She could feel their assessment like physical touch, cataloguing her appearance, her posture, her obvious foreignness to this world of deadly beauty. Some looked puzzled, others intrigued, but all carried the sharp interest of predators encountering something new and potentially shocking.
Murmurs erupted like sparks from a fire, voices carefully modulated to carry just far enough to be heard but not so loud as to draw direct attention:
"Didn't he fail the trial?" The question came from a blonde with eyes like chips of ice, his tone carrying the faint disappointment of someone denied expected entertainment.
"He should be executed by dawn—what is this?" This from a dark-haired beauty whose perfect features were marred by a cruel twist of the lips.
"Look at him—no elegance at all. How did he catch Ryuzaki's eye?" The speaker was perhaps the most beautiful of them all, which somehow made his words cut deeper.
