The earthly lights, sparkling more brightly than the stars in the sky, were surreal. Anais’s heart pounded with anticipation. Amani was just around the corner.
As Anais hurriedly turned the corner, her body collided with something solid with a thud.
“Eek!”
Surprisingly, it wasn’t just solid. It was also soft. Realizing that it was human flesh and a man’s chest, Anais startled and pulled away from the man.
“I’m sorry.”
The man was tall, about a head taller than Anais, with long limbs. Even in the loose Kamar clothing, his broad shoulders were noticeably well-balanced. At his waist, the short, curved sword typical of Kamar glinted. The man said,
“You’re from Irene.”
“How did you…Oh!”
Anais was startled as she felt the breeze on the tip of her nose. Her veil, which had been securely fastened to the man’s clothes, must have caught and come off, revealing her platinum blonde hair and fair face. She hurriedly covered her face, but it was already too late.
Johan’s words from before coming to Kamar naturally came to mind.
[I heard that in Kamar, if a woman shows her face to a man, they have to marry.]
No way! Anais stood still, fidgeting nervously. I should have come with Hadiya no matter what! As she tried to forcibly calm her buzzing mind, biting her innocent lips, she could feel the man laughing above her head.
“Lurking in such a dangerous place could lead to big trouble, foreigner,”
In a soft but low voice, the man spoke perfect Irene. Not only the grammar but even the accent was flawless.
Anais reflexively raised her head, which she had been keeping lowered. But with the man backlit by Amani’s lights in the dark night, only his silhouette was faintly visible.
Despite the faint view, his firm, smooth jaw and high bridge of the nose stood out. Even that was attractive enough to make her want to see him in a brighter place.
“I’ll go back soon.”
“That’s good then.”
As her eyes adjusted slightly, she could see the man’s lips. Full and soft lips forming a pleasing curve. Anais stared at them blankly before realizing it was rude and averting her gaze. The man chuckled again.
“Go back quickly. Next time we meet, I might not be able to control myself.”
“What? Um…!”
It was a strange way of asking her to leave. When Anais looked at the man again, he had already disappeared without a trace.
“Was I enchanted?”
It might have been one of the fairies or magicians of Geor that Hadiya had mentioned. Should I go back even now? But right ahead was Amani, the place she had so longed to visit. A place full of all things noble and wicked.
‘Yes, just for a moment.’
Anais covered her face again and plunged into the lights of Amani.
Unaware of the danger that might be pursuing her.
Amani was exactly like the rumors, and different from the rumors.
The lights competitively hung at each stall to make their wares look more precious created a spectacular scene, and under those brilliant lights were items rarely seen elsewhere.
They were jewels, fragrances, carpets, and books. The merchants competitively showcased their wares. Anais explored the market, being caught by merchants and breaking free with each step she took.
While it was full of all sorts of rare items, there were no fairies or magicians.
There were fortune-tellers who performed mysterious divinations with large crystal balls, but they were meaningless to Anais who couldn’t understand Kamar language.
‘I guess I should just go back.’
Since she couldn’t buy anything, it was somewhat predictable that she would quickly lose interest. It seemed better to come back later after convincing Hadiya or her father.
It was when Anais turned towards the mansion.
“Ugh…!”
Something hit her face suddenly. A scent? She couldn’t regain her senses due to the strong fragrance. Someone grabbed Anais’s shoulder.
– You should walk straight.
Though she couldn’t understand exactly what was said, at that moment, she felt a chill run down her spine as if a snake was crawling all over her body.
– What’s this? She’s a foreigner?
The only word Anais could understand was ‘foreigner’. It was the word she had heard most often since coming to this country. She struggled to break free from the man’s hand, but her body wouldn’t respond. Anais’s thoughts focused on one thing.
‘That scent just now….’
Someone suddenly sprayed a terrible scent on her while another person grabbed her. For some unknown reason, it was a deliberately set trap. Anais tried to scream, but her mouth was quickly covered by someone’s hand.
A large hand covered her mouth and nose, making it difficult to breathe. All Anais could do was try to muster strength in her body and struggle. Even that soon became difficult.
– A foreign girl, we could sell her for a high price to the nobles?
She could feel the people around her snickering as they watched Anais losing strength.
– What’s this, brother? Interested in this girl?
The rough voice she heard through her fading consciousness was unpleasant. She heard someone adding more words, and the sound of cold metal clashing and scattering.
“I told you I wouldn’t be able to help myself if we met again.”
She heard a voice muttering, “We’ve met again.”
Whether these words were exactly what she heard then, or if they were a fiction her mind had pieced together, was unclear.
However, when Anais opened her eyes, she was in Karim’s harem.
****
“Unbelievable! Are you saying you were sold through human trafficking and entered the Sultan’s harem?”
One of the guardians shouted angrily after hearing Anais’s words. He seemed genuinely furious. In contrast, Anais, the person in question, remained calm.
“How could I lie in this sacred court? I am merely telling you exactly what I experienced.”
Her attitude was calm and elegant. She was too confident and beautiful to be someone telling lies. The people in the courtroom began to stir.
Heinous crimes and immorality always stimulated people’s curiosity.
“Human trafficking. My goodness.”
“Isn’t she a foreigner sold from outside Kamar?”
“Wasn’t she a slave?”
“Enough!”
The oldest among the guardians slammed the table with a sharp sound, quelling the commotion.
“Even if it’s true that you were forcibly brought into the harem, it has nothing to do with the current matter. Anesa, didn’t you say you would prove that you are a foreigner?”
It was impossible for the fact of being forcibly brought into the harem to be unimportant. It was one of the crucial pieces of evidence that Anais was not a Kamari who would consider entering the harem an honor, but a foreigner.
The guardian cleverly twisted the point, dismissing this fact as meaningless. But Anais also nodded to these words.
“That’s correct, Guardian. How I ended up in the harem is not important. I merely wanted to point out that due to this process, I do not have proper slave documentation.”
It was the guardians who looked taken aback by Anais’s response. Usually, the only way for a woman belonging to the harem to prove her origin was through the slave documentation recorded when she was sold to the harem.
The guardians had also prepared fake slave documents for Anais in case of such a situation.
However, because Anais publicly claimed first that she didn’t have proper slave documentation, the credibility of the fake documents they had prepared was diminished.
That’s why Anais brought up the story of human trafficking. It was a crime that occurred in the capital of Kamar, of all places. Although she was a foreigner, the audience couldn’t help but be sympathetic to Anais, who had fallen victim to a terrible crime in their own city.
Of course, if they wanted to force the issue, they could, but this was a matter involving the Padisha’s harem. Forcibly pushing for a result didn’t look good.
‘Up to this point, it’s just as Hashim said.’
Anais clenched her fist as she observed the troubled faces of the judges. She then created a calm gaze and looked around the courtroom. Her eyes met with a tall man among them. It was Hashim.
Anais blinked slightly, in a way only Hashim could notice, and then spoke again.
“However, I too am guilty of a crime.”
“What…?”
Anais had turned the flow of the trial in her favor with the human trafficking story. But now she suddenly confesses to a crime?
“May I confess?”
The guardians looked at her with suspicious eyes, but Anais didn’t even flinch. She didn’t wait for permission and used the gap created by the guardians’ silence to continue speaking.
“My crime is….”
