Chapter 591
At Su-ho’s relaxed appearance, Ruinberg’s frown deepened even further.
Damn bastard. Let’s see how long that rotten smile lasts.
Thinking that, he raised his hand.
Then the tightly shut doors behind him opened automatically, revealing two prisons marked by pitch-black iron bars.
Inside, they were packed with people presumed to be prisoners.
Ruinberg said,
“What do you think a Paladin is?”
“Honestly? Or...”
“Obviously honestly! Do you think I came out here to listen to you flatter me?”
“The church’s sword-hand?”
“What?”
“That’s what I think. As far as I know, Paladins were originally no different from ordinary knights, but knights who followed the teachings of God came to be called holy knights. Since those teachings of God are mainly carried out through the church, if you translate it roughly, aren’t they the church’s sword-hands?”
At Su-ho’s answer, Ruinberg slapped a hand to his forehead.
“This is driving me mad.”
“You told me to speak honestly.”
“You really are...! Hoo... A holy knight refers to sacred executors who, as knights of God, judge and annihilate evil in God’s place.”
“What about Crusaders, then?”
“Those bastards are half-measures! Half-measures who do not purely follow God’s will and instead try to look after their own personal interests! But since they do not exactly refuse to follow God’s will either, they are called Crusaders.”
“Then I really am a perfect Crusader.”
“Silence! That is not what matters!”
“Yes.”
“Hoo......”
He let out another long sigh, then continued.
“I will say it again. Holy knights are knights of God, sacred executors who carry out God’s justice in God’s place. In simple terms, they are agents of justice.”
As Ruinberg spoke, he pointed to the criminals behind him.
“There are one hundred sinners there.”
“And?”
“Those bastards are atrocious felons who killed people. However, among them, only half committed true sins according to God’s law.”
‘God’s law?’
Su-ho was about to ask, but silently listened instead.
“This is the first test. If you truly understand Paladins, then like other Paladins, understand God’s will, distinguish the true evil among them, and punish them. However, the number must be exactly fifty. Because among them, there are only exactly fifty evil people who betrayed God’s will and committed sin.”
The moment Ruinberg finished speaking, the two people sitting beside him sprang up from their seats and set down a stack of documents numbering around a hundred sheets in front of Su-ho.
“What is this?”
“Documents recording the things those bastards did. Look at them and make your judgment.”
“You’ve already picked out the answer sheet, right?”
“Obviously.”
“I hope you haven’t done anything to deceive me.”
“I am a Master! The priests of the Pantheon do not do such despicable things!”
“Tsk, that wasn’t always the case...”
“What was that?!”
“Nothing. It was nothing.”
Why did Silen, who had formed an alliance to keep him in check, suddenly come to mind?
Su-ho picked up the top sheet from the tangled pile of documents and asked,
“There are this many documents. Am I supposed to read them standing?”
At Su-ho’s demand, Ruinberg struck his forehead once more.
“Haa... A holy knight should be frugal, and yet how could he...”
“Forget it if you don’t want to.”
What did giving him a desk and chair have to do with frugality?
It did not matter either way.
Since when had he ever raised his voice at them because he understood them?
Su-ho plopped down onto the floor and began reviewing the documents in earnest.
“Mm.”
He examined them slowly.
He did not like Ruinberg, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. For now, he did his best to examine the documents carefully and thoroughly.
He divided the documents he examined to the left and right.
How much time had passed?
At last, after reviewing the final page, Su-ho set the inspected document aside.
Then he began counting the documents he had placed to the left and right, and astonishingly, they came out to exactly fifty sheets each.
“I’ve sorted them all.”
“Separate the sinners on your own.”
“Understood.”
Conveniently, an empty prison had been prepared beside the prisoners’ cell, making it easy to separate the people locked in one room.
The empty prison was connected to the existing prison, and Su-ho took only one of the divided stacks of documents and approached the sinners.
“From now on, those whose names I call, please move to the empty prison beside you. First, Luciel...”
When he called the name, one person moved over.
Everyone who moved looked powerless.
Among them were children, women, and elderly people.
It was astonishing.
Because at a glance, some of them did not look even remotely capable of killing someone.
However, the crimes written in the documents were all true, and half of them were sinners who absolutely had to be executed.
Soon, once they had been separated into exactly fifty people each, Su-ho took the stack of documents in his hand and went to stand before Ruinberg.
Then, after setting the fifty documents down in front of Ruinberg, he headed back toward the prison.
“Hoo.”
He inhaled.
And then.
[ Mini Breath is activated. ]
Hwaaaak!!
Without the slightest hesitation, Su-ho breathed fire toward the prisoners in the left cell.
“Aaaaaagh!!”
“Save me!!”
“My body!! My body!!”
“Aaaaagh!! Someone put out the fire!!”
“Why are you doing this to me!! Why!!”
The sinners inside the prison screamed desperately.
They begged to be spared and shouted until their throats tore, but even that burned away under the breath, and their voices did not last long.
