9-Essence
9-Essence
"The peace within the cage is over."
Leard's voice split the square.
"Revolution of Fools. It begins."
0.5 seconds.
In that 0.5 seconds, the Beren City Execution Square came to a complete stop. The Holy Knights, the priest, the crowd, even the wind seemed to hold their breath for a moment.
That was the time it took for their brains to process what had just happened.
The execution platform's pillars had exploded, smoke rose, and someone had appeared from the crowd and shouted something.
The moment that 0.5 seconds ended, the square erupted all at once.
"Uwaaaah—!"
Screams poured from all sides, and the crowd surged toward the exit like a wave.
People shoved, tripped, and screamed. There was a woman running with a child in her arms, an old man stumbling after being bumped by the crowd, and someone frozen in place, holding luggage, unable to move anywhere.
In an instant, the entire square was in chaos.
But soon,
the Holy Knights reacted.
Chaeng. Chaeng-chaeng.
The sounds of swords being drawn rang out one after another, metal scraping against metal, shields rising, armor clashing.
A man who seemed to be the squad leader shouted.
"Alert! Everyone, stand by—! Crowd control top priority—!"
That was the moment.
The priest rushed out in front of the execution platform.
His white vestments were singed by the smoke.
He clutched the Holy Book in his hand and looked at the prisoners on the platform. Even though Ser had cut his bonds, he was still blindfolded and merely stumbling... unchanged, just the same.
The priest's eyes moved quickly, reading the situation. Unsurprised eyes. This person was trained.
The priest opened his mouth. Loudly. With a voice that echoed across the entire square.
"In the name of God, the judgment of this day shall continue to be carried out—!"
He was trying to force the execution to proceed.
If he could finish the execution even amidst the chaos, then Anfrey wouldn't be the one who stopped this unnecessary execution; it would just be a disturbance, and the justification would vanish entirely.
But.
The Holy Knights did not see the priest.
The squad leader glanced at the priest, then turned his gaze back to the crowd; the other soldiers did the same.
They knew the priest was saying something, but it was with eyes that couldn't hear.
At the entrance of an alley on one side of the square, Ori was staring at a palm-sized mana circuit chip with his eyes half-open.
It was flat and small, and his fingers, seemingly just fiddling, were precisely tracing the circuit.
It was sound interference.
It prevented the priest's voice from reaching the Holy Knights' ears; the crowd could hear it, but it didn't reach the knights.
It was a circuit that refracted mana sound waves only in a designated direction. It might seem strange that someone who processes information while sleeping made this, but because he was someone who could process information while sleeping, he could make it.
The priest raised his voice.
Louder, clearer. He tried to convey the order to continue the execution to the Holy Knights, but the sound, strangely, only scattered among the crowd and never reached the knights.
In the end, the Holy Knight squad leader made a decision based on his own judgment.
"Containing the chaos takes priority now! Find the source of that explosion! Track down the heretic—!"
Containing the chaos before the execution. Finding the one who caused the explosion among the crowd came first. Because they couldn't hear the priest's orders.
Leard, hearing that shout, did not move within the crowd.
Because this was what he had aimed for.
======
Leard recalled yesterday's meeting.
Yesterday evening, before the table in the warehouse.
Riche stopped her pen and looked at Leard, Cael set down his device and looked at Leard, and Ori looked at Leard with his eyes half-open.
Leard placed his hand on the map and spoke.
"Simply stopping the execution isn't enough."
"What do you mean, not enough." Riche put down her pen.
"We stop the execution. The citizens watch. And that's it. The next day, another execution happens, and yesterday's event is just remembered as a disturbance. It spreads like a heroic tale, then fizzles out."
"Then what do we need."
"A reason. The citizens need to see directly why we're stopping the execution, what the Church is doing."
Leard raised his eyes from the map.
"The Church's atrocities. What the Holy Knights are doing."
The table fell quiet for a moment.
"How do we show them that." Cael asked, unfolding his arms.
"We make the Church show it themselves."
It fell quiet again.
Leard continued speaking.
"The Holy Knights are a trained group. They act rationally under normal circumstances. But everyone has a moment when reason collapses—in chaos, under attack, when judgment clouds. That's when their true nature emerges."
"What do you mean, 'true nature'." Riche asked.
Leard said shortly.
"Violence."
The table fell silent again, but this time it was a different kind of silence.
"If we make them reveal that violence in front of the citizens, that itself becomes evidence. When the citizens see with their own eyes what kind of people the Holy Knights who protect the Church really are." Leard looked at the table. "That memory won't be erased."
Harlan, placing an old book on his lap, said,
"There's no memory stronger than seeing it with your own eyes."
"That's why we need smoke. A device to make the Holy Knights lose reason, and a device that reveals their true nature in that moment."
