**Chapter 57**
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**Ruler IV**
**Shin Noah**
**5**
After the trial ended, we went out together to eat sundae stew.
It wasn't just that I somehow didn't want to return to the guild building—my relationship with Dang Seo-rin was no longer 'Guild Master–Vice Guild Master' but rather 'foodie friends.'
And before the assorted sundae platter even arrived, I couldn't hold back my questions any longer.
"Dang Seo-rin. What was that earlier?"
"Hm? What?"
Dang Seo-rin tilted her head with a somewhat vacant expression. I frowned and scooped some fermented soybean paste into a small bowl and passed it to her.
"Here. The trial, I mean. The trial. Since when have you been using Equivalent Exchange to pass judgment on people? When I came last time, there was nothing like that."
"Well, that's because you never showed your face in Busan for so long. We've been doing this for nearly half a year now. Here."
Dang Seo-rin mixed salt, red pepper powder, and pepper in a small bowl at the golden ratio, then handed it to me.
"The citizens really like it. Along with the monster disassembly show, it's ranked as one of Busan's three major attractions these days."
"No, but what do you mean... Explain it a bit more properly. Boss, please bring the dongdongju first."
"Sure thing—"
I received the dongdongju pitcher and immediately mixed it with half a cup of ice-cold water with ice cubes floating in it. This was Dang Seo-rin's favorite ratio. This was precisely the dignity of a friend I had supported for hundreds of years.
"What is there to explain at length? An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. We simply applied the Code of Hammurabi as-is."
"Hm."
"When the country was intact, we could throw both eyes and teeth into prison. But there are no prisons now, are there? But if we just randomly cut off fingers or strangle necks, it would be a waste of labor... So I'm simply performing 'revenge that everyone can accept' on their behalf."
"...'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' saith the Lord."
"Huh?"
"It's a passage from Romans chapter 12. Good grief. The moment I take my eyes off you, you commit outrageous acts. That's the kind of human you are."
"What? Are you picking a fight right now?"
"What's been picked apart is my sanity. I'm truly dumbfounded."
The assorted sundae, sundae soup, dongdongju, and well-fermented kimchi disappeared beyond our chopsticks and chewing. My appetite had completely turned around. In this day and age, it was a proper feast that could only be tasted in Busan.
"Actually, I think the old society that tried to sweep everything into prison was strange."
Dang Seo-rin raised her chopsticks.
"Think about it. How can theft and murder receive the same punishment? The feeling when my things are stolen by someone else versus the feeling when I get stabbed are completely different. There's a qualitative difference—in other words, a difference in quality."
"Hmm."
"Even theft varies when you go into detail. The feeling when your daily bread is stolen, the feeling when a radio you'd kept secret from other survivors to the end is stolen, the feeling when your kidney is stolen..."
"Does the last one even count as theft?"
"Of course it does. Anyway, punishment must be judged entirely differently each time, according to the severity and circumstances, according to the character of the perpetrator and victim. For instance, if it were Jesus, he'd offer the other cheek when struck on one—but Undertaker, you would think it's a 'fair trade' only if you took not just the other person's cheek but at least one molar, right? Isn't that so?"
"I understand what you mean."
"And surprisingly... I, the greatest witch in history, the incomparable and unprecedented Lady Dang Seo-rin, can prepare a fair trade for anyone."
Just then, a kid from the restaurant shyly approached and held out a pointed hat, saying "Great Witch!" Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly and carved her signature on the hat's brim.
As soon as the fan service ended, Dang Seo-rin's expression drooped again like a sponge soaked in hot water. It was something that always happened wherever our idol of Busan went.
"Ah, so cute."
"But that fairness is also 'what you think is fair.' Humans always run the risk of misjudgment."
"That's why Equivalent Exchange doesn't activate without other people's consent. If they think the deal I propose isn't fair, they just have to refuse from the start."
"And who would dare refuse the judgment of Busan's ruler?"
"Hey, in a world like this, they should be grateful someone's even holding a trial. If I don't pass judgment, they'd all die from witch hunts anyway. No matter what crime they committed, it ends in death. Better than dying, right?"
