Chapter 154

#154 Episode: The Tin Knight and the City of Scales (14)

“Ha ha ha! I’m alive! I’m alive!”

“I’m innocent! Please believe me!”

“Get the hell out of the way! I’m first!!”

Inside Justitia, the chaos was truly a maelstrom.

Those who received the ‘not guilty’ verdict were moved, gazing at the halo of light that appeared above their heads, while those who didn’t were shouting desperately to get their token as quickly as possible.

Of course, not everyone was swept away by this situation.

“Everyone, get a grip! Those guys are pulling some shady tricks!”

“They sentence us as they please and throw us pardons like it’s mercy! Do you really think this is right?”

“In the end, isn’t this a scheme to extract money?”

“Stop being gullible! Look at how many people are in this city; if they all attack together, what’s a Lord or some guards gonna do about it!”

There were certainly some who were dissatisfied with the oppressive and one-sided attitude of Justitia and wanted to respond to it.

However, their voices were not the dominating ones.

Squeak!

“Cough!”

“O Scale, pass judgment on the one who refuses the trial.”

The emerald light traced through the air, and when the red blood gushed forth, any complaints naturally fell silent.

That’s because those who didn’t comply ended up losing their heads.

“That’s too much…”

Adelheid couldn’t find the words as she watched.

While she had seen simple fights and bloodshed several times before, what unfolded before her was closer to a massacre than a struggle.

All resistance attempting to face the guards with force was utterly crushed under the emerald energy.

Just as Adel couldn’t bear to watch any longer and was about to grab her sword, people wearing masks similar to hers approached her side.

“I understand your feelings, but not now. Wait.”

Adel, who almost called out Maris’s name instinctively, hurriedly shut her mouth upon noticing the glances from those around her.

They had warned several times not to use their real names during the operation, but the shocking scene before her made her forget for a moment.

Maris lightly patted Adel’s shoulder as if understanding her state, then spoke.

“It’s a failed operation. My plan was wrong. If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have dragged you into it.”

Adel shook her head.

“No, I wasn’t dragged in. I also wanted something in return for participating.”

“Hmm.”

Maris hesitated in her words.

Though she couldn’t see Adel’s expression due to the mask, it seemed to convey a strange combination of admiration and disappointment.

If it were the usual Adel, she might have felt flustered, wondering if the other person was upset, but not now.

Adel looked at Maris and the gathered people and said.

“Please tell me what to do.”

“I can’t treat you like a child. We’re going to strike down the Lord. I wanted to avoid direct confrontation if possible, but given how things are now, we have to fight back.”

“Are we going to kill?”

“For now, the goal is to subdue them and make them spill information about this situation, but that won’t be easy. If it becomes too difficult, just go for it.”

To minimize unnecessary conflicts, they moved to the square over the buildings’ roofs.

Though it wasn’t easy to leap between the buildings of various heights and forms, with wide gaps in between, not a single member of Lenart’s elite team lagged behind.

Finally, the town square in the city’s center came into view.

Contrary to expectations of it being overwhelmingly crowded, the square was surprisingly sparse.

To be more precise, while people were milling around the square, they couldn’t approach beyond the soldiers guarding the emerald scale.

In front of the scale stood the Lord, and his face was so serene it seemed unbelievable that he was the one causing this situation.

Bang!

Ten shadows jumped over the heads of the crowd gathered like a doughnut and burst into the square.

“Stop! Intruders!”

The soldiers guarding the square stood in the way of Lenart’s members.

Emerald energy surged high, and in response, the golden magical power appeared on the weapons of the Lion Duke’s Bloodline.

Crash!

Flashes crossed as Lenart’s swords indiscriminately cleaved through the guards.

There was no other way. The execution team’s ten members were the elite within their family.

If a mere territorial guard’s weapon blocked their attack, it would be a shame.

The golden sword strikes effortlessly beheaded the guards.

The problem was.

Swoosh!

Even though the sword cut through their necks, instead of blood spurting out, the blade bounced off.

Doubt and confusion welled in the eyes of the bloodline members, while conviction and faith surged in the guards’ eyes.

Basanio, a guard of Justitia, cried out, surrendering himself to the overwhelming feeling rising from deep within.

“O, o great one in heaven!”

His fellow guards responded, filled with the spirit of battle.

“May He bless us!”

“Defeat the villains!”

“For the holy ground of Justitia!”

“Cough!”

“…?”

As the self-indulgent words echoed from everyone, something strange crept into Basanio’s gaze, causing it to drift to the side.

There, one of his fellow guards was rolling on the ground, his body bent into a distorted shape.

And next to him, a notably small masked figure charged at him, wielding a large two-handed sword—

—Whoosh!

With a heavy impact that could almost be felt through the air, Basanio’s body flew through the void.

He looked as though he had been struck by a wagon racing at full speed, causing the guards’ gazes to waver.

In the heat of battle, especially in front of the Lion Duke’s Bloodline, it was a gap that should never have been seen.

No matter how protected one claimed to be by an intense force, the fundamental structure of the human body remained unchanged.

Striking the jaw to shake the brain, hitting the knees to lose balance, and using the opponent’s retaliatory force to slam them to the ground—all manners of techniques led the guards to stumble.

“Oh no! Stop them!”

“Protect the Lord!”

What ensued was a fierce melee.

The number of guards stationed in the square was around fifty.

