Chapter 26: The Utility of Law (2) Tick—tock— tick—tock—
The clock in the interrogation room ticked away. I stared at it fixedly.
Tick—tock— tick—tock—
I quietly closed my eyes and focused on the thing inside my body.
Thump—thump—
There was no verbal answer, but the virus continued to pulsate.
Thump—
Tick—
The pulse beat exactly once per second.
The two vibrations overlapped perfectly.
Clack.
The door swung open. Adria finally emerged from the interrogation room. She looked at me and offered a thin smile.
"You've scored another one, Knight Maximilian."
Adria was a key operative of the Revolutionary Group. It seemed she had made a move while I was busy drafting the general report, but she wouldn't have been able to pull off anything significant. Even for her, she had to move cautiously within the heart of the Sentinel.
To them, Adria was a resource hundreds of times more valuable than a mere middleman like Daniel.
"Thank you."
"I prodded him a bit, but he won't open his mouth."
Adria held a degree in criminal psychology for social dissidents, or something of the sort. She likely used it as a pretext to contact the Revolutionary Group first in situations like this.
"I see. I'll give it a try."
"Very well. See if you can get anything out of him."
Adria stepped out, and I entered, taking her place.
Daniel sat across the cold metal table, bound in handcuffs.
"First... quite a lot of evidence was found at your place. Everything from ciphers requiring decryption to high-performance explosives."
"..."
Daniel said nothing.
Tap. Tap.
I tapped my finger on the desk, watching him. Drawing from my past experience as a prisoner, I knew the most terrifying weapon was always silence.
"..."
Sweat beaded on Daniel's temples. His lips were parched.
I quietly straightened my uniform.
Then, I spoke.
"The two people found there must also be members of the Revolutionary Group."
A woman in her early to mid-thirties, and another in her mid to late teens. The Izenheims who had gone into hiding by Daniel's side.
"No!"
Daniel reacted violently. I stared at him for a moment. The way his eyes shook with genuine shock was truly surprising.
"They aren't members of the Revolutionary Group."
His tone was grating.
"Only I—"
"Who gave you permission to drop the formalities?"
"..."
"Let's maintain some basic courtesy."
Daniel took a moment to catch his breath. Soon, he continued in a stifled voice.
"...They are not members of the Revolutionary Group. They are immigrants who barely even know the language of the Empire. Their stay had expired and they were supposed to be deported... so I took advantage of them."
I studied Daniel's complexion. The look on his face as he spoke of the two women. That noble, self-sacrificing spirit of his.
"...How strange."
Come to think of it, his behavior had been bizarre from the start. He had lost his mind and fired a pistol at me just for trying to open the door to the hidden space. Furthermore, despite not being an Izenheim himself, he was possessed by a revolutionary fervor far too intense for an ordinary citizen of the Empire to harbor.
"Because of you, every worker in that factory will now be under suspicion. Some of them might even be being tortured as we speak."
Workers who had labored at the factory day after day just to earn money and feed their families, knowing nothing.
The Imperial Police had rounded them all up. All because of Daniel, who had built a secret room in the factory he inherited from his father.
"And yet, you only care about those two?"
He had set up the factory as a smokescreen to avoid suspicion, yet instead of worrying about his workers, he was acting all tragic over two Izenheim women.
"..."
Daniel's expression froze. I let out a hollow laugh.
"What a pathetic, shitty sentiment. You talk about grand causes like liberation and revolution, yet the only things that actually shake your heart are a mere two people."
It wasn't revolution; it was love. It wasn't a grand cause; it was something purely personal.
No matter how misguided the belief, a person who devotes their entire life to a cause earns respect. But a loser who is swayed and controlled by a mere private emotion is only covered in disgrace and filth.
Only now did I understand the reason behind the way the Revolutionary Group had looked at me before my regression.
They had respected Zebestian, and they had been disgusted by me.
"This is absurd."
I stood up and looked down at Daniel. He kept his head lowered, his fists clenched tight.
"It won't matter if you deny being a revolutionary. The moment I designate them as members of the Revolutionary Group, they become members of the Revolutionary Group."
Daniel lifted his gaze. His eyes were a mixture of resignation and fury.
