Chapter 5. The Sentence (1)

Translator: River

The Veterinarian… We have all heard that even the fiercest and most sensitive dogs and cats can become terrified or tame at the veterinarian’s office.

As she breathed in the cold air of the room, Shushu Meili could understand how the dog or cat felt. Even though she knew it was innocent, she cowered like a guilty person.

The room was silent and filled with suffocatingly heavy air. In the midst of this atmosphere, Shushu clenched and unclenched his fists nervously. He could barely breathe until the judge rolled up his sleeves and opened his mouth to announce the verdict.

“Because… this court sentences Shushu Meili to five years in prison.”

After a long sentence, the verdict finally came: five years.

Although she already knew the outcome, hearing it in actual words was devastating, and Shushu closed her eyes and balled herself up… How did I end up like this? For a woman who had spent her entire life away from the law, she couldn’t help but feel shocked. She let out a shuddering sigh as the lawyer helped her out of the chair.

Across the room, she felt Edwin looking at her with a pitying face. Only when she saw him did she stiffen and try to assure him, at least with her mouth, that all was well.

In fact, she did everything she could. It was all Edwin doing to keep the story out of the press, and it was all Edwin doing to get him a five-year sentence, even though, whatever the truth was, it was murder. But Shushu would rather hang himself than be in this situation. He had tried so hard to do no harm, and now something awful beyond his worst imagination had happened.

The place of the incident, the third-floor lavatory of the Levry Academy Alumni Association. The victim was Elma Hobb, a former classmate of the perpetrator at the academy. The perpetrator, Shushu Meili. Sentenced to five years in prison.

This is how the Mealy Family murders ended.

***

In the end he was found guilty, but convicted of manslaughter, not murder, so instead of sending him straight to jail, he was given the grace of being able to stop by his house to pack his bags.

Of course, what he could take with him was limited, and he couldn’t take anything frivolous with him, as he was thoroughly searched at the checkpoint before entering, but it was still an incredible privilege, and hey, it happened anyway, so let’s take the good with the bad. Shushu smiled at the mirror in his room, a mirror he wouldn’t see for years, and whispered to himself,

“Yeah. It’s okay….”

‘No, it’s actually so frustrating!’

Brainwashing doesn’t seem so easy, because as soon as she looked in the mirror, all she could see was that familiar reflection in front of her, and the unpleasant thought of leaving her cozy room for years. It was better not to see the room. She stuffed her underwear and socks into the green bag she had been given and snorted through her nose.

He didn’t want to cry, but it was so unfair that it brought tears to his eyes. Of course, there is no prisoner in the world who is not a little unfair, but Shushu was especially so. If he had held a grudge against Elma Hobb, who had died, he might have been able to forgive her, but Elma and Shushu were not so close.

So when Elma turned up murdered at the academy meeting, Shushu was shocked and saddened by the death of an acquaintance, but she never thought she would be accused of her murder. But then the evidence piled up in such a way that she wondered if it had been the work of the devil, and even Shushu herself pondered for a moment whether she had killed Elma without knowing it and had lost her memory.

But it was only when she decided to appeal that she believed she had no motive for the murder and could be acquitted. Before she could formally appeal, Edwin came to visit and told her he was desperate.

“I have one more piece of evidence.”

Edwin looked at her sadly, then sighed and said.

“Shushu. This morning I found out that… borrowed money from Elma, and I found the loan certificate in the safe in her drawer.”

“What?!”

Shushu jumped out of his chair at the absurdity of it all. If he could have jumped, he would have bounced so hard that he would have cracked his skull on the ceiling.

She was literally beside herself. When had she ever borrowed money from Elma?

Edwin said, looking at her sadly, denying that it could be so,

“The loan deed had his stamp and signature, and his handwriting matched. …I’ll be honest with you. Shushu, why don’t you waive the appeal…?”

“What do you mean by that, Edwin?”

Shushu blanched at Edwin’s words, which sounded like an admission of guilt, but Edwin was in no mood for jokes.

There’s too much evidence, Shushu. At this rate, you’re likely to lose the case and spend a long time in jail.I don’t know.

“I didn’t kill Elma, Edwin…! I swear!”

“I know, Shushu.”

Seeing her sobbing in frustration, Edwin ran a rough hand over my face and then spoke to Shushu in a calmer voice.

“I will try to make it manslaughter. I’ve spoken to the grieving family and… then you can go to a private prison, not a state prison.”

“But… I’ll be guilty anyway. Ha, for a murder I didn’t commit…”

“Shhhh.”

Edwin looked at the crying Shushu sympathetically, then reached through the hole in the glass partition and took her hand between his own. She was warm, and when Shushu looked up at Edwin, his green eyes shone with conviction.

“Trust me,” he said, “I will find the real culprit and clear your name. I’ve already told my friend, so… Wait for me there.”

Shushu’s eyes widened at Edwin’s words.