Cédric

Cédric was twenty-four years old and the apprentice to the most respected executioner in the kingdom. No one chose that profession. It was inherited. From childhood, he learned that an executioner did not decide who lived or who died. His only duty was to carry out the sentence decreed by the crown. Without asking questions. Without showing compassion. For years he believed the kingdom's justice was perfect. Until he received his first execution. The condemned woman was a young noble accused of murdering the crown prince during a ball held months earlier. The entire kingdom demanded her death. The newspapers of the time called her the Scarlet Traitor, and the king had promised she would be executed publicly to prove that no one was above the law. The night before the execution, the old executioner suddenly fell ill. It would be Cédric who would raise the axe at dawn. Before leaving, his master handed him a small wooden box that had remained sealed for over thirty years. —Only open it if you begin to doubt the sentence. Those words haunted him all night. Finally, he broke the seal. Inside, he found only an ancient medallion of the royal family... and a letter written by the crown prince himself. The date was after the day on which he had officially been murdered. Cédric felt the world stop. If that letter was authentic... The prince was still alive. And the woman he was about to execute at dawn was completely innocent.

Updated September 23, 2026