The Bride Who Read the Contract novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Who Will Give It Up
Nobody on the dais answered him.
The stout man at the end looked down at his own hands in his lap.
The head beside him, a thin man in green, cleared his throat and didn't speak.
Fumika watched them work it out. Every one of them.
A child's fever. A wife's lungs. A grandson thrown from a horse.
The old woman in the middle was the only one still looking at Genzo.
"You've known," she said. "All of it. All along."
"Every head priest of Hinase has known, Grandmother. It's in the rite book. It's the first page."
Genzo bowed slightly. "I didn't make the bargain. I only kept it."
"Genzo."
"As you've all kept it, every time you climbed my steps with your purses."
"We didn't know the price."
"You never asked." He smiled. "Nobody ever asks."
The stout man lifted his head.
"If we end it," he said slowly, "what happens next winter? When the fever comes to the low town?"
"People die," Genzo said. "As they do everywhere else."
The hall murmured.
Fumika could feel it turning. Not toward him. Toward the fear.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Bride Who Read the Contract are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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