Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Bennetsa Merchant 9
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Humans are complex yet simple creatures.
Each one acts based on their own sense of what is right, convinced that it embodies 'goodness' and 'justice'.
According to this standard, they can easily raise their voices, condemn others, or even cheer at someone's unjust treatment.
However...
Most people are unaware.
Of the fact that this standard they believe to be the absolute truth and justice...
Can change far more easily than they think.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "...Understood. In that case... there's no helping it."
Kazeros spoke in a subdued voice.
Hearing this, Anton and Potion were convinced that victory was within their grasp.
'It felt a bit dicey midway, but it all worked out in the end.'
'Of course... no matter how much they struggle, they can't overturn this situation. Public sentiment against heretics isn't something that flips so easily...'
The balance had tipped slightly from the initial one-sided atmosphere.
But the fundamental gap in perception between heretics and church followers was too vast, so the mood still favored their side.
Moreover, with the defense essentially conceding, they believed it was just a matter of pronouncing Shylock's guilt and wrapping things up.
At that moment...
"I truly have no choice now. In this courtroom. Since you've made it so clear."
"!"
A sudden chill pierced the air.
Something ominous laced within it, leaving Anton and Potion with an inexplicable unease creeping over their faces.
An ill omen they couldn't quite articulate.
They had been certain everything was over, that no reversal was possible.
Yet, in this instant, their instincts began to slowly but surely shake that certainty.
Turning her gaze from the two, Kazeros looked straight at the judge.
She spoke in a cold voice.
"Your Honor, allow me to ask you one thing."
"Wh-what... is it?"
The judge's voice trembled slightly amid the strangely shifting atmosphere. Kazeros replied in a calm, precise tone.
"At this moment, who handed you the torn paper before you?"
"What?.. What kind of question is that? Obviously, it was you."
"Yes, exactly. So, the situation just now can be put in writing like this: 'Kazeros tore the paper and presented it to Your Honor.' Is that correct?"
"Well... yes, that's true."
Kazeros stated the obvious with grave seriousness.
Her inexplicable behavior.
Yet the unsettling aura she exuded filled the courtroom with a strange tension.
And then... Kazeros continued.
She fixed the judge with a voice firm as a sword strike.
"Thank you, Your Honor. With that, I hereby request that, from this moment, the victim Anton be treated not as a victim, but as the perpetrator."
"?"
"Wh-what..."
Kazeros's incomprehensible declaration.
Confusion spread across the faces in the courtroom, while the one person watching it all...
Santana alone smiled quietly to himself.
"Wh-what nonsense is this? Suddenly calling the victim a perpetrator? Are you mocking this sacred court?"
The judge spoke, his voice laced with bewilderment and irritation.
Kazeros met his gaze squarely.
"This is no jest or mockery. Didn't Your Honor just acknowledge it? That the one who tore the paper and presented it to you was none other than myself."
"Th-that means...!"
In that instant, the judge's expression hardened as realization dawned reflexively.
Not just him—several quick-witted onlookers wore similar looks of shock. And then Kazeros clearly summed it up.
"The clause in the contract submitted as evidence in this case... 'Anton shall offer his heart to Shylock.' The one extracting and offering the heart is not Shylock, but Anton himself. Surely Your Honor understands what this means?"
"Suicide...?"
"...Yes. Precisely."
The judge's trembling voice, met by Kazeros's quiet affirmation.
Hearing this, Anton and Potion—the parties involved—as well as everyone else in the courtroom began to show stunned expressions.
Suicide.
The gravest crime the church deemed unforgivable under any circumstances.
Even murder, robbery, or heresy were handled 'officially' through reformation of the sinner, or excommunication if impossible. But suicide was the one sin the church could openly sentence to death.
A heinous offense worse than murder—severing the precious life granted by God, leaving no room for salvation.
Thus, anyone attempting suicide was kept alive by any means, then boiled alive in a cauldron symbolizing hellfire.
Even if already dead, no funeral rites; instead, their neck was severed as an insult to God and their soul, and they were buried beneath the gallows.
And in the contract... the one extracting the heart was unmistakably Anton himself.
In other words, this clause could be interpreted as Anton declaring he would carve out his own heart—committing suicide—and give it to Shylock.
"Suicide is the ultimate crime, never permitted to any faithful church member, no matter the circumstances. Even under threat to one's life, it is unforgivable—the final great sin committed by that wicked betrayer Judas. And Anton signed this contract with his own hand, pledging to commit this horrific act. All for a handful of coins."
Kazeros presented this new interpretation of the contract.
With the author of the contract's format undetermined, what mattered now was its content—and regardless of context, Anton was the one executing it, as she pointed out.
Of course, in normal circumstances, this would be as petty a nitpick as Anton's original accusation against Shylock.
But the trial itself had begun over such a petty nitpick, and moments ago, Anton and Potion had turned it into something 'real' by shedding genuine tears in court.
Suicide carried such harsh penalties that it wasn't pronounced without ironclad proof.
Yet now, Anton had boldly declared it before countless witnesses—in a courtroom where every word held legal weight.
As Kazeros put it.
He had declared himself a sinner guilty of 'attempted suicide' for a pittance.
"N-no! I... I never intended to commit suicide!"
"Th-the victim's right! Suicide? A good, devout believer like the plaintiff would never commit such a horror! This... this must be a trap laid by Shylock..."
Anton and Potion spoke in frantic voices.
Kazeros regarded them steadily.
"An attempt at suicide is unforgivable, no matter the reason. Even if Shylock induced it, a true believer should have refused. Moreover, right now, the tear stains still linger around your eyes. Those tears shed in terror at the prospect of ripping out your own heart—undeniable evidence of your grave sin."
Thus, Kazeros repaid nonsense with nonsense.
The courtroom's atmosphere flipped in an instant, and a slow smile spread across Santana's lips as he watched.