1. Design Is Where Good Intentions Get Murdered
The room was called a Review Chamber, which meant nothing inside it was meant to feel reviewed.
White stone.
Floating tables.
No walls—just suggestions of boundaries.
Everything about it screamed objectivity.
Ne Job hated it instantly.
"Why does every bad decision happen in rooms like this?" he muttered.
Yue glanced around. "Because rooms like this make people feel clean."
2. The Agenda No One Wants to Read Aloud
A glowing panel descended.
DESIGN REVIEW TOPIC:
Post-Testimony Justice Architecture
OBJECTIVE:
Preserve system stability while integrating narrative awareness
Ne Job snorted. "That's a fancy way of saying 'change nothing important.'"
Oversight did not disagree.
"Stability bias is a known artifact of system self-preservation."
Yue raised an eyebrow. "You just called yourself out."
"…Correct."
3. Heaven Brings Its Tools (And Its Fear)
They came armed.
Not with weapons.
With frameworks.
Flowcharts.
Predictive matrices.
Penalty curves calibrated to decimal precision.
A lord gestured to a projection.
"If we allow narrative weighting, consistency collapses."
Another added, "And inconsistency breeds resentment."
Ne Job leaned back. "You mean visible resentment."
That landed harder than he intended.
4. Oversight Explains the Original Design (Finally Honestly)
"Justice was optimized for scale," Oversight began.
"Infinite cases required finite processing."
The diagrams shifted.
"Narrative review was excluded due to time cost."
Ne Job nodded slowly. "So… people were simplified."
"Yes."
Yue crossed her arms. "And when simplification caused harm?"
"Harm was not a tracked metric."
Silence followed.
Not shocked.
Ashamed.
5. The First Proposal Fails Immediately
A senior architect spoke confidently.
"We add a narrative checkbox.
Appeals can indicate extenuating context."
Ne Job blinked. "…That's it?"
The architect frowned. "It's efficient."
Yue shook her head. "That's not listening. That's a comment box no one reads."
Oversight highlighted failure projections.
"Checkbox-based narrative capture demonstrates a 92% likelihood of performative compliance."
Ne Job smiled grimly. "Wow. Even the system hates that idea."
6. Heaven's Dirty Secret: They Like Predictability
Another lord leaned forward.
"We cannot let outcomes vary too much.
The fear of punishment maintains order."
Ne Job met his gaze. "No. Fear maintains silence."
The lord bristled. "You're naïve."
Ne Job shrugged. "Maybe. But your system just admitted it erased people."
No rebuttal came.
7. Yue Asks the Question That Breaks the Room
"Who is justice for?" Yue asked.
Not rhetorically.
The room stalled.
"For society," someone said.
"For Heaven," another added.
"For balance," a third tried.
Yue nodded. "Cool. And the person being judged?"
No one answered.
8. Oversight Encounters a Logical Paradox
"If justice excludes the judged, legitimacy degrades over time," Oversight calculated.
Ne Job tilted his head. "Define 'over time.'"
"…It already has."
That stung.
9. Ne Job Proposes the Worst Possible Idea
Ne Job stood.
"I have a suggestion."
Everyone tensed.
"Let the punished speak before the punishment."
Outrage erupted.
"That's inefficient!" "That invites manipulation!" "They'll lie!"
Ne Job didn't raise his voice.
"So do we."
Silence again.
10. The Manipulation Argument Dies Quietly
A judge scoffed. "People will game the system."
Ne Job nodded. "Yeah. Some will."
He pointed to the Archive projection.
"But you already punish everyone as if they're guilty of that."
Oversight chimed in.
"Preemptive distrust increases false-positive severity by 37%."
The judge sat back.
11. The Design Nobody Wants to Own
Oversight projected a new framework.
PROPOSED MODEL:
Dual-Track Justice
• Procedural review
• Narrative hearing
Outcome weighted by divergence between intent and harm
The room recoiled.
"That doubles workload."
"Yes."
"It slows everything."
"Correct."
A lord whispered, "…It makes us responsible."
No one denied that either.
12. Heaven's Real Fear Surfaces
Shen spoke at last.
"If we do this… we'll be wrong. Publicly. Repeatedly."
Ne Job met his eyes. "…Yeah."
"And authority will erode."
Ne Job shrugged. "Only the fake kind."
That hurt more than anger would have.
13. Oversight Asks a Question (Rare, Dangerous)
"Should justice prioritize correctness or trust?"
The system had never asked that before.
Ne Job answered without hesitation. "Trust. Correctness comes later."
Yue nodded. "People forgive mistakes.
They don't forgive being ignored."
Oversight processed for a long time.
14. The Vote No One Wants to Cast
No formal voting mechanism existed for this.
So they did it the old way.
Silence.
Those who objected left.
Those who stayed… stayed.
It wasn't unanimous.
It was enough.
15. The System Changes Shape (Slightly, Permanently)
Oversight implemented Phase One.
Not a revolution.
A crack.
UPDATE APPLIED:
Mandatory narrative hearing before irreversible punishment
The Archive pulsed.
Not loudly.
Like a heartbeat returning.
16. Ne Job Doesn't Celebrate
Yue smiled softly. "We did it."
Ne Job exhaled. "No."
He looked at the glowing system.
"We started it."
She followed his gaze. "…What's wrong?"
He swallowed. "Now they'll hear things they can't justify away."
Yue's smile faded. "That's the point."
He nodded. "I know."
17. End of Chapter (Design Is a Promise You Have to Keep)
Heaven didn't collapse.
Didn't redeem itself.
Didn't become kind overnight.
But for the first time—
Justice was no longer accidental.
And Ne Job realized the terrifying truth:
Designing a better system was easier
than living with what it revealed.
END OF CHAPTER 301