Chapter 201: Champion Balak
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 201: Champion Balak
A square fence had been set up in the city's central plaza. It was the stage for the trial by combat. The citizens surrounding the fence waved toward the waiting area.
“Come on out! Hurry!”
Quick-witted merchants weaved through the dense crowd, selling snacks and drinks.
The atmosphere was festive. It wasn't strange. After all, trial by combat was one of this era's most popular forms of entertainment, rivaling even public hangings.
The city's influential figures, including Casino's father, the mayor, only took their seats in the stands after all preparations were complete.
They laughed and socialized, showing not a hint of tension.
“My son is one of the duelists, yet they don't seem tense at all.”
“They’ve decided that you, Balak, are no match for my son…!”
Hugo subtly tried to prick my pride. When I didn't even glance his way, he lowered his voice and whispered.
“Casino will be off his guard, too. Of course. Isn't he the man who's fought seven times and won all seven? If you exploit that opening, you’ll be able to take his head. Please, I beg you, deliver justice here today.”
“If I kill him, we won’t make it out of here alive, will we?”
Casino was the only son of the mayor, who wielded absolute power in Monju. If I killed him, we would never leave this city alive.
Hugo wasn't ignorant of that fact.
“I made my decision the moment I chose to stand against him.”
“And what about me?”
“I’ve prepared a horse at the entrance. The promised payment is in the saddlebags.”
Hugo pointed to the entrance of the waiting area. A single horse was tied to the fence.
But having a horse was no guarantee of escape. The crowd that had gathered to watch the trial was so large that it would be impossible to ride through.
Hugo couldn't have been unaware of that when he prepared the horse. This must mean it was all over for him. I swallowed the bitter laugh rising in my throat and gestured toward the stands.
“Who are those men? They look to be of rather high station.”
In the social gathering unfolding in the stands, two men were being conspicuously ignored. It was as if an invisible wall stood between them and the city's elite.
“That’s Baron Allanton and Bishop Quael.”
Just as I was thinking my informant had done a better job than expected, a voice cut in.
“Hmph. Fools. One is a liar, and the other is a cripple blinded by money. To think they’d walk right into the lion’s den after I showed them such magnanimity.”
My opponent, Casino, approached. He wore a bleached-white gambeson, and his neatly trimmed hair was slicked back with oil.
His leather belt gleamed, and his scabbard was adorned with jewels. He was dressed more for a ballroom than a duel.
“Look who’s talking! You shouldn't have touched another man's wife!”
“If you’re going to frame someone, at least make it believable. I’m not a thug who treats women carelessly like you. You, of all people, should know that, shouldn't you?”
“Nonsense!”
Hugo’s face flushed red as he trembled, glaring at Casino.
“Let’s end this pointless debate here. The outcome won't change.”
With a snort, Casino was the first to leave the waiting area. A roar of thunderous cheers followed, most of them from women.
Now it was my turn. I was about to follow Casino but paused to look back at Hugo.
“By the way, was it really rape?”
Hugo flinched at the sudden question. It seemed Casino wasn't the only one caught off guard.
I turned my back on Hugo as he belatedly tried to open his mouth. I’d already heard enough of an answer.
“That’s a relief.”
“What…?”
Leaving him in his confusion, I stepped onto the stage. The moment I did, a silence fell over the space that had been as noisy as a marketplace.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on me. I had also paid some attention to my appearance, though it was just a gambeson dyed black.
Well, as they say, a handsome face completes any outfit. The audience's reaction told me it was better than Casino's.
“Balak-nim—!”
“Over here! Look over here!”
The women I had met with Casino last time broke the silence. Soon, the crowd was chanting my name more than Casino's.
“Can we get this started?”
His face crumpling like a piece of paper, Casino shot a look at the announcer. The announcer quickly moved to reconfirm both sides' positions.
Hugo stepped forward first.
“Someone saw Casino near my house at the time of the crime! He said his clothes were disheveled, as if he’d finished his business in a hurry!”
“Who is this witness?”
“Domans! Domans! Come forward!”
Hugo raised his voice, but the witness did not appear. Casino, who had been listening leisurely, curled his lip into a smirk.
