Book 19 Chapter 13

Imprisonment (投獄)

-Kill Bi Ryuyeon!

"…Do it!"

A loud shout broke through the narrow window, shaking the entire room.

"Execute him! Execute him!"

Mazinger had to stay up late. They had been going on since the crack of dawn. He was paralyzed from sleeping and doing his usual work in this environment.

"Ehhhhh."

A long, drawn-out sigh escaped him. He felt as if an invisible assailant was driving a stake through his skull.

He looked at the stack of submissions on his desk with eyes that weren't yet tired. He didn't bother to open them. This stack of appeals was forcing him to do the same thing as the crowd of white-headbanded people outside, screaming at the top of their lungs to be torn apart. There were several packets of letters signed in solidarity by dozens of people. The highest of these numbered one hundred and twenty-five.

How many of them are actively thinking about it? I'm guessing the vast majority of them were just tinkering with their brushes, even though one life was involved. The most amazing thing is that all of these appeals were posted in just two days, yesterday and today. It made me wonder if everyone had forgotten about the erosion and was focused on writing their appeals.

"When was the last time these kids were so unified in their opinions across factions and families?

After a moment's reflection, Mazinga shook his head.

'This is probably the first time…….'

It would be nice to unite around something better. Why unite around something that doesn't need to be united?

"Ehhhhh."

With a sigh unbecoming of his regal bearing, Mazinga walked to the window and unlocked the double-locked panes. His current office was on the third floor, giving him a clear view of what lay below.

Each of them wore a white bandana on their head, as if they had made a promise, and in the center of it was the vicious word "kill.

There were banners everywhere. They looked like they'd been thrown together in the middle of the night, but the words on them were clear.

Immediate death 卽 bǐliùyèn 殺!

Execute Bi Ryuyeon immediately!

The red handwriting on the white banner was not the work of anyone, but it was filled with the sincerity of the writer, and each stroke was full of intention and life.

But as if one phrase wasn't enough, the banner behind it said something else. The blood-red lettering was eerie.

Immediate death penalty!

The right side of it looked like this

The serial killer, Bi Ryuyeon, is dead!

"You must have been busy to get this ready in one day……. Looks like you guys pulled through."

There was a hint of sarcasm in Mazinger's voice as he explained their behavior.

"I was actually restrained yesterday evening, so it's actually only been half a day, so you've been working twice as hard if you count that."

Eunmok Son, a counselor and soldier, made a correction.

"I wish I could ask for nothing more than to have this much attention to my studies and training."

"I agree."

"Do you think they really believe that Bi Ryuyeon, that child, did it?"

She shook her head.

"That can't be true. In fact, the young man, Bi Ryuyeon, is a suspect, but he hasn't been identified as the culprit yet. He's still under investigation. Until this investigation is over, and until he's identified as the culprit at the end of the investigation, he's just a suspect. He's not guilty yet."

"And yet they're advocating for a quick death. What do you think?"

"In fact, they probably don't care if this young man, Bi Ryuyeon, is guilty or innocent."

"Why does it matter?"

"Yes, I'm just annoyed with that young man, Bi Ryuyeon, and I've been wanting to gouge his eyes out at the first opportunity, and now I've got a good one, and I'm not going to let it go to waste."

"Why are you so desperate to eat it?"

"Maybe it's because you're fed up, you've tried and failed so many times. Do you see anything in the crowd gathered down there?"

As she spoke, Mazinger glanced over at the group of white braids.

"If you look closely, you'll see something in common besides the childish white headband."

After looking at it for a while, Mazinger stopped moving.

"Hmm?!"

"Do you understand?"

"Come to think of it, there aren't any women."

"Yes, all those people who rushed down there are men, and they're all single. They're all loners without mates."

"I didn't know that. That's pathetic."

The truth came out of Mazinger's mouth.

"Poor thing, so you can imagine what drives them."

"In other words, jealousy?"

"They're a giant jealousy club of single men. You'd think they'd have few enemies."

"Does that mean you're invincible?"

"Yes, it's invincible."

For the first time, a look of fear appeared on Majinga's face.

"Their anger seems misdirected. Young blood should not be a shield for thoughtlessness, should it?"

