Chapter 156

#156 Episode Tin Knight and the City of Scales (16)

As you fell to the ground, you caught a glimpse of a bag of cannonballs soaring high into the distance.

Boom!

The moment you landed, a heavy sound echoed, sending a tremendous shock through your body.

For an ordinary person, this would have shattered ankles and legs, maybe even their spine, but for you, with your metallic body, it was merely slight damage that would heal with a simple circulation of magical power.

While circulating the magic throughout your body, the red magical power you received from Sophia flickered through your mind.

In that instant, a series of brief images flashed before your eyes.

—A young, clever girl.

—A woman teaching something to that girl.

—A turquoise glow covering the sky.

—Blood leaping up.

The images were exceedingly fragmented and abstract, making it hard to grasp their full meaning.

But you felt an uneasy instinct.

That this was somehow related to Sophia.

Usually, you would’ve shrugged it off and moved on.

After all, no one in the world is without a story; this was just another passing setting.

But this time, for some reason, you simply couldn’t do that.

“I’d love to hear about the Tin Knight,”

You suddenly recalled something Sophia had carelessly mentioned once.

You thought she must have been referring to the Tin Knight.

Certainly, that player outside the monitor was not someone you could even confirm was dead or alive.

But all you could share was the player’s story.

And even that was nuanced with vague implications.

It couldn’t be helped. You were the Tin Knight, but you didn’t know anything about the Tin Knight.

You couldn’t tell if that fact was sad or amusing.

It felt wrong to begin clearly distinguishing between the two.

It was much like endlessly pondering an inquiry about death that had no answers.

The more you thought about it, the more suffocating and heavy it felt.

You shook your head to clear your thoughts.

Whoever you were, whatever the situation, you still had adventures to embark on and enemies to conquer.

That was enough.

The weighty atmosphere seemed to lighten with just that realization.

Feeling as if you had returned from days of sleeplessness, you decided to focus on the current situation.

You had exhausted all the magic from the jewel in your shield, but thanks to the abundant residual magical power Sophia had left behind, your core was fully charged.

Of course, that didn’t mean the situation was optimistic.

Dorothea still showed no signs of arriving, and the fact that you couldn’t pass through the walls remained unchanged.

Yet you were certain.

That since Sophia told you to “believe,” she would surely show you something worthy of that faith.

As expected, not long after Sophia entered, you saw the emerald wall gradually shattering and disappearing.

Due to its considerable size, it would require some time before it completely vanished, but it seemed you would soon be able to enter.

Waiting for the right moment to charge in, you quietly gripped your sword.

***

“Ah, aaaah…!”

“The power, it’s leaving, Lord!”

In response to the scales in the heart of the city, the scales held by guards all over began to either lose their light or break apart entirely.

The guards, who had been wearing expressions of sheer elation as if possessed by something, now collapsed or howled at the sky in panic.

The soldiers near the remnants of the scales still had a trace of emerald light surrounding them, but that too was waning like a candle being snuffed out.

“L-Lord!”

“What should we do…?!”

The guards in the square frantically sought answers from the lord, but he didn’t respond.

He merely glared at Sophia with a fierce intensity.

“Do you even understand what you’ve done? You’ve destroyed one of the Holy Relics of the Almighty! How do you plan to atone for this sin!!”

Sophia looked towards the agitated lord.

And with one phrase.

“Well, I suppose?”

With a face of utter shock, the lord found himself at a loss as Sophia continued in a gentle tone.

“But let me ask you in return, what exactly have I done wrong?”

“Is that something you call talking!!”

“Yet, the scales’ judgment is absolute, isn’t it?”

She spoke as if it were dubious, but ensured that everyone around could hear her clearly.

“The scales themselves judged: ‘To use oneself in such a manner in this city is wrong.’ If you call that a mistake, then the conclusion must fall into one of two categories.”

Her half-open pink eyes stared coldly at the lord.

“The first: The scales’ judgment was perfect, but you deny it simply because it contradicts your wishes. The second: The scales were never perfect to begin with, but you boast about your own perfection. So, which is it?”

“Th-That’s…”

The lord’s lips trembled.

He struggled to refute Sophia’s statement, yet seemed unable to conjure an immediate counterargument.

The entirety of Ustitia Square watched the exchange between the two.

The once confident and relaxed lord of Ustitia, resembling a deity, now floundered for words, while a mysterious woman pressured him with her discourse.

Cold sweat trickled down the back of the lord.

He desperately tried to formulate a rebuttal to Sophia’s words but failed to realize that in trying to persuade her through logic, the absolute divinity he had once held dear had long since faded.

Finally, the answer he arrived at was as follows.

“—Is it so? You, no… you are the monster! You’ve come to obscure the Almighty’s radiance with your vile tongue and wicked power! Oh Lord, forgive me! My blindness prevented me from stopping these minions from destroying your vessel!”

Denial.

Denying Sophia’s words, denying her existence, and declaring all resultant outcomes to be incorrect.

This was akin to a child’s tantrum and a web of fallacy, yet simultaneously, it was one of the few means to sidestep the current situation.

“Everyone! Subdue that evil creature! If we vanquish this demon pushing the world to corruption, I swear by the name of the lord of Ustitia, I will announce that achievement to the heavens! And then, I will ensure that you lead a paradisiacal life in the Holy Kingdom!”

