The Trial Underway IV
Focalors drew a deep breath and turned to face the audience. "On this point, I owe my people an apology. As the Hydro Archon, failing to detect the abnormalities in Fontaine's waterways — in the Lake of Lucine above all — before they came to light was indeed my oversight. But that does not mean I am not a god."
"As the saying goes, the darkest place is beneath the lamp. People are always blind to the things that happen closest to them. I am a goddess, and yet I made the very same mistake. The fault is mine."
"So here, before the people of Fontaine — before all of you who have suffered because of my negligence — I offer you my most sincere apologies..."
With that, Focalors faced the crowd and bowed deeply in penitence.
"Well, for a goddess to go this far, that's already something."
"Yeah, even a god can't expect to never make mistakes, right...?"
"Lady Focalors, I believe in you..."
Watching Focalors turn the tide with just a few well-chosen words, the children's faces grew grim.
After her unconvincing performance earlier, they had assumed that when her secret was suddenly exposed she would be caught flat-footed, and that this trial would be comparatively easy to win. But of course — she had managed to keep up the masquerade of divinity for centuries. She wasn't going to crumble at a single blow. Fortunately, they hadn't pinned everything on those few pieces of evidence alone.
Observing the audience's reaction, Focalors allowed herself an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. She turned toward Xia Yu and the others and asked, "Now then — do you have any further evidence or questions? Speak them all... Or, if you wish, you may withdraw your accusations right now. Given your contributions to solving the earlier case of the missing girl, I would be merciful and pardon the crime of false accusation against me."
"There's no need for that," Xia Yu said. "We have no intention of dropping the charges. And speaking of the missing girl case — Lord of Waters, surely you understand what Primordial Seawater can do."
Xia Yu gestured for everyone to look at the pale blue liquid in the test tube Conan had just produced, then continued. "So — are you willing to use this Primordial Seawater to prove that you are no ordinary human? After all, as a goddess, it should have no effect on you whatsoever. Wouldn't you agree?"
Focalors stared at the Primordial Seawater placed before her, her breathing quickening with nervousness.
Seeing what they were about to do, Mouri Ran cried out, unable to bear it. "Wait — Lady Focalors, please, there's no need to risk your life like this! You only have to tell us about the prophecy... Touching Primordial Seawater carelessly is dangerous for you!"
At the concern in Ran's expression, Focalors turned her face away, a stiff smile tugging at her lips. "Heh, what are you talking about? What prophecy? I don't know anything about any prophecy. And you're quite wrong — how could Primordial Seawater ever pose a danger to me? I am Focalors, the Hydro Archon. Something like this could never harm me."
With that, amid the crowd's gasps of alarm, she lowered her hand into the pale blue water Conan had produced.
Focalors held her hand stiffly in the water, motionless for several seconds.
Then, the moment she realized nothing was happening, she cried out in triumph: "Everyone, look! I haven't dissolved! Now you can believe I'm the true Hydro Archon, can't you?"
But her stroke of luck was shattered when Neuvillette summoned to the stage a Melusine named Trista — one gifted with the ability to perceive things beyond ordinary human sight.
Trista stated plainly that Focalors's bodily reaction was exactly the same as that of any ordinary person coming into contact with the same low concentration of Primordial Seawater — proof that Focalors was, in truth, nothing more than a human!
At the same time, Conan and the others were thoroughly puzzled. Why would Focalors go to such lengths to conceal her identity? She was an ordinary person — touching Primordial Seawater could have cost her her life!
Why risk death itself to keep the truth hidden?
Watching Focalors desperately scrambling to explain herself, a bad premonition stirred in Conan's chest — a feeling that something he did not want to see was about to happen...
By now, Focalors had exhausted every excuse she could muster. But the evidence just presented was far too damning, and her hurried explanations failed to persuade the audience. They no longer believed she was the Hydro Archon of Fontaine.
Seeing her slumped in her chair, head bowed and spirit broken after her explanations came to nothing, the children exchanged uneasy, worried glances.
Ayumi's voice wavered. "I... I think I saw tears in Lady Focalors's eyes just now..."
"...I saw them too," Kikukawa murmured.
Even Genta, who had never much liked Focalors, looked stricken. "Did we... do something wrong? She looks really hurt..."
But there was no room left for regret. With the final piece of evidence submitted, Neuvillette rose and declared, "The trial has reached its conclusion. If neither side has objections, then I hereby announce that we proceed to the verdict —"
"Focalors, for impersonating a deity and deceiving the people: guilty!"
As Neuvillette's pronouncement fell, the children — who had been watching Focalors the entire time — were the first to see the tears streaming down her face, and regret gnawed at them for having forced the truth of the prophecy out of her this way.
They worried they might have truly hurt her — and yet, if they hadn't pressed her so hard, Focalors would simply have gone on running from the truth forever, and any hope of clearing the game would have grown dimmer still...
"Next," Neuvillette continued, "the final judgment shall be handed down by the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale."
All they could do now was pray that once the verdict was rendered, Focalors would finally reveal what she knew about the prophecy and the crisis facing Fontaine.
The familiar water-blue light flashed. Neuvillette took the delivered result, and his eyes widened in shock as he read it, his voice betraying disbelief as he proclaimed the Oratrice's final verdict: "The Hydro Archon — guilty. The sentence... is death!"
"D-d-death?!" Ayumi shrieked.
"Wait, how can it be death?!" Mitsuhiko cried.
"She only deceived the people — she didn't kill anyone, she didn't burn anything down. There's no way that deserves the death penalty!" Kikukawa protested.
"Yeah — is that Oratrice thing of theirs even accurate?!" Genta shouted.
The children burst into cries of alarm at the verdict. All they had wanted was for Focalors to tell them what she knew — never, not once, had they meant to push her to her death!