Ch.231231. The Great Trial (3)

“Witness, Airine Ianet. Please come forward.”

The moment the woman’s name left the elf’s lips, everyone couldn’t help but doubt their ears. All eyes from the confused crowd converged on a single location.

Among those with the closest relationship to the parties involved in the trial, Airine, who had been sitting quietly on the side of the defendant, the House of Ianet, felt this moment stretch like an eternity.

All the core vassals of the family shot her astonished glances. The learned helplessness instilled in her since childhood weighed heavily on her shoulders.

Thump, thump.

Her heart began to pound violently.

Her existence alone could provide an opportunity to completely reverse the current public opinion. And wasn’t this a situation where the prestige of the family she was supposed to serve and inherit might be driven into the ground?

Clench—

She balled her hands into fists. Her palms were drenched with sweat.

Clench!

Her nails dug into her flesh. Amidst the stinging pain,

Airine closed her eyes briefly and organized her thoughts.

Having heard the truth, she had already made her decision alone. And if she too sided with the family, in the worst case, the family might sink without any path to rehabilitation and disappear, buried in the back alleys of history.

‘There are unusually many listening ears around you.’

‘I’d like to talk comfortably in the city rather than in such a remote place… but it’s obvious that if we don’t do this, the story will leak out.’

‘What are you just standing there watching for? Aren’t you going to summon spirits?’

Once, Friel Arielt had difficulty even imagining the place where that spring was due to trauma. Hadn’t she called her to the place she hated most to tell her things closest to the truth?

‘This is your last chance. Airine Arielt, if you have a conscience, pay the proper price for your crimes along with your family.’

A rough but sincere voice.

‘Build it up again from the beginning to where I am.’

After finishing all the conversations, she had agreed with Friel Arielt’s words and promised. She couldn’t just sit there.

“Airine Ianet…!”

As soon as she stood up, one of the many vassals quietly but firmly voiced his reproach.

“I’m sorry.”

But Airine left only a very small apology and began to move.

“Airine Ianet.”

“As a witness to support the opinions of the two heroes who came to the Great Forest.”

“And as one of those who condemn the inappropriate choices and actions of the current House of Ianet, I enter this sacred court.”

Her thoughts were organized. And she had already gone through with it. So why hesitate for no reason?

As she firmly imprinted her existence and opinion in the minds of everyone in the court and, more broadly, the grand plaza, the judges who had been quietly observing the dispute finally began to move.

“Airine Ianet, heir of the House of Ianet. Are you clearly aware of what position you are taking and where you stand?”

She could see Chenya’s eyes narrowing.

Her mother, who had changed too much from before she ascended to the position of head of the family, was staring at her with dark, dead eyes like an evil spirit.

Gulp—

She swallowed dryly.

But hiding her stiff heart, she revealed a composed voice to the public.

“I am aware. And I swear before the World Tree and all my Mana, this is a path chosen solely by my will, not due to any pressure from Arielt or Chelnis.”

“Hmm. Then let me ask you. Do you indeed believe that Ianet moved to cause internal division and disintegration within the subjugation team?”

“Of course.”

“And the reason?”

“That is—”

As Airine’s lips parted and her elegant voice resonated, everyone on the Ianet side couldn’t help but grimace.

Unfiltered internal whistleblowing.

About Chenya, who didn’t follow her words in the subjugation team, held separate meetings, and plotted. About the friction caused by their ideological opposition. Even about how she advised to encourage murder and betrayal to some extent to steal achievements.

Everything that happened while the subjugation team advanced through the forest was explicitly revealed to the world.

Some were shocked. How could such things happen? Is this what the once honorable Ianet would do?

Some were skeptical. Ianet couldn’t have done that. Airine must be speaking this way due to temporary insanity from the shock during leading the eastern subjugation team.

And the elves who had participated in the subjugation team and experienced the horrors quietly raged. While they were killing enemies through such hardships, were those damn people really plotting such schemes? Are you truly honorable elves like themselves?

Amidst the mixed reactions, Ianet, who couldn’t remain silent, began to raise her voice.

“…It’s slander.”

It was Chenya who spoke up.

“This is different from the facts.”

“The reason I met with other forest keepers of the House of Ianet was to let the tired Lady Airine rest and to discuss how to handle the remaining aftermath.”

“Anyone from Ianet who had a conversation with me, or rather, anyone who survived, could give the same answer about the content. In fact, not a few forest keepers from Chelnis and Arielt received treatment from us after the meeting.”

Although there was irritation in her voice, she had apparently prepared her speech in advance, as it flowed naturally.

“And regarding the advice I supposedly gave to Lady Airine… there seems to have been a misunderstanding in receiving and understanding the conversation.”

“Meaning?”

“The words I conveyed to Lady Airine at that time had a completely different meaning from what the heir mentioned.”