The crowd murmured.

At the lord’s declaration, whispers erupted among the crowds watching the confrontation between the lord and Sophia.

Those who had been dazed, unable to comprehend the unfolding situation, those who had gazed upon the lord with distrust were suddenly fueled with avarice.

Indeed.

No matter how flawed the lord’s logic was, no matter how seemingly plausible Sophia’s arguments were, if they could silence her by sheer force, it would all come to an end.

Powerless justice is impotent.

Though Sophia did not believe herself to be just, should violence arise, her means of resistance were limited.

If her use of divine power was exposed here, it would spell considerable trouble for her party’s journey, and even if she did use it, it wouldn’t provide significant benefits.

“Lord! Let your grace descend upon your agents!”

A radiant divine power burst forth from the lord’s body.

He accumulated the broken shards of the scales around him, wrapping them on himself like armor, and as the sacred energy touched the turquoise gems, it flared even brighter, amplifying its strength to a magnitude of tenfold.

The guards, whose strength had been waning, felt their vigor returning, and some members of the avaricious crowd seemed stirred to charge towards Sophia.

The lion dukes tried to fend them off, but the number of foes targeting Sophia was overwhelming.

Strong hands from the guards gripped Sophia’s neck and forced her to the ground, while a mercenary raised his sword high.

That sight was vividly imprinted in Adelheid’s eyes.

‘No!’

At that moment, the little lion felt something burning deep within her chest.

With her pounding heart, a fiery fervor surged through her veins.

The fact that Sophia wouldn’t die from such an event was no justification for the absurdity she was facing.

Not one thing she said was wrong. She hadn’t inflicted harm on anyone present.

The mere reason they sought to suppress Sophia and her companions through violence and authority set fire to several emotions within Adel.

First to be reduced to ashes were the fatigue and pain that had accumulated in her body.

All the anxieties and calculations for the future were burnt away.

Even the compassion that had dulled the edge of her sword until now was incinerated.

At that moment, her master was nowhere to be found.

So, she had to act.

With a swift motion, Adel lowered her stance.

The tip of her sword pointed downwards on the left, her muscles coiled like a drawn bow, ready to unleash their power.

Within the brilliant golden flames, a purplish lightning danced vividly.

────!

There was no heated battle cry, no fierce clash of metal against metal, no signature sound of fabric tearing.

There was just one thing.

A beautiful and fierce trajectory was etched across the scene.

In the next instant, everything placed within that trajectory was cleaved in two.

The man’s head suppressing Sophia was separated from his body. The torsos of standing warriors split apart.

Even the guards, long shielded by emerald light, who had usually fended off blades with ease, were no exception.

A violent spray of crimson shot into the sky, and a portion of the plaza was painted red as if an eraser had wiped it clean.

Everyone was left speechless in shock as they turned to face the small-framed knight gripping her two-handed sword.

Adel intended to swing her sword for a second strike, but in the next moment, her blade shattered as if it had exceeded its limits.

And her body followed suit.

Thud.

Adel sank to one knee.

Though she attempted to stand once more, this was not the time; her body wouldn’t even budge an inch.

Yet even seeing her fall, the people stood frozen, unable to move.

That was how overwhelming her previous blow had been.

“Ugh.”

The lord took an instinctive step back.

And soon feeling the shame of that action, he shouted even louder.

“What are you all doing! The demon and its companions are weakened! Now, hurry!”

The glimmer of conflict danced in the people’s eyes.

The lord had presented a sweetness too tantalizing.

The sight of Adel, weakened and blood-soaked, lying on the ground alongside Sophia.

At the moment when the scales of hope and greed swayed.

“Ho ho…. Lord. That’s quite a sight. Seeing that pitiful figure brings me such joy.”

It was a dampened, muddled speech, indistinct in its pronunciation.

Yet the cheerfulness conveyed within those words was all too apparent.

There was an affectionate note intertwined within that address directed towards the lord.

The lord reflexively turned to his right, but found no one there.

Instead, someone whispered from the left shoulder of the lord.

“Where are you looking? This way.”

The horrified eyes of the lord met with those of a man whose face was soaked in his own blood, leaving only his eyes and neck visible.

The necromancer, who had finally resolved any lingering attachments in life, was now free to revel in the vengeance that remained.

“Tell the one you believe in on the other side, your sending was by this Shylock.”

Crunch!

Shylock bit into the lord’s ear.

His gums, filled with missing teeth, had jagged pieces of a blood-soaked animal bone lodged within them like needles.

Even Shylock must have felt intense pain from the act he was performing, yet he showed not an inkling of awareness, only delight.

A strange magical power gathered around his head.

Far more than the magic he originally possessed, an overwhelming presence filled with malice.

It was the residual magical power handed over by Dorothea labeled as ‘change.’

The lord screamed out in despair.

White light ignited Shylock’s head while emerald shards began to envelop the lord’s body.

Yet that was an exercise in futility.

Boom!

An explosion erupted, even more intense than the one blocked by the Tin Knight last time.

The lord’s flesh was blown to bits while his remaining soul fell into the abyss due to necromancy.

The remaining curses and toxins mixed with the emerald shards, cancelling out and being obliterated.

The trial was over.

Neither the arrogant judge nor the wicked sinner remained in the courtroom, leaving only the spectators behind.

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