After the Hero’s trial, we made sure the courtroom got cleaned up and watched the princess and her retainers finish up their administrative tasks. Then we returned to our rooms in the courthouse and slept like the dead.
By the time we woke up, it was noon the next day.
It had been dubbed Commemoration Day, a new public holiday celebrating the anniversary of the Hero’s defeat of the Demon King.
Programs that reminded me of what people in Japan watched on the memorial day for the end of the war played on TV. One of them covered what I’d seen at the Shrine of the Hero, as well as Elma’s story.
After watching for a while, Tsukasa and I decided to go out for a celebratory drink.
We ended up back at that Adventurers’ Guild tavern, the Grand Varnier.
“““Cheeeers!”””
Tsukasa, Shiro, and I clanked our glasses together…
““Ahhh!!””
…and gulped down our drinks.
“There’s nothing like a drink after gettin’ it done!” my sister said.
“Miss Judge, Master, you did a magnificent job.”
“Your camerawork was perfect, Shiro,” I replied.
“You really captured everything well,” Tsukasa agreed. “I think it’ll help clear up any misunderstandings about Laman.”
We’d already posted the trial footage on ChiyodakuNet for anyone to watch online.
“If my calculations are correct, a majority of citizens have already seen the broadcast. Couple this with word of mouth, the commemorative celebrations, and Laman’s actions going forward, and I think his reputation will recover nicely.”
“I’m glad you think so, Shiro,” I said.
“Trials have a strange power, indeed. In the Color Slime Case, you judged someone who was concealing their crime. Then in the Hero’s Case, you judged someone who hadn’t actually committed any crime. And throughout the course of both trials, the people started to change.”
While Shiro mused on this, the tavern girl came over and left a piece of paper on our table.
“Meowdy! Here’s a flier for you! Please purruse it at your leisure!”
The flier’s colorful text read NOW ACCEPTING APPLICANTS! ALL-INCLUSIVE TOUR OF THE MEADOW OF BEGINNINGS AND A HANDS-ON SLIME-BREEDING CLASS! SPONSORED BY SLIVAN ARTISTE, WITH THE COOPERATION OF THE HERO’S VILLAGE.
“…Shiro’s right. People really are changing,” I said.
We had the princess to thank for that. She’d hired orcs to build a road to the Hero’s Village.
The Chiyodaku Kingdom and the Meadow of Beginnings had been separated for so long but were now finally linked.
Shiro’s tail was wagged excitedly. “I’m happy for them…the people of the Hero’s Village and the slimes…”
“By the way, Shiro, were there really more than three hundred thousand people watching the trial?” I asked.
According to the Judgment Spell’s calculations, our trust level had gone from zero to 1,558,015.
If each person’s trust was on a five-point scale, I figured that number was a reasonable guess.
“No, that’s too high, based on the kingdom’s population. I’m not certain, but perhaps the trust was calculated on a ten-point scale because there were two Shards of Judgment in the courtroom.”
“I see… So the reward increases with the number of shards.”
I guess that’s one incentive to find the rest. It turns out this is one of those games where we’ll need to go around and collect items that’ve been scattered across the world map. How do we even begin to spend over a million in trust? There must be some way to unlock more powerful abilities…
“Akky, those scales threatened to make it so I could never stand in the courtroom. Let’s just ditch ’em,” Tsukasa grumbled.
“What are you saying?” I couldn’t believe how differently we felt on this. “No way. They’re obviously a key item!”
“But we normally don’t need that thing to hold a trial.”
“This isn’t normal, it’s a fantasy world…”
We started debating back and forth.
“Miss Juuudge! Mr. Akutooo! Great job yesterday; it was totally judicious!” Princess Ecstasia Itou had arrived. “Building the new infrastructure and setting up all the cables in the Hero’s Village is going well so far!”
She must have come straight from the Meadow of Beginnings. All her retainers were with her.
“So anyway, I come bearing the other Shard of Judgment with a message from the Hero!”
When Ecstasia took the little thing from her pink maid outfit, it rose into the air.
Transferor: Previous Owner, Laman
Transferee: New Owners, Miss Judge and Mr. Akuto
Vwoosh. It displayed a window to request ownership transfer confirmation.
“Here’s his message!” the princess said excitedly. “‘This artifact is not meant for me to carry. I entrust it to the two of you.’” She read aloud from a note.
Tsukasa nodded. “Great, now we can ditch them both at once!”
“Let’s hold off on that for now,” I responded.
The princess, meanwhile, paid us no mind. “Okay, next part! ‘I offer up my village as part of the kingdom. I will burn the kingdom’s trash. From now on, I will serve the royal court with the two of you as its new rulers, and the Hero’s Village will be renamed Kotoku Village.’”
“Princess, tell him the court doesn’t get to rule anything, and that only official employees can work there,” Tsukasa stated.
“And there’s no need to change the name of the Hero’s Village…,” I added.
“Okey dokey! Oh, one last thing. ‘Mr. Akuto. I promise to train you in fire magic, anytime you like.’ And that’s all he wrote!”
