Shangri La Pt. 1

91: Confession

After 2 days of nothing but sleeping on a cold floor, the greenette couldn't help but feel how sore and tired her body was that she couldn't control her eyes from peeking open. 

'Erm– why does my entire body hurt, as if it feels like I was burned alive? Huh?' 

When she realized she wasn't in her room like she thought, she quickly tried to sit up and look at her surroundings only to see how dark and dreary the place she was resting in was. 

'W-What– What is this place? Where am I?' 

"Arg–" 

"Don't force yourself with that injury." a hoarse voice spoke, making her freeze up and slowly pan her head to see a certain blond sitting not too far from her. 

"Ah– K-Katsuki? W-What is– Where am I? What is this place?" 

"It's a cave, and we're not far from that temple I found you in."

"T-Temple? You mean the temple where the Scholars were?" 

"Mn." 

"T-Then... Did I deliver the message the Empress requested me to deliver? I'm sure I did give it to them, b-but I don't remember what happened after that or why I'm– Wait– W-Why're you here?" 

"Tch– Finally decided to ask me that? It's because those guys tried to kill you." 

"W-What? Kill me? Who?" 

"Those damn Scholars. I got there just in time to see that they were gonna try and chop your head off, but I stopped 'em." 

"Wha– T-That doesn't make any sense. W-Why would they want to kill me when... when all I was doing was trying to deliver a message the Empress requested me to send to them. T-There has to be a mistake, right? They wouldn't kill me, there's no way, not when they didn't–"

Before she could even finish, the blond tossed a scroll towards her and she looked down to see it lying before her. 

"W-What's–" 

"Open it and read it." 

"B-But why would I–" 

"Just read it." 

So Izumi straightened herself as she sat up and carefully reached down to grab the scroll and started to unroll it to see the Yaoyorozu Insignia at the bottom of the page. 

"W-What's–" 

"I found that when I went back to the temple." Katsuki stated, leading the greenette to start reading.

Addressed to the Scholars,

This message is sent to inform you all that His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, has become severely ill as he has gone into a coma and it is unknown of when he will awaken. Because His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, cannot continue to rule the East at the moment, I've been given the authority to take his place for the time being until he does awaken. My first order of business is for you to kill the girl that has delivered this very message to you all. She is an Emerald that has been able to live in the walls of my palace and has deceived me and His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, which means she is to pay the price for her crimes. Have her killed and bring her remains to me at once. Do so and all will be rewarded for partaking in this action.

Decreed by Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress.

Izumi couldn't believe what she was reading, as she had to reread the paper over and over to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.