"But the majority of the public opinion is calling for the death penalty for the non-religious."

"What kind of punishment is that, when we don't even know if they're guilty or innocent yet? To be honest, I'd rather punish the entire group down there for disturbance."

"You can't do that without being accused of being a power grab."

In a nonchalant voice, she replied.

"So what was that, a rampage of the uninformed masses?"

Mazinger shouted nervously at the noisy crowd gathered below. He was overwhelmed with work as it was, and if you thought that people at the top always left things to the bottom, you were sorely mistaken.

"Well, could that be a product of ignorance? I'm skeptical about that one……."

"If that's not a product of stupidity, what is?"

"Of course, the children gathered there are ignorant, pitiful creatures who are highly susceptible to the slightest incitement, but the few who are moving that ignorant mass must be calculating their profits and losses, which is why they are able to organize so many of them, so they can be called the product of malicious calculation, or the product of machinations, but not the product of ignorance."

"Is that what you mean?"

"That's what I mean."

But even if some of their students were not the product of ignorance, Mazinger could not honestly rejoice in that fact. Because even if they weren't products of ignorance, it didn't change the fact that they were still ignorant.

"Nominally, that young man, Bi Ryuyeon, is the winner of the Volcano Covenant Conference. Because of that, he has gained representation for the Heavenly Martial Academy. Whether we want to or not is irrelevant. Let's execute him with our own hands. With a fancy flower crown for being a serial killer of examinees."

"The prestige of the Temple of Heaven will plummet into the depths of the earth."

It wasn't that hard to imagine.

"It's going to be a scandal that's going to stick with him for a long time."

"And my sect's approval ratings for the Heavenly Martial Academy will drop, which will be good for the Heavenly Pavilion."

Sun Tzu spoke frankly. He was a counselor, and therefore obligated to tell the truth when everyone else covered it up. If the eyes and ears of the person at the top were blocked, it was a big problem. That's why a person at the top must have at least one person at his side to tell him the truth. Otherwise, you'll never be able to see the details of the organization. You must plant your people halfway up the organizational ladder or you will lose the ability to manage the organization.

Sun Moon Kyung was one of the highest of them all.

"Just out of curiosity."

"Speak, my lord."

"Do you think some of them will obstruct the investigation to further their own interests?"

"That's certainly a possibility."

Once again, he answered bluntly, and with the attitude that it didn't matter if his answer made his boss frown; he wasn't here to make her feel better.

"That's not a funny answer."

"But it's true."

Not only is she not very good at putting her bosses at ease, but it's clear that she doesn't care.

Mazinger couldn't help but think. It wouldn't be pleasant if it happened to him. But with public opinion so heated, he couldn't just sweep it under the rug.

The problem with truth is that it never takes into account the feelings of the recipient. Whether the recipient of the truth finds it pleasant or unpleasant, the truth is still the truth.

"We have to work it out somehow and tie it up in knots!"

Before the furor erupted. Then I had a funny thought.

"What happens when you untie the knot, but what happens when you re-tie the knot? Does that mean you're back to square one?

It was an ominous slip of the tongue.

If anyone tried to tie it back up, we couldn't let them get away with it. No interference was to be tolerated.

"I need to do something about this before it gets out of hand. I've never forgotten that you're always a reliable ally in times like these."

It was an unspoken pressure to figure out a way to get a pointed number out of it.

"We'll just have to catch the culprit."

"Who didn't know that and asked?"

Majinga replied bluntly, sounding a little angry.

"Or get to the bottom of what happened."

"I know that."

"But the problem with that is that most people would rather see it covered up than uncovered, because everyone would rather sabotage it than help solve it. It's amazing how you can get such a big backlash at such a young age, so I guess you could say he's a tycoon in a sense."

"So what do you think?"

"I need a friend to do this in secret. Someone I can investigate secretly without anyone else knowing, someone who isn't tied to their interests, someone who doesn't hold any particular grudges against the young man named Bi Ryuyeon, and someone who can treat him fairly."

A person flashed in and out of Mazin's mind. He was the kind of person who fit the conditions that Sun Moon Jing had just laid out.

"I'll have to call in the red.

Despite a momentary worry that he might complain about being pampered these days, it was the most productive decision he could make at the moment.