My Students Regret It After I Retired

42 – Execution

Kreat, though howling in pain, quickly regained his senses and stood up. He immediately checked his condition.

‘My fist is completely destroyed. As if I’d hit a rock…’

He didn’t think he was outmatched in strength. If there was a difference, it was in skill. Just before the fist connected, he’d seen it. Leos had subtly bent his waist and wrist, driving the most vulnerable part of his fist into bone.

‘Damn it…how could I be so careless.’

Seeing the ordinary-looking man approaching with no weapons, Kreat had unconsciously underestimated him. And the price for that moment of carelessness was terrible. Despite the overwhelming difference in size, it was he who was now unable to use one of his fists.

Kreat glanced back. Judge Torigal shouted, a look of irritation on his face.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and finish it!”

A few guards stood around Torigal. He wanted to call for help, but Kreat quickly realized this man was not someone they could assist with, and gave up on the idea. He charged at Leos again.

“aaaRGH!”

If he could just grab an arm or a leg. He could drag him to the ground and, no matter how skilled, overpower him with sheer size. That’s what Kreat thought.

-GRAB

Kreat grabbed Leos’ collar and yanked, making Leos’ upper body lean forward, falling into Kreat’s space. Seizing the opportunity, he immediately wrapped both his arms around Leos’s arm, intending to break it. But.

-CRACK…

With a sound of something twisting, Leos rotated his body, forcing his arm out of the grip. And instead of fleeing backward, Leos moved closer, even deeper.

“Just one arm for a ground fight? I’ll give you what you want.”

Leos leaped, throwing himself into the air, then immediately wrapped his entire body – arms, legs, everything – around Kreat’s left arm. He arched his back, using all his strength to wrench the captive’s arm as if trying to rip it off. A sickening sound echoed alongside Kreat’s scream, filling the area.

“Stop… stop… please…”

Kreat tried desperately to retaliate, but his right arm was already broken from the first strike. There was no way for him to shake off Leos, who was still latched onto his left arm.

“Why? Try harder. You were so confident before. You thought you could win just by charging in like an idiot, huh? You think brute force solves everything, and that’s why you’re in this mess.”

Leos moved Kreat’s arm violently, and the mace he’d discarded earlier was suddenly right beside him. Leos released Kreat’s arm, picked up the mace, and brought it down hard on his head.

He brushed dust off his clothes, then spoke with a grim smile.

“One’s dead, and his buddies are just watching, not even trying to avenge him. Bunch of pathetic fools.”

Ridiculously, while those guarding him began to grasp that something was terribly wrong, Torigal, the mercenaries’ employer, was still oblivious to the gravity of the situation and kept babbling.

“Stupid fool. You’ve only killed one out of so many mercenaries. Do you have any idea how much money and food I’ve spent to hire them?”

Torigal then ordered the mercenaries guarding him,

“You got paid, now earn it, you b*stards! Charge him!”

“Fine. If that’s how you want to play it, then it’ll be easier for me.”

Leos grabbed the chain sword from the ground. Chain sword in his right hand, short mace in his left.

Nearly ten mercenaries charged at him, but those in front started to drop one after another.

-Thud…

“Guh…Ghurrrk…”

Those who’d been hanging back, waiting for an opening, were slashed by Leos’s chain sword, while those who got too close had their heads crushed by the mace.

With every swing, another body dropped. After a few more exchanges, corpses were strewn across the ground.

The ground was soaked in blood, and it was then that Torigal finally realized that something was wrong. He backed away, slowly, yelling.

“Wha…who was it? That…th-th… Tell me the name. I…I think I can remember.”

“Leos.”

“Leos…? Wait…that…the Gatekeeper? Right? That damn Gatekeeper. The one who was framed with that heinous…no, unfair crime by his own disciple.”

Leos walked forward, saying nothing, dragging his chainsword along the ground, as if daring him to try and run.

“Seems you do remember. You said you didn’t just now?”

“Shit…how am I supposed to immediately remember every single trial I’ve been involved with in a year? Leos. I’ll give you money. You suffered, didn’t you? I’ll compensate you with money. Or maybe money’s meaningless in this situation? Gold…I’ll compensate you with gold. No matter what happens to the value of currency, gold always keeps its value. I’ll give you half the gold bars in my safe…my vault. So, calm down. I told you not to come any closer, you b*stard!”

