Chapter 620: Temporary Respite

"So, Muen, what do you say?"

Three different voices, each with a different flavor of breathtaking beauty, wove together, drilling into Muen’s ears, his mind... and even his soul.

Words that were usually as gentle as spring rain now sounded like booming heavenly thunder. Muen’s vision went black, as if he were seeing the end of days, the sky collapsing and the earth splitting apart.

At the same time, those three gazes fell on him—cool, enchanting, gentle... any one of them alone would be enough to drown any man in it, yet when they fused together, they became the most terrifying poison. Touch it and you die.

Muen truly felt he wasn’t far from death.

He understood that if he answered with a single wrong choice, then by this time next year, the grass on his grave would already be half a meter tall.

But...

Could such a solid triangle really have a solution?

Think, hurry...

Hurry and use the wisdom of your entire life, Muen Campbell. If you make a mistake when facing an Evil God, you might still be able to patch it up afterward, but if you take one wrong step here, you can only fall into a bottomless abyss!

"What, not answering?"

The three continued to press him. Their words were gentle, but the content was a killing blade. "We won’t allow a vague answer like ‘anyone is fine,’ you know."

And of all times, they were so united...

"I..."

Muen drew a deep breath.

After Pink Bear ran off, standing alone at the very center of the storm, he looked so small, so helpless, so pitiful, yet at this moment he still forced himself to straighten his back.

His gaze swept over those stunning young women one by one. Each time his eyes met one of theirs, the other two gazes would turn as cold as a thousand-year icefield, but Muen knew he had to cross that icefield, because if he couldn’t even cross a mere icefield like this, how could he ever, in that future where calamities gathered, reach his perfect ending?

"About the question the three of you asked, I also really want to give an answer, but..."

"Oh? So you mean you’re going to brush it off?"

Celicia’s gaze tightened, growing even colder.

The other two also became more piercing.

"No, no, no, that’s not what I mean. What I mean is..."

Muen took another deep breath, then shifted his gaze and looked at...

"I really want to give an answer, but did the three of you forget the setting? Right now I’m just a prisoner on trial. What right do I have to choose? Here, a fair trial is the highest point, isn’t it?"

Muen’s face was solemn and his tone rang out. At this moment, here, at this major occasion where every side had gathered in the tribunal, he used his words and actions to deeply express his respect for the empire’s laws, as well as his disgust toward this kind of bending the law for personal reasons.

"A criminal has no room to choose. The only thing I can do is submit to Grand Judge Trasweir’s verdict!"

Muen clenched a fist and answered with stirring emotion, facing everyone. "At this moment, the one deciding my fate is the respected, great, and impartial Grand Judge Trasweir! I admit I am guilty, therefore he will pronounce my crimes and decide where I go, and I can only respect his judgment!"

Yes. A solid triangle has no solution from within, so it can only be broken by an outside force.

And now, the only outside force Muen could place his hopes in was this Grand Judge Trasweir.

I’m counting on you, big brother with the gavel.

Muen looked toward the Grand Judge with tears in his eyes.

Use your power of fairness and give these three overbearing beautiful girls a good lesson!

And while you’re at it, drag me up from this bottomless abyss!

"..."

"..."

"..."

So everyone’s gaze shifted once again, falling on Trasweir, who was originally the Grand Judge presiding over this trial, yet whose presence had been the thinnest since just now.

The atmosphere was still as stiff as ever, as if even the air had been frozen.

Trasweir’s bony hand trembled. The gavel in his hand didn’t know whether to rise or fall.

Although he had been in seclusion for a long time and had not contacted the outside world for ages, which was why Pink Bear had toyed with him earlier, anyone who could sit in this position, whether in learning, wisdom, or temperament, was certainly no ordinary person.

And he finally understood what was unusual about this trial.

The empire’s empress.

The Swordbearer of the Silent Bureau.

The mysterious figure of the Church of Life.

These lofty people had all come in person to this trial, yet in truth they did not care at all what the content of this trial actually was.

What they cared about... was only that man’s ownership.

That’s right. These three women, who could be said to have the most noble statuses on the continent, had come to... fight over a man?

Absurd!!

Trasweir roared in his heart.

How utterly absurd!!

How could such absurd behavior be allowed to happen in his tribunal?

Trasweir closed his eyes. In a daze, he recalled the words his teacher, who was also his father, had spoken when he passed the position of Grand Judge to him.

