Chapter 14: Liberum Veto

  When the words of the devil-nobleman cut through the air of the courtroom, everyone fell silent. The butcher and his son began to look nervously at their lawyer, who, clearly flustered, glanced toward the authority of Judge Justinian.

  The latter, feeling the weight of the lawyer's gaze, narrowed his eyes and looked sternly from the pot-bellied nobleman to his fat son. Finally, the nobleman, seeing that no one was reacting to his words and that the atmosphere was only growing thicker, clenched his teeth and spat out another cry.

  "Liberum Veto!"

  The butcher and his son froze, and it was clear that the young man, previously beaten to a pulp, was even beginning to pray quietly. The lawyer had long since removed his sweaty coat, and the judge was carefully reviewing the notes from Boruta.

  As the silence stretched on and still no one spoke, Justinian finally sighed heavily. He focused his gaze on the nobleman and asked, in a rather timid tone.

  "Nobleman Rudnicki, what does this Liberum Veto actually mean?" he blushed slightly as he said it; after all, he took his duties seriously, and now, not knowing what was going on, he felt like a complete amateur.

  On the faces of the butcher, his son, and the lawyer appeared... understanding. They also had no idea what the strange phrase meant. So now, along with Justinian, they stared at the devil-nobleman, who listened to the judge with his mouth agape.

  "I've lived 150 years and have never known such an insult!" his incredulous expression seemed to say. His face eventually turned completely green, and smoke seemed to rise from his ears. Finally, however, he collected himself a little, took a sip of alcohol from his flask, and, clenching his fists, grumbled.

  "I do not consent!"

  These words, full of pride, brought even more confusion. His son did offer his arm for the nobleman to lean on, but the rest of the room still had no idea what was happening.

  Of course, this only deepened Rudnicki's indignation.

  "I do not consent to this verdict!"

  Justinian frowned; he was beginning to get irritated with this theater and even added an extra whipping to the punishment for repeatedly mocking the authority of the judge. Just then, however, the ever-serious Franciscus ran up to his desk and explained something in his ear.

  "Is this some kind of joke?!" the young man shouted shortly after. He looked as if he couldn't believe the absurdity of what he had just been told.

  The twelve-year-old devil, however, just shook his head and quipped:

  "We must inform Voivode Boruta."

  "Well, what are you waiting for? Run and get him!" Justinian replied. What he had heard whispered in his ear was so absurd that... it fit the image of the devils' world perfectly.

  It turned out that during his assumption of power in the dimension, the Voivode had promised the blue-blooded devils settled there a so-called _Nihil Novi_* constitution.

  In effect, it meant that when introducing new customs, laws, or taxes, the blue-blooded devils could torpedo the idea... with a single voice!

  All they had to do was shout "Liberum Veto" - "I do not consent."

  For hundreds of years, this practice had not been used at all, mainly because Boruta rarely imposed new duties on the nobility. Now, however, being judged by a human and in such an outrageous case, Rudnicki couldn't take it anymore and appealed to a mechanism that hardly anyone even remembered.

  As Justinian waited for Boruta to arrive, the pot-bellied nobleman spoke to the aggrieved party, specifically to the butcher.

  "My dear sir, I have a proposal for you to end this dispute amicably. So that you come out better than what this whole court is suggesting."

  Of course, as soon as he said this, the lawyer appeared between the two men. Adjusting his glasses, he immediately began to lecture that this was not a moral proposal and that they should wait for the court's decision. As Justinian suspected, he was paid for the outcome of the case in court, and an amicable settlement might not be covered by their agreement.

  Rudnicki just laughed cheerfully and waved him off.

  "My dear lawyer, don't you worry, the hand of a good nobleman will find something for you too!"

  Saying this, he pulled a beautifully embroidered pouch of fine material from his pocket and immediately began to count how much he could spend, to each according to his merits. Of course, this caused great surprise throughout the room, and even the judge began to stare at this wealth with wide eyes.

  This did not go unnoticed by the pot-bellied devil, who decided that the young man also needed to be given a share.

  "Agreed," the butcher finally said after some hesitation. In the end, his son had only suffered a minor beating, and nothing terrible had happened. The compensation and kind treatment from the blue-blood, on the other hand, seemed much better than making enemies and facing a public flogging ordered by the court.

  "Fantastic, wonderful!" Nikodem Rudnicki cooed. He immediately began to pull out the coins he had prepared and distribute them to everyone. In his heart, he was glad that he had managed to settle the matter in this way. Not only had he saved his family's honor, which had been tarnished by his foolish son, but he had also gained a wonderful story to tell!

