<h4>Chapter 2865 - A Little Mercy</h4>


    Ves quietly thanked his luck that the ’judges’ hadn’t diverged on their verdict. Both Jannzi and Tusa dered Nigel Redmont guilty, which meant that the n was spared from an awkward situation where its expert pilots publicly disagreed on a very contentious issue!


    While he maintained a fair amount of confidence that Jannzi and Tusa would have no sympathy for Redmont, he did not dare to assume the guilty verdict was already set in stone. Expert pilots tended to think differently from other people and some of their thoughts could be quite extreme!


    Fortunately, everything went ording to n so far. With Dr. Redmont subjected to a strong silencing field that not only neutralized his voice, but also scrambled his lips, he waspletely deprived of the opportunity to disrupt the proceedings!


    Ves learned from his own past. Back when the Ylvainans subjected him to a tribunal, their greatest mistake was to give him an opportunity to speak. By allowing him to address his words to the entire poption of the Ylvaine Protectorate, hepletely hijacked public opinion and set events into motion that did not go in the favor of his enemies!


    While Ves didn’t believe that the traitor could talk his way out of a guilty verdict, who knew what nonsense he might spew.


    The extreme ideas of delusional fanatics were like poison. They harmed anyone else who listened to them. Unless the listeners possessed a grounded mindset or good critical thinking skills, it was very easy to get ’infected’ by faulty or even outright misleading arguments!


    Since Ves himself took advantage of this phenomenon many times, there was no way he would allow any enemy the chance to turn the tables on him! The ridiculous notion of biomech purity was such a harmful concept to the Larkinson n that it had to be nipped from the bud before it could be allowed to spread.


    The only person allowed to spread dubious arguments in his n was himself!


    Of course, he couldn’t outright admit this, so he had to dress up his words in order to maintain support.


    Ves stepped forward again, drawing everyone’s attention.


    "Two of our most principled and honorable Larkinsons have spoken." He calmly spoke. "They have issued a unanimous verdict. I hereby dere that Doctor Nigel Redmont-Larkinson is guilty of high treason against the Larkinson n."


    This was the expected verdict. Yet the ceremony around it and the gravity of the situation made it sound a lot more serious than it was.


    In fact, it was stupid to expect any other oue. Dering Dr. Redmont innocent would not only make a mockery of the nws, but also lead to widespread confusion!


    No matter what technicality or trick that Dr. Redmont or anyone else were able to employ in order to squeeze out a different verdict, Ves would never allow this formative moment to be derailed!


    Fortunately, Ves did not have to enact any of the contingency ns he prepared against these unexpected asions. The tribunal proceeded without any surprises and the speeches guided public opinion in the right direction.


    He was quite sure that other former Lifers had received a profound lesson on what would happen to them if they harmed the n.


    Being dered guilty was not a sufficient blow in itself. Ves knew that plenty of self-righteous nutcases were willing to ept punishment as long as they seeded in pulling off their dangerous schemes.


    What Ves had done was to drag them in public and exposed all of their shorings! He held the trial in a way that turned everyone’s opinion against the suspect. The judges, who happened to be influential expert pilots, personally led this process, thereby ensuring that the suspect would never be on the right side!


    Under these circ.u.mstances, any pet causes that the extremists might hold would be so discredited amongst the Larkinsons that they would die without receiving any recognition!


    As a creator, Ves knew very well that everyone craved recognition. Martyrs only seeded when others approved and supported their actions. It was a lot harder for them to go through with their destructive acts if everyone and their mother believed they were evil!


    From Dr. Redmont’s constant struggling and desperate mouth movements, it was evident that he did not envision his end to proceed in such a poor fashion. Did the biomech purist think that the Larkinson n would grant him any mercy?


    "The crime of high treason is not yet well-defined in ourws." Ves admitted to the crowd. "We have based many of our initial and rudimentaryws on the rulebook of the Bright Republic. Yet what little we have is sufficient enough to uphold justice in this case. Dr. Redmont received the verdict he deserved, and for that he shall receive the only punishment for nsmen convicted of high treason."


    He stepped closer to the guilty prisoner until he was just an arm’s length away. Lucky quietly followed behind Ves, curious at what was about to ensue.


    Ves stared straight into the eyes of Dr. Redmont.


    "It’s toote to show remorse, traitor." Ves hissed.


    Tears began to fall from Redmont’s face. The Lifer didn’t want to die like this. His eyes pleaded towards Ves. He still wanted to have his final say.


