BXBX NOVEL Chapter 178: The Great Sinner is Sentenced to Banishment
Chapter 178: The Great Sinner is Sentenced to Banishment
- The Great Sinner is Sentenced to Banishment
A spear was thrust toward the man who had been escorted by carriage.
“…………”
Rising wordlessly with difficulty, a man wearing tattered clothes slowly disembarked from the carriage.
Emaciated, his once chestnut brown hair and beard now streaked with gray had grown unkempt and shaggy. With each step he took, a metallic clinking sound rang out.
Why was that?
Because the man’s arms were bound together in front of his body by chains.
Those armored men prodding the chained man from behind with their spears to urge him forward were soldiers.
In other words, the armored men were soldiers, and the chained man was a criminal.
They began walking in silence beneath the cloudy sky threatening rain at any moment.
After several minutes pushing through thickets and proceeding down a narrow animal trail through the forest, their view suddenly opened up.
What lay before them was an extremely deep ravine.
Peering in, only impenetrable darkness could be seen at the bottom, the contents indiscernible due to the immense depth.
Naturally, falling in would mean death.
However, the soldiers’ intent was not to kill the criminal by throwing him into the ravine.
“Now……we shall carry out the sentence. Originally, you deserved the death penalty, but by His Majesty’s direct decree, you have been sentenced to banishment instead. Be grateful for that profound mercy and compassion deeper than the sea.”
The leader of the escort squad began that recitation after they reached the crude log bridge spanning the ravine.
“…………Kukuku, ‘compassion’, you say?”
The criminal let out a small laugh as he gazed toward the other side of the bridge.
Beyond the ravine lay an overgrown virgin forest, the calls of unknown beasts occasionally echoing from within.
Trees with ash-gray trunks too wide for three adults linking arms towered with white flowers blooming in their upper branches.
The dense, fragrant aroma of the forest wafted on the wind, reaching the criminal’s hooked nose as well.
This forest beyond the ravine was the land to which the criminal would be banished.
Named the Zamago Forest.
Located at the western foot of the Nanga Mountains, it was the westernmost region of the Ranrananga magic boundary mountain range, a world ruled by the law of the fang and claw.
What would become of an unarmed human cast into such a place……there was no need to spell it out here.
“You! What are you laughing at!”
Seeing the criminal shaking his shoulders with a sardonic chuckle, a young soldier shouted angrily at him.
It seemed to have struck a nerve.
“Well, what can I say? To be chased by monsters and die in agony is ‘compassion’, is it? His Majesty certainly has a sense of humor.”
“Watch your tongue!!”
The enraged young soldier took a step forward as if to strike the criminal……but then, strangely enough, he suddenly tripped over nothing and fell at that very spot without any pebbles or vines to snag his feet.
“!?”
The confused soldier flailed about in a panic.
Gazing down at him, the criminal laughed through his nose and said:
“Hmph, your duty is to escort me, not harm me in any way. If you’re a soldier, obey your superior’s orders and refrain from unnecessary actions.”
“Y-You bast——-!!”
His face flushed red with rage, the soldier gripped the sword at his waist as he stood, preparing to cut down the criminal!
However, once again he tripped over nothing, this time slamming his face straight into the ground.
“Hahaha……you seem to have excess energy, how enviable. So energetic, like a child! Could this be thanks to the commander’s guidance?”
With a wry smile, the criminal addressed the squad leader as he shrugged his shoulders.
Though his face was flushed red and his body trembling, unlike the young soldier, the leader did not fly into a rage and attempt to attack despite the insult.
“Great sinner……Giovanno Ack Toh……! Just cross the bridge already. Go to the forest. Die a stray dog’s death. That’s all.”
“…………Understood.”
The leader’s quivering voice issued that order, rage suppressed.
Giovanno simply nodded without returning any sarcasm to those words.
His face did not bear the mocking grin he had earlier when taunting the young soldier.
Only an expressionless mask.
Gishi, gishi, gishi……
Each step Giovanno took across the log bridge elicited a pitiful creaking sound.
Yet he did not falter, simply proceeding at an unaffected pace.
“Wretched great sinner who views not others as human! Fall into hell!”
“God! I pray Giovanno Ack Toh’s remaining life be forever steeped in unending agony!”
“Live a day longer, great sinner! Suffer a day longer!”
“No matter how much you suffer, it will not amount to one-hundredth of the pain you inflicted on those you tormented!”
“Die! Giovanno Ack Toh!”
Behind Giovanno, the soldiers who had escorted him hurled vicious insults and curses.
No matter how scathing the words flung at him, Giovanno paid them no mind.
Or rather, he did not.
“……There is one correction.”
Midway across the log bridge, Giovanno stopped once and turned back toward the soldiers.
“You see, I have already been stripped of my noble rank. I am merely ‘Giovanno’ now. Not ‘Ack Toh’. Addressing a non-noble criminal as nobility……could it be out of consideration for my former noble status? I am deeply moved by that gracious gesture of twisting the nation’s rules to satisfy this criminal’s sense of pride. Thank you indeed, commander.”
Finally.
After delivering that lengthy sarcastic remark, Giovanno let out a dismissive laugh before starting to walk again.
He did not utter another meaningful word after that, crossing the entire log bridge while the chains binding his arms clinked, disappearing into the Zamago Forest.
All that remained were the soldiers on the opposite ravine side, dumbfounded expressions on their faces.
Droplets of light rain began falling from the ashen clouds covering the sky.
As “The Reincarnated Extra” is always called out for lacking enough “serves you right” moments, the theme of Arc 12 is “serves you right.”
People who get their comeuppance will appear.