Published: August 15, 2025
The rebel, still wrapped in the band of light and lying on the stage, fixed his gaze on Justox’s movements. Watching Justox’s approaching steps, he uttered a faint, hoarse plea with a terrified face: “Help me…”
But no one answered his voice. Justox walked steadily and squatted beside the man lying closest to the front, holding a knife.
“I’m going to press the blood seal.”
Justox pressed the knife against the man’s finger, which was just barely sticking out from the band of light, and lightly slid it to make a small cut. Watching the blood swell up, he pressed the finger onto the paper he held. A deep red circle stained the paper clearly.
...It hurts, it hurts!
Even though it was someone else’s finger, seeing the knife cut and the blood flow made me feel as if my own finger was hurting. I pressed my own finger, trying to shift my focus away from the vivid red blood.
Once Justox confirmed that the fingerprint blood seal was firmly pressed, he swung the knife lightly with a whoosh.
...The knife looks clean now?
Blinking, I stared at the knife. It seemed that the faint red streaks on the blade had disappeared.
Justox showed the paper with the blood seal to the crowd, as if to confirm it.
A sudden voice erupted from the square.
Justox then moved to the man lying next to him and repeated the same blood seal pressing. Again, he showed it toward the square. This was repeated over and over.
“High priest, what exactly is Justox doing?”
“Sorting the registration certificates. Handling registration certificates is the role of priests or clerks.”
The registration certificates, lined up in order by the year the baptism ceremony was received, had the noble’s mana registered, but the commoners’ certificates were registered only by blood. I remembered this from my own baptism ceremony. The certificates were white, flat stone-like tablets onto which you simply pressed your blood.
Names were not even asked, so naturally, they were not written on the certificates. Apparently, they were stored chronologically by baptism year, but that made it impossible to tell whose certificate was whose.
Therefore, the sorting of certificates was basically done by blood as well. For example, at funerals, the certificate was placed on the corpse to confirm it was the correct certificate for the deceased. I apparently had my blood taken by the high priest to find the certificate needed for Myne’s funeral, although I don’t remember because I was unconscious.
For funerals held outside Ehrenfest, the deceased’s blood was taken onto a wooden tag and reported to the clerks during the autumn harvest festival. The clerks then sent the tag along with tax items to the castle, and the tags with the attached certificates were sent back. These were then attached to the gravestones.
While listening to the high priest’s explanation, Justox approached the last person.
“To think it would come to this…”
Among the six rebels, the last was a woman. The mayor’s wife was bound by the band of light, tears streaming down her face, glaring at us with naked hostility.
...Scary.
Her intense gaze, filled with emotion, was fixed on me. My throat twitched, goosebumps rose on my upper arms, and my fingers trembled slightly.
I wanted to step back and hide behind the high priest. At least, I wanted to avert my eyes.
But the high priest had told me to witness this punishment. I must not look away.
Clenching my molars, I intertwined my fingers and gripped tightly to steady my trembling.
While I locked eyes with the mayor’s wife, Justox silently finished pressing the blood seal, expressionless.
After taking all six blood seals, Justox lightly swung the knife as he said something, then returned it to the stave.
Waving the stave in an unfamiliar pattern, he intoned, “Aosvaar.”
Then, the papers with the blood seals began to be wrapped in contract magic-like golden flames, burning as they flew onto the box guarded by Eckhardt Brother.
The papers flew onto the box, trailing golden flames, burning like scattering light dust before disappearing.