Three surviving clerks stared toward Hajin's blackened chain while the sick girl stood beside him with one hand across her ribs.
Vella remained near the crowd, where pale light trembled around her fingers after slowing the girl's fever.
Hajin secured the stolen ledger inside his inventory before facing the men who had hidden medicine and food from the town.
"You gave your testimony today, and it counted," he told the girl as his voice stayed below the crowd.
"The final sentence remains mine to carry under the authority of this lordship."
She nodded once, then moved beyond the chain while each clerk crawled toward the damaged registry.
Hajin turned one wrist, sending refined demonic mana through three links into their bodies.
The men convulsed across the stones as heat moved through organs without crossing toward anyone watching nearby.
Several residents covered children's eyes, though others forced themselves to witness punishment for years of deliberate starvation.
