Chapter 75: The End of Cardo

In the direction from the fishing village to the trans-sea bridge, there once lay an open field where villagers would gather together. Now, this space had been transformed into a central square. From this day forward, it would serve as the most important venue for external exchange, not only for the fishing village, but for the entire Land of Waves.

Today, the nation of the Land of Waves would let forth its first public cry at this very place—a cry symbolizing rebirth.

A temporary high platform had been erected in the square, arranged to resemble a courtroom, with numerous seats prepared. Crowds gathered around the square, sunlight piercing through gaps in the clouds, spilling across faces marked by tension and anticipation.

The number of people present had long surpassed the village’s population; many had traveled from all corners of the Land of Waves, drawn to witness this unprecedented trial.

Upon the judges’ bench sat several spirited elders and many middle-aged men. They were exiled emigrants of the Land of Waves, all learned in the law, who had served as town magistrates or assistants in foreign cities. Town magistrates were responsible for law enforcement and trials; though the world of shinobi revered strength, enforcers were still indispensable. After all, the towns bustled with mundane disputes and common crimes—far too many for the scarce number of shinobi to handle, especially given that most shinobi were ill-inclined to scholarly pursuits.

These veteran legal men had volunteered to organize this trial.

Today’s proceedings were a public trial. And the defendant, naturally, was Gato.

In the sunlight, he appeared especially solitary. Once the all-powerful ruler of this land, he now stood a prisoner, awaiting judgment at the hands of those very “peasants” he once scorned.

Although it was a public trial, the court still assigned Gato a “second,” someone akin to a defense attorney.

The hour of the trial arrived. At the sound of a gong, Gato was escorted to the defendant’s seat by two robust fishermen from the Land of Waves, who had volunteered as bailiffs for the day.

Gato’s steps were heavy and sluggish. The arrogance he once wielded had long since faded, leaving only dejection and defeat. He did not fear a swift execution; such an end would allow him to posture on the scaffold and leave behind a less disgraceful legacy as a fallen king. What he truly dreaded was this public trial, which would strip away all his facades and expose his ugliness to the full light of day, leaving him no room to argue.

Before sitting, Gato’s eyes swept the crowd, perhaps searching for a sympathetic face, but he found only a sea of hatred.

“Order, order!”

The acting magistrate struck the wooden gavel, announcing the trial’s commencement. Another magistrate stood and began to recite the charges against Gato: treason, murder, organizing gangs, unlawful detention, and a host of economic crimes.

Each accusation drew murmurs of curses from the crowd, and many were moved to tears. With every crime read aloud, Gato’s posture seemed to shrink further.

Even the recitation of his crimes stirred the crowd into an uproar. Despite repeated calls for order, the magistrate’s efforts were in vain. In the end, proceedings had to be paused, allowing the people to vent their anger before the trial could continue.

When it came time for witnesses, the uproar only grew.

“He killed my father! He killed Kaisha!”

The young Inari could bear it no longer. He was the first to leap up, raising his small fists and pointing at Gato, his voice trembling with rage. Had he not been held back, he might have rushed the stand to strike Gato himself.

“Everyone in the village saw it! He tied Kaisha to a stake! He stabbed Kaisha again and again, nearly draining all his blood! And then he wouldn’t let us collect Kaisha’s body—he hung Kaisha’s head on a pole to dry in the wind! Until the seagulls picked him to the bone!”

These details came from Tazuna, but Inari was already sobbing, his mother’s eyes red as she clutched her son, both of them barely able to speak.

“That peasant dared defy me!” Gato shouted in protest.

A fisherman at his side landed a heavy blow to Gato’s jaw. “Who gave you permission to speak?”

Gato was left speechless. If he demanded the fisherman be punished, he would only deepen his own guilt. Even he, in all his arrogance, knew that if he uttered any double standards like, “How is that the same?” he would likely be killed on the spot.

His “second,” assigned to defend him, pretended not to notice. In truth, he had not wanted to defend Gato at all and had nearly taken the prosecutor’s side himself.

To maintain the dignity of the court, the acting magistrate replaced the fisherman “as a form of punishment.” But as the fisherman stepped down, he was celebrated as a hero.

With Tazuna’s family setting the precedent, villagers from all over the Land of Waves vied to testify, each recounting Gato’s cruelties.

“I watched helplessly as his men burned down my house. My wife and I lived there for forty years!”

An elderly man, his face wrinkled, spoke in a trembling voice. “My wife died of a heart attack then and there! My son was beaten half to death—he screamed all night before passing! They took everything I had, just because my house was in one of his so-called ‘development zones’!”

A young woman, her hair already streaked with gray, held her frail child, tears in her eyes. “They burned our fishing boat and flooded our fields with seawater because my husband wouldn’t work for him! But my husband did work for him! He toiled for over ten hours a day, night after night, coughing blood from exhaustion! He collapsed at work and was beaten to death!”

Even one of Gato’s former employees could no longer remain silent and cried out, “You don’t know how many lies I was forced to write for Gato. Every time someone died, we had to blame the victim, just so he could withhold compensation and avoid fines! If we didn’t do as he said, we disappeared! We never saw what happened to those people until Lord Naruto told us a few days ago—they found a pit behind the company building, filled with…”

With every witness, Gato grew more anxious. He glanced at his “second,” hoping for a word in his defense, but none came. Only when the magistrate summoned him to speak did his defender reluctantly rise and say:

“My client by rights should be sentenced to death by dismemberment. That seems excessive to me, a violation of humanitarian principles. My suggestion… is to let him face the insect execution. I humbly request the Aburame clan’s shinobi to bring this man to his end.”

Gato: …

After a lengthy trial, the magistrates delivered their final verdict.

The result was never in doubt.

Gato was found guilty on all charges. According to the ancient laws of the Land of Waves, he was sentenced to death, to be carried out immediately, with lifelong deprivation of political rights.

The magistrate’s voice echoed across the square, met by cheers and applause from the crowd.

As the sentence was proclaimed, Gato was led from the defendant’s seat straight to the place of execution, where the executioner awaited.

A sharp twang—the sound of a steam-powered crossbow.

Amid the crowd’s jubilant cries, Gato’s life came to an end.

And so, the Land of Waves stepped into a new era.