Vincent sighed. "Going by what I know about prosecutors in my world, the basic workflow goes something like this: first, a case has to exist. Then you wait for the public prosecutor's office to assign it to you. After that, you review the case and the target — if evidence is insufficient, the prosecution is typically dropped. Then you formally file charges with the court. The court accepts them, sets a date, and the trial begins. You participate in the proceedings, and eventually the verdict and sentence are handed down."
"That whole process is enormously time-consuming. And that's just for one case. To fully digest the potion, heaven knows how long it would take."
Bernadette said, "Is it any different for Lawyers or Judges?"
"Let me be clear: the reason you went from Sequence 9 to Sequence 7 in a matter of two or three weeks was that you exploited the divine status of Bonova and Mr. Fool. Under normal circumstances — even with a thorough understanding of the Acting Method and an efficiently constructed Acting Code — it still takes roughly a month to go from Sequence 9 to Sequence 8, and even longer to get from Sequence 8 to Sequence 7."
"That is the normal pace of Beyonder advancement. You can't seriously be planning to rely on exploiting loopholes forever, can you?"
Well.
Why not, exactly?
As long as it works, who cares how? The Beyonder power system of this world isn't like cultivation novels — advancing too fast doesn't destabilise your foundation or weaken your resolve.
Though if he kept exploiting loopholes... Amon might come knocking.
"Your father once said," Vincent ventured, "it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white — as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat."
"That wasn't something Father said. He was plagiarising."
"...The point stands. Your world is dangerous. The faster I can reach a higher Sequence and build real strength, the safer I'll be. And you've said yourself that you want me to advance to demigod as quickly as possible."
"Fair."
Twenty minutes later, Vincent stepped out of the cab in a stretch of the East End notorious for being rough around the edges. The driver even offered a kindly warning to not linger too long.
Vincent thanked him, and stepped into a grimy alleyway regardless.
This wasn't his first time in the East End — but it was his first time deliberately plunging into the worst parts of it. At a glance, virtually everyone he encountered had labels attached. Fraud and assault still dominated, but they had company.
Bernadette gave a quiet, dry laugh. "Ha. Backlund, the City of Hope. 'Hope' is on the label they sell to outsiders who don't know better. 'Despair' is what they hide and leave for those at the bottom."
That was the nature of this world — not just Backlund, but everywhere. The reason Backlund could call itself the "City of Hope" was that, relative to other places, it might genuinely be the best option available.
After walking down several alleys, Vincent spotted a group of men in the middle of smashing and looting. And these ones had murder and rape on them.
Murder alone might have some nuance. But rape alongside it? No question.
Vincent stepped forward briskly. Meeting their bewildered stares, he spoke through the Words of Order:
"You are guilty."
"You have killed."
The men blinked — then looked at each other and broke into laughter, completely unfazed by the accusation.
And then, without warning, a noose materialised around each of their necks. Before they could react, the ropes pulled taut, hoisting them off the ground.
"Ahhh!!!"
The men thrashed frantically, clawing at the loops, straining upward with everything they had — but the nooses only tightened. Until, with a series of horrible snaps, their necks were broken. All four men dropped dead to the ground. A faint red ring of bruising marked each throat. The ropes had vanished.
Vincent glanced at the few bystanders who had witnessed it. He said nothing, did nothing — simply turned and walked away. Something like this barely registered in this part of the East End.
In the following hours he moved through several more locations. In some he used the Words of Order directly to declare and punish. In others, he had the culprits write out confessions and sent them to the police. He also tested borrowing the Nation of Disorder's divine status to set charges in his declared domain, sentencing a man with numerous serious crimes to death:
"You have trafficked in human beings, killed, raped."
"You will be put to death."
The man immediately let out a horrified scream as a blade fell from nowhere and bisected him at the waist. Cleaved in two, he did not die at once — he howled in sustained agony.
And yet—
"Well?"
"Nothing." Vincent shook his head. "No sign at all of the potion digesting. Using the abilities on their own to punish people doesn't seem to do anything."
Bernadette said, "That's expected. If raw ability use were enough, Beyonders wouldn't need the Acting Method or Acting Codes."
"So I simply have to become a real Prosecutor in order to Act properly?"
Bernadette considered it. "Stephen once told me about his experience Acting as a Lawyer. The Lawyer potion doesn't have to be digested strictly in a courtroom — but having the Lawyer identity genuinely helps. His potion was fully digested only after he completed a notably prominent case."
"So you're saying — an audience matters?"
"It's more than just an audience. The case itself has to carry some weight and prominence, and it must authentically embody the principles of Order and its rules." She explained: "Order and rules, in the general sense, are built on broad, collective recognition. Take the Black Emperor's advancement ritual — one of its requirements is establishing a dense, complex set of rules that contradict the normal way of things, and crucially, those rules must be accepted and practised by most people. The emperor alone declaring them isn't enough."
"So the Prosecutor's Acting Method may require the same sort of thing." She paused and smiled slightly. "Though there's one part we might not need to follow so strictly — the procedural formalities."
Vincent made the connection. "You mean: skip the pre-trial preparation, and go straight to putting someone on trial — filing the charges, conducting the case, and delivering the verdict in front of a proper audience?"
He thought aloud. "In that case, could you — when you're in control — go and arrest some genuinely notorious demigod criminal, bring them before a court, and prosecute them? That might speed up the potion digestion considerably."
Bernadette threw a bucket of cold water on the idea. "You're overestimating me a little. I'm only a Sequence 3 demigod. Yes — with the Beyonder items in my possession, defeating or even killing certain demigod-level opponents is possible. But capturing one alive and delivering them to a court for trial is an entirely different order of difficulty."
Fair. Sequence 3 versus Sequence 4 wasn't an absolute curbstomp.
"Then what about Sequence 5? Or lower — even smaller cases would accumulate."
She made a noncommittal sound. "My real suggestion is to first experience what the Prosecutor role actually entails — learn the workflow, and in the process, try to build your own Acting Guidelines."
"In that case I should go to Vivian and—"
"Vivian won't be much help here. The Prosecutor is different from a Lawyer. It requires an official examination and appointment by the authorities, and that's beyond what she can arrange."
"Then... we'll have to ask Miss Justice for help."
"The young lady from the Holl family?"
Bernadette gave a quiet "mm." "Given the Holl family's resources, as long as she's willing to help, it should be feasible. Though since a Prosecutor is an officer of the state, disguise alone probably won't be enough to conceal your identity."
That was also why she had previously been thinking about getting a Faceless-type Beyonder item — the ability to freely alter one's appearance would be invaluable for someone with her sensitive profile.
Thinking of that, Bernadette also recalled the Mystic Order member they'd encountered on the last trip to Tingen — who had inexplicably lost control and died, leaving behind a token. The token said that the following month, the Mystic Order would be holding a gathering in Trier.
"The following month" was broad, of course — it could be any day. And the day after tomorrow would be the first of next month, so she might as well go and have a look.
Not just for the Faceless item — but because the Mystic Order might know something about what Father had been doing in his later years.
To be continued…
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