"Of course. This is just a staged scene. The true nature of the Holy Knights lies in something far more vile."
"What's important now is to let the public know, even if it's a performance, even if it's a lie. That's what matters."
"This act itself is a lie, but the fact that the Holy Knights are vile is a clear truth."
Leard looked at Cael.
"That device."
Cael opened his mouth and looked at Leard. With gentle eyes. After a moment, he said,
"That's me."
"It's dangerous."
"I know."
"It's really dangerous, Cael."
Cael picked up the device again. Tracing the mana circuit with his finger, he said,
"It's what I'm best at."
Leard looked at Cael for a moment and said nothing, but everyone knew. That it was agreement.
=======
The recollection ended and Leard opened his eyes.
It was the square again.
The Holy Knights were forming up and began pushing into the square, trying to shove aside the crowd and find the source of the explosion.
Their armor gleamed in the sunlight, the Church's sun emblem shining clearly.
And Cael began to move.
In the midst of the pandemonium where the crowd was running in all directions, Cael walked in the exact opposite direction.
Toward the Holy Knights. He didn't run. He just walked calmly, one hand in his coat pocket.
Inside the pocket were several palm-sized mana spheres. They were things Cael had made himself—blowing them up one by one, making them again, and blowing them up again, building them up by hand. The burn scars on his forearm were deep, as if proving that process.
Cael took out the first sphere, and
threw it to the left of the Holy Knights' formation.
Lightly. Like tossing a ball.
Puk.
The moment the sphere touched the ground, it opened. It didn't explode. The mana condensed inside was released all at once, and light and sound burst out simultaneously, engulfing the left flank of the Holy Knights.
Bbeonjjeok.
"Uwaa—!"
Three Holy Knights lost their sight.
It was a mana flash; if it hit the eyes directly, the vision would turn white for a few seconds. It wasn't permanent damage, but in battle, those few seconds felt like an eternity.
"Left side attack—!"
The squad leader shouted, and the Holy Knights turned their shields to the left; the formation tilted left.
In that gap, Cael threw the second one.
This time to the right. This one was sound. The moment the sphere opened, a high-frequency mana sound that pierced the ears was released—a specific frequency that stimulated the inner ear and shook the sense of balance.
In the middle of a fight, a sudden sensation as if the ground was shaking would surge. The heavier the armor, the quicker their balance crumbled.
Ujijik.
Three knights on the right stumbled, and one fell to his knees. He tried to stand but staggered again.
In full gear, if balance collapsed, they couldn't even support their own weight.
"Right side too—! Everyone maintain formation—!"
The squad leader shouted, but his voice cracked. He himself had been exposed to the high-frequency sound.
Cael took out the third.
This was smoke—mana smoke.
The instant the sphere opened, smoke large enough to cover the entire center of the square burst out and swallowed the view. It looked like just smoke, neither light nor sound, but this smoke was infused with mana. Inhaling the mana smoke slowed judgment; with judgment slowed, trained responses dulled, and what had been submerged underneath came forward.
It was Cael's calculation.
Explosion → flash → balance disruption → smoke. There was an order; it wasn't exploding all at once—it was layering.
Just as they were about to adapt to one stimulus, another came.
It was about not giving them time to adapt.
The Holy Knights' formation wavered in the smoke.
"Don't scatter—! Maintain formation in the smoke—!"
But maintaining formation in the smoke wasn't as easy as it sounded; without visibility, they didn't know where the person next to them was, and the sound scattered in the smoke, so the squad leader's voice lost direction.
In the smoke, the Holy Knights began to move. They wanted to find the source of the explosion. Pressure had come from three directions, so they had to find the source. That instinct came before maintaining formation. No matter how well-trained, when fear came first, instinct beat training.
Over ten Holy Knights started scattering in different directions within the smoke.
Riche looked down at the scene from the rooftop of a building, holding a communication magic tool.
"Cael. Is it going as planned?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Riche."
"What."
"Keep watching."
======
It was inside the smoke.
The Holy Knight squad leader was moving through the smoke. He walked, forcing back tears from the stinging of his eyes. He had to find the source of the explosion. He had to find the root of all this chaos and end it.
...Well, that's probably what he was thinking as he moved.
A silhouette appeared in the smoke.
A person. A silhouette standing in the middle of the smoke, not moving. He didn't run; he just stood there.
The squad leader's eyes narrowed.
That's him.
Standing there without running was proof; an ordinary citizen would have no reason to endure that smoke. That guy was targeting us.
The squad leader raised his sword.
"Over there!"
The shout erupted. The squad leader ran, and two soldiers nearby reacted and followed; four soldiers farther away heard the shout and turned their direction.
Six of them poured in toward the silhouette.
