The King's Reverse Scale (3)
"...The, the defendant?"
The judge had finally come back to his senses.
"Do you... do you have anything further to say?"
His face plainly asked whether anything more could possibly change the outcome.
Everyone else in the courtroom wore the same expression as they stared at me.
The trial is already over.
The momentum had tipped entirely in our favor. The moment that golden shaft of light fell upon Erzena, everything had been decided. There was no longer any need for further evidence or testimony.
And yet, I spoke anyway.
"Yes. Would you kindly grant me permission?"
"G-granted."
The overawed judge nodded quickly, and I crossed the floor toward the center of the courtroom — stepping straight through the beam of light, through the divine power that had grown only denser since before, straight toward her.
Erzena, who had been glaring intently at the crystal orb with a resolute face, softened the moment she saw me.
"Chief Officer."
"Ho— Erzena."
Our eyes met. She was radiant now, far more than before — brighter than the day we first met, and at the same time carrying something almost noble about her.
Looking into those golden eyes, I felt a strange stirring in my chest.
Our first meeting was nothing but a bad one, though.
I still remembered it clearly.
"Paladin Order, hear me! Our enemies have already taken root across the entire world!"
A woman with THE GOD'S HEAVEN, THE HEATHENS' HELL scrawled bold across her forehead, shrieking herself hoarse at me.
That same woman now stood at my side — more beautiful, more self-assured than anyone.
"The innocent must not die."
Those words had made my heart pound. That, I suspected, had been the truest cry of Erzena's penitent heart — the very first person to brand me a heretic, raising her voice at the front of the crowd to shield me.
What a strange, twisted thread of fate it was.
With gratitude in my voice, I said, "I will take it from here."
"...Are you sure you can manage?"
"Can I manage? Please."
The corner of my mouth lifted before I could help it. You've already done so much for me today — far beyond saving me from a kidnapping. And yet here you are.
"If this were a private occasion, I'd be tempted to give you a hug."
"Y-yeeyeees??"
Divine power whipped around her like a typhoon.
"Wh-wh-wh-what on earth are you saying!"
Startled by her own fluster and some emotion she couldn't name, Erzena scrambled to collect herself — while the golden aura around her tried to push me away, then pulled me closer, then, achieving neither, simply spun in circles.
Only after taking a moment to steady her breath did she recover.
"...You are a shameless tease. We are still in the middle of a trial."
"I was about half serious."
"Which means you were half lying."
At that, she finally let the red drain from her cheeks, and what she sent me was no longer a look of worry or resolve, but one of simple trust.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Chief Officer."
She returned to the defendant's bench.
"We welcome one who shares our boat. But might you... do something about that light? I'm half-blind over here."
"Our deepest thanks, Holy Maiden. No — Lady Erzena."
Director Hailin and the Minister offered their greetings, and I turned my back on the exchange to address the court.
"As you have just witnessed, any claim that the witness's testimony lacked credibility has been refuted."
No explanation of how was necessary. The shaft of light was still shining down on her.
"Therefore, allow me to remind the court once more: the true purpose of the pilgrimage delegation — no, of this crusade — is war."
I called their attention back. Now was the time to refocus on the trial itself.
The crowd's attention has drifted far too far toward religion.
Granted, the situation was unmistakably in our favor. And it could be no mere coincidence — for divine power to return the very instant Erzena declared her schism could only be explained by the intervention of some higher existence.
We had gained a backer more formidable than ten thousand troops. No — in the most literal sense, we had gained the cause itself.
But at the same time, the situation was dangerously precarious.
If God truly has endorsed her and put pressure on the Pope...
That would not be an unalloyed good for us.
The Pope who rose crying God's name, and the people who will rally in reverence of Erzena, blessed by God Himself.
In the end, there remained the possibility of being swept along by the Church once more. Whatever Erzena's own intentions, there was no telling how all these witnesses to the phenomenon would interpret it.
The fanatics would be unmoved. No — they'd rave even harder, declaring that God had finally stepped in. I didn't even want to imagine how far astray people could go, believing their faith had finally been answered.
That had to be cut off in advance.
Erzena has done her part.
As a witness, she had laid every lie bare and engraved the truth upon everyone present. That alone was extraordinary — and on top of it, she'd thrown the Pope into disarray with an inexplicable miracle.
But this is where it must stop.
This was a matter for human hands. The trial could not end like this. If it ended through divine intervention, it would go down as God's achievement, not ours.
No matter what force had intervened, it had to be people who delivered the verdict. Only then would the Crossline Kingdom never again be swayed by the Church or any faith.
I turned my head toward Mohaim and said, "Your Holiness the Pope — do you have anything to offer in rebuttal?"
No answer came. The crystal orb cast its merciless light over nothing but a drab, colorless room.
