The Public Trial

The trial was thrown together in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a single day. Whether Beatrice had arranged everything in advance or simply meant to leave him no time to prepare, X was hauled onto the defendant's stand before he could even catch his breath.

It was a public trial. High nobles and imperial officials filled the chamber, as did Darius and Beatrice themselves—and a great crowd of ordinary citizens had been admitted to watch.

The looks on those citizens' faces were ugly. Why go to the trouble of putting a demon worshiper on trial at all? Everyone considered the whole affair a waste of time. They wanted to see the hated heretic executed, and they wanted it done today. As their hatred and fury toward Darius—the one who had convened this trial—swelled, so too did the praise heaped upon Beatrice, who had captured the criminal.

The imperial magistrate announced the opening of the trial and began reading, one by one, through the documents spread before him.

"X, the accused. Circumstantial evidence and proof have been found that you committed the heinous crime of demon worship and prepared a conspiracy of rebellion to overthrow the Empire. Do you confess?"

Someone cut in before the magistrate, who had been pressing X for an answer with nothing but bureaucratic indifference, could continue.

"Hold, Magistrate. Establishing what this evidence and these circumstances actually are should come first, should it not?"

Darius rose to his feet and challenged the man. The magistrate shrank back slightly at the Crown Prince's words.

"Then, by Your Highness's command, the evidence and witnesses proving the accused's charges…"

"Forget this farce of a trial and hold the execution now!"

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shout erupted from the crowd.

"He's a demon! A traitor! Kill him now!!"

"A trial like this is a luxury! Start the execution already!"

"Purify the demon!! Hang the traitor!!"

They were blasphemous cries for ordinary citizens to hurl in a solemn hall that held a prince, a princess, nobles, and officials. But heresy and treason were charges sensitive enough to drag the crowd into agreement with insulting ease. Of course, only a vanishing few realized that the first person to shout had been a shill Beatrice had planted among them.

"How dare these people forget their station…!"

Darius ground his teeth, on the verge of exploding—and Beatrice struck first.

"Everyone, this is a courtroom where justice is decided. I ask that you all watch these proceedings in solemn silence."

She turned to the furious crowd and continued in a calm voice, as though making a heartfelt appeal.

"Please, set aside your anger. We have not yet uncovered the truth. The law exists so that the innocent are never sacrificed. That is why this trial has been convened."

The citizens were instantly moved by Beatrice's upright character. They forgot entirely that it was Darius who had opened the court. Unable to see the tangled machinery behind the trial, they believed only what sat before their eyes. Beatrice, who understood this perfectly, seized the atmosphere of the room and the initiative in a single stroke, and began to steer both as she pleased.

"I am the one who put X on that stand as a criminal. I have no intention of treating this trial as a formality. First, I will present evidence that the accused plotted a rebellion against the Empire."

At Beatrice's gesture, papers prepared in advance were passed among the nobles and officials. The contents written on those pages were staggering. While everyone stared at them in shock, Beatrice summarized what they were reading.

"One month ago, the accused was present at the scene of an incident that has since been suppressed for unknown reasons—the Demon Mansion incident. Astonishingly, the mastermind behind that demonic outbreak was none other than the accused. X."

X had just been recast as the ringleader of the Demon Mansion incident. It was a fabrication beyond all reason—and yet the person who had shown his face and hosted the gathering that night had, in fact, been X. Not a soul knew he had done it under Beatrice's threats, and so there was no room to explain.

"At the time, the accused gathered high-ranking nobles and key figures of the imperial capital in one place and attempted to kill them all. Fortunately, a student of Elion Academy who had been present used her wits, and the guests escaped the danger."

That student had been Lola. X himself had never imagined that asking for his name to be left off the record would come back to haunt him like this.

So that's why Lola couldn't come.

Beatrice had applied pressure to keep Lola—the actual party involved—from attending the trial, all to tilt the proceedings in her favor.

"It's all circumstantial. Where is the evidence? The witnesses?"

