punishment

[Same-day~judgement mud court]

"Let go of me!"

"Let go of me!"

Tari struggled as she was dragged by two men into the mud court house. Antonia walked with her arms folded, a smile on her face behind, watching as Tari was forced into the mud court house.

Tari was let loose, and fell on the cold floor with a heavy tug. Her ankles cracked in the process and pain shot through her system, crunching in her nose while biting her lips to suppress the pain.

She closed her eyes and took deep breaths to calm down. Her eyes flew open again, ready to rant and throw threats but the mass she saw left her speechless for milliseconds.

Over a hundred people were present watching, her crushed in front of them.

Unlike the traditional mud house she woke up in. This mud court house only looked traditional from the outside; the inside was entirely different from what it portrays from the outside.

Cold white tiled floors, walls were painted entirely white with tall pillars that had branches like seats the people sat on, watching her.

There wasn't any roofing at all; a small pool more like a big bathtub was by the corner.

In fact, to summarize, the entire place looked like that of those secret agent movies, where the outside and inside are different.

Tari looked up and her eyes met his. Barasa, sitting on a throne like a fucking king. A throne far higher than those of the other men and women sitting beside him.

The place where his throne-like chair was positioned was higher than the rest, and she was almost kneeling facing him.

Her teeth clenched and she bit the inside of her mouth so hard that she tasted blood.

She was so battered and soaking wet, a hundred percent sure that the soaked singlet had stayed glued to her body and her rock hard nipples would be poking through them.

In fact, half of her body was visible to their eyes.

Tari's eyes darted across the mud court house. The first person her eyes landed on was Antonia, the daring bitch who had dumped a freezing bucket of what on her.

In Tari's head, she was thinking of a thousand ways to pay that bitch back. In fact, she had added her to her list of people she wanted to murder at the moment, and she was topping it.

Her eyes met Ebiere's pitiful ones. Tari glared hard at her before turning to face Barasa and whatever people were sitting around him.

"Can somebody tell me, what the fuck am I doing here?!" Tari demanded, earning a loud gasp from the crowd.

"Abomination," one of the Chiefs sitting at Barasa's side stated.

"Such audacity," another one condemned.

"She is just like I reported, chiefs," Antonia stood behind Tari.

"Ungrateful and mannerless," Antonia added.

Tari shot her a glare at once. "You are the stupid bitch who dumped cold water on me. You will regret it," Tari spoke with gritted teeth.

She tried to stand, but fell on her butt. Her ankle was badly sprained; it might take her a day or four to recover.

"My leaders. You have witnessed her abominable act firsthand. I will leave her to your superior judgement," Antonia spoke.

She bowed and stepped back with a grin. Clearly satisfied with her comments.

"This girl should be punished! She dared raise her hand on Frost and even poured hot soup on Lady Ebiere's head. She is mannerless and ungrateful," one of the Chiefs spoke. And the crowd agreed with him.

"You are saying we should punish her, do you realize this is Chief Yokeme's daughter?" another chief spoke.

"And so? What if she is? She disrespected our leader, took our kindness for granted. If she was left in that car wouldn't she be dead by now? But we still saved her and even took it upon ourselves to treat her till she got better only to be threatened and disrespected," the first chief said.

"Agreed," a female chief nodded.

"Agreed."

"My people, we don't have to jump to conclusions just like that," the fourth chief spoke calmly.

"Remember what Chief Yokeme did for all of us," he reminded.

"Chief, we know where you are coming from, but this girl dared bite the hand that fed her. She deserves to be punished. You have witnessed how mannerless she is, haven't you?" a female chief said.

"I hear you, my dear. But she woke up after being unconscious for days, and she must be confused and conscious about her surroundings. After all, the last thing she remembered was being in a car accident, and having glimpses of the afterlife.

You don't expect her to not act out of character," the fourth chief said again.

