“Approximately five years ago, the accused used the Copy-Paste Spell to produce the affected building in this case. While being aware of the possibility of a fatal flaw, the accused disregarded the possibility that a collapse could kill an unspecified amount of people and failed to properly maintain the building, hence causing its collapse. This as a result killed Cumba Nols, aged fifty-nine, and Alba Nols, aged sixty, who were in the church branch building adjacent to the property and were buried under the rubble. Charge: homicide. Applicable penal statute: Penal Code Article One-Hundred and Ninety-Nine.”
Prosecutor Ileana read aloud her indictment in the Grand Bench of the Chiyodaku Kingdom Courthouse.
Shiro and I weren’t in the courtroom. We were watching via a wired monitor in another room.
This was to show that the judge who was judging the princess was working alone.
The judge, Tsukasa; the prosecutor, Ileana; and the accused, the princess, were in the courtroom. The gallery was a full house, and the high priest and three of his followers were sitting in the front row, waiting to testify as witnesses. All this was being filmed by the Royal Cabinet’s maids and broadcast to Shiro and me in the other room.
While it looked like Judge Wagatsuma was operating the various court record windows on her own, I was actually controlling them from a distance. We had made it look like the windows opened automatically when the Shard of Judgment commenced the trial. Within the Grand Bench…
Building Collapse Homicide Case
Accused: Ecstasia Itou
…the case details were floating in the air above.
“But Master, Alba is still alive.”
“Yeah. Apparently, church headquarters notified the prosecution that he died yesterday.”
But just a short while ago, I had confirmed that Alba was safe.
Last night, I returned to the church headquarters under the cover of night. With Shiro’s help, we got back into the dormitories. During the morning prayers, we snuck over to make sure Lyra and Alba still hadn’t been found out.
Maybe he had been preoccupied due to the sudden increase in the church’s members, or because of the trial today, but the high priest hadn’t noticed us. We had slipped back out of headquarters just as he ordered the entire congregation to gather in the cathedral before heading to the courthouse.
“Let’s just do the trial the way we decided.”
“Master. What should we do about the facts I discovered this morning?”
She was talking about the people who had thrown eggs at Tsukasa. She had tracked them down using her sense of smell. While it had been rough going because of the rain, she discovered that multiple people had gone back and forth between the scene of the incident and the church headquarters over a span of days. Only problem was, there was no evidence.
“Let’s keep it to ourselves for now. First we have to get the high priest to let down his guard.”
“Understood.”
We had a plan for how we were going to reveal the truth.
But still, we didn’t know how things were going to unfold. We needed to watch the progression of the trial carefully.
“The court will provide some explanation as we conduct this criminal case. This is because while the accused has not committed the act of murder, she is still being indicted for the crime of murder. The crime in question in this case is murder by omission…”
Tsukasa’s voice echoed throughout the Grand Bench.
“Per the Penal Code, ‘a person who kills another person is punished by the death penalty or imprisonment for life or for a definite term of not less than five years’ for homicide. A literal interpretation establishes punishment for a person who proactively took some action that killed another person. This is called a crime of commission.”
The judge’s words were being broadcast to the entire kingdom over wired cable.
“However, does that mean that a person who does not proactively carry out a murderous action should not be punished? In that case, it could be contrary to the intent of the law that defines the crime of murder. Take for example the case that a doctor bears murderous intent toward a critically ill hospitalized patient, does nothing to help them, and the patient dies. In such a case, depending on the circumstances, the crime of murder may be established by the doctor’s failure to act. This is called a crime of omission.”
I felt the example she gave would be easily understood, even in another world.
But listening to this made me wonder. There was no way that the princess had murderous intent.
The logic of the indictment felt forced. Any sensible citizen of this kingdom must feel that way, too.
Did Ileana make her indictment based on a crime of omission intentionally?
Maybe she was trying to exonerate the princess by accusing her of an extreme crime only for it to fail.
“The accused may make her statement.”
In the courtroom, among the various conflicting motives…
“I’ll go ahead and plead guilty. I did create the building, after all.”
…the princess was still prepared to accept the crime in its entirety.
“Where is your counsel?”
“I don’t need any.”
Maybe it was because she felt responsible, but she had left herself almost tactlessly defenseless.
“…”
There was a momentary pause in the trial.
Tsukasa and I had discussed the princess’s attitude. We figured that she would probably come without a lawyer. Normally, criminal trials required the presence of legal counsel for the accused, so the state would appoint one for them. But we couldn’t do that this time.
