Judgment. Rest. And Aftermath (3)
After talking Han Sora out of the negligee she'd prepared and spending a peaceful night getting ready for the next day…
In the blink of an eye, that day arrived.
May 8th.
10:00 a.m.
The former First Assembly Hall of the former National Assembly Building.
Once upon a time, the people of the Republic of Korea had locked into a fixed idea of this place as nothing more than a circus where the representatives they'd elected with their own hands screamed, threw punches, and brawled. In the wake of the apocalypse, at this very moment, the chamber was serving an entirely different purpose. No longer a stage for politicians, it had become a space for the survivors who had made this place their home.
Well, in fairness, the function itself still suited the hall. Even "impeachment"—a kind of death sentence for politicians—had been carried out here, after all.
But watching an actual criminal trial unfold in the First Assembly Hall, once called the pinnacle of the legislature, was undeniably a fresh sight. So it was hardly strange that the seats once packed with National Assembly members were now filled entirely by residents.
Everyone wanted to see it with their own eyes. The desire to witness how their territory's first official trial would unfold was plain on every face.
At the highest seat in the chamber—the place once occupied by the Speaker of the National Assembly—sat a man in full dress uniform.
Yes. That would be me. Jeong Hoon. The same man who, until not long ago, had been spouting nonsense in that bizarre way of speaking.
Of course, considering that this man had claimed the National Assembly Building (now requiring a "former" or "ex-" in front of the name) as his castle and ruled Yeouido as his territory, it wouldn't be strange to call him a person of high standing anymore.
Park Seeun and Han Sora sat to either side of me. Originally the seats of the Deputy Speakers—now they sat there as my guards.
And on the platform set below the highest seat, looking up at us… stood the criminal Han Daegeon. Grinding his teeth, glaring up at me with bulging eyes. Utterly insolent. His lover at his side.
"That concludes the defense."
To the left of the platform stood Kim Seyeon as the prosecutor; to the right, in the defense counsel's seat, sat Yun Mina. Both were dressed more or less as usual, and both had finished their roles in rather languid tones before settling into their fine chairs.
The spectators and jurors watching them mostly looked puzzled, or else regarded them with a touch of hostility.
A lawyer. That much was fine. But the lawyer for none other than the monstrous Han Daegeon!
Countless people were shocked and suspicious that Yun Mina had volunteered for the role. Some even whispered among themselves that she must have some impure motive for taking it on.
Of course, Yun Mina's hidden reason for shouldering that burden had long since been known to me and my women. Before the trial began, Yun Mina herself had whispered it to us.
This trial is going to be an excellent precedent. It'll leave people with a deep sense of certainty.
Certainty? What do you mean, Mina?
The belief that no matter what crime someone commits—no matter how heinous—this territory won't just execute them on the spot. That we'll hold a proper trial and even appoint a lawyer. The kind of certainty that fits the common sense of people who still remember modern civilization.
Faced with Yun Mina's shrewd judgment, Kim Seyeon and I could only click our tongues in admiration. Even without an official post (she'd refused one herself), someone recognized as my close aide taking the role of defense counsel would certainly foster that kind of expectation.
The expectation that even if you committed a grave crime—or got tangled up in suspicion of one—and stood trial, someone of high standing would still take on your defense.
Ah. And there was one more hidden reason.
Before we go in, I'll have a little chat with that Han Daegeon bastard. That piece of shit only spouted garbage in front of you, Orabeoni… but if I step up saying I'll defend him, that I'll work the sentence so he can sit pretty in comfortable confinement, he might spill everything. No—he will. Han Daegeon is the kind of bastard who'll throw away friends and lovers alike if it means saving his own skin. He already proved that, didn't he?
Han Daegeon. I'd faced him several times since locking him in the basement… and every single time, his attitude went past disgusting straight into the absolute peak of ugliness.
Even though what he'd done wrong had already been laid bare—even though those very acts were the charges on which he was being tried—he maintained not a low posture but a high one, hurling curses and abuse at me.
