Title:
<The Logic of the Strong (4)>

Text:
"We will now resume the retrial for the defendant, Giorgio Chirico."

The trial recommenced after the recess.
However, the prosecutor showed no intention of making a rebuttal, and the defense attorney rose from his seat first.

"I call to the stand the current head of the Listeman family and chairman of the Listeman Company, Valerius Listeman, as a witness."

All eyes focused on the spot the attorney indicated. The courtroom doors opened, and Valerius Listeman entered alone.
He was a haggard sight. In just a few weeks, the characteristic splendor of the nobility had vanished, and the despair of bone-white agony was etched deep into his face.
He sat in the witness stand.

"Before the witness testimony, I would like to present the submitted evidence."

One by one, the defense attorney presented the pieces of evidence that proved Lorenzo's innocence.

"Witness, what are your thoughts on this evidence?"
"..."

Valerius closed his eyes. He said nothing.

"Speak! You orchestrated all of it!"

Suddenly, Jerome shot up and pointed accusingly at Valerius.

"Speak! Say it!"

He shouted for a long time before being dragged out of the courtroom.

Money laundering is just that dangerous of a crime. In the time to come, quite a few more heads will roll.
Taxes must be paid.

"Order, order in the court."

After restoring quiet, the judge looked toward Lorenzo in the defendant's box.
Listeman was a witness for now, but if the verdict of this retrial was overturned, his status would change to that of a criminal.

"Defendant Giorgio Chirico, do you have anything to say to the witness?"

At the judge's question, Lorenzo gave a courteous nod. Leaning on his cane, he slowly rose.

"Honorable Judge."

He looked at Valerius in the witness stand and continued in a low voice.

"Giorgio Chirico died a long time ago. He died on the very day he was betrayed not only by his own disciple but also by the Magic Tower and colleagues to whom he had dedicated his life."

The mages attending as witnesses bowed their heads. Lorenzo’s gaze swept over their faces.

"...So you finally tell me the truth now. Of course, I do not know if your hearts are sincere, but I thank you nonetheless."

A bitter smile touched Lorenzo’s lips.

"Perhaps the Giorgio Chirico of the past was insolent. He may have been arrogant and vain in his own talent. He may have said things that wounded his disciple. But he never, ever felt jealousy or envy toward his student, nor did he ever try to steal his achievements."

Suddenly, Valerius's shoulders began to tremble faintly.

"...Valen."

Lorenzo spoke the name of his former disciple.
In the Magic Tower, where one's 'status' was nominally ignored, everyone was called by their name or a nickname.

"I have thought that the bitter words I spoke might have become scars for you. However..."

From a corner of the courtroom, I watched the two men.

"Not once did I ever think your talent was lacking."

It was the story of two scholars, a story whose details I did not know.

"I only wished for you to spend more time in the dark laboratory than in a fancy ballroom. I hoped you would wear a research robe more often than an expensive suit..."

Valerius's gaze fell.

"I truly believed that you could become a greater scholar than I. That is why I took you as my disciple, why I entrusted my theory to you."

His face sank. The head of a noble house bowed his head.

"...That is all I wish to say to the witness."

Lorenzo finished his statement.
Now, all that remained was Valerius's choice.

"Witness, do you have any last words?"

I looked at Valerius.

"...I."

A voice as if scraped raw. His parched lips trembled.

"I."

As if vomiting blood, as if spewing his organs, he spoke.

"I stole your theory."

He said that one single phrase.
The entire courtroom was engulfed in silence.

Valerius bowed his head like a sinner, and Lorenzo closed his eyes.
I quietly stood up and left the courthouse.
The trial was not yet over, but with his confession, the retrial was effectively finished.


"Where are you going?"

I was about to head back to the Knights' headquarters when someone caught me.
It was Ezel.

"The retrial isn't over yet."

She's sharp, as always. I had deliberately put on a clumsy disguise, but it was no use.

"We've been meeting a lot lately."
"Tell me about it."

Ezel tore a page from her notebook and handed it to me.

[──The logic of the strong is the logic of power. The strong oppress the weak. They can dominate the weak because they are strong.
But that logic must not be applied selectively. One who has devoured the weak by virtue of being strong must accept the fact that they too can be crushed by someone stronger.
If they cannot, then it is not logic, but mere sophistry.──]

"What's this?"
"Hehe, I'm a reporter for the Tower, you know. I'm going to run this incident in the Tower newsletter."

