“I understand that you yourself were witness to the building’s collapse from outside of a tavern, Miss Judge. What were you doing there? Watching the spectacle at a safe distance, unable to do anything? It is said that you who have come from the other world are in possession of a world transfer bonus that gave your bodies special abilities. Yet all you have done is make your body younger? How ridiculous.”
I remembered something that Ileana had said earlier that had caught my ear.
“Ah, if only I had been there myself at that time, and seen the building collapsing, I could have wielded the power of the Holy Scourge at once, supported the building from falling, and saved my congregation!”
The building that fell had been marked as “off-limits.” We know that building…
<<Akky, is it possible that this pope guy is right?>>
Tsukasa’s telepathic message was tinged with unease.
<<What do you mean?>> I asked back.
<<All I’ve done so far is hold Japanese-style court trials. Maybe there’s some other way we should try to help the people of this world. Like for example, if you’d honed your magic more, maybe you would have been able to stop that building from collapsing.>>
She was right—these three weeks, we had only been prioritizing racking up our number of completed trials.
After finishing the Hero’s Trial, and declaring our intention to judge God themself, we hadn’t done anything to advance our knowledge of that God’s power, or how magic works in this world. This might have been a mistake on our part.
<<I don’t know anything about this world’s culture or rules. What if there’s some set of important rules that’s above the law itself? Isn’t it possible that this guy would be better at problem-solving than us?>>
Her apprehensions were reasonable. I might feel the same if I were a thirty-something working adult with no knowledge about other worlds.
“…Assistant, you have been standing there silently doing nothing but interfering with the argument. It seems you may have invited the wrath of God upon you.”
Above our heads, the Scales of Judgment began to lower themselves toward us.
Tsukasa Wagatsuma, Akuto Satou: Violation of Oath Detected
The scales showed the line of plain text. The scales may give its owners magical powers, but they weren’t our ally.
Punishment: Transform body so that it may never again stand in the courtroom
Sharp, gold tentacles began to grow out of the Scales of Judgment. And they were heading right for us.
“Oh-ho-ho! It has detected that you violated the oath you took upon your first trial. What will you do, Akuto, my boy? Is this game over for you? Maybe if you apologize, I’ll be so kind as to forgive you!”
We’d taken an oath to “administer righteous justice, based on truth and conscience, and to see through lies and falsehoods, for the sake of the kingdom.” If we strayed from that promise, God would penalize us.
Apologize to Tamamo? What the hell is she talking about?
I ignored whatever she was saying and focused on reaching Tsukasa telepathically.
<<Tsukasa. This building is the same one as in the other case. It’s worth investigating. Right now, we need to—>>
<<I got it.>> She quickly sensed everything I was trying to say.
“The building which collapsed is under investigation in connection with another case. Hence, the cause of collapse is still under question!”
She couldn’t be specific about which case in the interest of privacy.
But we had noticed. The building that fell was the same building that the young Gobta Boucher had snuck into.
“Huh, another case, is it? What proof do you have that it has any connection to this case? The responsibility under Article Two of the State Redress Act is as a no-fault liability. This sounds like no more than a poor excuse to attempt to escape. The person responsible must be punished.”
Once again, the atmosphere in the room took a turn.
“As a prosecutor, what do you think of the priority relationship between these two cases?”
“Your Honor, the matter at hand is extremely serious. If you would allow me to be involved in both prosecutions…”
“Then please make the necessary preparations. Anything you can find to prove a flaw in the Copy-Paste Spell would be desirable.”
“Yes, Your Honor!” Ileana gave a perfect bow from the gallery.
I understood the reason for all of this. This would give us more time to try to save the princess.
But on the other side of my windows, Shiro was still about to explode with rage.
“Shiro, I’m going to accept their judgment,” the princess began. “And, I’m going to quit doing magic. Using any kind of power that makes our kingdom’s citizens uneasy goes against my goal: ‘a place where we all get along and have fun.’”
She said it with an expression befitting the leader of a country.
“I will give a formal apology and reparation to the victims. Miss Judge, how much time do I have?”
“The trial will be held one week from today, at an appropriate location.”
“I understand. Then, if you will excuse me…”
The princess, in her pink maid outfit, ran to the exit.
“Princess Ecstasia!”
Shiro left too, chasing after her former master.
“So the trial is temporarily halted? Fine, I suppose… Yes…”
The high priest kept monologuing to himself. The court record window in front of me picked up what he whispered next:
“Good, they’ve been separated from the Royal Watchdog. And it looks like it may rain. Not bad.”
I had a bad, nagging feeling when I thought of one possibility.
And with that, I decided to take action.