I swallowed.
From the dozens of Juror Seats placed on both sides of the dark Courthouse, the Disaster Management Bureau agents of Segwang Metropolitan City were looking down at me, appearing as they did at the moment of their deaths.
A gruesome feeling crept up my spine.
Their gazes were not the kind that suited modifiers commonly seen in agents, like 'full of conviction,' 'resolute,' or 'gentle.'
'…It's a ghost story.'
Something contaminated.
The real agents… they were probably already wiped out across Segwang Metropolitan City while conducting rescue operations.
Those forms, already dead, but bound to this court by some unknown power.
For this meaningless survivor selection process….
They stared at me.
Will the one who wishes to testify about Selection Candidate No. 202■Management 370614 please raise their hand and speak.
Naturally, my companions quickly raised their hands.
But I saw it.
That others had raised their hands as well.
From all over the dark Juror Seats, bizarrely dead forms were raising their hands.
"...!"
Juror No. 5, you may speak.
A spotlight remained only on the numbered Juror Seat.
A person whose body was in pieces.
From within the Darkness, an agent whose organs and limbs remained in a geometric arrangement looked at me and whispered.
"That person is wanted at the casino."
…!!
"He's a currently wanted criminal. He earned a lot of Coins there, but he didn't help a single one of the many addicts in the casino."
I took a step back.
Who'sgoingtotakeresponsibilityifproblemsarisefromrescuinggamblingaddicts?Getagrip,it'srightnottorescuethem.Ihadnochoicebuttoturnmyheadandgotoadifferentplace.
A strange guilt pressed down on my chest.
What is this?
Juror No. 17, you may speak.
Another person rises from the Juror Seat.
A pale, swollen face.
Their whitish eyes had no focus, so even though they were looking at me, it seemed like they were looking somewhere strange.
"This person has already attempted suicide."
I swallowed.
"He hanged himself in the forest near City Hall. Since he has given up his own life before, humane execution is more appropriate than rescue."
…This.
'This is what I did at the stations in Segwang Metropolitan City.'
There'snotimetostopsuicidalpeopleorcollectbodies,wehavetomove... Be quiet!!
I planted my feet, swallowed, and endured the strange mental shock….
And I mulled over a chilling realization.
'They're testifying to my sins.'
The choices I made at every station.
All the actions that could be judged as socially and morally wrong.
'A rebuttal,'
I have to rebut.
A strange guilt keeps my mouth from opening. What is this feeling? These strange thoughts? Where in the world is this indignation and grief coming from....
Will the one who wishes to testify about Selection Candidate No. 202■Management 370614 please raise their hand and speak.
In the midst of it all, a new juror is selected. They are raising their hand. Ah….
Juror No. 32, you may speak.
From a Juror Seat far away, a dead person in an agent's uniform rises. That person is….
Burned pitch-black.
Already so burned that their facial features were crushed. Even their agent uniform was just a recognizable silhouette, as if it had crumbled into black dust….
....
'Ah.'
My heart grew cold.
An ominous premonition rose up, suffocating me.
"I will speak."
Wait, just a moment….
"Arsonist!!!"
I staggered.
"Thatpersonsetfiretoaresidentialarea.Countlesscitizenswhowantedtoberescuedburnedtodeath.They'redead,they'redeadbecauseofyou,taketheresponsibility,die,die,die."
"Ugh."
An immense pressure crushed my heart, and an abnormal burden and guilt confused my mind.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
I held onto the platform, nearly collapsing, to support myself. Thinkingofthecountlesspeoplewhodiedintheresidentialareamakesmyheartfeelit'sbreaking,sobsandresentmentringinmyheadlikeastab,IwaswatchingthatscenerightbeforeIdied,uuuugh.
Whose memory is this?
"Hup!"
Will the one who wishes to testify about Selection Candidate No. 202■Management 370614 please raise their hand and speak.
"Hic."
The pressure momentarily eased a little.
I straightened myself up. Something hot was streaming down from my eyes. When I wiped it away, it wasn't tears, but blood.
As I barely managed to lift my head, another person was raising their hand from the Juror Seat.
Agent Bronze.
Juror No. 37, you may speak.
"The subjectivity of the preceding testimonies is questionable."
The gazes from the Juror Seats turned toward Agent Bronze. But Agent Bronze continued to speak with the pale face of a dead man.
"Therefore, to objectively confirm the truth of the testimonies,"
His gaze fell on me.
"I propose we weigh them on the Scales of Evil. …As per the original regulations, using 'Unmotivated Murder' as the weight of sin."
…!
"If the testimonies so far are true, it means this person has committed an evil greater than Unmotivated Murder, so wouldn't the scales be able to sort it out!"
