Leaving behind the magistrate who was writhing on the ground, clutching his throat, I turned toward the woman.
Supported by the middle-aged townswoman, she looked as though she wanted to speak, but only pitiful groans escaped her lips.
"Hold on a moment," I told her, then called upon Apophis.
"You caught the scent of poison right away. Can you neutralize it?"
『Easy. Same as humans, breathing.』
Apophis likely meant it was as simple as drawing breath.
After that characteristically broken reply, a sinister purple haze welled up from my bracelet and drifted toward the woman.
Much like Leviathan's Magic Sword of Water, Apophis's Snake Staff could alter its physical size at will, and I kept it stored in a compact form inside my bracelet.
Without reverting to its original shape, it had simply exhaled "something" from within.
"—?!"
"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you."
It was an unmistakably venomous-looking purple mist.
Seeing it approach, the woman flinched and tried to scramble away—a perfectly natural reaction.
I caught her shoulder to keep her still.
She hesitated, but before she could make another move, the smoke enveloped her.
It poured into her mouth and nostrils.
As though she were drawing a deep breath with all her strength, the smoke vanished completely inside her body in the blink of an eye.
She choked, squirmed, and broke into a fit of coughing.
And then...
"...Ah. I... I can speak."
"Ooohhh!!"
With her voice restored, the onlookers in the front rows of the crowd let out a thunderous cheer.
"Even though my throat was burning so badly... How?"
"I simply neutralized the poison. If it were an illness, I couldn't say, but poison is trivial to deal with."
『Me, God of Poison.』
Apophis boasted in broken speech.
No entity surpassed it when it came to venom; it could subjugate any toxin in existence. That unshakeable confidence resonated directly into my mind as raw emotion.
It was undeniably reassuring.
"My goodness, that's incredible! Hey, young man, how on earth did you do that?"
The older woman I had pulled onto the scaffold marveled in awe.
Engaging with her would only derail things, so I ignored her and addressed the victim directly.
"Now that you can speak, tell me what happened. You were framed, weren't you? I'll handle this."
"...Ugh."
After staring at me for a moment, the woman wordlessly broke down in tears.
Rather than leaping at the chance to proclaim her innocence, she did the exact opposite.
I was taken aback.
Soon, however, the meaning behind her reaction became clear.
"Lena... My daughter... I'm Lena's mother."
Disjointed, trembling words spilled from her lips.
Piecing together those scattered fragments, a grim realization struck me.
Frowning, I pressed further.
"Don't tell me... you're the victim's mother?"
"..."
The woman remained silent, but gave a heavy nod.
In the next heartbeat, the crowd's fury boiled over.
"What kind of sick joke is that?!"
"Using the victim's own mother as a scapegoat for the execution?!"
"Just how rotten can these bastards get?!"
Furious shouts erupted from every corner of the square.
I scoffed under my breath.
In a twisted way, I was almost impressed.
Offering up the victim's grieving family as a sacrificial body double.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone—in the most sickening way imaginable.
This is beyond unforgivable, I thought.
Then, starting with someone hurling a drink cup at the choking magistrate, a barrage of projectiles flew toward the scaffold.
Like a relentless hail, all manner of trash and stones rained down upon the platform.
"Hmph!"
Drawing Leviathan, I slashed through the incoming storm.
Where my blade cut, Bahamut's black flames incinerated the remnants to ash.
I cleanly knocked down every single flying object, numbering in the hundreds.
"My, aren't you something special!"
True to form, the older woman muttered in admiration, remaining remarkably unfazed despite the chaos.
Ignoring her once more, I turned to face the mob.
"I will not permit vigilante justice," I declared.
"You defending him?!"
"Are you in on this corrupt garbage too?!"
A barrage of curses flew my way as their rage shifted squarely toward me.
How should I handle this? A subtle wave of intimidation from Leviathan to silence the lot of them?
I scanned the surroundings.
The onlookers packing the plaza numbered roughly a thousand.
A sizeable crowd, but hardly unmanageable.
All right, then—just as I was deciding on a course of action—
"Out of the way! Clear a path!"
"Make way or face arrest!"
Deep, commanding shouts echoed through the square.
Parting the sea of people, a detachment of police officers in full uniform marched into view.
They headed straight for us and mounted the platform one after another.
Faced with this sudden development, the crowd's curiosity edged out their anger, and they held back to see how the official authorities would act.
From among the ranks of officers, a single man stepped forward.
The one leading them was Don.
Don Oates—a man I could now comfortably call my right hand.
The moment he reached me, he spoke.
"Forgive our delay in providing an escort, Your Imperial Highness the Thirteenth Imperial Prince."
His voice rang out clearly across the square as he dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
In almost the exact same instant, every officer behind him knelt in unison.
Don had deliberately and loudly enunciated my title.
So that everyone present would hear—and understand.
A dead silence washed over the plaza, as though ice water had been dashed across the crowd.
Ten seconds later, as if suddenly remembering their place, a spectator dropped to their knees. Like a falling line of dominoes, the nearly one thousand onlookers followed suit, kneeling in rapid succession.
As the crowd sank into a sea of lowered heads, only two figures remained standing: myself, and one other.
"Incredible..."
The framed woman stood frozen in shock.
Before long, the older woman tugged on the hem of her clothes, and she hurriedly dropped to her knees as well.
Towering as the sole figure upright amidst a sea of a thousand kneeling subjects, I issued my command to Don with deliberate gravity.
"Arrest Craig Hall immediately. Place his entire household under strict surveillance. If they have the means to arrange a body double, they must possess considerable wealth. Once the sentence is finalized, confiscate every scrap of their assets."
Recalling the statutes of Imperial Law, I handed down the heaviest penalty the legal code allowed.
In the breathless silence, my voice carried to the farthest edges of the plaza.
It took a dozen seconds for the weight of my judgment to sink in—and then:
The square erupted.
A wave of deafening cheers engulfed the plaza.
Don, however, remained motionless after receiving the order.
He stayed on one knee before me, unmoving.
"What is it?"
"If I may speak, Sire. While the former head of the Hall family from two generations back has retired, he once held the office of Prime Minister. Craig Hall is his only grandson."
Don said the words, but looking up at me at close range, a mischievous grin played at the corners of his mouth.
It was neither the face nor the tone of a man urging restraint.
Rather, he was feeding me a setup.
Clever bastard, I thought.
"And what of it?"
Lowering my voice to a sharp rumble, I shot Don a theatrical glare.
"Once retired, he is nothing more than a commoner. Go."
"Understood."
Don bowed once more and barked orders to the officers under his command.
A portion of them moved in to restrain the dazed magistrate on the spot, while the rest turned on their heels, running off to hunt down the true culprit, Craig Hall.
"Ooohhh!!"
The loudest roar of the day shook the square.
"Now that is true justice!"
"Who else would have the guts to say that about a former Prime Minister?!"
"The Thirteenth Imperial Prince is our lord, isn't he?!"
"He upgraded the Appia Aqueduct to special grade, and now he stands up for us common folk!"
"What an extraordinary man!"
Amidst the chorus of praise echoing around me, the sordid affair of the substituted death-row prisoner drew to a close.