manynovel Page 207
Page 207
“Gita?”
Bernard frowned, glanced at Geeta, who was covered in dirt and looked utterly disheveled, and asked in a deep voice:
"How will you be here?"
“That’s not the main problem!” Geeta strode forward aggressively, pointing at the man in the felt hat and shouting:
"Your Excellency! Don't let him tempt you to do those heinous things! We've been living just fine before, haven't we?"
Before the man in the felt hat could speak, Bernard shouted a reprimand:
"Gita, do you know what you're saying?! These lowly people are our property. We can order them to die, so they must die. How is that considered immoral? Do you know who you're insulting? Go back to your cell and get locked up!"
Upon hearing this, the servant behind him immediately stepped forward and grabbed Gita's shoulder, but Gita suddenly shook him off.
"Viscount!" Geeta rushed to Bernard's side, grabbed his sleeve, and cried out anxiously:
"Why do we have to do this? We were all fine before, weren't we? Now we have to travel dozens of miles away... What if we encounter monsters on the way? And right now, the temperature has plummeted, people could freeze to death on the road!"
Bernard looked at the stains Geeta had left on his sleeve, immediately pushed Geeta away, shook his head, turned around, and said:
"Spending too much time with the Church of Light has ruined your brain. Go back and have your tutor give you a proper lesson in aristocratic etiquette."
“Viscount!” Geeta called out loudly as her servant stopped her, but Bernard ignored her and only sighed softly.
Seeing that Bernard remained silent, the man in the felt hat finally chuckled, stepped forward, bent down, and said:
“Miss Geeta, please don’t be anxious. Let me explain it to you.”
"Get out!" Geeta angrily shoved the man in the felt hat away. "If you dare come near me again, I'll kill you!"
A sinister glint flashed in the man's eyes. He straightened up, cleared his throat in a pretentious manner, and straightened his collar.
“Miss Geeta, you can listen or not, it just depends on whether you continue to disappoint Viscount Bernard…”
Geeta gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, and said, "It's clearly you who are stirring up trouble here..."
Seeing that Geeta had stopped her agitation, the man in the felt hat smiled smugly. He ignored her words and instead stood up straight, waving his hand and saying:
"It is common knowledge that all people are born equal under the Magic Network, but few know the true price of this equality... As noble as Miss Gita, hehe..."
Seeing Geeta's expression, ready to retort at any moment, he suddenly reached out and pressed down lightly, as if to calm her inner turmoil. Then he immediately raised his hand and shouted:
"This price is the blood and sweat of countless people, incalculable amounts of money and materials, and even more so, the determination passed down through generations of nobles who maintain the stability of the magic network!"
The man in the felt hat turned around and quickly walked to Bernard's side, bowed respectfully, and then, with a hand on his chest, said in a very fast voice:
"Take the great Viscount Bernard, for example. As a mage, he has steadfastly remained in this remote and desolate territory for three generations. Is it because he doesn't want to stay in Lundia and enjoy a warm and comfortable life? No, it's because he doesn't want to!"
"Without nobles guarding the town, there would be no maintenance of the magic network nodes, no mages to guide apprentices, and even... this town would cease to exist!"
He walked back to Geeta, pushed aside the two servants blocking her way, looked down at Geeta who was trembling with fear and anger, and forced her back step by step. With a cold smile, he shouted passionately:
"Nobles are responsible for their own food, clothing, and daily necessities. Not only that, they are also expected to uphold the royal family and support the common people! ... Miss Geeta, every gold white, every silver shill, and even every bronze ark in your hands was painstakingly earned by Viscount Bernard from his arduous business! Yet you treat your adoptive father with such a rebellious attitude. How can you bear it!"
“I…” Geeta opened her mouth in frustration, but for a moment she didn’t know how to refute it. She wanted to shout “That’s not how it is,” but the words were interrupted by a commotion.
She glanced back in the direction of the commotion and found it was the whispering of the commoners who had finished their black bread and tomato soup. Their tired faces wore mocking expressions, as if they were watching a long-awaited farce.
"Let's go back to the idea that everyone is equal under the Magic Network."
