If You Devour Poison / Doku Wo Kurawaba Sara Made Chapter 32: Exit

The foolish mistake made by the future Queen Nasha’s younger sister, the Dragon Priestess Melia, spread throughout the capital in an instant.
It was a huge crime to attempt to harm the Sacrificial Priestess Julieta and Head Priest Malacia for the sake of her selfish desires. Betraying the Crown Prince’s trust was a great offense as well.
Even though she was the future Queen’s sister, she would not be able to escape severe punishment.
However, she currently held the position of the Dragon Priestess. Should she be punished, the position of the [Dragon Priestess] would be empty and they would have to find a new maiden to take on the duty. Troubled by the gravity of the matter, His Highness Vikram and Prime Minister Morino discussed with their vassals and decided to sentence Dragon Priestess Melia the [Donna’s Punishment].
Back when the Kingdom of Palcemith had yet to escape from the turmoil in the aftermath of the Langrede war, Donna was the name of the concubine of King Frof Saculia Palcemith, who was the grandson of King Migliore Gakach Palcemith.
Although Donna was originally from the streets, she was the very definition of a siren, taking all men captive with just a gaze, using her voluptuous body. She snuck into a banquet held in the castle and seduced King Frof and successfully gained his favor. She became an adopted daughter of an Earl who was a subordinate to King Frof to easily marry Frof. With her beauty, not just the king, but all people of influence became her allies one by one. This hurt the Queen, who had not even been married for a year.
Before long, the King suddenly died of a mysterious illness and thinking that she could obtain full control of the Kingdom of Palcemith, Donna plotted the assassination of the Queen. While the attempt was somehow thwarted, Donna was already pregnant when she was captured by the Royal Knights at that time. Her crime was great, however, within her womb was the child of the late King.
Donna took her unborn child as hostage and demanded to be released.
If they did not heed her demand then she would kill herself and the king’s unborn son, she had said while bursting into laughter at the troubled vassals.
The troubled vassals requested for wisdom from the witch living within Shizune Forest. The witch casted a spell called [the Sleep of the Afterlife] on Donna, which left the physical body alive but killed the consciousness. Half a year later, Donna delivered the prince while still asleep and drew her last breath shortly after. The prince that Donna gave birth to was raised well by the Queen, who later grew into the king who would be called the Sage King, King Cornus.
With such a history, even now, within the Kingdom of Palcemith, there was barely anyone who would name their daughter Donna. It was synonymous with an evil woman. On the other hand, if one wanted to praise another with a meaning like, “You’re so amazing, I can’t believe you were born from those parents…”, the common phrase used was “You’re Donna’s child”.
The effects of the [Sleep of the Afterlife] was so inhumane that the witch did not dare to leave the spell behind. She split it and sealed it into 10 sheets of parchment and handed it to the officials before disappearing back into Shizune Forest.
By unraveling one of those sheets of parchment, which were strictly controlled within the Royal Castle, and casting the spell on the target it was possible to give them the effects of the “Sleep of the Afterlife”. That was what was called the [Donna’s Punishment].
After Donna’s generation, that sentence has been carried out a total of three times.
Melia would be the fourth.
Using this spell would leave only Melia’s physical body alive to fulfill her duties as the Dragon Priestess.
For Melia, with her mind damaged by the Suimo and her beautiful body repeatedly violated by lowborn men, [Donna’s Punishment], where she would no longer feel any pain and simply continue sleeping, would be a relief, in a sense.
The Crown Prince’s fiancée, Nasha, broke down into tears when she heard the details of the sentence, pleading Prime Minister Morino to keep investigating carefully, as she was certain that the true culprit was someone else. Conversely, Morino cautiously reminded her of her falsifying official documents and explained, “The more we investigate, the riskier it would be for you and His Highness’ position.” This silenced Nasha; after all, she prioritised her own safety more.
Still, she could not give up and purposely summoned Melia’s lover, Sigurd, to the castle, informing him in tears of Melia’s plight and distress and tried to incite him to rescue the captured Melia.
However, Sigurd laughed off Nasha’s complaint. He no longer needed a love that came about from the suspension bridge effect, nor a replacement love that he maintained.

“Why should I forgive a woman who would use my mother’s keepsake that I gave her as payment to cause certain harm to my beloved sister? At most, out of pity, I will hold back by just cutting her off… I no longer have a single shred of feelings for Melia.”
“How could that be…? Sigurd…!”
“Was that all you wanted to say? Julieta is waiting for me… I’m leaving.”

Her friends, who would have helped her regardless of her situation, had now become cold toward her.
Forgetting that she had slighted them first, as her last resort, she requested her beloved Crown Prince while crying, “Please save Melia”.
However, even His Highness could do nothing but nod, “Leave it to me”.
Originally, Melia’s crime included the attempted assasination of former Prime Minister Anderheim, and Nasha’s forgery of official documents was naturally a serious felony. In addition to the crimes till now, should those two be also made known to the world then the Crown Prince and Nasha would certainly face the bitterness of disinheritance.
Former Prime Minister Anderheim Yucht Asbal was attacked while inspecting the riverbank construction as contracted by His Highness and was rescued by the Knight Captain, who was coincidentally patrolling the Luft River before it flooded.
Vikram cursed himself for not being able to outwardly express his gratitude at the former Prime Minister Anderheim’s loyalty for willing to let an impressive tale go so as not to cause a disturbance, despite him narrowly escaping death from the assassins Melia sent.

“Dragon Priestess Melia Laturi.
For the crime of conspiring with the remnants of the kidnapping group which had set root in the Kingdom of Palcemith, [Centipede’s Cage] and its leader Lanva and his subordinates, to assassinate the Sacrificial Priestess Julieta O’Shayne Asbal and Head Priest Malacia.
You are hereby sentenced to [Donna’s Punishment].”

Thus, the pitiful younger sister Melia, who had been caught up in the fate of her twin sister, unable to control her own body and driven mad by her selfish desires, disappeared from the pages of history.
It was just over three months after Melia became the Dragon Priestess.
On the dawn of the hundredth day to be precise.