Chapter 29: Old Friends

  After several days of this kind of work, Justinian needed a break. His mind had taken so many hits in that short time that he simply had to get away from it all.

  Now, swinging his saber with a complete lack of energy, he recalled with embarrassment the events of the past few days, when he had increased the sentences of the vast majority of those he had questioned. Of course, he was still sure he was acting correctly, but the terrified faces of the prisoners sometimes haunted his dreams.

  "Cheer up, at least you helped those few people who turned out to be innocent!" Aldona tried to comfort him.

  "Yeah..." The boy nodded, dulling the pain by focusing on his weapon training.

  This simple task allowed him to escape the unpleasant reality and enter a rare domain where his intentions actually produced the desired effects. He was still an amateur, but he felt that with dedicated time, his movements were becoming more and more confident.

  Aldona frowned, watching the boy prefer swinging his saber to talking to her, but in the end, she just shook her head. 'He needs a reset after the recent events...'

  Nevertheless, she had no intention of missing the chance to spend the day together, so she soon gave a mischievous smile.

  "Maybe you'd like to see how Felix trains?"

  These words made Justinian stop and look at her with a serious face.

  Soon, they were traveling through mountain meadows where Eusebius had organized attractions for children, trying to increase the marketing potential of his mountain. Unfortunately, this negatively affected the atmosphere of the two friends' excursion. All because the devilish kids had recently found new games to play:

  "Last one there is the Grim Judge!" a small imp yelled before the whole group started a race.

  Scenes like this were not only all over the mountain, but everywhere in the entire 66th dimension.

  Justinian even once heard a she-devil threaten her child, "You better behave, you brat, or the bad man judge will come and take you away!" To his shock, the child was almost instantly quieted by fear.

  Tears welled up in the man's eyes at the injustice of this world, but in the end, he had to grit his teeth. 'Even if I was hoping for a different outcome, does that change the fact that I'm trying to judge everyone fairly and without cheating?' he asked himself, irritated. 'What kind of justice would it be if I only pursued a state that was more pleasing to my eye and let off actual criminals?'

  He didn't realize it yet, but these thoughts were bringing him closer to a breakthrough to the fifth mark of Ki Gathering. His vision of justice was becoming more and more absolute.

  But for now, he tried to drive away such thoughts.

  "Do you know this Felix?" he asked Aldona, out of pure curiosity.

  The noblewoman at first raised her eyebrows, not expecting the question. Her confusion quickly gave way to a smile.

  "What, are you jealous?" she winked at Justinian, who just shook his head.

  Of course, his number one goal was revenge, and as long as he hadn't achieved it, he didn't want to think about romance. He valued Aldona and felt a strong connection with her, but more as a friend than a partner. The question of the representative adept's power, however, truly shocked him.

  'After all, the Orange Prince didn't seem even half as terrifying...' he compared his experiences fighting both devils.

  Finishing her jokes, the she-devil sighed slightly. "Felix and I have known each other since we were kids. He's been training for years under the watchful eye of the mountain lord, and if he wanted to, he probably could have left this dimension long ago."

  The boy frowned at these words. "Is that a common phenomenon?"

  Aldona shrugged. "It depends. After achieving Foundation Stabilization, devils usually emigrate for better prospects. Only nobles, attached adepts, or lunatics who want to replace one of the four mountain lords stay behind."

  Justinian nodded. "And what are they looking for in other hells?"

  The noblewoman looked him in the eyes, her gaze slightly more serious than usual. "Who can say? Maybe they're following the path of strength and devilish virtues, as the king of names and symbols commands. Maybe it's a matter of money," she said. "Or maybe... they're just looking for true freedom," she added quietly.

  The boy noticed that the last words, in particular, seemed important to his companion. But before he could ask about it, she smiled at him and interrupted. "Shhh, we're almost there."

  Then, pulling him by the hand, she led him to one of the marketing events arranged by Eusebius.

  At the venue, the show was already underway, and the mountain lord was speaking to the crowds.

  "If you join us, you'll have the chance to train with Felix himself!" he said like a surprisingly skilled presenter.

  'He's nothing like he was during our earlier meetings...' Justinian noted, watching the devil entertain the crowd.

  He and Aldona took a seat in the audience and waited for the main event. Eusebius advertised special classes for children and the possibility of direct advertising on the special robes of beginner adepts at tournaments.

  Soon, however, he moved on to the main event.