"In that case, I will not say another word."
"...Pfft."
I let out a small chuckle and slowly leaned over the table toward him.
"Don't misunderstand."
I whispered in a low voice.
"I never needed whatever information someone like you might have in the first place."
*
In the Empire, there exists a special judicial process known as the 'Knight Court.' In truth, it is less of an institution and more of a procedure.
Once the presiding Knight submits the collected evidence and an analytical opinion on the case to a judge, the judge renders a verdict on the suspect's guilt and sentencing based solely on those documents.
Complex and time-consuming processes like legal counsel or jury deliberations are entirely omitted.
The targets are primarily anti-establishment figures who harbor discontent or pose a threat to the Imperial system.
The power of investigation, the power of prosecution, and the influence over the final verdict. This was one of the reasons why Knights were called the 'Sword of the Empire.'
I drafted the case opinion for Daniel and the two other Izenheims.
The charges were conspiracy to commit insurrection for the purpose of subverting the Empire, illegal stay, joining and participating in the Revolutionary Group, and illegal manufacture and possession of explosives.
The recommended sentence was death.
I scribbled it down with a veneer of legal logic.
I rose from my chair. There was a window right behind me. The office for a rookie Knight was quite cramped.
I would likely receive a larger budget following this case, and the space would soon expand.
Performance as a Knight was important. To fully inherit the Ebenholtz legacy, Zebestian's support was essential.
"..."
I placed my hand near my collarbone.
I thought about this quietly pulsating virus.
The Dimension Eater summoned by the Izenheims. A fragment of it had seeped into me and regressed with me.
Though we were together semi-coercively, I did not know its purpose. I couldn't even easily tell if it was truly a sentient being.
However, this thing devoured Izenheims. It also helped me 'vaguely' understand the mana of the world.
While its very existence seemed to be composed of mana, it might be a cosmic substance that I still had no way of accurately identifying.
The conclusion was simple.
I had to learn more about mana, and I had to find out more.
*
Districts 40 to 44 of the Empire are slums, as they fall within the Underground City zone. However, right next to the Underground City, there exists an autonomous region that stands back-to-back with it.
"Zestpol."
It was originally just the ordinary District 39 of the Empire, but it developed explosively due to a high concentration of exceptionally creative magi-engineering companies, prestigious universities, and Magic Towers. In exchange for paying massive taxes to the Imperial Family, it was granted a high level of autonomy.
In an alleyway there, I found a shabby mana shop.
[Lorenzo Carione's Mana Shop]
The Empire's 'Integrated Identity Information Network,' accessible to the Sentinel Knights, was truly convenient. No matter where someone was in the Empire, as long as I remembered their name, I could find them.
The exterior itself was ordinary. In fact, the wood looked so rotten it seemed ready to fall apart. It was enough to make one hesitate to enter, but the owner was by no means an ordinary man.
He was a 'very' high-level authority on mana.
Creeeeak— I opened the wooden door with its frayed edges.
"..."
I quietly surveyed the interior. There was an employee wearing glasses at the counter, and the shelves were lined not only with simple raw materials and herbs but also magi-engineering products created by combining machinery with mana stones.
One particular work caught my eye.
It was a machine that looked like a waterwheel. In front of it stood a boy who looked like a puppy.
"Did you make this?"
"...Ah, yes!"
The boy who was called upon stepped forward with a happy smile. His features were quite sharp. The employee next to him glanced this way with a worried look.
"It's a Mana Stone Waterwheel!"
"A Mana Stone Waterwheel."
"Yes! If you leave this in a place with a high concentration of mana...!"
The boy released some mana. Touched by the current, the waterwheel began to spin with a whir.
"It draws in mana like a waterwheel draws water!"
My eyebrows twitched.
"Like this, it keeps gathering mana from the air!"
The waterwheel rotated under the boy's mana, and particles the size of sand grains began to aggregate in the bucket placed below. The circulation and refinement of mana. The resulting action and flow. The principles behind it formed in my vision.
Was this also due to the virus?
"It produces mana stones!"
The boy placed a speck of mana stone on his finger. The stone itself evaporated almost instantly.
