Chapter 194: The Liquor of Anecdotes (2)

“Lady Peophe! Please forgive us! If you add my life expectancy and Lena’s, it is eighty years of reduction. I was the one who dragged my sister into this. At least reduce my sister’s fault!”

“And what is wrong with forty years? Anyway, at most you will live sixty, right? Five years is enough to do everything one wants.”

What determines biological characteristics is life expectancy.

Fairies, although they possess reason like humans, live for an immensely longer time, so their way of thinking is radically different.

In the life of a fairy there is enough time to correct mistakes.

For that reason they are not stubborn and are frank, but they cannot understand the feelings of those who have a limited life.

It is like how a human cannot understand how valuable an hour is for a mayfly.

Especially from the perspective of Peophe, who had barely one year of existence, death was a word that would only make sense to think about a thousand years later.

Kanya’s mother prostrated herself on the ground.

She knew that the new administrator was inexperienced, but she never imagined such a devastating verdict.

“Lady Peophe, you are the executor of the law. However, no fairy of the realm has ever imposed such a severe punishment. Even I only received twenty years. Please reconsider.”

“What? Are you looking down on me because I am only one year old? I also know what I am doing! The executor of the law has the authority to reduce up to fifty years of life. Do you dare challenge my authority?”

“If you truly have delivered that verdict, I beg you to tell us the reason.”

“Hmph, fine. Then I will say it like this. The unauthorized departure to purgatory by Kanya and Lena means a reduction of twenty years! And the other twenty years are for introducing heretics! Now do you have no complaints?”

Peophe pointed at Shirone’s group.

She had not received a report about the entry of heretics, but she had confirmed it with her own eyes, so there was no problem in issuing the sentence.

“Lady Peophe! They are not heretics! The boy here is a Nephilim!”

“A… Nephilim?”

Peophe stared at Shirone.

Was he really a Nephilim?

Descendant of an angel.

Free from the law.

The innate knowledge granted to her at birth crossed her mind.

As a fairy, she was not a harmonizer of the law but an executor; she could only judge according to laws already established.

Therefore, in theory, she could not impose any punishment on a Nephilim.

And even so, Peophe did not back down.

The youngest among the seventy-two hierarchies of fairies and the forty-eight thousand that existed remembered the constant verbal harassment of her superiors.

If she returned without imposing authority, she would become the laughingstock until the next novice fairy was born.

“That does not change the crime! I will overlook the Nephilim! But not everyone here is one! So the crime of introducing heretics remains!”

Kanya’s mother raised her head and replied.

“They may not be Nephilim, but they are companions of one. Calling them heretics contradicts the law.”

“Silence! How dare a mere faithful speak of the law before its executor! I carry out the will of Ra! Opposing me is opposing the god!”

“Wait a moment.”

Shirone, who had been kneeling, stood up.

Peophe crossed her arms and looked at him.

Confronting a Nephilim was not prudent, but not even a Nephilim had the authority to interfere in the execution of the law.

“What? If you try to obstruct the execution, I will not forgive it.”

“No. I just want to correct a misunderstanding. We were not brought by that girl. We simply followed her. Then doesn’t that mean you cannot blame her?”

“What nonsense are you saying? Followed her?”

“I met her by chance outside the sky. Since she opened the gate, I followed her and entered. I am free from the law, I can go wherever I want. So I simply came into this house to have dinner. Therefore, those two sisters have no fault.”

“Who do you think is going to believe such a lie?”

“Then prove it. Present evidence that what I say is a lie.”

The meca system of the sky could detect any minimal variation, but it could not read emotions.

That the group had entered together with Kanya was recorded by countless data, but determining the exact nature of their relationship was impossible.

All this was possible because Shirone was a Nephilim.

Peophe moved her eyes nervously.

She had to find another way out.

If the rumor spread that she had been manipulated by human words, she would be mocked for a thousand years.

“Fine. Then I will restore twenty years of the life expectancy of Kanya and Lena.
And I will allow the entry of the Nephilim. But the others are still heretics who deny the law, so I will reduce their life expectancy. You there. Start by saying your name.”

Peophe pointed at Arin.

Of course, Arin did not answer.

The causal mechanism was not known exactly, but it seemed that in order to grant or reduce life expectancy it was indispensable to know the name.

Arin was not naive enough to allow her name to be openly recorded in the register of condemnations.

“I don’t want to. Why would I have to tell you my name?”

“What insolence! They are vulgar heretics who do not know the fear of a fairy!”

Shirone frowned.

“What do you think a person’s life is? You will also die someday, won’t you?”

“I am a concept. My life cannot be compared with that of a human! Besides, I have only one year of existence! For my life to end, a very long time is still missing!”

Shirone let out a dry laugh.

The future is the future precisely because it eventually arrives.

That is why those who have lived before are honored and remembered when they depart.

It seemed that Peophe had never considered that the future was something inevitable.

She had said she was one year old.

Compared with a human year, it was obvious how immature she was.

Peophe placed her hands on her waist.

“Very well. So you want to do it this way? For the crime of refusing to reveal your names, you will be judged by someone superior to me. And for hiding blasphemous heretics, I will add thirty more years to the sentence of Kanya and Lena! Both will receive a total reduction of fifty years!”

