Chapter 48 - Trial

4 hours later…

Marc was brought into the middle of the Royal Court with many important figures sitting at high platforms around him. Marc was standing in the middle like a criminal with his hands and feet cuffed.

Most were all talking amongst themselves and looked at Marc like he was an animal in a zoo.

That was until a scrawny old man walked into the court with a thick green book under his arm that had the title "Myriad of Laws". He's the oldest member of the court and has volunteered to be the judge of this case.

The Alden family wanted to push another member they had paid off to be the judge, but this old man's voice isn't simply one people can disregard, so in the end, he was chosen as the judge by the queen herself.

The queen was sitting at the highest, biggest, most decorated platform, like a doll. She showed no expressions on her face. Normally she should be the last person to arrive and had every right to punish whoever arrived late, but the old judge is not someone she wants to be enemies with as she has seen how her deceased husband, got mountains of problems after trying to change a verdict in his favor with unconventional methods. The Mei family almost managed to take over the rule of the country at that time.

The old man proceeded to walk until he stood behind a podium and looked down at Marc. "Let's begin this trail. We are here because Marc Doyer is being accused of trying to kill Carlos Alden, a royal. Laying a hand on a royal is a capital offense, and whoever does it will be executed. Her majesty though believes there is more to it than meets the eye, so we are here today to make sure a wrongful conviction won't take place and execute an innocent man."

Hearing the old judge, a lot of people scoffed in their minds, because they all know it's just flowery words. So what if an innocent peasant dies?

The old man proceeded with his speech and started the trial "So what do you have to say in your defense, Marc Doyer?"

Marc looked around, not minding how people looked at him before he looked at the old judge and shrugged "I'm innocent. In fact, he would be dead if I didn't save his life. He didn't even pay what he promised for the quest."

The head of the Alden family, Carlos' cousin wanted to protest, but he knew that he couldn't say anything yet without getting permission from the judge.

"You say you are innocent and Carlos Alden says otherwise. What do you have to say about that?" Questioned the judge. A tactic he uses to ask easy and normal questions first before asking tongue-tied ones that are hard to reply to without showing holes in their claims, or so it was supposed to.

"Obviously he's lying. He once said when my party guarded him that he had slept with the queen. Do you believe that too?" If the other party was lying too, then Marc wouldn't hold back doing the same too.

Not a single person didn't hold their breath, even the old judge almost dropped his book. If anyone says Carlos is saying the truth about the murder attempt without any clear evidence, isn't that the same as adding credibility to his moral character and believe he slept with the queen?

The queen who tried to maintain her dull face, couldn't keep it up and gnashed her teeth in anger and looked at the head of the Alden family. The Fiore and Alden family might be working together right now, but smearing mud on her image isn't something she can let go of.

Carlos's cousin was caught off guard too by the accuse and on instinct stood up and exclaimed "Preposterous, how dare you accuse my cousin of saying such a thing-"

"Silence!" Yelled the judge making Alden's head shut up mid-sentence.

The score is now 1-1 to Marc and the Alden family. Carlos's cousin is the newly appointed head of the family. His father and Carlos' uncle were the previous head and would be still if he wasn't reaching the end of his life. That's the reason Carlos' uncle isn't here to spectate and guide his son.

Marc was being accused of murder, and Carlos is being accused of blaspheming the queen's image. Both cases lead to the same punishment, execution.

In the stands, Rofta, Gina, and Heartfilia trio, Naome, and Leonardo nearly comically fell off the chair and thought "Marc, you are going off script already!?" He was only supposed to say that he fancied her openly and said a few vulgar words about the queen. Not that they slept together.

The old judge looked intently at Marc after feeling the queen's raging eyes on his back. "Do you know what you just said is blaspheming the queen's reputation? I hope you have any evidence to back it up, or we will end the trial here and execute you for committing two crimes."

Marc swore with one hand on his chest and one in the air "I swear that I'm telling nothing else than the truth! And besides, I have witnesses. My two party members heard it two. Baron Carlos thought it was a good pickup line to woo my party member, Gina. Though I must say this little peasant have great admiration for Baron Carlos for getting in the queen's eyes."

When Marc said his bullshit, everybody felt the queen's Magic Power get chaotic out of anger. She wanted nothing more than forcefully shut Marc's mouth, but if she did that, she was afraid of people thinking that she was trying to hide something and use it against her in the future. Being a queen comes with many enemies, and ties her to a certain extent where she can't go get out of line if she doesn't have absolute power. Not to say that now that the king is dead, she has no man to tend her needs, making Marc's story more believable if somebody wanted to use it against her.

The queen's pressure was no less than Lisa's. Making her one of the top 10 strongest mages in the Kingdom of Fiore. Most people around had problems with breathing. Marc had too and would have kneeled if it wasn't for his previous life's experiences with high G-forces. He once raced in an F1 race and with bad luck crashed into a fence. The G-force reached a whopping 214 G and he miraculously survived.

The old judge wasn't affected at all by the pressure though, even when his body looked so frail. As the judge already has all the key details and more memorized, he turned and looked at where the Heartfilia family was sitting together with Rofta and Gina. "Can you confirm what he says? Did Carlos Alden say those words?"

Rofta and Gina stood up before talking. Rofta wasn't nervous but Gina was as she no longer had her veil on to hide her scar. She was afraid of people recognizing her as the person who used Devil Slayer Magic at Wonsu Village where she lived since it was attacked. Instead, she had tons of ugly makeup on, making her look hideous.

It made some people wonder "The Alden boy wanted to pick up such an ugly girl? And even bragged that he had bedded the queen? Does he even have eyes?"

It has to be said that the queen is a very beautiful woman that not many could compare with. So when the Alden family saw Gina, they felt like they were slapped in the face. The queen and her family were no better.