  "Devils and she-devils! I present to you the magnificent Felix and his great power!" he hyped the atmosphere before his adept entered.

  The children and even their parents in the stands began to go wild, and soon the representative adept stepped onto the stage. It seemed that wherever he went, the sun shone brightest, and the wind gently tousled his hair, creating the image of a true hero.

  'Life sometimes just isn't fair...' Justinian was annoyed in his mind, contrasting this with his own terrible experiences.

  He didn't have much time for such thoughts. Soon, as part of a "small demonstration," Felix presented some of his skills.

  "Watch carefully!" Eusebius said as his adept created a large sphere of chaotic, swirling energy in the air. He then easily shrunk it to the size of a walnut and began tossing it into the air for the children to enjoy the magic.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The energy didn't harm them, and the little devils, of course, squealed with delight.

  "Felix is so cool!" they shouted whenever they got a chance to play for a moment.

  When a dozen or so children had played with the ball, Felix called it back to himself, looking expectantly at Eusebius. The latter then released a dozen magic colored balloons into the air, which also increased the audience's enthusiasm.

  "And now, the main event..." the devil announced.

  Felix, in turn, took his walnut and... threw it far in the opposite direction, toward the mountain lord's residence and the peak itself.

  The crowd didn't know what was going on and waited in suspense, while a rare look of concentration appeared on the adept's face.

  "Is there going to be a surprise?"

  "Why does Felix look like he feels bad?"

  The little imps asked their parents.

  Justinian also had no idea what it could be. 'The control over the energy showed how good he is, but I expected more...' he thought, disappointed.

  "Now for the finale..." Aldona whispered softly, watching what was happening on stage.

  Justinian frowned, seeing no change.

  But then... one of the balloons burst, releasing beautiful fireworks. The others immediately followed suit, one by one, until they all did.

  The little devils, of course, were delighted and began to clap, but their parents' faces showed mostly terror. The same, incidentally, applied to Justinian.

  'How is that even possible?!' he thought, looking in shock at the magical lights appearing.

  As a cultivator, he could easily see that the balloons were popped by the very same energy sphere that Felix had thrown in the other direction. It had made a circuit of several kilometers, and although significantly smaller, it broke them one by one at lightning speed!

  For the next few days, Justinian continued to question the prisoners. To his terrible frustration, word had reached them of a terrible judge who was just waiting to worsen their sentences, which meant their dominant attitude became one of silence. Upon his arrival, they wouldn't even look at him; they just stood with their heads bowed, praying that he would let them finish their current sentences.

  'It's not my fault that most of you are terrible criminals!' he thought, outraged, justifying himself in his mind.

  He felt especially bad that the adept devils in the stands now looked at him with respect bordering on... fear! Now, when he looked at individual sectors, they fell almost instantly silent, and no one dared to make a sound.

  A few days passed in this absurd atmosphere until a prisoner was brought to him who would shake his worldview. He was a very troubled man—with burn scars all over his body, hairless, and without eyes.

  'Sold to the mountain as a murderer, he has nearly twenty-five more years of being submerged in the river of blood... And he refuses to testify...' Justinian noted as he reviewed the files.

  No longer having the energy to smile—since it had the opposite of the intended effect anyway—he advised the prisoner to present his case. As he was only met with silence, he just sighed and ordered the convict to be taken away. Due to his refusal to participate in the process, his sentence did not change. However, as the man was leaving, he noticed something familiar in his gait.

  'I think I would remember if someone like this had been judged before?'

  He wasn't sure, though; after all, the number of cases was enormous, and he couldn't remember all of them. So he shrugged and wanted to return to processing the next convicts.

  'What a strange case...' he shook his head, hearing the prisoner leave.

  But for some reason, the case bothered him, as if he had missed an essential detail and solved it the wrong way. He also couldn't see that there was one more person in the audience who paid attention to the strange man. A person whose face showed a pleasant surprise, like someone who receives a completely unexpected gift.

  "Next!" Justinian ordered, trying to focus on the matter.

  After a few hours, his workday ended, and he returned to his hotel. Unfortunately, only the familiar nightmares awaited him, this time reminding him of the events from the tomb in the Kingdom of Peace.

  While Justinian was dreaming, time on Eusebius's mountain did not stop. Someone watching the forest path to the multi-story prison would have seen the figure of a prison guard, undoubtedly heading for the night watch. A close look, however, might have caused the observer to rub their eyes. This was because the guard's face... seemed to be changing violently?

