The Rival Who Killed Me Remembers Too novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Compassionate Hand
Nobody stepped out.
The Hall of Nine Seals waited for her champion, and the champion did not come.
Not one man in grey moved from his pillar.
They looked at their boots.
Ok Hwa-rim waited, smiling, with her hands folded in her sleeves.
Then she unclasped her pale grey robe at the throat and let it drop.
Under it she wore plain black, close-sleeved.
"They call me the Compassionate Hand," she said to the hall. "Has none of you wondered why?"
She slid the jade bracelet down to her knuckles.
It was not a bracelet.
It was a ring of twelve small green needles, laced onto a cord, glinting in the lamplight, and every one of them was wet with poison.
"I do not send other people to do my work, my dear," she said to Woo-jin, kindly. "Only the dirty parts."
The Chief gripped the arms of his seat.
"The challenge is made," he said, in a heavy voice. "The Hall will witness it."
"Unchain the Heretic Blade."
"Chief..." an elder began.
"He is the accused's second."
"The rite requires the second to stand at the edge." His eyes were hard. "He will stand. He will not interfere."
They struck the iron off Mu-yeol's wrists.
He rose slowly, the beads clicking, and walked to the edge of the stone floor.
He stopped there, fifteen paces from Woo-jin, with his arms at his sides.
He did not look at the woman in black.
He looked at Woo-jin.
Woo-jin's master pushed through the crowd at the pillars.
He had Cold Crane in his two hands, scabbard and all.
He held it out to Woo-jin, and he did not say a word.
His mouth was a thin line in his grey face, and his eyes were wet.
"Master," Woo-jin said.
"Win."
Woo-jin took the sword.
It sat in his hand like an old friend.
He drew, and the thin blade rang, and the hall drew a breath.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Rival Who Killed Me Remembers Too are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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