“Th-that’s terrible!”
“It’s inhumane.”
“That’s rrright, meow! That sound just now when Miss Judge grabbed it and it started breaking was the same crrracking noise I heard right before the building collapsed, meow!”
The barmaid who had acted as the first witness was among the crowd and backed up my statement.
“I bet the sound was louder than you were expecting. You deliberately failed to mention it in your testimony. But you really let your guard down coming here. It all became clear by the judge’s own hands.”
We had been able to come this far all thanks to Tsukasa’s guidance of the trial and inspection of the evidence.
“It’s possible that Cumba was unconscious at the time you used him. As for Alba, maybe you tricked him, or maybe you overwrote his thoughts with your Power of Words. It’s also possible you made him drink a large amount of holy water. Which was it?”
The high priest was silent. His eyes darted back and forth like he was trying to think of a good rebuttal, but his mouth stayed closed.
“Using your right to silence, I see. In that case, I’ll finish my explanation and you can just stay quiet and listen.”
I went on.
“At the time of the collapse, you were in the bathroom, as you had planned. There, you used the second Scourge you had been hiding to protect yourself while recalling the first. You used the sacred artifact’s power to return to its owner and took back the first Holy Scourge and Cumba and Alba’s bodies along with it. Of course, the two of them were wounded and lost a large amount of blood while being dragged back to you. The evidence of that lies in the trail of mud leading to where you stand, and the luminol reaction. If we investigate further, I’m sure we’d find some traces of their skin here, too.”
The people gathered now understood the significance of the trail of mud leading from the collapsed building up to the high priest and the bluish-white light.
“After dragging them out of the mud, you made it look like you saved the two of them. That way, you could look like a hero. And you wouldn’t get found out because only your brainwashed and ‘especially devout disciples’ were with you that day. After that, you destroyed the evidence by making Cumba and Alba into compost. Really, quite the elaborate scheme.”
“This is nonsense. The bitches must have planted the blue light in the rubble as they were digging through it.”
“You looked like you were thinking up that one for a while. Is that really the best explanation you could come up with?”
I faced off against the high priest. Then I pointed to the two Holy Scourges in his hands.
“Shiro. Spray it on him.”
“Yes, Master,” she replied, and pointed the spraying device at his body. But suddenly—
“Stop!” The high priest brandished his whips. “How dare you suspect me! What is this? Isn’t this supposed to be Princess Ecstasia’s trial?!”
“Verdict: The accused, Ecstasia Itou, is not guilty.”
I heard a solemn voice. Tsukasa had declared her verdict, and the Scales of Judgment responded with the following:
Building Collapse Homicide Case
Not Guilty
The princess started to speak. “Miss Judge, I—”
“Before us right now we have a criminal who used human bodies as timers and then destroyed them. Naturally, this isn’t the place to be bickering over the princess’s guilt.”
“I object!”
The high priest, alone, turned toward the sky and shouted.
“Gilvert Trinity’s objection is overruled,” Tsukasa replied coldly. “Let us immediately begin the trial regarding the new facts that have come to light during today’s hearing.”
“New facts? You mean lies and falsehoods!” the high priest protested. “Who exactly were these eyewitnesses in the first place? It could be a hoax!”
As he continued piling on his excuses…
“It was me.”
…a small silhouette standing in the crowd of the gallery spectators spoke up.
“Gobta,” I said. “I didn’t know you were watching.”
“Hey, Window Mage. Thanks for finding my mom, bro.”
“I promised, didn’t I? Lyra is doing okay, and I reversed her brainwashing. You’ll be able to see her later.”
“Thanks. If we waited any longer, she might have been killed by this dude, huh?”
There was anger behind young Gobta’s gaze.
“High priest Gilvert. That day, I saw a person use forbidden magic with the Black Scales. For all the pain and suffering you caused my mom and all the others—”
“Silence!!”
In that instant, the wind violently shifted. No—it was the whip. It had swept across our surroundings at lightning speed.
There was a crack. And a sound like a machine breaking. When I opened my eyes, all the recording equipment the maids had been carrying were broken and scattered on the ground.
“I…couldn’t help but lose my temper.” The air around the high priest was trembling with anger. “I simply cannot allow any record of me being insulted by a lower race to be preserved.”
Gilvert attacked again, and the spectators began to scream and back away amid the resulting cloud of dust.
Among them, I heard Goburo Boucher: “You idiot! Gobta, keep your nose out of it!”
“Dad, aren’t you angry? He hurt Mom…,” Gobta replied, but Goburo was already dragging him away.
The high priest had gotten some distance from everyone else. In his hand, the long, writhing body of the Holy Scourge looked like it had been sprayed with Shiro’s chemicals. It was glowing bluish-white. A sacred artifact bathed in blood.
I never expected him to turn violent with so many people watching.
Anger was welling up inside me.
I wanted to stop the trial, catch this guy, and burn him at the stake.
“Assistant, get the prosecutor on her feet.”
Just as I was being overcome by these reprehensible thoughts, my sister’s dignified voice brought me back to myself.
“…Right,” I replied, and ran over to Ileana. “Are you hurt?”
The half-elf prosecutor had collapsed. I lent her my shoulder.
“My apologies, Mr. Akuto. My glasses were blown off…”
I picked her delicate body off the ground and supported her. Then I returned her glasses and her copy of the Six Codes that she had dropped.
“Regarding these new truths that have come to light…,” came Tsukasa’s voice. “I would now like to list all criminal charges against Gilvert Trinity!”
Yes. This is the right way to go about it.
Hearing the judge’s words made me regain my composure.
I almost lost my head. But Tsukasa’s calm decision-making saved me.
If I got angry and acted outside my role as the court assistant, that might turn into a violation of the oath I made at our first trial.
That would be just the kind of thing those against Japanese culture and the Japanese court would be hoping for: our own self-destruction.
“Then please allow me to list all the charges that come to mind…”
In the ruins of the building, swirling with dust, the prosecutor began to list the charges.
The judge nodded and announced the next step:
“We will commence a new trial.”
Above our heads, the Scales of Judgment wavered in response.
Church Member Brainwashing and Homicide Case
Accused: Gilvert Trinity
The new court case’s title was displayed, and under that…
…the scales began generating further lines of text.