  Within a few seconds, it changed from simple, tough demonic features into a round shape, with a delicate beard and a bored look.

  "Aren't you overdoing it with these night shifts?" laughed the guard at the entrance, who was clearly familiar with the figure.

  "You have to find a way to avoid the old woman's nagging," the newcomer shrugged.

  Soon, he headed to the floor where the murderers were held. The indifference in his gaze had vanished in the meantime, and something else now reigned there: a mocking smile.

  When, 30 minutes later, the same figure returned along the forest path, his face changed again. Now it presented someone completely different. Someone who had a solid reputation throughout the hellish dimension and was known for his corruption. It was Justinian's face in his devil form.

  A few hours later.

  "Why are you suddenly so keen to visit that prison?" asked a sleepy Aldona, whom Justinian had gone to see as soon as he woke up.

  "I just want to check something," the feverish boy answered vaguely, reluctant to explain what might still be a mistake.

  Of course, the girl didn't mind and was even happy to have an extra chance to spend time together. After all, this human was a very interesting companion for her—unlike devils, he seemed to have a sense of mission in life, as well as values based on something more than laziness and drinking. Unfortunately, it was sometimes precisely because of these values and his sense of mission that certain misunderstandings arose.

  "Be honest. You're not trying to force that convict to testify, are you?" she asked the boy on the way to the prison.

  He, still focused on his horrible dream and the possible discovery, didn't even know what she meant at first.

  "What?"

  "Well... even we have some basic limitations. You can't just threaten people into testifying against themselves..." she said, looking him in the eyes. She seemed worried that his path to seeking justice was slowly leading him in a very dangerous direction.

  Justinian didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he understood the meaning of her words. However, he decided not to correct her and said that he would explain everything on the spot.

  Soon they were within sight of the prison village when they noticed the raised voices and noise coming from there, a result of the commotion.

  "Has Eusebius been notified yet?!"

  "Who could have done such a thing?!"

  "It's a disgrace to our reputation!"

  The crowds commented.

  The companions pushed their way through with difficulty, and then, in front of the prison building, they saw the source of the chaos. A man was being carried out on a field medic's stretcher. His arms and face were covered in burn marks. And on his throat... was a trail of blood from a knife that had cut his windpipe.

  They were carrying out the corpse of the mute man Justinian had dreamed about that night.

  "We have to stop this experiment," Eusebius announced in his office that same afternoon. On his desk, the boy noticed an unrolled scroll titled "Improving the mountain's safety regulations: practical steps."

  The devil himself was visibly annoyed, which—as he suspected from the rumors—was related to Boruta's outrage that a murder had occurred in the most important research institution for the prison system of the 66th dimension.

  Of course, Justinian had no way or intention of appealing this. He was more interested in the case of the terrible murder, which... happened very rarely in that prison.

  "Who was this man, and how did he get here?"

  The mountain lord glared at him, not really in the mood for such conversations. In the end, however, he knew he had no intention of taking his anger out on him. So he shrugged, clearly lost in thought.

  "Who can say? He was in a horrible state when he was sold to us, but a clear aura of a murderer emanated from him." Here he stopped for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "He was already missing his eyes and tongue back then. His whole body was burned by some corrosive crap."

  The boy listened with wide eyes. 'He was already missing his tongue... but also no eyes and burned?'

  Eusebius, in turn, shared some of his own information. "They're telling me it must have been a cultivator; after all, how else could he have gone unnoticed?" Here he looked at the human standing before him. "This is the end of the pilgrimage on the mountain for this year."

  The reasons for this state of affairs were obvious. Justinian expected the conversation to be over, so he bowed to the devil and began to leave. On his way out, he heard some news.

  "Aldona asked for permission to accompany you during your pilgrimage. It's a known custom, and I see no reason why I shouldn't agree."

  Justinian nodded at the news. He had grown fond of his assistant—one of the few souls in this cursed world who he felt truly understood him. This was also to be expected, given the amount of time they spent together.

  He soon left, leaving the devil to his duties.

  Eusebius, in turn, sat thoughtfully in his armchair. From under the scroll from Boruta, which was about improving safety conditions, he pulled out a short letter. It was a report from the head of the patrol service.

  'Not only is someone incredibly brazen, but I also have incompetent guards...'

  The report stated that last night, shortly after the prisoner was killed, the Grim Judge was seen sneaking alone into his cave.