Loss

Lord Xianzhu seemed to look at the people in front of him instead of trusting his subordinate in the heat of the situation. He let his gaze wander not only over Kiyu and Tānlán, but overall the guards and Kiyu's group.

Kiyu had finished her bowing posture after she had finished speaking. Now she was a step further back than before, waiting to see what would happen, while her opponent was behind her right now, gnashing his teeth in anger at what she had brought to light.

She, however, had no intention of backing down with her statement. 'Let him gnash his teeth at himself!' was all she could think, and she stood still, full of determination. She wouldn't be able to do anything against this superior number of opponents, but as long as they wouldn't want to execute her on the spot, Kiyu didn't see the need to do so.

"I'll summarize," Xianzhu opened his speech as he looked down from his horse at those present. "A group of strangers came to town, broke rules, resisted arrest after breaking rules, and committed vandalism, and in one afternoon caused all of this?" he asked, once again letting his gaze wander over the entire marketplace.

"Well... it..." stammered Tānlán, having to choose his words with care.

"Yea? I'm listening, administrator Tānlán?" spoke Xianzhu, fixating on his subordinate.

"Indeed..... The destruction of the marketplace and the breaking of the law happened almost a week ago," the administrator confessed, which just sounded pathetic in Kiyu's eyes.

She turned her head and saw that he seemed even smaller than he already did to her. 'He's cowering!' she stated, noticing how the administrator's hunched his shoulders and he sank deep his head into them.

"They've been hiding well and on the run ever since," he continued. "To be honest, I had assumed they had left town a week ago. I don't know why they just appeared today, the day you arrived. I fear some has hired them to kill you!" he groaned.

"Kill me, hmm..." repeated Xianzhu, looking down at Kiyu. "Do you intend to kill me?"

It was hard to ask more directly than that, but Kiyu tried as best she could to hold back her surprise at that. No bow, no step forward or back. "I've already said all I have to say," she replied.

It was not her intention to insult the man in front of her, or to convince at any cost. And belittling him like sarcastic or snide statements would have improved nothing. No, Kiyu had stuck to the pure, sober truth, the only thing she intended to offer.

"What are you doing Kiyu," she heard Zhèngyi hiss. "I think if we don't present him with something better, he'll kill us right now."

The slight smile that crossed Xianzhu's lips told Kiyu that he had heard Zhèngyi's words. Kiyu could not quite make sense of the leader before her. He looked at her again, checking her reaction to the concerns her comrade had expressed.

"I think I've seen enough." He said after a while of silence. "Captain! Escort the young miss and her group to the prison!" he called out, and Kiyu could already imagine the nasty grin on Tānlán's face.

"City Administrator Tānlán will also spend the night in the dungeon, along with the other defendants," he added, and was just about to get his horse to turn around when

"My lord! You can't do that, can you?" cried Tānlán in despair.

"Oh, I can't?" retorted Xianzhu and with a detachment such as he had never displayed until just now since his appearance. "I must have missed after my awakening that the city is no longer under my control? Tell me, city administrator, who is the new ruler of Jarifa?"

"I… I didn't mean it that way," Tānlán groaned in exasperation. With every sentence he produced, he seemed to twist his own rope.

Kiyu didn't care for this kind of between-the-lines-reading conversations that were all about power and repartee, but that Tānlán was failing at it gave her indescribable pleasure. At least it was a direct confrontation that the arrogant ruler would lose, if she could call him even a ruler anymore.

"My lord Xianzhu, these people are too dangerous to be kept alive any longer," he shouted, pointing at Kiyu. "Especially this woman. We must execute them for what they have done in Jarifa!"

There was silence after Tānlán's renewed and branched attempt to impose the death sentence on Kiyu. None of the guards even made a decency to move. Only Xianzhu dismounted from his horse and moved toward the group.

'What now?', Kiyu wondered. Xianzhu came closer and closer, and no one lost a word. Meanwhile, she had given in to the anxious feeling of her body and widened her eyes. If Xianzhu was going to punish them all now, she wanted to see it and be ready.

Step by step he came closer... and passed Kiyu! A great tension fell away from her and she exhaled in relief.

Xianzhu, however, had drawn his sword and held it to Tānlán's neck. "The verdict, administrator, is still for me to decide!"

Although Xianzhu stood facing away from her, Kiyu could imagine what his face must have looked like toward Tānlán just now. The voice sounded far too serious to be just an empty warning. No, this man had no trouble holding Tānlán accountable here and now, that much was certain.

Besides the loud whimpering of the frightened city administrator, all they could hear was the sword being put back. Passing Kiyu, Xianzhu made a simple hand gesture, signifying to the guards to take the group into custody.

With no reason to act for the time being, Kiyu had taken her first steps forward and was ready to move into the lord's custody.

"Stop!" she heard someone shout, whose voice had not yet fallen. A guard? But why? Her lord's order had been clear, after all.

"No!", only when she heard Laki's desperate call did Kiyu know that something was wrong. Only a moment later, she heard a familiar sound. A sword that pierced the body of a human being! But it was not her body?

She turned around and wrenched her eyes open. "To... Toras?" she cried out in panic when she realized it was Toras who was being pierced by a weapon. The images that flashed through her mind didn't want to penetrate her understanding, but after a few moments, even she understood what had just happened.

The attacker was none other than Tānlán, who had grabbed the sword of a guard and ran towards Kiyu with it. He wanted to kill her, not Toras!

"Why.... Why did you do that?" she mumbled, reaching her hand forward, still unable to comprehend why this had to happen.

"I don't have any strength left because of the fight, but," Toras coughed up some blood and didn't move, "I didn't want to see you die."

"But I could have..." she put in just out of anger and despair when she realized where her opponent aimed the blade at. Had Toras not intervened, the sword would have pierced her heart instead of him. Healing her heart fast enough was impossible!

"I'm sorry," he whispered and slumped. In sight came a disgusting creature she despised more than ever at that moment. All the calm she kept, all the objectivity. Gone! Erased in an instant by the vile acts of a monster!

"TĀNLÁN!" Her hand, which she before held trembling in the air, now clenched into a fist. Kiyu didn't care that blood was dripping from her palm, from cutting into her own flesh with her nails.

She felt an unbearable heat throbbing in every vein of her body. 'You will pay for this!' With each passing moment, the rage rose more and more to her head.

< Kiyu> Cheyru shouted, but Kiyu ignored him. She could have killed Tānlán already in the marketplace, but that was what she had now! She was to blame for Toras' death!

Without thinking, she lashed out and aimed at the small, tearful man, who was trembling and crying for his life under the anger and sadness written all over Kiyu's face. This face she would etch in her mind forever. This was how it would turn out when someone made her angry.

Just as her fist was hurtling toward the monster, Tānlán's eyes snapped open and he spat blood.

"Wh.... what?" he stuttered, looking down at his body. But it wasn't Kiyu who had beaten her opponent up like that. Someone else had beaten her to it, and she noticed the same blade that had struck down Toras before her eyes.

This time, however, it was Zhèngyi who wielded the blade with teary eyes. "YOU BASTARD!" he cried out before falling to his knees and slapping his hands in front of his face.