Chapter 150

#150 Episode: Tin Knight and the City of Scales (10)

“That’s right! No matter the punishment or whatever, it’s still guilty if you’re poor and innocent if you’re rich, right? It feels like this law only favors the wealthy!”

“People call Justitia’s tavern a gladiatorial arena. You go for a meal and a drink, and instead of arguments, fists and knives come out first. Whatever crime you commit, the conclusion is always, ‘Who cares? If you’ve got the money, you’re fine,’ so the powerful and rich never hesitate to resort to violence. Is this really the image of a just society?”

“Justitia isn’t a trash bin! Why should we have to see criminals from all over the continent swarm in here?”

“Isn’t the Scales supposed to be fair? Who guarantees that fairness?”

The citizens gathered in the square all stood up in support of the prophet Sophia’s words, but their hot passion and great shouts did not topple Justitia… and that’s bound to happen.

How could it not?

It wasn’t that others didn’t know the problems with the Scales system.

The citizens of the city, who had been here longer than Sophia, had no way not to realize the issues she pointed out, even if they’d just arrived in Justitia.

But even though they knew, they stayed silent.

They were afraid of the authority of the Holy Kingdom.

“……”

Hence, even knowing Sophia was right, the citizens remained silent.

They either kept their mouths shut or, fearing their eyes might meet Sophia’s, turned their gazes elsewhere.

Those who had come from another continent with only a superficial knowledge of the Holy Kingdom nodded along as if it were plausible or sparkled their eyes in interest, but their numbers were few.

Sophia didn’t care one bit about that indifferent response.

She lowered the megaphone in her hand and spoke to the Tin Knight.

“Sir Tin, I think that’s enough for today.”

[‘Tin Knight’ asserts that he wants to do a bit more mini-game fun!]

“Isn’t it more exciting to move to a new high-difficulty stage rather than always staying at the same level?”

[‘Tin Knight’ honestly agrees with that!]

The Tin Knight, who was evading guards trying to grab him in acrobatic moves, lightly flicked his wrist.

At that moment, Sophia’s body was lifted into the sky.

“Wha, wha!?”

“Wha, wha!!”

It’s natural for things that rise into the sky to eventually fall to the ground.

The crowd gasped as they watched Sophia, who seemed to be about to crash to the ground, but the Tin Knight nonchalantly caught her.

His seemingly casual yet incredibly smooth movements absorbed all the shock, landing Sophia’s feet naturally as if they had always belonged there.

Sophia, with a calm face that one wouldn’t associate with someone who just soared to the height of a two-story building, bowed her head in thanks to those around her.

“Thank you for listening to such unfortunate tales today. I’ll see you again at the same time and place tomorrow. So, goodbye for now.”

With that, she turned and left, just like that.

The guards stood there in a daze but were soon interrupted by Justitia’s officer Posher, who hurriedly stopped Sophia.

“W-wait a moment!”

“Um, yes. Is there something I can help you with?”

The calm response left Posher momentarily speechless.

Struggling to keep up with the sudden turn of events, he regained his composure through the self-control expected of a three-year veteran civil servant.

“What’s the meaning of all this commotion?”

“Um? I checked Justitia’s laws beforehand, but did I break any laws with my actions?”

“Of course—”

As Posher was about to answer ‘yes,’ he hesitated.

There wasn’t any.

No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t come up with any law that would penalize Sophia’s actions.

But disregarding the foundational Scales of Justitia, if he let someone get away with insulting it, Posher himself would take the heat.

“…Ahem! So, the guards tried to stop your actions but you acted on your own without heeding them? That is a clear crime!”

Posher lifted the scale at his waist.

The small ivory scale was one of the terminals connected to the Emerald Scales in the city center.

He accused Sophia of her alleged crime to the scales, and the scale’s dish tipped slightly, just a little.

Posher checked the law book that was carried with the scales and frowned as he spoke.

“A written statement and one hour of detention is your punishment.”

“I’m quite curious about Justitia’s prison, but I have a book to dive into later. Can I pay in value instead?”

“…Five fairy tales.”

“Here you go.”

The coin Sophia handed rose above the scale and then vanished in a flash of light.

Sophia, with a strangely bug-squashed face, said goodbye to Posher and left just like that.

The peculiar looks from those around her followed her as she walked away.

“What was she trying to do, anyway?”

“I guess she just wanted to tell some unpleasant truths to the higher-ups?”

“Wow, that takes guts. Even though the lord of Justitia is relatively kind to civilians, their authority still doesn’t fall short of even a count’s.”

“But didn’t she say she’d be back tomorrow?”

“No way. She was just saying that.”

“Regardless of what she said, her attitude was refreshing and worth watching.”

“True enough. When she fell down at the end, my heart dropped for a second.”

People gathered in small groups to chatter about the recent event.

However, their voices weren’t particularly loud or serious.

It was largely overshadowed by the frowning faces of the officials and soldiers, and the comical imagery of Sophia and the Tin Knight felt a bit outlandish for serious discussion.

But.

“Yes, everyone. Thank you for coming again today. I see both fresh faces and familiar ones. I’m thankful for both.”

Day one.