Although the judge was suspicious of Chenya, frowning, he couldn’t cut off Chenya’s defense, which was skillfully avoiding all dangerous points.

As the argument between Airine and Ianet intensified,

Eventually moving beyond what happened in the subjugation team to the plaintiff’s claim that the House of Ianet itself had made treasonous, betraying acts by contracting with demons,

The audience was already immersed in the battle between the two sides. In the increasingly complex argument where both sides had clear logic, which side’s words would gain more credibility?

“Have you sorted out your thoughts?”

“It’s uncertain how things will turn out until this is over, but right now I—”

No matter how noble and eccentric, elves are classified as one type of human among sentient beings. They eagerly shared and enjoyed gossip with each other, and when all their attention was focused on who was lying,

Aina Ianet, who had been quietly keeping her mouth shut and listening only to Chenya’s voice, finally narrowed her eyes and surveyed the audience, openly expressing her extreme displeasure at the very establishment of this place.

“The same goes for collusion with demons and acts of betrayal against the Great Forest.”

“I am one of the elders representing the Great Forest and the righteous head of the Third Family. In this position, how could I and my family possibly collude with demons?”

The woman’s deep, murky voice covers the grand plaza.

“Then I ask. Can you dare prove that our House of Ianet has contracted with demons?”

Having observed the entire situation from a third-party perspective from afar, I couldn’t help but smile when the long-awaited words finally came out.

Those words would act as a dead end for them from now on.

I nudged Sione as if I had been waiting.

“Now.”

“Now?”

“Yes, if not now, when else would the right time come?”

“…Alright.”

Sione took a moment to catch her breath.

While Friel and Aina were engaged in a staring contest,

Clap—!

She clapped her hands vigorously.

“We have evidence.”

Evidence that would inevitably be more shocking than the witness, Airine.

“I will now show evidence that will make everything clear.”

I gathered my Mana.

“First, Chenya of the House of Ianet clearly mentioned collusion with demons with her own mouth.”

A wind spirit suddenly summoned in the center of the grand plaza.

The sudden summoning of a spirit. Since spirits can sometimes become variables that disrupt surroundings according to the caster’s will, the judges tried to intervene when the spirit appeared without any warning. But this was blocked by the High Elf Edelin.

As if it were natural, Chenya’s outrageous words echoed throughout the grand plaza.

“Second, as rumored, when the forest clan requested support from the Marquisate of Kallia, the head of the House of Ianet personally met with the young lord of the marquisate, Allen Kallia.”

Sione took a breath.

“Along with the vassals of Lady Eunice Kallia of the Marquisate of Kallia… and the Great Forest’s informants placed in the marquisate at the lady’s request, they confirmed that Allen had stepped into dealings with demons.”

At Sione’s words, Friel pulled out letters from her vassals that she had previously received from Eunice Kallia and reports from the Great Forest’s informants from her bosom.

“Also, while investigating, we captured and interrogated the intermediary connecting Ianet and Young Lord Allen Kallia, confirming that Ianet was maintaining an unnecessarily close relationship with Allen.”

The documents didn’t end there.

A parchment with a Mana oath attesting to its truth, even containing the intermediary’s testimony. With this, the tide of victory gradually began to turn in our favor.

But the uncomfortable points we found from them weren’t just this.

“Young Lord Abel Kallia of the Marquisate of Kallia cooperated with our informants to capture and interrogate a woman who was carrying Allen Kallia’s letter to communicate with cultists.”

Another decisive piece of evidence.

“In that letter, we found friendly mentions of the House of Ianet and content regarding the overthrow of the current Great Forest.”

As all of this suddenly came to light,

“I leave the verification of all this evidence to the Grand Elder, who is wiser than anyone in the Great Forest.”

Once it was realized that the evidence was the truth without any manipulation through the numerous spirits and magic of the elders, it was presented to Edelin. Edelin began to pick up and read the papers one by one with her index and middle fingers.

Thus, in a completely reversed situation after not much time,

Edelin frowned and looked at Ianet, who was quietly grinding her teeth.

“Does Ianet have any rebuttal to this?”

“…Noble High Elf, please do not doubt the innocence of the House of Ianet. Our Ianet just—”

“You’re being long-winded. Aina Ianet, until a hundred years ago, you were truly a wise and capable elder. But to use that intelligence for such an outrageous thing is nothing but cunning.”

“Grand Elder…!”

“Though not as great as the Royal House of Aicilia’s, my eyes and ears also have the modest power to distinguish between falsehood and truth. The scattered pieces of truth have been put together according to the pattern.”

Edelin rose from her seat. Then, with arms crossed, she took in the thoroughly rotten elf with her eyes.

The woman standing at the pinnacle of elves arrogantly declared,

“I will impose appropriate punishment and restrictions on you, Ianet.”

With the charisma and command befitting the empress of the most superior race.