The man in the felt hat abruptly changed the subject, calmly avoiding Geeta's agitated emotions. He waved his hand dismissively, seemingly numb, and said:
"As you probably know, this is just a slogan. What kind of equality is there in this world? Are royalty and noble families equal? Are mages and ordinary people equal? Heh, even your pet dog, Miss Geeta..."
He glanced at the rock-eating dog beside him, its fur bristling and barking defiantly, and said with a smile:
"Isn't that unequal to the monsters outside that have slaughtered countless civilians?"
“…But!” Geeta turned around and glanced at the civilians who were whispering among themselves, and hurriedly called out.
"Therefore, it is only natural that nobles and commoners are not equal. We give them a place to live and room for upward mobility, and they will naturally give back to us. This is the truth."
The man in the felt hat ignored Gita and raised his voice to drown her out, shouting:
"Otherwise, while the nobles work tirelessly day and night to maintain the stability of their territories, why should the commoners only want to selfishly live their own little lives? Shouldn't they contribute their own strength to create a better future for the town? Or is their equality at the cost of the nobles, a bloody equality?"
“Miss Gita, you seem to be speaking up for the common people now, but in reality, aren’t you just satisfying your petty pity as a noblewoman? However, you don’t know that such a fine virtue is based on that huge difference in social status. You’ve eaten and drunk your fill at home, and you come over to play the role of a good friend of the common people, which is fine, but you even turn around and criticize your own background. Isn’t that hypocrisy?”
"Lord Viscount Bernard adopted you and sent you to the Church of Light entirely for your future, hoping that you would become a source of pride for the family and earn the respect of the nobles in the capital. Yet now you have colluded with the commoners, bringing shame upon the Viscount..."
"sophistry!"
A sharp pain shot through Gita's angry eyes; her nose stung, and she clenched her teeth tightly. She knew what the truth of this world should be, but at this moment, she was speechless.
The servant and the man in the felt hat stood beside Bernard, while a crowd of commoners watched from a distance behind them. There was an unbridgeable chasm between the two groups, and Gita was too small to stand between them.
"Alright, Miss Geeta, I've already taught you so much in place of your tutor. You've had your fun and made a scene, so stop embarrassing Lord Bernard in front of these lowly people."
The man in the felt hat stepped forward, smiled, and extended his hand, saying:
"Let's go home, Miss Geeta."
As Geeta looked at her fair, unblemished hands spread out before her, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in both of them.
She looked down and realized that her hands, which had already been injured by electric shocks and whipping, had been pricked again by her own fingertips in her excitement.
She didn't care that her skin wasn't as good as the other nobles'; she just found him despicable. His words, spoken so casually as if he were fooling a little dog, seemed to be a scornful insult to her soul.
Tears finally slid down Geeta's cheeks. She didn't know if it was from anger, humiliation, or... because she was too unhappy.
The twilight cast her shadow before her, onto the feet of the man in the felt hat, as if her entire life were being trampled underfoot. She wanted to take a step back, but the shadows of the civilians standing behind her resembled intertwined sharp knives, sending a prickling pain through her.
Even if he took a step forward, he would still be unable to get close to Viscount Bernard, nor could he make him take him seriously. After all, she was just an adopted daughter used to decorate the family name, and letting her grow up wildly outside was a trivial matter that would only bring Bernard benefits.
"Gods..."
Gita looked up at the feigned pity on the man in the felt hat, and a secret flame suddenly ignited in her heart.
The flame lurked in her chest, but its intense heat instantly spread throughout her body. The pain in her palms made her instinctively want to grasp something, so she trembled and reached out her hands.
Without needing to be summoned, the divine power of the "sword" had already appeared in his hand.
He slashed upwards, severing the hand that was grabbing the money.
Sweep it away, tear apart his twisted and deceitful tongue.
Geeta sheathed the sword to her side, stepped forward with her back foot, and used her front foot like a spinning sword hilt, using herself as a ruler, to slash the spinning holy sword diagonally into the chest of the man in the felt hat without any obstruction.
Blood splattered on Geeta's body, but it was not as painful or itchy as the tears streaming down her cheeks. Her heart was surging with a chilling torrent, and even her bloodshot eyes shone with an unusual brightness.
Such a wicked person, who has harmed so many people, seems to die no differently from anyone else.
A commotion arose from the civilians behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, Gita saw their shadows suddenly close by, overlapping each other almost completely.