At that moment, Ruinberg, who had checked the documents, shouted in shock,
“W-what are you doing right now!”
But Su-ho acted as if he had not heard and continued breathing fire. Only after every sinner inside the prison had burned away and vanished did he stop.
Then he summoned the Blood Sword and cut down every iron bar of the prison on the right.
“I asked what you are doing!!”
In the end, Ruinberg, whose fury had exploded to the top of his head, sprang up from his seat and shouted so loudly the courtroom seemed to shake.
Only then did Su-ho turn around and walk up to Ruinberg, still holding the Blood Sword.
“What?”
“Are you insane? I’m asking what you think you are doing right now!”
“What do you mean, what am I doing? You told me to pick out fifty sinners and kill them, so I killed them.”
“You were wrong! The sinners you picked out were innocent lambs who acted according to God’s will!”
“They were lambs?”
At those words, Su-ho’s face twisted sharply. He snatched one of the two stacks of documents placed before Ruinberg and began reading it aloud slowly with a dry expression.
“Name, Ahambra. Age, forty-seven. A bastard who beat his own son to death. Motive for murder: because his son no longer believed in God.”
Flutter—
“Name, Maharum. Age, fifty-two. Saw a priest who was supposed to practice lifelong abstinence and temperance drunk, judged that he had violated God’s will, and murdered him.”
Flutter—
“Name, Hansmili. Age, twenty-one. Murdered his fiancée because she had been raped by bandits and he believed she was no longer pure.”
Flutter—
“Arumbanzai. This one is a doctor. A patient suffering from an incurable disease said, in extreme pain, that God had abandoned him and that there was no God, so he refused further treatment and let the patient die.”
Su-ho’s reading continued after that.
Then, after reading around ten pages, he threw the stack of documents he had been reading onto the floor and picked up the remaining stack from the desk.
To be exact, these were the documents on the fifty people he had spared.
“Name, Eindel. Age, fifteen. His younger sibling was sick, and when he said they should send the child to a hospital, his father forced them only to pray, saying God would heal the child. So he killed his father to save his sibling.”
Flutter—
“Name, Shikoji. Age, twenty. Waited for the person who had disabled his younger sibling to finish his prison sentence, then killed him.”
Flutter—
“Name, Broom. Age, forty. His family was poor, and when his child could not pay school fees, the teacher took the lead in ostracizing and tormenting the child. After learning that, he went to protest and accidentally killed the teacher.”
Flutter—
“Name, Nainzel. Age, thirty-three. A friend who was barely being kept alive through life-prolonging treatment begged every day from pain and asked to be killed. Left with no choice, he killed his friend.”
Flutter—
The paper fell.
At that point, Su-ho threw all the remaining documents onto the floor.
Then he cast a contemptuous gaze at Ruinberg and asked,
“I will ask one last time. Were the fifty people I killed truly the wrong choice as a holy knight?”
“It was the wrong choice! The fifty you spared are those who betrayed God’s word, and the fifty you killed were honorable killers who followed God’s will!”
“Honorable killing...”
Su-ho lifted his head and looked at the ceiling.
To be exact, he lifted his head and recalled Quai’s face.
Quai.
What do you think when you see this?
With his mind grown complicated, Su-ho lowered his head again and looked at Ruinberg.
Ruinberg was still glaring at Su-ho with his face flushed red.
“I will never permit a bastard like you the power of a Paladin! A Paladin is one who judges evil and delivers punishment in God’s place, and yet you, who should understand and enact God’s will more than anyone else, cannot even distinguish the most basic thing and make this kind of choice!”
“I don’t need it.”
“What?”
“I said I don’t need it. Do you know why I don’t believe in God? Because if God really existed, the misfortunes that happen to us should never have happened.”
“That is a teaching meant to make us stronger! A great teaching that the likes of you and I could never dare understand!”
“That’s exactly why!”
Su-ho reached out his hand.
Then the Blood Sword was summoned and grasped in his hand.
“I don’t need teachings like that when I can’t even understand them. Until now, I’ve made my way just fine without any of your teachings. But now you want me to agree with this psychopathic ideology just to gain some power or whatever from holy knights? No. I absolutely won’t.”
True Demon began to wrap around Su-ho’s sword.
“If this is the teaching I’m supposed to learn, then I’ll just stay a Pope in shell only. I’ve already fulfilled the quest conditions anyway, so what if I don’t get some secondary power?”
“Y-you...! You bastard! This is blasphemy! How can someone bearing the title of Pope of the Pantheon dare speak such outrageous words! We are the justice of the Pantheon, and you, as Pope, are the greatest justice that should shine most brightly in the Pantheon!”
Slice!
Ruinberg was consumed by rage.
Instead of answering, Su-ho swung his sword.
A thin line was drawn across Ruinberg’s face.
Pu-kwaaaak!!
Along the red bloodline, Ruinberg’s face was cut apart, and blood sprayed out.