Leonard watched his squad get captured one by one, and there was no mistake about that. There were twenty people, and none of them were spared.

He was the first, Estornev was the thirteenth, and the recruit in the squad, Kai Thun, was the last.

Quintus has a long night, but it's over for the Blade of Punishment team.

Leaning against the roof of the building, the cold ice of Mori Han firmly bound him to the ground. To be fair, the position wasn't comfortable, and while Leonard had experienced a worse position, he would have wanted to move if he had the choice.

But he didn't have a choice.

Moreover, he does not understand either.

So, he asked directly.

"Why, instructor?"

He watched as the giant threw the unconscious Kai Thune to the ground, and his voice opened as he spoke. "Why are you doing this?"

However, the giant did not answer, he just took off the recruit's helmet and moved very gently - Leonard had thought he was afraid of hurting Kai Thun, but he was not at all.

He saw that their instructor, who had only been on the job for more than a day, had taken off his helmet and pressed it against Kai Thune's temple, which he had done with two fingers of the same hand.

Then, he began to exert force.

There's no doubt that Kay Thune woke up in pain, but his expression was relaxed when he woke up. After noticing that he couldn't move, he was so calm that Leonard was a little surprised.

"Are you comfortable?" Carlil asked coldly.

"Much better than before, instructor." Kay Thun replied in a low voice. "I didn't expect them to have weapons like that."

"Nostramone has all kinds of guns, and it's not surprising that sonic guns are rare, but that doesn't mean they aren't."

Carlil shook his head calmly, Kai Thun was about to say something, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of his teammates frozen on the ground.

"Instructor?" He spoke dryly. "What does that mean?"

"I'd like to ask you what you mean, Kay Thune of the Blade of Punishment."

"Me?"

"yes, you." Carlil laughed. There was no kindness in this smile.

"I chased you to the court, only to find you completely indifferent to the group of people who were bound up for sacrifice. You're still a recruit, I can tell from the insignia on your right shoulder. So, who told you that you should ignore those victims? ”

"It's me, instructor." Leonard said.

He vaguely sensed a reason, but he couldn't believe it, and he didn't want to believe it.

How is that possible? He thought. How could the adoptive father of the original not understand our duty?

"I'm not talking to you, Leonard is not in a good mood right now, and I want you to forgive me for this and all that I'm going to do to you in the future."

Carlil turned his head slowly, and there was a feeling of alienation to Leonard brewing in his eyes that were as black as agate.

Looking into these eyes, it took Leonard a long time before he realized how this emotion should be spelled.

Disappointed. He silently pronounced its syllables in his heart.

Leonard's right hand began to tremble slightly, but Carlil ignored him and just turned his head back.

"Tell me, Kay Thune, why are you ignoring those victims?"

The recruit did not answer, only remained silent. There was something on his pale face that could not be described that slowly boiled over.

"Kai Thun, your hearing system hasn't been damaged too much. Just because you were hit by that gun and knocked out doesn't mean you lost your hearing. ”

Carlil spoke slowly.

"So, in the name of the Legion Instructor, with the authority and duty given to me by the Emperor and Conrad Coetze, the genetic protogenone of the Eighth Legion, answer me, why do you ignore those victims?"

"Because they are not sinners." The recruit replied in a low voice. "They have nothing to do with my mission."

Carlil took a deep breath, he never thought he would get such an answer.

Unrelated.

He had envisioned the worst for them, but never imagined that the situation would be so bad.

"What's your mission, Kay Thune?"

"Judgment."

The recruit replied without thinking and even began to recite a short but powerful passage.

"We are the Emperor's heavenly punishment, we are his blades, we are the embodiment of judgment. We will walk in the darkness of the night and destroy iniquity. We will always abide by this path until the end of our lives. ”

"Judge whom? Who to punish? ”

"Naturally, sinners, instructors."

"For whom is it judged? For whom is it punished? ”

"Of course it's the Emperor and our primordial body, Instructor."

"Extremely ——! error"

Carlil roared suddenly, his voice crashing into the gloomy building in the cold night of Quintus, and his voice echoed from the top of the building, echoing until it became an inhuman cry of regret.

Leonard's lips began to twitch.

And now, all the blades of punishment, they are awake. But no one dared to speak, and they all stared silently at Kai Thun and the giant entrenched in the darkness.

"What am I doing wrong, instructor?" The recruit asked blankly. "That paragraph? But I've memorized it millions of times. ”

Leonard saw that their instructor closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the momentary burst of extreme rage dissipated in an instant, as if it had never existed.

He was completely calm. Leonard thought incredulously. But how is this possible?

Calmly, Carlil spoke slowly.

"No, it's not that, Kay Thune, it's your actions."

"My behavior?"

Carlil didn't answer the sentence again, he just sighed calmly, the calm indifference that almost made Leonard creep.

He wanted to speak, but he couldn't, because a dangerous chill was persuading him.

Oh, you'd better be quiet, Leonard, who used to belong to a company, you'd better be quiet.

After a period of silence, Carlil spoke again, softly in a tone that combined with a tone of irony that everyone heard.