A number of church members were sitting in the gallery.
Because of the nature of the case, we couldn’t have the judge act in any way that caused suspicion that she was looking out for the princess.
“Let us proceed. Prosecutor…”
Tsukasa decided to keep going with the trial. No one voiced any objections.
“Master, at this rate, Princess Ecstasia will be found guilty.”
Shiro was staring at me, obviously becoming nervous.
“Relax. She won’t make any ruling that goes against the truth.”
I tried to calm her down, then returned my attention to the proceedings.
“…That is to say, before copy-pasting a Japanese building in its entirety, we first check the ground used as foundation. Furthermore, after the land is prepared so that there is no slope, we copy-paste structures that are determined to be on the same topology. This is how it has been conducted since the reign of the previous king, and the evidence as such has already been submitted.”
Prosecutor Ileana was explaining the workings of the Copy-Paste Spell.
“A question from the court: Have you discovered any flaws in the objects that are created via the Copy-Paste Spell?”
“At the time of copy-pasting the Japanese objects, there are no changes to the objects caused by the spell itself. Unlike forbidden magic, the Copy-Paste Spell doesn’t afford such discretionary freedom. As one possibility…”
On the desk in front of the prosecutor stood a collection of figurines laid out on a cloth: Hatsu*e Miku, Pok*mon, One P*ece…
“They all have imprints in the shape of fingers in them,” observed the judge.
“Correct. If the object being created by the Copy-Paste Spell is touched before the luminescent phase is complete, it will become imprinted by whatever touches it. However!” Ileana went on with determination. “All floors of the building in question were thoroughly inspected after its completion and were confirmed to be safe!”
“Then were there any flaws in the building created by the princess?”
“The only possibility…is that there was already a flaw in the original Japanese building!”
Now I see where they’re going. So through her indictment, Ileana is trying to show that the princess’s crimes are actually the fault of the Japanese people.
If she could pin the incident on the Japanese architects, who aren’t even in this world, this would all be an unfortunate accident.
But still, the populace’s anxiety would remain. That wasn’t going to be enough.
“Miss Judge, I would like permission to speak.”
Gilvert Trinity had raised his hand.
“I’ll allow it,” the judge curtly replied.
“Think of the two souls that have been called up to Heaven. And the feelings of the other injured victims. They cannot be healed by placing the blame on some party not even present in this world. If there was a possibility of a defect in the building, and it was ignored, then doesn’t the responsibility lie with the kingdom after all?”
His voice was calm yet firm. I could tell he had the attention of the people in the gallery.
In response…
“Um. For these six days, this whole time I’ve been trying to meet with the victims.”
The princess spoke.
“I wanted to apologize and offer them monetary compensation. But there’s something strange going on.”
“What do you mean, strange?” asked the judge.
“They wouldn’t let me meet with the victims themselves. Apparently, they are all inside the church headquarters, which I visited, but I was always stopped at the gate and told I wasn’t allowed to meet with them. I wanted to apologize to Cumba’s body in person… And that’s why I then went searching for their families. But all of the victims’ family members outside of the church said that after they joined, they haven’t been able to contact them at all. Also, you said that Alba has died—I looked for him, but I hadn’t been able to find him at any of the kingdom’s hospitals.”
The princess’s thoughts were all over the place. She looked exhausted, like she must not have been able to relax for this whole week. She was only a fourteen-year-old girl, after all.
But still, she had been able to slow the high priest’s roll with this.
The judge raised some of her own doubts. “It is true that the only information we’ve heard about the victims has been through the high priest’s stories.”
“What can I say? These last few days have been busy, so we haven’t been able to speak with Princess Ecstasia. As for the Nols brothers, they are war orphans and have no surviving family. And the rest of the victims are ‘especially devout’ disciples. They all believe in me and have trusted me as their proxy for this case. As such, I ask that all apologies and compensation go through me.”
The white-haired man spoke with a gentle smile.
“I don’t want to do that. I want to apologize directly to the victims themselves.”
“Oh dear. Well, perhaps you can write them letters from your jail cell. I’ll make sure to deliver them personally.”
Each of them was refusing to meet the other halfway. I could sense the people in the gallery getting confused.
<<Akky, what should we do?>>
<<Start by praising the high priest. Treat him like a hero. Let’s follow our plan.>>
<<Understood.>>