The woman flinched back for a mont, but then caught herself and narrowed her eyes at Leila instead. "That's not your father!" she snarled. "Why would yo— Gah!"
Suddenly, a surge of pressure sent her stumbling back several steps. Instinctively, she tried to conjure bright blue magic circles of unknown purpose, but they sputtered out of existence before fully forming.
"Are you ignoring ?" Erik chuckled, his lips twisted in a disbelieving smirk as he walked up, hands resting in the pockets of his cargo pants. "That's bold of you."
The woman shifted a venomous glare towards Erik. "I'm bold?! What about this rebellious slut calling so other man 'Dadddy'?! She should have so respect for her father!" Suddenly, she pointed an accusatory finger at Erik, eyes spitting fla. "And what was that just now?! Did you attack ?!"
As she released her tirade, she continued trying and failing to form magic circles, growing increasingly frustrated. Confusion flashed behind the anger in her eyes, but she didn't say anything, clearly unwilling to admit her confusion.
Naturally, it was Erik's doing. His control over aetherium was far more profound than this second-ranked woman, especially with Elora in his soul. In his presence, very few second-ranked Arcanists would be able to form their spells, let alone harm him.
Erik raised both his eyebrows in amused surprise at this woman's insolence.
"Hehehehe! Oh my god, this is so perfect!"
A burst of excited giggling filled the space next to him, so he glanced over at Leila, who was clutching her stomach as she laughed. "You really are a stupid bitch, huh?!" she cried out, tears of joy in her eyes as she looked at the woman only slightly older than her.
Erik blinked. "Is she for real?" he asked Leila, truly bewildered.
The noble woman scowled. "You—!"
"Quiet," Erik scoffed, and it was like the air around this woman locked in place as she beca unable to move a muscle or even blink. Disbelief appeared in her eyes, but she still didn't show any fear.
Leila continued giggling, barely finding the air to nod and answer him. "Hehehe, she-she totally is! Hahaha!"
"Did you expect this?" he asked, now a little suspicious as he frowned. "You have so beef with her, and hoped she'd act this way?"
Her giggling quickly began dying down as she glanced at him nervously. "N-No, of course not, Daddy…" Recovering, she smirked and shrugged. "She's just so dumb, noble bitch. I have no more beef with her than any other who treated the sa way, and I had no idea she'd act this way."
She looked back at the frozen woman again, cocking an eyebrow. "I think her na is Hanna? Last ti I ca here, she was dismissive of , but I'm used to that." She giggled a little again. "I didn't think she'd be one of 'them'."
Only growing more bewildered, Erik looked at her with strange amusent. "'Them'?"
Leila looked back at him. "Oh, uhm…" she muttered, seemingly a little surprised he didn't know about this. "Well," she continued, scratching her head awkwardly. "I know you've t so mbers of the powerful families of this kingdom, but… it's a bit of an open secret that they've been trying to keep 'certain' mbers of their families away from you."
Erik's expression urged her to continue, and so she did.
Smirking, she waved at the frozen Hanna. "While the important mbers of those families are generally intelligent and reasonable, there are so whose sense of entitlent exceeds their common sense."
She giggled again. "Idiots like this woman think their family na still makes them untouchable, like it once did. By anyone, or at least anyone within the kingdom. Obviously, the family leaders don't want them interacting with you, or even my brother."
Erik's disbelief only grew as he blinked and turned back to look at Hanna. "There's still people like that…?" he muttered softly. "Did you know about this?" he asked Elora.
The fairy, still enjoying her return to this soul, answered indifferently. "I suspected, but didn't bother looking into it. Who cares? They're insignificant. Just teach this one a lesson and move on."
Elora's cold analysis caused Erik to smirk. "Well, fair point…" he smirked, and started walking closer to the frozen woman. Leilah quickly followed him. "W-What are you going to do?" she asked, barely able to hide her excitent. She clearly loved seeing her 'Daddy' teach others to respect him—and by extension, her.
"Well, it's not like she's entirely wrong," Erik shrugged, hands still in his pockets. Before Leila could ask what he ant, she saw him glance around, and that's when she noticed the large crowd staring at them nervously. It was getting late, but there'd still been plenty of people around when this started.
"I don't want to create a culture of street killings, after all," he chuckled softly, focusing back on Hana. "I need to show the people I can be harsh, but also fair. Of course, this one needs to be made an example of…"
When he reached her, there was still a sense of superiority and surety in Hanna's eyes, though her paralysed situation was quickly corroding it.
Scoffing, Erik flicked his finger. With a thump, Hanna's body was thrown to the floor, her face planted in the sandstone street. The crowd gasped. Erik looked around at them with a cocked eyebrow. "Don't tell everyone still believes this woman's na buys her immunity?" he asked, now speaking loud enough for even the first-rankers to understand him clearly.
The crowd remained silent, but Erik saw enough sceptical faces to make him roll his eyes. Crouching down, he grabbed a fistful of Hanna's hair and then lifted her by it until she was dangling above the ground by her hair. He still restricted her ability to speak, not believing she'd have anything interesting to say. Her eyes were finally filled with uncertainty and fear.
"The families hold power because they're useful to the kingdom," he said sternly, addressing the crowd, rather than the woman. At this point, she was just a prop. "But they're not irreplaceable. You should all rember that. In fact, if anyone finds evidence of wrongdoing in a family holding powerful positions, bringing that information to the palace might just result in your own family replacing the wrongdoers. My empire is a ritocracy."
Elora laughed inside of him. "Hah! That'll keep them on their toes."
As loud murmurs erupted in the crowd, Erik shook Hanna by her hair. "As for this one, she'll stand trial for disrespecting her emperor." With a flick, he tossed her into an isolated section of his dinsion. "Let's see if her family cares enough to co and beg for leniency."
As soon as she disappeared, a voice erupted not far from him. "W-Wait! She was still supposed to pay !"
"Hm?" Erik murmured, and turned in the voice's direction.
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