The judge issued her decision. A sound like breaking glass echoed through the courtroom. Prosecutor Ileana Saitou had slammed her face down on her desk.
In the court record window, I saw that the half-elf had whispered to herself, “I’ve failed…as a prosecutor…”
“Bwa-ha-haaa! Flawless victory! Take that!” Tamamo Keisei cried as she bounced over to Ileana. She smirked and poked at the dejected half-elf. “Well, how does it feel to have all three of your charges get flushed down the toilet?”
Meanwhile…
“What a farce…”
…Laman, no longer the accused, didn’t look pleased.
“After all that back-and-forth and legal gibberish, I’m not guilty? Then, what was all this for? It’s pointless! You haven’t judged a damn thing!” the older man yelled angrily from the center of the courtroom.
“Yes, I have. I’ve judged that you do not have to bear any guilt,” Tsukasa replied matter-of-factly.
“What sophistry! Fine. I understand that you really are too afraid. You didn’t have the guts to judge me! You were too cowardly to sentence me to dea—”
“Princess Ecstasia Itou!” Tsukasa interrupted, calling toward the gallery.
“Right!” The princess stood and read off of a note in her hand. “Um, the free food and drink benefit granted to the Hero’s party has been deemed unconstitutional and is hereby discontinued!”
Laman looked stunned. “Wh-what?!”
“Prosecutor!” Next, my sister called upon the despondent Ileana. She threw something small and shiny to her.
“Wh-what’s this?” Ileana sat up to catch it. “My prosecutors’ pin!”
“Make sure you indict that older man as soon as you see him try to take any food without paying for it.”
“D-do you mean I can continue my work?”
“A prosecutor’s duty is to act as the representative of the public interest. To protect the nation and its people, they must never falter, no matter how evil a person they indict, and establish guilt based on the objective facts of the crime. You showed guts, and that’s critical to prosecutorial justice. The court will take care of the rest. Keep up the good work, Prosecutor Saitou.”
Thwunk. I could practically hear the sound of Tsukasa’s warm encouragement hit Ileana in the heart like an arrow.
“Y-y-yes, ma’am…!” Ileana struck a determined pose, broken glasses and all. “I won’t get discouraged, no matter what! I’ll keep prosecuting, like a phoenix rising from the ashes! I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, Miss Judge!!”
Tamamo, taken aback by Ileana’s proclamation, fell over on her backside. “Remember, lest you get carried away, that I’m the victor here!”
“The true value of judgment lies not in winning or losing. It is in exacting justice. You would do well to remember that, fox.” So saying, Tsukasa came down from the judge’s seat and began to walk the floor.
“The court does not fear Laman the Hero. And we do not assume that this is all over simply because he has been declared not guilty. Going forward, we must continue to right the wrongs related to this case. Wouldn’t you agree, Princess Ecstasia?”
“Yes! We’re gonna renovate and have a grand reopening of the Shrine of the Hero. Then we’ll declare an official holiday in commemoration of the day the Hero’s party defeated the Demon King. We’ll also officially recognize Laman and Fiona’s marriage in the kingdom’s records. That’s everything, right, Mr. Akuto?”
The princess was reading the memo I’d given her that morning.
“Yeah. All things Laman should have had in the first place, especially now that we know he’s not guilty.”
Last night, Tsukasa and I had come up with these terms in the case of Laman being cleared of all charges.
“Stop! What is all this? Stay away from me!” the older man cried.
“Laman. You are an accomplished laborer who single-handedly took in the waste of the Chiyodaku Kingdom in support of its rapid growth. As a Japanese citizen, I cannot look down on you any longer,” Tsukasa said as she approached the Hero.
“Th-there’s something wrong with you, you little brats!” Laman was growing flustered. “You should have no compassion for me, especially after I rejected this kingdom’s Japanization and taunted you so ruthlessly at the tavern! Why are you doing this, you hypocrites?!”
“As I’ve said already, trials are more than winning and losing. They’re about uncovering an ideal of how things should be. The court has chosen a future where you exist. I don’t find that hypocritical at all.” My sister remained calm, even in the face of Laman’s criticism.
“You should’ve just given me the death sentence. If you take away my Shard of Judgment, and annex all the villages in the Meadow of Beginnings, all your problems will disappear, along with all the evil in this world!”
“We can’t do that. You aren’t evil. Over the past fifty-four years, a few mistaken choices led you astray. That you don’t attack me or my brother despite your aggressive behavior is proof enough. And not a single doubt has been raised against the court’s decision.”
No Rust of Doubt had appeared around the Scales of Judgment.
That made it clear no one spectating the trial doubted the verdict.
“…I—I feel like I’m living a nightmare.” The old hero staggered back a step. “No matter how you judge me, my wife is still dead. All around me are the corpses of my comrades I swore to protect. I can’t even sleep anymore unless I drink. Th-this…is my reality…”
The older man’s legs buckled, unable to support his thin body, and he sank to the floor.
“To be burdened with a crime without proper punishment is enough to make anyone lose themselves in time,” Tsukasa said. “But you have no need for that guilt now. The charge of negligence—”
“I don’t give a damn about negligence! I swore to protect—”
“Get ahold of yourself, Laman. Fiona wouldn’t suffer this nonsense,” Elma scolded as she approached from the gallery. She was still in her old form.