“Heh, contemptible insect…”
Liliya’s lips parted slightly, and a massive ring of light descended from the sky. The web woven by chaos instantly turned to dust.
How… could this be!
The threads shattered, and along with them, her eyes were shredded to pieces.
“Ugh!” Sophia howled in agony, tightly covering her eyes, but blood still seeped through the gaps between her fingers.
“You… you are… how could you!”
Liliya said nothing.
Lafeier: ‘What’s happening?’
‘He just struck a super cool pose for no reason. I thought he was going to unleash some big move, but he died there like some roadside trash?’
Everyone looked at Sophia in confusion.
From their perspective, after Sophia mumbled a few incomprehensible words, her eyeballs suddenly exploded.
What did that mean?
Were you here to rescue someone or to be a joke?
“Why… my demon eye. It could manipulate anyone at will, even priests…”
While everyone was baffled, Sophia suddenly roared:
“Lafeier… Lafeier, it must be you, Lafeier! Who else but you could be immune to my magic and control minds?”
“Urghhh—!”
“Lafeier, how dare you destroy my inheritance! I want you, I want you dead!”
For some reason, even though Sophia had lost both eyes, she still charged straight toward Lafeier with uncanny accuracy.
Facing Sophia, Lafeier was already prepared.
His pressure contracted, and the immense weight that had been bearing down on the seventy-nine mercenaries instantly dissipated, gathering instead onto Sophia.
Unexpectedly, Sophia only faltered for a moment before breaking through the pressure’s restraint and lunging to bite Lafeier.
But even without the pressure, the crazed Sophia could not reach Lafeier.
The difference in size and strength would be magnified tenfold in pure close combat.
Though Liliya stood coldly aside, she was ready to act at any moment.
“Young master, at this level, you should be able to handle it, right?”
Lafeier took a step back. Sophia lunged at nothing, and then Lafeier grabbed her like a top, slapping her several times.
Slap—!
Slap—!
Slap—!
The woman shrieked wildly. Lafeier just found it baffling.
“I already knew you were the one pulling the strings, but now you’re like this…” Lafeier paused and slapped her again. “You’re putting me in a tough spot.”
“You… you’ll die a miserable death!” Sophia snarled ferociously.
“Just a crazy hag…”
Slap—!
Slap—!
Slap—!
“Don’t blame me for not having any pity for the fairer sex,” Lafeier said, casually tossing Sophia aside. “If you want to stir up trouble, you need to be ready to face the consequences.”
Since last night, Lafeier had identified Sophia as a traitor through her loyalty:
[Individual Name: Sophia]
[Position: Chief Guard]
[Loyalty: -80 (She wishes she could cut you into a thousand pieces)]
[Loyalty Change: -4 → -80]
“That’s a steep drop. I didn’t even do anything.”
“Your own eyeballs exploded. You came up here to take this beating yourself. In the end, you still blame me?”
“How innocent am I, Lafeier!”
“I’m trembling in rage. Do we men have to be wronged like this by you for no reason?”
In an unnoticed corner, Liliya: ‘Hehe… Young master is so handsome… hehehe…’
“Liliya,” Lafeier turned to Liliya. “Keep an eye on Sophia. She’s still useful. Be careful.”
“Yes, Young master.” The maid replied expressionlessly, walking over to Sophia.
“This way, Miss Sophia (Get over here now, you filthy worm).”
Sophia lay on the ground, murmuring some strange words.
“My lord, my lord… don’t… don’t abandon me…”
Seeing Sophia unresponsive, Liliya simply grabbed her by the clothes and dragged her up to the second floor.
“What… exactly happened?”
At the entrance, Estina stared blankly as Sophia was dragged upstairs like a stray dog by an unknown maid.
Her former colleague was now in such a wretched state.
“How… satisfying!”
“You always acted all mysterious and pretentious, thinking the world revolved around you just because your family had a few coins!”
“Look at you now, beaten into a pig’s head. Pfft~”
It was all very inexplicable, but also immensely gratifying. Who cared about the reasons?
Meeting Lafeier’s gaze, Estina bowed in salute, then escorted Lanse out the main gate.
The gallows stood at a corner of the outer square. Though off to the side, the view was excellent; the wooden platform rising in the corner was visible from all directions.
Six ropes hung in midair. The dark-brown crossbeam above had been worn into many splinters by the friction of the ropes. The wooden planks below were unusually clean, which only made the thick, murky death seem all the more sinister and terrifying. An eight-step long wooden staircase connected the platform to the ground. Weeds had already sprouted from the cracks filled with crushed stone, writhing toward the sky like bloodthirsty ghosts. It looked tidy from afar, but standing in its midst was nothing but chilling.
A chaotic, formless sensation drifted through that patch of air, dull and sticky. No matter how fiercely the sun shone on the gallows, no matter how dry the air, a turbid, milky liquid always evaporated from the frame.
Only three people could walk up to this gallows without hesitation to execute:
Chief Guard Estina, Chief Guard Sophia, Chief Guard Rena.
Purity of the body prevented them from being tainted by death—a tradition from the empire.
A constitution attuned to the Holy Spirit kept them from bearing the karma of killing—so said the occultists.
Of course, the most important thing was that the three of them were indifferent to death itself.
Estina did not fear death. Sophia embraced death. And Rena held a mocking attitude toward it.
“Now, die.”
There was no ceremony or prayer. Estina genuinely hoped this demon would go to hell as soon as possible.
She pulled the lever. The trapdoor opened.
“Guh—!”
Lanse dropped instantly, but he did not fall completely. Half of his body remained on the platform.
Hanging uses the weight of the falling body to snap the neck. The victim would die within a few dozen seconds.
But if the drop height was insufficient and the neck wasn’t completely broken, the victim would slowly suffocate in the excruciating pain of torn muscles and bones.
Strangulation.
Except with an extra layer of violence, intimidation, and deep suffering.
In the main hall, through the open gate, the gruesome scene was exposed to everyone.
They—especially the mercenaries—watched as that once-arrogant mercenary captain, that brigand who plundered and committed every evil, faced with a mere rope, could only thrash for a few minutes of survival before going stiff and blue-faced, suspended from the rope. All of them felt chills down their spines.
They had had countless chances to rush onto the platform and chop that damned warden into pieces.
But why had they remained rooted in place?
Even when the inexplicable pressure disappeared for a moment, they still couldn’t take a step.
It was as if the young man standing on that platform was born to rule over them.