Chapter 66

Leaving the magistrate who was clutching his throat and suffering, I turned to the woman.

The woman, supported by a middle-aged woman, seemed to want to say something but could only let out groans, her face filled with sorrow.

"Wait a moment."

I said to the woman and called Apophis.

"You detected the poison early. Can you neutralize this poison?"

*Easy. Same as breathing.*

Apophis, in his broken speech, seemed to mean that it was as easy as breathing.

After responding in this half-understood, half-not-understood way, a purple, toxic smoke emerged from my bracelet and headed toward the woman.

Apophis's snake staff, like Leviathan's water magic sword, can freely change its volume and is stored in my bracelet in a smaller form. It felt as if it had released "something" without returning to its original size.

"――!"

"Don't worry, I won't harm her."

The purple smoke, which looked extremely toxic, made the woman flinch and try to escape, a natural reaction.

I stopped her.

The woman hesitated, but before she could make her next decision, the smoke enveloped her.

The smoke entered through her mouth and nose.

It seemed as if she was inhaling it with all her might, and in an instant, the smoke was completely absorbed into her body.

She coughed and struggled.

And then.

"…Ah, I can speak."

"!!!"

The woman's voice returned, and those who heard it in the front row of the crowd burst into cheers.

"It was so painful, as if my throat was burning… Why?"

"I just neutralized the poison. I can't do anything about diseases, but I can handle any poison."

*I am the god of poison.*

Apophis said proudly in his broken speech. He conveyed his confidence that no one could surpass him in matters of poison, and I felt his confidence directly.

I found it reassuring.

"Really amazing. Hey, hey, how did you do that?"

The "auntie" on the platform was surprised and impressed.

If I had continued to indulge her, the conversation might have gone off track, so I ignored her and spoke only to the woman.

"Now you can speak. Tell me what happened. It's a false accusation, right? I'll help you."

"…Ugh."

The woman stared at me for a while, then silently began to cry.

I thought she would speak up to defend her innocence, but her actions were completely different.

I was a bit taken aback.

But I soon understood her reaction.

"Rena… my daughter… I'm Rena's mother."

The disjointed words that came from the woman's mouth.

Gathering the fragmented keywords, a certain image formed in my mind.

Frowning, I listened to her.

"Are you the victim's mother?"

"…"

The woman remained silent but nodded.

In the next moment, the crowd's anger reached its peak.

"What the hell is this!"

"Using the victim's mother as a substitute for the death penalty!"

"How corrupt are you!"

Shouts of anger rose from all directions.

I snorted in response.

In a way, I was impressed.

They had used the victim's family as a substitute for the death penalty.

It was a two-for-one deal—disgustingly so.

I couldn't forgive this—thinking that, someone threw a drink at the magistrate who was clutching his throat, and various objects started being thrown.

Like a rain of hail, various objects were thrown onto the platform and rained down.

"Huff!"

I drew Leviathan and cut them all down.

I burned the cut pieces with Bahamut's flames.

I deflected all the hundreds of flying objects without missing a single one.

"You're really something!"

The "auntie" muttered in amazement, still being "auntie" even in this situation, somewhat carefree.

Ignoring her, I addressed the crowd.

"I will not allow vigilante justice."

Shouts of anger flew at me, and the crowd's anger turned toward me.

How should I handle this? Should I weaken Leviathan's intimidation and silence everyone?

I looked around.

Roughly a thousand onlookers had gathered in the square.

It was a considerable number, but not impossible.

Just as I was thinking, "Alright, then—"

"Move, clear the way!"

"We'll arrest you if you don't move!"

A rough voice came from the crowd.

A group of properly dressed police officers emerged from the crowd and headed straight for us, climbing up the platform one after another.

Further developments, what would the official police do?

The crowd's expectations slightly outweighed their anger, and they entered a wait-and-see mode.

Among the police officers, a man appeared.

The man who led the police officers was—Don.

Don Oats, who could now be called my confidant, stood in front of me and said loudly,

"I apologize for the delay in the guard, Your Highness, the Thirteenth Prince."

He knelt and bowed.

Almost simultaneously, all the police officers he had brought with him bowed.

Don deliberately and clearly said "Your Highness, the Thirteenth Prince" so that everyone around could hear.

Silence spread like water.

After about ten seconds, as if someone remembered, the nearly a thousand onlookers gathered in the square began to kneel one after another.

In the midst of the kneeling crowd, only I and one other person were standing.

"Amazing…"

The woman who was about to be falsely accused also eventually knelt, pulled by the "auntie."

Standing alone among nearly a thousand kneeling people, I reaffirmed and ordered Don,

"Arrest Craig Hall immediately. Place his family under surveillance. If they can set up a substitute, they must have some assets. Confiscate their property after the sentence is confirmed."

Recalling the imperial law in my head, I passed the harshest legal judgment.

In the silence, my voice carried well.

It took about ten seconds for the meaning of the judgment to sink in—then.

The crowd erupted in cheers.

On the other hand, Don, who had received the order, did not move.

He remained kneeling in front of me.

"What's the matter?"

"Please allow me to speak. The previous Hall retired, but he once rose to the position of Chancellor. Craig Hall is his only grandson."

Don said this.

But his face, looking up at me from close range, had a mischievous smile.

His expression and tone did not suggest he was trying to stop me.

Rather, it was an assist to me.

Clever, I thought.

"So what?"

I suppressed my voice and glared at Don deliberately.

"Retired means he's just a commoner. Go."

"As you wish."

Don bowed again and gave orders to the police officers he had brought.

Some of them restrained the dazed magistrate, while others returned the way they came and ran to arrest the real culprit, Craig Hall.

"!!!"

The loudest cheers of the day rose.

"Great judgment."

"Not many can say that to a former Chancellor."

"His Highness, the Thirteenth Prince, is our lord, isn't he?"

"He raised the Appia Aqueduct to a special grade and his judgments are on our side."

"He's an amazing person."

Amidst the voices praising me, the incident of the falsely accused death row substitute came to a close.