[Ju-bok-sa-sa]
The first Authority of Yang Il-gyu, known as [Tyrfing], is an exceedingly complex one.
It is, in every sense, the Authority of judgment born from his conviction that he would establish law again above the law itself.
By default, he is granted a judicial baton that can be summoned at any time.
In addition, he gains eyes that can read the karma of evildoers, the burden of sin.
And if he judges that the evildoer is more than worthy of the verdict of "execution,"
the baton is sublimated into [Tyrfing].
Against the target of judgment, it becomes a weapon of unmatched power even among divine armaments, ignoring all compatibility and defense.
But all of that is merely secondary.
The true value of [Ju-bok-sa-sa] lies in the trial itself.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Sit down. No one leaves this place until your crimes are laid bare, beyond dispute."
Domain.
Unique barrier.
From the moment one enters the courtroom, no one can interfere with this Authority.
A powerful restraint formed on the condition that even Il-gyu himself, the user, is included among those bound by it.
Inside the courtroom, all meaningful interference with others, including combat, is forbidden.
And as Il-gyu himself said, no one can leave this space until the exposure of the crime and the trial are complete.
"What the hell is going on?"
From Dohyeok's perspective, it was nothing but absurd.
He already knew that Il-gyu was a powerhouse who far surpassed him.
Though his lack of insight kept him from realizing that Il-gyu was a god-slayer,
it was an undeniable fact that Il-gyu could crush him like an ant without going through anything this elaborate.
That was precisely why he could not understand it.
Why was he holding a trial?
Reading the expression on Dohyeok's face, Il-gyu seemed to understand what he was thinking.
With a sneer, he curled up the corner of his mouth and gave him the answer with open contempt.
"Yes, someone like you wouldn't understand. You've lived your life thinking a thing like law is no great matter."
Death at the hands of the strong could be accepted.
Survival of the fittest was the truth of this business.
So while he had been prepared for the ending where someone would eventually kill him,
he had never imagined he would be made to stand trial.
Why?
Because he was already a resident of a world outside the law.
"But that's not how it works. The mercy of the law is that even when killing bastards like you, it still follows procedure and gives everyone a chance."
"Ha... haha, so this process is the mercy you're giving me?"
"Not me. The law is the one showing mercy."
And in truth, that was exactly how it worked.
If the opponent won acquittal in this trial of [Ju-bok-sa-sa],
or at the very least escaped a heavy sentence by revealing mitigating circumstances and avoiding execution,
Il-gyu's [Tyrfing] would be sealed.
Now that he had already read the karma and judged Dohyeok worthy of execution,
to be honest, this trial offered Il-gyu no real benefit.
However—
"A sinner must also know the severity of the law."
He had lowered himself from the position of judge to that of prosecutor,
and in exchange for granting the other side a chance, he gained power.
"Now then, shall we begin?"
Il-gyu had not opened this trial for no reason.
With Il-gyu's declaration,
a judge manifested in the courtroom.
At first, it swelled like a black balloon.
Then it revealed a face with both eyes and mouth sewn shut,
a monster with scales balanced on both arms.
At that sight, Dohyeok's face went deathly pale, and Il-gyu opened his mouth as if to tell him not to worry.
"The Judge is only the embodiment of my conscience."
"Y-your conscience?!"
"Unfortunately, I no longer believe in our country's so-called merciful law. I follow only my own sense of justice."
"What kind of fake judge is this...?"
"You should have been judged by the laws of the Republic of Korea long ago. Then you wouldn't have ended up meeting a lunatic judge like me, just as you said."
Il-gyu had to expose the other man's crimes here and now.
The crimes themselves had already been read through karma.
On top of that, by manifesting the courtroom, he was granted one piece of evidence for those crimes.
That was the weapon he possessed within the trial.
At the same time, the defendant was given one chance to plead his case.
He could confess and aim for a reduced sentence,
or deny the charges outright.
Of course, the crimes read through karma could not be nonexistent,
but karma did not reveal every detail of the background.
Willful negligence, grounds for excluding illegality, and so on.
Even if the law would clearly deem it guilty, the courtroom followed not the law of the Republic of Korea but the sense of justice of a man named Yang Il-gyu.
So there was always a real possibility that a crime read through karma could still be judged innocent.
To put it bluntly, he was being told to make excuses.
If they were accepted, he would be acquitted.
If Il-gyu could not be convinced, he would be found guilty.
