Chapter 25: Retribution.
The Trial of the Vanquished was inevitable.
Not just at this banquet, but at every gathering like it that had come before. This was tradition—older than the reign of the current emperor, older than any one royal line. When a member of the imperial family sought strength outside the imperiality, this was how it was done: a hall, a table, a crowd of the ambitious.
And a fight.
Every Imperial royal like Iris who sought to rise had held a banquet like this. And every banquet had a trial.
But the trial was never as simple as it appeared.
It was a trap. A beautifully constructed snare.
A powerful figure would be planted among the guests. Their role was clear: publicly humiliate an attending kingdom’s royal, undermine their legitimacy. The royal would then be forced to challenge them in turn. If they didn’t, they would be branded a coward. Weak. Unfit for rule. And thrown out by the imperial host.
Sometimes they were even disowned by their families. That stain never washed away.
But if the royal did challenge the figure? Then they walked willingly into the lion’s maw. Because once the Trial of the Vanquished was invoked, the chosen opponent had every legal right to kill the royal. No repercussions.
But Lan... had flipped the script.
Corvin had invoked the trial. Corvin had drawn first. And now, he, too, had everything to lose.
[You have Accepted]