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“Why didn’t you tell this story in court?”
Ian asked Rosen.
Why didn’t she say in court that Hindley Haworth had beaten her for a long time?
He must have said that because he thought it would help reduce her sentence.
“Am I stupid? Why would I give the judge one more reason for me to kill Hindley?”
***
Actually, Rosen had a similar thought. It wasn’t that she didn’t keep her mouth shut. In her first trial, which was not public, she confessed everything.
She knew. The chances of her being completely acquitted were slim. The evidence was too obvious, and there was no escape. Everything pointed to her.
The first thing she did after confessing was to tear off her clothes and show her body to the soldiers. After seeing her wounds, she thought everyone would know why she killed Hindley. She thought people would understand…
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did he hit you?”
“My whole body. Can’t you see?”
“What do you think was the reason?”
“D*mn it, how would I know that? He was the kind of person who hit me when he was busy, annoyed, and bored. When it rained, he hit me because it rained.”
“Did you really get hit by your husband?”
“Who else would beat me but Hindley Haworth?”
“How can you prove that?”
“Look at Leoarton! It’s rare for a woman not to be hit by her husband!”
“Didn’t you do something wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“There were rumors that you had an affair… If so, then he did the right thing.”
Rosen didn’t answer. It didn’t feel worth answering. That was when she first got the feeling. The frustration and helplessness she felt when she first tried to run away.
“Was there any other way? Not involving killing.”
“…Do you really think there was?”
“Let’s assume you’re right. Still, killing is too demonic. It was something that could be resolved through talking.”
‘Through talking?’
‘Was there no other way than to kill him?’
‘How nice it would’ve been if there were such a thing.’
‘If someone had put Hindley in jail, things wouldn’t have gone this far.’
Rosen was dumbfounded.
Talk?
How was she supposed to talk?
For the past two years, everything she tried was conversation.
“Don’t hit me.”
“Help me.”
She never got an answer.
She also asked soldiers for help. Of course, they didn’t help her.
“It’s useless to regret now.”
‘I don’t regret it.’
‘Because I couldn’t help it.’
‘I would have regretted it more if I hadn’t killed him.’
‘It was a war.’
‘A war that wouldn’t have ended until Hindley or one of us had died.’
“Have you ever killed anyone? No, you’re a soldier, so of course you have. Why aren’t you wearing handcuffs?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“You’re the same. What’s the difference between you and me?”
‘Because there was no one to save me and Emily.’
‘Because you guys didn’t protect me even though we were law-abiding citizens.’
‘So I handled it myself.’
Rosen didn’t want to die.
‘Why don’t you understand that?’
‘Why are people who say they have experienced worse than me so clueless?’
What followed was a repetition of the same questions and boring answers. In the process, Rosen realized more clearly. Words didn’t work. They didn’t want to listen to her.
The world was not on her side.
This time she wasn’t surprised and didn’t even cry. Because she already knew that nothing would change.
Yelling at a wall would only hurt her own ears.
Prior to her trial, she learned quite a bit from her cellmates. The senior officer declared her sentence as soon as he saw her.
“Murder is 8 to 50 years. I’m sure you’ll get about 40.”
“What? Even serial killers don’t get that much.”
“In my experience, that’s the norm.”
“I’ve seen a man who beat his wife to death get eight years and then be released due to insufficient evidence. It won’t be 40 years.”
“You killed your husband.”
“But-“
“It’s different between killing a wife and killing a husband. It’s all too common for a husband to beat his wife to death.”
“…”
“It’s so, so common. In a fit of anger, in a fit of drunkenness, accidentally… But you are different. You’re a freak. The women who come all the way here… It’s disgusting. Usually they die before they get here.”
Rosen soon realized that his words were true. In prison, there were many women like her who had killed their husbands. Their sentences were typically the maximum possible.
30 years.
40 years.
50 years…
“Is it because I am ignorant that I do not understand? Or is this normal? I don’t understand.”
“You are so naive.”
“If you call me naive one more time, you’ll die.”
“No, you truly are naive. That’s why you still have the belief that the world will be fair to you.”
Rosen thought about it. She didn’t like thinking very much, but sometimes she had to, mostly when she had to choose. In life, choices are usually made not between good and bad but between bad and worse.
“Just pray that you did everything right. That’s for the best. If you emphasize that you confessed, you may be released in three or four years.”
The second trial was open to the media.
Before the second trial, she had to put her hand on the Magic Discrimination Stone once more to prove once again that she was not a witch. At that time, the investigator in charge of the identification stone test was a woman, which was rare. She looked at her silently and whispered softly.
“Let me give you some advice, Ms. Haworth.”