Footsteps echoed. The clashing of armor sounded. Breathing grew ragged.
Inhaling the mana smoke, their steps felt slightly hazy, but they didn't even have the luxury to notice. All they could see was that reactionary in front of them.
The silhouette came closer.
3 meters. 2 meters.
The squad leader raised his sword high.
That was the moment.
Seureureuk.
The smoke collapsed.
It wasn't that it cleared. The structure embedded within the mana smoke was recalled all at once; the moment Cael pulled the mana, all that smoke vanished in an instant.
The space that had been covered in thick gray opened all at once, and the morning sunlight poured in. It was cold, bright light. It illuminated the entire square at once, revealing everything in the place where the smoke had vanished.
The Holy Knight soldiers. Scattered in different directions, their formation collapsed.
And.
In front of the squad leader's sword.
A man was standing.
A man who looked to be in his fifties. He was dressed as a peddler, holding a bundle in his hand, and vegetable tops poked out from it. Carrots. Cabbages. Ordinary vegetables.
The man's eyes were filled with immense terror. Because right in front of him was the Holy Knight squad leader with a sword raised. The sword tip was pointing at him.
He tried to step back, but his feet tangled and he fell.
"Uwaaaah—! I-I'm just a passerby! I didn't do anything! I didn't even know this was an execution ground! I was just on my way to the market...!"
The hand holding the bundle trembled, his legs seemed so weak he couldn't even stand, and his face was on the verge of tears.
The squad leader froze just like that. With his sword raised.
He should have known without checking that the one in front of him wasn't the terrorist who caused the explosion. Why this mistake? Simply. The man had frozen because he didn't know where to go in the smoke.
The squad leader took a breath.
He was about to lower his sword.
But.
Soldiers swarmed from behind. They were the soldiers who had run over upon hearing the squad leader's shout in the smoke; their eyes were bloodshot and their faces stiff. They had been exposed to the flash, suffered balance disruption, and had inhaled mana smoke as they ran.
Those eyes looked ahead; there was a person in front of the squad leader, and the squad leader had his sword raised.
And soon, the soldiers' brains processed that and drew a conclusion.
That's the suspect.
"Stand right there—!"
"Wait—!" The squad leader tried to say, but it was already too late.
One soldier lunged forward, and the man stepped back, holding his bundle out in front.
"No! I said no! Look at me—! These are vegetables! Just vegetables!"
The soldier's hand grabbed the man by the collar, and the vegetable bundle fell to the ground.
Tuk. Tuduk.
The bundle opened and vegetables spilled out—carrots, cabbages—with dirt on them, rolling across the stone floor.
And soon.
The man was thrown to the ground as well.
Kung.
The armored soldier, without a word, without any confirmation, threw the man down.
The sound of him hitting the floor echoed through the square.
After that sound ended.
The square fell silent.
It was the first time the Execution Square had become so quiet. Screams stopped, footsteps stopped. Even crying stopped.
Hundreds of eyes were watching that scene.
The man collapsed on the ground. The vegetables rolling around. The Holy Knight soldier wearing a breastplate engraved with the Church's sun emblem. They saw the sword being raised.
In the crowd, a woman covered her mouth with her hand; the man next to her grabbed her shoulder; an old man in front clutched his cane tightly. A mother holding a child turned the child's face toward her chest. So they wouldn't see.
The squad leader looked down at the fallen man, then raised his head and looked at the square. Hundreds of eyes were looking at him. It wasn't fear. It was something other than terror.
For the first time, the squad leader realized where he was now. He knew how he was being seen.
=======
Cael stood at the edge of the crowd. His coat pocket was still heavy. Because unused spheres remained.
The Holy Knight squad leader turned his gaze this way. He had been noticing that man in the overcoat for a while. Because he wasn't moving in the direction the crowd was fleeing. By now, he probably knew that man was the source of all this.
Their eyes met.
Cael smiled. With gentle eyes. Always those eyes.
That such eyes could appear in this situation must have been the most unsettling thing for the squad leader.
The squad leader's mouth opened.
"That man—"
"Just a moment."
Cael spoke first. His voice wasn't loud, but because the square was quiet, it carried clearly.
"That ajusshi spilled all his vegetables."
Cael pointed at the ground.
There were carrots rolling. Cabbages. The dirt-covered vegetables were still rolling on the stone floor.
"How about picking them up for him?"
The square was enveloped in a strange atmosphere.
The squad leader looked at Cael, and Cael looked at the squad leader. With gentle eyes.
From the crowd, someone made a sound of suppressing laughter. Though it wasn't a sound that should come out in this situation. That sound twitched the lips of another person.
"Puhahaha-"
The squad leader's face turned red.
"Seize him—"
"Seize him?" Cael said.