"Ah, you know, right? Artificial mana disappears! But if you leave it in a place with lots of natural mana, the stones don't disappear!"
Human mana and natural mana are different. Human mana cannot be turned into stones or crystallized, but natural mana gathers under the ground, in caves, or inside glaciers to become mana stones.
In other words, this Mana Stone Waterwheel was a natural mana stone generator.
I looked at the boy.
"What is your name?"
"It's Armand!"
Armand replied with a face full of anticipation. His cheeks were puffed out like steamed buns, and his eyes sparkled like stars.
"The concept is good, but..."
There was a point I had to criticize. The joint of the waterwheel that drew in the mana. There was a flaw there. At least, according to the virus.
I flicked a bit of mana into that spot.
CRACK—!
The entire waterwheel exploded.
"...A-Ah, no!"
Armand looked as if his world had collapsed.
"Why... why would you do that?!"
The boy crouched down, sobbing. I looked down at him as he picked up the shattered debris.
"This waterwheel only has meaning if used in a place with a high concentration of mana, but mana ruptures are frequent in such places."
The boy snapped his head up to look at me.
"Mana wears down matter. If you place this waterwheel in a location where the mana is thick enough to generate natural stones, it won't last even a day. In other words, it has no practical utility. And above all..."
There was a more important problem, but I didn't say anything further.
"...I worked so hard on it."
Armand's lips trembled as if he were about to burst into tears at any moment.
Suddenly, the boy's face turned beet red. He jumped to his feet and thrust his palm out at me.
"Pay for it!"
"Pay?"
"You broke something that was for sale!"
"—Armand! You brat!"
Just then, someone rushed out and shouted the boy's name.
Lorenzo Carione. A man with a thick beard and sideburns walked out, leaning on a cane.
"What kind of rude language is that to a customer!"
He appeared to be a rather fastidious mana merchant, scolding the boy on my behalf. That was all he looked like on the surface.
But he was actually a genius professor who had suddenly gone into hiding from the world. He was a magi-engineer with a deep history, and as such, he despised nobles.
Therefore, my criticism of the boy was somewhat intentional. If I hadn't done that, he wouldn't have shown his face to me.
"Are you the owner?"
I gestured toward Lorenzo.
"...Yes. I apologize. This boy is my apprentice, and he's quite ill-mannered. You! Bow your head this instant!"
Lorenzo rapped the boy on the crown of his head with his cane. However, the boy did not bow.
"You! Won't you bow?!"
"..."
A handful of tears welled up in the boy's eyes, but he still didn't bow. He gritted his teeth and trembled, his fists clenched tight.
"It's fine."
I quite liked his unyielding attitude. It didn't matter what his status or age was. It was a much better posture than those rotten nobles who bowed until their heads touched the ground.
Above all, since he was a boy of exceptional talent, I could tolerate this much.
"Owner. I am looking for these items."
I handed Lorenzo an order list. It included rare mana books by major scholars, flasks and syringes for analyzing mana, and top-grade mana stones to feed the virus.
"...There are many things here we don't have. I don't think we'll be able to procure them."
Hard to procure, he said.
With a faint smile, I turned back to Armand. I pointed to the boy's flushed face and the remains of the waterwheel he had built.
"A machine that artificially produces mana stones could potentially violate the Imperial Mana Stone Law."
"..."
Lorenzo bit his lip imperceptibly, and Armand looked suddenly terrified.
"I wonder what 'they' would say if they saw this."
As such, I would use any means necessary.
It meant I didn't want to waste time trying to curry favor.
"...We don't have them now, but I believe we can find them. It will come to about 100,000 dollars in total."
Lorenzo's words changed in an instant.
"That's a relief. Thank you."
I didn't reproach him. Instead, I expressed my gratitude and took out my wallet.
"However, will a mere 100,000 be enough?"
I signed a check and handed it to him.
Lorenzo's eyes widened when he saw the amount.
"It's 200,000."
I don't haggle.
To those who are worth the money, to talents who won't spend it wastefully, I pay more than the fair price.
"If you need more during the process of procuring the items, please let me know at any time."
This is the Ebenholtz way of doing business.
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