Chapter 193: But I'm a Good Person, I Tell You?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 193: But I'm a Good Person, I Tell You?
CRASH!
“Ugh.”
The soldier who’d dragged me all the way to the basement threw me roughly into an iron cell. My pathetic body was tossed aside like a common stone.
CLANG!
The iron bars slammed shut.
“You damn Slave Reaper. How dare you lay a hand on a nun of the Church. You’ve got some nerve. The Lord will punish you.”
“Goodness. If a virtuous man like me is punished, who will be left in this world?”
“Hmph! It won’t be long before that smart mouth of yours is shut for good!”
I clicked my tongue.
They say there’s no high or low station in life, but the clergy had already branded me a sinner. It seemed they had no intention of hearing my side of the story.
To prove my innocence, I’d probably need Elize’s or Lucas’s help…
‘Then again, I did technically traffic her.’
It was for the sake of liberating Elize, but that was just my perspective. Looking at the facts, I had indeed bought her with money. And while pretending to free her, I’d also placed the shackles of subjugation on her.
Even if Elize and Lucas testified for me, if our master-slave relationship was revealed, it would all be for nothing. In fact, the situation could get even worse.
‘Should I play the Pope card here?’
If I revealed that I was the guy who ate and even slept with their Pope, things would probably work out somehow. If that didn’t work, I’d just have to roll the dice.
“Hmm…”
But honestly, I wasn’t too worried.
I’d lived such a good life, after all.
God himself would prove it.
Confident I’d be acquitted, I lay down on the floor. I folded my coat into a square to use as a pillow. Just as I was leisurely passing the time, I heard the guards murmuring. Soon after, a priestess in a pure white robe approached the bars.
“Well, well. Of all the places to meet again, it had to be here? I always figured you’d face divine punishment someday, but I never thought you’d pay for your sins in Kassilon.”
“And you are?”
“Pretending to be righteous, pretending to care for the child… I guess a slave trader is a slave trader.”
The priestess sneered, looking down at me in my cell. I’d seen her before.
“Myra?”
“It’s Myra, actually.”
She was the priestess I’d met during Mirabelle’s liberation storyline. She had interfered with us, thrown me in jail for interrogation, and ended up getting a good scolding from our Mirabelle.
“Why are you here?”
“You think I spend my whole life wandering the continent? I have to come back home sometimes. And then I heard they’d captured the Slave Reaper. So I came running, all excited.”
We didn’t exactly have a deep connection, but to think she wanted to see me this badly. See, this is why you should live a good life. Then people come to visit you in jail.
Myra glanced around my cell.
“Where’s the little one?”
“Who?”
She pressed herself against the bars and whispered quietly.
“The little witch.”
“Ah, you mean Miss Mirabelle. As promised, I sent her to her mother’s side.”
“What?”
“She should be with her mother right now… but, haah, I don’t even know anymore.”
After I was done with Elize, I needed to find Mirabelle and liberate her again, but I had no idea how to do it.
I’d found out her father’s secret and reunited her with her mother. All the conditions for liberation had already been met. I didn’t know if a new condition had appeared, or if I could just liberate her as is.
“Still, she was smiling in the end, which was much better to see than her crying and trembling. It felt good. That’s the thrill of setting them free, you know?”
CLANG!
Suddenly, Myra’s face twisted into a scowl as she gripped the bars, looking like she was about to break them.
“You piece of trash…!”
“Why the sudden cursing?”
“I knew I shouldn’t have let her go back then. I should have brought the little one with me, no matter what it took…!”
Why was she trying to take someone else’s kid?
Was she the human trafficker?
I guess it’s a universal rule in fantasy worlds for the clergy to be completely unhinged.
Myra let go of the bars. She turned to leave, then looked down at me with an icy gaze.
“When you die, your slaves will appear and do to you exactly what you did to them.”
“Is that the story about how a slave comes to greet their master when they die? I love that story.”
*
The tribunal, where the major and minor affairs of the Holy Kingdom were handled.
Countless people were gathered in the great sanctuary, which played the most crucial role in maintaining the balance of the Holy Kingdom.
In a world severely lacking in entertainment, trials and executions were a decent spectacle to relieve boredom.
Because of this, the tribunal was always crowded, but today it was bustling with even more people.
“They’re holding the trial for that Slave Reaper fellow, right?”
“Habitual murder of slaves and even trafficking a nun. He acted like he had ten lives to spare. Did he think he’d never get caught? Serves him right.”
This wasn’t some common criminal, but the infamous Slave Reaper of the continent. To think they’d get to see him condemned with their own eyes.
They were born in a great era.
All of this was thanks to the grace of Ordo, the God of Order.
Clunk.
A door at the side of the tribunal opened. Flanked by Holy Knights, Karami was led out, his arms held firmly.
On his wrists were magic tool handcuffs that prevented the use of mystic power, much like mana. Guided by the knights, Karami stood on a stone platform in the center of the tribunal.
‘So many people.’
To think I was this popular.
I’d achieved in a game what I never could in real life.
I appreciated the support, but this much attention was… troublesome.
“Silence.”
The judge murmured quietly, and a ripple spread through the air.
The noisy hall fell silent in an instant.
Karami looked up at the owner of the voice.
