The Rival Who Killed Me Remembers Too novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Stripped

The Iron Crane courtyard held all nine sects in the pale dawn, in rows, in their colors, and none of them spoke.

The Chief stood on the top step with a small grey lacquered token in his hand.

It was shaped like a leaf.

Woo-jin stood at the foot of the steps with Mu-yeol beside him and Cold Crane back at his hip.

Yoo-chan and the nineteen stood behind them in a clump, in red.

Jun-seo was at Woo-jin's other elbow, eating something.

Two guards brought Ok Hwa-rim out.

She walked between them in plain grey, with her silver bun neat and her wrist bound in white.

She wore no bracelet.

She looked small, and she looked very much like somebody's aunt.

"Ok Hwa-rim," the Chief said, and his voice rolled across the courtyard. "I have known you for thirty years."

"You have," she said gently.

"I drank your tea every winter. I wept at your sister's funeral."

"I let you put your hand on every decision in this Alliance, because I thought you were kind."

"I am kind, Chief."

"You hired twenty killers to murder nineteen sick people on a river road, to steal a scripture and start a war."

"I have a great deal of love for the Alliance..."

"You have a great deal of love for yourself."

A murmur went through the rows, low and dreadful.

The Chief held up the leaf.

"By the nine seals," he said. "I take from you the name Deputy Chief, and the token, and every seat and pass you hold."

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