“…”
“What you are about to do will not help you at all. They will wonder whether you killed Hindley Haworth or not, but it doesn’t matter at this point. The second trial will be open to the media. I trust you know what that means.”
“What do you think I’m going to do?”
“…I heard that your plea was changed from the first trial. No. Acknowledge your sins and accept them unconditionally. That’s what’s best for a wife. The press will eat you alive.”
Rosen took her hand off the Magic Discrimination Stone.
The purple stone did not respond to her at all.
She spat out, looking at the investigator.
“Tell them to try.”
She waited for her turn in the darkness. After a while, the courthouse door opened.
Light poured in, and she walked into it.
‘What should I do to stand out among the countless trials?’
‘How do I get people to notice me?’
It was a question that could be answered with just a moment’s thought.
When she looked up, she saw the judge of her case, a tired and grumpy looking old man.
“Do you swear to God that you will only tell the truth in front of this court?”
“I swear.”
“24601, Rosen Haworth. Then tell the truth in front of this court! Guilty as confessed in the first trial…”
Rosen laughed, glared at the judge, and proudly spat on the courtroom floor. A startled exclamation erupted from the audience. She raised the corners of her mouth and laughed as hard as she could.
‘If they want the truth, I won’t tell the truth.’
Words that no one had ever heard before this point.
“I am not a murderer.”
‘If I hadn’t killed Hindley, Hindley would have killed us.’
“I didn’t kill him.”
‘He brought it on himself. I just wanted to save Emily and I, but he was getting in the way.’
“I didn’t lie.”
‘I didn’t cheat. I was sold at a young age. He hit me.’
‘Please save me, please save me… No matter how many times I told him, he didn’t listen.’
‘What did you do while he shaped my thoughts, manipulated me, and trampled me to pieces?’
‘I screamed endlessly for you to save me.’
‘No, actually, you wouldn’t have listened. You don’t think I’m a human being, I’m livestock and a slave. An accessory to Hindley Haworth.’
‘Because I wasn’t the one you guys were protecting.’
Reporters who were dozing off noticed Rosen. She started hearing the sound of cameras clicking from all sides. Their murmurs grew and soon turned into accusations directed at her.
Her plan had worked.
‘They will now chastise me, mock me, hate me.’
‘But you won’t be able to quietly plunge me into a dark prison.’
‘I’ll never let you do that.’
The judge slammed the table with a look of bewilderment.
“Rosen Haworth! You’re about to throw away the last mercy of the Empire! Can you prove it?”
“…My name is Rosen Walker.”
‘I won’t prove anything, I won’t tell you the truth.’
“You swore to tell the truth!”
“I am innocent! That’s the truth!”
Her voice resounded in the courtroom. There was silence for a moment. Only the reporters’ cameras clicked. The audience, the judge, and the jury all stared at her with astonished eyes. It didn’t take long for her sentence to be decided.
“…We will announce the outcome of the trial. We sentence Rosen Haworth to 50 years in prison.”
Rosen burst out laughing. The courtroom was quiet. She didn’t force herself to laugh to get attention. She genuinely found the situation really funny. She laughed like a witch in a fairytale until she ran out of breath.
“Witch!”
“Murderer!”
Rosen didn’t cry.
Because she knew they feared her smile the most.
She was truly happy at that moment.
As she was being dragged out, she screamed.
“I am Rosen Walker! I’m innocent! And this is not the end! I will definitely stand in this court again!”
Rather than remain as Hindley Haworth’s wife and quietly spend 50 years reflecting on her sins… Rosen Walker would be an escaped prisoner.
‘I would rather be shot dead standing still and stiff than bend my head and survive.’
‘Emily, I promised you I would never die. I also promised to see you again. Sorry. I’m really sorry, but I don’t think I can.’
‘Bow down to them? I won’t survive the way I want.’
Then what should she do?
What would become of those years they spent together?
If she accepted it as it was, adapted to it, and reflected on it… If she was lucky, she might be able to safely reunite with Emily after becoming an old grandma.
But Rosen didn’t want to.
She was not guilty. It was like that from the beginning. Hindley Haworth really deserved to die.
‘If I do that, we’ll just be idiots. I won’t let that happen. I’ll never make Emily and me like that.’
“Murderer!”
‘People are right. I’m a killer. The witch of Al Capez, who stabbed Hindley 36 times with a knife and succeeded in escaping two times by repeatedly lying and shamelessly deceiving the Empire.’
‘If that’s the truth, as the world says…’
‘Then I will be a liar to the end. After all, to them, all women are witches, and all witches are liars.’
“I am innocent!”
‘If nothing changes no matter what I say, then I should only say what I want to say.’
‘Even if it’s a lie.’
‘Even if it’s the truth that the world doesn’t want to hear.’