Chapter 66
Leaving the suffering deputy holding his throat, I turned to the woman.
She was supported by the middle-aged woman, and looked sad, as if she wanted to say something, but could only moan.
"Wait a minute."
I said to the woman and called Apophis.
"You were the first to detect the poison. Can you remove this poison?"
{Super Easy. Barely, an Inconvenience.}[TN: Ever watched Ryan George's pitch meetings?]
Apophis is probably trying to say that it's as simple as breathing.
After responding in such incomprehensible words, a purple, poisonous smoke gushed out of my bracelet and headed towards the woman.
Apophis' Serpent Staff, like Leviathan's Demon Sword, can change its apparent volume at will and is stored in my bracelet in a miniature form.
It's like it just spat out "something" without returning to its original size.
" –!"
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."
It's a poisonous, purple smoke.
When she saw it, she freaked out and tried to run away, which is a natural reaction.
I stopped her.
The woman was lost, but before she could make another decision, the smoke possessed her.
The smoke entered the woman's mouth and nose.
It seemed as if the woman was inhaling with all her might, and in the blink of an eye, the smoke was all over her body.
She coughed hysterically.
And then.
"... Ah, I can talk."
"""Oooohhhh!"""
When the woman's voice returned, the crowd, those in the front row who could hear her, cheered in unison.
"My throat was burning like that. ... How"
"I only neutralized the poison. If it was a disease, I can't say, but if it was a poison, I can do something about it."
{Me, Poison God.}
Apophis said proudly in one sentence.
If it is a poison, there is no one better than itself, and no matter what kind of poison it is, it can be controlled, and Apopis' confidence was transmitted directly to me as an emotion.
I found it reassuring.
"It's really amazing. Hey, hey, how did you do that?"
The "auntie" on the platform was surprised and impressed.
I ignored her and spoke only to the woman, as I was afraid that if I kept up with her, I might derail the conversation in a big way.
"Now you can talk. Tell me why this happened. You're falsely accused, aren't you? I'll take care of it."
"... Ugh."
The woman stared at me for a long time and then burst into tears in silence.
I thought she was going to be able to speak and plead her innocence, but she did something completely different.
I was a little puzzled.
But soon, I realized the meaning of her reaction.
"Lena ... is my daughter .... I'm Lena's mother."
Incoherent words came out of the woman's mouth.
As I picked up the fragmented keywords an imagination surfaced in my mind.
I furrowed my brow and listened to it.
"Are you, by any chance, the victim's mother?"
"..."
The woman was silent, but she nodded her head.
In the next moment, the crowd's anger reached its peak.
"What the hell is that!"
"The victim's mother is being sentenced to death!"
"How rotten can you get!"
Curses came from everywhere.
I snorted "Haa " and laughed.
In a way, I was impressed.
The victim's family had been sentenced to death.
It's like killing two birds with one stone – it's disgusting.
All the more unforgivable — and as I was thinking about it.
Someone threw a glass of drink at the deputy who was holding his throat, and then all sorts of things were thrown at him.
As if in a rainstorm, all sorts of things were thrown onto the platform and poured down.
"Fu!"
I pulled out my leviathan and cut them all down.
And burned them all up with Bahamut's flames.
There were hundreds of them, and I was able to get rid of every last one of them.
"You are pretty good!"
The lady who murmured those words of admiration was still in "Auntie" mode and seemed to be somewhat relaxed even in this situation.
Ignoring her, I turned to the crowd.
"I will not tolerate personal punishment."
I shouted to the crowd.
"You're defending him!
"You are one of them after all, huh"
The anger was now directed at me.
I wondered how I could get out of this, maybe I could weaken Leviathan's intimidation and shut them all up.
I look around.
At a rough count, there were about a thousand onlookers gathered in the square.
It's a large number, but it's not impossible.
Okay then– as I was thinking.
"Move, move, open up the path!"
"Open up or you'll be arrested!"
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I heard a loud voice coming from the crowd.
A group of patrol guards in full uniform appeared, breaking through the crowd.
They came straight at us and climbed up on the platform one by one.
More changes happened, what would the regular patrol guards do? And.
The crowd went into a wait-and-see mode, their anticipation slightly outweighing their anger.
Then, a man appeared from among the guards.
The man who led the guards was Don.
Don Oates, who is now my confidant.
As soon as he stood in front of me, he apologized.
"I apologize for the delay in escorting you, Your Highness the 13th."
He said in a high-pitched voice, and bowed his head down on one knee.
At about the same time, all the guards he had brought with him also bowed.
Don said, in a rather deliberate manner, " Your Highness, the 13th."
He made sure that the people could hear him – so that they know.
The silence spread like a waterfall.
About ten seconds later, someone knelt down as if remembering, and the nearly one thousand onlookers who had gathered around the square knelt down one after another.
As people kneeled one after another in waves, there was only me and one other person standing.
" amazing ..."
The only person standing was the woman who was almost falsely accused.
Eventually, she too was pulled down by the "auntie" and hurriedly knelt down as well.
As I stood alone in the midst of nearly a thousand people kneeling, I ordered Don to do it again.
"Arrest Craig Hall immediately. Keep his family under the surveillance. If he can replace himself, he must be a man of some means. Once he's sentenced, we'll confiscate his property once again."
Recalling the imperial law in my mind, I handed down the heaviest judgment of the lawful ones.
In the silence, my voice came through loud and clear.
It took more than ten seconds for the meaning of the judgment to sink in.
The crowd erupted.
A cheer enveloped the square.
On the other hand, Don, who was just receiving orders, did not move.
He just knelt in front of me and didn't move.
"What's wrong?"
"With all due respect, sir. I'm afraid to say this, but the previous generation of Halls have retired, but they once rose to the rank of Vizier. Craig Hall is his only grandson."
That's what Don said.
But the face that looked up at me at close range had a mischievous smile on it.
It wasn't a look or a tone that told me to stop.
Rather, it was an assist to me.
That's clever, I thought.
"So what?"
I stifled my voice and glared at Don deliberately.
"If you are retired then you are just a commoner. Now go."
"I understand."
Don bowed his head once more and ordered the guards he had brought with him.
Some of them went straight to detain the stunned governor, and some of them went straight back the way they came and ran to catch the real criminal, Craig Hall.
"""Ooohhhh!"""
The loudest cheers till now erupted.
"Great judgment."
"It's not often you can say that about a former Vizier."
"His Imperial Highness the Thirteenth is our lord, right?"
"He raised the Waterworks in Appia to the special grade, and he's always there for us when we need him."
"He's a great person."
Amidst the voices praising me.
The case of the death row prisoner switching that I happened to encounter has been settled.