Darius, who had been listening, narrowed his eyes.

"Watch your words, Princess. The reason a banquet was held at that mansion was so that someone could distribute a so-called Mana Awakening Agent to the nobility. Meaning most of the people present were criminals."

Darius had no choice but to reveal a secret of the case that had never been made public. The citizens drew a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sharp breath. They knew at least this much: that the ingredients of a Mana Awakening Agent were a grotesque slurry of countless demons and human beings. They had thought the nobility corrupt—but the revelation that those same nobles had been prepared to drink an evil potion brewed by cultists and demon worshipers sent a ripple of unrest through the crowd. It was not what Darius had wanted. Being led around by Beatrice, however, would have been more fatal still.

"That the massacre of the nobility would throw the Empire's political situation into chaos is a fact I will not deny. But to leap from that to a conspiracy of rebellion is a stretch too far."

The crowd reeled at the exposure, and yet they conceded the point. That the nobles had committed something monstrous and that someone had plotted a rebellion were, without question, two entirely different things. Even as the mood among the citizens began to shift, Beatrice merely smiled and answered.

"That changes nothing. X was still the one who hosted that banquet. I will call a witness to that fact now."

"A witness…?"

Every person connected to the incident at the time had been hunted down and punished without exception. Darius could not help but be suspicious. And yet the courtroom doors did, in fact, open, and someone stepped inside.

It was a young man clutching a body that had gone aspen-pale, his terror-stricken eyes sweeping in every direction. Beatrice regarded the gaunt figure who had just entered with something like pity.

"Runist of Baron Crenon's house, who attended that banquet. He barely survived the catastrophe that unfolded there, and to this day he has not escaped the shock."

"You've been hiding a criminal, Princess…!"

"A criminal? I have merely been caring for a pitiful soul all this time."

It was an absurd excuse, but the people looking at Runist—who was nothing but skin and bones—saw only someone to be pitied.

"Witness. Look at the accused before you and testify."

At Beatrice's command, Runist trembled violently and stared at X, who stood upon the stand.

"Ah—aah…!"

The moment his eyes found X, he screamed.

"A demon—!! Th-that demon tried to kill me!! That demon started the banquet and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tried to kill us all—!!"

X's appearance now was considerably different from what it had been then. But enough of his original face remained that it was more than sufficient for Runist to look at him and scream—and more than sufficient for the citizens, hearing that wretched shriek, to decide X's guilt for themselves. Watching the crowd begin to stir, Beatrice smiled in satisfaction.

"I believe that constitutes sufficient testimony. Whether what he just said was a lie or not—I believe Your Highness knows that better than anyone."

"…"

The truth-discerning artifact brought for the trial likewise judged Runist's words to be true. It was an instrument reliable enough to weigh the truth even if the speaker was a madman. That much was certain.

The atmosphere of the court tilted toward Beatrice. From Runist's testimony alone, the citizens could not know exactly what had happened at the mansion. But at the very least, the fact that X had some connection to a "demon" had been branded into their minds.

So that was her game.

Darius understood it at last. Beatrice had never intended to hold a proper trial. Her purpose was to stitch together whatever "truth" suited her palate until the citizens themselves were screaming for X to die. The truth did not matter much to a crowd. They only wanted a show in which the evil before their eyes was struck down. She had drawn the citizens in and made all these preparations for that, and no other reason.

But it will not go as she wishes.

Darius glanced once at X, who still had not said a word. He was simply standing there—but those deeply sunken eyes were watching the princess with a calm that was anything but broken. He certainly did not look like a man who had given up.

I can only hope he's prepared something.

Darius pressed on with his rebuttal.

"Do not distort the full picture of this case. There is someone who personally witnessed what X did in that place. I will call that witness now."

At Darius's word, the courtroom doors opened once more, and another figure entered. Beatrice laughed inwardly at his struggling. The student who could have served as a key witness—Lola—was confined to the academy and could not appear. Even if she did, she was only a student; her testimony could be made not to matter.