The Pope had gone into hiding. Everyone had watched his divine power gutter out the instant the holy relic shattered. That alone had surely cracked his authority wide open.
And cracked authority does not last long.
Mohaim's stricken face proved it plainly — proof that his bedrock faith, his loyalty to the Church's ruler, was crumbling. He would take no further part.
"We have mountains of physical evidence and witnesses assembled here."
I raised my voice.
"Every one of these documents, witnesses, and testimonies demonstrates that the crusade violated its treaty with the Crossline Kingdom."
"And the diplomatic discourtesy I am charged with — the witness has established it as a conflict arising from legitimate cause."
But I could not yet breathe easy. The trial was not over. However great our advantage, one mountain still remained to cross — the one man who had not opened his mouth this entire time.
I turned my gaze toward a man seated beside the Queen Consort.
His Majesty the King.
The only person present with the power to overturn everything.
Leo Castor had witnessed all of it with his own two eyes, yet showed not a flicker of agitation. He simply looked down at me with an empty, unreadable gaze — as if he had no interest in the matter, or as if he only wished it would be over quickly.
That was what unsettled me.
I have to give His Majesty a reason to rise.
The Queen Consort would not sit still for this. Driven from the field of justification, beaten down in testimony — all she had left was the King's power. Desperate, cornered, she would inevitably invoke a royal command to force her will through. And the King, with his broken heart, had always done exactly as the Queen Consort asked.
"Your Majesty — will you simply sit and watch this? Hurry, quickly..."
She was already whispering into the King's ear. Driven to desperation, they would soon stop at nothing.
Worse, the judge was watching the pair with anxious eyes — like a man waiting for the royal command to fall.
In that case...
There was no room for tricks. From the start I had staked everything on principle and just argument, so it had to end that way. I could not invoke divine intervention either — that would be selling the kingdom's future. To keep our standing as a neutral state, we had to keep religion at arm's length.
Which left me exactly one option.
I have to provoke His Majesty.
I would act first. I had to deliver my will to the King faster than the Queen Consort could whisper hers into his ear — fiercely, so fiercely that it would blot out her temptation and murmuring entirely.
I drew a deep breath.
Will it reach him?
I couldn't be certain. But there was nothing else to do but try.
"I speak now to all believers of the Holy Church present in this room — and to every soul here besides."
I raised my voice and looked the King dead in his lifeless eyes.
"The Crossline Kingdom welcomes all people and all goods that enter with peaceful purpose. But—"
Those famous words once spoken by King Leo Castor. I would bend them to my own stand.
The moment he realized what I was about to say, the Minister flinched.
"Ch-Chief Officer. You don't mean—"
"If that purpose is the exercise of force and the waging of war — if you intend to trample the treaty that has stood since this kingdom's founding —"
The Little Beast of the glory days. The cry he had let out when he stood against the Church. I hurled it so the entire courtroom could hear.
"Not one person, not one object, not one meter shall pass!"
I thrust a hand at the King's reverse scale — dug straight into the memory of his greatest era.
"There are no exceptions at the border. Honor your treaty. Remember your duty as a neutral kingdom."
I cast my final gamble onto the table.
"This concludes the closing statement for the defense."
*****
A shiver ran through every inch of Katon's body.
"Good heavens..."
The Director of Administration was grinning so hard it nearly split his face.
"Ha! I never dreamed he'd take it one step further — and aimed straight at His Majesty, no less."
What the Chief Officer had just said was, unmistakably, a near echo of the words King Leo himself had spoken fifteen years ago when he barred the Church. No — it was virtually identical. Cleverly reworked, as if that old speech had been delivered from his own position all along.
The Minister understood why the man had chosen these words, here and now.
He touches the King's reverse scale to wake him.
It was a gamble of breathtaking audacity.
He whipped his eyes toward the throne.
"Your Majesty."
The King's expression had not changed. He simply gazed down, impassive, at the young man who had delivered that blazing oration. The flustered Queen Consort redoubled her whispering into his ear with growing urgency, but even that drew no reaction from him.
Please. Wake up. Wake up, I beg you...
Katon murmured it like a prayer.
I still remember your brilliance, Your Majesty. I remember the wise king who led our golden age. O King sunk in sorrow — rise. For your people's sake, please, rise.
But the King did not answer. He kept silent amid his extinguished passion and his buried will, and nothing fell upon the courtroom but a suffocating, endless stillness, pressing down on everyone within.
At last, the judge turned his head to the assembled crowd and said, "Th-then... having heard the arguments of both sides in full, we will now proceed to the verdict."
He swallowed hard and opened his mouth.
"The defendant, Chief Officer Nathan Kell, is—"
And in that instant—
"I shall render the verdict."
The King's voice rolled through the courtroom.