"Trasweir, the empire’s laws are the empire’s backbone, and only we, the empire’s Grand Judges, can uphold that backbone. You must understand: for us Grand Judges, aside from preventing those lowborn from defiling the law, the only thing we must insist on is... fairness! Fairness! Fairness!"

"That’s right. Fairness!"

Trasweir murmured in a low voice.

Giving this trial a fair result—wasn’t that the very reason he had come out of seclusion again?

So what if it was the empress, so what if it was the Swordbearer, so what if it was the Church of Life?

He absolutely had to bring this trial to a fair...

"Judge Trasweir, what... do you think?"

Perhaps tired of waiting, Celicia took the initiative to ask.

Her voice was calm and indifferent, as if she were truly asking humbly for instruction.

But when Trasweir opened his eyes, on the left he felt bone-deep cold, on the right he faintly heard whispers from the darkness.

Lifting his head, sacred light poured down, yet it was not gentle at all, almost scorching his eyes.

"What do you think?" the three asked in unison.

"I... this old minister believes..."

Trasweir suddenly stood up, abruptly removed the imposing high hat from his head, and respectfully placed it on the table.

"This old minister is already aged, truly unable to bear the heavy responsibility of this trial. I ask Your Majesty to appoint someone more capable!"

"Hah?"

At the side, Trasweir’s disciple was stunned, as if watching a radiant image collapse before his eyes.

"What?"

On the other side, Muen was also stunned, because this was completely different from what he had expected. The outside force he had carefully thought out and dragged in... seemed not sturdy enough?

Where’s the fairness you promised, hey!!

I already admitted guilt—hurry up and sentence me and lock me up, you bastard!

Muen ground his teeth, never expecting the last thread of hope to blow away just like that.

Then next... who could still save me?

...

...

"Wait!"

And right at that moment, the person Muen least expected stepped forward!

"What is wrong with you, Grand Judge Trasweir!!"

Count Bugald’s eyes were bloodshot. Just a moment ago he had been the accuser holding the upper hand, yet now he looked even more like a miserable prisoner than Muen did. Forgetting etiquette, he roared at Trasweir. "Muen Campbell has already confessed—hurry up and judge him for me!"

"I said it already. I am old and powerless, truly unable to bear this heavy responsibility."

"Shut up! What do you mean unable to bear it—you’re just trying to run away!"

Count Bugald trembled with rage and pointed at Trasweir.

"You... you... even you bully the weak and fear the strong? You’re just going to let the trial end like this? We were only one step away, one last step and Muen Campbell would..."

Eh? Wait.

Count Bugald suddenly froze.

My goal... was to do what to Muen Campbell?

That’s not right. I clearly meant to...

"Count."

Suddenly, Celicia cut him off.

"If we’re talking about running away, the one who has been running away all along is you, isn’t it?"

"What?"

"And the trial hasn’t ended."

Celicia walked to Grand Judge Trasweir, personally helped him put the hat symbolizing the Grand Judge back on his head, and said softly,

"Grand Judge, you need not belittle yourself. Besides you, who else here is qualified to conduct the trial that follows?"

"But the trial already—"

"I said it hasn’t ended."

Celicia glanced at Count Bugald, and said coldly,

"The trial regarding Count Bugald’s participation in the Inner Council, his secret intent to overthrow the royal family, slaughter innocent civilians, and conduct human experiments... is only just beginning."

"Wh—"

Count Bugald’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. This development once again completely exceeded his expectations.

Even so, he quickly regained his composure, forcibly controlled his emotions, and squeezed out a smile.

"Has Your Majesty made a mistake? The only mistake I committed was raising a rebellious son. That rebellious son has already been personally handed over to Your Majesty for disposal. What should be on trial now is Muen Campbell. These baseless accusations against me—"

"Evidence? Isn’t this evidence right here?"

Anna tossed the Eyedemon’s eyeball with a wicked grin. As a faint glow spread, scene after scene appeared throughout the entire tribunal hall.

Wails.

Blood.

Conspiracies.

One horrific scene after another surfaced. Even well-traveled Trasweir couldn’t help trembling, unable to sit steadily.

At the end, the images froze. A robin stood in the center of the picture, lifelike.

"Since an Eyedemon can record images of battle, then ordinary images can naturally be recorded too, can’t they?"

"No... that’s impossible..."