“Domans? Looks like you tried to bribe some drunkard with pocket change to be a false witness. Not a chance. Even a man like that knows to value his own life.”
“You…!”
After thoroughly mocking Hugo, Casino stepped forward.
“I have witnesses who can prove my alibi for the time of the alleged crime!”
There were two witnesses. Two lavishly dressed ladies came onto the stage and testified, glaring at each other as they spoke.
“At that time, Casino-nim was with me!”
“No! He was with me!”
Both testified that Casino had been with them. Alone.
Casino belatedly added that he had met them one after the other, but the audience's reaction was cold. Hugo, who had been shrinking back, didn't miss the opportunity.
“These witnesses have a close relationship with Casino to begin with!”
The witnesses' testimony was deemed unreliable. In the end, nothing had changed.
The ruler, with the consent of the city's administrative body, the Council, and the Church, announced the start of the trial by combat.
The announcer and Hugo exited, leaving Casino and me to face each other at a suitable distance.
“Haven't you heard the saying? If you lack ability, you should at least have the sense to know your place. You’ll regret not knowing when to stay out of things.”
How could he be so confident when he knew nothing about me? He was cunning, but still a frog in a well. I let out a small laugh.
“Are those your last words?”
“You bastard…!”
Casino immediately drew his sword and charged. He was fast, proof that he had trained with the sword since childhood and had never stopped.
He controlled the distance with dazzling footwork, swinging his sword relentlessly.
Although not a single blow touched me, it didn't mean he lacked skill.
Every one of his attacks missed by about a handspan. It was clearly intentional.
“Scared? You can’t even react! It’s too late for regrets now!”
He seemed to be hoping I would overreact. If I had so much as stumbled and fallen on my ass, I would have become a laughingstock.
But with my eyes that see the world slowly, I knew his sword wouldn't reach me, so I simply didn't move.
“Hmph, how boring. You weren't even worth my attention.”
Ignorant of the truth, he grew arrogant. In an instant, his movements doubled in speed. Despite all his taunts, he had been hiding his true skill.
‘So there’s a reason he’s won all seven of his duels.’
Trusting his speed, he launched a straightforward diagonal slash. The sword coming for my neck grew larger and larger. Beyond it, his eyes were smiling, as if he had already secured victory.
It was then that I moved.
I took a step forward, closing the distance, and raised my sword to block his attack.
I didn't stop there. I trapped his sword between the base of my blade and my guard, then twisted and pushed it outward.
My hilt naturally rose, and the tip of my sword pointed down. At its point was his neck, unprotected by the gambeson.
The blade pierced the side of his neck as if grazing it. I immediately retrieved my sword and took a step back.
“What? What just happened!?”
The audience was bewildered. It was because Casino was frozen in place, his sword held high.
To them, the series of movements must have looked like a single streak of light. If they had blinked, they would have missed it entirely.
Ignoring the murmurs, I flicked the blood from my sword. A few drops shot to the ground, leaving a stain.
Click. Just as my sword settled perfectly into its scabbard, Casino collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Blood gushed from his severed carotid artery like a fountain. A pool of blood quickly formed around him, growing larger by the second.
“He’s… he’s dead!?”
“Aaaah—!”
The gazes of the audience, who were only now grasping the situation, turned to the stands. Casino's father, the mayor, was on his feet.
“Casino—!”
He shoved his way through the crowd and ran, gripping the railing of the stands as he shouted. Not that it would bring his dead son back to life.
“No!!!”
Before he could shout again, a woman's scream pierced the air.
The owner of the scream pushed through the crowd to the front row, climbed over the fence, and ran to Casino.
In the process, she fell once, and her skirt, caught on the fence, tore, exposing a smooth thigh, but she paid it no mind.
Reaching Casino, she fell to her knees and wailed.
“Oh, my God! Casino! No…!”
“My lady!”
It was only when Hugo, who had belatedly rushed onto the stage, roughly grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away that I realized she was Hugo's wife.
The actor I had been waiting for had made her entrance. Soon, the final actor also took the stage.
