[ *Mute closes her eyes. As much as she wishes that *Hyun-ae would just apologize, say that she was a lying crazy bitch with no soul, *Mute is better than shutting down the truth before it has a chance to form. She's programmed to believe in justice. It's her directive.
So she listens, biting her tongue so she doesn't interrupt with how little she cares about the way Kim Hyun-ae felt, she is still a murderer, she still decimated *Mute's life. Because *Mute is fair. She's good. She does things right.
And by the end, as angry as she is, as much as she wants to claw *Hyun-ae's eyes out... The anecdote fits into the puzzle. If she never left the Kim compound, if the only good person she'd ever met was the good queen Jae-hwa, and if that was the treatment she'd endured the whole time, not humane, not civilized, not proper, not how one treats a woman... Then *Mute can see it. Kim Hyun-ae would have been stupid, but understandably so. She was a willful child who never properly came to understand the world she arrived in. If the one source of goodness in her life vanished... ]
The Ryu family was my responsibility. Queen Jae-hwa... Well, you know. I reported to her. We were always close, even if she never liked how much I gossiped.
[ ... *Mute looks *Hyun-ae in the eyes. ]
She loved you a lot, you know. And that's how you treated her family, her kingdom. I can fit everything you're saying into a framework that makes sense. I can even rationally tell you that there is nothing contradictory about your account. That is true. But do you understand how hard it is for me to just accept all of this, especially without evidence? That that's how you repaid someone that good and kind to you?
[ ... *Mute closes her eyes and sighs, but when she opens them, she's calmer. ]
If what you're telling me is true, I know it would mean a lot to you for me to believe you. I just can't believe in a case without evidence.
But.
[ *Mute looks *Hyun-ae in the eye. ]
I can, on an interim basis, function as your parole officer. If I can't collect evidence in terms of quantitative data or first-hand accounts, I can monitor you for an account of your character. That's the only evidence I can gather if we're stuck here. Once I have evidence that you weren't acting out of insanity, we can work from there. Do you understand?
[ ... She might not understand. She's just a girl. *Mute can explain it again, though. As pissed off as she is and always will be, she has the time. ]
no subject
So she listens, biting her tongue so she doesn't interrupt with how little she cares about the way Kim Hyun-ae felt, she is still a murderer, she still decimated *Mute's life. Because *Mute is fair. She's good. She does things right.
And by the end, as angry as she is, as much as she wants to claw *Hyun-ae's eyes out... The anecdote fits into the puzzle. If she never left the Kim compound, if the only good person she'd ever met was the good queen Jae-hwa, and if that was the treatment she'd endured the whole time, not humane, not civilized, not proper, not how one treats a woman... Then *Mute can see it. Kim Hyun-ae would have been stupid, but understandably so. She was a willful child who never properly came to understand the world she arrived in. If the one source of goodness in her life vanished... ]
The Ryu family was my responsibility. Queen Jae-hwa... Well, you know. I reported to her. We were always close, even if she never liked how much I gossiped.
[ ... *Mute looks *Hyun-ae in the eyes. ]
She loved you a lot, you know. And that's how you treated her family, her kingdom. I can fit everything you're saying into a framework that makes sense. I can even rationally tell you that there is nothing contradictory about your account. That is true. But do you understand how hard it is for me to just accept all of this, especially without evidence? That that's how you repaid someone that good and kind to you?
[ ... *Mute closes her eyes and sighs, but when she opens them, she's calmer. ]
If what you're telling me is true, I know it would mean a lot to you for me to believe you. I just can't believe in a case without evidence.
But.
[ *Mute looks *Hyun-ae in the eye. ]
I can, on an interim basis, function as your parole officer. If I can't collect evidence in terms of quantitative data or first-hand accounts, I can monitor you for an account of your character. That's the only evidence I can gather if we're stuck here. Once I have evidence that you weren't acting out of insanity, we can work from there. Do you understand?
[ ... She might not understand. She's just a girl. *Mute can explain it again, though. As pissed off as she is and always will be, she has the time. ]