“So, let’s talk again today. But what do you think is a type of material that always has the same value? Can you buy grain during a bountiful year and a poor harvest year for the same price? Are salts near the ocean the same price as those deep in the mountains? The ‘value’ that the scales determine includes one’s wealth, I wonder how it assesses the volatility of such value.”

Day two.

“Hello, Officer Posher. You’re working hard today as well. Oh, there was a noise complaint? I understand. Let’s pay the fine and start. However, where’s the person who reported it? The risk of retaliation? No, it’s just that you mentioned being harmed, so I wondered if compensation might be needed. Because paying a fine to the scale doesn’t go back to the victim. Ah, you’re wondering how to believe my words are true? Of course, you can believe it. Just declare it to the scales. Your face looks pale, are you alright? Overworking is bad. You say the scales can’t be used privately because they aren’t a convenient lie detector? Understood.”

As these exchanges continued for days, people could no longer ignore Sophia’s words.

They no longer brushed off what she said as mere bravado or jokes.

It wasn’t because her words were incredibly novel.

Nor was it because they contained overwhelming truths that astonished everyone.

They had realized one simple truth.

“Wait, was it really okay to speak out like that?”

Like cotton soaking up dew, slowly, little by little, the invisible ceiling pressing down over the crowd began to crumble.

***

“Who the heck are you guys?”

The headless young necromancer uttered in disbelief at the oddity in front of him, and Dorothea answered bluntly.

“What’s it to you? We’re just travelers.”

“I had no idea ‘just’ was used in this context.”

The young man was dumbfounded.

It had been days since he became a bizarre headless figure.

With neither hands nor feet, all he could do was watch and listen, and he had some skeletal mouse friends who delivered the news.

And in the past few days, what he witnessed from Sophia and the Tin Knight was utterly insane to say the least.

“Aren’t you afraid of the Holy Kingdom?”

“Is that a line from a guy planning to launch a curse bomb at a Holy Kingdom priest?”

“It’s natural for a rat cornered to bite a cat, but if a mouse dances in front of a cat that’s just sitting, that’s insane.”

“I don’t know, I’m just not interested.”

His surprisingly indifferent attitude left the young man dumbfounded once again.

“Aside from that, can you tell me this part again? I got how to put bones into a flipped animal heart, but the trick to shrinking it afterward is—”

“If it’s that, then like this—”

Actually, it wasn’t just Sophia acting strange.

Dorothea, the industry peer, also struck the young man as a bizarre presence.

If you were to assess her ability to control magical power or sense of learning and using magic, she’d be considered a genius.

Of course, evaluation is relative, and the necromancer’s field is one that those with neither talent nor resources try to practice magic to the best they can, so Dorothea probably qualified as a talent in that field. She could probably rank upper middle level compared to other schools.

But one thing.

The sheer amount of magical power she possessed fit the description of genius (天才) more than a natural disaster (天災).

At least among all the people the young man had met so far, none could compare to Dorothea’s power level.

‘Well, one comes to mind. The one I saw from the magical tower in the Magical Kingdom had that kind of vibe.’

Recalling the impressively grand architecture he had seen only once in the past, the young man couldn’t help but chuckle.

A magic tower itself is a vast magical power generator, a natural resource purifier and a collector of countless magical devices.

To put it physically, instead of a single warrior pulling a boat in a contest of strength, which is the equivalent of several hundred human laborers and the power of wind pulling, it means one could wrestle in a power struggle and have even faster recovery rates.

“Have you ever exhausted all your magical power?”

“What does that matter?”

“Just showing envy. You can ignore it.”

“…Not that I haven’t. I’ve intentionally drained it to check my limits before, and once when I had to reboot a canister stashed away in the warehouse.”

“That’s nonsense. There’s no way that much magic would be needed just to operate a magical automaton.”

Dorothea only shrugged her shoulders in response.

The young man didn’t press further anyway. He wasn’t genuinely curious about the answer.

After imparting the final bit of knowledge to Dorothea, and once she had absorbed it fully, his skeletal mice brought him strange news.

Dorothea, seemingly having deployed a similar surveillance network, approached the window and looked outside.

Someone with the mark of a winged monkey on their shoulder was leading a massive horse toward the tavern.

The horse was enormous.

The mere height reached about 2.2 meters, and with its bulk, it was intimidating enough to make people in the vicinity subtly dodge out of the way even as it walked slowly.

However, in striking contrast with its extremely elegant golden physique, there was not a hint of vibrancy in its gaze.

“I guess the order has just arrived. I can leave anytime now.”

“So, it’s the golem from the Alchemist Association that you ordered? A product so precious that they won’t hand it over without a notable person?”

“Indeed, I was going to throw in some words if the introduction letter was useless.”

“?”

“Anyway, the magic has been received, and the payment’s been made, so the trade is done. I’m heading out of the city now, how about you? If you need, I can help wrap up as a last consideration. I think it’s better than being caught and turned into a spectacle by some nasty fellows.”

The nonchalant wording about offering to end one’s life was eerily casual.

Indeed, she truly was a legendary apprentice, the young man couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s alright. Thanks to you, I’ve cleared my remnant feelings, and I’ve got nothing left to leave behind. Now I can focus on my personal revenge.”

With that short agreement, the witch disappeared without hesitation.

The young man left, surrounded by his skeletal mice, quietly ignited his resolve.

---