John Wick - Chapter 116: Judgment? (Patreon)

The Adjudicator’s face had swollen even more.

Their pupils trembled as they stared at the young man slowly walking toward them.

They were afraid.

This time, they were genuinely terrified.

“Mr. Lin...” Julius tried to warn Nate, but Nate cut him off.

“Manager, they and I are both outside the hotel grounds right now, correct?”

Julius immediately understood what he meant and nodded.

“Yes, Mr. Lin.”

The terror on the Adjudicator’s face was impossible to hide.

They understood exactly what Nate was implying.

What they couldn’t understand was why, when they were supposed to be the one who used the rules to corner other people, this man seemed even more like an Adjudicator than they did.

Ever since they met, he had been leading them around by the nose.

“So if I kill them now, I’m not breaking any rules, right?”

Nate smiled as he pointed his gun at the Adjudicator lying on the ground.

Just to be safe, he confirmed it with Julius.

“That’s correct, sir,” Julius replied.

“You... you can’t kill me... You can’t kill me!”

They were genuinely terrified now.

Their trembling voice gradually rose into hysteria.

“Shh...”

Nate raised a finger to his lips.

The Adjudicator immediately went silent.

He lightly tapped the gun against their uninjured right cheek.

Their left side was already grotesquely swollen.

Seeing them cowering in front of him, Nate suddenly lost interest.

So he struck them under the chin.

The Adjudicator’s eyes rolled back, and they collapsed unconscious.

“Manager, please have someone take them to the execution chamber.”

...

Inside the Rome Continental Hotel’s execution chamber.

This area was outside the hotel’s protected grounds, so killing someone here wouldn’t violate the rules.

The Adjudicator was bound to a cross.

Nate sat in a chair, idly playing with the black coin.

Elena and Julius stood nearby while two attendants carried buckets of water toward the Adjudicator, preparing to wake them.

“This feels awfully familiar,” Elena remarked.

Julius nodded in agreement.

Nate ignored them.

He had been coming to this place almost once a day lately.

Of course it felt familiar.

“Why didn’t you just kill them?” Julius asked curiously.

“We should at least find out why they came here first. Might as well get some information out of them.”

Nate flicked the black coin into the air.

It spun with a metallic ring before dropping neatly back into his hand.

“You didn’t even ask?” Elena looked at him in disbelief. “Then why did you beat them up that badly?”

“They said they came looking for me, but anyone with half a brain could tell they weren’t here with good intentions.”

Nate shrugged.

“With people like them, you strike first.”

The Adjudicator slowly regained consciousness.

They looked around and quickly understood their situation.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Nate smiled at them.

The Adjudicator remained silent.

Nate didn’t care.

“So, tell me why you came here. I was having so much fun cursing you out earlier that I forgot to ask.”

He leaned back slightly.

“Go ahead. Tell me, and I ‘won’t kill you.’”

The Adjudicator still said nothing.

They simply stared straight at him with the same look as before.

Nate had no interest in wasting time.

He raised the gun directly toward their head.

“I’ll give you five seconds. If you don’t talk, I shoot.”

“Five.”

The Adjudicator remained expressionless.

“Four.”

Nate cocked the hammer.

A slight change finally appeared on their face.

“Three.”

His finger settled on the trigger.

The Adjudicator began to panic.

A bead of cold sweat appeared on their forehead.

“Two...”

“I’ll talk!”

The Adjudicator shouted, panic written across their face.

Nate lowered the gun with a disappointed expression.

“Adjudicator, tell me something.”

He glanced at the black coin.

“Without this, what exactly are you?”

“I...”

The question left them speechless.

“You really came after me alone?”

Nate looked at them incredulously.

“You know I know kung fu, right? Are you always this brave?”

The Adjudicator remained silent.

“All right. Enough of that.”

Nate’s expression became more serious.

“What exactly did you come here for?”

They remained silent for a moment before letting out a sigh.

“One of Santino’s Markers is still unresolved, but he’s dead... so I came to find you.”

“The one involving John Wick?” Nate asked after thinking for a moment.

“No. That Marker followed the proper procedure.”

They looked at him.

“It’s the one belonging to Ares, one of Santino’s subordinates.”

The mute woman?

Nate remembered that she had indeed mentioned Santino holding her Marker.

“Go on.”

Nate rested his head against one hand.

He was already starting to lose patience.

“When the holder of a Marker dies, shouldn’t the Marker become void?” Julius asked from the side.

That was how he understood the rule.

After all, if the holder was dead, who were you supposed to honor the oath for?

It wasn’t some kind of soul chain where one person died and dragged another person down with them.

Elena nodded in agreement.

“But...” the Adjudicator began.

Nate interrupted them.

“But according to the literal wording of the rules, every Marker must be honored.”

He looked directly at them.

“Ares’s Marker only lost its holder. It was never completed with a fingerprint.”

“So whether it counts as properly honored or not is entirely up to you.”

Nate’s eyes narrowed.

“Isn’t that right, Adjudicator?”

They said nothing.

They simply looked at Nate and nodded.

“Does anyone else know about this?”

“No.”

“I only discovered it by chance. Normally, no one bothers looking into things like this.”

“What a sloppy organization~”

Nate leaned back in his chair.

“Then let’s stop dancing around it.”

“What exactly did you plan to make me do with this loophole?”

“Or more importantly, what were you hoping to get out of it?”

The Adjudicator lowered their head and remained silent for a moment before answering.

“You’re valuable, Mr. Nate Lin.”

“I intended to tell you that the only way to resolve this matter would be to kill Ares, but I assumed you probably wouldn’t agree.”

“So as an alternative, I would have you complete one task for me.”

They paused.

“Ideally, you would give me a Marker.”

Nate laughed.

Not because it was funny.

Because the sheer audacity of it pissed him off.

The Adjudicator watched him laughing and slowly began to smile as well.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became strangely unsettling.

“You’re an Adjudicator with no real ability of your own.”

Nate stood and stared directly into their eyes.

“All you want to do is use that black coin to benefit yourself.”

“Are all Adjudicators like you?”

“Yes.”

The Adjudicator met his gaze openly.

“With this much power in your hands, who wouldn’t use it for themselves?”

They said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Ptooey!”

Nate spat to the side.

“You’re nothing but a glorified messenger who’s spent so long borrowing the High Table’s authority that you’ve started believing the power is actually yours.”

As he spoke, Nate raised the HKP30L.

The Adjudicator’s expression changed instantly.

Their entire body began trembling.

Their pupils widened in terror.

“You... You promised... you wouldn’t kill me!”

A crooked grin appeared on Nate’s face.

“I said I wouldn’t kill you.”

“The other two could still do it.”

“You were never walking out of here today.”

He paused.

“But I changed my mind.”

“I’m going to do it myself.”

“If I don’t personally kill you...”

Nate smiled.

Then Nate switched languages.

“I won’t feel satisfied.”

“You...”

Bang!