Ezel took off her glasses. The dark circles under her eyes were still deep. I wondered if her future dream was to be a panda, but this girl certainly had a lot on her plate.

"You knew Giorgio, didn't you?"
"The story of Giorgio Chirico and the mana coil is pretty famous. By the way, Max, good work."

For some reason, the words 'good work' felt unnecessarily heavy.

"I just did my job."
"Still, it's surprising. That you forgave that old man."
"Who knows. Maybe... 'Haha, you're caught. This was all a sympathy ploy to induce your confession~'"
"-...-"

Ezel narrowed her eyes. I let out a dry cough.

"Can't you take a joke?"

Humor is essential in this bleak world.
In any case, Lorenzo would be dropping the civil suit related to the mana coil and releasing the patent for public use. It was an obsolete technology and the royalty period didn't have much time left anyway, but it was a decision worthy of a saint.

"And, Max, I found evidence."

At Ezel's words, my gaze sharpened.

"Faxi?"
"Yeah. It's proof that he's at least connected. Take a look."

She held out a document.

"Magic leaves a unique trace behind, like a fingerprint. We call it a 'remnant'. To really understand remnants, you have to start with the definition of magic, but skipping the detailed explanation, do you see this mark here?"

At the first murder scene, in the alleyway, there was a mark like a tire tread.

"Why would there be a tire track in an alley?"
"A magical remnant?"
"Exactly. Once it appears, it's hard to get rid of. I guess the culprit didn't have time during the first murder. Thanks to that, it's confirmed the culprit is a mage. And I saw Archmage Faxi's magic from a distance..."
"The remnants are similar?"
"Yeah. Not for sure, but still. More importantly, why did this Head-Eater cut off people's heads? Did it really eat them?"

"Beats me..."

Looking back, I hadn't thought about the Head-Eater's motive for murder. I just figured it was an Isenheim, so it killed.
But the Isenheim were the type to focus on hiding their identities.
They were a species that would sacrifice an individual for the sake of their kind and their goals.
So why would they commit attention-grabbing serial murders?

"...Ezel."

Suddenly, a hypothesis surfaced.

"Is there such a thing as magic that can only be sustained by eating people?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean, what if a condition for maintaining a spell was, say, cannibalism. Something like that."
"Hey. What are you on about..."

Suddenly, Ezel's expression hardened. Her eyes darted back and forth as if searching through the files in her mind, then, clap.
She clapped her hands together once, softly.

"...I've seen it before. Chaos magic. The conditions are incredibly difficult, like one in tens of thousands, but..."
"What is it?"
"Hold on, I, I'll go first!"
"Wait, what?"
"I'll call you when I find out!"
"Before you find out, talk to me before I beat it out of you."
"Max, you have a knack for this! A talent! Keep up the detective work!"

Ezel chattered as she ran off. Watching her agilely disappear, I let out a bitter laugh.

"...How absurd."


In the office of Deputy Chief of Staff Yens. He stood lost in thought, gazing at the golden apple on his windowsill.
Gleaming, glittering, the thing reflected the sunlight, looking truly appetizing.
But this kind of fruit will give you a stomachache if you eat it when you want to. You must let it ripen as much as possible, and eat it when it's most delicious and healthy.

Knock, knock.

A secretary opened the door.

"Ah, you've come."

The visitor, Sub-lieutenant Kai Han, saluted with perfect posture.

"Be seated."
"Yes, sir."

He sat across from Yens.

"Have you heard the news?"

The Sub-lieutenant who had requested a favor, Lawrence Tillman, had been promoted to Captain in the recent personnel changes and became the commander of the Mage Division's Fromm Company. It was a rather good post.

"Of course, sir. And so, this is... a small token of our gratitude."

Sub-lieutenant Han offered a small box. Yens opened the lid right in front of him, as if to make a point. At a glance, it looked like a high-end fountain pen, but in reality, the entire thing was a C-grade manastone carved into an object.
Manastones are easier to liquidate than gold. Any Magic Tower in the world, any mage, would buy them in near-infinite quantities, and they disappear upon use.

"Haha. My, my. Such a considerate gesture, and also..."

Yens smiled with satisfaction and pulled something from his drawer. It was a thick notebook, hundreds of pages long, almost like a technical manual.

"Take this. It's my return gift."
"...Yes, sir?"

Sub-lieutenant Han's face was a picture of confusion.

"Take it."

In Yens's estimation, Kai Han was a talented commoner. But a commoner cannot rise high. It wasn't simply a matter of status. They don't know the complexities and subtle nuances of noble society, and their ignorance makes them inept at understanding relationships.