Four hours before this trial, when I'd gone to see him one last time…
Hey, you son of a bitch! You gonna untie me right now or what!? What the hell did I do so wrong to deserve this treatment… and you dare lock up my girlfriend too!? You fucking bastard!
…he'd thrown a full-blown tantrum. Enough to make even nonexistent goodwill evaporate on the spot.
…What the hell is this guy even counting on, acting like that?
Denial of reality, maybe? He never saw you kill the Vampire Lord with his own eyes.
Should I butcher a troll right in front of him so he'll believe it a little?
I doubt it. Types like him would just call that a show and refuse to believe it anyway.
It was so pathetic and absurd that Kim Seyeon and I had ended up trading banter like that.
That extreme negativity of his probably originated, as Kim Seyeon said, from the fact that he hadn't been in his right mind when I fought—he'd been unconscious. I'd beaten the bastard unconscious for sexually harassing Yun Mina, after all.
And when he came to, the residents had been showing open hostility and trying to kill him—only to stop at a single word from me—after which he found himself bound alongside his girlfriend.
…
Meanwhile, the so-called girlfriend hadn't said a single word, as if she'd given up. She seemed to have accepted reality. She might even have decided that was far better than thrashing around beside him begging to be killed.
Well… the atmosphere in the courtroom did show a stark difference between the two of them.
First, Han Daegeon. The mood among the spectators and jury regarding him was simple.
Death. Anything short of that verdict would have sparked a riot on the spot. Seeun or Sora could have handled it if one broke out, but still…
By comparison, Han Daegeon's girlfriend… what was her name again? The materials Kim Seyeon had handed me had it written down…
Ah, here. Yeon Ju-hui! Public opinion on her was quite bad as well, but at least it didn't rise to the level of demanding her death. She was mainly condemned for riding Han Daegeon's coattails and enjoying the benefits.
Well, weighing all of this and delivering the verdict was my role…
"The jury's consolidated opinion… my lord."
Beside me, Park Seeun passed over a small slip of paper.
The jury foreman had given it to Park Seeun, who received it on my behalf and handed it to me. I checked it briefly, then carefully raised my voice.
"Having considered the statements, the arguments, and the opinion of the jury… I now deliver judgment upon the defendants Han Daegeon and Yeon Ju-hui."
The air changed. The hostile atmosphere turned ice-cold in an instant, and every gaze locked onto me.
After a beat, I answered those stares with the sentence.
"Defendant Han Daegeon. As the one who once gathered human survivors, you led approximately three hundred of them toward Seoul Station in Gangbuk, engaged the Vampire Lord in battle, then surrendered and sold out your fellow survivors to the Vampire Lord in exchange for your own safety and that of your girlfriend. Of these, roughly one hundred fifty died, and approximately one hundred more went missing or suffered life-threatening harm. The gravity of this crime is therefore judged to be extremely severe."
Carefully, I picked up the gavel beside me. A small wooden mallet.
The same gavel the Speaker of the National Assembly had once used.
"Therefore, upon the defendant Han Daegeon… I sentence you to death. The method of execution shall be hanging, to be carried out immediately after sentencing in the execution chamber."
The moment the sentence left my mouth, I struck the gavel three times.
Bang. Bang. Bang!
"Waaaaaah!"
"Justice has been done!"
"Long live Lord Jeong Hoon! Long, long live!"
"Everyone! Order, please—order!"
"Th-the trial isn't over yet! Everyone, please be quiet!"
At the verdict I'd handed down to Han Daegeon, the countless people seated in the gallery—once the seats of National Assembly members—erupted in cheers.
But it was still too early to celebrate. Delivering Han Daegeon's sentence wasn't the end of my duties.
While Park Seeun and Han Sora raised their voices to calm the crowd, I could see Han Daegeon's face crumple past mere defeat into pure despair. Unlike Yeon Ju-hui beside him, who remained relatively composed, he nearly screamed.
