Ch.244244. The Execution Platform

Downtown in a comfortable rural province in the western part of the Dawn Empire.

This city maintained a generally relaxed atmosphere, with idyllic farms and agricultural households spreading out just beyond its borders, and its main industry being the production of secondary processed goods through agriculture.

Half the pedestrians visible in the city were wealthy farmers who operated the local farms, and facilities for bustling commerce or entertainment weren’t particularly developed.

Of course, quite a few tourists came to enjoy this gentle and leisurely atmosphere, but even they didn’t want to come all the way here just to enjoy the same entertainments available in larger cities.

Therefore, this city had a large middle-aged and elderly population enjoying retirement, good public safety, and despite being rural, it didn’t particularly suffer from outdated infrastructure…

“You filthy woman! How could you do something so obscene?!!”

“Disgusting! So you preferred that old hag over me?!! You bastard!”

For the first time in a very long while, a shouting match erupted in the middle of the city.

People curious about the commotion moved toward the source of the yelling, and upon seeing the situation, they could roughly understand what was happening.

A young man beaten to a pulp, a married woman who was somewhat older but still beautiful, a young woman expressing her anger with heavy breathing, and a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties.

Anyone could guess that the young man and the married woman had been caught having an affair.

Crunch. Crunch crunch.

Munch.

The only sound that could be heard was people sharing and munching on popcorn that someone had brought, while the enraged husband, not caring even slightly about the surrounding gazes, shouted loudly.

“Your clothes! Your makeup! Your designer bags! All bought with my money! You don’t even have to do housework because I hired a housekeeper with my money! And yet… you have an affair because life is boring?! Huh?!!”

The man shouted like that for quite some time at the married woman dressed in apparently expensive clothing, while right beside them, a young woman who appeared to be in a relationship was beating the cheating man with her bare fists.

Thwack! Thud! Thwack! Thwack! Thud!

“How! Dare! You! Cheat! On! Me! We! Even! Set! A! Wedding! Date!”

The woman wearing the officer’s formal uniform of the Legion of Black Sun was beating the man who had cheated for reasons that anyone would find questionable.

“W-wait a moment!!”

At that moment, a girl who appeared to be a novice priestess of the Order rushed in and addressed the young woman.

“…What is it?”

The woman was wary, assuming someone had come to stop her, while the man being beaten held hope that the beating might stop, but…

“《Lesser Cure Hurt》. I-it’s fine! You can continue beating him! I-I’ll heal him if he seems about to die…”

With an attitude completely contrary to her shy demeanor, the priestess cast a healing spell on the man.

The man’s face, now moderately recovered with the swelling subsided, was filled with despair.

“Thank you, Priestess.”

“Ehehe… I-it’s nothing… hehe.”

After thanking the priestess who laughed awkwardly, the young woman immediately resumed beating the man.

Meanwhile, at the same time.

“Huff, huff, huff, huuuff…”

The man who had been breathing heavily with mixed anger and hatred glared at the married woman with terrifying eyes.

Then he grabbed her collar with one hand and began to lift her up.

“Kh, kheeeek!”

Naturally being choked in the process, the woman struggled while gasping for breath, but she was powerless against the strength of the man who had once served as a Swordman in the Legion of Black Sun.

While the woman struggled in pain, neither suffocating completely nor having her grabbed clothes tear, the man holding her collar with such precise force:

“Brothers of Vengeance!! Prepare the stake in the central square!! I must prove the sin of this adulterer!!”

He shouted proudly toward the surrounding crowd and then threw his former wife to the ground.

At that moment, upon hearing those words, the spectating crowd began to cheer loudly.

“””””””””Burn her! Burn her! Burn her! Burn her! Burn her!!”””””””””

The comfortable but somewhat boring and dull city was indeed just that, which is why the crowd, excited by this rare event, dispersed in all directions.

“Pirios! Pirios! Come out here!!”

“What… I’m busy.”

“They’re putting an unfaithful wife on the stake in the central square!”