Though that five-to-one ratio shouldn’t have been a problem for the Lion Duke’s Bloodline, the issue lay with the emerald energy surrounding the guards.

Bang!

A sword infused with magical power struck not armor, but bare skin, yet instead of dealing damage, the sword bounced off as if it faced some outrageous contradiction.

Relying on all their strength, they could barely manage to slice through some fabric, but even this was no easy feat.

Big attacks required big movements, and big movements created big openings.

It was all fine if the opponent was a stationary scarecrow, but while surrounded by multiple foes swinging swords intending to kill, continually launching ‘full-powered attacks’ was extraordinarily challenging.

Moreover, the opponents weren’t just rigid.

“Ugh!”

A guard who lost his balance due to Lenart’s crafty swordsmanship awkwardly jabbed out with his spear.

Though the thrust was executed from a clumsy posture, lacking power and speed,

Whoosh!

The moment it struck the thigh of a bloodline member, flesh tore apart, and blood gushed forth.

Even with leather armor and magical defenses, it still happened.

The injured bloodline member quickly regained posture and struck the guard’s wrist, forcing him to drop the spear, but the wound once formed wouldn’t just disappear.

Maris von Lenart frowned.

In terms of combat technique, the guards were no match for them.

In terms of weapon skills, physical abilities, mastery of magical power, and cooperation with allies, everything was favorable for Lenart’s side.

The problem was that light.

That emerald energy was entangling everything.

Because of it, they had to expend full force against guards they could usually subdue in a single blow, and the slightest brush from an attack they could normally deflect could leave them with critical injuries.

‘The skills of Justitia’s guards would be considered at most mid-upper rank among the Imperial Army. Were they enhanced to the extent they can engage in a scuffle with our bloodline?’

It was a reality that invoked not just curiosity but a chill.

If this was something that could be used indefinitely without any conditions, it meant that the Holy Kingdom could transform even the nearby bandits into a formidable army.

But.

Even so, the name Lenart was not empty.

While facing overwhelming attack and defense, they kept taking down the guards one by one and carving a path toward the Lord.

Whoosh!

Among them, Adel’s performance was especially outstanding.

It wasn’t because she was stronger than other bloodline members… In fact, in sheer technique, she seemed inferior to many gathered there.

Yet the reasons she was able to excel were twofold.

One was the overwhelming monstrous power granted by Amaryllis’s belt.

While the emerald energy provided undeniable defense, what Adel unleashed with each strike was ferocious.

The second was her astonishing evasive abilities.

Even amidst the relentless barrage of attacks, her ability to evade them all without even directing her gaze appeared almost like a dance.

While Lenart’s members felt reassured with her at their side, doubts inevitably arose in their minds.

Such abilities could only be honed through immense numbers of real combat or near-lethal training; where could she have possibly learned all this?

“Cough!”

In what felt like a long time, but was only a few actual minutes, the guard formations began to crumble.

Just as it seemed they could breach through to the Lord, the silent Lord stepped forward.

“To attempt to deny a fair judgment, your crime is truly grave.”

A soft white light began to seep from the Lord.

At first, it was just an aura surrounding his body, but as he infused it into the scale, a dramatic reaction occurred.

Boom!

The Lord’s divine power intertwined with the emerald energy of the scale, amplifying its size exponentially.

“Executioner, may the righteous laws of heaven be with you, so do not fear.”

As the energy spread like ripples, it touched the guards’ bodies, and their wounds healed rapidly.

Those fighting, as well as soldiers lying on the ground, started to rise one by one.

“Oooh!”

“What the hell…!”

The faces of the guards turned radiant with cheers, while the faces of the bloodline members, concealed behind masks, twisted as if they had bitten into a bug.

They had toiled to thin the enemy’s numbers, only to find themselves back at square one.

A look of anguish crossed Maris’s eyes.

‘Should we retreat?’

The bloodline members still had some stamina left.

There were minor injuries, but no one had fallen, and their stamina and magical power were intact.

The problem was that if the enemy continued to heal their soldiers as they were now, they would have no chance.

Even if she wanted to ignore the soldiers and target the Lord directly, the frenzied gaze and bodies blocking her made that impossible.

A war of attrition with unknown limits.

They could still retreat for now, but later, even that option might become uncertain.

‘Is it right to keep charging into a fight where I don’t even know the exact odds? Shouldn’t we retreat while we still can and reassess the situation?’

‘But if we retreat now, what other options do we have? If we can’t catch the Lord, we’ll just be gradually worn down within the city.’

At that moment of Maris’s deep contemplation between two opposing propositions.

“Hmm?”

Adelheid, who had been fighting well, suddenly froze, her attention slipping away to some unexpected point.

Seizing that gap, the guards rushed in.

Just as other bloodline members were about to move to protect Adel, something fell into the square.

No, it plunged down.

Boom!

The sound of a shocking explosion, amplified as if it were multiplied many times, filled the air.

A large sack used for holding grains rolled across the ground, then slumped down.

At that unexpected spectacle, everyone froze.

The sack began to squirm, and then something shot out of it.

A white.

A hand so pale it seemed devoid of color.

Then came green hair, followed by simple yet somewhat provocative clothing that barely hid her figure.

Finally, the woman revealed herself completely, and upon seeing those staring at her in shock, she quickly glanced around and said.

“Oh my, everyone is gathered here. Is there a party or something?”

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