“In some countries, public executions were even treated as a form of entertainment, as a reprieve from the harsh toll of endless work. It worked in a perverse way, as the sight of the criminals being executed gave a reprieve to the spectators, who got to witness others who were even worse off than they were.

Needless to say, such cases were mostly found in nations where the living conditions of the average person was so poor that such gruesome entertainment helped take their minds off their own troubles, if only for a moment.

From history, most nations that employed this method to calm down their populace were ones where the flames of revolt and change were nearly at the boiling point to begin with, and the practices - along with the ruling dynasty, if not the nations themselves - rarely lasted for long.” - From a paper by Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology student at the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, Circa 689 FP.

“The lady Iselina Eilazen of Eganiz had been deemed guilty of lighter crimes, and thus granted the mercy of a swift death,” declared Graf Angus Harscape solemnly to the people, with Lars translating his words after every sentence. “Should she be guilty of other things from her former hometown of Eganiz, that is beyond our jurisdiction and shall not be pursued.”

“For the rest of the Brequod household, the Knallzog court of laws had found no reason deemed suitable to lessen their punishment, and thus they are sentenced to the vilest of deaths,” added the old dwarf to the crowd’s roaring cheers. Some of them had looked oddly unsatisfied with the quick death granted to the lady Iselina. “They are to have their bellies opened, and hoisted high above the ground, for the vultures to feed on,” he announced once the cheers subsided, which just caused them to erupt into greater heights once more.

Two burly dwarves had tied the three nobles to a large cross made of wood, each of their limbs tied to one end of the cross. As Elfriede approached the first one, the Countess, they swiftly disrobed the noblewoman, leaving her naked from the waist up, bound and gagged to the cross.

Despite the woman’s panicked mumbles and headshakes, Elfriede approached undeterred, and accepted a curved, serrated knife from one of the dwarves, who then bowed and made his way to the side.

Without mercy, she plunged the blade deep into the side of the woman’s body, right around the middle of it, then dragged the blade to the other side as she opened up a large, bleeding gash on the woman’s abdomen. Elfriede repeated the process, but made a vertical gash that crossed the first one she made instead even as the woman convulsed in pain and soiled herself in her agony.

The two dwarves quickly set the cross horizontally on the stage as they expertly pulled out and spread out the contents of the woman’s abdominal cavity, with some sections nailed to the cross as well, then set the cross atop a long pole for just such an occasion and erected the whole construction high in the air, where the stench from the Countess’ opened belly had already began to attract some carrion birds.

While the dwarves busied themselves with the Countess, Elfriede repeated the process with the young count, who to his credit, managed to bear the pain with somewhat more dignity. At least he had not soiled himself from her “tender” ministrations.

The dwarves were beside her and helped deal with the rest as well, as they splayed out the young Count’s various organs and hoisted him up in the air beside his mother, who already attracted a murder of crows by then.

Caws and other bird noises covered up the Countess’ mumbled screams as the crows feasted on her opened flesh and organs like it was a buffet set out for them. Below, many of the crowds had raised up another cheer at the sight.

The Brequod family had not been loved at all by most of the city, as they had ruled with a heavy hand and never cared for the suffering of the poor. To say that many in the city celebrated their horrible demise was simply an understatement.

When it came to the Count’s turn, Elfriede repeated the same incisions, but stayed where she was. When the dwarves had set the cross horizontally and was about to begin pulling out the Count’s organs, she bid them to wait a moment, as she wanted to do some of it herself.

With her bare hands, Elfriede mucked around the opened belly of the man, uncaring for the filth or the stench, until she finally found what she looked for. With a yank, her hands pulled out a length of the man’s slimy, gray intestines, large ones which still leaked half-digested excrement from the severed end.

She gestured for one of the dwarves to help her remove the Count’s gag, which the dwarf did although he raised a questioning eyebrow at her request. The Count screamed in terrible agony the moment they removed his gag.

None of them were worried the man would attempt to commit suicide by biting and swallowing his tongue, as Elriede had delivered him to the dwarves with mangled limbs and missing all his teeth back then.

“You know, dad, you always seemed to have all sorts of shit to say to people all your life, both to the ones here, and others like my mother,” commented Elfriede coldly as she peered close to the Count’s - her father’s - face. “I think it’s about fucking time you learn how that shit tastes for yourself.”

As she said that she pinched the Count’s nose with one hand, which forced him to open his mouth as he gasped for breath, then shoved in the cut end of the intestines she held in her other hand, excrement and all, straight into his throat.

Only then had she turned away and allowed the two dwarves to do the rest of their work and hoist the count up next to his wife and son, to be feasted upon by crows and other birds that had begun to flock to the meal provided for them.

Nobody dared to say a word to her as she passed, be it the dwarves or the surprised spectators.