Chapter 37
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Reverse Scale (4)
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"I shall deliver my judgment."
A parched voice cut across the courtroom.
At those words, every gaze turned to Rio Castor.
The king's opinion, voiced publicly for the first time in nearly fifteen years.
Everyone froze at the realization.
The minister clenched his fists, his face overcome with emotion.
"Finally..."
He looked up at the king with eyes full of tension and anticipation.
But his expression soon twisted in confusion.
"...Y-Your Majesty?"
Something was off.
I followed his gaze.
And I, too, could only swallow hard.
Rio Castor's face was no longer impassive.
Green eyes staring straight down at me, his forehead creased with deep furrows.
There was only one emotion etched on the king's face.
Anger.
For the first time in fifteen years, the furious king glared at me.
'Pathetic.'
That was his first thought.
Rio Castor surveyed the faces of everyone watching him.
They all wore the same expression.
Desperation.
Faint hope.
Faith and expectation.
The Foreign Affairs Minister seated far off on the plaintiff side, and even the queen pressed close beside him—they were all the same.
Faces entrusting everything to him, the king.
The sight filled Rio with utter disgust, beyond mere annoyance.
'What's the point of any of this?'
The trial itself was meaningless.
One word from him, and thousands of pieces of evidence and testimony would be swept away regardless.
His heart held no agitation, no wavering, not even curiosity.
No matter what was said or presented as proof, it would all end with the king's decree.
Struggles to save one young man.
Pressures to execute him.
He had merely watched them flow by like water.
Or so he had thought.
But now,
Having witnessed the entire spectacle,
His insides twisted.
A long-forgotten emotion.
His heart, sunken in grief, began to boil over.
His fingers clenched the armrest so tightly they nearly twisted.
'Why?'
He asked himself.
Why am I angry now?
Directed at what? At whom?
Rio ground his teeth at this sudden emotion he himself couldn't comprehend.
His green eyes scanned the courtroom, seeking its source.
And he realized.
This was anger toward the Central Officer.
'No. Not him.'
Toward the being behind him.
Toward the saintess bathed in that beam of light, and its source.
'God...'
Only then did the king understand why he burned with such rage.
This trial was a profoundly historic one.
The Holy Church's god had intervened directly for the first time to protect its saintess, while bolstering the Central Officer's stance.
At the same time, it shattered the pope's authority—an unprecedented miracle unfolding all at once.
Even he, who had long neglected state affairs, could grasp the situation from their gazes and exchanged words.
And foresee how the power dynamics would shift henceforth.
'The pope has fallen, and God has chosen the saintess.'
The implication was crystal clear.
The pope, swept up in fanaticism and clamoring for war, would fade away.
The saintess, who had cast herself out, would lead a new era.
The Holy Church would usher in a golden age of glory and revival.
And that's where his gut twisted.
That very fact ignited fury in Rio.
'If God truly intervened, if such a being really exists...'
He glared at the beam illuminating Erzena.
And posed the most fundamental question.
'Why didn't it protect my son?'
The saintess's words resurfaced.
- Innocent blood must not be shed.
She was right.
'Then what sin did my young son commit to deserve death?'
At the hands of his own aunt, no less.
What was so abhorrent about that talent awakening?
Defying the Church?
Because I didn't believe in God?
Then why spare the Central Officer now?
Why did nothing like this happen to me when I first defied the pope fifteen years ago?
Rage boiled over.
Emotions long dead roared back to life like wildfire, teeth chattering.
"One who receives God's love..."
He spat the words.
If there were those blessed with God's love and those forsaken...
How utterly unfair.
How cruel a world.
'Was Rasen then abandoned by God?'
Yet this insignificant youth merited such defense?
After stealing my beloved son from me, it now shields its favorite?
'Then I shall crush that love.'
Pathetic.
The Central Officer's fate lay in his hands now.
All it took was a verdict.
'Do as the queen wishes.'
One sentence, and all their efforts would dissolve into nothing.
God or no God, lop off the head first and be done.
A hollow chuckle escaped him.
Nothing held meaning for him anymore.
Not a new era, not future generations rising.
What was there to hope for in a world without his son?
'And now God intervenes?'
