Turning the clock hands back a little, around the ti when the Tin Knight and Sophia left Justitia.
“In 5 minutes, the operation begins, Lady Adelaide.”
“Yes.”
At the words of Maris’ subordinate, Adelaide quietly put on her mask.
The mask she had worn in the City of Struggle was essentially just a decoration, with little use in hiding her true appearance, but this one was different.
It wasn’t just about covering the face; it was a magic mask that made it difficult for others to properly recognize the wearer’s appearance. Indeed, prestigious families were different in every way.
…Co to think of it, I wonder if Maris realized it was back then, or not.
Adelaide tilted her head at her cousin’s ambiguous attitude, but soon stopped her thoughts, realizing it wasn’t good to be distracted by idle thoughts before an important mission.
Two people were assigned with Adelaide.
It wasn’t that she was particularly mistreated; the execution team for this operation only consisted of ten people to begin with.
It was sowhat insufficient to cover a domain that, while not an enormous tropolis, was at least dium-sized, but it was also proof of how picky Maris had been in selecting personnel.
“Anyway, not getting caught by the guards is the best. If the situation seems bad, prioritize escape even if you haven’t dealt with all the original targets.”
Recalling the last advice she heard before the operation began, Adelaide stared at her right wrist.
Sothing like a wristwatch was placed there, but its actual purpose was closer to a compass than a watch.
The mont they reached the designated ti, Adelaide sprinted in the direction the compass pointed.
When the white compass needle turned purple, a middle-aged man with sothing like a strap decoration on his shoulder appeared.
The man, upon seeing Adelaide and the Lennart people, pointed to a nearby bar with gestures and eye movents.
After confirming that the appearance of the man laughing and chattering inside matched what she had seen in the portrait beforehand, Adelaide unhesitatingly barged in front of him.
“Huh.”
Before the man could react to Adelaide suddenly landing on the table, Adelaide’s hand grabbed and fixed his head.
Thud!
With a knee strike enhanced by weight and montum, the man’s face was crushed and several teeth flew out of his mouth.
Grabbing the collar of the man who was about to fall backward with his chair, she slamd him to the ground.
It wasn’t necessary to kill, but at least make it flashy enough for those around to feel the brutality.
It was a movent extrely faithful to that instruction. In fact, it wasn’t particularly difficult for Adelaide. She just had to do as the Tin Knight had taught her.
Adelaide, who had learned moderation while teaching disciples in Tik-Tok, had rciless vital point attacks and counterasures engraved in her bones.
Leaving the man who had fainted without even screaming once, Adelaide looked around and saw the other team mbers, who had moved with her, crushing their assigned “targets”.
Adelaide turned her gaze back to the middle-aged man with the strap decoration she had first found, and he nodded slightly so as not to be noticed by others, then fiddled with sothing in his pocket.
Then the compass needle, which had turned purple, returned to its original white color and began pointing in a new direction.
Adelaide sprinted in that direction.
“I’ve morized all the portraits you gave . But won’t it take too long to find these people one by one while running around the city?”
“That’s what this compass is for.”
“Wow, is it a magic tool that automatically marks people hostile to the Lennart family?”
“Huh? No, it’s not that convenient. It’s just a compass that rembers and tracks the mana wavelength emitted by specific marks. Originally, it’s used by secretly hiding it in the target’s luggage or sothing, but this ti we’re using it differently because there are many targets. I told you the operation is divided into execution and support teams, right?”
“Yes.”
“The support team mbers will follow the targets that need to be taken down while carrying the marks, so the execution team just needs to look around when they find soone with a strap decoration on their shoulder when the compass needle turns blue. When the execution team deals with a target, the corresponding support team mber destroys the mark they were carrying and flees outside the city. The execution team then goes to find another support team mber in the direction newly indicated by the compass. This is repeated.”
Following the outline of the operation she had heard from Maris, Adelaide and the execution team ran wild.
“Kheuk!”
“Aagh!”
Watching the Lennart family mbers efficiently subdue enemies around them, Adelaide couldn’t help but inwardly admire.
They’re all so strong.
The targets weren’t just ordinary thieves or ruffians.
No, proportionally, there were more powerful individuals who could handle mana.
Each one could be called superhuman by ordinary standards without exaggeration.
Yet, the Lennart family warriors showed no signs of particular difficulty in subduing such individuals one after another.
It took no more than 5 seconds to deal with a decent target.
Maris had said most of the real powerhouses of the Lion Duke’s bloodline were concentrated in the north and the main house, so there were few elites available to use here in the Locrian Federation.
In reverse, this ant that on the border facing the Magic State and in the Lennart ducal family, there were plenty of powerhouses at this level.
Were the knights of Friedel this strong, too?
People saw as much as they knew.
Although Adelaide had seen the Friedel Knights in their pri many tis, as a powerless youngest lady at the ti, she couldn’t properly gauge how strong the knights were. Even her recalled mories were vague.
Adelaide found this fact very sad.
“We’ll be heading in different directions now.”
After dealing with several targets gathered in a group, the team mbers who had been with Adelaide also left in the directions indicated by their respective compasses.
It was more efficient to smash targets gathered in groups, which were relatively easier to predict movents, and then move on to individual targets rather than moving completely scattered from the start… That was Maris’ explanation, but to Adelaide, it sohow felt like she was being considerate.
Feeling shy at the kindness pouring out despite not having done much, Adelaide continued to defeat targets one after another.
I can see why Maris tried to gather even one more skilled person.
It was fortunate they had the support team and compass; otherwise, searching and moving would have been more difficult than fighting.
No, to be honest, even with these two, finding people was more difficult than fighting.
“There! There they are!”
“Catch them quickly!”
