The Great Sinner Is Sentenced to Banishment

“Now, get out.”

A spear was thrust toward the man who had been escorted by carriage.

“............”

Rising in silence, with visible effort, a man in tattered clothes slowly climbed down from the carriage.

He was gaunt, with overgrown dark brown hair and a beard streaked with white; every time he took a step, a metallic kacha kacha sound rang out.

Why?

Because the man's arms were bound together in front of his body by chains.

Driving such a man forward with light prods of their spears from behind were several men clad in armor.

In other words, the armored men were soldiers, and the man in chains was the criminal.

Under a cloudy sky that looked as if rain would start at any moment, they began to walk in silence.

Pushing through the brush, they proceeded for several minutes along a narrow path like a beast trail in the forest.

Suddenly, the view opened up.

There lay a deep, deep ravine.

Even peering over the edge, there was nothing at the bottom but pitch darkness; it was impossible to tell what lay down there.

That was just how deep the ravine was.

Naturally, falling in meant death.

But the soldiers' aim was not to push the criminal into this ravine to his death.

“Now...... the sentence shall be carried out. By rights, you deserved the death penalty, but by His Majesty's own decree, you have instead been sentenced to banishment. Be grateful for his mercy, deeper than the sea, and for his compassion.”

The escort captain began this proclamation when they reached a crude bridge of logs spanning the ravine.

“............Kukuku, ‘compassion’, is it?”

The criminal gave a small laugh and looked toward the end of the bridge.

Beyond the ravine lay a dense, primeval forest, where the cries of monsters he had never even heard of echoed now and then.

Numerous trees with gray trunks so thick that three adults couldn't encircle them even while holding hands towered upward, blooming with white flowers at their peaks.

The thick scent of the forest was carried by the wind and reached the criminal's aquiline nose.

The forest beyond this ravine was the land to which the criminal was now being banished.

Its name was Zamago Forest.

Located at the western foot of Mount Nanga, this forest was the western edge of the demon realm, the Ranrananga Mountains, a world where the strong eat the weak and monsters rule.

What would happen if a human with no means of fighting were thrown in there unarmed...... there is surely no need to spell it out here.

“You! What are you laughing at!”

Seeing the criminal's shoulders shake faintly with sardonic laughter, a young soldier shouted at him.

Apparently, it had gotten under his skin.

“Ha, can you blame me? Being hunted by monsters and dying in agony—that is ‘compassion’, is it? Truly, His Majesty has a fine sense of humor.”

“Hold your tongue!!”

The young soldier flew into a rage and took one step forward...... but then.

Here, something strange happened.

On a spot where there was nothing at all, not a pebble, not a vine, something suddenly caught the soldier's foot, and down he went.

“!?”

The soldier flailed, not understanding why.

The criminal looked down at him and spoke with a derisive snort.

“Hmph, your job is to escort me, and certainly not to torment me. If you are indeed a soldier, then obey the orders of your superior and refrain from unnecessary actions.”

“Y, YOU BASTAAAAARD!!”

The soldier went bright red with rage, gripped the sword at his waist, and sprang up to cut the criminal down!

But then, once again, he tripped over nothing and slammed his face into the ground with all his might.

“Hahaha...... so full of energy, I can only envy you. Energetic, just like children! Is this, too, the fruit of your guidance, Captain-dono?”

With a faint smile, the criminal shrugged and spoke to the escort captain.

The captain was red in the face and shaking, but unlike the young soldier, he didn't fly into a rage and attack just because he'd been mocked.

“Great sinner...... Giovanno Ack Toh......! Quickly, cross the bridge. Into the forest, go. Die by the wayside. That is all.”

“............Understood.”

The captain gave the order in a trembling voice, suppressing his anger.

Giovanno nodded at those words without returning a sarcastic remark.

The flippant grin he had worn while teasing the young soldier a moment ago was gone from his face.

He was simply expressionless.

Gishi, gishi, gishi......

Every time Giovanno took a step on the log bridge, the bridge let out a pathetic scream.

Yet he strode briskly across, not especially frightened.

“You great sinner, treating people like they're not even human! Go to hell!”

“O gods! May Giovanno Ack Toh's remaining years be long, and steeped in agony!”

“Live one day longer, great sinner! Suffer one day longer!”

“Know that no matter how much you suffer, it will not be even a fraction of the suffering of the people you oppressed!”

“Die! Giovanno Ack Toh!”

Behind Giovanno, the soldiers who had escorted him were hurling a barrage of abuse.

No matter how caustic the words thrown at him, Giovanno paid them no mind.

He didn't, and yet.

“......There is one correction.”

Giovanno stopped once in the middle of the log bridge and looked back at the soldiers.

“I have already been stripped of my peerage, you see. Now I am just ‘Giovanno’. Not ‘Ack Toh’. Treating a criminal who is no noble, as a noble. Is that out of consideration for me, a former noble? That you would even bend the laws of the land just to satisfy a criminal's pride—this Giovanno is deeply moved. My thanks, Captain-dono.”

Last of all.

Last of all, after that long-winded sarcasm, Giovanno gave a careless laugh and started walking again.

After that, he crossed the log bridge without uttering another meaningful word, disappearing into Zamago Forest while the chains binding his hands let out a kacha kacha sound.

All that was left behind were the soldiers on the far side of the ravine, staring blankly.

From the gray clouds covering the sky, a light drizzle began to fall.

Since ‘The Omake Reincarnator’ always gets told “there's not enough ‘serves you right’”, the theme of Arc 12 is “serves you right.”

People who get served right will be showing up.