Page 10 of Downfall of a Princess

People of the world behind the mirror wavered under pressure of fear or shame. If felt strongly, those emotions would make their bodies reflect their surroundings, making them look nearly invisible, as if they subconsciously tried to escape the scary or shameful situation they were going through.

I squinted through my glasses. The royal jeweler, working with my mother’s personal healing witch, had created special crystal lenses for me set in a gorgeous frame of golden filigree and tiny gems. With the glasses on, my vision was perfect, but I couldn’t see anything changing about the punished man’s body. It remained large and solid. With not a single ripple ofreflectionon his skin or clothes.

That meant he wasn’t scared or ashamed while being punished. Did he even care? Or could it be that he was innocent?

The last idea stuck in my throat at an uncomfortable angle. If an innocent man was being whipped, then our laws had failed him.

We’d circled the crowd around the platform on our way to pass it. The man’s face now came into my view. His tangled, russet hair fell over his eyes. A full beard of the same color covered the lower part of his face.

“Ari,” Gem hissed beside me. “Let’s go.”

“Wait.” I stirred my horse closer to a couple standing by. “Greetings, good people.”

The woman turned to me, then bowed. “Greetings, Your Highness.”

The man glanced up at me, then dropped his gaze. It was considered impolite for a man to stare at a woman he wasn’t married to. He bowed silently, letting his female companion speak.

“Do you know what that man is being whipped for?” I asked. “What’s his crime?”

“They say he started a fight.” The woman pointed at the city official who stood by the platform holding the scroll with the verdict. “Some slaves quarreled while fixing the road to the palace. He then beat them up or something.”

“Slaves? Is he a slave too?” I turned to the man on the platform.

My breath hitched as my gaze crossed with his. His brown eyes watched me from under his sweat-soaked tresses. He wouldn’t look away, holding eye contact firmly even as his body convulsed from yet another hit of the whip. I found no fear or remorse in his expression, no emotions at all, just resignation. He’d accepted his punishment, even though this whole situation didn’t sit well with me.

“He’s one of the slaves who’ve been working on the palace grounds this spring,” the woman explained.

Gem moved her horse closer to mine.

“You can’t intervene, Ari,” she warned quietly. “Not without undermining the law. The verdict had been delivered by the judge appointed by the queen.”

Curiosity flashed in the stranger’s eyes, like a spark of light breaking through the fog of apathy. Once he realized who I was, I expected a plea for help, but he didn’t ask me to intervene. He probably just wondered what I was doing here.

“Is he guilty?” I asked, finding it impossible to simply move away.

Gem shrugged. “He must be. No one gets punished in Egami City unless proven guilty.”

So much was true. Crime didn’t happen often. When it did, it was thoroughly investigated, and every accused got a fair trial. I might not like what I was witnessing, but that gave me no reason to challenge the system. The law that leveled the punishment on this man was the same law I swore to uphold. As the crown princess, I represented the law of the crown.

I couldn’t possibly stop this now...

But the look in the slave’s eyes haunted me. I recognized that blank expression, and now I knew why he wasn’t afraid of the whip. He’d reached that place where his body separated from his heart and his mind. As the whip tore into his flesh, his mind had already grown numb. He felt no pain, no fear, and no shame. Just resignation.

I knew it because I’d been close to that state too before, in the world I didn’t wish to remember but could never forget.

The executioner’s helper raised the whip once again, and I could no longer stand back.

I didn’t remember how exactly I got off the horse or how I got on the platform, but the raised whip never came down again. The helper’s arm jerked and dropped to his side, as I stood in front of him between the whip and the slave.

“Your Highness?” the helper muttered, blinking at me in shock. “I’m so sorry, I almost hit you...” His skin turned ashen from the horror of that realization, then a ripple of green from the grass and brown from the weathered wood of the platformreflectedthrough his entire body.

“Princess Aniri, greetings.” The executioner stepped in, followed by the city official with her scroll. “I beg your pardon, but the verdict hasn’t been fully executed yet.”

They all stared at me now. The people around the platform moved closer too. Gem jumped off her horse and stepped toward the platform, chewing on her bottom lip. Her inner battle was obvious to me. As my older cousin, she often bossed me around in private. In public, however, she didn’t dare reprimand the princess, holding back to see how much of a scene I would cause before she had no choice but to intervene.

“Is there a problem, Your Highness?” The official twisted the scroll in her fingers, looking ill at ease.

The punished slave stared over his shoulder with undisguised interest now, waiting for what I’d do next. But I had no plan. I’d interrupted an execution of the law for no good reason and with no excuse whatsoever. The best thing to do would be to apologize and leave, but I knew it would haunt me if I did so.

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