"Hm."
"If you're that anxious, come watch the trial next month too."
Dang Seo-rin grumbled.
"Anyway, what have you been doing these days that makes it so hard to see your face?"
"..."
...Actually, around this time, I was wandering a bit.
Readers with exceptional memory may have already figured this out, but Round 26 was precisely the round where Old Man Sho officially declared his 'vacation.'
Naturally, when a teammate I had believed would spend his entire life struggling through this shitty game called world apocalypse suddenly retired, my mental state was like Barcelona right after Lionel Messi transferred.
At this time, I showed my unsightly appearance several times as a true regressor for the first time in a while... but let's skip the dark history.
"Very well. I'll come again in a month."
"Good. Bring Melona when you come."
Exactly one month later, I brought homemade ice cream made from actual melons to Busan's 'Execution Plaza.'
"Here you go."
"Wow, thank you... Huh? What? It really looks exactly like Melona!"
Dang Seo-rin marveled at my versatility.
For reference, I could reproduce almost all cup noodles, bag noodles, and snacks from when civilization was intact with over 92% similarity in taste. You can trust these recipes—I obtained them by directly raiding snack company headquarters.
What? Why? Well, what do you think someone does during the endless time of an infinite regressor? This was at least the most productive hobby activity.
"I saved a seat over there."
Unlike last time, this time I could watch the entire trial from beginning to end in excellent spectator seats.
As I sucked on the Melona—Dang Seo-rin, seated on the judges' bench across the way, was also casually munching on her Melona—the result I observed was, surprisingly... Busan's witch trial was quite rational.
"Since you cut off another person's leg, the criminal shall serve the victim for life. [The victim may instruct the criminal regarding all tasks that both legs originally should have performed.] The criminal may never voluntarily leave without the victim's permission. Do you agree?"
"You wielded your pen carelessly in Busan's only remaining newspaper, framing an innocent citizen for crimes they didn't commit, and the citizen committed suicide. Though there are no bereaved family to declare vengeance, the damage to the newspaper's reputation caused by one wrongdoer must be restored. From now on, everything the criminal does must be recorded in a column of the newspaper and published. [Your past misdeeds, and the errors you will commit in the future—all shall be reported as articles without a single deviation.] Thus, all citizens of Busan will learn what kind of human you are, made of what wrongdoings. Do you agree?"
"A person worked but did not pay the wages they had previously promised. Labor is an investment of time. [For exactly the same amount of time the victim worked, the criminal shall obey the victim's commands.] Of course, orders to commit suicide or highly irrational commands are impossible. The criminal shall eat the same meals they once provided the victim, sleep in the same bed, wake at the same time, and rest at the same time. Do you agree?"
Verdicts unimaginable if this were modern civilization with its institutions intact.
No—deals that could never have been realized without Dang Seo-rin's magic in the first place.
The judgments Dang Seo-rin rendered were cruel and harsh—and at the same time, strangely enough, they possessed a persuasiveness that made the hundreds of people gathered in the vast plaza able to 'accept' them.
Each time a judgment was rendered, blue scales in the air shimmered.
The trial that left the deepest impression on me was regarding a defendant who had killed someone. That is, the judgment corresponding to murder.
"..."
Dang Seo-rin chewed on the stick of the ice cream she had already finished sucking.
On one side stood the defendant indicted for murder, on the other stood the bereaved family. Dang Seo-rin's dark blue eyes swept over them once.
"Criminal, do you regret the murder?"
"...Yes."
"Are you truly sorry to the bereaved family?"
"Yes... I'm sorry..."
"Then, [no matter what the bereaved family does to you, you can never resist them.] You can't complain to anyone or express your grievances. You must simply accept it."
"..."
"How about it? Do you agree?"
"..."
The silence stretched quite long. Compared to that long time, the moment the defendant nodded his chin was extremely, perhaps excessively, brief.
"Yes. I agree. Please... please do that. Great Witch."
The scales shone.
"You son of a bitch!"
