"I can't look."
Someone in the crowd turned away, squeezing their eyes shut, unable to bear the heart-wrenching spectacle the governor was forcing everyone to witness. Others wept openly, not only because of what unfolded before them, but because they knew, deep in their bones, that this was also the fate awaiting them someday.
The suffering that Old Lady Himari and her grandson, Hajime, endured under the public eye was not unique.
It was merely one tragedy among countless others buried within this territory.
This was not an isolated case, but a story each and every one of them carried. And tonight, the governor made it painfully clear just how powerless a person could be—how he, the governor, could toy with people's lives simply because he could.
Because he could get away with it. Because he was the law.
His entertainment was the life of each and every one of them. And while he reveled in it, everyone else could only endure the sickening twist in their stomachs.
