Chapter 156: The Tin Knight and The City of Scales (16)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 156: The Tin Knight and The City of Scales (16)
You watched the sack soar high into the distance, then plummeted to the ground.
CRASH!
The impact sent a heavy thud echoing through the air and a violent shock through your body.
A normal person would have shattered their ankles, legs, even their spine. But for your metal body, it was minor damage, easily healed by circulating your mana.
As you circulated mana through every corner of your body, the red mana Sophia had given you caught your eye.
In that instant, a series of short images flashed before your eyes.
—A young, brilliant girl.
—A woman teaching the girl.
—A turquoise light engulfing the sky.
—Splattering blood.
The images were too fragmented, too abstract to fully grasp their meaning.
Yet, you had a vague intuition.
This was something connected to Sophia.
Normally, you would have dismissed it without a second thought.
There’s no one in the world without a backstory, you would have thought. This is just another passing plot point.
This time, however, you couldn't.
“I’d love to hear your story, Sir Tin.”
Suddenly, you recalled something Sophia had once said in passing.
She must have been speaking to the Tin Knight, you thought.
Not to the player outside the monitor, whose very existence—dead or alive—was uncertain.
But the only story you could tell was that of the player.
And even then, you’d have to muddle through the specifics.
It was inevitable. You were the Tin Knight, yet you knew nothing about him.
You didn't know whether to feel sad or glad about that fact.
The very act of trying to strictly separate the two felt forbidden.
It was like endlessly pondering death, a question with no answer.
The more you thought about it, the more suffocating and heavy it became.
You shook your head, clearing the thoughts from your mind.
Whoever you were, whatever your situation, you still had adventures to complete and enemies to overcome.
That was enough.
Just like that, the air that had felt so heavy and oppressive grew lighter.
Feeling light and almost giddy, as if you’d pulled several all-nighters, you decided to focus on the present.
You had exhausted the mana in the shield’s gem, but thanks to the generous amount Sophia had left you, your main body’s fuel tank was full.
Of course, that alone wasn't enough to be optimistic.
Dorothea was still nowhere in sight, and the wall remained impassable.
But you were certain.
Since it was Sophia who had told you to ‘trust her,’ you knew she would deliver something to justify that trust.
And just as you expected, not long after Sophia went inside, the emerald wall began to slowly crumble away.
Given its immense size, it would take some time to vanish completely, but it looked like you’d be able to get inside soon.
Waiting for the moment to charge, you quietly gripped your sword.
*
“Ah, ahh…!”
“The power… the Lord is leaving us…!”
As if in response to the scale in the city center, the scales held by the guards across the city lost their light or shattered completely.
The guards, who had worn expressions of rapturous fulfillment as if possessed, now collapsed or wailed at the sky in a state of panic.
The soldiers near the wreckage of the scales still had a faint emerald light clinging to them, but it was fading like a guttering candle.
“L-Lord!”
“What on earth are we supposed to do…!”
The flustered guards in the square looked to their lord for answers, but he didn't respond.
He could only glare at Sophia, his eyes wide with fury.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? You’ve destroyed one of the Great Lord’s sacred relics! How will you ever atone for such a sin?!”
Sophia turned her gaze to the enraged lord.
And said one word.
“Who’s to say?”
To the dumbfounded lord, Sophia continued in a soft, gentle tone.
“Let me ask you instead: what did I do wrong?”
“How can you even ask that?!”
“But the scale’s judgment is absolute, is it not?”
She spoke with feigned innocence, yet loud enough for everyone present to hear clearly.
“The scale itself passed judgment. It declared that its use in this city was wrong. If you claim that judgment is wrong, then there are only two possible conclusions.”
Her half-lidded pink eyes stared coldly at the lord.
“One: the scale’s judgment was perfect, but you deny it simply because it conflicts with your own will. Two: the scale was never perfect to begin with, and you have been lying to everyone. So, which is it?”
“That is…”
The lord’s lips trembled.
He tried to refute her, but it was clear no plausible argument came to mind.
Everyone gathered in Justitia’s square watched the two of them.
They watched the Lord of Justitia—always so confident, so composed, so much like an absolute ruler—flounder, at a loss for words, while a mysterious woman backed him into a corner with her eloquence.
Cold sweat trickled down the lord’s back.
The lord, desperately trying to formulate a rebuttal, failed to realize one thing.
The moment he resorted to arguing with logic, the absolute divinity he held so dear had already vanished.
And the solution the lord finally arrived at was this:
“—I see. You… no, you! You were the monster all along! You came to obscure the Lord’s glory with your bewitching tongue and wicked power! Oh, Lord, forgive me! My eyes were blind, and I failed to stop them from destroying Your sacred instrument!”
Denial.
Deny Sophia’s words. Deny her existence. Deny the consequences of her actions.
It was childish, it was sophistry, but it was also a way out of this predicament.
“Everyone! Slay that wicked monster! Slay the demon who seeks to plunge this world into corruption! Do this, and I, the Lord of Justitia, swear upon my name to announce your great deeds to the heavens! I will ensure you a life of paradise in the Kingdom of Heaven!”
