Rakusho no Goku #3
2010.01.03(Sun)Juuni Kokuki — 十二国記
(The Twelve Kingdoms)
Rakusho no Goku — 落照の獄
(A jail of the declining Light)
By Ono Fuyumi — 小野不由美
Translated by o6asan
However, this casual crime was only an ordinary state for Shudatsu(狩獺). Shunryo(駿良)’s death is only one of twenty-three.
— 16 cases, 23 victims.
Eiko(瑛庚) was at his desk in his study and looked through a towering pile of documents. All of the crime of Shudatsu(狩獺) was recorded there in detail.
One of the cases came up in a small village next to Shiso(芝草). A married couple, their old mother, and their two children were killed. It was the end of last year. Residents in a village move to a town in the coldest season. Because a village basically exists to cultivate a field, but this family didn’t have a house in the town to live during winter. When their child did serious illness, they sold out it which had been given from the country. It was only family that remained in the village. Shudatsu(狩獺) broke into the house, killed whole family, and was living comfortably there. In the middle of winter, a neighbor who thought it might be inconvenient visited and knocked on the door, and met a strange man. The man said the family went on a trip to a nearby town, and he introduced himself very engagingly that he was a relative who was taking care of their house. — But, the neighbor had never heard about such a relative the family was very close to. The man said that the family has not returned yet, when the neighbor visited in several days again after returning with suspicious and anxious to the town. The neighbor who had doubts reported to the town office. The man had left when officials of the town visited the house. Bodies of the family were piled up messily and frozen in one of the bedrooms of the house. However, husband’s corpse was not there. Officials searched for the neighborhood, found his remains in the stream at the back of the house, and raged. The footprints which went and returned many times remained on husband’s body that crossed the stream. The man who had killed whole family used the frozen body as a literal bridge to go to the field in the other side of the stream. He did not have features – skinny, medium-tall, black eyes and black hair, but there was a small tattoo that was the design made from four characters “Kin-Dai-Nichi-In(均大日尹)” on his right temple. Geimen(鯨面) — That is a tattoo as the penalty.
Criminals who commit the felony like homicide etc., their hair is shaved, and they are tattooed on their head. This tattoo disappears gradually in around 10 years, but if he/she commits a serious crime before it disappears, the second is put in his/her head, again. If he/she commits a serious crime further, the third is put in his/her right temple this time. A tattoo’s design is always made from four characters, and tells who he/she is and where he/she was judged. “Kin(均)” shows the judgment of Kin-shu(均州), “Dai(大)” shows the date, and “Nichi(日)” does where the penal servitude was served. “In(尹)” is a character that specifies this man. So, it made his background turn out at once. His alias is Shudatsu(狩獺), and his proper is Kashu(何趣). He was born in Do-shu(道州) in the north of Ryu(柳国), and judged in three shu(州), Do-shu(道州),Shuku-shu(宿州), and Kin-shu(均州). All homicide. The first, the victim he had hit and taken money from died as a result. The second case in Shuku-shu, he made the victim die while trying to get money and goods by force. But the case of Kin-shu(均州), he obviously decided to kill from the beginning. His motive was money after all.
Eiko(瑛庚) uttered a sigh many times while reading the records spread on his desk.
The penal servitude is punishment, at the same time as it makes criminals conscious of the crime and educates them, but, it is clear that the penal servitude had no meaning for Shudatsu(狩獺). He received the decision in Kin-shu(均州), finished six-year penal servitude, was released, and reached the next violence within only half a year. Since then, he piled up 16 crimes in almost two years.
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