Chapter 157: The Tin Knight and The City of Scales (17)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 157: The Tin Knight and The City of Scales (17)
A deep silence fell.
The square was packed with at least several hundred people, yet not a single one of them dared to open their mouth and make a sound.
It was as if they were too busy processing the sudden turn of events, as if speaking now would somehow place all the blame for this catastrophe upon them.
The first to come to her senses was Maris von Lennart.
For the responsibility she bore was the heaviest of all.
Maris approached Adel and helped her up.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t seem to find any strength in my body…”
“Get on my back.”
Without even waiting for a reply, Maris hoisted Adelaide onto her back.
A few of her nearby kin, startled, tried to stop her, but Maris subdued them with a single glance, as if to say this was no time for arguments.
After instructing her subordinates to take care of Sophia as well, she left the square and ran toward the outskirts of the city.
No one tried to stop them.
The city guard had already been decimated by the successive battles, and the remaining soldiers were sprawled on the ground, their faces half-dazed.
More than anything, the strike Adel had shown earlier had been just that overwhelming.
So overwhelming that it made people hesitate even when offered the incredible reward of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.
That was the case even when the lord was alive; now that he was dead and the reward was uncertain, not a single person was willing to stand against them.
That attack just now…
The other members of her bloodline seemed to have missed it in the chaos of battle, but Maris had seen it clearly.
The violet, lightning-like energy mixed in with the signature golden mana of the Lion Duke’s bloodline.
As far as Maris knew, only three people in their bloodline had ever shown such a phenomenon in this generation.
And not one of them was an ordinary person.
One was the sword of the northern front, called the strongest of their bloodline; the second was Duke Lennart’s bodyguard knight; and the last was the prodigy of the Lennart family, who was far ahead of anyone else in the competition to lead the next generation.
A complex emotion flickered in Maris’s eyes.
And while she was lost in thought, the situation around her continued to change.
“The-the wall is collapsing!”
“We did it! We can get out!”
“I’ll be damned if I ever come back to this godforsaken city!”
Triggered by the collapse of the Scale, tourists fled the crumbling city and its walls.
“The Scale… its power is fading…!”
“Don’t tell me something happened to the Lord… cough!”
“You motherfuckers, you were so quick to chop off my brother’s head earlier!!”
“Now it’s your turn to prove your innocence! Go on, tell us you haven’t sinned after killing people as you pleased!”
The Justitia guards, belatedly realizing their lord’s death, fell into chaos.
The outlaws, who had been holding their breath under the guards’ oppressive authority and force, finally seized their chance for revenge.
“Lord Antonio, how could you leave us like this!”
“Oh, Lord, oh, Lord! I have done nothing wrong!”
“You wicked villains! Heaven’s wrath will surely fall upon you!”
There were citizens mourning the lord’s death, fearing retaliation from the Kingdom of Heaven, and hurling curses at those who were leaving.
Chaos and confusion filled the air.
The resentment that had been forcefully suppressed by the authority and power of the Scale had erupted all at once.
It was then, as Maris pushed on, leaving all the turmoil behind, that a shout reached her ears.
“Look, up in the sky!”
At first, she dismissed it as simple noise.
But as she saw more and more people looking up at the sky in response, Maris, too, paused for a moment and stared upward.
There was an angel there.
“—”
Everyone who saw it gasped in unison.
It was so high up that it was extremely difficult to make out the angel’s exact appearance.
They couldn’t tell what clothes it was wearing, what its face looked like, or what expression it wore as it looked down upon the earth.
All they could discern was that it had a human form and giant wings on its back.
And yet, its intense presence was felt without a doubt.
Members of the Lion Duke’s bloodline with their sharp senses, and a few others who could enhance their vision with mana, were able to see the angel in slightly more detail.
The angel wore a pure white dress. In contrast to its beautiful, holy aura, its face was contorted in a sullen scowl, as if bored.
Dozens of hats of various colors and designs floated around the angel’s head.
Round and round.
Round and round.
The numerous hats rotated around the angel, each showing off its own style.
The angel gazed at the procession of hats as if pondering which one to use, then, with a short sigh, chose a very deep, dark blue hat and placed it on its head.
An astonishing change occurred.
Intense sorrow settled upon the angel’s face, which had looked like that of a petulant child, and tears began to stream from its eyes.
The angel closed its eyes as if in mourning and, in that state, waved its hand.
The emerald barrier, which had crumbled and shrunk, responded to the angel’s gesture, gathering around her as light.
The turquoise light transformed into rain clouds, and soon a downpour began to fall over all of Justitia.
Pitter-patter…
“Dammit, what’s with the sudden rain… huh?”
“Oh, ooooh!”
“Thank you, thank you…!”
Those caught in the rain were initially bewildered, but their expressions soon turned to awe.
Because as the raindrops soaked into their bodies, all their wounds began to heal rapidly.
People fell to their knees, prayed to the heavens, and offered praise.
Even those who had been fighting shed tears before this overwhelming miracle and spoke words of repentance.
Even the members of the Lion Duke’s bloodline could feel their accumulated fatigue and injuries recovering.
There was only one exception.
Sizzzzzle.
