The clash between the king of Korea and the king of Japan.
Against everyone’s expectations, the result was a victory for Il-gyu, the junior Devil King.
And not by a hair’s breadth, either, but by an overwhelming margin.
But what shocked the world was not merely the outcome of that contest.
“An Authority that steals Authorities......”
“What in the world is this absurd Authority?”
“This isn’t because the king of Japan is weak. The king of Korea was simply on a completely different level.”
“What god did he usurp that kind of Authority from?”
Thanks to the Greenwich Wise Men’s Council, information about Authorities had now been exposed to the world to some extent.
Because of that, Erica was able to understand the performance of the power in Il-gyu’s eyes.
And so everyone could make an educated guess.
That Il-gyu’s Authority was one with an absurdly severe penalty attached to it.
If that weren’t the case, then a battle between the Japanese king and the Korean king would not have been possible in the first place.
As proof of that, what the Japanese king had lost was not a single Authority, but one half of one.
Even so, it was still far too outrageous.
To put it bluntly, wasn’t he the only Devil King who could increase his Authorities without slaying a god?
He was terrifying enough already, but what frightened people even more was how far his growth might go.
Yet contrary to that public assessment, Il-gyu himself felt somewhat dissatisfied with his Authority.
That was because, while carrying out this confiscation, he had realized the limits of confiscation.
“You mean it isn’t permanent confiscation?”
“No. Confiscation is permanent in every case, without exception.”
“Then why......”
“Hmm. Please call the senior staff of the National Intelligence Service. I’ll take this chance to explain my Authority once.”
He felt bad for needlessly worrying them like last time, and while he didn’t know what Authorities he might obtain in the future, he figured it would be fine to explain [Ju-bok-sa-sa] at least.
At the meeting that was assembled that way, only those whose identities were fully guaranteed were gathered, since this was a place where the king’s Authority would be laid bare.
There, Il-gyu began explaining the exact function and weakness of [Ju-bok-sa-sa], and further, the limitation he had discovered this time.
“Well, I’ll skip the basics since you probably already know them. [Tyr’s Sword] and the confiscation side are what need explaining, yes?”
“As I understand it, [Tyr’s Sword] can only be used on someone who has committed murder.”
“Similar, but not quite. More precisely, it depends on whether they qualify for execution. Also, there is actually a difference between a [Tyr’s Sword] used normally and a [Tyr’s Sword] drawn through trial.”
For now, both swords had the same specs.
The strongest holy sword.
A top-class divine relic specialized in cutting down evil.
However, the true value of [Tyr’s Sword]—its compatibility and defense-ignoring effect—was an option granted only to the sword drawn at the end of a trial.
“The exact principle is that once a being receives a death sentence at the end of a trial, it is automatically defined as evil.”
“I see... So if someone receives a death sentence through trial procedure, then it doesn’t necessarily have to be [Tyr’s Sword].”
“Yes. It becomes vulnerable to divine implements with the attribute of great evil.”
This seemed to be an important point, because everyone from the National Intelligence Service listened with deep concentration.
In particular, Kang Pil, the director of the National Intelligence Service, resolved to scour the world for items with the attribute of great evil as soon as this meeting ended.
He judged that if they built a special task force armed with such divine implements, it would surely be of help to Il-gyu as well.
“In any case, that difference reveals the weakness of the first Authority.”
“Pardon?”
“Suddenly?”
“I can tell you right away, but first let me ask one question. Could I use [Tyr’s Sword] against all of you?”
The National Intelligence Service agents stirred uneasily.
[Tyr’s Sword] against them?
Did that mean they were people fit to be executed?
They had devoted their whole lives to the country, so that would be far too unfair.
But on the other hand, they had in fact killed people.
They could now boast that they understood at least a little of Il-gyu’s sense of justice.
He valued human life.
There was almost no exception for those who killed people.
If forced to name a single exception, it would be only one case: Il-gyu would not pass a death sentence for a killing caused by accident rather than intent.
Of course, he would still impose an extremely heavy punishment in its place.
Otherwise, it was all death sentences.
By that standard of justice, the agents gathered here were all death-penalty candidates at the very least.
Every one of them had killed someone with intent.
However, Il-gyu said it was a little different.
“The former—[Tyr’s Sword] drawn solely by reading my judgment, my karma—is possible. Murder is murder, whatever the reason.”
But the latter—
The true [Tyr’s Sword] could not be drawn.
“I know how much dedication all of you have given. Who could punish a soldier who stood on the battlefield and fought to defend the country?”
“Il-gyu-nim......”
“To sentence people like you to death from the bench? I can’t do that. That isn’t my justice.”
Now then, the answer was clear.
“You are guilty, but you are the kind of people for whom a trial is advantageous.”
“Yes, well, I suppose that’s true.”
“If I had to fight you, then it would be advantageous not to hold a trial.”
“That’s also true.”
“But what if you demanded a trial?”
“Huh? Th-that would......”
“I can’t refuse.”
That was the limitation of [Ju-bok-sa-sa].
A rule no one had noticed until now.
Within Il-gyu’s range, not only Il-gyu himself but also his opponent could demand a trial at any time.
“It really is an Authority of trial.”
“That’s right. The right to demand a trial isn’t reserved for prosecutors alone.”
A trial that only prosecutors could demand was, at most, a criminal trial.
It was an extremely rare thing, but through a retrial request, a victim could prosecute a criminal whom the prosecutor had not indicted.
And civil trials were open to everyone.
[Ju-bok-sa-sa] obeyed that principle.
