Chapter 116: Converting the Father-in-Law to a New Faith
A colossal eye hung suspended in the chaotic sky, droplets of pitch-black mist seeping from its edges.
Angus felt a chill creep up the back of his neck and snapped his gaze sharply to either side.
At so unknown mont, the ground all around had beco blanketed with unspeakable, grotesque figures.
They resembled humans—yet they were not.
Their 5 limbs were twisted into wrong angles and contorted without cease, and the features on each face chanically perford eerie rituals beneath the great eye above.
Angus rose to his feet and looked behind him.
The dark Followers stretching for thousands of miles in every direction radiated nothing but dread and ill on.
Soon, those inhuman beings propped themselves upright. They forced their decrepit bodies into motion, turning in circles against each other's direction, spinning and dancing as though in welco of the deity gazing down upon the world from above.
The enormous Crow soared through the air, its beak slowly parting—several coiling tongues lashed through the air, drawing the black smoke seeping down from the sky into its mouth.
In 1 eye, a cascade of frenzied and chaotic visions flashed past in an instant.
An enormous invisible hand closed around Angus's head, wrenching it forcibly back into place, his eyeballs seized as though by unseen fingers, locked dumbly onto the Crow.
The mont his gaze t the visions within the Crow's eye, Angus's reason began to crumble inward without cease.
Everything before him seed to grow more and more turbulent and unsteady, and the unintelligible cries issuing from the Followers' mouths grew gradually clearer.
His eyes, as though corroded by the smoke, turned clouded and dim. His lips slowly moved, murmuring:
"God."
***
The room was blanketed in the muted darkness of ancient black timber, with only a few scattered animal hides lending the space any trace of color.
Kavra sat in a chair, leaning against the backrest, teacup in hand, facing a lean young man.
The young man before her was her brother.
Jaxiu Delin.
He had a relatively refined appearance—clean, defined features—and wore a consistently gentle smile. His fra carried none of the robust muscle expected in a Knight family, and in that regard, he seed almost unreasonably slight.
Kavra was visibly restless, setting her teacup on the table and picking it back up at irregular intervals.
The eting Hall had been quiet for so long now—she had no idea what her father and Viktor were actually discussing.
"Sis, take it easy."
Jaxiu seed to read Kavra's inability to sit still. He smiled from beside her and offered a gentle word of reassurance.
Kavra looked at Jaxiu, adjusted her composure slightly, shrugged, and said to her brother:
"Looks like you have sothing you want to talk to about."
"Go ahead then—what exactly are you and Father trying to do?"
Summoning Gwen back to discuss matters concerning the Engagent, even bringing Viktor along with her.
The only conclusion Kavra could think of was that they intended to reassign the Engagent to soone else.
But then her father had deliberately excluded her from the conversation, which left her all the more confused.
What exactly were they trying to do?
Jaxiu took away Kavra's half-empty cup, replaced it with a fresh one, and filled it to the brim with hot tea, then smiled.
In this land of extre cold, a warm cup of tea was simply the finest thing one could ask for.
He slid the hot tea in front of Kavra and brought up the subject as though it were entirely casual.
"Sis—what is your standard for judging justice?"
Kavra frowned, a trace of puzzlent crossing her face.
Why ask that?
"You're older than . You should have a clearer mory than I do of what Father was like back then."
Hearing Jaxiu's words, Kavra lowered her head, as though sinking into a long and distant reverie.
When she was very young, the Delin Family had not yet been stationed in the Empire's Northern Frontier, and so her mories of childhood were sharp and clear.
Sol VIII had only recently ascended to the throne at that ti, and was still in the period of consolidating his hold and winning the loyalty of those around him.
Angus back then was likewise one of Emperor Aubrey's most capable and trusted subordinates.
Yet his sense of justice was even more fanatical than Gwen's is today.
It had reached the level of sothing pathological.
His eyes could tolerate no evil whatsoever.
If any existence failed to et his standard of justice, it would be utterly erased by him.
Kavra, as a politician, naturally understood the dealings between nobles.
There were those benevolent nobles who did charity work and aided the poor, and there were equally those who exploited laborers, leaving a trail of wrongdoing behind them.
If asked to give her own standard for judging goodness—
Judge by actions, not intentions.
But Angus back then was different.
Even those nobles who genuinely did charitable work—if Angus ever learned that their motivations were impure—
That formidable Knight would make them taste the edge of his blade.
So this obsession could no longer be called justice by any na.
Though the young Kavra of that ti understood none of this. She was like any perfectly ordinary daughter, looking up in adoration at the father who seed to hold up the sky.
Until Emperor Aubrey concluded that Angus's obsessive brand of justice had beco uncontrollable.
And so he had the Delin Family relocated to the Northern Frontier, dispatching them to garrison this frozen land.
Though guarding the Northern Frontier remained a position of genuine importance, to Angus at the ti, it was as good as a declaration of the Emperor's distrust.
And so Angus felt his faith dealt a devastating blow.
He had always believed that everything he did was right.
Yet even the sovereign he served had deed him too flawed to trust—so what aning remained in upholding that justice any further?