The fact that she is the young lady of House Lemercier is a little inconvenient—but I can stir the crowd around that much.

Then she saw who had come through the door, and Beatrice's easy smile froze.

"I have come at the command of His Highness Prince Darius."

The person who entered was someone she had not anticipated at all.

"Marlene of the Imperial Guard. Present as summoned."

It was Marlene—the Imperial Guard officer who had resolved the mansion incident alongside Lola and X.

Who is she?

Beatrice did not know Marlene in any detail. She had heard that the aftermath of the mansion incident had been settled thanks to some guard's investigation, but she did not know the inner story. At the time she had been summoned by Baal and subjected to merciless pressure, making it difficult to learn the particulars. All she knew, at best, was that Marlene was the guard who had resolved the incident.

"Marlene Amer. State what you saw and confirmed with your own eyes while investigating the mansion incident."

Darius, who had reviewed every detail of the major affairs that had shaken the Empire, had not overlooked her. Marlene answered as instructed.

"I was carrying out my assigned duty to investigate the distribution of Mana Awakening Agent. Having obtained information that the vile potion would be delivered at a banquet in the mansion, I went there to investigate in person."

"What did you see there?"

"Masked nobles. A host who meant them harm. And…"

Marlene looked at X, standing before her, and spoke without a trace of hesitation.

"And, with no small amount of audacity, two Elion Academy students whose help proved so vital it was central to resolving the entire affair. Their names are Lola and X."

At the mention of X's name, the chamber began to murmur.

"Lola and X had already sensed that something was about to happen. They cooperated with me in the midst of my investigation, and we were able to evacuate the nobles immediately before a great disaster could occur. They were brave and remarkable students."

"For that service, the young lady of House Lemercier was awarded the third-class imperial decoration, the Royal Knights Honor Medal. X declined the credit, and so he did not receive the medal in a public ceremony—but he was given a reward befitting his contribution. This I guarantee as Crown Prince."

At Marlene's and Darius's statements, the spectators erupted. If what they said was true, the charge of imperial rebellion hanging over X was entirely wrong. Suspicion even began to sprout that Runist, whom Beatrice had called, had simply been mistaken. Anyone looking at Runist could see that something was wrong with his mind; it was only natural to conclude he had been raving. Even the magistrate overseeing the trial found his gaze beginning to lean, little by little, in that direction.

Perhaps that was overreaching after all.

Beatrice's eyes narrowed as the situation turned. Of the two charges she had used to pin X to the stand, the accusation of imperial rebellion had been emptied of meaning by Marlene's appearance. She could seize on the two of them and drag the point out—but that was a poor way to provoke the citizens. When the board has been set in the opponent's favor, it is better to step aside.

The rebellion charge was only a fallback anyway.

Having decided to decline the exchange, Beatrice let out a faint breath.

"It may indeed be difficult to claim he took part in a rebellion."

The princess's concession set the citizens murmuring. Of course, she was not finished.

"However, I have definitive proof that X is connected to demon worship. Bring it in."

The moment the words left her mouth, a guardsman entered the courtroom carrying something in his hands. What he brought was a spell-scroll made of parchment—but it was no ordinary parchment scroll. The guardsman handed it to Beatrice, and she revealed its true nature.

"This scroll was discovered in the academy dormitory room where X had been staying. It was found beneath the bed, and there were clear signs that someone had tried to conceal it. Upon examination…"

Beatrice smiled, the look of a woman who had just laid down her trump.

"The scroll recovered from X's room is a Demonic Contract—created by a demon worshiper to bargain with a demon."

That scroll was the very Demonic Contract Beatrice had once handed to X. At her revelation, every gaze in the room changed. Ordinary citizens, nobles and officials—even those who had looked on X with favor, Darius among them—their eyes all turned in a single instant. And those eyes held nothing even remotely like goodwill.

Hostility, loathing, terror, and distrust stabbed at X with a vengeance.

X's eyes still did not waver.