This Time, I Stood Up in the Selection Hall novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Final Selection

There was no time to change.

The noon bell was ringing over the palace roofs when they came through the outer gate.

Mujin had the clerk by the collar.

Soyul was in Dalrae's grey-blue jacket, with the clerk's blood dried brown down the front of it.

The guards at the Hall of Spring Light saw Mujin and froze.

Half of them had stood in his muster lines.

"Captain," one of them said, and opened the doors.

The hall was full.

Every minister in Garam stood along the walls in his official robe.

The Queen Dowager sat behind her screen on the dais.

The king sat in front of it, very straight, his face white.

Two finalists knelt on silk cushions before them.

Yeonseo in yellow and crimson, her purple ribbon back in her braid.

The youngest, beside her, clutching her skirt.

The third cushion was empty.

Soyul's father stood near the door between two guards, his grey topknot crooked, his face like thunder.

Councillor Jo stood in the middle of the hall with his fan.

"...fled in the night with a disgraced guard," he was saying, in his soft voice.

"Her maid in her bed to hide it. I ask that the Baek girl's name be struck, Sister, and her father's house..."

"I'm here, my lord," Soyul said.

Every head turned.

She walked down the middle of the Hall of Spring Light in a maid's bloody jacket.

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