"It doesn't matter. She slapped Frost and deserved to be punished; she also disrespected Lady Ebiere. An abomination to this empire," the second chief argued.

"What must be done must be done. Our only intention was to help her and send her back to the city, where she belongs," the first chief said.

"Aside from that, this girl came from wealth; she must think this is her home where she has power and control over everybody. She needs to face the consequences of her actions," the female chief stated.

"This shows you have been harboring hate for her since before you met her. This is out of jealousy," the fourth chief spoke.

"How dare you accuse me of such things!" the female chief stood at once.

Like that, the chiefs kept arguing like they were the only ones in the room.

All these while Barasa's eyes stayed rooted on Tari, never looking away. Antonia saw this and had been scoffing ever since.

Amidst the crowd was Ebiere. Her head was covered in bandage, since the soup Tari poured on her was so hot it burned a small portion of her scalp. It wasn't that serious, and she had gotten it treated. Ebiere stared at Tari with a pitiful look, hands folded tightly praying for Barasa to step in to stop them. But she knew better.

Tari just watched the Chiefs decide her fate. And the only thing going on in her mind was: Are they mad?

She couldn't wait to get back home; she would surely come back to make these old fuckers pay for the pains they'd been causing her.

First, Barasa matching her injuries, then Antonia dumping freezing water on her. The foolish guards handling her carelessly that made her sprain her ankle. Just how much more suffering was she going to endure in the space of one day?

But she wasn't the one to break. No, she would never break nor apologize. Tari never apologizes. These fuckers messed with the wrong person. And yes, they saved her but at what cost? Just to suffer her and call her ungrateful just because she slapped the fine shit staring at her with those eyes that speak without words.

"It's either she goes on her knees and apologizes to them—"

"I will never!" Tari cut in, all heads turned to her.

Barasa's gaze narrowed slightly, then back to the way it was. She was really one hell of a stubborn head. Even with so many oppositions, she still dared to state her mind.

"Are you hearing that! The person you are defending!" one of the female chiefs told the fourth Chief.

"Since she won't apologize, she will have to decide her own punishment," the third chief spoke.

"Read out," the first chief announced.

A youth stepped forward with a tablet.

"The judgment reads as: Public kneeling, scarring tribal marks, isolation, shaving of her head, or 50 strokes of the cane!" The man announced and stepped back into the crowd.

"Lady, it's in your hand to pick your punishment," the fourth chief spoke.

Tari's face twisted into a frown so hard, she felt like breaking through the pains and punching these bastards.

The audacity they had to tell her this. Looking around, she almost gave away and sighed. If she really wanted to destroy Mitari, and Musa plus her father who betrothed her to the bastard, she needed to first get out of here.

And with that, she needed to make peace with these bastards. So looking through the punishments she had to pick her own punishment. Starting with scarring, that was a hell nah.

Having those ridiculous tribal marks on her pretty face was a fucking no to her trademark. She couldn't even imagine those tribal marks on her face.

Shaving off her hair was a big fat No. Then came public kneeling; Mitari never apologizes or kneels to anyone. No one, absolute no one.

Then isolation, she couldn't possibly be isolated if she wanted to get out of here. How was she going to know her routes to escape?

Then the last: flogging. The thought of being whipped made her break into laughter, shocking the entire judgment court house. The audacity of her to laugh at such a serious situation.

Antonia's palms folded into a fist and she gritted her teeth together. Ebiere sighed, this girl. Trouble after trouble.

"Flogging. I pick flogging," Tari suddenly spoke. She felt annoyed and disgusted as the words left her lips. After all pain heals faster than humiliation.

"Flogging, she said," the first chief said.

Ebiere exhaled, while a slow grin spread across Antonia's face.

"Frost, we need your final verdict," the fourth chief said to Barasa.

The room fell into controlled silence; aura spoke louder than words. Tari's eyes met his, and she almost looked away but held her ground.

Then he spoke, and the silence deepened.

"Increase it to 100 strokes....."