Chap 113-Trial

 

“Lea! You’re safe!”

Clara, who found Lea with Camilla, ran over with a happy expression.

“I was so worried. I only heard that you were receiving treatment at the Holy Theocracy, and then I lost contact…”

“Thank you for your concern, Lady Clara.”

Lea bowed her head and expressed her gratitude to Clara.

Although her attitude was polite, Clara paused, sensing something stiff in Lea’s reaction.

She thought they had become a little closer after fighting together during the midterm exams.

It was an awkward attitude, as if an invisible wall had been erected again.

‘It must be because of the medal…?’

Clara swallowed a bitter smile inwardly.

Lea also deserved recognition for protecting Lina, so she had recommended her as a candidate for the medal, but it was rejected outright by those above.

It seemed that her status as a commoner had held her back.

She felt sorry and a little resentful.

But Clara’s thoughts didn’t last long.

“Let’s go, Clara. We’ll be late.”

Camilla’s cold voice pulled her back to reality.

“I-I’m sorry, Lady Camilla…!”

Clara’s face turned pale.

She had been so happy to see Lea that she had unintentionally ignored Camilla.

She was filled with self-reproach, wondering if she had acted insensitively again in front of Camilla, who was already having a hard time after losing her mother.

Fortunately, Camilla, seemingly unaffected, walked towards the courtroom with an indifferent expression.

Clara breathed a sigh of relief and began to follow her.

“Are you going too?”

Clara asked Lea as she passed by her side.

Lea stopped walking for a moment and looked back at Clara.

Her face was filled with a determination she had never seen before.

“Yes. I feel like I have to see it.”

…

The courtroom in the academy area, where the trial was to be held, was packed with people.

The rumor that ‘the villain Yeon Bennet will finally receive a heavy punishment’ had spread, drawing several times more people than usual to watch.

It wasn’t just students.

Even external nobles and reporters who had heard the rumors came.

As if it were a trial of the century, the hall was buzzing with excitement.

It was more like a vulgar festival for spectators eager to enjoy the downfall of a villain than a solemn gathering hoping for the realization of justice.

Clara was also subtly enjoying the atmosphere.

“Oh my, Lady Laurentia. Long time no see.”

She greeted the nobles she knew with an elegant smile.

“It’s such a terrible thing, isn’t it? You have no idea how much our Camilla suffered.”

“I know, right? How did someone like that get into the Duke Bennett family…”

Clara naturally joined the conversation criticizing Yeon Bennet, expressing sadness and anger.

Considering the terrible hardships she had endured throughout the midterm exams because of her…

Perhaps that was why.

Deep in her eyes, there was also a flicker of anticipation for the villain’s imminent downfall.

Clara continued to talk about Yeon Bennet with other nobles, venting her anger.

Then, she suddenly felt a sense of emptiness as if the seat next to her was vacant and turned her head.

Camilla and Lea.

The two of them, seemingly unaffected by the noisy surroundings, were sitting side by side in silence, waiting for the trial to begin.

Their calm demeanor was strangely contrasting, and Clara felt self-conscious for a moment.

She quickly wrapped up the conversation and carefully sat down next to Camilla.

“Silence!”

As she sat down, the sound of a cane striking the floor echoed, and the buzzing auditorium instantly fell silent.

All eyes were focused on the platform.

In the central seat of honor sat Elaha, the headmaster, an angel with one wing grotesquely torn off.

On either side of her sat the academy’s main faculty and judges dispatched from the council, with heavy expressions on their faces.

“From this moment on, the trial of the defendant Yeon Bennet will begin.”

With Elaha’s declaration.

The huge door at the back of the hall creaked open, and Yeon appeared, her arms held by two guards.

Dressed in a prisoner’s uniform that looked like a sack, with disheveled hair, and magic shackles constricting her entire body.

She was half-dragged and thrown onto the defendant’s seat in front of the platform.

Clang-

The sound of the chains hitting the floor filled the hall with a chilling clarity.

A terrible brand, signifying a criminal, was clearly engraved on her forehead as she lowered her head.

Clara felt a sense of satisfaction at the sight, but on the other hand, she also felt a subtle sense of revulsion at the fact that a fellow academy student, who had been doing group assignments with her until recently, was being dragged out in such a state.

Of course, considering the crimes she had committed, she thought she deserved such treatment.

Clara glanced around to gauge the reactions of others.

And…

“Lady Camilla! Are you alright?!”

A face gripped by fear.