Agent Bronze's voice echoed through the Courthouse.
"Please use the Scales of Evil as they were originally intended."
Its original purpose.
To brand as evil only those who have committed a sin greater than killing a person for no reason.
If I prove I am not that kind of evil person, then I am a good citizen.
A normal person, not to be requisitioned as a sacrifice to a ghost story.
Someone qualified to be rescued.
....
Ah.
"You cannot judge a person by the current method. It is a contaminated and distorted method, something the Management Bureau would not have done originally…."
"No."
I wiped away the blood from my nose and my spit as I straightened up.
"…Agent Grapes?"
"That's not it, Agent…."
I looked around at the jurors' faces.
At those broken forms.
"The method you judged as 'distorted' was, in fact, probably also a decision made by the Disaster Management Bureau."
"…Pardon?"
"Because with the original 'How to Use the Scales of Evil' regulations, it would have been impossible to determine rescue priority."
"...!"
"In the city, countless people were dying in an Extinction-class Disaster, manpower was limited… In the end, they had to choose."
Who to save.
–Who'sgoingtotakeresponsibilityifproblemsarisefromrescuinggamblingaddicts?Getagrip,it'srightnottorescuethem.Ihadnochoicebuttoturnmyheadandgotoadifferentplace.
–There'snotimetostopsuicidalpeopleorcollectbodies,wehavetomove.
–Thinkingofthecountlesspeoplewhodiedintheresidentialareamakesmyheartfeelit'sbreaking,sobsandresentmentringinmyheadlikeastab,IwaswatchingthatscenerightbeforeIdied.
The traumatic, overwhelming feelings that poured into me.
…That must have been the immense burden and guilt the agents felt before they died.
"Whether to choose the most virtuous person, the most useful person, the weakest person…. All sorts of proposals were probably brought up."
"Then."
Deputy Manager Eun Haje asks.
"Who did they choose as the target for rescue?"
....
"The least dangerous person."
"…!"
"They probably saw that as the way to save even a few more people."
Someone who wouldn't cross the line.
To put it more bluntly, they would have picked out people who wouldn't abandon principles and 'troll' in this unprecedented disaster.
Someone who wouldn't endanger their surroundings with sudden, impulsive actions in this crisis.
...Someone who doesn't prioritize what they love over ethical standards.
"Isn't that why 'what you love' is placed on the other side of the scales?"
Silence flows as if time has stopped.
"Yeah… that makes sense."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje nodded.
"Then shouldn't this whole trial be nullified?"
…!
"Since they couldn't save anyone. This principle was useless."
In the silence, the Courthouse trembles.
Dozens of spotlights flicker, and in the darkness, the agents' forms blink in and out of existence….
"In the first place, with what authority do they arbitrarily judge rescue priority? The Scales of Evil? I get wanting to rescue good people over bad ones, but a state institution shouldn't be the one to establish that as a principle."
The pans of the scales sway.
A scraping sound echoes from the metal floor where they touch the bench.
"It's one thing for public servants to secretly rescue those they're inclined to, but this whole process of setting up rules and selecting people is wrong in itself…."
Cease your statement.
The spotlight on Deputy Manager Eun Haje went out.
"…!"
This is Juror No. 37's turn to testify; Juror No. 38 has no right to speak.
Juror No. 37, please continue your statement.
The spotlight returns to Agent Bronze.
He opens his mouth again, his eyes looking as if they're crushed by fatigue.
From the seat next to him, Deputy Manager Eun Haje's hand gestures, as if egging him on, are faintly caught at the edge of the light.
However.
"…There are no revisions to my statement. Please verify the testimony on the Scales of Evil."
"…!"
"'Let the individual agents decide'… Citizen, your statement is something I myself have heard often, and it's a topic I've thought about a lot recently. But…."
In the darkness, Agent Bronze looks back at Eun Haje's juror seat and speaks calmly.
"If that happens, all responsibility falls on the individual agent."
"..."
"The guilt, and the death."
Agent Bronze looks at me.
"Even if it seems unreasonable at a glance, if it's necessary, it's better for it to be a principle, and there are times when adhering to that principle is better for the individual."
"..."
Agent Bronze had said something similar before.
But it sounded much deeper than it did then.
In the language of someone who had experienced and contemplated many things.
"In that sense, I understand why the rules of the Scales of Evil were modified, but it is still the same that in the current situation, it is distorted and has no utility. As a related party, I formally propose we return to the original principle."
And Agent Bronze stood tall, as if he wouldn't sit down until his words were carried through.
But the trial simply flows on.
Will the one who wishes to testify about Selection Candidate No. 202■Management 370614 please raise their hand and speak.
And so.