  Thus, before the disbelieving eyes of Justinian, the accusing party withdrew their lawsuit and de facto vanished after receiving a handsome, albeit unofficial, compensation. What's more... an additional pouch of valuables also appeared on his judicial desk!

  'How dare you try to bribe me!' the boy thought to himself and scolded the nobleman with his eyes. The latter, however, smiled even more broadly and blushed a little, after which... he placed a second pouch next to the one already standing there, one even slightly larger than the previous one.

  Justinian, of course, hid his face in his hands, but Rudnicki took it as a good sign. After all, he didn't know human customs very well and was navigating rather tricky ground here.

  Soon Boruta appeared, and the whole matter was explained. Having quickly established that the indictment had been withdrawn and the matter resolved amicably, there was not much to dwell on. What's more, the Voivode and Rudnicki had known each other for many years, so they quickly found common ground and proceeded to feast.

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  "There will be no more courts today; instead, we will listen to the tales of our 'Orphan'!" Boruta announced, referring to the nobleman.

  As usual, when two noblemen, or "noble brothers," met, a magnificent feast was held. The occasion was special, as Rudnicki had just returned from a great pilgrimage to the 61st dimension of hell.

  "What did you mess up that you had to go on that pilgrimage in the first place?" the voivode, joyous from alcohol, asked. It was a tradition in his house that when the Sarmatian visited him, they both had to drink wine in one go from separate, two-liter pots. If someone couldn't do it in one breath, they... started over!

  Rudnicki was a known carouser, so he managed it without much ceremony.

  "I'm afraid my charm is too dangerous for the ladies. Once, while abroad, I caught the eye of one so much that she made me swear I would return for her and take her as my wife," the nobleman said in a sad tone, as if he truly believed his own words.

  "And what happened next?" Franciscus, sincerely curious, joined the discussion, of course, noting everything in the notebook he never parted with.

  "What do you think! I found a wife here, so I had to break the word I gave years ago! That's why I went on a pilgrimage to the great temples of hellish virtues, to atone for it!" the tipsy nobleman berated the young man.

  As it turned out, for this specific social class of the 66th dimension of hell, matters such as keeping one's word were of great importance.

  Justinian, still internally conflicted by the earlier case, listened to the story while sitting nearby. Out of a sense of duty, he also noted it down, but he couldn't get his mind off the way Rudnicki had ultimately saved his son from punishment.

  The rest of the devils, however, did not share his doubts, and the evening got into full swing.

  "What nonsense are you telling me!" the furious Boruta roared at his respected guest.

  "On my honor! It's the pure truth! In the 33rd dimension of hell, they really have huge, triangular tombs for entire families of previous voivodes!" Rudnicki replied, all red from alcohol but with a sparkle in his eye. "I even managed to steal two of the ancient bodies to bring them here and show what pagan customs they cultivate there!" saying this, he patted his chest, emphasizing the truthfulness of his words.

  "And where are they?!" the host continued; the wine evidently made him more aggressive than usual.

  Rudnicki scratched his temple awkwardly and smiled slightly.

  "It's a long story."

  "We have time," Boruta did not relent.

  "I... I had to throw them overboard when I was sailing on a ship in one of the lower dimensions of hell. I was told that if I didn't, the storm that had been attacking us for two weeks wouldn't stop!"

  "You're lying!"

  "I wouldn't dare! What's worse, it didn't even do anything! Barely two hours passed and I also had to throw the demonic priest who suggested this foolishness to me overboard!" Rudnicki clutched his heart.

  Justinian had had enough of the absurd stories and went outside to get some fresh air. He was still trying to form an opinion on the earlier events in court. After some time, Franciscus joined him.

  "Did something happen?" he asked the man, who was lost in thought.

  The man thought for a moment and finally answered.

  "What do you think about what happened in the courtroom?"

  The young devil, with his usual seriousness, took out his notebook and read his description of the whole situation. He thought for a moment, then replied:

  "It was a very amicable solution on Rudnicki's part. Invoking the ancient mechanism could have threatened a great scandal. The mechanism itself seems dangerous to the stability of the dimension."

  Justinian scratched his head; this opinion was true, but he was getting at something a little different.

  "Don't you think that such situations shouldn't be allowed?"

  Franciscus looked at him.

  "Meaning?"

  "What if in Rudnicki's place there was another nobleman, less inclined to amicable solutions?"