Count Bugald blurted out almost instantly. "Those images, I clearly deleted them, I already—"

He clapped a hand over his own mouth, yet the terror in his eyes couldn’t be hidden.

"They were indeed deleted."

On the other side, Liya, within the holy light, spoke.

"But the goddess’s Divine Authority is life. The Eyedemon is also life, so naturally I can borrow the goddess’s power and restore it."

"You... you all..."

He never expected that the drama he had painstakingly planned, built to clear the Bugald family of blame, would end up becoming the place of his own execution.

No.

Something had to be wrong somewhere!

"Y-Your Majesty... this isn’t right, this isn’t right."

Count Bugald dropped to his knees by Celicia’s feet in one motion, grabbed her shoe, tears streaming as he begged,

"You said it... images like this, images that can be perfectly forged as long as Master Tropol personally makes a move, cannot be used as evidence. You just said that!"

"Yes, I said that..."

Celicia looked down, and a trace of mockery leaked into her cool eyes.

"But Master Tropol... died a week ago, you idiot."

"Hah?"

"At that time you were surely exhausting yourself thinking how to avoid your sins, and you didn’t even have the time to pay attention to something this big."

Celicia kicked Count Bugald away and sneered.

"But do you really think you can escape? Why do you think I blocked Albert? If an empire’s poisonous tumor has to be cut out, then it has to be cut clean. I will not allow any chance for you to rise again."

"..."

"Go and face the judgment that belongs to you, criminal. The Bugald family is finished!"

"..."

Count Bugald collapsed to the ground, as if all his bones had been pulled out.

All struggle was useless now. He understood that with the empress’s one light, casual sentence, Belrand, which had just calmed down, would once again be swept by a storm of blood and violence.

And this time, what would flow would be the blood of the old nobles... Bugald’s blood.

...

...

On one side, the solemn trial had begun again, still presided over by Grand Judge Trasweir, yet the one being tried had changed identities. Count Bugald, in despair, waited for the fate he deserved.

And the empire’s special department had already moved out as well, weaving a huge net to ensure that not a single fish of the Bugald family slipped through.

Just as Count Bugald had predicted, new blood had already begun to soak into that empire’s soil that seemed reborn. It would become new nourishment, watering the growth of the empire’s great tree.

But on the other side...

"Alright. This time there’s no interference from anyone else. Give your answer."

Muen stared with dead-fish eyes, feeling the warmth and fragrant breeze right next to him, yet not a shred of happiness.

Because the three of them had practically surrounded him completely, as if they wouldn’t stop until they got an exact answer.

Muen couldn’t help letting out burning tears, thinking, why can’t you be as united and friendly and in sync as you were just now?

All of you being my wings, peacefully coexisting, walking together toward a happy future—wouldn’t that be good?

Why do you have to be so needle-to-needle, so mutually incompatible?

"The answer?"

As the three pressed closer and closer, Muen felt as if he were hearing his own death countdown. Even if his thoughts were racing at slowed-time speed, he still couldn’t think of any way to break this deadlock right now.

It’s over. Me, Muen Campbell, a lifetime of fame—am I really going to, today...

"Your Majesty."

Suddenly, as if heaven had heard Muen’s plea, it finally chose to leave this person abandoned by fate a tiny sliver of life.

Veil leaned in and whispered something into Celicia’s ear.

"Now?"

"Yes. The delegation is already outside the city, and they’ve begun presenting their state letter."

"Faster than I expected... tch. Those bastards, they had to come now of all times. What a pain."

Celicia thought for a moment, then lifted her beautiful eyes to look at the other two, and issued an unceremonious order.

"Come with me. Together."

"Oh? If Your Majesty has business to handle, then go handle it first. We won’t disturb you."

Anna covered her mouth and laughed.

"I said, together."

Celicia’s smile wasn’t a smile.

"Do you think I’m going ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ to let you two cheating cats stay alone with him?"

"Heh. Who the cheating cat is, that’s not decided yet."

"Y-Yeah!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

After another bout of sparks flying and thunder and rain crashing down, the three finally compromised with each other, rose at the same time, and continued walking out in a triangular formation.

No winner was decided today, but that didn’t mean they would give up.

Or rather, this was only the first round.

...

In the end, only Muen was left behind, still not understanding what had happened. He blankly watched the three leave, then patted himself a few times in disbelief, and muttered dazedly.

"So I... lived?"