentioned also said that she once took her own life. Whether it had been through crazed energy or desperation, somehow, even with the throes of pain with the death of Mallory—her head was still clear enough to know it was a bad idea.

All of her hard work down the drain.

The people that she had grown close to would treat her like she was a stranger, a vicious woman once again. Could she really live through it again with no complaints at all?

"Hahhh…"

Some people glanced her way, but the rest of the Nobility and servants present in the throne room knew enough about her than to look her way. Already, her Knight Gine gave them a glare before he walked over to her.

This man stepped in front of her without even missing a beat. "Your Majesty?"

How was it possible that Gine could steel his heart and be so mature in this hour? Rosalyn Lockhart wished that she was like him, entirely dedicated to one cause, even at the expense of other people. She knew that he was in pain; it was the first time that he showed hurt for somebody else besides herself.

So how could he act regally and in control of himself?

Despite Alexander's earlier start, he had also begun to act like a King and tend to his people. It was perhaps too difficult to assess on who had ordained this act of aggression against the Kingdom of Hearts until they finally gathered enough evidence.

Even now,  what were the chances that they were truly safe?

Her words became truth at this very instance—the tall windows in the throne room exploded and shattered.

Blood-curdling screams emanated from the throne room.

Rosalyn quickly found herself covered in the arms of her Knight, once again sheltered from the storm of glass shards before the man spun to face intruders… but there were none. Nobody had swooped inside of the throne room to attack the group of survivors, instead it was the wind itself that had attacked them?

Her heart could have been in her throat right now.

The way the wind tore and rent through the windows made her skin crawl, along with the emergency situation amongst the Nobility. Some were injured and soon she began to see gleams of crystal—

"Healing crystals." Rosalyn Lockhart identified them at once.

One of the Noble's holding one in their hands looked up in surprise, but nodded. He was about to treat an injured person in his group with the crystal in his hand.

"You have that on your person," she said. A smile curled on her lips, and she knew it did not reach her eyes—and she wanted this man to shake in terror. What was this person doing when Catherine Duke had been pleading for help?

The Nobleman warily bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty. This was something I ordered from the mines in the mountains of the Diamond Kingdom."

He and others could purchase it from the Diamond Kingdom but did not even speak when another Noble, a Lady was in tears about her husband's miserly state? What selfish people. Oh, how she hated them. She hated herself.

She wanted him dead.

Truly.

Right now.

The urge to have Gine, no—to have herself steal the sword from her Knight or any of the soldiers here and stab it through the man's chest was tempting. A certain bloodlust was sparked within her. He should die. die. die.

The Queen of Hearts took a deep breath and then looked away. "Tend to those who are injured." She raised her voice as loudly as she could, and it echoed in the coldness of the night.

"Yes, Your Majesty," her people echoed back.

If she couldn't do anything, at least she could do this much. Rosalyn Lockhart didn't quickly calm down. Her heart was still racing madly, but she understood this much. Even if she hadn't been able to stop Mallory's death in this time, that of the Royal Doctor Griphon and others she could not even know…

At least for the ones here, she could at least tell them to take care of another.

It hardly felt enough.

Rosalyn Lockhart knew it would never be able to compensate for what happened. But she wanted to find at least a little more reason to be alright right now and for others to be the same. When she lifted her gaze, she would finally see the slight injuries on her Knight's face.

At the sides of his forehead, there was some blood on one side of them. Her eyes widened, and she pulled up to her feet, and they brought her to the man in front of her. "Gine, are you alright?"

It was a stupid thing to ask; she knew.

But all the man did was reach for her hand and placed it on his forehead. "I am now, Your Majesty."

This Knight of hers still had enough time to do something like this. Rosalyn Lockhart could have cried then and there to utter relief and madness. Everything would be alright again, wouldn't it?

The sun would rise again.

—-—-

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this chapter! To those who are keeping up to date, then you must know that it's taken time for me to make a chapter again. But for sure, I will do my best to give you guys a satisfying ending T^T