Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 74 of 74

By midmorning, Kawaii Princess saw her rival's runner climbing the steps of the judgment tower. In his gloved hands was a broken pendant, its shattered crystal wrapped in frost. He hung it on the chains of the rulings board at the tower's base. The placard beneath named her pillar a copy and demanded her score be wiped by bell's end. Kawaii Princess read the charge once and turned away. She would not argue inside the tower. She walked to the quarry edge and chose a flat stone the height of her shoulder. With a chisel borrowed from a follower, she carved her answer into the face — short lines, plain words, the dates her hearts were first cut and the names of the girls who cut them. She carried the stone to the rulings board and set it upright in the snow, where every passerby would see it before they saw the pendant. Her followers gathered behind her, each pressing a gloved hand to the carved face to brush off frost. The head scout came down the tower steps and read both displays in turn. He lifted the broken pendant from the chains and laid it on the board, struck through. He raised the crown token toward her stone. The complaint was dead. But as he climbed back up the tower, Kawaii Princess saw a second runner already waiting at the top with a fresh scroll — the rival had filed again before the ink on this ruling could dry.