"Everyone watching right now."
The squad leader shut his mouth. He was right. Everyone in the square was watching; they had seen the peddler ajusshi knocked down earlier, and they were listening to this conversation. If he seized him, it would just be the same picture as before.
The squad leader raised his sword.
But the whole square saw that sword point at Cael; it was the same sword that had been pointed at the peddler. This time, it pointed at this person.
Cael stepped back one step.
"Just what are you doing now?"
Each time the squad leader stepped forward,
Cael stepped back another step.
"Did I do something wrong?"
The squad leader stepped forward again.
The crowd watched that scene. Cael stepping back and the Holy Knight chasing, Cael stepping back and the Holy Knight chasing.
Cael had no weapon. He looked like an ordinary person in an overcoat. And the Holy Knight was chasing that person.
The murmuring in the crowd grew louder.
"Did that person do something?"
"Wasn't he just standing there?"
"Why are the Holy Knights acting like that?"
The squad leader came right up to Cael. Cael stopped; there was no place to step back further. The crowd was behind him.
The squad leader tried to grab Cael by the collar.
Cael grabbed his wrist. Lightly. With a force that didn't look like resistance.
"It's fine."
Cael said. With gentle eyes, in a low voice. A voice only the squad leader could hear.
"You've seen enough, haven't you?"
The squad leader narrowed his eyes. He knew that this person had wanted this from the start. He had come this far knowing that. He couldn't stop even though he knew. It was the result of reason collapsing.
Cael let go of the wrist and stepped back. He retreated as if stumbling. One step, two steps into the crowd. The crowd naturally hid Cael.
The squad leader tried to go that way, but there was the crowd—hundreds of people. If the Holy Knights pushed through them.
The squad leader stopped with his sword raised and looked at the crowd.
The look in his eyes was different from before. It wasn't just fear. There was something else mixed behind the fear, an emotion hard to name, but the squad leader knew it. He knew how a once-lit spark spreads.
======
Riche looked down at the whole scene from the rooftop. It was the square without smoke. A square filled with sunlight; the Holy Knights were frozen, the crowd was watching, and the execution platform stood tilted.
"A magnificent sight."
The formulas unfolded in her mind on their own. How many people had the memory created in this square been planted in, and how long would it remain?
Riche looked down at the synchronization device. Harlan's medicine had spread through the holy flame. Ori's sound interference had blocked the priest's commands. Cael had shaken the Holy Knights' reason. And the entire square had seen the result.
"...This is it."
Riche said quietly.
"It's a success."
======
Ori, at the alley entrance with his eyes now fully open, turned on the magic tool.
"Open all routes. Now."
Answering sounds came from somewhere. One, two, three. Five of them.
What happened in this square today would start spreading throughout the entire city by this evening. The peddler ajusshi. The vegetable bundle. The rolling carrots. The sound of being thrown down. The Holy Knights standing with swords raised toward the crowd. That look in their eyes. Those would spread along the routes.
Ori half-closed his eyes again. He looked like he was falling asleep, but his fingers kept tracing over the magic tool.
=====
Leard watched that scene from within the crowd. Vegetables were rolling on the ground, and the fallen peddler was slowly getting up.
Leard said in a low voice.
"That is the Church."
It was a voice the crowd could hear. It wasn't loud, but in this quiet, it strangely seemed to reach the entire square.
"Those who carry out judgment in the name of God. They're the ones who point their swords at a peddler carrying a vegetable bundle."
Murmuring began. Small at first. One person, two. People exchanging glances, but with a look as if confirming what they had just seen:
"I saw that right, didn't I?"
The peddler man who got up from the ground picked up his vegetables—carrots, cabbages—with trembling hands. While picking them up, he looked at the Holy Knights and met the squad leader's eyes, but the squad leader just averted his gaze.
That one thing told us much more.
========
I was standing next to Leard, watching that scene.
I touched my neck—there was nothing. A light, refreshed feeling.
Watching what happened in this square today, I felt I knew why the records from my previous life only listed this day as one of the successful operations.
Just as they said—
it was a success. The execution was stopped, three were rescued, and the true nature of the Holy Knights was revealed.
But there was something not in the records.
The emblem on the breastplate I had glimpsed at the execution ground entrance bothered me. It wasn't the mark of the regular Beren City garrison.
...A mark of the Holy Knight Commander's direct unit.
It was surveillance.
There had been eyes that saw everything today. Cael's magic, the moment the smoke cleared, the scene with the peddler and the Holy Knights, even Leard's words in front of the crowd. That would become a report and reach somewhere by tomorrow morning.
And you will definitely come.
Because that surveillance would have seen that I appeared too.
...Mae-hwa.
I silently repeated that name in my mouth for a moment.