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
At the lord’s command, a murmur erupted from the crowd watching him and Sophia.
Those who had been dazed and confused, those who had watched the lord with distrust, and even those who had simply wished for the whole affair to be over—all of them now had a glint of greed in their eyes.
Indeed. No matter how flimsy the lord’s logic, no matter how plausible Sophia’s words, if they could silence her by force, it would all be over.
Justice without power was helpless.
Sophia didn’t consider herself a champion of justice, but if they came at her with violence, she had no way to resist.
Using her holy power here would expose her and create immense trouble for their journey. Besides, it wouldn’t be much help anyway.
“Oh, Lord! Grant your blessing to those who carry out your will!”
White holy power erupted from the lord’s body.
He gathered the shattered fragments of the scale, wrapping them around his body like armor. The holy power, touching the turquoise gems, grew even more brilliant, its strength amplified several, no, tens of times over.
Strength returned to the flagging guards, and spurred on by the light, some of the greed-blinded crowd rushed toward Sophia.
The Lion Duke’s kin tried to hold them back, but there were far too many enemies targeting Sophia.
A guard’s rough hand seized Sophia by the neck, slamming her to the ground. A mercenary raised his sword high.
The scene was seared into Adelaide’s eyes.
‘No.’
In that instant, the little lion felt something hot welling up from the depths of her chest.
With every beat of her heart, a fiery passion surged through her veins.
The fact that Sophia wouldn’t die from this was no excuse for the injustice she was suffering.
She hadn’t said a single thing wrong. She hadn’t harmed a soul.
The way they used violence and authority to crush Sophia—her companion—simply for being an inconvenience… that act burned away so much within Adelaide.
The fatigue and pain in her body were the first to turn to ash.
Her calculations and anxieties about the future went up in smoke.
Even the mercy that had long blunted the tip of her sword was incinerated.
Her master wasn't here.
So, she had to be the one.
Adel sank into her stance.
The tip of her sword pointed down to her left, her every muscle tensing like a bowstring drawn to its limit.
Within the brilliant golden flames, a vivid violet lightning crackled.
────!
There was no heated cry, no violent clang of steel, no sickening tear of flesh.
Only a single, beautiful, yet ferocious arc.
In the next instant, everything in its path was bisected.
The head of the man pinning Sophia down parted from his body. The warriors standing tall were severed at the waist.
Even the guards, protected by the emerald light that could deflect most sword strikes, were no exception.
Fountains of blood erupted into the air, staining a section of the square crimson.
Everyone stared, speechless with shock, at the small swordswoman clutching her greatsword.
Adel moved to swing a second time, but in the next moment, her sword shattered as if it had surpassed its limits.
And so did her body.
Thump.
Adel fell to one knee.
She tried to force herself up, telling herself this was no time to falter, but her body refused to even twitch.
Yet, even seeing her state, no one dared to move.
The strike she had just unleashed was that overwhelming.
“Ugh.”
The lord took an involuntary step back.
Then, as if ashamed of his own reaction, he shouted even louder.
“What are you all doing?! The monster and her companions are weak! Now, go!”
Conflict flickered in the eyes of the crowd.
The prize the lord offered was too sweet.
Before them lay the weakened Adelaide and the blood-soaked Sophia, prone on the ground.
As the scales of self-preservation and greed wavered violently…
“Ohoho… Lord. What a fine sight you are. That pathetic look on your face… it’s so refreshing.”
The voice was sinister, guttural, the pronunciation slurred.
But the emotion it carried was one of pure glee.
The words, directed at the lord, even held a hint of affection.
The lord reflexively turned to his right, but no one was there.
Instead, a voice whispered from over his left shoulder.
“Where are you lookin’? I’m over here.”
The terrified eyes of the lord met those of a man—or rather, a man’s head—lost in ecstasy.
The necromancer, his life’s last regret resolved and only vengeance left to savor, grinned.
“When you get to the afterlife, you can tell that Lord of yours… that Shylock sent you.”
CRUNCH!
Shylock bit into the lord’s ear.
In his gums, where teeth had long since fallen out, blood-soaked animal bone fragments were embedded like fangs.
He himself must have been in excruciating pain, yet Shylock reveled in it, utterly oblivious.
An ominous mana swirled around his head.
It was an overwhelming amount of malevolent energy, far greater than his own.
It was Dorothea’s mana, the ‘change’ she had given him.
The lord screamed something unintelligible.
White light seared Shylock’s head, and the emerald fragments tried to envelop the lord’s body.
It was futile.
KABOOOOOM!
An explosion even more powerful than the one the Tin Knight had blocked before ripped through the square.
The lord’s body was blown to smithereens, and his very soul, tainted by necromancy, was dragged down into the abyss.
The residual curse and poison mingled with the emerald fragments, canceling each other out until nothing remained.
The trial was closed.
In the courtroom, with neither the arrogant judge nor the wicked sinner left standing, only the audience remained.