Ten Years Ago

It was a cold day when my father carried out an execution, the first one that I ever witnessed. The condemned was dragged to the chopping block, begging and crying for mercy, wailing his heart out as he desperately asked to be spared. Wearing an expressionless visage, my father, a strong, tall man stood before the condemned. I watched from a distance, accompanied by my uncle, who stood next to me, telling me to watch it all without looking away.

"P-please... s-spare me, g-good sir..." the condemned sobbed, kneeling before my father. Earlier, my uncle told me that he was sentenced to death after he was found guilty murdering a nobleman. "M-my family... w-without me, t-they'd starve..." From what you had heard, the nobleman was a despicable man and a rapist, and he was murdered by the condemned due to him raping his daughter.

"Your family will be taken care of. Still, your crime is too great to be pardoned, considering that the man you murdered was a loyal subject to the crown and a great asset to our kingdom, however despicable he might be in his life..." my father said, his gaze softening. "That is the price of taking a man's life, and I hope you're aware of that..."

"..." the condemned lowered his head. He had stopped sobbing before he lifted his head, eyes filled with resignation. "...Will it hurt?"

"It will be quick and painless..." my father told the condemned. "Bring him to the block," he ordered his assistants, and they brought the condemned to the chopping block so that the sentence could be delivered. This time, the man did not resist, simply accepting whatever that would befall him.

Pulling out his greatsword, my father stabbed it into the ground and placed his hands on the pommel. He seemed to recite a prayer under his breath before he pulled out the sword and heaved it up. He looked down on the condemned who had been placed on the chopping block.

With one swing, he performed the execution, severing the condemned head off his shoulders by cutting through his neck. The condemned head fell off, bouncing on the ground before one of my father's assistants caught the severed head, picking it up. I could see blood dripping off the stump of the severed neck. Another assistant opened a sack so that the head would be placed inside it.

I watched the whole execution without looking away, as per my father's instruction, though I did flinch a little. My uncle patted my shoulder, congratulating me for being brave before walking off to join the others to carry the headless body away. Meanwhile, my father put away his sword and approached me.

"You did good, Rodyle..." my father said. "Soon, you will take over this duty, just like me and others before me. Our ancestors had been serving the royal family as the royal executioners since ancient time, and you will do the same when your time finally comes..."

"Father, that man..." I said as I looked at the others carrying away the dead body of the condemned. "He killed someone, right? That's why he was executed, right?"

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"Yes. The crown had declared him guilty for killing a loyal subject..." my father said as he walked alongside me down the rocky hill where the execution was held.

"I heard the man he killed was a bad man..." I said, recalling the words of others regarding the murdered nobleman. "Why did he have to die for killing a bad man? He should be rewarded instead..."

My father closed his eyes, as if mulling over my question. "The nobleman's family whom he killed had served the royal family for many years, and his death caused a problem in the royal court due to him being the head of his family. No matter how despicable he was, he was a valuable asset to the crown, and the one responsible for causing his death would have to be sentenced to death for causing such a problem in the first place..."

Blinking, I asked again, "If it's true, why did the Queen keep him around? If he did bad things, why didn't he get punished for being a bad man?"

Cracking a smile, my father answered, "It's because he covered his tracks and used tricks to ensure that no one could prove that he committed those crimes in the first place. He bribed the officials to make sure that all his crimes would never be pinned on him..." He sighed after saying that. "There's no use talking about it, though. Him being dead is probably a good thing, though I would prefer a fair trial over a vigilante action..."

He helped me to walk down the rocky terrains, making sure that I didn't trip over some rocks as we walked. For a while, we didn't say anything before something occurred to me.

"Father, how about you?" I asked innocently. "Since you also kill people, will you also be punished too?" Then, I looked at him worriedly. "A-are you going to be executed too?"

My father laughed. "Of course not." Then, he lowered himself in front of me, looking straight into my eyes. "Listen, Rodyle. Our duty may amount to us taking people's life, but I want you to remember that we're not murderers. We execute people on behalf of the crown. And taking one's life is not a trifling matter." He brought his hands to my shoulders as he continued, "It is a grim duty, I'm aware of that, but it is a duty that we must undertake. And the least we can do to the condemned is to make sure that their death is quick and painless..."

"Quick... and painless?" I inquire.

"Yes," my father nodded as he placed his fingers on his neck. "That's why our preferred execution is by beheading. By cutting off one's head, the death will be swift and there will be no time for one to feel the pain by cutting off the head." He got up and stood tall before me. "I will teach you how to do it soon, once you are strong enough to lift a sword. A sloppy swing can cause great pain on the condemned, so you will have to learn how to properly swing the sword in order to deliver a painless execution where the condemned can be spared of any unnecessary suffering..."

"But... what if we are told to execute an innocent man?" I ask. "If there are many people like that dead nobleman in the court, there will be people who are going to be falsely accused because someone bribes someone else. Are you going to execute a falsely accused man?"

At that, my father did not immediately answer. After taking a while to think, he let out a heavy sigh before he said, "About that, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's hope that such a thing will never happen to us..." Then, he smiled at me. "Come, let's head back home. Your mother will probably throw a hissy fit if we come home late..."

And so, both of us head back home, leaving behind the execution site without looking back. While execution might be our family's business, my father never brought it back home. To others, he might be the Deliverer of Justice, the Queen's Blade and some other pretentious titles and names, but at home, he's simply an ordinary man, a loving husband to his wife and an attentive father to his children. Nothing more, nothing less.

Someday, I would become a royal executioner as well after taking over my father's position, and I could only hope that I could carry such a heavy weight on my shoulders, just like my father did.

End of Prologue