Ignoring the fading stinging sensation on her back, she strode forward, sword in hand, stepping over the wide-eyed corpse of the man in the felt hat, and walked behind Viscount Bernard. She raised her chin and spoke loudly:
"Your Excellency, stop listening to their tricks and stop now."
She paused, unsure of what to say, and after a moment of silence, turned to leave, but Viscount Bernard suddenly called her back.
"Gita, you're being too hasty."
The viscount's stern and deep voice drew closer, accompanied by the sound of his sleeves rubbing together. Gita thought he would try to explain, but instead, the viscount waved his hand and tossed dozens of gold coins in front of her.
The sound of gold coins clinking together made Geeta's heart sink rapidly and irrevocably. She looked down at the gold coins still rolling on the ground, and the Viscount's reprimanding voice came from behind her.
“You will feel the weight of the gold coins, Gita. You can join these commoners and experience things you shouldn’t have to experience, but it’s all useless. I adopted you not so that you could become one of the outcasts again. Even if you waste a year, you’ll only be worth two gold coins in this handful of change.”
"What I crave... is it gold coins?"
Geeta was speechless. At that moment, she finally realized that the culprit behind everything was her adoptive father, Viscount Bernard. Those men in black hats were nothing more than a pack of hyenas trying to curry favor and gain benefits during the Viscount's corruption.
"Gods..."
Her eyes were glazed over, and she let out a sorrowful, pleading cry.
“You’re not a child anymore, Geeta. You have to take responsibility.” Bernard’s voice remained authoritative. “Pick up the gold coins and go home to receive your punishment. The lives of these lowly people are none of your concern. A girl as immoral as you is no longer worthy of studying in the Holy City and serving as the face of your family… Hmm?”
He stared in astonishment at the holy sword that had pierced his chest, completely unable to react for a moment.
"Ho...ho..."
After uttering a few meaningless, deflated cries, Bernard's massive body collapsed to the ground like a black bear gnawed to death by parasites. He did not recall his years of diligent study of magic tricks at the apprenticeship school. The revolving lantern had not lasted long enough; he had not even finished recounting the sins he had committed in his life.
"……I!"
Gita gasped for breath as she looked at Bernard's body, whimpered, and covered her face with her hands, trembling. In those short ten minutes, her emotions had gone through too many ups and downs, so much so that her thoughts were completely overwhelmed, and she could only keep replaying the scenes from before.
"I'm sorry... but you deserve to die!..."
After an unknown amount of time, she lowered her hand in a daze, instinctively trying to pull out the holy sword from Viscount Bernard's chest.
Suddenly, Geeta realized that her position was now covered by numerous shadows. She turned around and found that the previously noisy civilians had silently gathered about four or five meters away from her, looking at her with complicated expressions, but seemingly having nothing to say.
She bit her lip and drew the holy sword.
Subsequently, the divine spell of "sword" also acquired its full name: "Sword of Delight," thus becoming a brand new level six divine spell.
"Gods, why do you not send guidance to me..."
Gita looked at the holy sword, now stained with a trace of darkness, and silently prayed in her heart.
But she soon realized that the "sword" itself was already the guidance of the God of Light. Whether it was gratitude or vengeance, the god had already permitted her to do as she pleased. Perhaps light and darkness were two sides of the same coin, which is why she so decisively resorted to violence to combat violence.
"Gods, you are far too..."
Geeta sighed, her tears having dried, stood up, glanced at her little dog Wright who was circling around her, then picked up her sword and walked forward.
The shadow behind her caught up. Geeta paused, looked at the civilians behind her, and said:
"Don't follow me, I don't know where to go."
The common people looked at each other in bewilderment. A mysterious force had compelled them to keep up, but they didn't know how to explain it.
Geeta started running forward, but after a few steps, the shadow behind her caught up again. She took a deep breath, and was about to stop and let them go, but then she paused and gave up on the lecture.
As they ran, as if in armored training, their shadows gradually lengthened and merged, looking from afar like a long, black sword, with Gita as the tip of that sword piercing through the path ahead.
The light on the horizon gradually turned into the darkness of night, merging the long shadow into itself.
……
……
"...If any consequences arise, please punish us as you see fit, Your Holiness. All the mistakes are our fault..."
The Pope held the letter on the altar and scratched his bald head.