It had been about three weeks since my sister and I came to this world.
“Why don’t you just confess already?”
The voice of the half-elf prosecutor, Ileana, echoed emptily in the Chiyodaku Kingdom Courthouse.
We were in a room designated as the Juvenile Court.
Per Japanese law, people under eighteen are considered juveniles subject to juvenile law; there are special rules for minors in criminal cases. The Japanese Supreme Court building that the princess originally copied to become the Chiyodaku Kingdom Courthouse didn’t have a room specifically for juvenile cases, but this one was provided so that all kinds of cases could be handled in the Japanese fashion.
Juvenile cases handled by the Juvenile Court are different from your average trial in that, as a rule, they are not open to the public.
Basically, it was a small operation with no gallery and only the relevant parties present.
In this room, my sister, Judge Tsukasa Wagatsuma, sat at a long table. I sat on her left.
To my right, I could see Prosecutor Ileana at another long table, and nobody to the left.
Juvenile cases were different from the usual style of trials where prosecutors and lawyers argue back and forth.
In front of us, the accused juvenile and his guardian were sitting on a bench.
“Gobta. Why did you enter a building with restricted entry?”
Ileana’s assertive questioning was met with…
“…”
…silence.
A hush came over the room.
The only sound was the dwarf-made wall clock ticking away the passing of time.
He won’t talk… He’s exercising his right to remain silent. Experiencing it firsthand, this is actually pretty awkward.
I decided to review what I knew about this kid so far. I concentrated my thoughts on my hands for a moment, and—
Vwoom—a window containing text and photos appeared at my fingertips. Use of these magical multi-use windows was one of the perks of being the owner of the Shard of Judgment.
Let’s pull up the info about this case.
I focused my mind, and the window’s display changed like I was operating a tablet screen with my brain.
Juvenile, Gobta Boucher
Age: 12 years
Race: Goblin hybrid
Just as I was expecting, the case details came up on the window.
I never thought I’d run into a stereotypical fantasy goblin in the courthouse…but this world never fails to surprise me.
The Chiyodaku Kingdom that my sister and I had been summoned to was home to a number of different races besides humans. Walking around town, you’d find that more than half the people weren’t full-blooded humans, but half-something or a hybrid of another race.
When I was just an average Japanese high school student, I was really into isekai fantasy stories. In my favorite anime, manga, and game series, characters did things like form up a party of members of different races and go defeat the Demon King, or use their unique powers to fight battles with other ferocious tribes.
But I’m not that kind of main character.
Through my job as court assistant, I help out with the kingdom’s legal trials. Even if the citizens of this kingdom are part of a fantasy world, they still deserve to be protected. It’s my job to help solve their problems, together with my sister, who serves as judge. Through my years of playing versus games back in Japan, I had perfected my poker face—so I muted my excitement and made sure not to stare at the goblin in front of me like he was some form of entertainment for me.
Time to see what goblins are like in this world.
He looked pretty much like what you would expect a goblin to look like in a fantasy story. I checked the info on his guardians in the case record. His father was half-goblin, and his mother was 100% human. That meant Gobta was a quarter-goblin. Still, the goblin genetics must have been pretty strong since his skin had the goblins’ signature greenish tint.
His build, at twelve years old, was a little smaller than a human’s. Apparently, this small stature was the result of the goblin race’s long-standing custom of living underground or in caves until recent decades—or at least that’s what head maid Shiro had told me before I came here.
<<Hey, Akky.>>
A voice in my head cut through the silence of the room. It was my sister.
<<Is this kid okay? He looks like he might be sick…>>
I had unlocked a telepathy skill that let me secretly speak with her. It was really convenient.
<<Are you saying that because he’s green?>> I replied, concentrating my thoughts into my forehead.
<<Yeah. His guardian, too. I wonder if they’re feeling unwell.>>
Oh boy. Thank God for telepathy.
While an expert judge, my sister was a little out of touch when it came to fantasy world street smarts. She still wasn’t used to the common sense of this other world.
<<That color is normal for goblins. And anyway, it looks more like he’s not talking because he really doesn’t want to, not because he’s sick.>>
Gobta Boucher was balling his fists on top of his knees and squeezing his mouth tightly closed. For a twelve-year-old, I could tell he had a strong sense of determination.
<<It’s a good thing you’re here to clue me in. I’ll try a different approach, then.>>
Tsukasa stood up from her seat.
I assumed she meant a different approach from the other cases we’d overseen since coming here. First, we solved the Color Slime Case, then the Hero’s Party Homicide Case (now just called the Hero’s Case). In the three weeks after that, we had worked on the rest of the cases that had been piling up behind the Hero’s Case—small disputes, traffic accidents, stuff like that. While there hadn’t been anything remarkable, we had still managed to cover over three hundred cases.
It was just the two of us: my sister, who from the start always said that “a judge is as good as dead if they’re not taken seriously,” and me, your average guy who was trying to keep up with everything happening around us.
After getting our footing and finishing up some cases, Tsukasa had softened up in some ways.
“Prosecutor, please hold your questioning.”
“Y-yes ma’am!” replied the prosecutor, Ileana.
Judge Wagatsuma walked to the young goblin. She stood before him and leaned over to meet his gaze.
“It’s okay,” she told him. “You can relax.”
She smoothed back her long black hair and looked into the goblin boy’s eyes.