"Th-this can't be…! Death—a death sentence!? What kind of law is that supposed to be…! Hey, Yun Mina! You fucking bitch! You said I wouldn't die! You said there was a high chance it'd end at life imprisonment, you goddamn fucking biiiiitch!"
Hearing Han Daegeon's shriek, Yun Mina reacted from the defense counsel's seat. With a rather exaggerated expression, she murmured words that carried both sorrow and mockery.
"Oh my, oh dear! I did my very best, and yet this dreadful result…! That's why you should have sold people out in moderation, Daegeon! I gave it everything I had, and look how it turned out!"
"W-what did you just say!? You—you fucking—I'll kill you right now…! You filthy slut Yun Miiiinaaa!"
"Order! Order! Maintain order!"
Bang. Bang. Bang!
Han Daegeon screamed again at the top of his lungs, but his voice was almost completely drowned out by the crowd's cheers and the crack of my gavel.
By the time the cheering subsided, he had poured every last scrap of strength into his shrieking; he could only lean against the platform, letting out despairing groans.
"Next. Defendant Yeon Ju-hui!"
When I called her name, Yeon Ju-hui—who had stood calmly until now—finally flinched and reacted.
"As a member of the human survivors, you stood by Han Daegeon and shared his cause. Considering that when Han Daegeon abandoned his comrades, he used your safety as the pretext for selling them out, it cannot be judged that the gravity of your crime is light. At the same time, however… it also cannot be said that the defendant's own will was included in the evil deeds Han Daegeon committed. Therefore, upon the defendant Yeon Ju-hui… I sentence you to imprisonment in the castle's underground sector for the duration of the Sanctuary's settling-in period, after which you shall be exiled beyond the territory!"
Bang. Bang. Bang!
This time, there was none of the earlier heat. The reaction from the audience and jury amounted to little more than nods and murmurs of figures as much.
Some might have been dissatisfied that she was being locked up for a month in the "safety" of our territory… but this was closer to a bitter necessity.
If I drove Yeon Ju-hui out right now… it could plant the seeds of unforeseen trouble.
It had been the same during the Clean Zone days. Whether inside the territory or outside it, opportunistic hyenas had swarmed in, scheming to snatch those benefits for themselves. That was why the Hope's Wings Guild had been tormented until they finally crossed over to Seoul. If no one had known, it might have been different—but that damned Administrator bastard had blasted nationwide advertisements every time a Field Boss or Area Boss was defeated.
So if I cast Yeon Ju-hui out this very moment, the possibility that she'd end up joining some gathering of trash like that wasn't zero.
For example—spreading malicious rumors about us to other factions, leaking information, rallying them against us… she could generate all kinds of headaches for our territory.
Of course, the odds were far higher that Yeon Ju-hui would be driven out and simply die at the hands of monsters… but even so, the "what if" could never be ruled out.
As that cautionary example of preparedness rose again in my mind, a bitter feeling washed over me for a moment.
Why did the protagonist of that example have to be Seo Hyejin, of all people? Why was the one who left so much behind for us, who died so wretchedly, Seo Hyejin?
After dwelling briefly on that sad memory, I opened my eyes again and swept my gaze across the entire chamber. I could feel the expectant light in so many eyes.
They were hoping for it. They wanted the judgment to conclude like this. They wanted a period put on this satisfying occasion.
In that case… as a proper lord, I had no choice but to grant that wish.
"With this… I declare the trial concerning the criminal charges against Han Daegeon and one other to be concluded!"
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang!
"Waaaaaaaah!"
"Long live! Long live!"
Cheers thundered at a level that could scatter the soul. Residents who had gotten the result they wanted rose from their seats and unleashed a roar thick with praise.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuuck…!"
And the criminal who had been thoroughly condemned muttered his feelings like a death rattle, chewing and spitting the words—
"…At least I'll get to live for another month."
While his accomplice of a girlfriend simply accepted her sentence with quiet composure.