"It's my notebook, where I've organized the names and relationships among the military's senior officers."

However, it was for that very reason that Kai Han had caught Maximilian's eye.
An honest, diligent, and upright commoner who would never betray him. With the right guidance, he could be a useful limb within the Imperial Guard, but if things went sour, he was just an ordinary soldier who could be discarded without consequence.

"Sub-lieutenant Han, the Imperial military is broadly divided into three factions. Are you aware?"
"Yes, sir. The Regular Army, the Imperial Guard, and the Royal Guard."

The Regular Army is the Empire's legitimacy and tradition, the Imperial Guard is a new group cultivated through the current Emperor's direct transfer of power, and the Royal Guard are the shadows that have protected the Imperial family for generations.

"Furthermore, the Knights are an independent body that oversees them all."
"You know well. But a war is coming. Big or small, internal or external. Yet you, you don't even know exactly what train you've boarded right now. You're just fumbling in the dark. I understand. It's because you were never taught."

Yens tapped his notebook. Sub-lieutenant Han stared at it intently.

"You can start learning now. But you can't afford to be clueless any longer. To survive, you must bow your head, but to rise high, you must stand up and grab a line. The real challenge, however, begins the moment you grab that line."

That glorious name, Ebenholz. Too grand a chance for a commoner to seize.

"A commoner doesn't get a second chance. It's always a precarious tightrope walk. The better the rope, the higher it is, and the higher you are, the more fatal the fall. And the rope that has descended to you..."

Yens's gaze grew placid.

"It might just be the rope closest to the sky in this Empire, no, on this continent."

Sub-lieutenant Han nodded, his face hardened.

"Memorize the entire notebook. Without missing a single syllable. There will be names of those already discharged or deceased, but memorize all those relationships too. Our next lesson can only proceed after you've memorized it all."
"Yes, sir. Understood."

He tucked the dictionary-like notebook under his arm. He started to leave, then stopped, turned, and saluted Yens again.

"Allegiance. I apologize, sir."
"...I understand. I led you to do so, after all."

Yens smiled without realizing it. He must have been seen as a clueless or greedy old man. There was no need to apologize for such inner thoughts.

"You may go."
"Yes, sir."

After the Sub-lieutenant left, the office was quiet once more.

"...Maximilian."

Yens thought about Maximilian von Ebenholz.
He had already figured him out.
If he had accepted Sub-lieutenant Han's gift and showed no reaction, he would have been dismissed as just another general, not worth a second look. A mere scarecrow.
But if he reacted, he would be seen as a worthy partner for transactions.
However, Maximilian wouldn't reveal such intentions to the Sub-lieutenant.
Sub-lieutenant Han had genuinely thought of the gift as a simple favor until the moment he offered it, but it was, in fact, a high-level probe by Maximilian to gauge Yens's own intentions.

A commander gives an order to his subordinate, omitting the most critical part.
Only then will they walk into the jaws of death without any suspicion.

"...Showing his claws."

What was the military's reputation of Maximilian?
Extremely strict, cold, and cruel.
During the Kylos Purge, he had personally beheaded an Imperial soldier. The official reason was a breach of military discipline, but witness accounts said it was ultimately because the soldier 'spilled wine on his knightly formal wear'.
But even that was likely not the truth.
Maximilian was hiding his true intentions while simultaneously creating an image of fear for himself.

"Killing a single soldier like a dog..."

The Maximilian Yens had seen firsthand was clever. Despite being visited without any notice, he wasn't flustered; rather, he acted as if he had expected it. He even seemed slightly pleased. That Yens had come to him, allowing him to observe the military establishment more closely.

And yet, during his cadet days, that same Maximilian had a reputation for being weak.

"It was all a deception."

Acting foolish allows one to more easily read the hearts of others. Even nobles who wouldn't reveal themselves before the great house of Ebenholz would easily let their true feelings slip before a seemingly weak child.

"...Hah."

A short laugh escaped him.

"This capital is already fit to burst with just one monster."

The monster's cub, now grown, had begun to eye the empty throne.
Yens felt a strong urge to retire, but his nose was already halfway in.

Still, it wasn't all bad.
Kai Han was smart. A talented soldier, a waste for a commoner. If Yens nurtured him well and set him on the right path, he could retire with a post-service fund greater than anything he had saved so far.

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Pub: 18 Oct 2025 05:38 UTC

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