Camilla next to her was trembling all over with a pale face.

It seemed that the sight of Yeon Bennet, who had killed Duke Medici, had revived the trauma she had buried.

Clara immediately tried to support her and take her out, but.

Slap-

Camilla roughly brushed off her hand.

“I’m fine, so don’t worry about me.”

A trembling voice.

She said she was fine, but she didn’t look fine at all.

Clara looked at Lea with a bewildered expression, seeking help.

However, Lea’s condition was even worse than Camilla’s.

A bloodless face.

A gaze blankly staring into the air with bloodshot eyes.

Breath escaped rapidly between her pale lips, and cold sweat soaked the collar of her uniform.

Clara carefully shook Lea’s shoulder.

“…Lea? Are you okay?”

“…I’m fine, Lady Clara. You don’t have to worry.”

An awkward smile.

A weak voice like a water-soaked cotton.

“We’re really okay, so you don’t have to worry about us.”

Camilla chimed in from the side.

‘We.’

Since when did Lea, a commoner, become close enough to Lady Camilla to use the word ‘we’?

The similar reactions of the two women made Clara feel like there was a secret between them that she didn’t know about.

Even though the three of them were together, she felt alienated, as if she were on the other side of a transparent wall.

That made Clara uncomfortable.

…

The trial proceeded surprisingly quickly.

Normally, even a heinous criminal would have a lawyer and go through a formal defense process.

However, she was not even allowed such minimal rights.

One of the judges dispatched from the council stood up.

He unfolded a scroll and began to read Yeon’s charges in an emotionless voice.

“Defendant Yeon Bennet. The crime of colluding with Contamination Worshippers to bring magical beasts into the academy. The crime of driving countless students and professors to their deaths as a result. And the crime of murdering Terra’s hero, Duke Cassandra Medici. Does the defendant admit to all of the above charges?”

Yeon did not answer.

But the trial went on regardless.

As if her words didn’t matter in the first place.

Submission of evidence, examination of witnesses.

Everything proceeded smoothly.

The trial of Yeon Bennet was not a procedure to uncover the truth, but rather a formal play heading towards an already determined ending.

It was an unfair trial to anyone who saw it, but no one protested.

Only Lea and Camilla were biting their lips tightly, swallowing their rising anger.

After all the formal procedures were completed, Elaha finally stood up.

Her voice coldly echoed through the auditorium.

“Defendant Yeon Bennet.”

“The crimes of attacking the academy and murdering Duke Medici are so severe that further arguments are deemed meaningless.”

Elaha descended from the throne and approached Yeon, who was standing in the defendant’s seat, right in front of her.

She looked down at Yeon with empty eyes and delivered the final sentence.

“Therefore, this court strips the defendant Yeon Bennet of her noble status.”

“Orders her expulsion from Dorothy Academy.”

“And from this moment on, suspends all of the defendant’s human rights.”

The audience began to murmur at Elaha’s sentence.

Deprivation of noble status, expulsion from the academy, suspension of all human rights.

It was certainly a terrible punishment, but people wondered.

Was such a measure really necessary?

In this world where magic was developed, there were countless execution methods that could inflict extreme pain on death row inmates.

And most people had expected Yeon Bennet to be brutally executed in that way.

But to give such a useless verdict to someone who was going to die anyway.

“Lastly.”

Elaha’s voice echoed once again.

“The defendant Yeon Bennet is sentenced to life imprisonment in the holy church punishment brigade.”

At that moment, the courtroom became slightly agitated.

“The punishment brigade…?”

“Surely, that’s not the end, is it?”

The nobles glanced at each other, whispering as quietly as possible.

They couldn’t dare to express it openly because it was the judgment of the transcendent Elaha, but the deep wrinkles on their foreheads and tightly closed lips clearly showed their dissatisfaction.

A ripple also spread among the students.

They couldn’t understand her verdict, which kept her alive anyway, when she should have been summarily executed.

Elaha didn’t care about the commotion in the murmuring audience.

She once again raised the courtroom’s staff and struck the floor with force.

Bang-!

A clear and resolute sound suppressed all the noise and echoed through the auditorium.

“With this, the trial is concluded.”

With her declaration, the guards who had been standing by Yeon’s side began to move.

They roughly grabbed Yeon’s limp arms, lifted her up, and began to drag her towards the exit.

Thus, the trial of the villain Yeon Bennet, which had shaken the entire Terra, ended emptily, leaving behind many questions and complaints.