(Regaleon’s POV)

The air inside the room went stale. All eyes of the ones present in the room were all on me, shock written on their faces. They might have had an idea what I was planning to do.

"I want to personally torture her." I said with a cold tone. I look at the woman in front of me fiercely.

This woman had inflicted such pain to my Alicia, both physically and emotionally. I want her to suffer by my own hands.

"No, no, no, no! Don’t come near me!" Erica screamed in fright.

I walked towards the table beside Erica where the torture devices are laid out. I pick them up one by one, inspecting them.

"I will explain the uses of each device, your highness." Shawn said with respect.

"Hmm." I nodded in agreement.

"This, your highness is a thumbscrew." Shawn picked up a small metal object with a screw. "A person’s fingers are one of the most sensitive parts in the body. This device is used to crush the fingers or toes slowly and painfully." Shawn explained.

"I see." I hold the device and inspected it carefully.

There is ten of this thumbscrew device in Shawn’s pouch, which means one for each finger.

"Then let me use this first." I smiled wickedly.

"No, don’t come near me. Take that thing away from me." Erica was squirming from her sit.

I take one of her hands that were balled into a fist, she was fighting hard. I acknowledge her fighting spirit. Of course, it would be boring if she just sits there submissively.

I forcefully pried open her closed fits and inserted a thumbscrew in her forefinger. I slowly nutted it in place until it tightened.

"Ahhhhh!!!" Erica screamed with the pain. With her scream, I hooked up my mouth into a smile.

"Please bear with it a little. This is my first time doing this." I grinned.

"Noooo... Take it off!!! It hurts." Erica begged with tears.

"Does it hurt? Well then that’s good." I was satisfied with her pain.

After that, I have inserted all the thumbscrews in her fingers. Erica was screaming and crying in the process.

"Let’s tighten them up a little more." I was not yet satisfied with the tightness of the thumbscrews.

"Please...No more!" Erica begged. Her face was now full of tears.

"I like hearing you beg." I grinned. "Beg more."

Erica looked at me with pleading eyes. "Please I beg you, have mercy. Let me go."

My grin widened even more. "The respectable and high queen is begging for mercy. I like it." I said. Erica was looking at me with hopeful eyes, thinking that her begging had moved me.

It was really a pleasure for me to see the high and mighty queen who was at the top of the pedestal, stoop down so low to beg for mercy in front of me. In my eyes, she looks like a dog begging for a bone.

"What else can I use?" I looked at Shawn with a smile.

Erica’s eyes went wide. Her hope just back then crumbled into dust.

"No, please. You said if I begged..." Erica said.

"I didn’t say that I would stop if you begged." I looked her way. "I just said that I like seeing you beg." I grin wickedly.

Erica resumed her begging, telling me to spare her from such pain.

"This is nothing compared to the many years you have tormented Alicia." I said in a cold tone.

I looked at Shawn again to inquire about the other torture devices.

"This your highness, is used to slowly pull the nails from the fingers." Shawn picked up a plier like device. "With the thumbscrew slowly crushing her fingers, pulling her nails would deal much more pain."

"Hmm, I understand." I get the plier like device from Shawn and inspected it.

"No no no!!!" Erica screamed. "Please stop this, stop!" She tried to get out from her bindings and the chair tumbled down in the process.

"Hold her." I ordered a shadow guard.

The shadow guard quickly pulled up the chair Erica was strapped on. The ropes strapping her are slowly eating on her flesh while she tried to break free from them.

"You know, you can’t escape." I smiled at her. "So just bear with it."

I use the plier like device and started with her thumb. I slowly pulled out her nail.

"Ahhhhhh...!!!!" Erica screamed loudly. She trashed her hand that I was working on, but my shadow guard held her tightly.

"If you move like that, I can’t pull your nail in one go." I said. "Oh look, because of that I have to work a little harder. This is my first time doing this you know. I can’t promise you a good work." I joked.

I intended to make a mistake in pulling her nail out because I know how excruciatingly painful it is. Erica screamed even more and it gave me the satisfaction of torturing her.

I pulled the nails of all her fingers one by one. Her fingers are all dyed with blood where her nails were pulled out. My hands are also stained with her filthy blood and I looked at it disgustingly. Dimitri hurriedly passed me a towel for me to wipe with.

I looked at Erica who was sitting on the chair. She passed out before I pulled out the last nail from her finger. She wasn’t able to handle the pain. I put down the plier like device on the table.

"Wake her up." I ordered.

My shadow guard quickly took a pail of water located at the far corner of the room and splashed it to the passed out Erica.

’Cough cough’ Erica woke up from the water disoriented.

historical

I pulled her hair to lift her head up. "You are not permitted to sleep while I’m at work." I slapped her face to wake her up completely.

"P-Please...just kill me." Erica said with a low voice. I can see that her strength was crumbling and this made me smile.

"Kill you? We are just getting started." I grin wickedly. "We still have a few days to do this. I am sure to let you feel much more pain."

***

These five days I continued to torture Erica in many ways. She always begged for death but I never gave her the easy way out.

But because I promised Alicia that I would be back before the grand parade, I have to go back to the capital.

"Shawn, you know what to do." I instructed him.

"Yes your highness, please rest assured." Shawn bowed.

I ordered Shawn to continue for another day and give her death at the very last moment.

I looked at Erica still sitting on the chair she was strapped at. She was a far cry from her former self. Her body was filled with wounds and bruises. All her fingers from hand to foot are now crushed and stained with dry blood. Her whole body is in fact stained with blood.

Erica has stopped begging after the third day. That is because I cut off her tongue. Her excessive pleas for death irritated me. She is now but a lifeless shell, only waiting for death. Looking at her made me satisfied.

"Then I will be going first, you finish here." I said to my subordinates.

I took a last look at Erica and smiled. "Do not worry my queen. I will surely take care of your two daughters after you are gone."

Erica, who was silent the whole time, looked up at me in an instant. Her lifeless eyes began to shed tears once more. She was muttering words incoherently, shouting and trashing with all her might. My shadow guards quickly subdued her in place.

This made my smile even broader. Just the idea of what I will do to her daughters frightened her back to life.

After her one last satisfying plea, I turned around and walked away.