Carlos's cousin and the newly appointed head of the family couldn't help thinking as he knew the best about Carlos' evil deeds that he had cleared up. "That fucking lech should have just died like the lech he is. That way our family wouldn't lose so much face for a girl who looks uglier than the cheapest whore in the country. But the situation is still manageable as long as they don't have an outside witness. Good thing that I let that lech stay at home with the excuse that he's badly hurt and can't come in person, otherwise I'm sure things would have turned ugly."

While most eyes looked at Gina, Rofta confirmed to the judge "Marc is telling the truth. In fact, Baron Carlos even said more vulgar things about the queen." There's no way that Rofta would tell any details if he didn't have to. And it seems like the judge is trying to fix the queen's image, so didn't dare make the fire bigger.

But there was one person in the court who didn't have any reservations about telling lies "Oh yea, he told us that he did BDSM play with the queen. And she was like a dog under his feet when-"

*Pfft*

Those who were about to drink some of their expensive tea couldn't help spit it out and their eyes nearly popped out in shock when they heard Marc.

"ENOUGH!" Yelled the queen with an authoritative and furious voice.

"I'm sorry my queen. I knew he was lying! I just knew it. There's no way such a nice, benevolent and beautiful fairy goddess like you would even spare him a glance…" Realizing that the fire was about to get too big, Marc shamelessly complimented with an expression like he never believed it either to the angry queen.

"What a shameless person!" The spectating people thought.

The old judge then looked in the Alden family's direction and said "What does the Alden family have to say in their defense?"

The head of the Alden family stood up and said "They are speaking nonsense and can't be trusted. Their words aren't credible as they are from the same party. Who knows if this something they planned to say beforehand? I request to let the members of the court vote about these two's right's to be a witness."

"Accepted. We have all 11 members of the Royal Court here. Those who are against Marc Doyer's witnesses, raise your hands now." Said the old judge and only 5 people raised their hands to the Heartfilia and co's delight. The Alden family had ugly faces though.

"Then those who are for raise you hand now." Said the judge and much to the Heartfilia's bewilderment, only 5 others raised their hands, meaning that 1 person was neutral. Amongst the 5, were Leonardo.

"As both sides got even votes, I will make the decision. I hereby announce the witnesses' testimony to be non-credible as they are in the same party. If you don't have anything else to verify your claim, then I'm afraid you will be charged with blaspheming the queen's image, Marc Doyer." Decided the judge, making the less knowledgeable in the Alden family think they just won and Marc would be executed.

Marc shrugged and said "Who says I don't? Just before we met up with Baron Carlos, we saw him trying to force a girl to sleep with him. That just proves what scum he is. In fact it much better that you let the girl down here to tell the story because the things he said were marvelous.."

"Very well. The new witness may come down." Agreed and said the judge.

This was the plan that Aina came up with after hearing every single thing from Rofta. She found it useless talking with Marc as he had forgotten all the small details other than the fighting and destroying a brothel.

From the Heartfilia stand, came a good-looking girl if you take into consideration she a peasant unable to use magic. She had wavy light green hair that reaches down to the middle of her back. But what most realized is how similar it was to the queen's hair.

"State your name before giving your testimony." Ordered the judge.

"M-my name is Betty…W-when I was shopping near the eastern gate, B-Baron Carlos grabbed me and wanted to force me to-to sleep with him. He wanted me to follow his quest on killing bandits. The reason why was he wanted some entertainment while he was traveling and because my hair looked similar to the…queen's." explained the girl with all the courage she had.

Aina managed to track her down after hearing about her from Rofta. They made a deal with her to testify and add a few lies to it. In return, the girl would join the family as a servant and be well protected. Being a servant is a dream come true for most commoners, especially for people without any other qualities than good looks and nearly driven into prostitution. It helped a lot that Aina is from the Heartfilia family as they have the best reputation amongst commoners in the capital.

The people in court looked between the girl, Betty, and the queen before nodding and thinking similar things "No wonder he wanted the girl. As he can't get the real deal, at least he would be able to fantasize about it." As if a puzzle was finished, everybody now seemingly understood Carlos' reasoning with the infatuation with this girl.

And they fully believed in Marc after hearing his next words. "Baron Carlos is framing me because we saved that girl from his grasp. As he doesn't know the identities of the people that attacked us, by the way, one of them was his bodyguard. He wanted to release his wrath on me, his savior, making him ungrateful, not to mention he had delusional thoughts about the queen. Please relay a fair judgment."

The judge then asked the head of the Alden family who had a very dark face."Do you have something to say in Baron Carlos Alden's defense?"

No matter what he says, everybody knows that Carlos is a questionable skirt chaser with a bad reputation. Until now, no one has managed to find any evidence of Carlos forcing women as the head removed all the evidence. Except for this time around it seems. "No, but I do want to point out that the peasant used magic and broke into the capital without registering at one of the gates. That's a capital offense and a crime in itself, though not enough for execution."

"The crime of breaking into the capital I will leave to the queen to decide a punishment for. If you don't have anything else then I will say my verdict. Is that fine with you?" The judge asked.

"That's fine." Replied the head of the Alden family.

"Then I hereby strip Carlos Alden of his title of a Baron and sentence him to death for the crime of blemishing the queen. As for Marc Doyer's so-called murder attempt, it's all a lie made up by Carlos Alden and he will receive 40 lashes with a whip before being executed. Case closed." Announced the judge before bowing to the queen a little to let her speak.

The queen looked at Marc with a stern expression and said...

***

(A/N: This chapter should be taken with a grain of salt as it's very rough around the edges. I have zero experience writing stuff like this.)

(Words: 2561)

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