“What?! This, this I can’t miss! I’m coming right now!!”

Some ran to their own homes or those of close friends to spread the news about why the stake was being used, and the entertainment-starved people of this city followed them, declaring they couldn’t miss such a rare spectacle.

“Good sirs, soldiers of the Legion of Avengers! Please set up the stake!”

“The stake? Why on earth… Rather, if you follow the proper procedures, you could use—”

“—I heard he wants to put his cheating wife on it?”

“We’ll prepare it immediately! Atello?”

“Yes, Veteran Casius.”

“Send word to our garrison. It would be a shame for everyone to miss such a rare spectacle.”

“Understood!!”

Meanwhile, some citizens rushed to the facility where the stake was managed and abruptly requested the Legion of Avengers soldiers to prepare it.

Those who were eager to see someone else’s unfaithful wife burn joined the citizens in retrieving the stake from storage.

The stake.

Among the many sacred artifacts of the Order of Vengeance, this was one of the few that could be mass-produced like the Blood Eagle Totem, and as its name suggests, it was originally an execution platform created to judge sinners with divine power.

The stake is completed by stacking wood that has been dyed red after being soaked for 10 days in blood flowing from the Chalice of Blood, and then following several simple consecration procedures that any priest of the Order of Vengeance can perform.

Those who must be judged are restrained by the structure naturally formed during the process of stacking and fitting the wood, and in this state, the person who directly placed the subject on the stake requests a proper “judgment” from the god.

Of course, if someone puts an innocent person or someone with lesser sins on the stake, the initiator himself will burn instead.

Therefore, it is generally unthinkable to even attempt to use the stake except for the most serious offenses.

“Grab her! Tie her up!”

“Let go! Let go! Don’t touch me! I said let go! Do you know who my father i—”

—Thwack!!

“Silence, sinner. Do you think your petty authority means anything to us of the Legion of Avengers?”

But conversely, this meant that such an obvious sinner was likely to be a proper execution target, and so, as countless spectators gathered in the central square, the woman in luxurious silk dress was restrained on the stake.

Whoosh—Thud!!

Despite having no nails or specially designed parts, the structure fit together so perfectly that the woman couldn’t move even slightly as she struggled.

While she was struggling, her husband simply threw the man who had an affair with his wife under the stake.

After briefly looking at the man whose face had become completely distorted from being repeatedly beaten and healed by his former fiancée, he frowned as if he had seen something filthy, then looked up at the sky and shouted vigorously.

“O God of Vengeance who passes judgment! O One who bleeds in our stead! Here, here are sinners who have committed the sin of adultery!! Please bestow upon these sinners the punishment they deserve!!”

With a resolute tone, the man offered his prayer like a declaration, and at that very moment as everyone held their breath watching the situation.

—CRACK!!!!

Despite the sky being undoubtedly clear without a single cloud, red lightning struck from above, and that crimson lightning that glowed blood-red struck directly above the stake and began to burn.

“Kyaaaaaaaa!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! Aaaaaaaa—!!!”

“Hot, it’s hooooot—!!! N-no, n-n-nooooaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

From inside the stake that began to burn as the lightning struck, the adulterous couple screamed terribly from the excruciating pain caused by the sacred fire burning their bodies.

“””””””””Wooooooooooooooah—!!!!”””””””””

Meanwhile, the crowd, pleased that the sinners had received their deserved punishment, cheered along with the sound of people burning, and the sinners, who had been screaming in agony, now couldn’t even open their mouths as the insides of their throats began to burn.

Of course, there was not even the slightest possibility of a future left for them.

Due to the healing magic mixed with the sacred fire, they would spend 100 hours repeatedly burning and regenerating, and after 100 hours, only one of two outcomes awaited these sinners.

If their minds couldn’t endure, their souls would eventually burn up and turn to ashes, but if they survived, their souls would be cleanly purified (reset) and “regenerated” as new beings in the divine realm.

This was an appropriate punishment for those who committed sins that even the God of Vengeance, considered quite merciful for an evil deity, could not forgive.