A young girl seated in the center of the judge’s bench, dressed in a white robe.
It was Sigrid, the judge of Kassilon.
‘She’s even cuter in person.’
She was an NPC, but she’d always been a popular character thanks to her small, cute appearance.
Uohhhhh, so cute, so soft, so squishy, come here you little… and so on and so forth.
She’d look perfect holding a stuffed rabbit.
Sigrid stood up from her seat.
She placed a hand on her chest, and the spectators followed suit.
“Declaration. O great Ordo, Father of Order. I dedicate this trial to you. Please cast away evil and permit good to stand at the seat of judgment. I pray that the scales will tip according to your fairness.”
A declaration to the god before the start of the trial.
Karami flinched slightly.
Some might have thought he was nervous, but they would be wrong.
It was excitement, and a slight thrill.
‘So the day has come for me to see this.’
Though I never expected to see it as the defendant.
Judge Sigrid finished her declaration and sat down. She looked down at Karami with emotionless eyes.
“Question. Are you the defendant, the Slave Reaper, Karami?”
“Yes.”
“The defendant’s identity and charges have been officially recorded.”
Sigrid unrolled a scroll she held in her hand.
“Verification. You have committed the sin of trafficking a member of the Church, destroying the sanctity of life, and defiling a soul, thereby acting against order and balance. Is this correct?”
“No.”
“Re-questioning. Do you not admit to your crime? Failure to admit to the charges may result in a harsher sentence from this court.”
“How can I admit to a crime I did not commit?”
Sigrid nodded calmly.
“Confirmation. The defendant does not admit to the charges. Therefore, we will proceed to the next step.”
Sigrid extended her arm forward.
“Notification. I shall now pass judgment.”
Her thin, resolute voice rang out.
Judge Sigrid, who had condemned countless criminals. Fragments of light gathered, and a giant set of scales materialized in the center of the courtroom.
The trial method of the Order of Balance.
Using magic, the souls of Sigrid and the defendant are placed on the pans of the scale.
Contained within a soul are its good and evil deeds. The more good one does, the more condensed and heavy the soul becomes. With every evil act, the soul is chipped away, becoming lighter.
If the defendant’s soul is lighter than Sigrid’s, they are guilty. Conversely, if it is heavier or even just balances with hers, they are deemed innocent.
In other words, even if there was a misunderstanding in this specific case, if you’ve lived a life of sin, you’re guilty.
‘What a bullshit system.’
In a world where they could read memories with magic, they judged guilt based solely on your usual conduct.
Well, there were also trials by combat decided by who was better with a sword, so I guess this was an improvement.
A mass of white light flowed from Sigrid and settled onto one of the pans.
Creeak.
The scales tipped toward the side holding Sigrid’s soul. Ever since she was appointed judge, the scales had never once tipped the other way.
That was because Sigrid was a being specially groomed by the Holy Kingdom.
She never overslept, never had picky eating habits, and had never even littered on the street. A saint created by the Holy Kingdom for the sole purpose of this trial.
Sigrid the Flawless.
That was the girl’s epithet.
From the moment one is brought to this trial, they are destined to be found guilty. It is merely a formality to grant legitimacy to the punishment.
“Next.”
At Sigrid’s gesture, Karami’s soul was drawn out. It was a black soul, the complete opposite of Sigrid’s.
“He’s guilty, no doubt.”
“You said it. If they put my soul up there, the scales would probably tip my way.”
Hiding in the crowd, Antonius was watching. Elize, too, was observing the situation quietly from the second floor. Hundreds of people unanimously predicted the same outcome.
Karami’s soul floated up and settled on the opposite pan.
Thud.
The scales shuddered.
It was a minor movement, but for most, it was unexpected.
They had assumed his soul would be as light as a feather.
Looks like he managed to accumulate some good deeds, for what it’s worth.
It’ll probably just wobble a bit and stop.
They didn’t doubt for a second that the god would condemn the sinner.
Creeeak.
But, as if betraying the faith of the devout believers, the scales began to move.
The pan holding Sigrid’s soul began to rise, and the one with Karami’s soul began to descend.
Slowly.
Bit by bit.
As the position of the scales changed, the murmuring in the crowd grew louder.
“…Huh?”
“H-Hey. No way, right?”
“Nah, it can’t be.”
But the scales did not stop moving. The heights of the two souls, which had been at opposite ends, gradually evened out until they were finally level.
Innocent.
Ordo, the God of Order, had declared Karami innocent.
That alone was a shock.
Some even prayed for it to be enough, for it to stop there.
The scales continued to tip.
Breaking the balance, the two souls crossed paths.
Sigrid’s eyebrows, which had been as expressionless as a marble statue, twitched.
Clunk.
At last, the scales stopped, just as the people had wished.
But the outcome was not what they had hoped for.
The beam of the scale rested at a diagonal.
At the bottom was the black soul.
At the top, the white one.
The Slave Reaper’s soul was heavier than Judge Sigrid’s.
This meant that the good deeds he had accumulated were overwhelmingly greater than Sigrid’s.
“Puhuhu, didn’t I tell you time and time again? What am I saying, time and time again? I must have said it hundreds of times.”
Karami laughed flippantly, making sure everyone could hear.
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m a good slave trader.”