Clo was dead.
Jiang Shu, wearing a thick, fleece-lined sweatshirt, instinctively took a sip of soy milk but failed to pick up a stead bun from his plate.
Displayed on the Simulated Light Screen was an official video that had just been released.
In the video, a man with a cloth sack over his head was being shoved before a dieval gibbet. He was held in place by two chanical Soldiers standing behind him, motionless beneath the gallows.
The gallows, painted with black lacquer, stood like a vast stage with three or four massive logs forming its fra. From the middle crossbar of the fra dangled a rope, its end tied into a noose.
Hanging, an execution thod exclusive to the old Nobles but considered an insult to them because of the imnse pain experienced upon death, was a form of punishnt that had been abolished even in the old days.
Now, to create such an insulting gallows was indicative of the Three Major Groups’ rage over Clo’s actions.
Arrayed below the gallows was a neat formation of soldiers clad in Armor. They wore fully enclosed helts, their faces and eyes invisible, right arms cradling rifles, standing as tall and straight as poplars in the Gobi Desert.
Within the execution ground captured in a wide-angle shot, the dieval gallows stood in silent confrontation with the futuristic chanical Soldiers, hiding a suffocatingly terrifying atmosphere in the silence.
It seed they had received a signal; two soldiers reached for the rope, placing the noose around the hooded man’s neck through the sack and then sharply pulling tight.
After the preparations were completed, the two chanical Soldiers turned and walked away from the gallows, and the wooden platform beneath the man’s feet was instantaneously withdrawn.
The man flailed his legs in the air, his hood rapidly contracting and then bulging due to asphyxiation, and the rope swayed slowly back and forth with his twisting movents.
Minutes later, the man’s body hung motionless in the air.
From that point on, the video’s imagery seed to freeze, the stationary Armor soldiers looking on at the still body, perfectly blending the advanced technological feel with the antiquated execution ritual, creating a tableau akin to a world-famous painting.
Not a word was spoken throughout, the only sound being the uniform and dull footsteps of the soldiers escorting the criminal.
At the end of the video there was a judgnt docunt—
The criminal, Clo Ashbourne, violated articles seven and nine of the Lonely City Law. For war cris, cris against humanity, and several other serious offenses, he was sentenced to hanging. The execution took place on November 11th at the central square of Thirteen District.
The video ended.
Jiang Shu didn’t open the comnt stream; instead, he simply turned off his wristwatch.
He stood up, walked to the window, and gazed in the direction of Thirteen District.
Although he had anticipated this outco, its realization still felt surreal.
Three months.
Clo had caused upheaval in Thirteen District for three months, and it was only with the execution video and judgnt docunt sent out just now that the matter was truly concluded, bringing down the curtain.
During those three months, Thirteen District had been completely sealed off, not a whisper of news escaping.
At first, most people didn’t know what had exactly happened, but as ti passed, so began to understand.
The video that Clo had released before the war was real, he truly had started a war.
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
In those three months, Jiang Shu turned down all other engagents except for filming a movie and perford not a single Magic show.
Like a downturned stage, he awaited the outco, the end of the war.
Compared to Clo’s diligent efforts over the past two or three decades, his end seed rather hasty; only the flimsy judgnt docunt seed to affirm that he had indeed made a scene in Thirteen District.
Jiang Shu didn’t know what had happened during those three months, but the fact that a force that Clo had assembled in just a few short weeks had held out for three months against a combined assault from the Three Major Groups...
To so extent, Clo had indeed been remarkable.
But Jiang Shu’s opinion was the sa as it had been three months prior—starting the war at that point was not a rational move, even reckless.
It was a death sentence.
"Better dead, saves trouble," Jiang Shu muttered, turning to walk towards the bathroom.
With a heavy weight lifted from his heart, this was the outco he had been waiting for, yet for so reason, at the mont he learned of Clo’s death, he felt a twinge of regret.
Perhaps...
Clo wasn’t dead?
The thought surfaced in Jiang Shu’s mind.
Perhaps Clo had just been locked up; after all, the man who was hung could not be identified under the sack, and Clo, secretly imprisoned, might reappear before him at so future mont.
Never to be rid of the ghost.
He opened the bathroom door, his pupils dilating rapidly as he stumbled backward, a Black Card materializing in his hand.
Inside the bathroom was a creature that was half-human, half-octopus, staring at Jiang Shu with wide, round eyes. Her lower tentacles scuffled on the floor, saring wet sliminess on the smooth marble, looking very anxious.
And in her mouth, she held a letter.
You...
Where did you co from?
Jiang Shu eyed her warily for a long ti, circling around the bathroom door, hoping to see that persistent nuisance, but all he saw was the octopus maiden.
"Umm!" The fish maiden uttered a cry from her throat and then lifted her head.
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