A plain, undecorated clay bowl held the steaming cup of venom, fitting for the criminals' last drink on Earth. It swirled with gleaming eagerness, seeming to twist and churn like great waves over a stormy green sea. It was placed before Mirin first, and she stared down at the poison with wide eyes. Her entire life seemed to pass through and collect in the bowl of her fatal deeds, and she couldn't help but imagine all her work and efforts to step on others being shoved down her throat in the form of nearly boiling, imminent death.

Rinji took the floor for the last time, seemingly hovering over the carpeted ground as if she were a ghost. All emotion seemed to have left her face, and had she not been dressed in the beautifully colored garb of the heiress of a kingdom, Mirin would've taken her for a ghost. Approaching the woman, she looked over at Namjoon, awaiting some sort of signal in a sullen manner.

Namjoon didn't even lift his arm from the throne's armrest, only outstretching his fingers and opening the palm of his softly calloused hand.

With that, Rinji raised her arm towards her aunt, smiling emotionlessly as she brought it down once more with heavy force over Mirin's right cheek.

The woman gasped, made to turn to her left by the impact of Rinji's blow. She turned slowly, looking up at the empty countenance of her niece with tears in her eyes.

"H-How dare you"--

"Shut up"--

Rinji lashed at her again, this time slapping her with more momentum and force than the last.

"--you haggard, old witch. That was for Hancheol," Rinji breathed, speaking through clenched teeth and hardened chest.

"This is for Uncle Yoongi"--

slap

--"and Uncle Hoseok"--

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--"and Chindeok"--

slap

--"and Sooyoung"--

slap

--"and my mother"--

slap

--"and my father" --

slap

--"and His Divine Grace"--

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--"and His Majesty"--

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--"and for me!"

Rinji pulled herself away before she could spill the drink on the floor, almost stomping away from Mirin and towards the stairs ascending to the two thrones. She had worn a long, silver pendant that hung around her neck and reached down to her hips to the trial that evening without intent to use it, but reasoning seemed absent to her in that moment, and it was the closest thing in reach that wouldn't immediately kill the murderess behind her.

Taking the necklace off her shoulders, she harnessed the chain in her hands and brandished its potential energy, whipping around to thrash the woman with it.

She gave the necklace to Sooyoung, placing the pendant in her hands without any regard for Mirin's whimpering or pain.

"Please have that cleaned for me, Sooyoung. I'd hate to wear it again while her rancid fumes are on it."

Sooyoung bowed, kneeling with the item as Rinji made her way back to the steps. She bowed before the royals, then briskly walked up to her silent yet approving parents.

"The time has come to execute justice!" Seokjin said, waving his sleeve over his intricately embellished robes. "Say your last and drink the poison!"

The crowd gave deathly quiet, but encouraging glares of support for the king's words. 

"H-How...?" Mirin asked, looking up at Rinji. "How did you beat me? You're but a child..."

Rinji gave her aunt a sweet, innocent smile, reeking of underlying mischief and reveling in her victory. Underneath her somber happiness was relief and a hint of joy that all her hard work wasn't at all in vain.

"No, Aunt Mirin. I am Princess Rinji of Kim Dynasty. I am Rinji the Clever, Rinji the Chosen and Rinji the Kind. I am the upholder of my guardian angel, the Rinji who lived before me. I am wiser and more just than you. I just happen to have less years than you."

"When Hae Mirin falls," Namjoon said, capturing everyone's undivided attention, "Mo Jihan, Lihwa and former lady Daehee will drink from the same bowl."

This only fueled the crowd's thirst for death, making them all the more restless. When Mirin couldn't bring herself to move, the people around her began to sigh and clear their throats rather loudly and with exasperation. They tried to keep their sentiments unspoken, but a large portion of the audience had their patience spread thin as time passed slowly in the palace hall.

"Will you not drink the poison?" Namjoon snarled, now creasing his brow in frustration. "You have no other choice. I refuse to pardon you, and your only option is death."

Mirin stayed silent, shaking her head and bowing over the bowl of lethal green. Her body trepidated with fear of what lay before her, unable to accept her fate.

"Even so, I dare not slay you by the blade. General Park! Lieutenant Jeon!"

Jimin and Jungkook stepped up behind Mirin, freeing their hands of their swords.

"This is your final chance to drink the poison. Otherwise, you will be executed in a less fortunate manner."

Mirin made one step with her knee towards the bowl, attempting to knock it over.

"Drown her!" Namjoon bellowed, standing up from his throne.

With that, Jungkook moved swiftly to face Jimin. He moved the bowl out the way, placing it behind him as Hoseok scurried to the floor with another larger bowl and a kettle full of the toxic drink. The doctor emptied the kettle into the bowl, almost filling it to the brim -- and before Mirin could realize what was happening, Jimin had already forced her head down into the bowl, where she was met with heat and the inability to breathe.

Jungkook kept both hands on her head, keeping her down in the nearly scalding liquid. The rest of her body clearly struggled, writhing around in whatever manner it could. Her efforts were in vain, however; her only choices were to drown in her poison, or take a gulp of the drink -- both leading to certain death.

The heat of the fluid made Mirin decide quickly on the latter.

She opened her mouth and drank it without hesitation, waiting for death to ultimately claim her. Her stomach began to churn with pain, contracting in ways she had never felt before in her lifetime. It felt as if her stomach had been cut open and set on a grill to fry over a blazing flame. The venom worked quickly, however; in little time, she found herself regurgitating the chemical mixed in with a mass of blood.

In little time, her soul betrayed her body and the world went black.

"She is dead, Your Grace," Jungkook said, lifting his hands from her head. "She drank the poison."

Jimin hoisted the lifeless woman out of the bowl, scowling at the red pool in the bowl before her. Three guards walked out of their line on the palace walls to assist in carrying the body away from the palace floor and out of their sight.

Jungkook picked up the small bowl that still held clean poison in it.

"Lihwa and Daehee," Seokjin called, prompting the General and the Lieutenant to push them forward. "Her Highness Princess Kim saved you from the death penalty once. But it seems you were not fit for her mercy."

Lihwa had the small bowl of clear liquid brought to her lips. Not wanting to leave the world in the same way Mirin had to, she accepted her fate, taking one sip from the bowl. When Daehee was offered the poison, she drank as well, ready as she ever would be to meet her maker.

They both collapsed on the floor, vomiting their blood before the poison ripped the rhythm from their hearts.

"Mo Jihan," Namjoon said, calling him to sit before them.

"D-Daughter," he said, looking up at Chindeok. "Why don't you cry for me?"

"You?" Chindeok asked, furrowing her brow. "Who are you? I have no father. I've been an orphan since Hancheol died."

Jihan's eyes grew to the size of acorns, almost unable to accept that his own flesh and blood had disowned him so quickly. As he was presented with the remaining liquid in the bowl, he slowly looked away from her, shaking his head in sadness.

He drank the rest of the fluid, closing his eyes as blood oozed from his mouth and he fell to the ground.