Angus, having moved north, began to conduct himself with restraint. He took on students in great number here, carrying his school of Knight craftsmanship to new heights, and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to guarding the Northern Frontier.
His sense of justice was no longer so obsessive—it had almost seed as though he had forgotten that justice had ever lived in his heart at all.
As the years passed, Kavra grew older, and her brother Jaxiu began to reveal his talent and edge.
And then, at last, Gwen was born.
Kavra had always adored this younger sister of hers—but for reasons she could never quite explain, both her father and Jaxiu seed to keep their distance from this particular sibling, as though she were sothing to be avoided.
It was not until Gwen grew older and revealed her extraordinary ability.
The Heart of Justice.
And so, from childhood, Gwen had never known the warmth of her parents' affection.
The once-just Angus was just no longer—and so Gwen's birth, to Angus, was more akin to mockery and sha than anything else.
Or at least, that was how Kavra had once understood it.
"So why bring all of this up to ?"
"It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the engagent between Gwen and Viktor."
Jaxiu shook his head, smiling in a way that wasn't quite a smile.
"No—it has everything to do with it."
"The engagent between the 2 of them cannot continue."
Hearing Jaxiu's answer, Kavra's expression grew puzzled. She fixed her eyes on him—on this brother of hers whose words always landed like thunderclaps—as though hoping to draw a satisfactory explanation out of him.
"Why?"
The atmosphere plunged abruptly to freezing point, as though even the air itself could crystallize.
Jaxiu let out a quiet sigh.
"It's ti you knew certain things."
"Do you truly believe that Gwen's Heart of Justice is nothing more than an ordinary innate ability?"
At her brother's words, Kavra's expression darkened imdiately, turning grave.
Jaxiu continued, his tone unchanged.
"If you have ever read the descriptions of the Goddess of Justice, then you would feel just how strikingly similar that Goddess and Gwen truly are."
"The sa obsessive justice. The sa ability to judge good and evil."
Jaxiu's cold words entered Kavra's ears one by one, syllable by syllable.
Kavra understood everything.
Why her father had always remained silent where Gwen was concerned.
Why they wanted to dissolve Gwen's engagent with Viktor.
"Because Gwen needs to preserve this sense of justice at all tis—which ans absolutely no one can be allowed to influence her."
Viktor was precisely that person who might influence her.
Gwen could not love anyone. She was not permitted to admire anyone.
The mont those unnecessary feelings took root, the justice within her heart would begin to deviate.
This was why Gwen had been denied familial warmth from childhood.
As for that intangible thing called love?
Hah—her Engagent partner was Viktor.
If it had been the Viktor of before, there would have been no issue in maintaining the marriage indefinitely.
Because a Gwen who despised Viktor would never be influenced by him—her sense of justice would remain untouched.
But the Viktor of today was quietly, imperceptibly reshaping Gwen.
Anyone with eyes could see that Gwen's feelings toward Viktor had gradually begun to change.
"And so she must continue to uphold the absolute justice within her heart without exception."
"...Is that so?"
Kavra fell silent for a mont, then cast a sardonic look at Jaxiu.
"You and Father—you intend to turn Gwen into that Goddess of Justice?"
"Not —Father."
Jaxiu corrected the error in Kavra's words and smiled with quiet indifference.
"From the very beginning, Father has always been a Follower of that Goddess."
"That has never changed."
"How laughable."
Kavra suddenly burst into laughter—a sound tinged with sothing sorrowful.
"In my eyes, he hasn't changed either."
"Though I know he's not acting out of self-interest—what he's doing now disgusts all the more for it."
Swish!
A silver-white dagger appeared in an instant, pressed against Jaxiu's throat.
Jaxiu sat in his chair without moving a single inch, as though the one whose life hung in the balance was not him at all.
Kavra's voice ca out with the faintest tremble:
"Gwen is his daughter. She is my little sister. She is a living, breathing person!"
"All because of so vague and baseless legend, she's been denied the love and the life that any ordinary girl deserves."
"Jaxiu—are you no better than him?"
Jaxiu raised one hand and slowly, gently nudged the dagger away from his throat.
"Sis, the weight you give to family ties is far too great."
As though he were entirely certain that Kavra would never actually follow through, he said with quiet composure:
"So things are worth a father's entire life—and as his child, it falls to as well to share in his burdens."
The strength drained from Kavra's hands. She tried to tighten her grip on the dagger, to press it back against Jaxiu's throat—but she could not bring herself to do it.
Exactly as Jaxiu had said: family ties carried far too much weight in Kavra's world.
But...
"I'm afraid it's too late for all of that—you've already fallen short at the final step."
Kavra sheathed the dagger. Her expression was neither sad nor glad, only slow and asured as she explained.
"Gwen's Heart of Justice has already stopped working."
"...?"
All at once, a thunderous explosion erupted from the eting Hall—the shockwave so powerful that even the glass in the room where Kavra sat began to rattle violently.
The enormous blast seized both their attention completely.
Kavra jolted, montarily frozen.
What in the world?
Had Viktor gotten into a fight with his father-in-law?
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