Chapter 60
After cashing in at the counter, we left the Guild.
Behind us, hushed voices continued without letup, as if the earlier commotion still lingered.
We pushed open the massive doors and stepped outside. The afternoon sun was strangely dazzling, and I narrowed my eyes once.
"Still, it's not like you to pick a fight, Noah."
Lyle, walking beside me, shrugged, half exasperated.
"There were a lot of onlookers, so I thought showing them what I could do would save us trouble."
I replied matter-of-factly.
"Then Kai or I could've done it, you know?"
Kai silently nodded.
"No, it would make a stronger impression coming from me, since I look the weakest."
Kai turned to look at me, then burst out laughing.
"You look like the weakest, but you're actually the strongest. That's practically fraud."
Elena chuckled, glancing at me as we walked.
"Well, this should make things a little easier."
Lyle grinned and glanced back at the Guild building.
"What are we doing tomorrow?"
"For a while, we'll take herb-gathering requests, and once our gear is ready... how about we head to Albusvolt?"
"The Heavenly Inversion Tower, right? That's the city with that dungeon! Sounds fun!"
Lyle's face lit up. All traces of his earlier reluctance were gone; instead, he looked like a child who'd spotted new prey.
"You really perk up the moment we're talking about that sort of thing..."
Elena sighed in exasperation, and Lyle shrugged and laughed.
As we reached the middle of the plaza, an unnatural heat that prickled our skin surged toward us.
The corner that had been packed with stalls selling meat and grain and bustling with activity until yesterday now had an eerie empty space.
At its center stood a blackened wooden execution platform, apparently assembled overnight.
The scent of fresh wood shavings, perhaps left by craftsmen hammering in nails just moments ago, mingled with the smell of livestock drifting across the plaza and stung my nose.
Only the area around the platform was silent, as if time had frozen. The assembled crowd's eyes were fixed on one point—the dull silver gleam of the executioner's axe blade.
"Whoa, is that...?"
Lyle instinctively edged toward the crowd and stopped.
Before long, the steady clop of hooves echoed from the entrance to the plaza.
The baron had arrived.
He wore a coat embroidered with the same vivid raven crest as the bandit knight, and a heavy cloak billowed behind him. On horseback, he looked imperious and composed, as though he had come to inspect the place.
But when he reached the middle of the plaza, right in front of the execution platform, he brought his horse to a halt.
The baron's gaze fell on the "instrument of death" set where he was supposed to dismount. In that instant, his expression vanished, and his face turned waxen white.
Then the magistrate's cold pronouncement was hurled at him.
"Criminal Ravenstein. For aiding the bandit knight and violating the Imperial Peace Edict, you are to be executed immediately."
"...What did you say?"
The baron's voice was hoarse. But a moment later, it became a crazed scream.
"Wait! By what authority?! I came to explain myself! What happened to the trial, the proper hearing?! It was my brother! He did it on his own, and I was only caught up in it!"
He tried to turn his horse around, but a forest of spears had already blocked his escape. The soldiers stepped closer.
"Get down. If you won't dismount on your own, we'll drag you down."
"Let go! Don't touch me with your filthy hands! I'm a baron!"
The baron leaned back in the saddle, screaming protests in desperation. But the soldiers didn't hesitate. Two men seized his legs and yanked him off the saddle by force.
"Aaaah!"
With an undignified scream, the baron was slammed onto the stone pavement. It was the mud-covered ground where the market horses and livestock had been leaving droppings until yesterday. His proud scarlet cloak was stained with filth in an instant.
"Listen to me! I'll pay you! As much as you want! I... I didn't know!"
Still sprawled on the ground, the baron reached out toward us. His mud-covered fingertips desperately clawed at empty air.
"Do you have proof?! The Emperor will never permit this, not without a trial!"
His face smeared with mud, the baron kept screaming. Not a trace of his former dignity remained.
—It seemed the Guild had managed to extract a confession from the assassin.
As I stared coldly at the mud-covered baron, I became certain.
The assassin who killed Glen, who had been secretly communicating with the baron's younger brother, had been backed by the baron standing before us.
Now that things had come to this, we no longer had to worry about being targeted by this man's family.
"...Let's go."
Elena, standing beside me, quietly tugged at my sleeve.
Her eyes held no interest in the execution platform, nor any pity for the fallen man.
We turned on our heels and left the plaza, weaving through the crowd.
Behind us came a final scream of despair, drowned out by the cheers of the crowd.