Simultaneously, one of the bereaved family leaped over the fence and rushed straight at the defendant. Thud! The sound of a fist shattering bone reached my ears clearly.
"How could you do that! Our child! You said you were engaged to be married, how could you! You bastard! I'll bite you to death, this, this dog-like bastard!"
In normal circumstances, someone would have tried to stop it, and if civilization hadn't fallen, court guards would have intervened at the very least.
But at the execution plaza, no one—not a single person—stepped forward to stop the bereaved. The family members who jumped in after also poured kicks onto the fallen defendant.
Busan, where most high-rise buildings had collapsed and the view stretched wide open. What remained unchanged, whether then or now, was the red sunset reflected once off the sea before bouncing back to the city.
At the execution plaza dyed in the sunset, the defendant's blood drops fell, plop, plop, to the surrounding ground. Before long, the sound of breathing ceased.
"..."
And in that moment—I was intensely seized by the intuition that all of this might be nothing more than a landscape painting that had simply transferred Dang Seo-rin's heart to the outside.
While all spectators watched the scene of the bereaved's punishment, only I turned my head to look at Dang Seo-rin.
Dang Seo-rin was looking at me too.
Between us two, the sunset deepened red.
**6**
Afterword.
I don't believe I have any right to judge the world's affairs.
Therefore, I didn't stop Dang Seo-rin's 'Witch Trial' either. She had her own rationality and her own fairness.
Also, to evaluate fairly, that rationality and fairness were the best possible in the apocalypse.
Other cities? It was a situation where private sanctions were carried out according to the guild master's personal gain. As everyone knows, wasn't the introduction of AI judges something that happened much later?
Not just in Round 26 but continuously afterward, in every round where I taught the complete version of the 'Equivalent Exchange' magic, Dang Seo-rin unfailingly held witch trials.
"So... how was it?"
"How was what?"
"You know. The trial."
That day, we returned to the Three Thousand Worlds train and drank alcohol.
Usually, going around drinking at establishments outside was how we maintained our friendship.
Yet if Dang Seo-rin said, "Let's drink on the train today?"—that meant she wanted to get completely drunk tonight.
She couldn't show herself staggering drunk on the streets—the ruler of Busan, the head of the Korean Peninsula Guild Alliance, the founder of Juga-yeongchang, the Great Witch. Especially not even in front of guild members.
The sword that defeated the Ten Clans. The awakener who reclaimed Seoul south of the Han River. Undertaker, who had countless disciples through SG Net—only someone like me could accompany Dang Seo-rin without any loss of authority.
"I think it's fine."
"Which part is fine?"
"Right now, at this very point where you're asking someone else if it's fine—I think all of it is fine."
"Pff."
Dang Seo-rin laughed.
"What is that? So stupid."
But Dang Seo-rin's expression became distinctly more relaxed.
After that, while I humored my friend's drunken ramblings, Dang Seo-rin suddenly activated the Equivalent Exchange magic.
"Undertaker. Try putting the heart with which you think of me on the scales once."
"No, we're not children... What kind of parent asks a kid whether they like mom or dad better?"
"Ugh, whatever. Just put it on, old man. Do you agree?"
I sighed and said, "Fine."
Then, from my chest, a snake tail—pitch black and brilliant, half shadow and half light intertwined—flowed out.
Dang Seo-rin swirled her finger. Following that, a tiny white snake crawled up from around Dang Seo-rin's heart and coiled on the opposite side of the scales.
*Creeeak—*
Simultaneously with an impossible noise that shouldn't have existed physically, the scales on both sides gradually found their balance. And before long, they achieved perfect equilibrium.
Dang Seo-rin curled the corners of her mouth like a cat.
"Hm."
"What is it now?"
Midnight. Inside the train, the scales Dang Seo-rin had created glowed faintly like starlight, and beyond the window, the Milky Way was pouring down.
It was a meteor shower.
With the night sky's rainfall as a backdrop, Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly.
"Secret."
That was truly a witch-like answer.
- Ruler. End.
I'm an infinite regressor, but I'm telling stories.