The opponent gained a chance to seal Il-gyu's Authority through his excuse,
and Il-gyu, by granting that chance, could unleash the Authority's true power.
It was an Authority with both merit and demerit in perfect balance.
"Annoying, but surprisingly, this isn't murder, is it? So you're the type who doesn't dirty his own hands."
Dohyeok did work in murder-for-hire, but his job was cleanup.
As Il-gyu said, he did not use his own hands directly.
That was because if he did, the National Intelligence Service would move.
"Even so, by my standards it's still a death sentence. You ordered the killings through your subordinates and supplied the information, so that's instigation and aiding and abetting murder. You erased evidence of the crime, so that's destruction of evidence. You dumped the bodies, so that's corpse desecration."
In the end, instigating murder was the same as murder.
No, it was even worse, because the intent was unmistakable.
"Spit it out. Give me one reason why I shouldn't beat you to death."
Dohyeok could not say a word.
If this had been a real courtroom, he might have said something like, "Got any evidence?"
But this was a sorcerous space.
And the other man had openly said that this place did not follow ordinary law, only his own sense of justice.
Dohyeok knew better than anyone that the structure of a ritual with a price, usually called a restraint or oath, could not be escaped with some half-assed demand for evidence.
"There's only one way. I have to make that bastard accept that I had no choice."
But how?
It went beyond having no choice.
This had been a business overflowing with intent from the start.
He had no mouth with which to speak, not even if he had a hundred of them.
And even if he confessed and tried to aim for leniency—
"There's nothing to reduce..."
The crime was too grave for a confession to lessen the punishment.
In the end, all he could do was remain silent.
At that, the corner of Il-gyu's mouth rose.
As the verdict was effectively sealed, the Judge's scale began to tilt.
And with that, the Judge opened its mouth to pronounce judgment.
"[Guilty]"
Execution: confiscation, then death sentence.
And the reason Il-gyu had opened the trial was the former.
Confiscation.
"I can decide what to confiscate within the weight of the crime, however I please."
It could be something tangible,
or something intangible.
That was Il-gyu's freedom.
"I-including intangible things?! Then don't tell me..."
"Let's start by taking your 'memories.' Though I'm not sure that'll be enough."
"Memories?! W-wait, I'll tell you everything— AAAAAH!!"
As the execution began, Dohyeok's memories started to be extracted.
White smoke poured out of every opening in his head—his eyes, mouth, ears, nose, and more.
Those were the memories that Jang Dohyeok had accumulated over his entire life.
And that was not all.
"Too heavy. Way too heavy, your crime. I'll confiscate your vital force as well, in addition to your memories."
This time, Dohyeok's entire body was wrung dry as his vital force was drained away.
Compared to the amount of vital force Il-gyu possessed, it was no more than grime under a fingernail,
but because the levy was so large, even his life force was squeezed out without mercy, leaving him looking as though he had aged by decades.
With all the memories of his life stripped away, he had probably been reduced to a fool as a human being as well.
"Now then, shall we check the confiscated goods?"
Il-gyu discarded the useless memories and took only the necessary information, absorbing it.
He had considered absorbing the vital force too, but it was too shabby and too little, so he simply threw it away.
Of course, that standard was only his own.
And so, at last, Il-gyu learned everything: the hidden side of society, the existence of the world of supernatural powers, and the information surrounding revenge.
After sorting through the memories that had flowed into him, he closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again.
As expected, there was deep fury in his gaze.
"So the world was a maggot bin. To think vermin were swarming like this."
Of course, that did not mean he had come to hate every being in the hidden world.
He had learned the reason why those with supernatural powers were concealed in the first place.
Rather, he understood that it was an extremely proper measure, one that should have been taken.
Only—
"Even after excluding that, there are still too many bastards who need to be beaten to death."
Those who thought themselves above the law,
those who wrung out tears that should never have been shed.
This was not something the law could do.
So—
"I'll do it."
He had run this road for his father's revenge, but now revenge was no longer everything.
At the very least, so that decent people who lived while keeping the law could be respected,
so that even if those beings truly stood outside the law, the law his father had sought to protect could still retain some minimum meaning—
"I'll become your law."
The eighth Devil King, Yang Il-gyu.
Later called the Sovereign of Law,
the one who would become the founder of the Black Court, Oblivion Order, a group that protected order within the world of supernatural powers.
Now, the first page of that story was opening.