"...Not... dead... Heh heh..."
Delphine clasped both hands around Brando's wrist, curling her fingers as if she wanted to pry it even a fraction away from her snow-white neck. Her chest heaved as she made a nearly inaudible, breathless sound from her throat.
Her eyes, a deep purple unlike those of the Empire's people, quickly grew unfocused. Her pupils dilated, revealing rainbow-like colors within, while the light gradually faded from them. Summoning the last of her strength, she beat at that arm, which was as hard as forged steel. Blue veins bulged grotesquely across the nearly translucent backs of her hands.
The Dark Side's will dominated Brando's mind and thoughts. His eyes reflected the cold light of the Magic Crystal in the room, mirroring the Chancellor's daughter's deathly pale, twisted face. Her mouth was stretched wide, revealing her white teeth, pink tongue, throat, and tonsils. Deprived of oxygen, her mouth opened and closed like a fish on a chopping board.
The sight twisted Brando's heart with a grim satisfaction. This vicious woman deserved such an end. Let her face Lady Martha with her ugliest side—that was judgment, and punishment, not merely for Roman, but also for the countless people who had died in that disaster.
Yet when he thought of the word "judgment," Brando's mind suddenly cleared. The Silver Queen's arrogant face appeared before him. Though the illusion vanished in an instant, it still left him drenched in cold sweat.
His anger faded a little. He suddenly realized that his actions were no different from those he despised. If he allowed his rage to run free and killed this woman, how would that make him any different from a beast?
At that thought, the muscles tensed throughout Brando's body relaxed slightly.
The Chancellor's daughter seemed to have found a shred