"There were seventy-two bodies in that church." He said slowly, to the conclusion. "Excluding those sacrificed civilians, there are thirty-three members of the cult, in other words, you have judged thirty-three sinners tonight, congratulations, Kay Thun."

"If you hadn't brought me back, I could have tried more tonight. He was lucky enough to stun me with the help of the gun, but I stuck the knife in his chest as well. He was the last man. ”

Kai Thune replied in a low voice, a slight tremor in his voice.

"So what?" Carlil asked with a chuckle.

"So, I don't understand why you are so aggressive, even to us—so, despised."

Kay Thune looked away, and the young man pursed his lips as his gaze fell on the squalid floor of the building. The foul, acidic puddles of rain reflected the misty light, as well as the heavy clouds of Nostramo, making it all the more eerie to those who watched.

"You are wrong, Kay Thune, I have never despised any of you. What qualifications do I have to do this? You have been fighting for humanity and the Empire for a long time, which is why you are broken to this point. ”

"Even a recruit like you, who has not yet officially attained a military rank, has a long life in war that is beyond the ordinary. Your captain, Leonard, has been fighting for forty-three years, and I am not in a position to despise you, and I have never despised you. I'm just sorry. ”

"But you were sarcastic about me just now."

"Nope." Carlil reached out and pulled the young man's face back. "I didn't, I was sarcastic about something else, something that made you like this."

He looked at him gravely and looked at him.

Kay Thune tried to dodge at first, but when it came he stopped trying to resist. He looked back at those dark eyes for an equal amount of time, and then something in his eyes began to sparkle.

He had taken Carlil's word for it.

"But we did nothing wrong, instructor." Kay Thun said hoarsely. "Is it wrong to punish sin?"

"That's right, but I want to know, who are you chaseting for?" Carlil asked softly.

"For the primordial body, for the emperor."

"So, Kai Thun, which of the thirty-three sinners you slain tonight committed a crime against your Primordial and the Emperor? What is the crime? ”

The recruit froze.

He was faced with a very simple question, but he had no idea how to answer it. He froze there, and didn't speak again for a long time, like a natural sculpture, a statue of iron and steel.

He doesn't answer because he doesn't know how to answer. But he didn't need to think about it anymore, because someone answered for him.

"All." Estornev said hoarsely. "All of them are guilty, all of them are guilty of the original body and the emperor, instructor. The list of charges against them is too numerous to mention."

"What crimes did they commit against Conrad Coates and the Emperor?"

"Crimes against humanity, instructor."

"What crimes did they commit against Conrad Coetzes, and the Emperor?"

"Crimes against humanity, instructor."

"What are the anti-human beings? Sergeant Estorev of the Blade of Punishment, which humans? ”

Carlil asked softly. He turned his head and looked at Estonev. His expression was calm, but the latter immediately looked away, not daring to make eye contact with him.

"Which humans? Tell me, Estorev. Are it the civilians who died from your recklessness? Or the civilians who died from your indifference? ”

"Did you know I was only a block away from you when the explosion happened? Do you know that I saw you kill them recklessly? Do you know that I have seen with my own eyes that you are indifferent to the pleas of innocent people behind your door? ”

"I saw it all, Estornef, and I hurt more than they did, because I found that I had too late to save them, because I realized that all this tonight did not have to happen."

He tilted his head, then lowered it again.

"Three hundred and seventy-one innocent people died at your hands tonight. Or die of your indifference, or of your deliberate indulgence. ”

He turned his head to look at the captain of the Blade of Punishment.

"Leonard, you did your best, you only have the life of an innocent man on your hands. You're just watching two gangsters beat a woman to death. ”

"It took me three minutes to find you, and you didn't do anything for those three minutes. When I grabbed you, the woman had her last breath left. Did you know she found you? ”

"I know." Leonard replied bitterly.

How could he not know? The woman kept looking at the alley where he was entrenched as she vomited out the shards of her entrails.

"I want you to remember tonight. I will remember tonight, too, because tonight, there are also 371 innocent lives to be counted on my head! ”

He was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled bitterly. Then, he raised his right hand and pressed it just below his ear.

"This is Carlil Lohals, canceling all the original delivery plans. Yes, cancel all ground missions, including the second batch that has already been prepared."

He lowered his head and looked at the owner of the twenty pairs of eyes, gazing at them calmly with a mournful look in his eyes.

"Starting tomorrow, I will personally lead them in the cleaning."

"Instructor—" Estorev tried to say something, but was interrupted by a gesture from Carlil. The giant lowered his hand, looked at him calmly, and shook his head.

"Don't talk to me now, Estornev. You are not him in my eyes, you are just a broken shadow, an echo. ”

He turned and stood at the edge of the building, looking down on the chaos and chaos of Quintus, listening to the sounds of every corner.

"When you're complete, talk to me again." He said in a deep voice.

I had a back pain, slept for a while, and got up and wrote another chapter.

This plot may be a bit long, but I wanted to write it as delicately as possible. The transformation of these squads of the Eighth Legion is a very important point, and it can be regarded as a replacement for GW.

(End of chapter)