In other words, she didn’t need a criminal for a relative. The audience raised their eyebrows and said nothing to her halting but otherwise inoffensive response.
“Bring Shu Keigetsu here,” Gyoumei commanded, raising a hand. That was the signal to open the other gate.
Shin-u had been prepared for the girl to show up kicking and screaming, but when he turned around, he had to arch an eyebrow in disbelief. Shu Keigetsu had come quietly. It would have been no surprise for a sheltered lady like herself to have gone mad the moment she was thrown into the dungeon, yet she walked straight ahead, a light in her eyes and her gaze unfaltering. Perhaps owing to her graceful gait, that ostentatious vermillion robe of hers looked almost a little sophisticated.
“Here I am.”
The way she came before the cage and bowed to the dignitaries was no less novel. The audience blinked in bewilderment. Even the villainess of the Maiden Court would turn docile on the chopping block, it seemed.
“O wicked Shu Keigetsu. You pushed my butterfly—Kou Reirin, a soul as pure as a celestial maiden—from the Seventh Pagoda. Although no one witnessed the moment you shoved her, your own shout, Reirin’s testimony, and both the lead-up and aftermath are evidence enough of your intent to kill. Do you plead guilty to your crimes?” Gyoumei asked, a chill in his voice.
“No,” she responded without hesitation, bowing to the prince. But then, for reasons unclear to anyone else, she frowned and added in a mumble, “That is to say, several parts of your account aren’t quite correct…including the words you used to describe me…”
“What? Not only do you deny your wrongdoing, but you profess yourself righteous?” Displeased with her answer, Gyoumei’s scowl grew even darker.
Flustered, Shu Keigetsu lifted her head and gave an even more incomprehensible reply. “Oh, no, that’s not what I meant! Though I suppose it would sound that way…”
Evidently at a loss for words, she opened and closed her mouth a few times with a look of frustration. The crowd had come so close to seeing her in a new light, but now their gazes turned cold as they thought, Oh, she hasn’t changed.
“No matter,” said Gyoumei with a disappointed sigh and shake of his head. “The truth will come out in the Lion’s Judgment. If you are genuinely innocent, the beast will refuse to devour you. Or, if you’d prefer, Reirin has kindly requested that I allow you the sword of the Eagle Eyes’ captain. If you get down on your knees and apologize, I shall permit you to take a blade through the heart in place of the trial.”
“Erm, both of those options seem rather extreme…”
Distress written across her face, Shu Keigetsu forewent proper etiquette and threw herself toward Gyoumei.
“I beseech you; hear me out, if only a little. If you are truly the one praised as our benevolent ruler, my kindhearted cousin—”
“Silence,” the prince interjected, his expression filled with rage. His voice trembled, all his characteristic poise abandoned. “There’s only one person in all of creation allowed to call me that, and that’s Reirin. I was told you stole her diary. Did you think you could win my favor by mimicking my darling cousin, you conniving she-devil?!”
“Yes, sir! I’m a she-devil!”
So fierce was his tirade that Shu Keigetsu automatically nodded in agreement.
Still unable to contain his rage, Gyoumei gave Shin-u the signal. “Put her in the cage.”
The Lion’s Judgment had begun. Shin-u shoved the Maiden into the pen from behind. It appeared she was too terrified to resist.
“Oh no… I can’t believe I made the same mistake twice in such a short amount of time. Their affection is just a little too overbearing…”
No, it wasn’t fear. Pressing her hands to her forehead, she was merely reflecting on her blunder.
Having noticed the presence of an intruder, the lion growled and began its slow advance. When the girl continued to frown and mumble to herself in spite of the approaching beast, Shin-u was bemused enough to call out to her through the bars of the cage. “Hey. The Lion’s Judgment is underway.”
“Hm? Yes, so it would seem.”
Though she lifted her head, her response was nonchalant as could be. Shin-u stared at her, wondering if she had finally lost her mind, but her eyes were perfectly focused. Yet still she let the predicament pass over her like a gentle spring breeze.
He had to ask one more time. “Do you understand your situation? You’re locked in a cage with a starving beast.”
“Yes… If it tears into me with those fangs, I suppose I’ll die.”
“You suppose? That’s it?”
Was that all she had to say about it? Not that he’d been hoping for a better reaction, but it was unsettling to see her so calm.
What’s going on? Was she always like this?
Even a master of the sword would be hard-pressed to keep his cool with such a savage beast closing in on him. Much like how a warlord who had survived countless brushes with death might calmly overlook the battlefield, or perhaps how a sage who had trekked through countless hells might attain a state of enlightenment, the woman before him did nothing but stand there, unfaltering.
“Does the thought of death not frighten you?”
“I’m used to it.”
“What?”
He shot her another glance, curious how a Maiden sheltered deep within the court could say something like that. The look in her eyes grew a little distant as she matter-of-factly replied, “Until the moment one dies, one is still alive. Likewise, until the moment I’m devoured, it has yet to happen. To start feeling the pain before I’ve even been bitten would be nothing but a waste of strength.”