Torigal found his back against a massive tree, preventing him from retreating any further. Leos approached right in front of the man, looking down at him as he spoke.

“Compensate me with money?”

“Haha…yeah…you too…you like money, right? Shit, I’ll give it to you… I’ll give you money you could never earn in your whole life. Gold…it’s gold, right? You’ll be set for life. Think of it like three years of work. The empire made me do it, I couldn’t help it, you get it? Huh?”

When Leos showed no reaction, Torigal chuckled, saying.

“The little prick, he still shuts up when money’s mentioned? Yeah, shit, who in the world hates money? How about you be my bodyguard? I’ll give you a bit more than half then.”

“I don’t need it.”

“…?”

As Leos’s expression twisted, looking at Torigal, he realized something was wrong and began to tremble.

“Wh-why… why this… Aren’t you going to… accept the money? Shit, only I know the vault’s location and the code… You won’t be able to find it if I die…”

“What I needed wasn’t money, but an explanation and an apology. Why you sided with the Empire and threw me in prison, if you did have some unavoidable circumstance despite taking the bribe, and if you feel at least a shred of guilt if you did it for your own personal gain.”

Leos lowered his head and added.

“That’s all I was curious about.”

“Apology…you need an apology? I’ll…I’ll even kneel if you accept…”

-Thwack!

The chainsword went straight through Torigal’s instep as he tried to kneel. Torigal writhed in agony, tears streaming down his face as he began to roll on the ground.

“You’ve never been hurt your whole life, never fought for anything, never needed to struggle to protect yourself, so you end up like this from just one blow.”

“Ugh… uuugh…”

Torigal couldn’t even scream, curling up like a bug in pain, and Leos, looking down at him, whispered.

“You look like an insect.”

-CRACK-

-CRACK!

Each time Leos stomped down, another bone in the man’s body broke. As if he wouldn’t let him die easily, he avoided vital points, and with each attack Torigal’s face and body became increasingly mangled.

“Stop…that’s…that’s enough…I…I didn’t do anything…that bad…”

Torigal spoke as he crawled, and Leos lifted his face, asking:

“It seems that human suffering is relative and therefore hard for you to understand. After being abandoned by everyone, I wanted to die every moment. It’s not about three years. It’s about being seen as a bug by those I trusted, being pointed at by countless people, and losing everything I had. My profession as a Gatekeeper, and even all the work I did with pride, were insulted and despised.”

Leos dragged the man and threw him into a place where many vagrants gathered. Then he approached him again, saying:

“The moment you decided to convict an innocent man for money, you should have expected this. If you’re going to wield power as you please, you should have anticipated retribution.”

“Spare me…please…please spare me…I’ll…I’ll give you everything…gold…money…food…I’ll give you everything I have…”

Leos completely twisted the man’s foot, and whispered with an emotionless face.

“As it happens, I’ve also done a public trial, so how about we switch roles? From now on, I will follow the opinions voiced by the vagrants.”

“…”

Leos asked the vagrants watching nearby.

“Choose. Will you kill this b*stard, or spare him?”

The vagrants who had hidden in safe zones were all silent for a moment. It was Roczen who broke the silence.

“Jesus…human trash like that needs to be put down.”

Someone started it, and then, like a dam bursting, the shouts of the crowd flooded in.

“K…Kill him! He needs to die!”

“That son of a b*tch beat my son. Left him half a cripple! He needs to die!”

“You have no idea how much he’s been lording over us lately. Kill him right now.”

“He robbed me of all the food I’d gathered. If you let him live, he’ll do it again.”

“Kill him! Kill him!”

Torigal, with vacant eyes, screamed at the surrounding crowd.

“You fuckin’ b*stards! Shut your mouths! When the fuck…when the fuck did I do any of that shit? Most of it was those damn mercenaries I brought along, doing it behind my back, why are you blaming it on me…!”

Leos, looking down at the shouting Torigal, whispered.

“Any last words?”

“I…it’s unfair…it really is. It’s mostly those mercenaries, they did it without telling me, you understand? Why would I, with all my money, go around tormenting others?”

“I said the same thing. Would a Gatekeeper who risks his life for the Empire stoop to such despicable acts?”

“…Please…please…”

Leos nodded, then raised his sword high.

“Torigal, the accused. Charges: murder, assault, robbery, intimidation, dereliction of duty, and bribery.”

“The sentence is death.”