Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 55 of 74

As the runner climbed back up with his fresh scroll, Kawaii Princess saw she had only stopped one mouth. Other scouts watched from the field edges, and any of them could carry her rival's coin. She had to find them before they moved. She walked the boundary of her stage and counted the posts. One weathered post stood crooked, hung with frost-covered red flags and carved with her rival's mark. Three scouts loitered within its shadow. Beneath it, half buried in snow, sat a frozen pouch with mixed faction coins suspended in the ice. Proof, sealed and visible. Kawaii Princess lifted the frozen pouch high and called the head scout over on air. She pointed to the coins inside, then to the marker post, then to the three watchers under it. One scout bolted. As he ran, a carved bone token swung from his neck, an ice crystal etched on its back. She caught his sleeve and held the token up to the camera. The head scout read the marker, weighed the pouch, and stripped the three scouts of their badges on the spot. The bribed ranks were named and gone. But the empty posts meant new runners would arrive by morning, and Kawaii Princess did not know whose pockets they had already filled.