Absurd.
His gut churned.
He poured rage into his deadened heart.
A dragon stabbed in its reverse scale would surely rampage mad.
Thus, King Rio hardened his resolve.
"This trial..."
It would go the queen's way.
As he opened his mouth to say it, his eyes met the Central Officer's raised gaze.
"..."
Did he foresee the future, or merely startle at the king's expression?
Terror in his eyes, yet he didn't look away.
The Central Officer's final words suddenly resurfaced.
- There are no exceptions at the border. Honor the treaty. Remember your duty as a neutral nation.
Those words left another question lingering for the king.
With God's backing already secured, he had no need to step forward.
Had he stayed silent, no one would have dared defy the saintess supporting him.
'Yet why did he push aside God's proxy and deliver the closing statement himself?'
He hadn't relied on God.
Instead, he sent the saintess away and strictly invoked his duties as an immigration officer and the treaty.
He pondered it again.
'Why?'
It made no sense.
One graced by God's love, shunning divine intervention to resolve the crisis through his own power.
This contradictory scene plunged King Rio into thought.
What justified his rage?
Who must pay the price?
'Do as the queen wishes.'
The temptation faded.
The wildfire of emotion subsided into confusion.
And in its place, one thought emerged.
A way to deal with this paradoxical man.
The king made his decision.
"This trial..."
He delivered the final verdict.
"...is hereby declared invalid."
An verdict no one could have anticipated.
"!!!!!"
"!!!"
Shouts of shock erupted not just from the plaintiffs, but the defendants as well—like a thunderbolt from clear skies.
"Y-Your Majesty. What do you mean?"
"Invalid? Not guilty or not guilty, but invalid?"
I, too, was so stunned that I could only gape, head snapping up.
'Invalid? As if it never happened?'
The queen was the most shocked.
"Y-Your Majesty. Darling, what do you mean!?"
Forgetting this was a public forum, she clutched at the king's robes.
"Just like always, do as I wish—"
"Silence."
Not a parched whisper, but a majestic roar cleaved the courtroom.
Everyone fell instantly silent.
The voice unmistakably echoed the old king's.
King Rio rose slowly from his seat.
Green eyes blazing through unkempt hair dominated the room.
"This trial was convened due to the Central Officer Nathan Kell's arbitrary judgment on the defendant side, and the resulting diplomatic blunder."
"However, it has now been revealed that the plaintiffs fabricated charges against the defendant. Thus, there was no cause for this trial."
"I hereby declare this trial invalid. Furthermore, per the treaty, I order the immediate expulsion of the entire pilgrimage group from the kingdom."
"This is a royal decree and shall be executed at once."
A bombshell declaration.
Each word hammered down like a mallet.
"Acknowledge."
To his low command, all barely managed a response.
"""We obey the royal decree!"""
Finally, he muttered to his queen as if spitting.
"Never summon Us for such nonsense again, Queen. Not a second time. These are my last words on it."
With that, the king departed the courtroom.
- BAM!
The door slammed shut with a thunderous boom.
In the thunder's wake, suffocating silence remained.
His first cold words to her blanched the queen's face.
"Ah... Aaaah..."
Crushed by fear, she collapsed in place.
Not just the queen—terror gripped everyone in the courtroom.
"Wh-what in the world..."
Even the minister staggered, legs giving way.
This wasn't what we expected.
Not even remotely predictable.
The king had awakened.
But not with renewed vigor or will to govern.
He was enraged.
Like a dragon pierced in its reverse scale.
Unstable, precarious, yet fiercely so.
All the suppressed emotions of fifteen years blazed within him.
The king strode swiftly down the corridor, murmuring quietly.
"I shall watch you, Central Officer."
You whom God seeks to protect.
I won't touch you for now.
I will shield you, who forge ahead alone, uncompromised.
I will observe you, who defy God like a pebble against the waves.
But if you ever rely on God even once,
If you beg that loathsome being for love and aid,
Then I will kill you by any means necessary.
That is my wrath.
Revenge against God, mourning for my lost son, and the price for exploiting my decree.
With those thoughts, Rio Castor closed the door to the room bearing his son's portrait.
Along with the door to his heart.