His message warmed my heart.
I’m so glad. I’m so glad we were brought here. This feeling of accomplishment made every struggle worth it.
“But first you must fulfill your promise to me, Akuto, my boy!” Tamamo Keisei came bounding over as though she’d been waiting for this. “Quickly! We must play video games in the princess’s quarters! Posthaste!”
“There’s no way Mr. Akuto promised you something like that!” Ileana grabbed Tamamo by the hood of her golden-brown parka and pulled her away from me.
“Oh, indeed he did! And don’t try to stop us, you loser!”
“Perhaps I lost the case, but I won as a prosecutor!”
“What? Is your brain leaking out of those big ears of yours? You failed to prove even one of your indictments. You lose! Loser! Lose-y lose-y loser! And I…WIN ☆!”
“Didn’t you hear Miss Judge say that trials aren’t about winning and losing? It doesn’t matter, though, because I’m going to win next time!”
The two bickered while they chased each other around the tavern.
“They fight so much that I’m starting to suspect they like each other,” I remarked.
Tsukasa hummed. “A little competition between prosecutors and defense attorneys can be a good thing—at least for now.”
Turning back to the princess, I said, “Oh, I almost forgot. Did you find out anything about that official?”
I had done everything in my power to help with this case and its aftermath, but there was one outstanding issue—that part of Elma’s testimony about an official with black balance scales who claimed to be from Chiyodaku and tried to take Laman’s Shard of Judgment.
“Sorry, I don’t know anyone like that!” Ecstasia replied.
“Huh?”
“We haven’t sent any officials out to the Hero’s Village all year, and I’ve never heard of anyone with black balance scales.”
“But…”
That person had kept Laman from meeting with the princess after the king’s death. It was one of the major points that had led him to his bad ending.
The person with the black scales…had to be out there somewhere.
Laman had gone so far as to draw those black scales with huge X marks over them outside his house. He’d fallen ill because that person tried to steal his shard, which led to Keith and Neidhardt starting the fire that killed them.
“‘Came from Chiyodaku’? That sounds like something a scammer would say,” Tsukasa said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Scammers will often claim to be from a certain police station but never say they’re an actual police officer, so they aren’t technically lying.”
Oh, I get it.
“So there’s somebody pretending to be a Chiyodaku official who’s trying to collect all the Shards of Judgment.”
Tsukasa nodded at my deduction.
This guy might be more trouble than I thought. Artifacts that manifest the power of judgment… There’s still a lot we don’t know about how they work. I wouldn’t be surprised if some organization plotted to hoard them.
“The Shard of Judgment will transfer ownership now,” Princess Ecstasia said.
Laman’s shard slowly lowered into my hands. In response, the one I’d received from the princess flew out of my pocket.
“Two shards…,” I whispered.
They joined together before my eyes, releasing a flash of golden light. Mini balance scales appeared, accompanied by lines of text below.
Artifact Quest: Collect all shards.
Reward: The power to judge the entire world.
I’d read this before.
The power to judge the entire world…
An abrupt rustling pulled me from contemplation. When I looked around, everyone but Tsukasa and I had bowed before the text.
“What’s going on?” I asked Shiro.
“We sensed a strong, godly power,” she answered, keeping her head lowered.
I didn’t see anything but the dazzling glow of the scales. Apparently, the people of this world were the sort who put a lot of belief in their deity.
“It’s pretty evil for a God or whatever to create something like this,” Tsukasa said.
I turned to face her. “What do you mean?”
“Its existence causes conflict. And our court doesn’t need it. Trials are a manifestation of humanity’s intelligence.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Fine. Let’s collect them for now. And then…” My sister stood from her chair. She pointed her finger at the golden scales hovering before us. “…we’ll use them to judge God itself.”
The only Japanese judge in the entire world struck a confident pose.
“It’s not God that makes the world a better place through righteous judgment. It’s the people.”
Surprisingly, the Scales of Judgment, having apparently adjusted their size for this setting, responded to Tsukasa’s assertion, producing a new line of text.
Once you collect every Shard, God will appear before you.
A message from God had been built in for this situation.
“Bring it on. I’m coming to judge you, just wait and see!” Tsukasa’s brazen attitude invited the reactions of those around us.
“Simply astonishing, Miss Judge…”
“Chiyoda cooool!”
“I-I’m right behind you!”
“Oh-hoh-hoh! How novel!”
Everyone buzzed excitedly.
Here we go again. There’ll be no stopping them now.
“Hey, Akky.” Tsukasa held out her hand and made her most unreasonable request yet. “Let’s show that God that thinks it’s better than us who the real judges are.”
She says it like it’s no big deal. But I guess that’s part of what makes her so cool. Plus… If we can beat God, we’ll solve this conflict. What an interesting ending that would be.
I stood and took Tsukasa’s hand. “Let’s go for it. For the sake of this world, our court will rise above even God itself.”
My sister and I will run the Supreme Court of another world.