Sophia’s skin, where the raindrops touched it, burned and seared as if it had come into contact with a dangerous chemical.
The clan member supporting her panicked, hastily grabbing a suitable cloth from a nearby market stall and wrapping it around her body.
Just then, the angel’s eyes turned toward Sophia and Maris’s group.
The angel shook its head from side to side as if in lament, then extended a hand in their direction.
A portion of the rain clouds pouring down on the earth transformed into a giant spear of water and shot forth.
Crack!
“Gah!”
One of the clan members who tried to block the water spear let out a groan and tumbled to the ground.
The sword that collided with the spear was shattered in a single blow, and a hole large enough for a human head appeared in the man’s chest.
It was, without a doubt, an instant kill.
Maris screamed.
“Don’t try to block it! Focus on evading!”
The futility of her command was proven moments later.
A second strike from the angel pierced another clan member’s head, killing them instantly.
“I’m… getting down…!”
Adel slid off Maris’s back.
Her complexion was still deathly pale.
Even the blessing of the mysterious rain was not enough to fully restore her depleted energy.
She gripped the sword of a fallen clan member and swung it with all her might at the incoming spear.
Maris, as if to help Adel, swung her sword as well.
CRACK!
The strike that was meant to claim a third life failed to reach its target for the first time, scattering in mid-air.
In exchange, both Adel’s and Maris’s swords broke at the same time.
And before they had a chance to regroup, another spear was fired.
Adel tried to block the attack once more with her half-sword, but as if to call her attempt arrogant, the sword shattered completely this time.
The remainder of the water spear, its force not fully offset, slammed into Adel’s chest.
With a sound like air escaping a balloon, Adel rolled across the ground.
Thanks to the body enhancement effect of her belt, she avoided instant death, but all sensation in her body vanished, and she couldn’t move a muscle from head to toe.
A high-pitched ringing mixed with the sounds of her clan members fighting back.
And a moment later, she could hear nothing at all.
In this desperate situation, Adel smiled.
It was not out of despair.
Even if she couldn’t hear, even if she had no sensation in her body, there was one thing.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ praises you for holding on so well!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to leave the rest to him!]
Because she could clearly hear the words of the teacher she trusted.
As a sudden drowsiness came with a sense of relief, Adel finally lost consciousness completely.
*
You quickly assessed the situation.
Two of what appeared to be Adel’s companions were already dead, their bodies pierced through, and the rest, while having avoided instant death, were covered in wounds.
It was ironic that those very injuries, which would have normally required immediate first aid, were gradually being healed by the rain that continued to pour from the sky.
You had heard of giving with one hand and taking with the other, but this was the first time you’d seen a tactic that involved blanketing the field with a wide-area heal for friend and foe alike, only to pick off targets one by one with an instant-kill move.
A spear of water flew toward you.
You swung your shield and blocked it.
Pop. You felt the astonishment of those around you as they watched the water spear burst like a water balloon against your shield.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he will provide cover, so you should all escape now!]
“Everyone, Sir Tin will cover our rear, so let’s hurry out of the city. And bring the bodies of your comrades.”
Sophia, who was draped in a large cloth that was clearly not waterproof and looked to be in poor condition, said this, and the one who appeared to be the group’s leader relayed the order.
Their ability to act immediately without pointless arguments was truly professional.
POW!
Another spear of water burst against your shield.
Neither your body nor your shield had a single scratch.
It wasn’t that the spear was weak.
On the contrary, in terms of sheer power, it was comparable to anything short of the Witch of the West’s mass-based attacks or the Kalidahs.
It was just that it was easier to deal with.
The technique seemed to involve shaping water into a spear and then coating it with an emerald light before firing. The moment the shield and spear made contact, if you tore through the surface coating, the rest was nothing more than a forcefully projected stream of water.
It might have been a different story if the water itself had immense mass or was mixed with sand or iron filings like a water-jet cutter, but since it was neither, it posed no great threat to you.
You wanted nothing more than to charge the enemy, but you had no way of attacking a foe so far away in the sky.
You decided to treat it as a battle with a gimmick and focused on blocking the attacks and escorting the group.
The enemy’s reaction was strange.
Even as its attacks were blocked one after another, there was no trace of anger or frustration in them.
The woman in the sky directed the same emotion toward everyone without discrimination—both the people she was healing with her power and the people she was trying to kill with it.
Mourning and lamentation, pity and sorrow.
In a way, her display of compassion for everything on the ground was extremely angel-like.
How much time passed as you deflected the attacks?
When the entire group finally made it out of the downpour’s range, the angel’s attacks ceased.
It seemed capable of pursuing you if it wished, but the sad-eyed angel simply focused on making it rain over Justitia.
You took Sophia and Adelaide from the Lion Duke’s bloodline and decided to move toward the rendezvous point where you were supposed to meet Dorothea.
The other party looked like they had a lot to say, but they nodded at Sophia’s explanation that she would ‘visit them later as originally planned.’
With their words of thanks behind you, you left the City of Scales.
—Teacher.
—What is it, Langwidere.
You etched the fact that the angel resembled the girl from the vision Sophia had seen when entering the city into a corner of your memory.