“I think I’ve explained the sword and its weakness well enough, so let’s move on to confiscation.”
Confiscation.
In a sense, a punishment even more terrifying than [Tyr’s Sword].
It was not actually all that different from what they had seen so far.
Il-gyu confiscated from the target whatever he wanted, in proportion to the weight of their sin.
The objects subject to confiscation were everything the target was judged to “possess.”
As before, that could include prana, memories, and even parts of the body.
“What about property?”
“No.”
“Huh? Why not? Isn’t money mine?”
“It has to be something you possess at the moment confiscation is carried out. Cash you’re carrying in your wallet would be possible. But cards and bank accounts are, in essence, money stored at the bank, so they’re meaningless.”
“What about pets or people?”
“My sense of justice does not recognize ownership of life.”
However, there was one point to note here.
They had been misled by the word confiscation and failed to realize something.
“In truth, it isn’t confiscation. It’s extraction.”
The execution of confiscation was merely the process of extracting something in proportion to the weight of the sin.
Il-gyu taking the extracted thing was not part of confiscation.
He was just taking it.
“Wait a second! Does that mean......?!”
“Yes. It means someone else can also steal what was confiscated.”
Of course, anything Il-gyu had absorbed would be impossible to take back out.
But with confiscated goods, Il-gyu could fully extract them again.
He could also give them to someone completely different.
“Then the reason you’ve always extracted prana when punishing criminals......”
“Was to strengthen the National Intelligence Service’s combat power in the long term. Even just increasing the quantity of prana would change the quality of our strength.”
Of course, that was difficult right now.
Every person’s prana had a different nature.
That was only possible because Il-gyu was a god-slayer and an absurd genius.
For an ordinary person, forcing another’s prana into them would not make them stronger; it would only cost them their precious life.
“So I’m currently researching the black magic used by American sorcerers lately. The kind of magic that extracts human vitality and refines it. If applied properly, this problem should be solvable, so you can look forward to it.”
It seemed the conversation had drifted a bit, so he brought it back.
“That’s also why confiscation is permanent.”
Once extraction was done, that was the end.
Whether to return it or not was up to Il-gyu.
Instead, the condition opened up the possibility that the other side might steal it back from him.
However, this supposedly all-purpose confiscation......
At last, its bottom had been exposed.
“The confiscation used on Godou was, if I had to quantify it, about fifty percent output.”
And even then, it had only taken half an Authority.
In other words, only a confiscation at the level of the worst extreme punishment, one that included execution, could barely steal a single Authority.
Even more than that—
“Godou’s Authority is rebelling inside my body.”
“What?!”
“What do you mean by that...... Are you all right? Is there something wrong with your body?!”
“I’ve suppressed it for now, so there’s no problem. But I won’t be able to keep it down forever.”
That was a side effect of splitting an Authority.
The original owner of the Authority was Godou.
Even though the Authority had been divided in half, the core still remained with Godou, which was why this phenomenon had appeared.
“At least Godou’s Authority was originally split into ten pieces, so the burden is lighter. I suspect that if I tried to split a complete, single power, I wouldn’t even be able to use it. It would just wreck my body.”
“Then......”
“Unless I’m stealing a complete whole, confiscating an Authority isn’t all that meaningful.”
There was also a function to break an Authority and seal it, but the rebound would return to Il-gyu as well.
And if he didn’t absorb it, then naturally the other side would take it back.
As for leaving it somewhere else, there was no being capable of containing an Authority other than a god-slayer.
“I’ll have to return Godou’s Authority as well.”
“Good grief......”
“Ah, but don’t be too disappointed. I think I can still take two avatars.”
“Didn’t you just say you couldn’t?!”
“I never said I couldn’t. In fact, I told you that Godou’s Authority is fundamentally divided.”
He could digest up to two.
Of course, that was only because it was Il-gyu.
Another god-slayer would have no chance.
It was a shame, but this was enough for Il-gyu to be satisfied.
Greed invites disaster.
And even if he was a vicious bastard, he had no intention of tormenting someone who hadn’t even received a death sentence to that extent.
“Then which avatars will you take?”
“The boar is confirmed, but I’m still thinking about the rest.”
To be blunt, Godou’s method of using his avatars was useless to Il-gyu.
It was too crude.
If these were equal avatars, then the others must also hide tremendous potential.
“If it’s hard for me to choose, then I suppose it’s fine to negotiate with Japan. I had no intention of returning the other avatars nicely in the first place.”
Japan would have to pay an extremely high price.
For reference, the same went for Erica’s prana and her magic sword.
However, that price would be collected from Erica’s family.
“What about Godou and Erica?”
“They’re still unconscious, but their bodies are recovering at a terrifying speed, as expected of a god-slayer.”
“I estimate they’ll be fully healed in about a week.”
“Erica had no special external injuries, so she woke up quickly.”
“Though perhaps because she lost her prana and magic sword, she looked a bit like someone who’d lost her wits.”
In truth, it didn’t matter much.
If Japan wanted to take them back immediately, he would return them.
Of course, that would mean a king who had lost half his Authority and a princess left as nothing but an empty shell.
“If you pull a stunt, you pay the price.”
Ah, and for the record—
There is no third trial in Il-gyu’s court.
Il-gyu is the judge and the prosecutor, so would he really overturn his own verdict?
If the truth was not disclosed, then that was the crime of not disclosing it.
Especially in Il-gyu’s courtroom, even if you offered nothing but words and no evidence, if those words were true, the evidence would end up in Il-gyu’s hands.
It was a trial with no reason at all to be judged again.
thanks for the chapter