  The little devil frowned.

  "A scandal would probably break out; it's very unlikely that a nobleman's son would actually be flogged."

  Justinian nodded.

  "And you think that's how it should be?"

  Franciscus pondered this question; the topic seemed very complicated to him, and thus potentially difficult to resolve definitively. Finally, he gave his judgment.

  "It doesn't seem right, but what can be done? Such are the circumstances of the awful world we live in."

  Saying this, he yawned slightly and apologized, also announcing that it was time for him to go to sleep.

  Justinian remained outside and thought about the matter for some time longer. His conclusions seemed to align with Franciscus's. However, every time he tried to tell himself that this is just how the world is, the face of the sister caretaker, barely making ends meet and dedicating herself to the orphanage, came to mind. Also the face of his brother, whom people avoided and treated with contempt because of his illness.

  He decided to spend the next few days contemplating the case file he kept and the nobleman's case itself. He felt that he was approaching the third slash of Ki Gathering and that he was before an important stage of his cultivation. So he announced his absence to Boruta and went to his hermitage on the Mountain of Plague and misfortune.

  "I should first focus on reflecting on simpler matters; I feel that this biggest one will be significant in my perception of the world," he thought before the cultivation session.

  He compared the verdicts issued in the hall with how he would approach them now, with more knowledge, experience, and above all, a cool head.

  Three days passed in reviewing these cases, during which he made significant progress in his cultivation. When these cases were finished, he finally got to considering the nobleman's case.

  'I was lucky that the matter turned out that way then, but should luck influence the verdicts of justice?'

  Placing the matter in different contexts, he tried to find an answer most consistent with his ideas and what he considered the optimal approach. He spent several more minutes contemplating this topic and felt that he was approaching the issue in the wrong way.

  'How should the situation look in reality? The most obvious answer is that everyone should be equal before justice. But is that fair to the strongest, who can negate a given verdict by force?'

  Thinking about all this led him to questions about the source of law, the enforcement powers that influence that law, and what happens if they fail.

  Ultimately, he managed to formulate a question that he considered the key to the whole puzzle.

  'If a system is too weak to administer justice, should it settle for half-measures and be content that most cases are handled at the cost of the smallest possible sacrifice in the execution of justice against the strongest?'

  He thought about this question in the context of his entire life. The law, which was supposed to provide justice, often overlooked special cases, like his sick brother, or even the entire underfunded orphanage. It was similar with the selective responsibility of the nobility in the hell dimension.

  'However, this system... is stable. Perhaps changing it would lead to a loss of stability, and thus, ultimately, even worse conditions.'

  Justinian was not aware of it, but the dilemma he was going through was his main barrier to reaching the next level of Ki Gathering. In this phase, preceding the acquisition of a magical technique, the identity and character of the cultivator are formed, a kind of foundation that will accompany him throughout his later life. The decision he makes now will reflect the magical technique his stone will receive and his subsequent attitude.

  'Why does it seem to me that the technique stone assimilated with me feels fear?'

  The young man, of course, did not know the meaning of the process he was going through, but this did not apply to his technique stone. It was one of the smallest pebbles in this dimension, and Justinian had simply impressed it, which is why it agreed to assimilation. It did not know, however, that this human had such a great spirit of ambition and opposition to the existing world!

  This type of personality was associated with terrible hardships that were too heavy for the small stone, hence its resistance.

  Hours passed, during which Justinian meditated on the question of stability and equality. Images of his deceased family, as well as the generally peaceful Kingdom of Justice and the hell dimension, often ran through his thoughts.

  Finally, however, thinking of his revenge, he made a decision.

  'If I back down now, what guarantee do I have to avenge the sister caretaker and my brother?! The strength of the perpetrators cannot decide their exemption from the law!' thinking this, a glint appeared in his eye, and he took up the fight to assimilate the stone.

  'The will of an inanimate object cannot stop me if I am to achieve what I have planned!'

  His fight lasted for two full days, during which he meditated and tried to force the stone into submission. The stone, fearing future events, showed that it would rather crack than force the human into such a risky action.

  In the end, however, a simple fact decided between the two of them. While the stone pretended that it would rather die than yield... Justinian truly adopted that view! For him, there were no backup options; he had to get his revenge regardless of the cost.

  Therefore, he ultimately overcame the will of the stone and entered the third level of Ki Gathering. And in his brain, the quiet words of the stone appeared, informing him of his newly acquired technique.

  "Iron Hand of the Law!"

  *Nihil novi - nothing new