Kanya’s family felt as if the world was collapsing.

Fifty years meant that as soon as the law was executed, Kanya would die.

The actual execution of life expectancy corresponded to the highest rank of the seventy-two hierarchies of fairies, so she would not die immediately.

But once the report was submitted, it was obvious that it would be enforced within a few hours.

Peophe, satisfied with her own verdict, turned her body as if she had completed a long day of work.

“With this the judgment concludes. I withdraw.”

As she flew toward the door, she stopped abruptly.

Rian and Tess were blocking the exit.

Shirone and Amy surrounded her on both sides.

“Hmm, do you intend to subdue me by force? Me, a fairy?”

“It would not be impossible. It is like catching a sparrow.”

“Oh, really? Then try it.”

Peophe opened her eyes in fury.

Immediately, the face of Rian, who was gripping the hilt of his great sword, twisted.

A strange force was twisting his arm.

Tess, not understanding the situation, grabbed his shoulder and felt the same pain.

“Hehe. If you do not move aside, they will break.”

The power of fairies, as single-concept entities, resembled in many aspects an exception to the rules.

They expanded their concept and used it as if it were magic.

Peophe had been born from the concept of the spiral.

For that reason, she dominated everything related to twisting.

Not even Rian, whose strength was comparable to that of a schema user, could resist it easily.

But when the body began to execute one hundred percent of the brain’s orders, his movements gradually became free.

Rian swung the great sword and the spiral force surrounding Peophe broke, making her stagger.

Tess seized the opening and launched a thrust with the sword.

Peophe rose into the air to dodge, looking incredulous.

Schema.

It was a technique of the giants.

Fairies and giants were the two pillars that supported this world.

They were equal before the law, but each considered themselves superior in their own mind.

That was why being surpassed by a giant’s technique wounded her pride.

“Damn you!”

Peophe moved with such speed that she left trails like drawings in the air.

Rian’s and Tess’s movements overlapped, creating an opening.

Taking advantage of that instant, Peophe launched the force of the spiral against the door.

The center of the metal door twisted clockwise, the hinges broke, and the door leaf fell.

“Haha! Idiots! Goodbye!”

But when she launched herself outside, she felt something strange.

Her speed was decreasing.

Shirone was advancing straight ahead.

Peophe tried to rise toward the ceiling, but even that felt slow.

When she realized that time was flowing slowly, she was already trapped in Shirone’s hand.

Shirone deactivated the slowing spell and held her in front of his eyes.

“How did you manipulate time?”

Controlling time was light magic.

But in the room there was no light source sufficient to amplify it.

The innate knowledge crossed Peophe’s mind.

Nephilim, descendant of an angel.

And angels were the dominators of light.

“This is….”

Peophe pouted.

She tried to break free, but Shirone’s strength was greater.

Or rather, the strength of a fairy was weak.

Specialized in mental power, their physical strength was among the lowest among the laws.

“Let me go! I’m telling you to let me go!”

Her kicks barely tickled.

She clenched her teeth and cast magic.

The moment the force of the spiral began to activate, Shirone tightened his fist even more.

Peophe’s eyes widened.

The air inside her escaped violently.

“Ahh! Stop! My stomach is going to burst!”

“Return the family’s life expectancy.”

Peophe’s tearful face turned cold.

“Are you trying to threaten me? It is useless. I only submit the report; I do not execute the law. You have attacked an executor of the law. Even if you are a Nephilim, you will not come out unharmed. You had better release me.”

“A threat? I could kill you.”

If he could not change Peophe’s heart, Kanya would die.

He could not say he had no responsibility in it.

He tightened a little more.

Peophe’s face turned pale, but she did not abandon her pride as an executor.

“K-kill me. I’m not afraid.”

The more he pressed her, the stronger he felt her pulse.

She was a fragile creature.

He could crush her as if it were nothing.

She was afraid.

“You’re not afraid? Then why are you trembling?”

Humiliated, Peophe raised her gaze in fury.

“The annihilation of existence frightens anyone! And even knowing that, one chooses to die! Do not compare me with mediocre humans!”

“Then die.”

“Do it! Kill me! I can die without a problem!”

Shirone raised her.

If he threw her against the ground, she would die instantly.

Peophe’s trembling intensified.

Just imagining her small crushed corpse felt unpleasant to him.

Peophe broke into inconsolable sobbing.

She had lived only one year.

Her dream of becoming the first among the seventy-two hierarchies of fairies ended there.

When the tears ran over the back of Shirone’s hand, he frowned.

How was he supposed to accept a world where even the essential value of life was subject to the law?

“You say you choose death even while being afraid. Why? Why can you only think like that?”

“Hmph. A human like you would never understand! But I will say nothing! As an executor of the law, I will not submit to a human!”

“Fine. If you have renounced life, it is already as if you were dead. Then it will be easy for me to take it from you.”

Peophe’s face was soaked with tears.

She wanted to live.

But if the one holding her life in his hand asked what she should say in order to be saved, what answer was there?

Should she kneel and beg?

An executor of the law could not submit to a faithful.

“Yes! Kill me! Do it already!”

“But if you ask me to save you, I will.”