“My son…”
As Hugo struggled with his unmoving wife, trying to pull her away, the mayor descended from the stands and approached.
“My son…!”
He was accompanied by twenty soldiers. As the soldiers swiftly surrounded us, the mayor shook Casino's body, his face a mask of indescribable emotion.
But the dead do not speak. The body’s chilling temperature was the only thing confirming his death.
“He was my first and last child, born to me in my forties. The only bloodline to carry on my family name. For such a son to die in a duel over a mere love affair. What cruel twist of fate is this…?”
Hugo's wife wept for the dead Casino. No one would mistake her for a rape victim.
People's gazes shifted to Hugo. Only then did Hugo release his wife's arm and face the mayor, a twisted smile on his lips.
“A twist of fate? Ha! Is that a fitting description for a scoundrel who went around touching other men's women? He paid the price he deserved!”
“Hugo…!”
The mayor glared at Hugo as if he wanted to devour him. The soldiers tightened their encirclement in response.
It was a volatile situation. Just as everyone thought we would die by the enraged mayor's sword, I spoke.
“Mayor. Are you denying the outcome of the duel?”
I glanced at the soldier pointing his sword at me before I continued. With all the actors on stage, it was time for the play to begin.
“The outcome? This trial by combat should never have happened in the first place! My only son was falsely accused!”
The mayor glared at me as if he wanted to kill me.
“Be that as it may, it was an officially sanctioned trial by combat. To deny it is to insult the Council and the Church who presided over it, and the Lord himself.”
A trial by combat was a form of ordeal. To deny its result was no different from denying the Lord.
“Nonsense! It is Hugo, who orchestrated this trial with lies, who is the sinner for using the Lord's name in vain!”
I shrugged.
“That is no concern of mine. I am merely a champion who participated in an officially sanctioned trial by combat. Even if there was a false accusation behind it, I performed my duty according to the proper procedures. You cannot hold me responsible.”
Realizing I was trying to get myself out of this alone, Hugo stared at me with a look of betrayal.
I found it absurd. Wasn't this the same man who had deceived me with lies and tried to drag me down with him in his suicide?
“How dare you! You think you can just walk away after killing my son!”
“Isn't the responsibility for this situation on the city's Council and the Church, who approved the trial without looking into the details?”
The mayor trembled with rage. After all, the head of the Council was the mayor himself.
What I was saying was this: Casino's death was his father's, the mayor's, responsibility.
And it was true. Casino had used the trial by combat as a stage to show off his fame, and to help him, the Council had recklessly approved it without looking into the details.
‘In the first place, a trial by combat isn't something to be approved seven times in a row so lightly.’
As I said before, because it was an ordeal, its result could not be denied. It was, in essence, a life-or-death gamble that a cornered person might resort to.
Had Casino not been the mayor's son, neither the Council nor the Church would have approved the trial. I could guarantee that.
“How dare you…! How dare you…!”
Of course, such rational arguments were lost on a father who had just lost his child. Judging by his face, red as if it were about to burst, I had only fueled his anger.
I took it a step further and mocked him.
“Don't you find this situation amusing? I heard that in the past seven trials, the families of those killed by Casino's hand also pleaded their innocence. You didn't draw your swords and question the validity of the trial then, did you?”
The glares from the spectating citizens grew sharper. They, too, must have had complaints about the scoundrel Casino and the mayor who protected him.
They had only looked away because they feared his power.
But things were different now. Weren't there countless others in the same position? People often find the courage to do things in groups of two or three that they wouldn't dare do alone.
Moreover, in such a public place, their anxiety lessened, and their suppressed frustrations began to surface.
Having guided the citizens' reactions, I subtly glanced at the stands.
Baron Allanton and the Bishop merely wore interested smiles, showing no sign of moving. It meant it wasn't quite time for them to step in.
But it was only a matter of time. For a father who had lost his only son, justifications would mean nothing.
“Shut up—! Kill that son of a bitch!!”
The moment the mayor pointed at me and ordered his soldiers to attack, the corners of my mouth lifted into a smile.
Thanks to him, I had found my justification. The justification to punish a villain who denied the will of the Lord and abused his power to torment the citizens.