As chaos started to settle down in the city and smoke in the air cleared, Sigrid led a procession of volunteers to clean up the streets and clear up the places that had been used as a battlefield.
Soldiers, carried away bodies to morgues, teams of citizens worked tirelessly to remove the charred remnants of wooden stalls. They sifted through the debris to save the humans and animals that were trapped.
Sigrid and the Thorin’s led by example, having porridge and bread stands set up in different places to feed those that were temporarily displaced. When lunch time came, they served food and water.
She personally joined in all the activities, her hands became as calloused and dirty as this of the people, her back ached and her feet were on fire but her hopeful smile did not dwindle.
When Cosmos finally found her in the evening, she was sitting inside a private tent getting her legs massaged by two maids. It was the same tent where all the food supplies were being kept.
"My God, how do you look worse than I do!" Cosmos exclaimed when he got a look at her.
Sigrid’s once pristine features were now smudged with dirt and sweat which told the tale of a long, arduous day spent toiling alongside the commoners.
Her emerald eyes were rimmed with dark circles, evidence of a sleepless night. Strands of her hair had escaped through the confines of her once neat bun and they clung to her forehead that was slightly dump with perspiration.
She smiled, her lips slightly chapped and pale curved upwards tiredly. "It was worth it."
"The pictures or the reputation of a saint?" Cosmos asked.
He knew better than to assume that a villain like her had worked herself to the bone out of the goodness of her heart. She was not all bad he knew, she had provided all the supplies for free out of a desire to help but everything else that followed was unnecessary.
"All of it," she answered. "If you have been with my husband this entire time then I assume that you have come from the royal castle. Should I prepare my black dress?"
The maids were one hundred percent loyal so even if they heard anything, they would not repeat it. Still, Sigrid did not think that revealing everything to everyone was a good idea.
"Leave us." she ordered them.
They did as ordered and the two remained alone in the tent. Cosmos sat down on one of the wooden chairs and threw the sword down. He unscrewed his flask and took a sip of wine first.
"I haven’t had a drink all day." he groaned. "I feel as bad as you look."
"Will you stop commenting on my looks?" She rolled her eyes.
"The bank sells beauty pills and masks you know." he casually mentioned.
She thought about the prices and winced. "I am not spending one hundred seventy thousand dollars on a beauty mask. It took a lot of effort for me to look like this, I must keep looking haggard until after the funeral. Again, should I prepare my black dress?"
"Yes." he replied in a tired voice. "I did not expect you to kill her so suddenly, I thought you wanted to put her together with Emmah and then get rid of them together. You told me to grab Bane Silberuss but didn’t let me in on your plan to off a royal consort!"
She sighed tiredly, "Grabbing Bane Silberuss was not something I asked you to do with a plan in mind. Initially I was going to use him to frame Emmah somehow but I realized that it would not work.
She is locked up tight in the prime minister’s manor now. When I saw the smoke and fires I changed the plan and decided to use Bane a different way, frame him for Rina’s death instead."
"Why kill her?" Cosmos asked.
Sigrid yawned first, a large part of her longed for three things, a bath, a massage and a hot meal. But that would have to wait for a while.
"I realized that I have many enemies and I have to clear up the board quickly so that the playing field is left with only two players; me and Emmah. I am just one person, I cannot fight Emmah, Rina, the Ye’s, the Windrider’s, Thalassa, Romilda and all the other schemers on my own.
Even if I involve my family and Roland, they cannot do it like me so I figured that I should just get rid of an enemy as the opportunity had presented itself. If there is chaos again, I will get rid of another and another until none are left as long as I deem them useless to me."
Cosmos nodded, he could see the logic in her words, Rina was useless to Sigrid. She was just a character that supported Emmah financially and built up the third prince.
Since Sigrid had already planned to replace the old Rina with a new one that she controlled, Rina’s demise had been unavoidable. They just hadn’t decided on a time of death yet.
"Initially I could not kill her without people suspecting me or the queen but with the rebels actions, no one will ever know it was me.
The people that served her, I gave them a pill that tampered with their memories. As far as each of them is concerned, they are the ones that killed her, not the strange knight who showed up out of nowhere."
"Nice." Cosmos gave her a thumbs up. "I was surprised that you did not kill them after all, by being alive they are a liability to you. As expected of my villainous schemer you were ten steps ahead.
She shrugged, the praise was not necessary. "I was at the lake house contemplating things and I realized that if I want to live, I must kill my enemies quickly not wait around until the last minute like I had done in my last life. I am sure that you know how that story ended, with me here on a new world.
Now, if I had just killed the Latham’s or turned them in to the police and become a state’s witness I could have lived a good long life."
Many times, she had thought about what her life would have been like if she had just done that.
"It’s useless having regrets, ponder more on the future and how to deal with the fact that Emmah is now outside. She has decided that it is safe enough to step out and hand out cakes.
Like a newly spawned noble lady, she has four maids and about ten guards escorting her."
Sigrid tried to get up and she laid back down, the exhaustion would not let her.
"She is handing out cakes, someone is bound to have an allergy which will be mistaken for poison. Help me take care of that, I am too tired to involve myself in this petty popularity contest." She yawned and closed her eyes.