"I'll do it."
I raised my hand.
"…!"
There's a method I came up with based on what I've experienced so far. It feels like sparks are flying in my head.
"Can't I testify about myself?"
Normally, in a criminal trial, you can't.
A witness is meaningful in that they are a third party who bears the charge of perjury; the person on trial is not qualified to be a witness.
'But this isn't a real criminal trial.'
It's a selection process, and a contaminated form of the Disaster Management Bureau's Scales of Evil.
'The trial format is only to the extent that Deputy Manager Eun Haje demanded.'
So, if I can persuade this Scales Tribunal ghost story, it might be possible.
Even more so if it has enough emotion and ego to be this swayed by my words.
"Am I not the party being selected? As that party, I have something I wish to state."
....
Permission to speak is granted.
"Yes."
I took a deep breath.
And I spoke.
The sentence I'd been thinking of since a while ago.
"Don't rescue me."
"...!"
"No, not just me, but do not rescue any of the citizens waiting to be selected here. That is the right thing to do."
A huge commotion erupts from the Juror Seats. The lights flicker, and it feels like anger,guilt,despair,indignation,hope,pity,altruism,andhatred are boiling over and pouring out.
Gulp. Something hot that had formed in my heart boils up to my nose and mouth.
"Because!"
But I clenched my teeth and said the next words.
"The Segwang Metropolitan City Disaster Management Bureau branch no longer exists."
[Oh!]
The commotion in the Courthouse ceased.
"…You all know that this city is under lockdown. It's already impossible to recognize or access this place, and of course, the Segwang Metropolitan City branch officially no longer exists."
I spoke with difficulty.
"This is a clear fact, even if I don't prove it. Anyone can deduce it. So…."
....
"It means there is no longer a duty to rescue anyone."
I lifted my head.
"Therefore, based not on what the branch specially designated, but only on the original principles of the Disaster Management Bureau!"
I shouted.
"Through the Scales of Evil, if I just prove that I am not an evil person…."
I finished with difficulty.
"Without execution or rescue, just let me go."
....
....
The gazes disappeared.
Click.
All the spotlights came on normally.
And one more appeared.
Right in front of the bench where the giant, ash-gray Scales of Evil rested.
Selection Candidate No. 202■Management 370614.
Place the weight of sin on the Scales of Evil.
It worked.
On trembling legs, I left the platform and headed forward.
Is this the right thing to do?
'Somehow, it feels like I'm directly denying the desperate hard work of all these agents….'
No, I have to keep going. Endure it.
As I walked, I saw the faces of my companions.
Agent Bronze's slightly relieved yet tense face, Deputy Manager Eun Haje's complex and thoughtful face, Agent Choi's profile, strangely looking somewhere else….
Passing them all, I stood before the scales.
And I saw the black weight that had appeared at some point.
A strange weight, with the faces of screaming people carved in relief.
The weight for the scales is set as 'Unmotivated Murder,' and if heavier, the person is classified as a requisition target.
It was the object from that description.
I picked it up. Its lighter-than-expected weight made me feel a strange anxiety.
And….
I carefully stepped up onto the bench and placed it on the scale opposite my silver heart.
"..."
One side of the scales lowers.
The side with the 'Unmotivated Murder' weight on it.
"…!"
It descends smoothly, and the balance beam tilts seamlessly.
Thud.
The scale with the weight on it hits the floor, making a light sound.
My silver heart, placed on the opposite scale, was floating gently and well in the air above….
....
Pass.
My legs almost gave out from the immense relief.
'It really worked.'
I did it, even in this strange state. I'm okay. It's resolved now!
'I just have to leave like this.'
Then I'll be treated as having cleared it, I can gather information, and get the Dream Potion….
"..."
In that moment.
I witnessed it.
A single hand.
From the Juror Seat, someone else was raising their hand.
The person sitting right in front of the scales.
Juror No. 1, you may speak.
They rise from their seat.
It was a person with a strangely pristine appearance.
I knew they were wearing a familiar agent's uniform, but even though the spotlight fell on them, their face was strangely invisible.
But the silhouette was strangely familiar….
The person's mouth opens.
"I object."
"…!"
"That person's sins cannot be measured by the Scales of Evil."
What?
The unseen gaze of the agent sitting in the Juror Seat turns to me.
"Because he is passing his own sins onto something else."
...What?
"His own twisted desires, twisted thoughts, extreme emotions, all his abnormal judgments, he has passed them on to other personalities that he has separated and isolated within himself."
"..."
"That person is an empty shell."
And they pointed a finger at me.
No,
"The real one is in there."
At my tattoo.
I looked down at the 'Contamination Cleanup' tattoo on my chest with a deathly pale face.