    Yet Ves remainedpletely unmoved. Not a single measure of sympathy ever emerged in his heart. Traitors didn’t deserve the courtesy of speaking, and the risk of spreading poisonous thoughts was still a great concern.


    Even so, Ves still granted Dr. Redmont a measure of kindness.


    He stretched out his arm. "Nitaa, de, please."


    Nitaa took out her foldable sword that was made of Unending alloy and Breyer alloy and handed it over to Ves.


    With the Larkinson Mandate in one hand and a sword in another, Ves felt as if he had be the incarnation of justice. He even felt like channeling an aspect of Lufa at the moment, but he didn’t want to nk his own emotions.


    He wanted to enjoy this supreme moment! Screwing people over and executing them while enjoying the total support of the audience was too much fun! There was no way he wanted to ruin this great moment by depriving him of his emotional satisfaction!


    He started to understand why tyrants and dictators were so fond of executions. Being able to decide upon the life and death of other people was such a powerful rush that it could even be more addicting than stimnts!


    Ves quietly coughed. As much as he wanted to bask in this wonderful moment, he still had a job to do. He was not supposed to look o.b.s.c.e.n.e while enacting justice.


    "Ahem. As the patriarch of the Larkinson n, I shall represent the will of our people by wielding the de that will end the traitor’s life. The method of execution is death by decapitation. Even though traitors do not deserve it, our honor calls for us to deliver a quick, clean and humane death. Drawing out the execution in order to make it more painful to Dr. Redmont might satisfy our baser instincts, but such depravity will only corrupt us all. Our only requirement is to uphold thew."


    He raised Nitaa’s unfolded sword. As a weapon that he had personally crafted by hand, he was very familiar with its weight and bnce.


    To be honest, the weapon was a little too long for him to wield with a single hand, but his enhanced strength was still formidable enough to keep his grip solid.


    He looked into Nigel Redmont’s eyes onest time. The older man’s tear-streaked eyes finally showed true eptance. He appreciated the mercy of a quick end.


    Ves swung the sword in a quick, smooth motion.


    Though he knew nothing about swordsmanship, he had already practised this motion prior to the trial. He knew exactly how he needed to move his arm and how much force he needed to apply.


    The sharp de that was made out of near-indestructible Unending alloy was already sharp enough to cut through metal. Bone presented less of a problem and Ves applied just enough strength toplete the cut straight away!


    A dismembered head soared away from the rest of the body and quickly fell onto the surface of the podium like a half-deted ball. The ugly squelch sound made this execution feel more real to Ves and everyone.


    Ves handed over the slightly blood-stained sword back to Nitaa and turned his back to the corpse. He had no concern for this loser anymore.


    "Our n is a sovereign organization that is based onws." He exined as he made his ending statement. "Properly speaking, we are not a state, but that does not mean we allow room for everyone to act as they wish. We are all in this together, and that means that we must seek to decide and act in harmony with each other. What Dr. Redmont did was so far out of line with the rest of our n that he could not have met another end."


    If any Larkinson did not see it this way at first, they sure did now after what had happened!


    Ves gestured to Venerable Tusa. "One of the judges has made a great point about the trust and responsibility that we extend to you all. We do not restrict everything that you can do. We don’t want that either. We want each of you to have enough choices on how you wish to live your life within our n. Yet for all of our tolerance for different beliefs and ways of life, we can only tolerate so much."


    He sighed and looked into the air. "Our n offers enough freedom to satisfy everyone. Yet that does not mean that we have room for all of your selfishness. I really don’t care about what beliefs or customs that you might hold. We recruit from many different ces so we are quite aware that some of you hold thoughts that run counter to the rest of our n. You may think whatever you want, but be careful how you act. As our other judge has stated, we have set clearws and rules on what is permissible. As long as your selfish d.e.s.i.r.es bump against ourws or the rights of nsmen, your ending will not be any better."


    After driving home this point, he formally ended the tribunal.


    Now that the show was over, the crowd slowly dispersed while speaking with each other in low tones.


    The two expert pilots disappeared quickly as they did not wish to be around others any longer than they had to. Bots flew in to dismantle the podium and clean up the mess.


    Ves walked back to one of the workshops of the biomech productionplex while being followed by Lucky and his honor guard.


    Ves made sure to lock the entrance before heading further inside. He entered a secure room reserved for experiments and faced its only upant.


    "I’m... not dead..." Nigel Redmont spoke while touching his neck. Not a single sign marred his skin! "I.. didn’t die. While I am grateful at the fact that I’m still alive, why did you spare me, Mr. Larkinson?"


    Ves smirked in response. "I just feel you deserve a little mercy."