Ah, was it a bit of bad luck?
One group of guards, who had been wandering around not knowing which of the simultaneous incidents occurring throughout the city to respond to, blocked Adelaide’s path.
From under her mask, Adelaide’s eyes quickly scanned the guards.
Weak, dium, weak, weak, weak, weak, dium, weak.
After avoiding the spears thrusting straight at her by lowering her body, Adelaide dove into the arms of one soldier she judged as “dium”.
The opponent, who had strengthened his body with mana, tried to avoid the attack by stepping back, but Adelaide’s hand touched the soldier’s armor first.
The smooth armor surface was not originally good for grasping with one hand, but the Belt of Amaryllis made it possible to dent the armor with her fingers.
Adelaide, who firmly grasped the enemy with the handle created on the spot, threw him at another “dium” before the enemy could react.
The other dium, who was about to swing his sword at Adelaide, couldn’t respond to the situation of his comrade’s back suddenly flying at him, and the two beca entangled and crashed into the wall.
The soldiers corresponding to “weak” were frozen in place, not knowing what had happened.
— [The ‘Tin Knight’ shouts ‘Naisu striko!’]
At the feeling of hearing the Tin Knight’s praise from sowhere, the corners of Adelaide’s mouth slightly lifted.
Having adapted to the Tin Knight’s way of speaking, the party’s vocabulary was becoming richer by the day.
“Captain!!”
The sound of one of the soldiers shouting from behind was heard, but Adelaide ignored it and sprinted towards the next target.
The remaining soldiers didn’t even dare to try to catch up with her.
How many minutes had passed since then?
After avoiding the curved sword of a warrior with a large scar on his face and striking his face with the flat of her sword, Adelaide realized that her compass was no longer pointing to new targets.
It ant that, regardless of others, all the targets Adelaide herself was assigned to had been finished.
According to the set plan, Adelaide started running towards the outskirts of the city.
The guards tried to catch Adelaide sohow, but no one could stop her.
At least, that was how it should have been originally.
Shiver.
Feeling a chill close to intuition, Adelaide reflexively looked up at the sky.
And she unconsciously lost her mind.
High, really high.
From a height so high that it would have been difficult to even see without eyesight enhanced by the belt and further reinforced by mana, sothing glittering fell.
What at first looked like water droplets containing light split into several branches as it neared the ground, and the next mont fell with physical substance.
Kwaaaang!
Every ti the erald slabs touched the ground, the entire city shook with trendous impact.
Screams echoed from here and there, and people lost their balance and fell.
Faced with the blocked escape route, Adelaide gaped blankly.
“W-what!? Was it an earthquake!?”
“Wait, everyone look at that!”
“A wall appeared…?”
After the ground tremors ended, voices of bewildernt and confusion rose from everywhere.
It couldn’t be helped since the entire city was suddenly enclosed by erald walls without any warning.
《Everyone staying in Justitia, please remain calm.》
Amidst that confusion, a voice echoed throughout the entire city.
《Be not afraid. Currently, there are those who have committed cris in various parts of the city and are trying to flee outside. We have ‘temporarily’ isolated the city to prevent these criminals from escaping.》
Although amplified by sound amplification magic or sothing equivalent, that voice was very familiar to the citizens of Justitia.
《Since these criminals are currently using magic tools to hide their appearance, it’s difficult to identify them by appearance alone. Also, there might be collaborators in the city who have directly or indirectly helped the criminals. Therefore, from now on, we will begin a trial using the entire city as its stage.》
The owner of the voice was none other than the lord of Justitia.
《What you need to do is simple. The erald scale in the center of the city. And the scales possessed by the guards. Confess towards these.》
He declared.
《I have not committed any cri in this city. I am innocent. Say this.》
The murmuring of people suddenly grew louder.
《Those who prove their innocence will be classified separately and will not suffer any harm from this incident. However, those who fail to ‘prove their innocence’ within the next hour will all be judged as criminals. Also, those who are uncooperative with the trial or interfere with its progress will also be judged as criminals.》
The lord’s voice was benevolent, but its content was extrely oppressive.
Soone in the street shouted, “Don’t be ridiculous!! What kind of dog-like handling is this!?”
“Yeah! If you want to catch criminals, just catch the criminals, why involve us who have nothing to do with it!?”
“My, my, even if he’s the lord, such an outrage can’t be overlooked!”
“Hey, guards! Explain what on earth is going on!?”
“Uh, well, that is…”
People were angry, and that anger was directed at the nearby guards.
The guards, who seed not to have heard anything in advance either, didn’t know what to do when faced with angry citizens.
But that was only for a mont.
Erald energy flowed from the scales they possessed and enveloped the guards’ bodies.
The guards seed bewildered at first, but soon their expressions and tones changed completely.
“There’s no need to be flustered. Confess your own innocence. If you are truly innocent, you will suffer no harm.”
“No, but—“
“Are you refusing to comply with the trial?”
“Hey, this doesn’t make sense! Fine! I’ll go speak to the lord directly!”
“I’ll ask once more. Are you refusing to comply with the trial?”
“Ah! I said I won’t do it!”
Slash!
The next mont.
The neck of the man who had shouted that he would refuse the trial flew through the air.
Among the frozen crowd, a soldier enveloped in erald energy on his body and weapon said, “O Scale. Pass judgnt on the one who refused to be tried.”
The scale the soldier was holding tilted greatly, and the next mont, the man’s corpse was sucked into the scale, becoming a streak of light.
In the air, the lord’s voice was heard again.
《Now, everyone. Confess your sins and pay their price. You can rest assured. If you are truly innocent, you will suffer no harm.》
***
sko-fi/genesisforsaken
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